Re: [-empyre-] subscription

["Melinda Rackham" <melt2@pacific.net.au>]

alan wrote:    
If anything, I'm associated with non-profits 
    or flexible venues (I've curated in both). It's simply I can walk in when 
    I want if I want. On a list, including this list, there is censorship, 
    moderation, subscription, and dominance by a few posters. This is very 
    different _vis-a-vis audience_ or spectator, from a gallery.
    -------
yes alan,I  agree that no space is without its parameters, its biases and its rules.. 
And here we have clearly defined guidelines on the website which we are very upfront about, which is why a lot of people enjoy this list.

 I think however its improbable that offline artist run venue have more freedom in their programming and presentation and accessability than a list does.. 
Are you saying they aren?t  limited by opening hours and locatedness issues, public liability,visual censorship laws,committee  and governing board prejudices, fashionability of media.etc,I  used to co-ordinate an artist run gallery before the net, I?ve also wokked as sculptor and facilitator on projects in public space lke town squares, etc.and they were always compromises..  public space is always subject to and  regulated by  many visible and invisible forces.

what I like about the list is its mobility. Its possible recontextualisations..I?m reading this list, and responding via this email on the tiny scren of my phone/xda at the zoo in amsterdam on my way to isea.. There are kids playingnext to me in the playground  and I just saw a polar  bear who seemingly has been driven  insane by hislife in a small pen so he walks the same twenty meters continuously, raises on his back legs and twists his head and body round , then walks the circle again. I felt really disturbed and remembered  why I don't  like zoos.. This  viewing space, and its accomaning emotional triggers, alters my response to any issues I?m thinking about. I?m not stuck in a gallery defined "designated viewing area" in the context of white walls ..or back walls to condition my response to "art". The zoo signs here even talk about the "animal curators",which is just a lovely syncronicity.

 But then I don?t believe we are emotionally or intellectually unencumbered either wherever we are.. So I?m always a little  suspicious  of myself when I privlidge one space over another ;
Theres a seagull trying to eat my strudel so I?d better divert my attention there..
M