Yes Armin, thank you for that important new materialist point. In my own
work I have been trying to think through the materiality of art historical
practice. Not the artworks, but the objects art historians use and produce
in their own work. It troubles me greatly that art historical work is seen
as somehow beyond a media criticism of it's own (for example, you can't
have art history without photographs and the means of taking them and
distributing them). So this more tangible physical network has been on my
mind but you put it so much more eloquently. And now to have Broanc
connect this to a film is really very useful.
On 06/10/2013 19:43, "bronac ferran" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I think I agree with Armin, but even further reinforced by seeing an
>intriguing new film at the AND Festival yesterday in Liverpool made by
>Aleksanda Domanovic which is called From Yu to Me, and addresses the
>actual making/building of an internet connection in the former Yugoslavia
>before the yu domain was created in 1989 largely to do with the efforts of
>two female scientists, Borka Jerman Blasik and Mirjana Tasic whose
>profound testimony of under the radar academic moving and shaking was
>mirrored both in the film and in person in Liverpool yesterday. Great
>privilege to hear them speak. They came across as relatively lacking in
>vanity about establishing some place in art or otherwise history ...
> http://www.andfestival.org.uk/events/from-yu-to-me/
>
>I think the film is going to be online at some stage soon, Aleksandra is
>still working on it. It has been commissioned by AND with Fridericianum
>and Rhizome.
>
>maybe just my own perception there is a sort of 'let me show you my vinyl
>record collection' tone emerging here...like the recently dead brought
>gratefully back to life in a muted form, inevitably seems to be missing
>somehow
>the pain of the punctuating flame.
>
>half seriously
>B
>
>On Sunday, 6 October 2013, Armin Medosch wrote:
>
>> Hi Charlotte,
>>
>> while it is surely interesting to recall individual posts I think it is
>> also importatt to point out that many of those posting could only do so
>> because they had access to the net and that in itself was nothing to be
>> taken for granted. A great role in that respect plaid Zamir net which
>> started in 1992 and which connected peace activists in former
>>Yugoslavian
>> states ... there is a wikipedia entry about it
>>
>>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/**ZaMirNET<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZaMi
>>rNET>
>>
>> Another, less well known story is how Serbian hackers ensured email
>> connectivity for civil society at a time when Serbia was under
>> international embargo and didn't even have a domain name.
>>
>> As I have tried to point out in the past, without much success, the
>> material layer of networking also matters. Arts and humanities scholars
>> have a tendency to ascribe too much importance to what you could call
>>the
>> semantic and symbolic layer. No email from Serbia would have found its
>>way
>> to the syndicate list withoute having a route to travel on. Those routes
>> are provided by people who also have cultural and political ideas, so
>>that
>> those human-technical assemblages also have meaning, if you so want,
>> something that should also be considered, hwever, without tipping over
>>into
>> a one-sided materialism
>>
>> a
>>
>>
>> On 10/06/2013 12:40 PM, Charlotte Frost wrote:
>>
>>> So far we've had little mention of the Syndicate list, which was
>>> extensively
>>> chronicled in a post to Nettime in 2001 by founding members Inke Arns
>>>and
>>> Andreas Broeckmann:
>>>
>>>http://www.nettime.org/Lists-**Archives/nettime-l-0111/**msg00077.html<h
>>>ttp://www.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-0111/msg00077.html>
>>> .
>>>
>>> One of the things that I believe was so important to this list at the
>>>time
>>> (and perhaps even more so with some historical perspective) was the
>>>voice
>>> it
>>> gave people of the former Yugoslavia during its civil war. It's common
>>> place
>>> now to talk about how platforms like Twitter break through political
>>> censorship Iran and Egypt are good recent examples but on a list
>>>like
>>> the Syndicate, such freedom of speech could be both a benefit and a
>>> detractor, as Arns and Broeckmann note. I'd love to know if anyone
>>> involved
>>> with the list at this time would like to recall individual posts that
>>> illustrate this difficult period.
>>>
>>> And also more generally if anyone would venture an account of their
>>> relationship with the Syndicate what collaboration its led to, and
>>>what
>>> it was like to lose it especially in light of the comments we've
>>>already
>>> had about how much of loss the Rhizome Raw list was.
>>>
>>> Inke and Andreas, I've BCC'd you in case you have time to offer
>>>anything
>>> to
>>> this discussion on Media Art Curating I can forward your responses if
>>> you
>>> are not current subscribers/are pushed for time. You'll find more on
>>>this
>>> month's discussions here:
>>>
>>>https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/**cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=new-media-**curating<ht
>>>tps://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=new-media-curating>
>>>
>>> All the best,
>>>
>>> Charlotte
>>>
>>>
>
>--
>Bronaċ
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