[-empyre-] SCREENFULLy missing

//jonCates <joncates@criticalartware.net> · Mon, 27 Jun 2005 16:48:56 -0500

i want to login + register a few [comments/thoughts/emotions] on this 
month's discussion, the collaborative work of abe linkoln + jimpunk aka 
SCREENFULL, the performances of identity that have occurred here 
[in/on] empyre + elseware [in/on] facets of the hyperthreaded 
listservosphere.
in William Gibson's Pattern Recognition the "footage" is a mysterious 
viral new media meme creeping across the internet in lil bits n chunks 
of video, forming uneasy metanarratives. these video downloads are 
obsessionally interwoven into the lives of the main characters as they 
attempt to unravel the secrets of the footage: origin, meaning, 
maker(s), etc... those that follow the footage are known as footage 
heads + often inhabit 2 opposing + polarizing ideological camps. these 
camps are the Completists (i.e. Mama Anarchia) who believe that the 
footage is being [sliced/spliced] from an already existing + finished 
work w/the chunks being released slowly + the Progressives (i.e. heros 
Cayce Pollard + Parkaboy) who believe that the work is being created 
progressively or incrementally rather than representing moments in an 
already completed project, arc or narrative. the Completists + 
Progressives meet, discuss, flamewar + share footage on a fictional 
forum www site called "Fetish: Footage: Forum" aka "F:F:F" that hosts 
their conversations + exists as their communal cultural platform, their 
nonlocal networked home.
i just read Pattern Recognition in early May, picking up a paperback ed 
in LaGuardia while rtn'ing to CHI IL .US from NYC NY .US. the novel 
engrossed me + i read it w/a sustained hunger. <---// WARNING: SPOILERS 
AHEAD //---> when i came to the concl of the book i was wonderfully 
disappointed in that perfect way that you want narratives to continue 
endlessly. perhaps this feeling is intentional on Gibson's part, a way 
of self-replicating feverish obsessions the characters feel for the 
footage. @ the concl of the book, Gibson reveals most (if not all) of 
the secrets of the footage. in doing so he slightly shifts the 
positioning of the Completists as villains + the Progressives as heros. 
the Progressive heros Cayce + Parkaboy were correct about their 
Progressivist theories on the footage. their immediate online enemy 
Mama Anarchia, in the overtly + overly theoretically motivated camp of 
the Completists, was fabricating a fantastically ornate tapestry of 
lies in various postmodern theoretical + critical dialects, modes + 
references incl'ing Derrida, Foucault, Lyotard, Jameson + Habermas. 
these fantastic lies were smoke-n-mirrors, a distraction to complicate 
their search for the truth.
as others have noted in reviews of Pattern Recognition, Gibson directly 
addresses postmodernity by discussing Tommy Hilfiger fashions in rltn 
to Cayce's allergy to branding + in Cayce's experience of the 
"mirror-world" reflections + refractions of NYC NY .US in LND .UK, 
Tokyo .JP + Moscow .RU. but in the current context of this post, i am 
more interested in the inclusion of the character of Mama Anarchia who 
speaks fluently in postmodern discursive modes. toward the concl of 
Pattern Recognition Gibson reveals that Mama Anarchia is a puppenkopf 
(German for "Puppet head") controlled by the villainous character 
Dorotea Benedetti + articulated by her theory-soaked translation pawn, 
an unnamed "graduate student, in America" (00). Gibson incl's lil of 
Mama Anarchia's actual posts but refers to a large + intricate volume 
of posts, mini that are weaponized in flamewars w/Parkaboy, a 
Progressive hero of Pattern Recognition.
in the unwritten discursive space of F:F:F, Mama Anarchia's 
postmodernist language + referents are in the service of the Completist 
view of the footage. Gibson positions the collaborative of Dorotea + 
the unnamed American graduate student aka Mama Anarchia's hollow, 
postmodern academicized theory as a ventriloquist act. this performance 
of identity is socially constructed in, on + thro the online forum 
F:F:F. the explanation of this performance of identity on page 325, is 
a brief but incisive view into a critique that Gibson fwds while 
shaping + dfn'n his characters.  the character of the unnamed anonymous 
American graduate student is itself a {template|[puppenkopf/puppet]} 
for the wooden recital of academic languages that line reality tunnels 
(01) like reinforcing girders that support mine shafts. i am choosing 
this mine shaft imagery carefully to dirty up, invert + multiple the 
ivory tower metaphor that so often is used in this kind of comment or 
conversation. i am also using imagery that digs in order to address 
digging as dissing, i.e. in the form of personal attacks vs. digging as 
grokking, i.e. in the sense of developing a deep understanding.
the language lining reality tunnels is often exclusionary as the 
tunnels brach off further + further from main arteries that are heavily 
travelled. the use of such exclusive language can be critiqued as 
elitist. the academic elitism that the usage of the term "ivory tower" 
refers to connects to discursive modes, dialects + references thro 
limiting or @ least judging the validity of "voice" on the grounds  of 
scholarship, i.e. academicized {grokking|geeking out}. to grok (02) is 
to become part of or 01 w/, to be included in a knowledge [domain/body] 
completely + intuitively. perhaps the intuitive aspect of grokking can 
take place instantaneously + immediately. scholarship is in itself an 
academic {concept|construct} or theorypractice. as a [domain/area of 
activity] scholarship takes time + is often characterized by slow 
knowledge building processes of reflection, examination, analysis, 
development, etc... also, scholarship (like a taxonomical subclass or 
subgenre of art making, i.e. artware) appeals to specialists or ppl 
w/particularized [tastes/interests]. thin [lines of 
demarcation/fissures/layers of ice] separate specialists, obsessives + 
fetishists. w/o pathologizing, i suppose these lines are best measured 
in degrees of functionality.
as a functional fetishist of specialized knowledge [domains/bodies], i 
can personally relate to the obsessive compulsive Cayce Pollard in her 
search for the footage as well as her sense of belonging [in/on] F:F:F.
@ the concl of Pattern Recognition as Gibson reconciles or @ least 
complicates the Completist + the Progressive views on the footage, he 
reveals the footage to be the work of a singular artist (read genius -> 
read hi-modernist myth) who uses appropriates found + original material 
to create the footage. this artist, a character named Nora Volkova, 
samples, retouches, remixes + reconfigures elements into the footage. 
Nora makes a lil @ a time (validating the Progressive view) + her 
sister Stella releases those bits as videos, tracking their movements 
across networks as viral meme-like media files. Nora is constructing a 
larger shape w/a perceptible pattern that the videos form @ a 
mysterious metalevel of their structure. the making of meaningfulness

