empyre is now archived at Cornell University. However, the link to that page seems to be down today. I would email Tim, if you are concerned. They are accessible and up to date.
best Simon On 9 Sep 2011, at 15:47, Ana Valdés wrote: > I am very happy to hear that, Simon. I was myself guest moderator of -empyre > a while ago and I should grief if it dissapeared. I think it's one of the > most dynamics arena for discussions about the boundaries of digital culture. > But the archives are a mess, the last showed topic is November 2010 and the > link to Pandora and to the other archives are broken, it's impossible today > to search the archives. > Ana > > On Fri, Sep 9, 2011 at 4:36 PM, Simon Biggs <si...@littlepig.org.uk> wrote: > As an empyre moderator I can assure everyone it isn't disappearing. During > August it has been on holiday. At the start of ISEA and the Istanbul Biennale > it will be spluttering back into life on the theme of festivals and > gloablisation, moderated by Tim Murray and Renate Ferro. > > However, list serves aren't as well populated and dynamic as they once were. > To a large extent they have been displaced by social media like Twitter and > Facebook. On one level that's not a problem. On another it is. Unlike other > platforms the list serve facilitates thoughtful posts rather than throw away > one liners. In a way the more popular and accessible social media platforms > (like Facebook) are to internet discourse what iPads and Androids are to > computing - promoting a more mediated and distanced engagement. This is part > of the normalisation and commodification of the net. > > best > > Simon > > > On 9 Sep 2011, at 15:19, Ana Valdés wrote: > >> I remember I was subscribed to Syndicate as well but I never heard about NN >> and never participated, I felt Syndicate was more a list for announcements >> of events, maybe I only subscribed to the events list. >> But it's interesting to discuss the validity of the mailinglists today, as >> forums for discussion or for sharing information. >> I have been participating in the Australian list -empyre for many years and >> now I feel the list is slowly dissapearing. Some of you (Patrick Lichty was >> a briljant moderator for some month's ago) are members of -empyre too. Do >> you feel the same as me? It's not strange, the list has been on the net for >> ages and the moderators do a terrific job but the most of people are >> freelancing artists or teachers with very little time to spare... >> I tried today to reach their arrchives and the links were broken. >> It would be a real loss if -empyre is gone. >> Ana >> >> On Fri, Sep 9, 2011 at 3:54 PM, marc garrett <marc.garr...@furtherfield.org> >> wrote: >> Hi Ana, >> >> Thanks for the link to 'Doctress Neutopia', very interesting... >> >> Yes - I remember on the (once brilliant) Syndicate list years ago, where >> Netochka Nezvanova, N.N., antiorp, integer dominated, causing all kinds >> of upset... >> >> "The net entity nn (Netochka Nezvanova, integer, antiorp, etc.), a >> pseudonym used by an international group of artists and programmers in >> their extensive and aggressive mailing list-based online-performances and >> for other art projects, had been subscribed to the Syndicate list in 1997. >> It was, as the first of less than a handful of people ever, unsubscribed >> against its will because it was spamming the list so heavily that all >> meaningful communication was blocked. In January 2001, nn sent an e-mail >> asking to again be subscribed to the Syndicate mailing list. (What nn >> never bothered to realise was that subscription to the list had always >> been open so that, at any point, it could have subscribed itself - we have >> always wondered why Majordomo is such a blind spot in this technophile >> entity's arsenal.) After getting assurances from nn that she was not out >> to misuse the list, we subscribed it to the Syndicate list. >> >> Naively, as we had to realise. nn went from one or two messages every day >> in February to an average of three to five message in April and up to >> eight and ten messages per day in May and June - and that on a list which >> had a regular daily traffic of three to five messages a day. The >> distributed nature of the nn collective makes it possible for them to keep >> posting 24 hours a day - great for promoting your online presence, >> irritating for people who have a less frantic life rhythm. nn's messages >> are always cryptic, sometimes amusing, often tediously repetitive in their >> quirky rhetorics and style, and generally irritating for the majority of >> people. Its activity on the Syndicate - like on many other lists it has >> used and terrorised - soon came to