Re: [-empyre-] What is to be done

[Melinda Rackham <melinda@anat.org.au>]

Mez hi.. 
Nice to know you are still around  - ive missed your unique perspectives..

By we  i am referring to cultural producers -that's the spot i sit in in
this conversation..   have you produced any projects which raised money
and/or secured resources to  benefit other artists or writers or the
community at large lately? I guarantee that that funders and institutions
wont  be  philosophically musing  on wether they subscribe to a heavily
westernised conception of reality .. They will be wanting outcomes which are
beneficial to their aims and goals and public profile.

And sure you can route around that and slip into the institutional gaps and
exploit the bugs in the social software and hardware , and get projects up
in other contexts, not reliant on these avenues.. but really we all know
that isn't sustainable. You get tired.. Eg the facilitators of empyre change
cause no one can devote that much time to doing a community service when
they have to pay rent.

Perhaps you are alluding to romantic notions of symbiosis  where
interactions just happen and  neither party is harmed nor helped - process
similar to that of epiphytes - Air plants that absorb what they need from
the air through their leaves, not through their roots - so they are
unusually hardy and adaptive . You can put them in anything...seashells,
teacups, empty vases, driftwood...many people like to hang them on fishing
line. These truly are a perfect gift for plant lovers and for people who
can't grow anything... Ahh but i wander in pseudo-modernist reverie.

Then there are the benefactors who give you money for nothing, people who
don't seem to want anything but the good of media arts.. But if one objects
to  western capitalism so much then all money is sullied and must be
rejected. Do you stop bill gates form doing aids research in Africa cause
you object to Microsoft saying that if he didn't sell computers  and strip
3rd world countries of resources then the problem wouldn't exist. ?

I changed my mind about second life cause i realised i was being an arrogant
intellectual wanker of the worst kind.. holding a high moral ground on the
basis of my phd research - i was forewarned by the lovely Neal Stephenson of
the social hierarchies surrounding white thrash off the shelf Brandy avatars
and i believed anything i could create would be far superior..  Someone
pointed out to me another perspective on how perverse the whole of second
life representation is. And i saw the wonderment of that world  and error of
my ways..  I truly appreciate Eva and Franco Mattes 13 most beautiful
avatars series.

xxM
 
On 19/1/07 5:33 PM, "mez breeze" <netwurker@gmail.com> wrote:

> On 1/18/07, Melinda Rackham <melinda@anat.org.au> wrote:
>>> 
> Hi all
>>> 
> 
> 
> hi mel + all.
> 
> 
>>> 
> The basic polemic annoys me.. we cant operate today without speaking the
> language of economics. Culture and commerce do go hand in hand. Are we
> trying to dive an educative wedge into this ? I don think that's in any way
> a reality.
>>> 
> 
> 
> i suspect those m.mersed in the _production_ [as opposed 2 the
> codification] of culture cogitate less about their place in the
> [socio]economic stratosphere + more about the manif[r]e[ali]s[a]tation
> of their ideals+concepts. the notion of b.ing unavoidably mired in a
> "language of economics" seems tied 2 a framework driven by certain
> processes that seek 2 n.stitutionalise these n.deavours via a
> formal[recogn]ised/parcelled 'cultural' product/stream [i'm seeking
> clarification on ur use of the term "we" here?] ....
> 
> ......."we" [as in certain n.divi_duals that /loc.ate themselves
> (either geospacially or perceptually) elsewhere from a heavily
> westernised conception of reality that d.fines worth thru capitalistic
> n.dicators/m.mersion] can function quite fine [thk_u!] in a reality
> that may b quantitatively different 4rm urs - does this then make it
> invalid according 2 how u box ur definition of reality?
> 
> i find certain modes of cu[ltural]rrency veering strongly _away_ 4rm
> this top-down/ratified-via-precedent/sanctioned approach x.tremely
> n.teresting...@ present i'm x.ploring/researching/plotting a faux
> soc_network project [_feralC] that cs this formalisation as clinging
> within stratified fibres n.dicative of a close-ended/linear approach 2
> weaving acculturation:
> 
> "The academy ... is today so swamped by the assumptions and practices
> of market economics that it is deeply implausible for academics to
> tell their students they inhabit a postmodern world where a
> multiplicity of ideologies, world-views and voices can be heard. Their
> every step hounded by market economics, academics cannot preach
> multiplicity when their lives are dominated by what amounts in
> practice to consumer fanaticism. The world has narrowed
> intellectually, not broadened, in the last ten years. Where Lyotard
> saw the eclipse of Grand Narratives, pseudo-modernism sees the
> ideology of globalised market economics raised to the level of the
> sole and over-powering regulator of all social activity ­
> monopolistic, all-engulfing, all-explaining, all-structuring, as every
> academic must disagreeably recognise. Pseudo-modernism is of course
> consumerist and conformist, a matter of moving around the world as it
> is given or sold."
> - Alan Kirby
> 
> 
>>> 
> Of necessity cultural producers embrace the language of policy
> and the languages of spin.
>>> 
> 
> 
> they do? in order 2 have them con[de]fined + validated with a
> rubber_stamped acceptable sign [ie make it in2 the
> inner-sanctioned-power-definer's eye_path] i agree....but 4 those not
> oriented within the "reality" [my definition of reality is more a
> heavily_variable faceted patterning] of becoming culturally relevant
> or mass marketed along a e[ducative]conomic axis, i'd beg 2 diffa.....


