Re: [-empyre-] [-empyre-]:An Avatar Manifesto::final

[Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com>]

On Tue, 26 Nov 2002, [iso-8859-1] Cristiano Bianchi wrote:

>  --- Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com> wrote: >
> >
> > Weird this avatar; it reminds me of the arguments
> > about quota (I was on
> > the quota review board) at the post-modern moo at
> > one point. Both quota
> > and avatar are thing/ness - disk-space,
> > software-thing, i.e. @create
> > $thing called xyz - etc. - why _this_ instead of
> > process, dissemination,
> > release -

When you're on a MOO, you're given, as a programmer, a certain amount of
quota - disk space - say 100k - to use for your projects. Since the disk
is finite, people compete for quota; among other things, it politicizes
the MOO. @create $thing called - is a command for constructing an object
on the MOO. I'm objecting to the objecthood of avatars as signifier of the
future - instead arguing for a process/dissemination/release (into the
void) approach -

> >
> > think of _spam_ for example as spew - ephemeral,
> > network-dependent, a
> > flooding or unfolding - exfoliation - then
> > collapse/disappearance -
> >
spam lasts a short time until deleted - it only exists momentarily within
the network - it floods, unfolds, then disappears

> > in other words, this seems bound to the ontology of
> > objects - again I'm
> > thinking of tearing-away - breaking down the fabric
> > of one's (local,
> > fragile) online presence -

in other words, the notion of avatar discussed here is that of an
"object," software or otherwise; I'm personally more concerned with the
flight of objects, with a tearing-away of the singularity - which
parallels in a way Lacan's deconstruction of the self -

so that we might think about our 'presence' online without these objects -
spam was the example -

> >
> > would seem to me that manifesto wd. go there - into
> > others - as in wave-
> > phenomena vs. particle -
> >
thinking about the dual nature of light - where 'particle' is much more of
the usual (aristotelian) notion of entity - I'm arguing for the wave as
the other direction - Alan


> > alan
> >
> > http://www.asondheim.org/
> > http://www.asondheim.org/portal/
> > http://www.anu.edu.au/english/internet_txt
> > older
> >
> http://lists.village.virginia.edu/~spoons/internet_txt.html
> > Trace projects
> > http://trace.ntu.ac.uk/writers/sondheim/index.htm
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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>
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http://www.asondheim.org/ http://www.asondheim.org/portal/
http://www.anu.edu.au/english/internet_txt
older http://lists.village.virginia.edu/~spoons/internet_txt.html
Trace projects http://trace.ntu.ac.uk/writers/sondheim/index.htm