Dear All Thanks to all of you for the warm vibes and for considering my questions about if and how to hand over the list. It's very helpful to get a better sense of how people feel about this list.
Your thoughtful responses have helped me to get to the nub of a niggle. And this niggle is about the relationship between Furtherfield and Netbehaviour. If there is any sense of burden, it surrounds an unspoken expectation that I should be able to explain this relationship (to myself and everyone else). Sorry this is a bit long. Marc and I set up Netbehaviour in the early noughties because we wanted to create a place for free and open artistic experimentation with networked media, and community building. It served this purpose spectacularly for at least 10 years. Apart from the DIWO E-mail Art exhibitions and the "Whispers" project all the flowerings in this space have been pretty much unplanned and spontaneous. Lots of people here shared nascent ideas that went on to find their way into the media art world in different ways. It's still fantastic in many ways, the regular posters are unruly and enjoyable, and unexpected people turn up with all kinds of wonderful surprises. Then....I tend to think in spatial metaphors about online social platforms. I think we've discussed this here before... NetBehaviour in the last few years feels to me like a campfire in some unmanaged ancient woodland where I get to hang out with itinerant philosophers, artists and musicians to share their gifts, artefacts, knowledge and swap tales of lives and travels. Their connections with art world are interesting ethnographically but they are not really what this list is about. The work used to be about the potentiality of the woods themselves and the community, but now there is less play with the medium of the place. The woods around the campfire are full of watchers and listeners (who knows who??) whose atmosphere can feel like anything from total absence or apathy, to enthusiasm, to threatening (who knows what is going on in the individual and collective psyche of those dark woods?) It's pretty weird right? At this stage I can tell you that we have 643 subscribers but we don't really know much about us. Meanwhile, at Furtherfield with Charlotte Frost now in charge, there is a strong focus on organisational development so that from our situation in the park we can open the organisation to be more sustainable, accessible and welcoming to different kinds of people. This work is very important to us - firstly to return the value of the public funding we receive to the communities in the locality, but also to learn about what it means to aim for a commons of diverse cultures in connected physical to digital realms. It requires careful planning, partnership building and a lot of production work. I don't want to impose this agenda here. I don't know even how it would work with this format or what there would be to gain, and I don't think we have the capacity to add the integration of Netbehaviour into this process even if we wanted to. And this is where I appreciated Patrick's and Gretta's comments. Alan is right - it's not much work to moderate this list - there is a small financial overhead involved in maintaining the list which is currently covered by Furtherfield - this is OK for now (while we are solvent). But in a commons, the community shares responsibility for its maintenance and shapes and makes decisions about which resources it produces or stewards and how these are distributed. We will make no sudden moves. But I would like to leave this question and invitation open. If anyone would like to take this over, please feel free to discuss it here or send me an email privately. Please feel free to enlist each other in experiments - like Paul H's suggestion of video meetups - or if you have other examples of mutualisations, takeovers, handovers, transmigrations, transformations it would be great to hear about those too. With warmth and respect Ruth On Fri, Jun 4, 2021 at 8:22 PM Alan Sondheim via NetBehaviour < [email protected]> wrote: > > Hi, a few points, > > I'm not sure why you say "the little part Alan and I have in common" - I > think we have a lot, but I may be wrong. > With empyre, the situation is very different; it's a moderated, > subject-oriented list with guest moderators and other guests; it's been > incredibly useful to me, But it seems to me that Netbehaviour really isn't > moderated in a very deep way (that also parallels the two lists I run btw); > people can say what they want and the conversations cover any number of > topics. I was thrilled when Annie and Johannes asked me about my practice, > and I'm thrilled as well with the conversations here in general. > In other words, Netbehaviour is a form of commons; it's more like Occupy > than a symposium (although there were symposia at Occupy, and there are > symposia and resources announced and referenced on Netbehaviour). > Again, I think the beauty of this particular commons is its openness; the > moderation is a kind of a-moderation. > In that sense it reminds me of the old newsgroups which were very often > open with loose topics, but it's better because we don't have trolls etc. > It's a remarkable space. > You say also "I think Alan opened up a useful conversation, although he > does this at times when things get quiet as I remember at least two or > three other similar prompts." - I'm not sure why "although" - since when > the list is busy, there's no reason to reconsider the dynamics of the list. > The same thing has happened on other lists with other people raising > similar issues, and since I post daily here, I worry about being or > becoming a nuisance, rather than a valued project of sorts. > > Best, Alan > > Best, Alan > > On Fri, Jun 4, 2021 at 2:47 PM <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Hello, everyone. >> My partner in all things, Negin Ehtesabian and I just finished moderating >> the month at Empyre, which was a challenge as I had been in a different >> noospace in Arabia for the past 5 years, and it has been