Hi Ann, Thank you for highlighting 'Moral Responsibility for Computing Artifacts: The Rules'. Very interesting reading and helpful material.
I think it gets much more complex (whether for the arts, open source etc) when art touches on the fundamentals of infrastructure. Personally, art which in its make-up or motive explores the realms of infrastructure engaged in the materiality of 'life' and social shifts, in the networked or physical sense, tends to become active agents of change. Some of it can turn into meme by fate and, of course not always social change, yet it's still fascinating. Having said this, it is also important to mention that even though many in the furtherfield ranks are influenced by political contexts, the proposed 'manyfesto' would have live somewhere els, and furtherfield would continue be loose, less defined. Even though it engages with three overall themes connecting to art practice through, technology and social change. I have seen so called 'radical' organisations loose (sacrifice) their spirit, essence and imaginative freedoms when moving too far into areas of either marxist based, singular protocols, or moving the other way to a more capitalist, over efficient position - then isolating the very individuals and groups that helped in building these comunities in the first place. So, furtherfield will not change dramatically, it will change slowly and organically according to its community at that time. The other thing, which is probably not said enough is that, art is messy, gunky, annoying and fluid. It is whatever we want it to be, and thankfully out of this chaos some very stimulating and amazing work is made - this excites me :-) Which is another reason why I am proposing that if such a movement occurs it has a different space, where its own life can breath on its own terms, forking new territories and resources which are more defined because of its shared, collective visions through active and independent contexts. wishing you well. marc > I am struck by the description of the loose movement you propose, Mark, and > point at a new project that now has some of the great and good worldwide > signed up to it, though for a different area. They are working on 'The > Rules', to create some ethical guidelines in the field of technology > development. I link it here because notions such as the 'ad hoc committee' > and their version control system might or might not inspire further thought > on the structure for the writing of the many-festo. > > https://edocs.uis.edu/kmill2/www/TheRules/ > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of marc garrett > Sent: 16 October 2010 13:00 > To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity > Subject: Re: [NetBehaviour] From today... > > Hi all, > > I have been reading, catching up on the discussions about 'authenticity of > art in a neoliberalist world'. > > One thing that kept coming back to me when reading all of the great > concepts, cross-thinking and shared explorations around the subject, was > - how the hell does this all translate into an everyday practice? > > It seems to me that as an overall, blanket of rules or ethical > implementation on arts culture as whole it really would not work; because > people need their own space to experiment and discover their own creative > noise or voices. To suggest everyone becomes the same or reads from the same > song sheet, would be a mono-cultural and self-defeating experience; very > likely stunting individual agency on art-making and its local, contextual > terms. > > So, there needs to be a contemporary body of people or movement engaged in > dealing with these actual questions, specifically. > > A group who is willing to organize a shared (agreed) 'manyfesto' for a > collective practice; for producing alternative art contexts challenging > through its practice the destructive nature of neoliberalism and its ideals, > and influences on our cultures world wide. So far, there have been small > groups and individuals who have done this, but as an art movement > specifically re-evaluating and challenging art culture and the neoliberalist > agenda as its main focus; through ethical reasonings in order to redefine > the mannerisms of art behaviour, with guidelines for others to discuss, > debate, use themselves, as a shared create commons, is another thing. > > The reason I propose 'manyfesto', instead of manifesto is because, we need > to be 'consciously' aware in our shared decisions in challenging some of the > older more singular modernist (even post-modernist) languages bit by bit. If > we take the 'i' out of manifesto, it feels actually less 'masculine' > originally (from Italian, from manifestare to manifest). "...maybe we should > jointly define the goals ... write some sort of many-festo as marc garrett > would call it" collaboratively user designed, Armin Medosch. > http://www.thenextlayer.org/node/18#comment-7 > > Obviously goals would be agreed by consensus, but a manyfesto would be > worked out in order to bring into fruition a focus and direction (even > rules, yes rules) making it easier for individuals and groups to define > their own situations, circumstances and differences, actively incorporating > process as 'critiques' as 'real' palette, material or 'thoughtful manure' > and nourishment in making such works. Such works need not be technologically > informed or based, but more exist in recognition or through acknowledgement > of the guidelines proposed, shared via the movements own deliberation. > > The movement would of course need its own doubters, critical thinkers, > theorists to act as the consciousness of the collective/movement, but at the > same time there needs to be a consensus and agreement that the work > introduced into the world is from an activist position, and getting it out > there is important and urgent, for all concerned. > > Even though I am equally enthralled in theorizing about various ideas, much > of this excellent, independent, intelligent and inventive/imaginative > discourse can work towards informing a pro-active art practice. > > Wishing all well. > > marc > > > > > Think we're pretty much in agreement here! > > > > Thanks for the discussion, Alan > > > > > > On Thu, 14 Oct 2010, Curt Cloninger wrote: > > > >>> The best art teaching I've seen (and hopefully articipated in) was Lutz >>>> Presser's in Tasmania, and David Askevold's at Nova Scotia; in both > cases, >>> they/we assumed the students were already artists/agents, and > treated them >>> as such. So making art became a cooperative effort - > sharing techniques >>> when needed, but not imposing anything. And believe > it or not, everyone >>> rose to the occasion. It's as if nothing was taught > at all but everything >>> was learned. It was astonishing. > >> This sits well with me as a pedagogical practice. It makes me think >> > of Ranciere's "Ignorant Schoolmaster." If I am the teacher/explicator >> > with the correct answer, then in order to liberate my students with >> my > wisdom and knowledge, I first have to convince them that they >> aren't yet > liberated. This is a form of oppression masquarading as >> emancipation. As > the situationists say, "Don't liberate me. I'll take >> care of that." > >> > >> I, as the teacher, don't arbitrate/decide "what matters." But the >> > student still must decide this for herself. That is her own pragmatic >> > question as a practicing artist. Because she has been thrown into the >> > world with a body that can act on things and with a limited amount of >> > time to live. She is the steward of this body and time. So the art >> work > she makes must at least matter to her; otherwise she would spend >> her > time, money, and bodily energy on some other activity she deemed >> more > worthy. > >> > >> What kind of pedagogy best comes alongside my student and helps her >> > discover what matters to her? That becomes my own "pragmatic" > >> question as a practicing teacher. > >> > >> _______________________________________________ > >> NetBehaviour mailing list > >> [email protected] > >> http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour > >> > >> > > > > > > == > > email archive: http://sondheim.rupamsunyata.org/ > webpage > http://www.alansondheim.org > music archive: > http://www.espdisk.com/alansondheim/ > > == > > _______________________________________________ > > NetBehaviour mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour > > > > _______________________________________________ > NetBehaviour mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour > > _______________________________________________ > NetBehaviour mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour > _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
