[spectre] not just an invitation to the hive un-launch

[Armin Medosch]

hello

Shu Lea recently reminded us that the purpose of mailinglists is not
only to self promote. At the same time I think it is a valued service
that there are all these announcements on spectre. However, i think in a
supposedly open environemnt such as a list - a sort of closed openness,
protected, but within that fence an open commons - there are still
structures and hierarchies. there are professional posters who hit the
lists hard with their MA courses with fancy names and epochal book
publications, people who are public, in a way, because they post
frequently, but sort of separated, as they never lower themselves to
discuss anything with "us". then there are people who are lurkers, and
according to ancient netiquette lurking is bad. however, quite a few
silent lurkers make up a real "audience" in a best positive sense, a
critical mind of people who actually do read the postings of others.
somebody recently said that, I forgot who it was, that the lurker should
be resurrected as an important figure. I would not maybe go that far but
what I do see is that if I post something, like a couple of months I
posted some texts on some lists, I got public feedback and got private
mail and the PM far exceeded the public feedback. thus, the notion of a
mailinglist constituting a public is very important and not all of the
communication is visible to all. 

now coming to the purpose of this email, there seems to be a hierarchy
also regarding the posting of announcements. A couple of days ago Ilze
Black sent an invitation of the Hive Networks UNlaunch to this list and
she thinks it got stuck in the moderation queue. maybe she is right and
moderators did not let it through. maybe the mail got stuck for some
other reason. whatever. but the mere suggestion that there are
weigthings or filtering mechanisms on announcements on a list whose main
reason to e today is to allow people send annoucements I find totally
astonishing. what are the criteria then for "good" announcements and
"bad" announcements? what, possibly, could the moderators not have liked
about the hive un-launch? I could only speculate on that and I dont want
to. 

coming wednesday june 13 the crew of hivenetworks which includes
artist/engineers and core hive developers alexei blinov and vladimir
grafov who have been in media arts longer than anyone and have with
their computer and electronic skills built the work of many so called
artists will demonstrate the fruits of their labour at space studios in
hackney london (full announcements below). 

the event is called an UN-launch because we liked the ambiguity. hive
networks are not a product, there is nothing to be sold or bought. what
it is, its a "suggestive practice" (I borrow this term from Alexei
Blinov). Hive networks suggest that people get certain mass produced
devices and replace the firmware with hive ware to turn them into
tactical media devices. to make that a bit easier for people who nare
not linux kernel hackers hivenetworks have gone through an 18 months
development cycle and have created HIvewares. Now any sport of medium
computer savvy artist should be able to use it. 

the idea of the un-launch is to have you as a critical audience around
to ask questions and make suggestions which directions the project
should take or to express what you would be doing with it. this is the
second reason why 'unlaunch'. 

I look forward on having a good open and critical debate on the subject
of hivenetworks  with thoise of you who can make it this wednesday and
that this announcement is not drowned out by McProfessors in their
private university sponsored PhD sportscars 

Armin

         

Hive Networks UNlaunched

@ Space Triangle Hackney
129-131 Mare Street London E8 3RH
Wednesday June 13, 2007

17:00 pm: a special reception and debate with the hive-mind
19:00 pm: speeches and hospitalities

rsvp: info at hivenetworks.net

Hive Networks is an Open Source project that has developed a DIY kit for
ubiquitous computing. During an extensive R&D phase, we have created 
Hivewares - a range of software tools that transform industrially built,
inexpensive, small consumer devices into the much smarter species of 
Hive device.

With Hivewares we offer an easy to use media toolkit that creates 
networks that can see, hear, move and communicate using a suite of 
applications that enable a device to gather and disseminate digital 
content.

Now we invite you to explore the current development phase of the 
project and hear about art projects past, present and future. We welcome
media practitioners, curators, organisers and researchers to examine the
project, give advice and come up with ideas for future developments.

www.hivenetworks.net