Dear Kate and All,
I was happy to read this post. Not only are the the code, databases, protocols
not neutral, they are political, developed out of military-industrial
complex-capitalist beginnings (I know we all know this, but I felt somebody had
to say it. At least I didn't say "White, male", too. ;) ).
I do think that we can appropriate (or, at least, apply to our own ends) the
software & tools, but I think it's important to acknowledge the fact that
there is that underlying logic.
I'd like to share with you a simple and benign (relatively speaking, of course)
example of what I'm talking about. From 1996 to 2004 I curated/produced a
project called CyberPowWow, an "Aboriginally-determined" chat and exhibition
space. I commissioned artists to create rooms, avatars and/or scripts using
this customizeable graphical chat software I'd discovered, called "The Palace"
(hopefully some of you know of it, http://www.thepalace.com if yer interested.)
Believe me, the irony of trying to convey a distincly First Nations
sensibility using a programme whose name and configuration (many
interconnecting rooms) was based on such European concept was not lost on
anybody! *But*, I felt that this software was still better by far than
anything I could develop. It was extremely user-friendly --easy for the
artists to use, easier still for chatters-- and it already had a large
community of users who became both visitors and technical support. I felt that
these issues should be acknowledged and so included a paragraph which did so in
the essay (which interested folks can read at
http://www.cyberpowwow.net/STFwork.html).
I am quite interested in knowing how you (Kate & all) have acknowledged the
"existing logic" in other projects. I do feel it is important to do so.
Thank you for listening,
skawennati
--- "Southworth, Kate" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I'm suggesting that code, databases, protocols, are not neutral. The tools
> and the medium of new media art are not neutral. I'm not just talking about
> proprietorial software, but suggesting that there is an already existing
> logic that is manifest in the smallest line of code to the most extravagent
> system.
> I'm particularly interested in making work that acknowledges this logic, and
> at the same time attempts to understand and articulate supplementary logics
> that value very different sets of relations.
>
> kindest regards
> Kate
Skawennati Tricia Fragnito
http://www.ThanksgivingAddress.net --new!
http://www.skawennati.net
http://www.CyberPowWow.net
http://www.ImaginingIndians.net
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