I find the notion of existing in the ruins of media art and the idea of the 
internet as a positive force absolutely compelling - electrifying really! 


Actually I think this is what all of my current work is doing. Thank you!


Gretta


> On 9. Jun 2021, at 09:32, F3ydrus via NetBehaviour 
> <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> Ironically, I broke my long lurking silence on this list earlier today in 
> response to Simon's 'cochineal' message, without yet having read the recent 
> and ongoing discussion about the list, which included the question of who all 
> these 600+ lurkers might be... Last night I had 2hrs to catch up on the whole 
> genealogy of the recent explosion of posts, and then it was too late to 
> write. I see further indication this morning of 'moving on' from the 
> explosion, and a return of activity about other things, which is great. I 
> hope another long response on this isn't too disruptive / painful.
> 
> Like Johannes I found Ruth's "campfire in some unmanaged ancient woodland" 
> analogy extremely resonant, partly because I too have been reconnecting with 
> my local physical space + place over these past 15 months. In fact as we come 
> out of lockdown in the UK I continue to get further connected locally. I live 
> in Cornwall in the far south west and there aren't many great woodlands but 
> some beautiful pockets, often inland away from the beaches (which I tend to 
> avoid due to their popularity). I live in Penryn, an 800 year-old town where 
> the most important work of literature in Cornish was written, the Ordinalia - 
> mystery plays, now understood to have been played in the round in the 
> so-called 'playing places' of Cornwall, circular arenas with raised 
> embankments, in the pre-modern theatre era. The Ordinalia were written in a 
> pre-Reformation lay college called Glasney College, which was a grand 
> structure built on low damp ground near the old harbour (in what was once 
> woodland). Since the destruction of the monasteries and the raiding of all 
> the stones of Glasney by the townspeople, there is almost nothing left. Just 
> the eponymous Glasney Field, a big open space that's been kept clear of 
> construction for hundreds of years, and a fragment of an archway just outside 
> the field in somebody's back garden. In the remaining woods nearby there are 
> other larger but less significant ruins, from more recent times, overgrown 
> and unattended.
> 
> NetBehaviour strikes me as more than a campfire in the forest. It is a 
> campfire *in a ruin* in the forest. The ruin of itself, of new media art, of 
> the ideas of the web, of the internet as a positive force, and so on. Maybe 
> don't knock it down, or clear all the weeds, or rebuild it. There is 
> something intensely fertile about congregating in ruins. The most beautiful 
> wedding I ever went to was in a ruined church open to the sky and floored 
> with grass. We need ruins, to confront us with mortality. To remember. To 
> connect with deep time. To think about what we want to build, perhaps 
> elsewhere.
> 
> As for the mysterious lurkers in the dark woods around the campfire, don't 
> fear them. We are woodland creatures, attracted to the fire but nervous of 
> it. We won't hurt you. I imagine we're pretty much all like me, nurtured and 
> encouraged by the all-so-rare atmosphere of conviviality and consideration 
> here. These ruins are beautiful and a good place to take inspiration, like 
> Ruskin. By all means hold events in the ruin, concerts, processions 
> (NetBehaviour Jitsi meets). But don't fear the forest, its labyrinthine paths 
> and trackless undergrowth. Fear the clearing of woodland for commerce and the 
> fenced path. The saddest forest experience I ever had was going to see the 
> Old Oak in Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire. There was a low-fenced path from 
> the visitor centre to the fenced-off tree. It was clear where to go.
> 
> 
> Warmest regards to you all,
> 
> Adam Russell
> leelatrope.com <https://leelatrope.com/>
>  
> 
> 
> On 08.06.2021 22:42, marc garrett via NetBehaviour wrote:
> 
>> Hi Helen,
>>  
>> Always lovely to hear from you,
>>  
>> In view of such a positive response by Netbehaviour users, I think the list 
>> will carry on but, I was especially excited by Ana's words saying, " We must 
>> change something to keep the things as they are". I think that's spot on.
>>  
>> I also really like the idea of having a live meeting to make a few key 
>> decisions via Jistsi etc.
>>  
>> We can have a vote on things or a consensus-based approach. 
>>  
>> I was reading and watching some videos about Upstage, it looks like it's 
>> going well. And yes, I completely appreciate what you said about time doing 
>> all this stuff. There's a lot of maintenance going on in the background for 
>> this list, and an awful lot of emotional, psychic and conceptual energy. I 
>> would never take away the love and time you've put into your projects 
>> because they mean a lot to you, the same goes for us.
>>  
>> Will chat more about this to others on the list tomorrow.
>>  
>> Wishing you well.
