[-empyre-] farewell to 'what is to be done?(education) in collaboration with documenta 12 magazine project

[Christina McPhee <christina112@earthlink.net>]

dear list,

I am writing at a moment of great sadness as I have just learned of  
the sudden death of someone I've known since my teen years, someone  
who was once my sister in law and is the mother of my wonderful two  
neices and nephew.  The shock of news like this makes the  
difficulties of the online experience diminish as the overwhelming  
reality of lives lived and lost, suffering and pain play out in a  
relentless way no matter whatever 'is to be done".   The tragedy of a  
life cut short brings to mind how precious  the contributions are,  
from all of you who read and sometimes write on this list, who, among  
the living, take time somehow in the midst of the crush of events,  
responsibilities, and complexity, to participate in communication  
with one another.  Each of you has a stake in the ongoing creativity  
of a hypertext that here makes a space for learning from one another,  
no matter how scattershot or haphazard the making of that space may  
be from time to time. I want to say again that I believe that this  
forum vitally connects real lives and makes a difference off line, in  
the so called real world.  Giving space for thinking and speaking in  
this virtual agora matters as we lose more and more public space in  
the built environment and our mediated transactions are so time  
consuming and ubiquitous that through sheer exhaustion we are tempted  
to shut down, to move out of the light, to not be seen.  My sister  
disappeared, has disappeared, and there is no way to bring her back.   
For those of us left living, it is still a human connection that  
celebrates our common life in the 'soft-skinned space' of -empyre-.

With these thoughts we bring the documenta 12 magazine project  
collaboration with -empyre- to a close. An edited linear pdf of this  
month's texts will be available shortly (by mid-February) on our  
sites; and eventually with documenta 12 magazine project next summer  
online. Again, my deepest thanks to all of you who've participated  
with such seriousness of purpose in the three months (March and July  
2006) and January 2007-- dedicated to our collaboration with  
documenta 12.   Special thanks to our guests this month --  Ollivier  
Dyens (CA), Iliyana Nedkova (SCT),  Chris Robbins (US), Melinda  
Rackham (AU),  Chris Molinski/Art Gallery of Knoxville (US),  Claudia  
Reiche (DE), Sharon Daniel (US), RIcardo Rosas (BR); and to our  
readers who responded, including Brian Holmes, Aliette Certhoux,   
Brett Stalbaum, Christophe Bruno, Dirk Vekemans, GH Hovagimyan, Henry  
Warwick, Jacky Sawatsky, Jim Andrews, Marc Garret, mez breeze, Saul  
Ostrow, and Vijay Pattisapu.   Thanks also to my fellow moderators,  
especially Marcus Bastos , for helping with list moderation.   We  
will be taking a break on -empyre- until March 1, 2007 when Marcus  
will introduce a new topic having to do with locative media.

The hypertext archive for this discussion is found at

https://mail.cofa.unsw.edu.au/pipermail/empyre/2007-January/date.html


-cm