look like a hijack. But the sheer mass >> of traffic nn was generating, the sheer amount of nn's presence, was >> overwhelming. Perhaps this phenomenon could be compared to SMEGL, short >> for super mental grid lock, a term that was developed to describe traffic >> jam situations in NYC back in the eighties (or was this term coined in >> Berlin-Kreuzberg's famous Fischbuero? Who knows, the boundaries get >> blurred...). >> >> In the spring of 2001, nn's and other people's activities who use open, >> unmoderated mailing lists for promulgating their self-promotional e-mails, >> triggered discussions about 'spam art', on Syndicate as well as on other >> lists. Actually, given the extreme openness and vulnerability of a >> structure like the Syndicate it remains quite astonishing that this >> structure survived for such a long time. What happened in the course of >> 2000/2001 (not only to Syndicate, but also to several other mailing lists) >> was that the openness of these lists, i.e. the fact that they were >> unmoderated, was massively abused, and, finally, destroyed, by relentless >> 'creative' spamming. One of the basic principles of the Internet - its >> openness - suddenly seemed to become a mere tool for attacking this very >> principle. 'Netiquette' did not seem to be of much value anymore and was >> sacrificed for the egotistical self-expression of (distributed) artist >> egos. The irony of this process is that, like any good parasite, this >> artistic practice depends on the existence of lively online communities: >> it not only bites, but kills the hand that feeds it. - These parasite >> nomads will find new hosts, no doubt, but they have over the past year >> helped to erode the social fabric of the wider net cultural population so >> much that communities have to protect themselves from attacks and hijacks >> more aggressively than before. Their adolescent carelessness is partly >> responsible for the withering of the romantic utopia of a completely open, >> sociable online environment. However educational that may be, we despise >> the deliberation with which these people act. >> >> nn got unsubscribed from the Syndicate without warning on a day when there >> had been nothing but ten messages from her. After some days of silence and >> sighs of relief, angry protests by nn came through. On the list, >> accusations of censorship and/or dictatorship were made. A small but noisy >> faction denounced unsubscribing nn as an act against the freedom of >> speech. They called the administrators fascists, murderers, and >> 'threatened' to report the case to 'Index on Censorship'. While some other >> list members welcomed the departure of nn on and off the list and the >> admin team again and again explained their move, the ludicrous allegations >> and vociferous insults continued. >> >> The real shock for us was that the majority of list subscribers did not >> participate in the discussion and thus silently seemed to accept what was >> going on. It was personally hurtful not to receive more support against >> the insults raised against us, but more frustrating was the indifference >> that made the whole process possible. Within few days, the alienation from >> the atmosphere on the list was so great that we admitted defeat, >> re-subscribed nn and began to withdraw from the Syndicate. The list was >> moved to a different server and is now administered by other people at >> anart.no/~syndicate. We wanted to avoid further verbiage and conflict and >> therefore gave up the name, but we insist that from our perspective the >> Syndicate project that was founded in 1996 ended in August 2001. What >> remains under its name is a zombie kept alive by misconceptions about what >> the Syndicate really was. Maybe we should have stopped the project >> altogether in the summer? >> >> Filtering has, in a way, done us in. Before there were effective e-mail >> clients that could filter out lists and other mail communication, >> everybody on the list got everything more or less instantly, which also >> meant a higher level of social awareness and social control of what goes >> on on the list. Today, many people filter the lists they subscribe to and >> only look at the postings at irregular intervals - some mailboxes don't >> get opened for months. Like this, people consume the list passively and do >> not even notice a fiasco like the one that we experienced on the Syndicate >> list in the summer. I guess that some people who remain subscribed to the >> Syndicate list still have not noticed that anything has changed. For a >> social community, that kind of behaviour - automated deferance - can be >> fatal." >> >> <nettime> Rise and Decline of the Syndicate >> http://www.