Re: <nettime> Political Work in the Aftermath of the New Media Arts Crisis

[John Hopkins <jhopkins@neoscenes.net>]

carlos katastrofsky wrote:

> what i am always wondering about is why the media arts field is so
> concerned with its media. is dealing with "new media" or "old media"

exactly Carlos...

this revolves around the common (still, ongoing, & perhaps permanent!)
problem of identifying creative impulses by their materialized remains
(media, mediated forms).  There are precisely identical histories of the 
rise of
(materially) specialized festivals, research centers, art school
departments, workshop venues, etc etc -- photography, for example.
Where are all the institutions and organizations and events that swirled
around that particular material result of creative impulse?  They are
gone, gone, gone.  Abd the ones who remain -- does anyone think they are
center for radical creative experimentation?  Most people don't even
remember them.  the Rencontres Internationale de la Photographie and the
Ecole Nationale de la Photographie in Arles, etc etc, huh, who cares?

when there is this material obsession, it is bound to be outmoded simply
because things aren't IT, looking at the world as a bunch of things
doesn't reveal the phenomenal nature of life: another words, focusing on
the detritus that is left, dead, after the creative forces have altered
the local universe -- well it's simply a death cult and is a dead end.
<<yawn>> why ponder on it?  Better to skip the material categorization
process altogether 'cause it IS a dead end...

jh


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