groups and identities

[gair dunlop]

Title: groups and identities

I don't think this reached the list, just to Chris- so here it is maybe again... > I get the feeling that for >>many people this is the only list of its kind to which they are >>subscribed. this could be true... again, is net knowledge as good as contsact knowledge? After all we talk as if we know about each other yet we don't really; if we all met up then the question of whether we are heterogenous or homogenous would be immediately apparent. as it is, we can't make assumptions about the level of engagement of the list members. Or maybe the moderators can and could share that with us so we can pitch our contributions a bit more accurately? to return to the original point: how many people who look at the web joke would actually go and buy the book? not many. It seems to me that one of the tragedies of situationism (and those who quote debord not wisely but too well) is that there is a plateau of cynicism that can be reached where everything can be dismissed as " mere recuperation" ; in other words a purity league position where nothing is ever quite valid enough. it may be deplorable from a purist point of view that the gap between pointing to information and pointing to a commodity has more or less vanished but hey, that's the new info net for you... again it brings me to the main point of difficulty i have with web list web practice/net art; how many people professing views culled from assorted radicalisms are actually doing anything radical? does the concept make sense in a virtual context or does it have to connect to real world effects? I don't have the answers; off to see Natalie Boochkin talking in Halifax NS today , regards from Gair 7:30 pm WEDNESDAY, JULY 9 NASCAD Bell Auditorium 5163 Duke Street Professor Bookchin will lecture about collaboration as a persistent aesthetic strategy in network art. http://cfat.ns.ca/networkings/ so may have a few more things to think about later. regards from gair dunlop www.gairspace.org.uk Cumbernauld: Town for Tomorrow www.cumbernauld.nu gair dunlop www.gairspace.org.uk Cumbernauld: Town for Tomorrow www.cumbernauld.nu