<nettime> Sustaining the Hyperculture

[Miekal And <dtv@mwt.net>]

SUSTAINABLE HYPERKULTURE:
the conservation 
of the anarchist spirit-state

If we take as given, the assumption that otherground media is the
element of noise in big brother media's stream of information & that
such noise introduced to a system provokes changes & distortions;  &
that the accumulation & collectivization of these cells of noise will
slowly erode the consensus quo.  Then, isolated individual information
cells will eventually snowball into a global information avalanche.  If
sides are drawn & there is an us-media & a them-media, then each is a
metaphor for the other. If ambiguity is pervasive then the combined
spectacle is theatricalized. Being such inefficient human animals we can
only hold our breath underwater (read underground) for so long.  We
cannot expect to seize the media from the deep dark recesses of the
underworld.  We must inhabit the media with a polymorphic & long-lived
presence.

In the dreamtime of the hyperculture, there can be no single line of
thought, no immanent thread of action but a simultaneous enlivening of
all networker cells & the suggestion of unlimited possibilities.  In a
state of oppression the dream is an escapist relapse but once the motive
for activity has expanded into the unthinkable on its own accord, in its
own time & power, a vision of hyperculture will appear that doesn't
appear so chaotic & fragmented.  Instantaneous access to the growth of
information.  Cassette, computer, copier, fax, telephone, radio, cable
TV, satellite, tourism, festivals. Already cheap technology access to
the electronic smorgasbord is widely available in western countries. 
Just as the corporate information  machine can manufacture influence
over us,  we can register our opposition by publishing images, data &
sound, by dragging the monolith down & replacing it with ten thousand
different & contradictory realities. 

We can begin to understand hyperkulture as a fully integrated
ecological, biological system.  As with any system, the chaos, noise &
disintegration are organically inseparable from life & creativity.  Only
since the pasteurization of science & art has our understanding of
information & events been dictated by aesthetic taste.  This is the
cultural mentality left from the age of imperialism.  Divide, conquer &
place the known universe inside a specimen jar.  With the advent of info
technology all that has really changed is that social power is a result
of the exploitation of information, where in previous ages it was people
& land that were victimized.

Hyperkulture has a unique status in the mainstream world view.  From its
point of view, it regards all forms of marginalized dissent &
experimentation as  PURE NOISE.  & consequently non-processed
information has no value or use.  (Or so they think!)  There are those
whom argue that it doesn't matter how radical or "noisy" the media; it
will nonetheless be coopted by the mainstream as mere curiosities &
eccentricities.  This may be true in the short term but most of the
undermedia lives on.  If fact, because those on the periphery are
perennially ignored, the culture of otherness has unlimited territory in
which to evolve (or mutate) in isolation.  Not an isolation of removal &
quarantine but a high-powered isolation in the midst of the barrage, in
the eye of the hurricane.

The ability to accept and understand noise as untapped resource will
enable all hypernauts to install the mechanism which will eventually
replace the genericized 2-dimensional view of information & events.  It
is a mistake to target the mainstream for seizure & overthrow when it
has become painfully obvious that the imperialistic mentality which
constructed the prevailing information conglomerate also planted the
seeds for its entropy & eventual destruction.  It cannot & will not be
able to contain the natural diversity of the globe. 

There are several relevant axioms perpetuated by permaculturalist Bill
Mollison. "The problem is the solution." / "Make the least change for
the greatest possible effect." / "The yield of a system is theoretically
unlimited.  The only limit on the number of uses of a resource possible
within a system is in the limit of information and the imagination of
the designer." / "Everything gardens, or has an effect on its
environment." / "Work with nature,...so that we assist rather than
impede natural developments."

According to the Gaian hypothesis the earth is a self-regulating
organism.  Can the same be said of information?  Does it lead a life of
its own or is it merely a disposable by-product of culture? If we
continue the analogy of agriculture, can the information glut be
composted & recycled? Wait a minute! For centuries artists scientists &
inventors have been  reusing the detritus of society for their own
benefit.  Further, by maintaining a consciousness of infinite
hypertextual links between all information, the fragmentation &
oppression of our daily lives can be reordered into a meaningful
globally oriented lifestyle.

In the dreamtime of the hyperkulture, milleniums pass without the
continual division of action into specialization & virtualistic
ego-play.  In some traditional African cultures there is no separate
word for music, dance & planting.  The impulse to fragment the radical
media / information interface by terminology is certain deevolution. To
sustain the info/action/object dialectic, bury your roots deeps into the
global information matrix & ....


Miekal And



________________________________________________________
Polynoise: 
Information Abstracts for the ElectroMagnetic Spectacle
RADICAL CODES FOR BRAINWAVE INTERFERENCE

http://www.net22.com/qazingulaza/polynoises/frames.html

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