[-empyre-] new delineations

[Patrick Simons <patricksimons@gloriousninth.com>]

As there appears to be a gap in the dialogue (a space perhaps) .... seems
like a good time to jump in with something.

Going back to Ryan's thoughts on the role of IT and so on, re. media -based
artists, I couldn't agree more that there does appear to be a dominant
tendency to avoid or ignore the problematic position that technology
driven/referencing work occupies in relation to capital.

It is suprising (to me anyway) that whilst so much is written about the
development and growth of "information societies", "post
capitalist/industrial economic models" and "networked societies"... that so
little seems to be being written about possible critical artistic positions
and strategies in response to this brave new media world.

I have been reading around ideas focussed on the "neo dada" and the
extraction of the political from the core of Dada by the neo's  (sorry this
is so crude, bear with me?) recently and in that light, the
contextualisation of media art etc seems increasingly depressing. (post neo
dada!)

I am wondering if it is in fact almost essential to somehow contextualise
works on an individual basis, to bring critical thinking and practice to the
foreground, to somehow sit along side the work, rather than sit collectively
as a kind of default community.

The danger seems to be that increasingly work produced which is uncritically
celebratory of the technology will be writing all of our histories, the real
time overt production of dominant ideology as spectacle.

OR am I just coming across like an old stalinist again?

How this sits with the subtleties and complexity of the discussion so far Im
not sure, hope this doesn't drive a coach and horses (tank?) through it.

best wishes
Patrick






> I would like to add that firstly, I think that forms of oppression
> need to
> be recognised and articulated.  I think this passage from a recent
> lecture
> by Jane Flax at AHRB CentreCATH at the University of Leeds is relevant
> here.
> ?Often, however, what is required are ways to delimit
> the system, so that it appears as a perspective rather than inexorable
> truth. However, only certain practices of subjectivity are likely to
> engender a critical skepticism in regard to normalizing processes.¹

> Secondly, I think that the processes of transgressing those oppressive
> boundaries should not (to borrow a phrase from Bracha Ettinger)
> ?submit or
> fold into¹ the oppressive forms themselves.

These two points from Kate are right on, in my estimation. i've been
thinking about the role of "tactical essentialism" as a form of
resistance, and its dangers and limitations... on another discussion
group ( http://www.walkinginplace.org/ ), there have been a couple of
posts discussing the assimilation/co-optation of notions of "the local"
- how localization is becoming part of the efficiency of capital and
read through models of market valuation. with the role that IT is
playing in this, it seems especially relevant to media-based artists
concerned with such things, but something that seems to be glossed over
fairly easily. in what ways should we be considering media/IT as
functioning within boundaries of oppressive forms? how do we delimit
that terrain with the knowledge and histories we have access to?
ryan