[Nettime-bold] Re: .Non Co][N.ference][mpos Me][ze][n.tis.

["][mez][" <netwurker@hotkey.net.au>]

>From: "Pauline Masurel" <mazthing@excite.com>
>
>Mez
>
>I suppose that because I've seen you write about it elsewhere I find
myself viewing this piece in the light of your decision not to attend the
e-poetry conference at Buffalo (an 'offline' event).  I don't mean to
over-simplify <i>or</i> to totally misrepresent you by suggesting it's
<i>about</i> that. The writing seems to me to raise three fundamental
questions about the nature of the medium, the place that we're
communicating in.  I don't necessarily come from any place on these issues
that matches your own personal or political standpoint but it made a very
strong connection for me, particularly in the third section, "2 E or not 2
E". 
>
>
><i>How I read you, right or wrong:</i>
>
>1.  An account of what it's like to wander into a totally new online world
for the first time.  How that grows, a loss of individualisation in
exchange for connectivity in a  textual world where  "e.motes can b all,
another not an .other., wurds all we have 2 go on"
>
>2.  The commercialisation of the web, the taking over and colonisation of
free, depersonalised spaces that people inhabit communally, a reiteration
of rl constructs within the E. "a mythic space is colonised. dot.coms fight
the pri.mor.dial soup, d.termined 2 swap the limboesque with capitalism."
>
>3. The trend toward a personalisation of the artist to promote the work,
such that "physical confirming breeds blotting of the meaning"  For
example, the publicity over Talan Memott's recent prize-winning is
accompanied by his photograph, rather than an image from his work.  No
criticism of trAce or of him intended, but why?  Presumably because this is
deemed to be what the media will require, e-artists must look like the rest
of us irl to be accepted, 
>
>For me this seems to be bigger than just the debate about art online and
apply to all life online.  The same applies to all e-citizens.  Never mind
the fact that any corroborating evidence can easily be faked to a point
beyond most people's rather accepting level of 'reasonable doubt'.  If you
have a name and a face that people understand then they'll like you better
for it.  If you conform in the 'real' (what an implied value judgement
there) then they'll let you be r-E-al too. If they want to do business with
you or relate to you significantly they may also want to 'meet' you offline
as well.  To prove what?  That "you" exist...or at least that someone
sufficiently familiar with your work to be able to discuss it confidently
can be fielded for interview?
>
>Should we succumb to pressure or enthusiasms to link online and offline
lives?  Do we need factors outside cyberspace to prove or justify ourselves
within it.  What should the status be of people who choose not to do that.
Is a Guest justifiably part of an underclass which deserves no respect
because e refuses to conform or confirm?  I feel that most people see the
Internet as a means of communication rather than cyberspace as a 'place to
go' - they will be content to use it as a method of exchanging their own
messages with the messages of other individuals and to regard it as a
delivery medium for information.  I imagine that only a few will regard it
as an environment in itself with more connected and merged methods of
ownership and creation.  In the end, business will always want to know 'who
pays' and 'who's in control'.  I'd expect the two answers to be the same in
most cases.
>
>
>I hope that these things continue to be discussed.  I fear the battle on
both 2 & 3 is already good as lost for the majority of people online but
there will always be a minority who feel as (I read) you do.  Thank you for
writing and raising.
>
>Mazzy















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