Re: [-empyre-] No. 1, Day 3, Week 2
--empyre- soft-skinned space-- On 2014-06-11, at 9:59 PM, Douglas Kahn wrote: >every now and then. (In the intro ESES I state my main reservation with >Kittler on his engineer/inscriptive basis viz. a science/transmission >approach, which means a media theory where 1/2, so to speak, of the >technological base of modern media is missing, and no uncontorted route to >an ecological standing). A hybrid 'systems' approach will deal with the sustainability, biology, media, and technology issues quite easily if you include models suggested by the likes of Howard Odum, Bertalanffy, Kenneth Boulding, Capra, Varela, and so on (see selected bibliography below). A liberal interpretation of systems ideas can be quite powerful in interpreting the dynamic of human relation, especially that mapped over/through techno-social systems. And, if you incorporate an even more radical dimension to the model -- that of electromagnetic fields/flows (or even more radical, simply energy flows -- which would include a cosmological/quantum dimension -- then the discussion can range freely to address most/all(!) pressing and present issues including sound! Kittler seemed to me to consider technique before considering the embeddedness of technique-as-codification-of-social-relation -- perhaps one reason that he put off North Amurikans...? my 2-cents for today... Cheers, JOhn -- Bertalanffy, L. von, 1950. An Outline of General System Theory. The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 1(2), pp.134-165. Boulding, K.E., 1956. General Systems Theory – The Skeleton of Science. Management Science, 2(3), pp.197-208. Capra, F., 1997. The Web of Life: a new scientific understanding of living systems, New York, NY: Anchor Books. Hammond, D., 2003. The Science of Synthesis: Exploring the social implications of general systems theory, Boulder, CO: University Press of Colorado. Kleidon, A. & Lorenz, R., 2005. Entropy Production by Earth System Processes. In Non-equilibrium Thermodynamics and the Production of Entropy: Life, Earth, and Beyond. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. Koizumi, T., 1997. Kata and Kata-Thinking in Eastern and Western Thought. In G. Lasker, ed. The Proceedings of InterSymp ’97. Windsor, Ontario, Canada: International Institute for Advanced Studies in Systems Research and Cybernetics, pp. 37-41. Miller, J., 1995. Living systems, Niwot, CO: University Press of Colorado. Odum, H.T., 1994. Ecological and General Systems: an introduction to systems ecology Rev. ed., Niwot, CO: University Press of Colorado. Odum, H.T., 2007. Environment, Power, and Society for the Twenty-First Century – The Hierarchy of Energy, New York, NY: Columbia University Press. Varela, F., Maturana, H.R. & Uribe, R., 1974. Autopoiesis: The Organization of Living Systems, Its Characteristics and a Model. BioSystems, 5(1974), pp.187-196. ++++++ Dr. John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD taking Manhattan as Berlin isn't possible right now http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/ ++ ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://www.subtle.net/empyre
Re: [-empyre-] No. 1, Day 4, Week 2
--empyre- soft-skinned space-- figures like Alvin Lucier's physics mentor Edmond Dewan. And I get the core point about the natural history of media, and the ways in which what gets called "technology" as a human endeavor, is necessarily embedded in these natural strata -- geophysical energy, electromagnetic forces, and so on. Another strategy is to shift to scale-independence when considering EM radiation -- or, more precisely, the idea that EM energy underlies all scales of 'reality' as it is perceived by our body-systems as well as by all the 'hearing', 'seeing' and other sensory instrumentation that we deploy to provide us information about reality that our bodies cannot directly sense. Another words, the nature of reality as we can model it here in words is provided by EM radiation. And, ultimately, it is that narrow band of EM radiation that we can directly perceive through which we determine our complete impression of reality -- analog signals (energy) received by our embodied configuration of energized matter. Furthermore, we are comprised by the fields and flows through which we perceive: talk about the fish's conception of water! Technology may be framed as an applied re-configuration of energy (EM) flow -- applied by humans who are themselves re-configurations of energy flows that Life has 'imposed' on the cosmos. As I explore in my dissertation, "The Regime of Amplification", the re-configurations are essentially the application of evolved protocols that direct EM (energy) flows. From this point of view, widely divergent 'systems' -- bio-systems, techno-social systems, self-organizing systems, geo-systems -- may be more powerfully comprehended in their continuity with wider phenomena (their complete embeddedness to all that surrounds them). No phenomena is singular or unitary except by abstraction. Consider asking the question, from an old Cartesian pov: Where in the universe is a 'space' that is not 'infused' with electromagnetic energy, or is not comprised of EM energy? The answer is a null set: and this is what unifies all the chapters in Douglas' book ... Cheers, John -- ++ Dr. John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD taking Manhattan as Berlin isn't possible right now http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/ ++ ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://www.subtle.net/empyre
Re: [-empyre-] to empire subscribers: messages sent in an attachment
--empyre- soft-skinned space-- On 18/Jun/14 19:06, Renate Terese Ferro wrote: --empyre- soft-skinned space-- I'm not receiving any attachments, and several blank emails... perhaps it might be good to request folks to email only plain-text to the mailing list... John -- ++ Dr. John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD taking Manhattan as Berlin isn't possible right now http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/ ++ ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://www.subtle.net/empyre
Re: [-empyre-] Friday, 20th: The Sonic "Work, " New Media, and Theory
--empyre- soft-skinned space-- 2) Christoph Cox: How can we move beyond the phenomenological and poststructuralist approaches that have thus far dominated thinking about sound? By original thinking and writing with less simple-minded/reductive reliance on buzz words, dominant approaches, and what somebody else has said before, it's easy ... jh -- ++ Dr. John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD taking Manhattan as Berlin isn't possible right now http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/ ++ ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://www.subtle.net/empyre
Re: [-empyre-] Saturday, 21st: The Disciplinarity of Sound Art
ave to carry those distinctions around like the baggage of all the socially-mandated behaviors, I understand this challenge very well, I have been called a sound artist myself, among other perjoratives. My comments here come from being a firm believer in the value of ignoring the labels, not relying much on prior frameworks or pov's and finding more idiosyncratic expressions and approaches arising from momentary impressions ... So, just a few imaginary comments on the discussion so far... Cheers, John -- ++ Dr. John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD taking Manhattan as Berlin isn't possible right now http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/ ++ ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://www.subtle.net/empyre
Re: [-empyre-] whose "our systems"