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-0111/msg00077.html >> >> wishing all well. >> >> marc >> >> >> >> > Interesting, it reminds me about doctress Neutopia, >> > >> http://projectwhitehouse.wordpress.com/democrats/libby-hubbard-aka-doctress-neutopia-free-the-slaves >> > a selfnamed prophet and the founder of a new religion at the >> beginning of the Net, around 1995. >> > She terrorized many online communities and was expelled from many forums. >> > Ana >> > >> > On Fri, Sep 9, 2011 at 3:25 PM, marc garrett >> <marc.garr...@furtherfield.org> wrote: >> > >> > Netochka Nezvanova. >> > >> > One of the most famous and infamous EccentricCharacters in >> > turn–of–the–21st Century Western artistic NetworkCulture, Netochka >> > Nezvanova (aka N.N., antiorp, integer, Irena Sabine Czubera) >> remains an >> > enigma to many. Widely believed to be an IdentityCollective?, >> Netochka >> > Nezvanova is a PenName named after the title character in [an early >> > unfinished Fyodor Dostoevsky novel] whose name means "nameless >> nobody" >> > in Russian. The identity always presents itself as female, though >> it may >> > not be in reality. Despite the meaning of her moniker, N.N. has >> coveted >> > attention and recognition like few others on the Internet. >> > >> > http://meatballwiki.org/wiki/NetochkaNezvanova >> > _______________________________________________ >> > NetBehaviour mailing list >> > NetBehaviour@netbehaviour.org >> > http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > -- >> > http://www.twitter.com/caravia15852 >> > http://www.scoop.it/t/art-and-activism/ >> > http://www.scoop.it/t/food-history-and-trivia >> > http://www.scoop.it/t/gender-issues/ >> > http://www.scoop.it/t/literary-exiles/ >> > http://www.scoop.it/t/museums-and-ethics/ >> > http://www.scoop.it/t/urbanism-3-0 >> > http://www.scoop.it/t/postcolonial-mind/ >> > >> > mobil/cell +4670-3213370 >> > >> > >> > "When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth >> with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you >> will always long to return. >> > — Leonardo da Vinci >> > >> > >> > _______________________________________________ >> > NetBehaviour mailing list >> > NetBehaviour@netbehaviour.org >> > http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour >> >> _______________________________________________ >> NetBehaviour mailing list >> NetBehaviour@netbehaviour.org >> http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour >> >> >> >> -- >> http://www.twitter.com/caravia1585252 >> http://www.scoop.it/t/art-and-activism/ >> http://www.scoop.it/t/food-history-and-trivia >> http://www.scoop.it/t/gender-issues/ >> http://www.scoop.it/t/literary-exiles/ >> http://www.scoop.it/t/museums-and-ethics/ >> http://www.scoop.it/t/urbanism-3-0 >> http://www.scoop.it/t/postcolonial-mind/ >> >> mobil/cell +4670-3213370 >> >> >> "When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your >> eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you will always long >> to return. >> — Leonardo da Vinci >> _______________________________________________ >> NetBehaviour mailing list >> NetBehaviour@netbehaviour.org >> http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour > > > Simon Biggs | si...@littlepig.org.uk | www.littlepig.org.uk > > s.bi...@ed.ac.uk | Edinburgh College of Art | University of Edinburgh > www.eca.ac.uk/circle | www.elmcip.net | www.movingtargets.co.uk > > > _______________________________________________ > NetBehaviour mailing list > NetBehaviour@netbehaviour.org > http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour > > > > -- > http://www.twitter.com/caravia15852 > http://www.scoop.it/t/art-and-activism/ > http://www.scoop.it/t/food-history-and-trivia > http://www.scoop.it/t/gender-issues/ > http://www.scoop.it/t/literary-exiles/ > http://www.scoop.it/t/museums-and-ethics/ > http://www.scoop.it/t/urbanism-3-0 > http://www.scoop.it/t/postcolonial-mind/ > > mobil/cell +4670-3213370 > > > "When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your > eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you will always long > to return. > — Leonardo da Vinci > _______________________________________________ > NetBehaviour mailing list > NetBehaviour@netbehaviour.org > http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour Simon Biggs | si...@littlepig.org.uk | www.littlepig.org.uk s.bi...@ed.ac.uk | Edinburgh College of Art | University of Edinburgh www.eca.ac.uk/circle | www.elmcip.net | www.movingtargets.co.uk
_______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list NetBehaviour@netbehaviour.org http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
