David garcia on Tue, 20 May 2008 16:18:55 +0200 (CEST) |
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Re: <nettime> Steve Cisler |
On 20 May 2008, at 04:15, t byfield wrote: > Steve Cisler passed away on Thursday 15 May, from a medical condition > he'd known about for several years, which had worsened over the last > several months. His wife, Nancy, said that he was with his entire family > -- which had grown in the last few years -- and that he was relaxed and > accepting as his health faded. I was shocked and upset to hear this morning of Steve Cisler's passing and very grateful for Ted's tribute and portrait. This helped to fill out the picture for those of us for whom Steve meant a great deal but who were not fortunate enough to have known him as a personal friend. Those involved in putting together The Next 5 Minutes will know him as someone who contributed important content, ideas and knowledge very generously and often invisibly. In this (and many other) contexts his experience, sense of history and proportion had the effect of litrally grounding us. Steve was a fatherly man without ever being patronizing. Ted describes him as 'a material guy' and so emboldened, I hope it won't sound trivial to say that the first impression he usually made was of was as an impressive physical presence. A large hansomly craggy man who, (on his regular visits to the european media culture events) seemed to have stepped right out of a classic western, legendary cayak on the ready to navigate the amsterdam canals. But the frontiersman image was soon contradicted by the fact that nothing he ever said or did suggested any hint of aggression much less heroic posturing. Nevertheless in a context often rife with mindless 'America bashing' he brought with him some valuable and frequently forgotten atmospherics of an older America, a Whitman like sense of large open spaces and an atmosphere of solitude even in his sociality. I am sure that Ted is right in saying that he was not utopian but his way of life seemed to suggest the quest for a certain kind of freedom and candor. He was devoid of any trace of crass individualism but there was an attractive quality of self sufficiency, a deep independance of mind an spirit. I do hope that those nearest and dearest to Steve realise how much and how widely he will be missed. David # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mail.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@kein.org