--empyre- soft-skinned space-- Hei folks -- As a gadfly, I'd point you to a short text excerpted from my dissertation that proposes a novel definition of the 'virtual' or 'virtuality'. It may be demonstrated as directly connected with last months sonic (energy!) explorations. That might however require more of a discussion than I can afford to engage in in the moment, unfortunately -- I'm rebuilding a small house in the mountains of central Arizona with the aim of reducing the GHG energy footprint... The discussions so far are going far too fast for me to make cogent contributions. I was on empyre years ago but left after a couple years, then a colleague told me about last months discussion which was right down my area of work, so I re-subscribed, but wasn't able to contribute much to a dialogue. Anyway, I thought I'd throw it out there ... The definition (model) addresses a number of the problematic issues around the use of the word -- formost in my mind, virtuality's indelible link to the digital, and because of this, the vague historical sourcing/usage of the term. http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/archives/75283 Cheers, John -- ++++++ Dr. John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/ CV: http://www.neoscenes.net/info/cv/index.php ++ ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://www.subtle.net/empyre
Re: [-empyre-] definition of virtual
--empyre- soft-skinned space-- Hi Roger -- i must admit i find the emphasis on 'attenuation of energy flows" problematically restrictive- so many of the technologies of virtual presence involved amplification of energies that do not reach the body ( telephone) or ..snip... embodiment is being able to be present in spaces that are present but that the body is unable to perceive without amplification or translation devices Very interesting that you bring this up as the title of my full thesis is "The Regime of Amplification" and part of it is very much about the alteration (by the technosocial system and other systems) of energy flows that are 'out there'. Amplification is a very powerful model to describe our 'technological' interactions with the world, attenuation/concentration being a subsets of that denoting a negative/positive gain on a particular flow. (Speaking practically, say, putting on a hat in the hot sun, you attenuate the effects of the sun, and if a wool hat, you concentrate the effects of retention of heat from the head.) Energy conversion is a crucial process that, aside from increasing the entropy of a system, provides all life with a means to survive. It is precisely the (technological) instrumentation that you speak of -- in its taking of some kind of originary energy flow and converting (amplifying, attenuating) it to one that our embodied energy receptor systems can receive 'sensibly' -- that I propose is the causative essence of virtuality. Widen the scope of this concept, and the body (all life in general) is also heavily involved in this at a cellular level -- converting energy sources, attenuating some, amplifying others -- in the service of successful continuance into the future. (This model can be taken to what may appear as an extreme, depending on what world view you use to interact with your full reality, but it could include the concept of hypostasis -- that is, spirit (energy) coming into 'inert' matter causing it to come to life. Essentially life itself, is an autocatalytic process that takes 'ambient' energy sources and concentrates those for consequent expression. For me virtuality is therefor a question of degree rather than of the tired real/virtual dichotomy. And this degree relates to atomic, molecular, cellular, organismic, social, and cosmic processes (another words, scale independent). In the end, it's just a model, though, and the model is never the thing itself. I hope this addressed your points. It's a bit difficult as what I sent was extracted from a document proposing a more holistic and very wide-ranging model, so the brief passage on glass included a number of concepts that are more fully addressed elsewhere. Cheers, John -- ++ Dr. John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD taking on sustainable home-ownership shortly http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/ ++ ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://www.subtle.net/empyre
Re: [-empyre-] whose "our systems"
--empyre- soft-skinned space-- Yes, I think I am talking about something like somatic materialism. The play on breath patterns I described began as an exploration of presence; the ...snip... again. And this was all before dealing with others, language, technological interfaces etc., let alone cosmic dimensions! I suspect that you perhaps have explored some of the aspects of breathing modeled by yogic teachings -- as some of the play you describe here are moving somewhat in that direction -- patterning, awareness, presence, pacing, not-knowing, and even fear -- these are, of course, broad principles of embodied energy flow... (Richard Freeman's teachings on 'pranayama' are quite profound in their lucid descriptions of how to fully integrate the breath into embodied and energized presence) Cheers, JOhn -- ++ Dr. John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD grounded on a granite batholith twitter: @neoscenes http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/ ++ ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://www.subtle.net/empyre
Re: [-empyre-] whose "our systems" & body weather
--empyre- soft-skinned space-- Johannes - I wondered though what happens to flow when screened off (behind the glass, on other side)? That was what I tried to ask John regarding his position on converting energy sources (attenuating some, amplifying others) - watching a storm or the revolution (as the actor called Hamlet does in "Hamletmachine") behind bullet proof glass is not the same as being in it (Hemingway, i read somewhere, did it the same way as the actor during the spanish civil war). What happens in a simple sense is that the energy flow that would otherwise be impinging on your body-system is directed or available elsewhere (probably in another 'form'). "In the moment that the embodied manifestation of flow presents itself, a negation of flow also appears: attenuation, filtration, or blockage. Blockage is the reciprocal of flow: the attenuation or seemingly absence of flow. Blockage is to flow what cold is to heat. Blockage is the evidence of flow that is drained away from one actual pathway to another potential pathway: a flow that is elsewhere. It is a constant underlying condition of our embodied presence. It reveals itself through the presence of more or less defined stricture or directedness of (mediatory) flow pathways. The presence of a strictly defined pathway suggests that outside of that pathway there are limited possibilities or allowances for flow." (Hopkins, pp. 46) [Hopkins, J., 2012. The Regime of Amplification. Bundoora, VIC, Australia: La Trobe University.] It is possible to protect ones self from flows trough a variety of means (skin evolving a complex means to deal with UV radiation; putting a layer of fabric over it; using a 'sunscreen') but each means of protection has consequences to the environment 'outside' of where the attenuation is occurring -- (in the three cases mentioned: the appearance of a 'different' skin color and a change in the overall functioning of the organism; the energy of preparing a fabric (the whole infrastructure necessary to make a fabric!); and a complex techno-social structure necessary to research, develop, and produce a complex chemical compound). These are the more obvious effects, but there are always more and more subtle effects as well. Think of dancers in a room, breathing, the energized matter we call 'oxygen' and 'nitrogen' is being bodily exchanged between everyone in the room; infrared radiation is radiating from one body; impinging on another, changing the base metabolic situation (temperature). Our bodies are 'constructed' as a complex system of protocols that direct energy in a variety of ways, each re-direction of energy wastes a little bit (or more!) energy. Maybe having the dancers in a room where there is no visible Light at all (an underground mine comes to mind!), so that some of the other senses might be awakened (the sound of the breathing, the heat of the body)... Back to the issue of glass -- the existence of glass as a tiny window in a hut in Iceland was a huge thing -- glass was tremendously energy-intensive product to make (causes deforestation among other effects!). It had to be carried great distances by ship (more energy used!), etc etc. One can 'reverse engineer' any energy changing process and see how amplification (+/- gain) changes everything around it. Interestingly, conversion of energy from one 'form' to another is itself a draining process -- it 'wastes' energy, always! This is one reason that complex animals are 'warm blooded' -- they have so many complex energy conversion processes going on to maintain their organismic order that the cumulative effect is that they radiate waste infrared energy. And regarding the effect of gesture -- in a quantum universe, any change anywhere is experienced simultaneosly everywhere -- internal/external are only bounded conditions (thanks, Mr. Descartes, et al) of a spent model. A few morning thoughts before getting back as house-building... I'm burning up a lot of life-energy to create an effective attenuation system to stay inside of... Cheers, John -- ++ Dr. John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD grounded on a granite batholith twitter: @neoscenes http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/ ++ ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://www.subtle.net/empyre
