[-empyre-] Renate Ferro: "New Year's Resolutions for Digital Futures"

[Renate Ferro]

January 2, 2009
Happy New Year –empyre from Upstate New York!

In a brief respite from the cold, blowing snow so typical of Upstate New
York this time of year, temperatures soared to the balmy mid-50’s just a
few days before New Years 2009.  I had spent all morning in my studio
sorting through my computer and external hard drives to consolidate or
trash unnecessary digital files.  Memory and digital space was at its
capacity; it was time to clear it out in time for new projects and ideas
that the New Year ushers in.

The mild weather, warm air, and sunny skies enticed me to saunter coatless
outside to investigate my garden a short jaunt from my studio door. A few
days earlier, the garden lay dormant under a blanket of snow with the
remnants of faded plant life composted in a heap at the garden’s
perimeters.

I grabbed an opened bag of organic fertilizer spreading it over the
surface of the thawing ground cover.  I pulled up random stalks of
freeze-dried kale and staked decomposing tomato stalks and added them to
the re-awakening compost heap.  Pacing out potential rows of squash
plants, lettuce rows, and carrot patch, I imagined the bounties of the
upcoming summer production.

As I breathed the warm air in and took some time to take in the vista of
our fifteen acre plot of rolling countryside with its hillside wooded
area, orchard and pond, I yelled out to Tim who was on the other side of
the yard, “I love this land.”

My resolution for the digital New Year: may the effects of our highly
technical digitized, miniaturized data driven digital culture never
interfere or upset the precious balance of our green environment. May we
as artists, programmers, writers, or curators of micro-bits of
technological memory space allow for our conscious cognizance of the
precious eco-balance of life and never forget to take time away from the
virtual space of the digital future to seep in the open, green space of
real life.

Best Wishes to all of you for a productive and peaceful 2009.

Renate Ferro (US) is a co-moderator of -empyre, an artist, and Visiting
Assistant Professor in the Department of Art at Cornell University.

Renate Ferro
Visiting Assistant Professor
Fine Arts, Inter-media
Cornell University, Tjaden Hall
Ithaca, NY  14853

Website:  http://www.renateferro.net
Email:   <rtf9 at cornell.edu>

Co-moderator of _empyre soft skinned space
http://www.subtle.net/empyre
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empyre

Art Editor, diacritics
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/dia/