[spectre] TODAY LIVE: Geert Lovink & Armin Medosch at De Ballie

[shu lea cheang]

hi, okay, not sure if spectre is ever a forum for discussion
or forever sink into a platform for evant announcement?
lots of happenings, calls posted, events announced,
why do i always get the feeling that i am missing out the whole world?
(or not really?!) but okay, i did catch this LIVE transmission tonight.

I dare myself to post here an impression (and hopefully not get 
moderated out...
as recently just happened !)

The event started out with geert quoting armin's write up
on transmediale 2006, addressing the sinking ship of new media,...
yet, more debate.... all are legitimate and worth round and around
discussion.

but i can not help thinking how regressive this web platform appears.
cool media hot talk brings back the hot pant lady and the machine
monotone (woman nonetheless!!) to guide us through 'interactive'
web questions which the web participants are offered to 'rate' them.
- + fot points and eventually a winner is granted a certificate.

Armin and Geert appears a bit lost as they look up to what seems to be
flickling screen of posted questions and succumb to this omni machine 
voice... wondering how the fuck the machine actually got the upper 
hand at this late date of machine age. but never mind, the machine 
voice seemed to get reprogrammed
in the later half into a more 'sopjiscated' one.
There seems to be an attempt to position the talk show a la Tonight show,
here comes Johnny (as the teaser suggested)... but why? Is media art so dead
that can only be revived by Entertainment industry?

Harwood's tranmitted yet from another space comments, while seems to appear
from nowhere, brings back some senses to me. Then,  It is a relief at 
the final 20 minutes (about) we got to see A+G chatting with seated 
balie audienec, well, our dear bosma and garcia and Eric!! bosma 
defies. a real woman voice, at last.

So, media/medium is not so cool here
talk is warm, the lady or a reconfigured machine in a lady form
adorned in hot pant is not so hot either -  with one foot in high 
heel and another in what looks like a  DIY stand alone form of a 
shoe. what replace her head is yet another media myth.

nite nite
and trust the talk get picked up at the balie bar is hotter than ever!!


sl


>TODAY LIVE from De Balie, Amsterdam:
>
>Geert Lovink and Armin Medosch
>
>at Cool Media Hot Talk Show on "New Media Art Mythologies"
>http://www.coolmediahottalk.net/
>
>20.30 CET
>
>PARTICIPATE ONLINE: http://www.coolmediahottalk.net/livepage.jsp
>
>...........follow live video stream...... post your questions and 
>comments to the speakers: Geert Lovink and Armin Medosch........ 
>vote for the postings of others...... Author of the best posting 
>will win our Cool Media Prize!.........Join us at De Balie, 
>Amsterdam: www.debalie.nl.......
>
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