culminates in a pattern that is recognizable to Cayce Pollard, made 
visible thro a literal + figurative network of metanarratives, 
fragments, codes, clues, hacks, bits + bytes of new media. this plot 
element reveals invalidates the Completist view of an existing finished 
work but does support a kind of completism that shares a [kindred 
spirit/connection] to {concepts|constructs} such as the Wagnerian 
Gesamtkunstwerk or total art work that originates from + articulates a 
{purified|heroic} singularity of unity in the artist + in the 
conception + realization of the work (i.e. the artist's vision). Nora 
also exists as a profoundly contemporary version of the Romantic artist 
as lone visionary working in complete solitude to create an expressive 
reality that is perceptible + inhabitable to her audience, namely 
Cayce, thro the project of the work itself. in this art myth, Nora is 
herself also a mystery, her inner world is inaccessible to everyOne + 
anyOne w/o the entryways opened by the footage. when Cayce asks Stella 
if the footage amounts to a linear narrative Stella remarks on the 
mystery of the Nora's future development of the footage saying "Who 
knows? Nora? She does not say." (03)
i have bin subscribed to abe linkoln + jimpunk's SCREENFULL RSS feed 
since 2005.02.10 + have bin [aware of/following] their individual + 
collaborative work for way prior to dat. i have struggled w/SCREENFULL 
+ my own responses to the RSS feed or blog art version + the HTML'd web 
art version. my responses have bin similar to Gibson's description of 
the Completists vs Progressives arguments in Pattern Recognition. i 
assume the process of SCREENFULL matches the Progressive position on 
the footage, meaning that SCREENFULL seems to be a collaborative stream 
of consciousness being generated just before release rather than far in 
advance. SCREENFULL also seems responsive, the stream of consciousness 
forking in relation to ongoing conversations, external stimuli + 
environmental new media [art-worlds/listservosphere/blogosphere] 
conditions. like a realtime [performance/system] these fluctuations 
enhance the experience of the work + create entry points.
in terms of performance, experiences + entryways, abe linkoln + jimpunk 
position SCREENFULL as "STADIUM ROCK NET.ART" (04).

