[-empyre-] the 'colourless' nature of the net

[Linda Wallace <linda@machinehunger.com.au>]

hi damali, mendi and keith

and michael I guess -- I must 've missed the intro for michael, you are the
host for this month? I am a bit of a lurker on empyre and don't give 100%
attention to it but I thought all the sites listed from mendi/keith and
damali were engaging

and I wanted to ask all three on how they think about the internet in
particular as a medium for their work, in terms of who they imagine their
audience is and what/how the internet specifically allows the work to do/to
function

damali on your site , in some of the press clippings, you say that you have
had huge feedback from people about rent a negro. I was wondering if you
could talk more about the response, in terms of where it will take you next
with yr work. the site, rent a negro is so hilarious but also really close
to so many somewhat uncomfortable truths, relevant also to australia of
course. I think the responses would be really culturally specific, but I was
fascinated to read that so many black people hated the site (as it reminded
them of slavery etc), but also that lots of black people wanted to sign up
to work for rent a negro. also on the press clippings you said that you had
never actually acted on a request, ie you never rented yourself out. do you
think you ever would ie take the online into the offline? or would you see
that as a redundant action? (and potentially dangerous etc) . I read on yr
site that there was a lot of discussion on rhizome about the work -- what
was the general tone of that? I paid up but haven't reconnected to the list
yet. 


mendi and keith clearly yr works are very internet specific -- the colour
test for online users and also the ebay blackness auction site. the internet
is often seen as a place where 'colour is irrelevant ' or race doesn't
matter, we are all equal here etc but you are presenting tools/services to
highlight difference within this space of supposed nondifference. with the
opera, I managed to download some of the mpgs a while ago but can't get any
lately, but what I heard was haunting. again, my question is, why do you
both chose to work with the internet?

linda




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linda wallace
www.machinehunger.com.au