[-empyre-] Greetings from Mute magazine

[Michael Dieter]

Hi Simon,

Great to have you on the list! There's really so much range to Mute's
activities that it can be overwhelming for those who are immediately
confronted with the various projects that have evolved from the initial
magazine publication.

So I have a series of general questions. Feel free to respond to any.

While I'm still waiting for my copy of 'Proud To Be Flesh' to arrive - the
massive anthology of articles from Mute recently published in association
with Autonomedia (http://www.metamute.org/en/shop/ptbf) - I was just
reading Charlotte Frost's review over at Rhizome this afternoon:
http://rhizome.org/editorial/3576#more She picks up on notion that there's
a kind of broad critique of new media hype that underpins the agenda of
Mute, but the implication of a kind of nascent neo-humanism that defines
the publication as a whole (I might be extrapolating a bit here). I was
wondering if you could speak a little more about the collective voice of
Mute, and whether you agree with this assessment? In other words,
especially having undertaken this huge retrospective, what do you think
Mute has come to represent over the years? (I've always liked the slogan
"Culture and Politics After the Net" - turning the futurist logic of 'the
new media' into a pragmatics of the present somehow).

There might be an additional point here about institutions and
independence - Mute is obviously a massively important and influential
publication for new media, yet is deliberately positioned outside the
academy. What sort of hybrid space is this? What advantages (or
disadvantages) are there to this way of working?

Following this, I want to ask what the relationship between theory and
practice is for Mute? Obviously the two are closely intertwined, and
perhaps there is no hard and fast distinction here. Nevertheless, I was
wondering what kind of approach Mute takes to translating conceptual
frameworks into software services or initiatives (and vice versa),
especially given the consistent engagement with issues around publishing
'after the net'? I'd like to know more about the Progressive Publishing
System project too (checked out the slides, but am not great with
flowcharts!)

Hope this isn't too much!

- M.


> Last off we have a speculative proposal out to build an online software
> system to help with the conversion of works into the different
> ePublishing formats, publication management in the distribution
> platforms and for remixing of content (free and paid). See
> http://www.slideshare.net/metamute/progressive-publishing-system


-- 
Michael Dieter
School of Culture and Communication
University of Melbourne
http://www.culture-communication.unimelb.edu.au/research-students/michael-dieter.html