Date: Sat, 12 Jun 2021 20:06:30 -0500
From: "Lichty, Patrick M" <[email protected]>
Reply-To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity
<[email protected]>
To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity
<[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [NetBehaviour] Netbehaviour renewal - Occupy? a commons? by a
fire, in the ruins in an ancient woodland
So say me all.
Yes, we need this place, we need you.
From: NetBehaviour <[email protected]> on behalf
of Ruth Catlow via NetBehaviour <[email protected]>
Reply-To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity
<[email protected]>
Date: Saturday, June 12, 2021 at 11:12 AM
To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity
<[email protected]>
Cc: Ruth Catlow <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [NetBehaviour] Netbehaviour renewal - Occupy? a commons? by a
fire, in the ruins in an ancient woodland
Hi Alan
Did you read this bit?
"If we can agree that we (all subscribers) collectively own this place, and
are willing to reflect on this occasionally - that's more than enough for
me. We can stay with furtherfield legacy infrastructure and near-zero
moderation by Marc and me for now (if that suits everyone)."
I was asking for responses to a proposal. I see your point about allowing
people to go undeclared - I think it's a good one.
On Sat, Jun 12, 2021 at 3:52 PM Alan Sondheim via NetBehaviour
<[email protected]> wrote:
Hi Ruth,
I probably stand alone here. Occupy was many things, wasn't that well
organized, I was there several times. There was always a drum circle
on the outskirts that interrupted flow. There were outlying groups and
meetings that weren't on the main site. It was chaotic. It was bottom
up.
I don't like the suggestion below. First, I'm on a number of lists; on
most of them I don't post, but I learn. This is a tradition all the
way back. There are lists people have been silent on because they've
infiltrated right-wing or fascist organizations. There are people on
lists who don't want to be counted or accounted for, for many reasons.
Your suggestion seems like a forced enrollment: come forward, tell
everyone who you are, or you're gone. Another way to look at that:
It's a privilege to be on this list and you must actively participate
or you're gone. Or it's your duty as a member of this list to
participate or you're gone. Or if you're shy and just interested in
reading or possibly backchanneling only, you're gone.
This literally has me in tears. For me, again, lists have had the
advantage of the commons. But this commons then has a different
purpose, and if you don't fit in, leave. Then it's not a commons, is
it? Or are you talking about a commons where people must announce
their presence or be gone? You say "This revolved around efforts to
create open access" - but does this mean that you _must_ access
publicly and make your presence known?
Every list I'm on, by the way, is advertising-free; people might
announce they have a harmonica for sale (harmonica list) or a new book
has come out (wryting-l) or they're showing somewhere (Netbehaviour),
but they're not advertisement-based of course. People announce from
within the list, not to it.
We have to "know who is in the woods"? In England, perhaps land and
parkland is managed differently than in the U.S. You have to sign in
at National Parks, but just once - in fact that's like a subscription
- but you don't need to announce who you are on any basis to everyone
else. In state parks, you just go in, Much as this country is horrific
and lawless and armed to the teeth, we feel comfortable going to parks
(except for the tics).
I honestly don't feel comfortable on this list, and apologies for not
being more helpful. I'll continue posting daily, you'll do what you
want to do; the very performative discussion of unsubscribe is a
signifier of power. I am so tired of, so worn out, by promulgations of
power. (Yes, I know, power is everywhere, etc. But there are degrees
and there are safe spaces, at least for now.)
Alan
On Sat, Jun 12, 2021 at 10:06 AM Ruth Catlow via NetBehaviour
<[email protected]> wrote:
Dear everyone,
Thanks so much for helping me to work through some of my
niggles with the list. I now have a much better sense of
what its value is to some of us at the fireside and a few
of the people from the woods. I've also been greatly
enjoying the recent exchanges!
I also found Adam's email beautiful. Especially personally
resonant because I lived for a year in Penryn unaware of
the history of the Ordinalia there. I find the format of
passion plays - "acts" of faith "performed" by people in
the places where they belong - enthralling.Thanks for that
Adam!
Annie's response was also really helpful for me. The
revolutionary impulse of the early media art initiatives that
interested me was tied up with infrastructural critique and a
desire to create a new art context together. This revolved
around efforts to create open access, and co-ownership of the
media and platforms we needed for collaboration. Bringing
together FLOSS and Art. There is still a lot of inspiring work
in this area Constant https://constantvzw.org/ for example.
While I "get" the Occupy vibe here, it doesn't feel so useful as
an analogy for this list/community as it stands at the moment.
Occupy's central commitment was to participatory democracy. The
location of occupations were chosen for their symbolic
significance to state-corporate capitalism, right? I guess we
could think of this list as a prefigurative community resisting
corporate platforms (I share everyone's love of this as an
advertising-free space). But I detect less interest among this
group in the question of how bottom-up decisions should be made
to ensure fair distribution of power, and how that might in turn
lead to the overthrow of capitalism. Occupy activists developed
social technologies (some digital platforms, some gestures and
techniques for use in large groups of people gathered
physically) to make ALL the decisions together about all the
things - from collective vision to organising waste-disposal.
It's more emergent here.
If we can agree that Commons are "shared cultural or material
resources managed by communities for individual and collective
benefit" then maybe this is what we have been working out here
over the last couple of weeks and Netbehaviour is a kind of
commons. If we can agree that we (all subscribers) collectively
own this place, and are willing to reflect on this occasionally
- that's more than enough for me. We can stay with furtherfield
legacy infrastructure and near-zero moderation by Marc and me
for now (if that suits everyone).
Finally, I would be curious to hear your feelings about this
proposal for list renewal.
=======================
Over a 1 month period starting xxx
We invite all subscribers to do one of 3 things
1. Make a post on any topic or responding to anyone else's post
2. Send an email with "Happy Lurker" in the subject header
3. Do nothing.
At the end of this time, moderators could
1. gather a list of everyone who posted
2. unsubscribe everyone else.
In this way we will know who we are, we will be able to see
ourselves collectively and know who is in the woods.
This is something we can do intermittently.
========================
If you all love, hate or have alternative suggestions to this
idea I'd love to know.
warmly
Ruth
--
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 in advance
Furtherfield disrupts and democratises art and technology
through exhibitions, labs & debate, for deep exploration, open
tools & free thinking.
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
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.
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--
=====================================================
directory http://www.alansondheim.org tel 718-813-3285
email sondheim ut panix.com, sondheim ut 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 in advance
Furtherfield disrupts and democratises art and technology through
exhibitions, labs & debate, for deep exploration, open tools & free
thinking.
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
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.
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