Re: [-empyre-] whose "our systems" & body weather
--empyre- soft-skinned space-- Hej Johannes -- sorry for not keeping up on the conversation -- it's tough on empyre, with the weekly/monthly schedule (I remember this was somewhat off-putting when I was on the list back in 2007-9 or so)... But it's an interesting dialogue, and it's good to hear what others are thinking on these topics! I was looking over your site and found it quite compelling. I recall (as I spent a lot of time in Germany in the last 25 years -- teaching in Bremen, Lúbeck, Kiel, Berlin and elsewhere) coming across the InteraktionsLabor which I thought looked very interesting! Thanks for your moderation! Cheers, John -- ++ Dr. John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD grounded on a granite batholith twitter: @neoscenes http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/ ++ ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://www.subtle.net/empyre
Re: [-empyre-] Virtual Embodiment: week 2
--empyre- soft-skinned space-- A few morning musings -- before picking up a hammer. Finally, last week, I’m glad Alan mentioned “critique of the corporate”. Getting to occasionally glimpse behind the curtain of industry and For me this is the most crucial point -- one that, in the 'traditional' consideration of the virtual -- aka VR technologies -- it is the sourcing of those technologies that is most problematic. As I previously described the flow-altering character that is the virtual, one must consider how and why a flow is being altered and who is driving the alteration for what ends. It is no trivial detail that these technologies have arisen out of a military-industrial context. It is in the interests of that fundamental area of the techno-social system to devise systems that deflect damaging flows (defense) whilst creating systems for projecting concentrated energies outward at its 'enemies' (offense). Both these functions are necessary to ensure the viability of the particular techno-social system. Anything that aids in this, especially the widespread support of the population of a State, it beneficial to that techno-social system. When a population 'uses' the products (protocols) of the techno-social system they are explicitly supporting the system that controls the protocols. The whole regime of the 'cyber' as it is integrated on/sourced in prior technologies (protocols), is one means (among others) to harness the energies of a population in support of the techno-social system they are part of. The general principle behind all corporate/state posturing is to gain attention in the form of the population spending/expressing life-time and life-energy using the protocols of those particular systems. In doing so, we are giving very real energized support for that system ... without this attention those social structures would collapse... FYI A couple books that look closely at the roots of Silicon Valley et al. The exhibition last summer "The WHole Earth" at HKW in Berlin curated by Diedrich Diederichsen & Anselm Franke was a very good look into some of these exact points. http://tinyurl.com/oj2f5uj (documentation... there are some talks online, one given by Fred Turner and I think the catalog is probably quite good, although I have not gotten a copy yet) and Turner's book -- Turner, F., 2006. From counterculture to cyberculture: Stewart Brand, theWhole Earth Network, and the rise of digital utopianism, Chicago: University of Chicago Press. is a provocative exploration of this, but there are deeper and more profound roots (for example, this book): Leslie, S.W., 1993. The Cold War and American Science: The Military-Industrial-Academic Complex at MIT and Stanford, New York, NY: Columbia University Press. Cheers, John -- ++++++ Dr. John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD grounded on a granite batholith twitter: @neoscenes http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/ ++ ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://www.subtle.net/empyre
Re: [-empyre-] Virtual Embodiment: week 3
--empyre- soft-skinned space--
Hi Tamara --
It's a big responsibility to introduce technologies to a child!
part of their world, their mind and their experience - there is little
distinction between self and other and rather a synthesised world emerges for
them. Many of the children had a readiness to give up the 'I' of their
selfhood in order to work collaboratively with the technology - it became
part of their perceptual and e xperiential field, again suggesting integrated
This probably arises as a function of the need/tendency to play ('make believe')
as a 'natural' extension of childhood/evolutionary learning strategies. And is
perhaps quite independent of a particular 'technology'. 'Taking on' a
contemporary technology is only 'different' in its degree of flow changing power...
When a child picks up an object and turns it into a 'make believe' toy or
companion in play, it is quite a different intensity of process of picking up an
ipad that is packed full of protocols that are subtly 'directing' the play.
Those protocols, in their power to direct embodied energy (life!) are
non-trivial, and I would suggest that in their subtlty, they are more
problematic in their ability to 'direct' the social development of the the child
than less complex technoogical devices. In the case you describe, the presence
of "a larger avatar" to "encourage" the children to move "in creative ways"
seemed to be a crucial point in the process. A less complex device, say a stick
that is turned into a horse to ride, carries practically none of those
techno-social protocols (some, still, to be sure, in the fact that for a child
to do such a thing now, they would have to be exposed the concept of horse-back
riding in some context!). In the case you were observing, the exitence of a
dominant character directing their play is a wildly different process of play,
imho... perhaps not even play at all, but simply another set of directed
activities that our system is substituting for play on a broad scale for
children generally.
Once the child adopts a techno-social protocol (in childhood) it will be a
'natural' extension of their awareness and 'being' (the fish-knowing-water
situation). This dependence is both a benefit and a danger, depending on what
level of techno-social system they are dependent on. I would suggest that our
general level of dependency is becoming so complax and so beholden to 'hidden'
actors who are creating and forming protocols of human relation as to be a huge
risk to to continuance of wider civil society...
This partially because when we are dependent on a particular techno-social
system (from childhood), when it fails, or when it is distorted by 'hidden'
actors, we have no easy way to reset our relations in that system. (Example --
imaging in this finite world that electricity becomes hard to get, all the
protocols of communication and so on becomes redundant for all of us...)
Just some morning musings...