the inclusion of net.art in their description is an odd choice to 
sample from the bin of new media art taxonomies. the much 
[announced/decried/denounced/hystoricized] birth + death of net.art 
aside, SCREENFULL is clearly not about the constraints or intentions 
that have bin defined by the self-definitions fwd' by those who 
[claimed/created] the net.art category. Stadium Rock is a similarly 
mismatched term. large venues, inflated egos, massive sound systems + 
light shows characterize Stadium Rock. the 1970's Stadium Rock scene 
involved rising ticket sales + ticket prices that fueled this bloated, 
fantastical + narcissistic genre. oppositionally, punk has bin 
hystoricized as a response to the pretentiousness of Stadium Rock. punk 
(@ least in part) incl's a return to Garage Rock sensibilities mixed 
w/Situationalist [artforms/politics] of disruption + the DIY ethos of 
unschooled improvisation (in the sense of 
make-do-with-whatever-you-got-ness). punk is small + immediate. Stadium 
Rock is huge + distant. abe linkoln has a mohawk on his appropriated 
head + jimpunk has got punk in "his" name as well as in "his" 
approaches + projects. all of the above, make SCREENFULL as "STADIUM 
ROCK NET.ART" hard to swallow unless you take this "STADIUM ROCK 
NET.ART" status as a form of sarcasm. bitter? biting? perhaps.
bitter sarcasm is sumTimes in itself difficult to swallow, so i will be 
perfectly sincere about SCREENFULL. like a Gibsonian Completist or a 
tattered hi-modernist, i wonder self-consciously what SCREENFULL adds 
up to [+/or] if it is supposed to add up to anyThin @ all. is 
culmination a viable standard for understanding if not judging 
SCREENFULL as a [work/project/piece] of new media art? is the 
{concept|construct} of culmination or even a gradual accumulation of 
meaningfulness too romantic a framework for interpreting the fragmented 
irony, embedded sarcasm + postmodern theorypractice of SCREENFULL? is 
meaningfulness  as an artistic value important to jimpunk + abe 
linkoln? is SCREENFULL nihilistic? anarchistic? apocalyptic? 
discordian? does it have the politics of punk or the vanity of stadium 
rock? both? neither? none of the above? who knows? abe linkoln?  
jimpunk? SCREENFULL? they do not stay + they do not say.
this month on empyre will end in a few days during which i will finish 
packing up my apt + mv to a new neighborhood. when i get to the new apt 
a new convo will have started on empyre. perhaps a summer project will 
have taken shape on the .microsound listserv. the _arch.ive_ list will 
continue probably hum + buzz w/the snd of {de|re}-compiled codeworks. 
artists will go into residency [in/on] NetBehaviour + make work work 
which will be [distributed/discussed] onList. the listservosphere will 
continue to bubble up in my inbox like the hyperfolded + foamy 
bubbleverse it is. the blogosphere will continue to grow, spin + fill 
my feedreader. i will continue to engage in both, QWERTYing + coding 
entries. the month of June 2005 will pass out of existence (in sense of 
active discussion) on empyre + into the archives + w/this 
[passage/transition] we will have lost a few moments or opportunities 
for exchange that could have lasted lifetimes between those who left, 
i.e. jimpunk + abe linkoln. maybe i am being romantic in my 
academically induced summertime, but i will miss June 2005 [in/on] 
empyre + miss the opportunities for digging into discussions i was 
looking fwd to.
as jon.satrom wrote on empyre a year ago (05) quoting the late Phil 
Morton, early video artist + innovator (to connect w/ terms of 
privileged criteria + the recent thread on hystorical determinations of 
value) in his last post to empyre during May of 2004: "PEACE/ASCESIS"

// jonCates

CHI IL .US
00: "Puppet-head. A graduate student, in America". That is how i am 
able to be the Mama." - Dorotea Benedetti (p. 325)
data.src:
title: Pattern Recognition
dvr: William Gibson
format: book
edition: paperback
page count: 384 pages
publisher: Berkley
date: 2005.02.01
lang: ENG
ISBN: 0425198685
01: "Reality Tunnel is a term coined by Timothy Leary and popularised 
by Robert Anton Wilson. It refers to the concept that with a 
subconscious set of filters formed from their beliefs and experiences, 
everyone interprets this same world differently, hence "Truth is in the 
eye of the beholder". The individual world each person occupies is said 
to be their reality tunnel."
data.src:
title: Wikipedia
dvr: various
format: wiki
uri: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality_tunnel
02: the term "grok" was coined by author Robert A. Heinlein in the 
sci-fi classic Stranger in a Strange Land.
data.src:
title: Stranger in a Strange Land
dvr: Robert A. Heinlein
format: book
edition: Hardcover
publisher: Putnam Adult
date: 1963.04.01
lang: ENG
ISBN: 039910772X
03: page 312 of data.src 00
04: data.src:
title: SCREENFULL.NET > STADIUM ROCK NET.ART
dvr: abe linkoln
date: 2004.08.27
time: 06:23:27 PM
format: [invite/ann/email msg/Rhizome.org post]
uri: http://rhizome.org/thread.rhiz?thread=14343&text=27409
05: data.src:
title: [copy/hack/bend] it right

dvr: jon.satrom

date: 2004.05.31

time: 13:26:45 -0500

format: [-empyre-] post

uri: 
https://mail.cofa.unsw.edu.au/pipermail/empyre/2004-June/msg00000.html