Re: [-empyre-] The social dynamics of lists /Forward from Marc Garrett

[Christina McPhee <christina112@earthlink.net>]

From: marc <marc.garrett@furtherfield.org>
Date: Wed, 11 Aug 2004 02:29:20 +0100
To: soft_skinned_space <empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
Subject: Re: [-empyre-] The social dynamics of lists

Hi marcos and others,

I have always had a niggling issue with the mapping of net-based creativity,
and suspicious of the reasons behind embarking on such an activity.

I feel that it rings of colonial interjection, creating potentially
revisionist territories that are not actually refelct of what is really our
there, or has been.

A poem below, which is taken from one of my own mapping experience,
psychogeographical, a reflective-project in 1997.
................map
 
my eyes scan a pan
scan the map
intersections are placed
onto the page

objectively surveyed
roads interweave
connecting places

buildings and places
letters inscribe names of places

this
updated map
has erazed the past
and once known spaces
where people once...trod

a recording
of present time
and place

and present space
does not trace
the movements
of feet...

What I mean by this, is that what we map is not necessarily a true
definition of the essence of what has been and what is.

Mapping, whether or not a collaborative effort, is in its function, a
declaration of possessiong something in the psychological sense - a claiming
of space, of other knowledge - usually not one's own.

The conundrum here is, that once one offically measure's territories, linear
or lateral - it becomes patented. Stamped, sealed and official, but for
whom, and why and what for?

Why create a map at all?

What does it really mean to map something - to actually literally illustrate
spatially creative practice?


london's bottled poetry a tonic for the dysfunctional...(an old piece that
used to live on the baksapce server)
Bottles with poems inside are placed around London; on buses, pavements, in
parks, on shop shelves, in libraries, on public monuments, in art galleries,
everywhere! Until you find a bottle you can download and read here.
http://www.furtherfield.org/cmyrth/bottled_poetry/index.html

marc garrett




> Hello everyone, 
> 
> My name is Marcos Weskamp, I'm an interaction designer currently living in
> Tokyo. For some time already the abstraction representation and visualization
> of unseen patterns in large data sets has been of deep interest for me.
> In the past I've worked making very simple visualizations of mailing lists. I
> always found the topic very interesting since in my opinion mail clients today
> lack indeed features that will let us understand in a more simple way exactly
> what Mathieu just pointed out; who are we talking to, which members play
> central roles, which are the dynamics of those groups?
> If all the members subscribed to this list where to share a real space for 1
> hour, of course the results of the discussion will be completely different.
> 
> (with the authorization of this list manager:)I took the freedom to start
> mapping empyre a couple of days ago.
> Here is how this list looks like at this moment:
> 
> http://marumushi.com/apps/socialcircles/socialcircles.cfm?list=empyre&m=1&s=0
> 
> It is a very crude representation of the list and I believe much more can be
> done to improve this project (having this as a plugin for email clients is
> probably a better idea)
> 
> you may learn more about this project here:
> http://marumushi.com/apps/socialcircles/
> 
> I'm always all open to hear about suggestions on how to make this maps
> represent the lists in a more clear and accurate way, so if you have any, let
> them come:) 
> 
> best regards, 
> 
> .marcos 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Mathieu O'Neil wrote:
> 
>> One way of making lists more democratic might be to increase their
>> transparency. For example, regularly publishing a listing of members would
>> help us to understand who it is we are talking to. Some might want to take
>> this further, by indicating (for example) how many contributions members have
>> made over a given period. Or on what topic. Others might see this as a
>> terrible idea, which would reinforce a feeling of competition and destroy the
>> communal spirit of lists. There are probably other suggestions to be made,
>> but I'll leave it at that for now.
>> 
>> Cheers, 
>> 
>> Mathieu 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum 
> empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
> 
> 



-- 
 soundart performance videoinstallation multimedia painting theory


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