Cheers,
JOhn
--
++
Dr. John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD
grounded on a granite batholith
twitter: @neoscenes
http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/
++
___
empyre forum
empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
http://www.subtle.net/empyre
Re: [-empyre-] Virtual Embodiment / whose "our systems"
--empyre- soft-skinned space-- What is the scope or meaning of 'interaction' when Quantum suggests that any 'change' anywhere affects all 'things' everywhere simultaneously? jh -- ++++++ Dr. John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD grounded on a granite batholith twitter: @neoscenes http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/ ++ ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://www.subtle.net/empyre
Re: [-empyre-] Virtual Embodiment / whose "our systems"
--empyre- soft-skinned space-- that's not what quantum mechanics says. Yes, of course, that's right Alan, QM doesn't really 'say' anything in textual English except in excruciatingly poor translation from the 'actual' mathematical model. I only use QM as a short-hand for a world-view that is acceptable in the West but is not so bound by conventional Newtonian models for the cosmos. I do feel, though, words like 'interaction' and 'virtual' hardly have any intelligible relation to the nature of any shared reality, given their social usage within the techno-sphere, even in the art/new media scene. It'd be nice to simply side-step them by using a more 'long-hand' description that at least tries to parse the writer's experience (you've done that numerous times over the last couple decades!)... jh -- ++ Dr. John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD grounded on a granite batholith twitter: @neoscenes http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/ ++ ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://www.subtle.net/empyre
Re: [-empyre-] body chair language
--empyre- soft-skinned space--
Thanks, this is - for me! - useful and welcome; the language questions you
outline obviously espouse those I deal with in French, though I'm not aware
of "embodiment" being integrated as a solution - l'incorporation and
l'incarnation have tricky resonance, as you say. In the mystical vein,
"transsubstantiation" can perhaps interestingly (and translatably) get
closer to interim/ limbo zones some of the list's reflection about "virtual
embodiment" seems to touch on ("intertwinedness in-and-as-the system", as
per Sue's last posting). I'd love to hear more on your take on ghosts and
haunting and resonance, Sue, as I'm also grappling with this stuff -
If we are going in that direction, maybe a meditation on "hypostasis", then,
while speaking of Self and Other at once:
"The Self will never share the same point-of-view as the Other. My eyes cannot
be collocated with yours. I may exchange places with you, but when all is change
along the arrow of time, what you experienced there and then, I cannot
experience there and now. The interstitial chasm exists within constant change
and flow and it exists as long as life is embodied. Some models of transcendence
suggest a unification, an omniscient one-ness, after embodiment ends, but here
and now we all face the challenge of hypostasis, that puzzling duality of
existing in a transitory and substantial body now and yet connected with an
apparently detachable spirit before and after."
I always felt like that when doing networked performances over the years...
jh
--
++
Dr. John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD
grounded on a granite batholith
twitter: @neoscenes
http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/
++
___
empyre forum
empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
http://www.subtle.net/empyre
Re: [-empyre-] body chair language
--empyre- soft-skinned space-- Let me quote one of the Oswald d’Andrade aphorisms: The mind refuses to conceive the mind without the body. This seems to have no meaning unless one treats the mind & body as two separable 'things' -- many systems do not do this at all, and in them the philosphical dilemma is nullified, or becomes a non-issue ... or something non-sensical to lived experience... I definitely was wondering about your translation of "carne" as 'chair' as I was sitting eating a 'carne asada' the other day... ;-) jh -- ++++++++++ Dr. John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD grounded on a granite batholith twitter: @neoscenes http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/ ++ ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://www.subtle.net/empyre
Re: [-empyre-] Grappling bodies, differences among bodies & gestures
--empyre- soft-skinned space-- Simon has closed the discussion, but I hadn't finished this set of musings on some of the recent performance works brought up remotely... Memory, then, would seem to be primarily corporeal, inhabited, and particular, not easily out-sourced to an off shore account, or transfered to affectless place holders (in terms of kinetic affect, it would interest me how Kirk, and the audience with hand-held devices, experienced the virtual dancers and their transformed gestures off the streets of Brighton?). What would the avatar remember? Some meta-commentary (as we watch performances of elswehere and elswhen on youtube...this past month) The biggest problem with externalized memory (to the avatar!) is that when memory is disembodied from the Self, we may no longer feel its effects – in recall, in re-living. we may only simulate the feeling of it, or, at most, resonate with the symbolic values represented in its reproduction. individual embodied memory is directly experienced as a changed body state. externalizing memory is a particular and collective phenomena which arises when the pain of actual experience and its associated memory is too much to bear. externalizing is available from the same technologies (tele) which cause the pain to begin with — dislocation and the pain of separation. perhaps technological development may not proceed fully until the relevant memories are externalized to begin with, then the pain of alienation is transferred to a painless place. Memory is the trace of energies from the surrounding situation that literally impress (on) the embodied self. Making the radical assumption framed by the words of physicist David Bohm, that " ..there is a universal flux that cannot be defined explicitly but which can be known only implicitly, as indicated by the explicitly definable forms and shapes, some stable and some unstable, that can be abstracted from the universal flux." Phenomenal events and configurations of these energies pass through the body (as simply another manifestation of this flux), leaving altered states of be-ing. These embodied traces persist in time, but as with all life and being, are transitory. They exist as change, and are often experienced as a fundamental awareness of difference — “I originally felt like that, but now I feel like this, having experienced this event.” External memory storage situations via digital technological mediation are, by nature, material, reductive, and transitory. They are subject to decay and loss as with any other external (and internal) means. Three significant issues arise in the process of externalized memory storage. The first is in the process of creating the artifact. As with any pre-digital artifact, making a “memory” artifact requires that the Self (or someone) step out of living and mediate their presence in the operation of the device that creates the artifact. This stepping out applies not only to the making of the artifact but also to the (onerous) process of archiving. This process radically changes the experience of a life-trajectory by an individual. And, as suggested by Quantum ideas, the observer affects that which is observed, the act of making memory artifacts actually affects the scenario that is being recorded. A second major issue occurs when any of these processes are taken over by extensions of the Techno-Social System, they subject the Self to a loss of autonomy. (i.e., cloud computing as one example of a centralized architecture that removes the trace of the digital artifact wholly out of the purview of the individual (creator, participant).) The levels of loss of autonomy exist on a sliding scale — loss occurs whenever the individual is not in control of the mediatory storage (its provenance, creation, organization, archiving, sustenance, distribution, demise, destruction). Any externalization falls under this regime. The third issue lies in the maintenance of archive. As a fundamentally ordered system (timely retrieval is critical for a functioning archive), the archive requires an essentially constant energy influx to maintain that order. That energy source is, at base, the human being. How much personal energy will humans participating in a Techno-social system be willing to dispense of or provide/support in order to maintain an ever-growing energy burden of either a collective or individual archive? Is this why the Library of Alexandria burned? etc etc etc So it goes, from the Monsoon season in the Arizona desert highlands... Cheers, jh -- ++ Dr. John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD grounded on a granite batholith twitter: @neoscenes http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/ ++ ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://www.subtle.net/empyre
