[-empyre-] Reliability and constancy are the often hidden tools which underpin any endeavor.

[Renate Terese Ferro]

Melinda, special thanks for sharing your personal work online, but also
reminding us to participate in geographically local space.  Additionally
for giving us a more detailed history of how -empyre- was conceived in
2002.  Our digital archive
http://lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au/pipermail/empyre/
provides a representative map of not only the tools and technologies but
also the conceptual and theoretical topics that are so integrally woven
into their history and use throughout these past twelve years.

Thanks also to Anne Balsamo, Tracey Benson, Jason Bernagozzi, Simon Biggs,
Ben Bogart, William Bain, Davin Heckman, Selmin Kara, Patrick Keilty, Tim
Murray, Andrew Lau, Murat Nemet-Nejat, Randall Parker, Ana Valdez, Helen
Varley Jamieson and so many more for sharing your thoughts. Innovating
open-source software, activism, and the social tools of writing, critical
engagement, peer groups, mentoring and nurturing are integral when
thinking and using digital tools and technologies especially if they are
to be accessible to diverse and broad populations. Collectively we have
tactically embraced the fact that there are critical, political and social
aspects that we intend to use to push against an industrial capitalist
complex, the system where much of the funding  of our technologies
continues to originate.

In New York just a few weeks ago at the College Art Association I attended
a forum sponsored by the New Media Caucus, Tyler Stefanovich presented a
thoughtful presentation in the Exploring Alternative Economies Media
Lounge Panel where he juxta-posed commonalities involving design,
momentum, and energy between digital  open-source collectives and  early
historical art and performance collectives of the 60¹s.  It was one of the
panels at CAA this year that provided me with quite a bit to think about
especially in the context of this month¹s discussion and I am hoping that
we can get Tyler to be a guest on -empyre-soon to share his thoughts to
extend our discussions further at some point in the future.

To end I am going to pull out a thread that Melinda wrote in response to
Tim¹s post about the archive:
 --Reliability and constancy are the often hidden tools which underpin any
endeavor.‹

As a moderator of ­empyre- I can attest to the fact that it is reliability
and constancy have sustained this list-serv for the past twelve years. If
it was not for the commitment of our monthly guest moderators and their
guests, their reliability and constancy, we would not be a sustainable
online community. 
Thanks for a great discussion with more on and offline soon.
Renate


Visiting Assistant Professor of Art,Cornell University
Department of Art, Tjaden Hall Office:  306
Ithaca, NY  14853
Email:   <rferro at cornell.edu <mailto:rtf9 at cornell.edu>>
URL:  http://www.renateferro.net <http://www.renateferro.net/>
      http://www.privatesecretspubliclies.net
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Lab:  http://www.tinkerfactory.net <http://www.tinkerfactory.net/>

Managing Co-moderator of -empyre- soft skinned space
http://empyre.library.cornell.edu/