[Rumori] idea to port over to political domain?

[Steev Hise]

on Wed, 6 Jul 2005 Bob Boster told me:

->bb> I think if you re-read what I wrote, that you'd find the phrase
->"across-the-board valorization" is a bit of an exaggeration...  I did say
->both "probably" and also acknowledged that it could be just "another" of
->many...

you're right, i exagerated your position.

->other...  From where I sit (admittedly in a position of privilege, but also
->with gang graffiti on my garage), I just think physical geography is less
->and less relevant all the time.  I spent an hour on the phone the morning
->with a guy in Chevak, AK who I have more in common with than nearly the
->entire population of the county I live in (Solano).  And give your recent
->travels, I would think this is true for you too...

to some extent, true, and we've heard about this every since the
'digital revolution' began. but still, physically where our
bodies are will always be the most important (at least until we
learn how to 'upload' ourselves into The Matrix), especially to
the people who have no opportunity to be part of these wonderful
virtual communitites we're speaking of. that is, most people in
the world.  speaking of my recent travels, they have reminded me
of that fact.

but the answer to yr question, who gets to decide who's in your
community, well, hey, congress sets which congressional district
you're in, aren't you satisfied with that? ;-)

->Also, as discussed earlier, just because someone puts one of
->these things up, doesn't mean that your
->hypothetically-outraged-disenfranchised-person-who-lives-on-that-block
->can't take it down again, or point it at a urinal, or even send
->a denial of service attack to the server that hosts the
->project...

true. maybe i should start making black arrows to put over the
yellow ones, or give away free stickerscrapers, or somehting.
hah.  ;-)

but seriously, yes, i can fight anything that annoys me,
theoretically, but that doesn't mean i can't mention that it
annoys me, right?

->I'm surprised to see a champion of radical recontextualization indicating
->that permission should be required for public art making of a
->recontextualization bent.  (Cheap shot I know...but at least it gets us
->squarely back on topic.)

 thank you, i don't mind at all.  but i've never championed art
that intrudes visually on a physical, public space and forces
itself on people (unless it's a response to a preexisting
intrusion, like billboard modification)

and actually, i don't really see the 'recontextualization' in the
project.  it's just... pointing...

but i don't know, don't get me wrong, it's not like i'm totally
opposed. i'm just a bit bothered. i didn't really mean it to
become such a big deal.

i do like what they say in their about page: "Our mission
is to transform the way people view and experience the world by
providing tools to make the ordinary extraordinary."

->bb> As an effort to get us onto another track, was there anything with even
->a tangential appropriation bent on even a single Live8 bill this past
->Saturday?

the whole thing appropriated people's good will toward those less
fortunate than them, and directed it in a not very productive
direction.
here's more of my opinion of live8:
http://detritus.net/steev/mt/archives/000403.html

and here's a critique of the Make Poverty History campaign that
is connected with the Live8 stuff which i havent had time to read
all of yet but looks interesting:
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=74&ItemID=8176

smh

Steev Hise |  steev at detritus.net | http://detritus.net/steev
Donate to the Computers for Bolivia Project: http://villaingenio.org/computers/donate.html
blog: http://steev.hise.org | gpg public key: http://steev.hise.org/gpgkey.txt
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"The income gap between the richest 20 percent and the poorest 20
percent in the world rose from 30:1 in 1960, to 60:1 in 1990,
and to 74:1 in 1999, and is projected to reach 100:1 in 2015."
		- United Nations Human Development Report
-----------------------------------------------------------------