Re: [-empyre-] collective capture, distributed identity
--empyre- soft-skinned space-- In fractured and (still) politically divided or contested societies or in (Western Europe or North America, as far as I can speak; Chris Domingo had also told us his story from Whyalla, Australia) only superficially integrated and non-isolated cultures and cultural communities, what would "distributed identity" mean -- would not such a term capture only an illusion? It's no illusion, unfortunately -- I had an argument with Eric Kluitenburg about this -- if illusion means something has no tangible reality, this is impossible. I think a 'distributed identity' is an abstraction of embodied energy flows. When we use the protocols of the masters (FaceBook being a dominant model), and we 'connect' via those attenuated flow pathways that are governed by FB we are taking our embodied energies and 'giving' them to the techno-social system (of many overlapping systems) that is FaceBook. Giving life-time and life-energy to a screen is to take it away from (those in) the immediate surroundings of oneself. That life-energy/life-time is harvested, accumulated by those who control the protocols through which we express our remote presence. This is no illusion. Where our attentions (aka life-energy/life-time) are directed ultimately determines where power is concentrated in the techno-social system. This is no illusion (Just look up how much google spends on lobbying in Washington now!)... hmm, maybe I am making no sense... it's a wider discussion predicated on a different world-view... & now I have to peel myself away from the screen to put embodied energy into reconstructing a house that is suffering water damage from the desert monsoon season these days... ciao, jh -- ++++++ Dr. John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD grounded on a granite batholith twitter: @neoscenes http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/ ++ ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://www.subtle.net/empyre
Re: [-empyre-] empyre Digest, Vol 118, Issue 1
--empyre- soft-skinned space-- But is not lost. I am intrigued and inspired by design practices that attempt to subvert the logic of neoliberalism. Design in the public interest, structures for inclusion, practices of commoning, and so forth are all exciting experiments with a more expanded understanding of the social basis of design as a constitutive power (to borrow from Hardt and Negri). Problem is, 99.999% of 'design practices' (as a cultural-social-academic-economic 'manifestation') are enclosed by a complete dependence on the wider hydrocarbon energy system -- precisely because those practices grew out of and exist because of the excess that contemporary (technological) energy sources have (temporarily and unsustainably!) produced... And, actually, we *will* eventually consume our way out of the environmental 'problem' -- when the energy source is all consumed, then there will be a massive re-set of the system. When the sustainable pre/post hydrocarbon population settles down to somewhere between, say, 0.5 and 1.0 billion of the human species, the environment will slowly re-evolve into something entirely different. (This scenario seems to be the most likely, as there is *no* slowing of consumption apparent on the wide scale...!) In some ways, it is a standard that it an anathema to Life (as a phenomena) to *not* consume when there is an available energy source. Humans try to think themselves out of this need for Life to consume energy to project itself into the future. But it would appear that the conscious thoughts aren't enough to change the actions that are a core part of evolved life. So, bravo for thinking about the practices, but for the practices to be actualized we should suspend remote conversations that are mediated by a massive global telecommunications infrastructure that is fully dependent on hydrocarbons. (We are the neo-liberals here communicating via this technology). Didn't Graham Harwood, or someone else of that ilk make a calculation as to how much energy is expended in sending an email? A few cents of afternoon meditation after having to walk home with a flat tire on my bike through sonic clouds of screeching cicadas. They will be around longer than we shall, neoloberalism or not! Cheers, JH -- ++++++++++ Dr. John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD grounded on a granite batholith twitter: @neoscenes http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/ ++ ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://www.subtle.net/empyre
Re: [-empyre-] empyre Digest, Vol 118, Issue 1
--empyre- soft-skinned space-- In any case, I'm curious about the extent to which design practices/materials need to become uncertain, or even unrecognizable, to themselves in order to generate the design space that Adrian has in mind. ...snip... "slow design," and what that would look like. How would learning to design _with_ mess-- instead of trying to fix it-- reconfigure the practices/materials that have stolen uncertain futures from us? Howard and Elisabeth Odum's 2008 book "A Prosperous Way Down"* suggests one path -- that designing for collapse (where "collapse is just a period in which things are changing faster than usual”) is a viable way to go. Consider being stripped of 99.9% of your familiar materials and material infrastructure -- how to 'design' then? How do 'design' survival? I'd argue that there is little if any 'sustainable' design appearing on our neoliberal radars precisely because we are using radars to identify it! The interdependency is so pervasive that we are blissfully unaware of it. Odum's argument is that bio-system pulses (human population increase now being one example) are a common occurence and that the shape of the pulse is determined by energy availability. A design future therefore needs to take into account where a glut of hydrocarbon energy has placed us in that interdependent picture. Most of the design work I've observed (in the academies I've either taught at or visited in 30 countries) is definitely in the 'blissfully unaware' (of this) category. I'd say the 'unrecognizable' issue might include 'forgotten' technologies; while the 'mess' will be trying to 'design' in the midst of a chaotically imploding system. Maybe teaching in an education system that is doing just that (at least in the US) gives a hint at how unsustainable the present is, but addressing the reality of such a situation is very difficult to comprehend. Odum posits, in the reviewer's words, among many other salient points that: "post-industrial information societies are not possible – no society can exist without basic energy, food and materials provisioning" Where will design take place when this is the wider-scale condition? jh -- * -- a short review of the book - http://www.tabel.tcu.edu.tw/PWD1.html ++ Dr. John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD grounded on a granite batholith twitter: @neoscenes http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/ ++ ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://www.subtle.net/empyre
Re: [-empyre-] Mediated Matters and design abjections
--empyre- soft-skinned space-- Thanks Johannes for that reference and your comments... < Forms of Life as commodities The society of the spectacle undoubtedly complies with technology-based, post-industrial capitalism, its logic of production as well as the modern logic of representation: it is the outcome of hyper-technologization and functionalization, codifying life and prescribing processes of subjectivation, which are nothing less than forms of subjugation. The new model up for debate, as it surpasses the model of developed modernity, introduces a completely new commodity to the game: the forms of life itself. In reference to Debord’s definition of the society of the spectacle, one could define this new model as “capital accumulated to the point that it becomes a form of life”. The new model thus takes over the ‘un-producible’, totalizing the range of the market I'm constantly amazed at the humanistic clinging to the idea that humans actually think they control something that they cannot ultimately explain the existence of -- that is, *life*. The human (mental) process of abstracted objectification (& subjectivation!) seems so helpless in the face of a cosmos of the unknown. We pretend that we can 'manage change' at all scales. (Not only that, but manage it 'rationally'. Hah!) This may sound incredibly cynical, but springs from a genuine sense of curiosity: with what I've seen/experienced in life -- across science, art, politics, culture -- I would very much like to be around for the collapse of human systems in the world -- the collective hubris of our present time is really nauseating at times! Yeah, The Market, p! Between the total abstraction of money (see http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/archives/1199) and the absolutely counter-reality of constant growth, what are people thinking?? Cheers, jh -- ++++++ Dr. John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD grounded on a granite batholith twitter: @neoscenes http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/ ++ ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
