Re: [-empyre-] point of reference

["Anna Munster" <A.Munster@unsw.edu.au>]

what I took Melinda to mean was that both blogs and discussion lists are 2
different forms of distributed production (of self, of art, of the social,
of software etc).

But whereas lists allow the "self" to slip in and out, weave around, range
over (free-ranging) blogs use the "self" as a node from which to
distribute (itself).

There are implications for these two different modes:

The list might (like parties) allow a certain loss of the "self" which
some people find exhilarating where others find this suffocating.

Blogs might re-constitute a self that's in danger of becoming lost in the
vast networks of information, which some people find narcissistic and
others find a new mode of thinking about selves...

I do find it interesting that people veer towards either lists or blogs.
But I alos think that what you say about blogs, Chris - ie that you need
to stay with them and develop a sense of them over a period of time, is
also the case for lists. Both "forms" are very much dynamic and time-based
network formations

Anna


Dr. Anna Munster
Senior Lecturer
Post-Graduate Coordinator
School of Art History and Theory,
College of Fine Arts
University of NSW
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NSW
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