Yeah Mark! We still don't know who shot Durrutti or Andres Nin!
In the 'consumer' mindset...how quickly yesterdays outrage or sensation (like an old Budweiser ad) becomes today's blurry memory. .ditto electronic mailing list discussion. The documentary about Jeremy Dellers project on the Miners Strike last night was a fine example. The BBC changed the order of the riot footage to make it look like the miners charged first. That was twenty years ago...it's an outrage...what can one do about it now? In regards to the gaming exhibition. Of course museums are places for dead things and I agree that in a world where mass starvation, disease, oppression & inequality exist the puny statements of artists and exhibitions on "art and gaming" can seem irrelevant (if not down right immoral). But, I agree with Tolstoy when he said that (in 'Slavery Of Our Own Time') culture is only OK (because it does not destroy lives) once it is understood that we MUST not sacrifice the lives of others for our own ends (meaning through both capitalism and war). "What practical things can one do"? Personally I feel there are many different ways to explore 'things'. In regards to gaming I think there are a lot of parallels between the world of the gamer and the world of the artists. e.g. social autism, myth of progressiveness, self delusion. There are a few people exploring the crossover between 'gaming' and 'art' in an interesting way. One example is Bob Ostertag. I saw him doing a performance titled 'Yugoslavia Suite' (interactive war game software he developed) at Futuresonic 3 years ago. Ostertag ain't no mealy mouthed art student fresh out of university ; he is a heavy customer. Spent the whole of the 80's as a political activist in El Salvador before returning to composing music in the early nineties. "I have no idea how these works will be perceived by people whose experience has been at the opposite end of this technology: who saw the real bombs really explode, and lost real friends and real homes, and now worry whether their water is really safe to drink, and their air really safe to breathe. We sit on opposite sides of a technology chasm unfathomably wide. My hope is that these performances will be part of a dialog across that divide, a dialog we urgently need." - Ostertag Funniest (and most telling about these festivals) moment was at the discussion afterwards. Some guy behind us starting mouthing off to Ostertag how it was great that his work was "all about Hyperreality" and how much he admired him for "expanding on the theories of a Baudrillard". Ostertag replied that he had never heard of Baudrillard and that standing at the graveside of a 10 year old boy burying his guerrilla fighter father had inspired the work. Check it out : Bob Ostertag : http://detritus.net/ostertag/ Wonder how long it is before Baudrillard is wheeled out to tell us this war is not happening as well? Love S ----- Original Message ----- From: mark lawton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, October 21, 2002 8:38 PM Subject: Re: <ambit> topic of the month - GAME ON - art and gaming > as for games .... > > real war games are upon us and you wish to talk about the artistic and > cultural significance of pac-man and space invaders !? ------------------------------------------------- a m b i t : networking media arts in scotland post: [EMAIL PROTECTED] archive: http://www.mediascot.org/ambit info: send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] and write "info ambit" in the message body -------------------------------------------------