[-empyre-] D-to-A conversion
--empyre- soft-skinned space-- additional musings: I think a discussion of 'digital' needs to include, somewhere, the term 'analog', as one of the key devices that *has* to be invoked *and* implemented in any interaction with the digital is the A-to-D or D-to-A converter. This is a device without which the digital would remain a total abstraction. Even the brain of the coder has to function in the capacity of such a converter. The digital is the abstracted (sampled) representation of the analog: a sampling of a flow that reduces the energized sample to a numeric (abstracted) coded value. This is the essence of a 'digital-to-analog converter' -- it is the primary interface between the world of (real!) energy flows and the abstracted world of code. (see http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/archives/1199 for an exapnsion of that) The present techno-social system we are enfolded within may be described as a hybrid code/energy (digital/analog) system. A digital signal is digital only in a static and dormant (potential) and provisional sense. Just as money is the abstracted social representation for (potential) real energy exchanges, the digital (as an abstracted protocol for the organization of information) is a representation of what is, at base, a movement of energy. Digital information is a representation of some originary flow of energy 'out there': when the digital it is in motion, it is analog. Changing a digital data set does not impact the nature of the digital data-set in its abstraction. The changing of a digital 'signal' is fundamentally the changing of an analog signal: it is coded abstraction coming-to-be. By the discrete and representative nature of the digital, change is only an issue at the analog input and output. A unit of data on a spinning hard drive disk (as one example of 'digital storage') is a temporary set of aligned magnetic dipoles (which take energy to align!). To transfer data is to duplicate the highly ordered (analog!) arrangement of dipoles in another location through electromagnetic amplification (and transmission) following a precise pathway within a highly defined and strict set of protocols: what is the sound of one bit flipping? Duplication, transmission, and interaction requires the (analog) movement of energy. For the body-system to interact with the digital, a movement of energy is necessary. The body cannot 'be' digital, it is embedded in and interfaces with the universe through the movement of energy. Our 'interactions' with the 'virtual' or 'the digital' require a complex deployment of interdependent energy flow pathways within the global techno-social system... Cheers, JH -- ++ Dr. John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD grounded on a granite batholith twitter: @neoscenes http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/ ++ ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
Re: [-empyre-] week two - MATTER
--empyre- soft-skinned space-- Phil - the speaker, or through other forms of hardware is it possible to talk about the materiality of data without having to account for the entire network? That is exactly what I was pointing out with the D-to-A conversion process -- you have to include that 'part' of the system as any 'interaction' with 'the digital' requires the analog! And prior to all that you have had to go through the reverse, A-to-D to 'represent' the world in the digital. If you only look at the artifact-ness of the digital (which is impossible based on what I just wrote), it misses the concept (because it sees everything as discrete closed systems): 'digital' is a process, a flow, embedded in a wider open system of flows... imho, you *have* to account for the whole open system in order to make sense the relationships within it... Maybe impossible... jh -- ++++++ Dr. John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD grounded on a granite batholith twitter: @neoscenes http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/ ++ ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
Re: [-empyre-] Digital Objects // PROCESS : What is a digital process?
--empyre- soft-skinned space-- FYI on the topic of digital art & algorithms, etc, there's a great talk by my friend Dr. Frieder Nake, a radical German pioneer in the field, talking about early algorithmic work in the 1960s -- he's an engaging and empathetic speaker -- the video is from the Eyeo Festival in Minneapolis this past June ... http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/archives/76735 Cheers! John -- ++ Dr. John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD grounded on a granite batholith twitter: @neoscenes http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/ ++ ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
Re: [-empyre-] Digital Objects // PROCESS : What is a digital process?
--empyre- soft-skinned space-- On 22/Oct/14 17:13, Quinn DuPont wrote: --empyre- soft-skinned space-- Such a rich and complex post, with many points of resonance to earlier posts! I think Alexander’s reference to Chaitin’s “Omega” number really needs some Having suffered through (up to) matrix algebra and some nonlinear stuff in engineering school, argh, I couldn't stand math -- I did much better with 'fuzzy' orders-of-magnitude/off-the-cuff touchy-feely applied 'potential fields' geophysics... I think it boils down to the paradign: "The map is not the territory" except in the asymptotic case where the territory itself is a subset of the map (i.e., the map has *everything* the territory has & more) which has obvious limitations. And there is a sprinkling of something like 'God' in there as well -- the inexplicable, the Void, whatever it is we are dancing around pointing at and trying to explain what we see to our proximal (or distal!) neighbor... Not to mention that mathematics is a symbolic 'language' and in this it has (imho) the same limitations as language generally. The noun is not the thing. Having made that huge reduction on Chaitin's article and maths reasoning, it is possible that reductions (such as writing a text "The map is not the territory" about the issue of modeling reality) may be of greater or lesser quality -- more or less applicable to the local or general conditions that they are applied to. The 'elegant' model covers more ground (i.e., Newton&calculus did a damn good job describing a lot of stuff), but to cover it all you need an infinite variety of models (dammit, that asymptote again). This is probably what drives most 'innovation' pesently -- from DV to HD & CRT to Retina screens, from 8-bit to 64-bit sound editing, etc, ad nauseum -- that we try to force the digital to accede to or even subsume the analog -- something it will never do because, once again, there is the asymptotic "The map is not *ever* the territory." Oh, is this an infinite recursion? No, I'll stop here. End. jh -- ++ Dr. John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD grounded on a granite batholith twitter: @neoscenes http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/ ++ ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
Re: [-empyre-] technological and human dis/remembering
--empyre- soft-skinned space-- halló folks I think the use in recent few posts of a word like "permanent" regarding a digital record seems to merit some discussion. Imho it is a hang-over from the hubris-laced techno-utopianism (and, for example, sci-fi) of the Cold War -- where technology was primarily an absolute monument to the success of the human species. There persists a presumptive hubris that very much tags along behind this word within the developed world. "The Cloud" and any other manifestation of 'external' memory is definitely *not* permanent and will definitely *not* persist "forever." Ever. From a humanities (and theoretical/philosophical) pov it may seem this way, but from a systems pov, it is not the case. It may perhaps be a useful concept in thought-experiments. But the data will persist precisely as long as the techno-social system has the energy to maintain the orderly arrangement of magnetic dipoles on a disk. This is no magic, but rather a simple case of the wider system deciding that the information has a value that justifies the energy expenditure. When the point comes (when "The Cloud" is choking us with it's hydrocarbon emitting power source), you can be sure there will be wide-scaled 'forgetting.' The powerful illusion of 'permanence' probably preceded great forgettings of the past: the fire at the Library of Alexandria comes to mind, they relaxed their control over their information. Also apropos: the concept of standards and protocols in a techno-social system. These words frame a field of intense and very real conflict with very real consequences. There is a constant struggle within the structure of a 'technological' society as to who controls (creates, polices) the standards by which the technological infrastructure is constructed. These struggles take on moumental proportions that ultimately determine what is remembered and what is forgotten. Ever face the problem of opening an old file for which you do not have the software platform? This is a simple example. The winners of the conflict dictate what is forgotten by who they have vanquished. Large swathes of digital memory are lost every time there is a (digital) protocol change. This is the same concept where a language is used by a small tribe—when the last of that tribe dies, there is a huge forgetting. Cheers, JH -- ++ Dr. John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD grounded on a granite batholith twitter: @neoscenes http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/ ++ ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
