[-empyre-] Re: unwired sustainability

[Sharon Lin Tay]

Apologies for being AWOL over the weekend, but I am now back at
my desk and would like to sign off as guest moderator with this
post.  

Many thanks to hw for some very thought provoking posts.  The
energy issue is both political and personal to all of us.  The
depletion of oil will indeed put an end to our way of life.  Our
consumption of resources, as hw rightly observes, is not
sustainable.  That this realisation is dawning on us is a good
thing.  However, as Dale also rightly notes, opting out of
systems is also not the solution.  Art is a significant aspect
of humanity and civilisation.  I am reminded of Gilles Deleuze's
reported observation on his alcoholism, and which I paraphrase
here: Never reach for the last glass.   The last glass is that
which kills you, while the penultimate glass is that which
sustains you.    

We stagger on.  Thanks for having me this week.
cheers,
sharon


--- h w <misterwarwick at yahoo.com> wrote:

> 
> > ------------------------------
> > 
> > Message: 2
> > Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2008 09:22:58 -0400
> > From: Dale Hudson <dhudson at amherst.edu>
> > Subject: Re: [-empyre-] unwired sustainability
> > To: soft_skinned_space <empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
> > Message-ID: <C4335EF2.A7B7%dhudson at amherst.edu>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
> > 
> > Thanks to everyone for the interesting posts this week.  I
> echo
> > Ulises¹s
> > apologies for not having posted as actively, as does Sharon,
> who was
> > traveling this past weekend.
> > 
> > I will also end with a few thoughts/questions on the month¹s
> themes:
> > 
> > I found the discussions about the links between oil and
> digital
> > technologies
> > interesting.  In my own teaching and thinking, I¹ve focused
> more on
> > issues
> > of labor, trade agreements, copyright, and human rights,
> though not
> > as they
> > are linked to oil.
> 
> It's not oil. It's energy. Oil is important, as it has uses
> outside of
> energy, but its use as an energy source is paramount to our
> civilisation, and its disappearance this century is going to
> be as
> central to the social and political events of this century as
> it was in
> the 20th century.
> 
> It's ALL about energy. Pyramids? Sure - go on about religion
> and
> metaphysical/mythologies, but it was built by people. And
> these people
> ate food, and they were able to do this because when
> agriculture was
> introduced to the Nile Valley, they were able to make
> excessive amounts
> of grain, grow the population and feed it, and thus Have The
> Energy To
> Build the Pyramids. The food was so plentiful, that people who
> didn't
> make food were able to survive, and thus class structure was
> born. It
> wasn't born from some Evil Idea. It was built from energy.
> 
> Art, society, civilisation - it is all built from our ability
> to store
> extra energy, or tap resources that provide energy. All of the
> artwork
> discussed here this month is the product of energy provision
> beyond the
> personally necessary. It's a long way from corn rows in the
> ancient
> americas or north african wheat, or Chinese rice paddies, but
> that is
> at the foundation.
> 
> It is the structure between that foundation and our present
> hyperstructured status that is threatened by the disappearance
> of oil.
> It cannot, and furthermore, should not, be replaced. Oil is
> stored and
> ancient solar power from 150 million years ago, that took
> millions of
> years to collect and process, and we are taking it all and
> dumping it
> into the atmosphere in a few short centuries. The folly of
> this action
> is stunning.
> 
> Art can contribute to this dialogue, just as we are
> contributing here.
> However, its context may vanish - we are an Art Species, or as
> Dissanayake says "Homo Aestheticus". It's what we do. However,
> the
> contemporary structure of the Gallery/Museum Industrial
> Complex as it
> is presently constituted (as the intellectual subset of the
> entertainment industry) is completely unsustainable and not
> worth
> saving. There are  works of art worth saving, but the social
> machinery
> around them isn't, and will be discarded, and rightfully so.
> 
> So, if that is the case, then our art ,especially digital art,
> is art
> of the moment, art of our time, and we should have no
> pretenses of it
> ever surviving or addressing longer time scales, as it will
> disappear
> with the machines that make it.
> 
> 
> Pessimists put the end of the industrial age somewhere towrd
> the end of
> this century. I am not so gloomy, but I am also not so
> sanguine - the
> threat of complete collapse is very real, and I would
> recommend Jared
> Diamond's book (Collapse) on the subject. We are not special
> or unique.
> We just live in special and unique times.
> 
> Three airline carriers in the USA are disappearing. Expect
> more. Peak
> oil = peak asphalt, so expect a gradual depaving of side
> streets to be
> used as patches on major highways so food can be delivered.
> 
> ICT will be maintained long after it is no longer viable - it
> is far
> too valuable to the economy and speculation.
> 
> I have a number of thoughts like this, but I am more
> interested in what
> others think this month.
> 
> HW
> 
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
> 


--
Sharon Lin Tay, Ph.D.
Lecturer in Film Studies 
Media  Department
School of Arts and Education 
Middlesex University 
Cat Hill
London EN4 8HT, UK 

Ph: ++44 (0)208 411 6126


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