[-empyre-] modern/conceptul dialectic -> N state?

[Brett Stalbaum <stalbaum@ucsd.edu>]

A couple of questions for the respondents...

I have assumed that the modern and the postmodern (and previous epochs 
back to the archaic) interoperate in layers in our cultural system, but 
are in our contemporary state now stimulated by information 
technology... fundamentally the speed of database.

In your view, what role does IT and database play, if any, in catalyzing 
the contemporary situation? Could we say that it is in some sense that a 
new epoch or zeitgeist, an N-state, is emerging to supersede the pomo 
that is based on material differences that IT and database have 
catalyzed? (I think I read this drift Bruno's human browser... creating 
novel real performances out of a distributed database application that 
has its own ideas about the local context... great stuff.) Or is the 
present situation still best characterized as the lingering postmodern?

If the latter is the case, I do think it is very interesting to heed 
what Henry Warwick had to say in a previous post about energy. Any 
thoughts on what might stimulate a break in the epochal inertia?

Assuming that it is not broken already... I tend to think that all of 
the accomplishments of postmodernism are best characterized as the first 
phase of a new epoch which might be better named; and where the first 
phase of course persistently misunderstands what has happened to us. 
Misunderstanding is natural in times of massive technological and 
economic change... it took modernism a long time to successfully 
incorporate the industrial revolution... but in any case my view is that 
the postmodern is at least maturing out of the euphoric/dystopic 
dialectic of the 80's, which culminated nicely in the Matrix. We can see 
now that the sign does not replace the real, but materially interacts 
with it in new ways... like in the human browser... but oops... I'm 
asking a question here... I should not be answering my own... sorry...

--
Brett Stalbaum, Lecturer, PSOE
Coordinator, Interdisciplinary Computing and the Arts Major (ICAM)
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO
Department of Visual Arts
9500 GILMAN DR. # 0084
La Jolla CA 92093-0084
http://www.c5corp.com
http://www.paintersflat.net

Info for students, winter quarter 2K6:
-ICAM and Media (computing emphasis) faculty advising:
Tuesday 1-2PM, VAF 206, Contact via email stalbaum@ucsd.edu
-Vis 40/ICAM 40 (Introduction/Computing in Arts) office hour:
Tuesday 2-3PM, VAF 206, Contact via WebCT
-Vis 141A (Computer Programming/Arts I) office hour:
Tuesday 3-4PM, VAF 206, Contact: via WebCT
- Notes:
Week 7 (Feb 21st) No office hours today
Finals Week (March 21st) Yes.