(This is my FIRST blog post at Culture Lab, on my new research blog.)
(And, this is the ONLY blog post I’ll be writing in the FIRST-PERSON.) (I HOPE.)
(This is a very important question.)
(This is the question I need to be asking every day.)
In terms of my exploration of (digital) culture I WANT to start from HOPE.
Deep down, I am an OPTIMIST / ROMANTIC / IDEALIST.
I am excited by (the emergence of) incredible, technologically facilitated, opportunities for NEW social / cultural / democratic models presented by:
- myriad, normalised, de-centralised, social network platforms
- oft-cited ’second-life’ virtual environments
- democratiZation ov knowledge: wikis, blogs, information-revolution FREECULTURE and tha open-source
- digital RE-PRODUC-ABILITY, de-author(IZ)ed cultural production, unprecedented free sharing ov IDEAS
AND, specifically, I am interested in the manifestation of these new modes in the realm of ART making.
(BUT)
(I am also prone to FEAR.)
(Everyone is prone to FEAR)
(I’m a former luddite and my favourite film is ‘The Terminator’)
(Sometimes, I get out ov bed the wrong-side, and I start from FEAR.)
Plenty of reasons to FEAR:
- new social spheres will replicate and accelerate old (visible and invisible) power-structure-hierarchies, cliques and violence – RESULT – increased GLOBAL SCALE social / cultural /political /economic ISOLATION, EXPLOITATION and ‘CYBER-BULLYING’
- ALSO, inhuman horrors will be made easier by perceptual DETACHMENT from source through technological EXTENSION.
- Challenge to existing 20th Century Copyright methods, PATENTS and INDUSTRY triggers an unprecedented backlash against SHARING (peer-to-peer prosecutions, chilling effect etc.)
- access to technologies and cultural production remains SPECIALIZED whilst elites chat at conferences about ACCESSIBILITY…
- open transparent culture = ZERO PRIVACY (Discuss.) Potential for OSTRACISM, BLACKMAIL, MUD-THROWIN’ and CENSURE is immense and FACEBOOK is just the beginning.
(At the suggestion of my tutor – Jamie Allen – I simply wanted to put these out there.)
(In my next post I will discuss my own strategies for balancing HOPE against FEAR)
(comments / suggestions / responses welcome :-)
(And YES, I am aware of the ‘FEAR—>LOVE’ blackboard scene from Donnie Darko (below) – thanks!)
Sergio Muñoz Sarmiento is an artist who practices art law. He is interested in the relationship between contemporary art and law, with a focus on copyright, free speech, deaccessioning, and nonprofit organizations.
Manufacturers of riot and personal defence shields since 1977, when Arnolds made for the Metropolitan Police the first shields ever to be used in the UK.
Coincidence Engine One consists of a precisely fabricated expanded polystyrene foam construction whose form evokes an amphitheatre. Within this structure, twelve hundred clocks of identical design are arrayed in concentric arcs.
As an interactive artist Rozin creates installations and sculptures that have the unique ability to change and respond to the presence and point of view of the viewer.
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