>>  
>> Marc
>>  
>>  
>> 
>> On Tue, 8 Jun 2021 at 21:15, Helen Varley Jamieson 
>> <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>> hi everyone,
>> 
>> i am in an ongoing state of relentless overload so i've been unable to do 
>> much more than periodically delete all the netbehaviour emails (and multiple 
>> other lists). i just don't have the brain space for anything much at the 
>> moment, outisde of the online magdalena festival and UpStage (both going 
>> extremely well and very joyous, just all-consuming!!)
>> 
>> so, having barely read any of the emails about the list, perhaps people have 
>> already said this - but for me netbehaviour has been for a very very long 
>> time an important refuge for me, even if i'm not so often active on it. i 
>> like that it has no imposed structure, it has no discussion topics or 
>> facilitators, it's allowed to be whatever people need it to be at the time. 
>> it has evolved and changed over the years, and at some point it will cease 
>> to exist, but it doesn't feel like it's reached that point yet. for me it's 
>> a valuable alternative to social media, which i find just too much effort.
>> 
>> i really appreciate ruth & marc's gentle organic management of the list - i 
>> know it's work, i look after other lists & i'm not volunteering to take 
>> anything on. you've done it beautifully for a long time & you don't have to 
>> do it forever. maybe there are others out there with the motivation to take 
>> it on, maybe not. yes i would be sad if/when it ended, but if there's no-one 
>> to take it on then it's time has come.
>> 
>> i've been reading about loss & grief recently as part of the work on the 
>> UpStage project, https://mobilise-demobilise.eu/ 
>> <https://mobilise-demobilise.eu/> - in particular "hope & grief in the 
>> anthropocene" by lesley head, and "the living sea of waking dreams" by 
>> richard flanagan (both australians, incidentally) - about how crap we 
>> western humans are at dealing with grief and loss, and how important it is 
>> that we get better at it, because the future is going to involve a lot of 
>> loss (at least for those of us who lead privileged western lifestyles). i 
>> found both books - the first is an academic text & the second a novel - very 
>> powerful, honest, moving and ultimately hopeful. loss doesn't have to be a 
>> bad thing.
>> 
>> h : )
>> 
>> On 08.06.21 10:57, Ruth Catlow via NetBehaviour wrote:
>>> Dear All!
>>>  
>>> Firstly, Alan I also love your posts -the pattern which I think of as an 
>>> art ping, and the content (when I watch, listen, read it) is a portal into 
>>> your art practise which I really enjoy and value.
>>>  
>>> I also think that Alan has a point in saying that Marc and I should provide 
>>> a steer as list owners. I have a few ideas that I will share at the weekend 
>>> (it's a hardcore project week this week for me). 
>>>  
>>> But in the meantime keeping the conversation open is allowing us to see and 
>>> feel the shape of the community. It has been so useful to hear from Gretta, 
>>> Patrick, Paul, Ana, Annie, Johannes, Erik and all. More please! We also 
>>> appreciate various offers from people to contribute financially to the 
>>> lists upkeep. 
>>>  
>>> We regard the value in this list as the strange undefined collective 
>>> property of everyone who has ever contributed. But as it is currently set 
>>> up, it is not a Commons. I personally, would like it if it were. 
>>> We can also consider Annie's suggestion of letting it go. But if that's the 
>>> way it goes (and this is not what I want) it should certainly not be done 
>>> casually, rather with the ceremony befitting the splendour of all that has 
>>> ever occurred here ; )
>>>  
>>> I do want to reassure you Alan, we will make no sudden moves! The whole 
>>> point of discussing this now is that it is not an emergency. We just need 
>>> to work out who "we" are and what "we" want. 
>>>  
>>> Warmly
>>> Ruth
>>>  
>>>  
>>>  
>>> 
>>> On Mon, Jun 7, 2021 at 11:48 PM Alan Sondheim via NetBehaviour 
>>> <[email protected] 
>>> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>>>  
>>> Hi Everyone,
>>>  
>>> I think we need some guidance; both Ruth and Marc seem unhappy with 
>>> Netbehaviour as it is.
>>> I'm not sure myself whether to post or not.
>>> Certainly calls could be put out to all the subscribers to indicate whether 
>>> they want to continue as such or not.
>>> It's all about "as such or not" I think. Technically, Marc and Ruth are 
>>> list-owners, I believe. Ultimately they're responsible for the direction of 
>>> the list in the sense that any of us could be unsubscribed at the very 
>>> least.
>>> There are times I've had to unsub people and that's always painful, as 
>>> would be, at least for us, shutting the list down.
>>> I have no idea what to do. I find the situation hugely depressing. 
>>> Netbehaviour may be derailing, certainly as a commons. And the longer this 
>>> discussion is drawn out, the worse
>>> things will get, at least that's been my experience.
>>>  
>>> Meanwhile I keep writing/performing/worlding, whatever I do.