Re: [-empyre-] technological and human dis/remembering
--empyre- soft-skinned space-- I wanted to take up John's notion of the impermanence of "The Cloud." This puts me in mind of an art project that I believe speaks to this intersection of issues. Last year, my writing partner Rob Wittig and I ran a netprov on this topic. (A netprov is an online improvised narrative.) ( http://robwit.net/?p=223) hehe, Mark -- just to drop a singular historical note in the mix -- I was regularly doing live/online networked text/sonic/visual improv & storytelling with my students in Finland, Germany, Norway, Iceland, and @ CU-Boulder between '93-'04 via IRC, iVisit, CUSeeME, VDMX, REAL, and FTP (some scattered evidence @): http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/archives/tag/online/page/2 -- it's quite fun when they get tapped into it -- A bit hard to imagine how it proceeds in this day of saturated social media. cheers, John -- ++++++ Dr. John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD grounded on a granite batholith twitter: @neoscenes http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/ ++ ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
Re: [-empyre-] language, reporting the virtually true
--empyre- soft-skinned space-- On 04/Nov/14 15:47, Daniel O'Donnell wrote: --empyre- soft-skinned space-- You know, I've been wondering about this: since the Taliban blew up the Buddhas and then with the destruction of the domed mosques and manuscripts in Mali and environs, and now this. It was painful to watch the video of the Buddha sculptures, especially knowing why it happened. It's always painful to see what we might consider unchanging reality suddenly lose its persistent form and ... change. It acts as a bitter reminder of mortality. But isn't it such that cultural accession over time is doing essentially similar things all the time, over the vast reaches of history. And our contemporary focus on, literally, digging up the past and preserving it has limits. (We probably only do so because we have such a glut of energy flowing around our 'developed' world, because re-organizing the past in any form (from library to archive to buildings) definitely takes energy!). While the Buddhas were obliterated rapidly, using modern weapons (explosives), time via entropy continually devolves the detritus of the yesterday, and it is only the socio-cultural context (or even 'fashion') that dictates what is saved and what is allowed to slip away into chaos. Contexts change, and what was important in one context becomes passé in another. I wonder if there shouldn't be an emergency scanning fund that would help pay for capture of threatened built heritage. Maybe some kind of Unesco thing. This is where the question of choice of what to preserve and what to let go surfaces. We are witnessing the procession of history and it seems we are in the moment as powerless as others in the past, watching accepted heritage be ground to dust. It's a strange process to witness. (and interesting that Johannes suggests that "archaeologists and anthropologists will surely confirm that the past cannot be lost" -- once humans have interjected their changes into the world, the change will persist (though it gradually dissipates, never quite to zero, until the universe resets itself...) And maybe it's the same as watching a national 'infrastructure' collapse slowly when the national treasury is sapped of resources through war... So it goes... JOhn -- ++ Dr. John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD grounded on a granite batholith twitter: @neoscenes http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/ ++ ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
Re: [-empyre-] language/discourse on terror, reporting the virtually true
--empyre- soft-skinned space-- On 05/Nov/14 15:17, Johannes Birringer wrote: regards Johannes Birringer -- ++ Dr. John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD grounded on a granite batholith twitter: @neoscenes http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/ ++ ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
Re: [-empyre-] images hard to watch
--empyre- soft-skinned space-- Akram Al Halabi writes: "Harsh images and videos of massacres published in the media. Images hard to watch. During the last three years, I was writing on these images what I see in the image itself. "hard to watch" is a crucial phrase. but what does it really mean? Is it because we recognize that the action watched is a contravention of life, that 4-billion-year-old phenomena that has been continuously ongoing for that entire period? Or is it that, as social and individuated animals, we see in such actions our own death? All the discussion raises what has seemed a bit absent -- the fact of the technology, the techno-social system that bring these images & sounds to us, that we consume, that changes us. Not to mention the effect of the media eyes 'on site' -- given the quantum adage that 'the observer changes that which is observed'. What is terror that is not seen except by perpetrator and victim? that is not discovered and written, talked about. Is it still terror? The media 'observer' changes things profoundly, but how? And then there is us, another layer of observers, remote, detached, seeing attenuated signals from far away. Change occurs in us, change that is forever. We are different for watching any of these tele-images. Does one need to see to know the essence of terror, and to even understand it as far as it can be understood? Do we need to bath ourselves in this endless shimmering Light, rather than simply looking into the eyes of the most proximal and give our attention there instead. We are animals, perhaps nothing more than Life expending energy to maintain Life on the planet. Optimization of life-energy projecting itself into the future is not about the life of particular species, nor about the particular individual within a species. Life optimizes Life's projection into the future. This, more often than not, will be at the expense of one species or another and will definitely come at the expense of individuals of many species. Ours is no different. When food, water, space, is scarce, mating opportunities complex, the weapons come out, the teeth, the claws, the iron, the steel. Those able to project power will do so, violently if necessary, to eliminate competition. Are we witnessing anything more than this? JH -- ++++++ Dr. John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD grounded on a granite batholith twitter: @neoscenes http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/ ++ ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
Re: [-empyre-] language/discourse on terror, reporting the virtually true
--empyre- soft-skinned space-- halló -- perhaps better late than never, the flow of late is a bit much for me to manage as I'm editing a book right now as well... too many words! dear all, one can only thank those who have joined so far, and welcome Olga and Pia, and those who like Ana write through their memory pain and evoke the death of hope for human civilization; the destructive character seems to favor the slow or continual, steady collapse of all infrastructures –but John, you don't subscribe to annihilation, do you? annihilation -- no -- I'm too much of a scientist and perhaps quasi-Taoist -- supplementing phenomenological observation with consultations of the I Ching. The dynamic between order and disorder fluctuates at all spatial and temporal scales across the cosmos. And there is neither 'pure' chaos or 'pure' order, only a movement cycling along the line that connects the two (abstract) extremes. so, if anything, annihilation becomes the kernel of coming-to-be. I think often we humans fixate on our own monumental culture rather than taking a long view (we've only been around a few million years, so far all species are more-or-less transitory according to the fossil record). Why in our puny-ness do we think that we are the pinnacle of being? etc... And, somewhere, outside of my spirit, I get suspicious that all the violence is simply what life does to make sure the 'best' survives, and the altruism is a blip on the radar of evolution. Sounds cynical, and it doesn't explain any spiritual sentiments, but if the spiritual is idiosyncratic conjecture unless it's happening internally to one's self, there's certainly no way to 'prove anything'. And so we are left with telling each other stories in order to build up a transitory clan here, by the hyper-mediated network constructed by the military-industrial complex... <>... [Pia schreibt] But you can never say that you are close enough. All the journalists and observers are left behind, arrive late at the scene. To be close enoughto know you have to be the killer or the victim. I think I would take the opposite stance -- to be alive is to be implicated, but more than that, it is to be as close as anyone to anything... the absolute 'beautiful terror' of incarnation... peace, jh -- ++ Dr. John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD grounded on a granite batholith twitter: @neoscenes http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/ ++ ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
