Re: [-empyre-] race, net-art, strategy

"claudia raddatz" <claudia@anat.org.au> · Tue, 29 Jul 2003 13:06:11 +0930

in my humble just blah blah blah ...
cheers claudia {;-)

----------
>From: Ian Stevenson <audile@bigpond.com>
>To: soft_skinned_space <empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
>Subject: Re: [-empyre-] race, net-art, strategy
>Date: Tue,  12:21
>

> Claudia wrote:
>
>> "Art is not a mirror to reflect reality,
>> but a hammer with which to shape it"
>>
>
> Some works are hammers alright. The question is whether or not they hit the
> nail on the head. And furthermore whether the net with its interactivity,
> temporal and spatial dislocation, and flexible media is a suitable medium
> with which to weild the tool. I believe it may well be.
>
> Ian S
>
>
>> i have done a lot of reading and research about BULLYING ... it is not
> WHAT
>> WE THINK PEOPLE SHOULD FEEL what needs to be addressed BUT WHAT PEOPLE
>> ACTUALLY FEELS ...
>>
>> i worked once with a beautiful artist, she was truly talented and
> incredible
>> friendly and happy, when we were inside the studio, but when we were
>> outside, she would always feel AS IF people were making fun of her, she
> just
>> couldn't help it ... i don't know what had happened in her life that make
>> her this way ... but this is the way she WAS!
>>
>> as the facilitator of the workshops, I never tried to tell her she was
> WRONG
>> for feeling this way, instead i made the point to stay in the studio with
>> her during the short breaks and organised for all of us, the rest of us,
> the
>> ones who didn't feel lost outside in the open to have lunch in the studio
> as
>> well ...
>>
>> it was a slow process but by the time we had all the designs ready for the
>> murals, which is what we were making, the artist i am telling you about
> was
>> ready to go out, not a lot but with us and she painted her bit and had fun
>> and at the end was very proud of her piece ... she didn't come the launch
>> but we showed her the photographs, she felt good ...
>>
>> BULLYING comes in many forms and shapes and under many disguises as well,
> it
>> is NOT WHAT WE THINK PEOPLE SHOULD FEEL the important thing IS HOW PEOPLE
>> ACTUALLY FEEL ...
>>
>> humble is rare, FORBERANCE is even rarer!!!
>>
>> cheers claudia {;-)
>>
>> ----------
>> >From: "Ian Stevenson" <audile@bigpond.com>
>> >To: "soft_skinned_space" <empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
>> >Subject: Re: [-empyre-] race, net-art, strategy
>> >Date: Mon,  16:00
>> >
>>
>> > Thanks Danny for making an opening for saying what I had wanted to say.
> Many
>> > race political works are alienating for a white racist such as myself.
> It's
>> > the process of identification, which is what creates much of the
> positive
>> > aesthetic effect in the work which I respond positively to, that makes
> me
>> > turn away from these works. It is often the characteristics of others,
> in
>> > which we see ourselves mirrored, that we dislike most. I find much
> political
>> > art boring - I find race political art disturbing and difficult. We are
> all
>> > situated within power structures. I look forward to the race political
> art
>> > that finds the subtlety to engage the confused and only partly
> self-aware
>> > racists such as myself. The net has the potential to be a medium for
> this
>> > kind of multivalent expression.
>> >
>> > Ian S
>> >
>> >
>> > ----- Original Message -----
>> > From: "Danny Butt" <db@dannybutt.net>
>> > To: <empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
>> > Sent: Friday, July 25, 2003 12:57 PM
>> > Subject: [-empyre-] race, net-art, strategy
>> >
>> >
>> >> tV wrote on 24/7/03 2:09 PM:
>> >>
>> >> >> much at all of what they have been giving for centuries
>> >>
>> >> > Critically, isn't the problem this "they" though?
>> >> > Ie not essentialising a human based on colour, over generations?
>> >>
>> >> Kia ora koutou - de-lurking here thanks to all for an interesting
>> > discussion
>> >> in an area of critical importance - as a few have noted our methods for
>> >> exploring race in new media are so undeveloped, the languages and
> forums
>> >> available so transitory. It annoys the hell out of me that race gets so
>> >> little discussion in so many supposedly "political" forums which -
>> > surprise!
>> >> - happen to be dominated by white guys. So much to be done! Thanks to
> the
>> >> empyre crew for getting this moving.
>> >>
>> >> I wanted to comment on Tobias' point above, because the rhetorical move
> he
>> >> makes here is to my mind actually "the problem": shifting discussion
> from
>> >> particular power relationships (say, between whites and negroes)  to
>> >> abstract, "universal" phenomena (say, "racism"). It's a move which
>> > attempts
>> >> to take us as subjects out of the relationship: to seek a space where
> we
>> >> *don't need to think about race* because we are not complicit in its
> power
>> >> relationships, we are not "essentialising", "oppressing", or doing any
>> > bad,
>> >> racist things.
>> >>
>> >> Now while that's nice and everything, surely our cross-cultural
>> > interactions
>> >> show this to be unrealistic. We are always white, brown, black, male,
>> >> female, wealthy, poor, educated, *in relation* to another person. This
>> >> difference or solidarity creates a power dynamic. I think to seek
> flight
>> >> from this power dynamic is to relegate it to the subconscious and place
> it
>> >> out of conversation/negotiation. This is a standard default strategy if
> yr
>> >> white and male because we are aware that in any discussions of that
>> > dynamic
>> >> we are in positions of privilege not of our own choosing, and this
> makes
>> > us
>> >> uncomfortable, and probably racist! Who wants that? So white male
> culture
>> >> presents itself as not cultural - in Sharon Traweek's terms white male
>> >> culture is the "culture of no culture" - it's just the "way things
> are".
>> > We
>> >> seek to move discussions into abstract terms, rather than, like linda,
>> >> acknowledge the very personal ( and often excessive and uncontrollable)
>> >> emotions these power imbalances cause. So to avoid doing bad things, we
>> >> withdraw into a "safe" position - but it is that withdrawal which is
> the
>> >> engine of race conflict! That move to my mind also becomes a bit
>> >> paternalistic if it privileges a "universal ethics" (e.g. essentialism
> is
>> >> bad) - a white ethics! - through critiquing a specific intervention
> like
>> >> damali's. In the *realpolitik* of race relations, our abstract ideals
> are
>> >> challenged through the lived experience of our relations to one
> another.
>> > My
>> >> view is that understanding our experience of those relations in their
>> >> fucked-up, messy, unbalanced, irrational, unfair, and inherently
>> > *political*
>> >> specificity is the way the relationships can move forward. And I think
> as
>> > a
>> >> contribution to *that* project, Damali's rent-a-negro.com is a
> significant
>> >> initiative.
>> >>
>> >> best,
>> >>
>> >> Danny
>> >>
>> >> --
>> >> http://www.dannybutt.net
>> >>
>> >> _______________________________________________
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>> >> empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
>> >> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>> >>
>> >
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