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

["Sally Jane Norman" <S.J.Norman@newcastle.ac.uk>]

Kia kaha Christina. Stand strong.
with thanks and condoleances
 
sjn

________________________________

From: empyre-bounces@gamera.cofa.unsw.edu.au on behalf of Christina McPhee
Sent: Tue 06/02/2007 8:17 PM
To: soft_skinned_space
Subject: [-empyre-] farewell to 'what is to be done?(education) incollaboration with documenta 12 magazine project



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
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