[-empyre-] Creativity as a social ontology

[Julian Oliver]

..on Fri, Jul 09, 2010 at 09:32:52AM -0700, Eugenio Tisselli wrote:
> Julian,
> 
> > 
> > > Can we think of an example of an "intimate" network?
> > 
> > Sure, you mean a computer network right? Examples might be
> > an invite only code
> > repository and forum, a videogame LAN, the LAN in your
> > house, an Intranet,
> > darknets, IRC channels (#botany, #math, #radioastronomy,
> > #security on servers
> > like freenode, ircnet) etc.
> 
> I wonder if exclusiveness (not necessarily understood as a negative feature)
> is the only necessary ingredient for intimacy... ?

The very basis of a community depends on a logic of exclusion; any community
represents a grouping around a common interest, whether that be needs, fetisches
or topics. To defend those interests - even if that requires excluding others -
is to invest in the health of the community. 

A society itself can be understood as an expression of exclusion; membership
is only granted to those that prove compatibility with the existing interest(s).
For this reason, a discussion around 'Intimate networks' could be more aptly
(but less fashionably) named 'Exclusive Networks'. 

The Local Area Network of your apartment or school expresses this exclusion with
(the somewhat depolitised) WEP or WPA encryption. An IRC channel excludes those
that do not demonstrate respect for the channel topic. A town in the South of
the U.S.A might do so by making the newcomers feel generally horrible about
being there until they expressly prove a compatible interest. 

Exlusion has an awful name, largely due to xenophobic, classist projects
throughout history, but we're all already practicing exclusion in the interests
of our cherished communities every day. In consideration of this topic, one
could say any social network is the industrialisation of social exclusion
(network anxiety) - "Am I your friend or not"?

Cheers!

-- 
Julian Oliver
home: New Zealand
based: Berlin, Germany 
currently: Berlin, Germany 
about: http://julianoliver.com