[spectre] a voice for new media in open systems [u]

[Geert Lovink [c]]

> From: "Kelli Dipple" <Kelli.Dipple at tate.org.uk>
> Date: 17 June 2005 1:45:08 AM
> Subject: a voice for new media in open systems
>
> Hello -
> This is an email to a small set of personal contacts and collegues,  
> who I though may have some vested interest in a discussion that is  
> currently live on the Tate site titled C0dE 0f practice (until july  
> 18). Discussing issues relevant to 'open systems', 'curatorial  
> control', 'new media', 'generative, distributed and collaborative  
> work'.
> The panelists, have expressed a keeness for other people to add input  
> into the discussion at large. This online forum format is somehow the  
> opposite of those events you go to, that for one reason or another,  
> end up skimping on the discussion time at the end of all the  
> presentations, when often it is the discussion that becomes the most  
> interesting interchange. Here you have a discussion that lasts for 5  
> weeks. It will only address the issues it needs to address, if people  
> offer input and engage in a dialogue.
> If you do have input - I would really like to see some of you jump in  
> and comment via the public forum. I actually think there are quite a  
> few people out there that might have something to say about the topics  
> under discussion - but it will take some brave soldier to break the  
> ice and make the first post before we will see activity in the public  
> forum.
> I am not trying to bang you all in the head with marketing or self  
> promotion here - I just think that it is important some spaces are  
> made for these debates.
> Do redistribute this to any peers or students, you feel may have an  
> interest or stake in the direction of this discussion, which will  
> remain published / archived on the Tate site afterwards.
> Here is a direct link to the panel discussion - to post a message  
> follow the [forums] tab at the top and go to the public forum ...
> http://www.tate.org.uk/contact/forums/onlineevents/thread.jsp? 
> forum=45&thread=2932&tstart=0&trange=45
>
> C0dE 0f practice
> http://www.tate.org.uk/onlineevents/archive/code_of_practice/   
> (overview for umbrella online season)
> In response to the Tate Modern exhibition Open Systems Rethinking Art  
> c 1970 and the Curating, Immateriality, Systems conference.
>
> How do we identify, sort, search and locate ourselves amidst the  
> dynamic instability of immaterial culture and its artefacts?
>
> In a data based landscape of self organization, automation and agency,  
> and further through the use of social, networked, location aware and  
> ID specific - tools, systems and software, where is the  
> curator/artist/audience placed in the 21st Century? Under what  
> conditions do we collaborate, participate and appropriate?
>
> What social, political and cultural reference points inform legacies  
> of new media, activist, interventionist, net, code, software and sound  
> art? What tendencies, behaviours and practice evolve?
> Here is a cut and paste from one of Charlie Gere's posts, inviting  
> response:
> "Just a couple of quick thoughts in response to Sarah's post. Firstly  
> I think there is an important distinction to be made between  
> collaboration and consensus. The former need not and often does not  
> involve much of the latter. Nor, necessarily, should it always, though  
> this opens up a big can of worms.
> Secondly I am intrigued to know if anyone other than the six of us is  
> actually attending to this forum. Nothing has been posted on the  
> public forum, yet.
>
> Apart from hoping that people are reading the posts and will respond  
> this also raised intriguing issues in relation to the themes of the  
> forum.
> In a sense this forum is not just bound up in a number of systems,  
> legal (invited participants sign a document agreeing to certain duties  
> and limitations), economic (we get paid in exchange for our  
> participation), technological (it is made possible by the on-line,  
> internet technology), cultural (what we say and how we say it is  
> governed by protocols and expectations), but it is also a kind of  
> system itself, which, in the absence of more than the originally  
> invited participants, is closed. Of course the presence of other  
> 'public' participants is unlikely to change things greatly, especially  
> given that those who might participate will almost certainly be  
> self-selecting.
> I suppose the question is how do we open up what appears to be a  
> closed system to elements which exceed it. This is a kind of mirror of  
> much of what is at stake with 'new media' art."
>
> Regards
>
> Kelli Dipple
> Webcasting Curator
> Digital Programmes / Education & Interpretation
> Tate
> www.tate.org.uk/onlineevents