>>> 
>>> Best, whatever that is,
>>>  
>>> Alan
>>>  
>>>  
>>> On Mon, Jun 7, 2021 at 5:57 PM Johannes Birringer 
>>> <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> 
>>> wrote:
>>> Hello all. shapeshifters!
>>> 
>>> just watched Alan's video and also realized it may be the last one, as he 
>>> may not be posting his poetic writing and music here, anymore....
>>> so I watch it as the last one Alan! thank you....
>>> 
>>> The conversations about how we might shift this "net- behavior" and become 
>>> more attuned again to what Ruth and Marc may have imagined -
>>> "a place for free and open artistic experimentation with networked media, 
>>> and community building"  is very intriguing. I just reread the many 
>>> postings here, and am stimulated and confused, loving all the responses, 
>>> disagreeing with some......as it should be. I try to be short;  Ruth's 
>>> parables of the forest (and our poor presence as merely "ethnographic 
>>> peculiarities") inspired me:  >a campfire in some unmanaged ancient 
>>> woodland...>>......>>The woods around the campfire are full of watchers and 
>>> listeners (who knows who??)<<
>>> 
>>> ...the analogies resonated with me, especially over the last 14 months in a 
>>> pandemic that made me leave academia and spend more time in the forest, 
>>> recording, performing, linking up, in the valley, with my village 
>>> community, inventing new rituals, listening to others and what they thought 
>>> the "latende Allmende" (latent commons, as Anna Tsing calls it in her book 
>>> on mushrooms and living in the ruins of capitalism) might be like. No one 
>>> knew exactly, but we talked, and took our masks off.... and walked along 
>>> the river [see pic]
>>> 
>>> Well.. what is our "latende Allmende" going to be, with other (younger) 
>>> participants? do we know the age and gender of the members who post here? i 
>>> don't, and it never mattered, nor the the number of subscribers ("we don't 
>>> really know much about us") ? 643,  1625?  59?
>>> is that true?
>>> 
>>> well, if the commons are evoked, and Furherfield's new director, and new 
>>> policies or strategic aims (inclusivity, intersectionality, link to local 
>>> neighborhood) are mentioned in the organization's remit, now what exactly 
>>> do you want us to do, in our shapeshifting? Have we not actually been 
>>> engaged....learning/contributing "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"......
>>> 
>>> yes, it does. and we do.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> with warm regards
>>> Johannes Birringer
>>> 
>>> ________________________________________
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> NetBehaviour mailing list
>>> [email protected] 
>>> <mailto:[email protected]>
>>> https://lists.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour 
>>> <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.
>>> Registered business address: Carbon Accountancy, 80-83 Long Lane, London, 
>>> EC1A 9ET.
>>>  
>>>  
>>> 
>>> 
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> NetBehaviour mailing list
>>> [email protected] 
>>> <mailto:[email protected]>
>>> https://lists.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour 
>>> <https://lists.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour>
>> -- 
>> helen varley jamieson
>> 
>> [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
>> http://www.creative-catalyst.com <http://www.creative-catalyst.com/>
>> http://www.upstage.org.nz <http://www.upstage.org.nz/>
>> https://mobilise-demobilise.eu 
>> <https://mobilise-demobilise.eu/>_______________________________________________
>> NetBehaviour mailing list
>> [email protected] 
>> <mailto:[email protected]>
>> https://lists.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour 
>> <https://lists.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour>
>>  
>> -- 
>> Wishing you well
>>  
>> Marc
>>  
>> -------------------------------------------------------
>>  
>> Dr Marc Garrett
>>  
>> Co-founder & Artistic director of Furtherfield & DECAL Decentralised Arts Lab
>>  
>> Furtherfield disrupts & democratises art and technology through exhibitions, 
>> labs & debate, for deep exploration, open tools & free thinking. 
>> http://www.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. http://decal.is/ <http://decal.is/>
>>  
>> Recent publications:
>>  
>> State Machines: Reflections & Actions at the Edge of Digital Citizenship, 
>> Finance, & Art. Edited by Yiannis Colakides, Marc Garrett, Inte Gloerich. 
>> Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam 2019 http://bit.do/eQgg3 
>> <http://bit.do/eQgg3>
>>  
>> Artists Re:thinking the Blockchain. Eds, Ruth Catlow, Marc Garrett, Nathan 
>> Jones, & Sam Skinner. Liverpool Press - http://bit.ly/2x8XlMK 
>> <http://bit.ly/2x8XlMK>
>> _______________________________________________
>> NetBehaviour mailing list
>> [email protected] 
>> <mailto:[email protected]>
>> https://lists.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour 
>> <https://lists.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour>
> _______________________________________________
> NetBehaviour mailing list
> [email protected]
> https://lists.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour

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