Re: [-empyre-] nice

[su b <suballard@optusnet.com.au>]

Hello everyone,
I don't know if any discussions is ever representational. But as a 
life-time lurker (my online life started somewhere around cybermind 
when was this, 1994? 1996? - not sure) - I have watched listened, and 
gained so much from internet lists as a 'silent' partner. I think it is 
very easy to overlook the people who are here, not writing, but always 
fully participating. And by  making claims for representation we tend 
to do that, and make blunt (often incorrect) assumptions about each 
other.  A conversation is not only the people who open their mouths and 
rattle the keys. Instead the issue which i find more interesting here 
is one of voices. The discussion about online presentation for me is 
about voice and disclosure. Paul may label a voice academic, I might 
find myself hidden in between it's phrase, lost for words, silent, but 
not un-represented. All exchanges are influenced by position, location 
and voice. (Donna Haraway's essay on situated knowledge comes into play 
for me here) And this exchange cannot be separated out, we cannot 
discuss nz/ aotearoa digital/ new media practice without navigating our 
way through this water, and writing and re writing our networks and our 
philosophies, but as Ian Clothier recently wrote on the ADA list, this 
is in reality an extended boundary. Aotearoa does not stop or start at 
the foreshore :)  For me, a mutability of practice which negotiates 
some of these paths,  includes my practice as a digital artist, and my 
writing, but most importantly the thrill of exchange is found in the 
opportunity to listen to people with very different agendas, 
experiences, positions and locations,... a difference in kind.
su