Re: <nettime> Remember shih-chieh ilya li

[Patrice Riemens <patrice@xs4all.nl>]

Beautiful Obits for 'Ilya Lee'. R.I.P.

The two nettime posts by him Geert refers to are here:

https://nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-9912/msg00140.html   (1999)

https://nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-bold-0107/msg00508.html  
(2001)

and they are well worth (re)reading!

Ciaoui, p+2D!


On 2019-05-27 07:32, Shu Lea Cheang wrote:
> dear Geert
>
> I think we all met Ilya same time in  Amsterdam... next five minutes
> 1996?
>
>
> http://www.metamute.org/editorial/articles/next-5-minutes-tactical-media-conference-amsterdam-rotterdam-january-18-21-1996?fbclid=IwAR2-vn_hs5tsLSwwxAh-z7HNa-5DPBLZmgFdn2EVUM4pA2NpqNPhcX8dwh0
>
>
> sl
>
> On 23.05.19 16:00, Geert Lovink wrote:
>
> > I also just heard that our dead activist-friend Ilya from Taiwan
> > died because of complications from cellulitis, a few days ago.
> >
> > Thanks, Graham, you have described his warm character very well!
> >
> > I can't trace the exact beginning of my friendship with Ilya but it
> > must have been in the last nineties. His trip to the third Next Five
> > Minutes tactical media festival in Amsterdam was a huge event for
> > him (and all of us). The idea of creating networks of artists and
> > activists working at the crossroads of politics, aesthetics and new
> > media was a very real, living thing.
> >
> > In 2001, I did an email exchange with Ilya, for nettime:
> > https://nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-bold-0107/msg00508.html.
> > In my 2002 book Dark Fiber there is a travel report about my 1999
> > visit to Taiwan and my work with Ilya. Since then I came to Taiwan
> > and he to Amsterdam on a number of occasions.
> >
> > Ilya’s politics I found always very interesting: a unique mix of
> > radical practices, government policies (or the attempt to somehow
> > address them), research and IT startups. His passion and enthousiasm
> > to translate concepts from elsewhere to the high tech policy of the
> > ‘renegade island’ that was going its own way, investigaring what
> > freedom on many level could mean, inspired all of us. Farewell,
> > Ilya!
> >
> > Geert
> >
> > > I wrote this for inclusion in a memorial volume, Ilya Li's
> > > memorial is present in the living and breathing of networks he
> > > helped create since 1996.
> > >
> > > I'm not sure how many net timers knew of Ilya but until his
> > > sudden death a few days ago - he had done so much great work from
> > > his base in Taiwan. Here are a few words in his memory. If you
> > > have any words or images you want add - a memorial page is on
> > > facebook that will be printed of for his family. just search
> > > (Remember shih-chieh ilya li)
> > >
> > > I'm not sure how ilya's idiosyncratic, strange, funny and
> > > generous thought processes managed it, but he glued together a
> > > carnival of like-minded misfits around the world, adding to their
> > > nutzo projects, like YoHa's, 'Plastic Raft of Lampedusa'. Ilya
> > > gave many of us a version of what globalisation, transnationalism
> > > could mean in opposition to the fragmentary version we are fed
> > > with our processed foods. He taught europeans like myself to
> > > listen before judgment, to think with him around corners and on
> > > different scales while usually eating delicious unprocessed food.
> > > He did this by guiding you to an embarrassing pause, when you
> > > thought... I have no idea what he just said to me or where it came
> > > from. At such moments, you had to ask him, over the next tasty
> > > mouthful, to unravel his thoughts, translate them across cultures
> > > so you could understand where you may have had it wrong, to get a
> > > new insight.
> > >
> > > Ilya was a romantic and I both saw him struggle with being on his
> > > own and then it was my priviledge to see him seek out love, follow
> > > it around the world and finally find it in his and his partner's
> > > garden, growing more food for the future.
> > >
> > > Ilya was our friend, eating companion, glue in a world that tries
> > > to keep us separate.


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