> 
> 
>>> 
> This is basic survival in producing sustainable
> "education" and by that i mean cultural events, spaces for dialogue, skills
> development, introducing new concepts to new audiences.
>>> 
> 
> 
> ....again, according only 2 those status_quo channels geared 2wards
> the event/xhibition/object/"the pitch" as defining how cultural
> landscapes lie....fomenting abstractions currently perceive
> "education" [as defined thru these means] as essentially perpetuating
> a dynamic molded within expressive confines out-of-step with the
> n.credible rewriting of hub_networking or flattening of the
> creator/absorber/audience [think:myspace, blogging, liveleaking]....in
> the potentiate infoclimate of social nets redefining m[eme]odes 2wards
> anything _but_ the sustainable, of rewriting the market/canon from the
> inside via a removal of the x.clusivity of function according 2
> n_dividual creator labels [such as an artist, definer, teacher]
> education as such ceases 2 b....

>
> [troll_bait snipping here]
> 
> 
>>> 
> Dirk wrote that Second Life is harnessing all the creativity out there.. Is
> that wrong? I used to be highly critical of it, but have changed my mind.
>>> 
> 
> 
> i'd b really n.terested 2 c wot in fact changed ur position here mel -
> if it was the gradual seeping of Second Life as an acceptable platform
> for corporations/'educators'/other m[eme]ainstream_signifiers?
> 
> 
>>> 
> It Performs a fabulous educational and social role in our society. Art
> organisations are falling over themselves to have galleries exhibitions and
> residencies there - be part of the culture you've got.
>>> 
> 
> 
> bzzzT: i say:m.plode.the.cult[ural].trend
> 
> 
>>> 
> Love the one youre with.
>>> 
> 
> 
> bzzzT: i suggest: luv.the.1.ur.not
> 
> 
> -][m][
> 
> 
> 

The Future of Technology is Wearable
ReSkin & WearNow ::  2-3 February
ANU :: National Museum of Australia
http://www.anat.org.au/reskin


Dr Melinda Rackham
Executive Director
Australian Network for Art and Technology (ANAT)
PO Box 8029
Station Arcade
South Australia 5000
ph: 61 8 8231 9037; fax 61 8 8231 9766
http://www.anat.org.au
anat@anat.org.au

Australian Network for Art and  Technology (ANAT) is supported by the Visual
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Council, its arts funding and advisory body, and the South Australian
Government through Arts SA.