Re: [-empyre-] race net art bots

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

On 24/7/03 10:59 AM, "tobias c. van Veen" <tobias@rhizome.org> wrote:

> I think as soon as we reduce other humans to "bots," no matter how evil they
> are... we become no better than they.
> 

well it is said only half seriously, in a sci-fi kind of way, however when
you've been stalked relentlessly on every communication channel you've got
(and has every friend who has every supported you in this issue) for over
five years, you tend to become a little jaded about it I guess.

of course however the stalker and damali's respondent are human!!! all too
human!!!  I also didn't want to give a gender to the stalker or a name as in
a way I am protecting 'it' from itself. I just wish they would move on. but
lets not talk too much more about the stalker as it may get wind of the
discussion here and come out seeking vengeance. it is like that. however the
point remains about the power of email abuse, via the screen to one's
person, it isn't nothing, it is something.

damali says she rejoices everytime she gets a response, as it is a sign of
life out there that her work has triggered into action, into 'speaking
itself' or an aspect of itself into life

the machine/bot idea is said in a deleuzian/guattarian sense of 'how the
machine becomes apparent', in this case being able to see the machine speak
itself through a complex 'assemblage of enunciation', where words are 'order
words' and direct discourse (or what is said) springs out of language or
'free indirect discourse'.  as in:

 "direct discourse is a detached fragment of a mass and is born of the
dismemberment of the collective assemblage; but the collective assemblage is
always like the murmur from which I take my proper name, the constellation
of forces, concordant or not, from which I draw my voice....my direct
discourse is still the free indirect discourse running through me, coming
from  other world or planets. That is why so many artists and writers have
been tempted by the séance table"


when damali refereed to the incident is australia which happened when a
liberal (australia's republicans) party media advisor referred to the one
labour voter in a liberal electorate as the 'nigger in the woodpile' he was
revealling the collective assemblage of enunciation that he was part of.
interestingly, this phrase was said by another australian, the head of bmw
or some big car company, he is the ceo of the entire international company
and said this phrase at a press breakfast in germany, to general uproar.
later they sent press releases to everyone there saying that this was a
phrase said a lot in australia. but to be honest, I had never heard it. so
it is said a lot by members of a particular collective assemblage of
enunciation, ie the power elite in this country and reveals much about the
way they think. their language (and consequent actions speak) through them
and in this abstract way turns them into 'bots'.



> 
> tV
> 
> ps. I like the bot idea, the end paragraph especially... but I just can't
> agree. The machines yes ... the machines of hate ... but there are always
> humans as cogs ... humans that love as well as hate. The audio-artist Terre
> Thaemlitz has a great essay in his album _Lovebomb_ that traces the
> love/hate binary. For all love, there is love of something, and thus, hatred
> of another. 
> 
>> thanks mendi for posting those links, the exhibition program for the race in
>> digital cultures conference looks amazing -- what an incredible screening
>> program
>> http://cms.mit.edu/race/about.html
>> --------
>> 
>> as to the response damali posted here from the rent a negro site, that guy -
>> what a jerk. 
>> 
>> I have had an internet stalker for over five years now, who continually
>> since 1998 has sent the most deranged and ugly mails to me. It also got on
>> the telephone endlessly and repeatedly -- significant as it was calling
>> australia from hungary, so we had to change all the telephone numbers. it is
>> a historic legacy, a legacy system, someone else's baggage etc that I
>> inherited (like a lot of other things in this world) but nonetheless...
>> 
>> I call it an "IT' as it as a communication entity, some kind of bot
>> 
>> that is how I read that response, as if it was from an automated hate
>> machine
>> 
>> emails such as the 'response' damali got are meant to do just that, attack
>> you, be a blast through the screen with hate and vitriol. they radiate. they
>> have a form of power that I don't think we have articulated very well yet,
>> in internet theory/discussions, as it is difficult to articulate, but I
>> think they work at the level of the body. they go straight to your heart,
>> little poison arrows.
>> 
>> if you let them of course. but you have to work out a way to defend yourself
>> against them and that is why they are so powerful initially. one can't say
>> that they don't come as a shock at first. then you kind of see them as
>> symptoms of something else.
>> 
>> I think that is one of the things that is so interesting about the site rent
>> a negro -- it is triggering bots all over the place, it seems, which allow
>> the machine of hate, confusion and contradiction to become more transparent,
>> to be able to be seen in motion, wheels turning, engines roaring, emails
>> flying
>> 
>> linda
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>