a bit of a shock >> re-entering, and not for any reasons you might think. Or might. >> >> I think Alan opened up a useful conversation, although he does this at >> times when things get quiet as I remember at least two or three other >> similar prompts. >> >> But I think it's so different this time is the outpouring of support, or >> proportionally cell, for the conversation. On empire I found it hard, I'll >> be at May, to get a lot of participation, and I have heard the commentary >> of colleagues saying that they had been watching but not participating. >> When talking about this list, I think the responses have been really >> interesting. It's obvious that we value this list. The question is to what >> position do each of us place ourselves in; producer or consumer - the issue >> is that it seems that most of us are largely in the consumer area, because >> we are simply overwhelmed with so many different types of media. >> >> It also seems to me that a number of moderators of the traditional list >> serves want to turn it over to someone else at this point, because the >> lists have become less active, and I think that this is unavoidable, but I >> also think that a little bit of a change in vision may be in order. In the >> case of empyre Renate wants to actually not hand it over to anyone else but >> to shut it down, which I honestly think is a crime. However, I think that a >> lot of these sorts of spaces have become discords, and that's a whole other >> conversation. >> >> Also with the upcoming generations I realize that list serves seem really >> anachronistic, but I also see them as one of the few places in which a more >> direct non-branded approach to social interaction as possible, and I think >> that is incredibly important. >> >> Of course, there are a few critical issues in play; what are our roles >> within this list, and who wants to be responsible for community? >> Personally, I would beseech Ruth and Marc to please try to stay with it for >> 6 to 12 more months and enter a more direct dialogue about this. Although I >> have been much more of a lurker in my time in Arabia, I am still a staunch >> supporter of this particular group, in bed I put most of my support behind >> it when I decided to be less active in rhizome because I felt that their >> support of community had largely fallen away. I know that we are all moving >> on in our lives a bit, using a bit of Arabian tact, but I still think that >> this community is tremendously necessary. >> >> However like most of us I currently do not have the resources in the >> short term to take over the list. However, I do have resources at my >> disposal that could possibly work that out in the long run but I can't make >> any promises. >> >> The one thing that Alan and Johannes made very good points about is the >> sharing of our work and announcements and so on. This has dried up a lot in >> the last few years, and I think this is something to take note. It's fine >> if we promote a little bit or if we share our work or get some feedback I >> think this is great. In the end art is about sharing and giving mutual >> support, and I think that later generations may look at this as being >> self-promotional when it doesn't necessarily have to be. Enough of that. >> >> As my partner Negin has been encouraging me to do, I have been trying to >> re-emerge into the community more because the immediate, direct influence >> of American politics upon my life has been a weight. As with all the >> communities we inhabit the goal is as much to share the work but also to >> give support and care to everyone surrounding us in this community or any >> other. For now comma I will try to share more and talk more and be less of >> a consumer, and I hope that others will too. However as I grow older, comma >> I will try to share more and talk more and be less of a consumer, and I >> hope that others will too. However as I grow older, I wrestle more with my >> hidden disabilities which I learned a great deal more about a couple years >> ago, and see what's the best way forward is, and that is mainly the reason >> why I just don't jump up and say let me help run the list, this might be a >> possibility at another time but not now. >> >> In ending, I will let the little part Alan and I have in common in saying >> that I hope that this message is well met and that you all are doing well. >> I will do whatever I can to help. >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> NetBehaviour mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://lists.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour >> > > > -- > *=====================================================* > > *directory http://www.alansondheim.org <http://www.alansondheim.org> tel > 718-813-3285**email sondheim ut panix.com <http://panix.com>, sondheim ut > gmail.com <http://gmail.com>* > *=====================================================* > _______________________________________________ > NetBehaviour mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour > -- Ruth Catlow she/her Co-founder & Artistic director of Furtherfield & DECAL Decentralised Arts Lab +44 (0) 77370 02879 *I will only agree to speak at events that are racially and gender balanced. **sending thanks <https://www.ovoenergy.com/ovo-newsroom/press-releases/2019/november/think-before-you-thank-if-every-brit-sent-one-less-thank-you-email-a-day-we-would-save-16433-tonnes-of-carbon-a-year-the-same-as-81152-flights-to-madrid.html> in advance *Furtherfield *disrupts and democratises art and technology through exhibitions, labs & debate, for deep exploration, open tools & free thinking. furtherfield.org <http://www.furtherfield.org/> *DECAL* Decentralised Arts Lab is an arts, blockchain & web 3.0 technologies research hub for fairer, more dynamic & connected cultural ecologies & economies now. decal.is <http://www.decal.is> Furtherfield is a Not-for-Profit Company Limited by Guarantee Registered in England and Wales under the Company No.7005205. 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