Re: [-empyre-] poems, spatial justice, live exchange
--empyre- soft-skinned space-- Jon's indictment is very acute and devastating, and he provokes us to think how to be under this condition, one where we are forced to "grapple with the emergence and dissolution of individuals and lifeworlds near and far, and to struggle with one’s own performances as victim, perp, and witness." Please can we discuss? Pesonally I believe that being a technologically mediated observer is enough to indict myself of violence as much as any perpetrator. This in light of the fact that observing (consuming) remote events alters who I am in ways that are certainly damaging at the least, but also—as I give my attention to those participating in whatever heinous acts being committed—I have added to their power in the techno-social system (a couple blog/thesis excerpts below, ex post facto): "while I have great respect for people who choose resistance as a model for political expression, I believe that more often than not, resistance simply acts as a counter-balancing prop that holds up that-which-is-being-resisted. as a simple anecdote from the distant Reagan era: it appeared that Reagan would take some action — declare a covert war, make an attack on alternative culture, or simply say something stupid — and there would be a flood of artists who would ‘make art’ about that action. this is the definition of (a) reactionary. it seemed, with the original “Teflon” president, that critical actions and expressions, no matter how intelligent or caustic simply built up Reagan’s power. that the repetition of his name in song, discussion, and print only served as a constructive support not for the resistance, but for sustaining the regime. reactionary art. easy to find inspiration (in the embodiment of that-which-is-to-be-resisted), no need to hunt. somehow comforting to have a daily dose of Reagan (or Bush) to get the fires stoked." "In the time of another gritty Haitian conflict: Iceland has only one broadcast television channel. The evening news comes on. In a country with only 250,000 people, the evening news is a point where most other activities cease and folks sit around the television to watch local and international events play out as seen from the Icelandic editorial perspective. This particular evening was during another burst of civil disorder in Haiti. A jittery scene plays out on the screen. There is a hand and arm, the camera is shooting over the shoulder connected to this hand and arm. The side of a head comes into the frame, the camera frame (of reference) is jostling around. There is a ring of people in front of the camera and perspective says that it is a true ring, that the camera person is standing immediately outside the human ring. At the center of the ring there is a single human, kneeling on the ground. There are noises. It becomes clear that the waving hand is holding a weapon. More jostling, more shouting, noise. The hand with the gun is waving around, more shouting, then the weapon fires. The human at the center of the circle collapses. The clip ends abruptly." "I knew at the precise moment that the execution on the screen occurred that the energy, the electromagnetic radiation coming from the television, the reflected Light from the body of that Other, stored on a magnetic tape for some hours, that amplified far-vision of slaughter gathered by that camera and transmitted 8000 km away via several forms of electro-magnetic radiation, would change the substance of what "I" was: that the Light energy would enter my eyes, enter into my energized body-electric and alter it. Forever. It did. I'm lying. I can't say forever because forever has not yet come, but at least until now. This social mediation of reality changed me. I am else, I am Other." cheers, jh -- ++ Dr. John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD grounded on a granite batholith twitter: @neoscenes http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/ ++ ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
Re: [-empyre-] ethology?
--empyre- soft-skinned space-- Hi Alan -- - And I wonder, why isn't sociobiology on the table here? It seems to me that violence is ingrained in being-human; although there are exceptions, most of human history seems bathed in blood. For me, part of the question does involve empathy - how can we so identify with the other, that the torture stops? And The balance between the violence and empathy probably have a break point at the number 150 -- the 'average' maximum number of relations that the human brain is evolved to be mindful of -- the clan-based society... Empathy can extend no further than that (perhaps), except in extraordinary circumstances (Jesus, Buddha, etc)... The rest of those outside the 150 are simply challengers of my use of resources that I employ to optimize the reproducibility of my clan (unless there is an attractive gene-pool-mixing opportunity 'out there'). Those may have to be taken by force. What genetic evidence is there of altruism that extends beyond clan? I know there has been some research in that regard, but my phenomenological observations suggest that humans are, on average and in aggregate, unable to make altruistic decisions on a wide scale (global warming seems to be one example)... Decisions can be made on a smaller scale when conditions pressure such, but otherwise, resource consumption and nest-soiling tendencies are not immediately impinging on quality of life, so, who cares? and so on... jh -- ++++++ Dr. John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD grounded on a granite batholith twitter: @neoscenes http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/ ++ ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
Re: [-empyre-] ethology?
--empyre- soft-skinned space--
There's also considerable violence in small societies, in small towns; and of
this suggests that those social configurations are *not* 'clan' based -- which
seems to be the case in our 'mixed-up' society. Internal 'clan' violence of
course happens when there are hierarchic leadership questions, but those are
probably statistically rare as they threaten the viability of a social unit
(internal violence makes the group vulnerable to outside attack)...
I know when I moved to Iceland, and married into a typical extended family there
-- I was amazed at the family dynamic -- something I'd hardly experienced in my
rather small extended US family. In Iceland, I knew I could make a phone call to
any one of a hundred people and get immediate assistance for whatever. How
strange a concept it was! There sense of family was perhaps a couple generations
'behind' the US's atomized/nuclear families...
course there are altruistic decisions people make at any scale - otherwise there
wouldn't be global charities, giving to flood victims in other countries, and so
But if you compare the numbers and the perceptions that Amurikans have -- people
think that foreign aid is a *huge* number, larger than even military budgets...
when in fact it is actually a tiny number. Much better to imagine we are doing
good whilst killing... And altruism in this case, well, many wide-scaled aid
programs are more based in pragmatics ('fix Ebola over there otherwise it will
come here' or literally buying political cooperation)... And the provision of
abstracted currency support for the remote Other, that seems like very 'thin'
empathy somehow... but so many would rather do that than help a neighbor...
forth. For me, it has to do with picturing the other in relation to the local, a
kind of negotiated logic...
does this seem grim? maybe it's a cup half empty/half full issue. I know people
do kind things, this is clear. Are we not men? We are Devo...
ciao,
jh
--
++
Dr. John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD
grounded on a granite batholith
twitter: @neoscenes
http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/
++
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