Thursday, October 16, 2003
On Samizdata today
Some wild stuff by HHH on that other kind of community: a response to the tragedy of communalist thought and other heinous democratic aberrations on the natural order. Community in its libertarian variant. A kind of anti-Demos, looking-glass place, complete with thousand yard stare and the 'expulsion' of homosexuals, riff-raff and of course communists.
And I though good quality, surrealist literature was a thing of the past...
Some wild stuff by HHH on that other kind of community: a response to the tragedy of communalist thought and other heinous democratic aberrations on the natural order. Community in its libertarian variant. A kind of anti-Demos, looking-glass place, complete with thousand yard stare and the 'expulsion' of homosexuals, riff-raff and of course communists.
And I though good quality, surrealist literature was a thing of the past...
Douglas Rushkoff has been reflecting on his recent visit to the UK. He makes the point that many of the senior figures he spoke with – mentions but doesn’t name ‘ministers’ among these - seemed “bent on finding ways to prevent themselves from considering new ideas…” Wow, what a shock :-)! Did someone say real-world? Not being a Londoner or Londonish, I didn’t get to any of the talks but I’m not altogether surprised to see that he had difficulty reaching either the politicians or “the younger people” at the ICA.
Perhaps it’s because Britain has been a laboratory for strong centralist government for the best part of thirty-years; first with the emergence of true neo-conservativism and then the move to similarly tinted new-labour and the politics of the third way? There would seem to be a quality of comfort embedded in the political culture over there that has deep roots in colonialism and empire; notions of defending the realm are probably still at work in the machine.
You could argue quiet easily that Britain is in many ways a highly stable conservative state despite the rhetoric of some key policy strategists within and close to the current Government. This in itself causes huge difficulties for meaningful deep-system change. But there's a further irony in what I am increasingly only able to understand as entrenched conservatism in the even most effective UK policy radicalism! One explanation for this would point towards Britain's sophisticated political landscape. And indeed it’s possible that my take on this – being a citizen of a Republic – is not well enough grounded in constitutional monarchy and its supportive machinery. But another thought that recently crossed my mind relates to an unusually high degree of personal investment in networked individualism on the part of many of the younger London based policy activists. It’s there in their weblogs, their publications and the general tone of conference papers I’ve recently caught. This results in seeking to change British political action and policy by exerting ‘do-tank’ strategies from within (DEMOS and ippr for instance).
So, think – ironically perhaps! – ‘In Praise of Folly’ by Erasamus, or in more contemporary terms US President Johnson’s adage about that tent and the act of micturation… Together these would I suspect lead to a rather jaundiced and even icy reception for any notion of simply behaving consistent with some alien ideals about participatory governance rather than searching out the grand narrative of these times and acting on it at the system level. On the one hand Rushkoff’s way is not pragmatic or London-reality enough and is too dismissive of the power relations brokered in a nation state. On the other it doesn’t sit well with a political activism that it essentially polemical rather than lived.
No wonder he seems a bit bruised by the whole thing…
Perhaps it’s because Britain has been a laboratory for strong centralist government for the best part of thirty-years; first with the emergence of true neo-conservativism and then the move to similarly tinted new-labour and the politics of the third way? There would seem to be a quality of comfort embedded in the political culture over there that has deep roots in colonialism and empire; notions of defending the realm are probably still at work in the machine.
You could argue quiet easily that Britain is in many ways a highly stable conservative state despite the rhetoric of some key policy strategists within and close to the current Government. This in itself causes huge difficulties for meaningful deep-system change. But there's a further irony in what I am increasingly only able to understand as entrenched conservatism in the even most effective UK policy radicalism! One explanation for this would point towards Britain's sophisticated political landscape. And indeed it’s possible that my take on this – being a citizen of a Republic – is not well enough grounded in constitutional monarchy and its supportive machinery. But another thought that recently crossed my mind relates to an unusually high degree of personal investment in networked individualism on the part of many of the younger London based policy activists. It’s there in their weblogs, their publications and the general tone of conference papers I’ve recently caught. This results in seeking to change British political action and policy by exerting ‘do-tank’ strategies from within (DEMOS and ippr for instance).
So, think – ironically perhaps! – ‘In Praise of Folly’ by Erasamus, or in more contemporary terms US President Johnson’s adage about that tent and the act of micturation… Together these would I suspect lead to a rather jaundiced and even icy reception for any notion of simply behaving consistent with some alien ideals about participatory governance rather than searching out the grand narrative of these times and acting on it at the system level. On the one hand Rushkoff’s way is not pragmatic or London-reality enough and is too dismissive of the power relations brokered in a nation state. On the other it doesn’t sit well with a political activism that it essentially polemical rather than lived.
No wonder he seems a bit bruised by the whole thing…
Monday, October 13, 2003
Been thinking a bit about creativity this afternoon. There seems to be a lot of talk about the thing this last while. Makes you wonder if it's not shaping up to be the next Big Idea now that dotcom and (over our way) The Celtic Tiger are fading images.. cinnamon blurs; there and then gone, to turn a Gibson phrase :-)
Of course there's been a bit of a long now around creativity in some ways. Jerry McGovern talked a lot about it when NUA was on a roll, and we all sang along to a point...
But something I read in a coffee shop a few days ago set me really thinking about it this time. And the more I think the more thinking I find I need to do!
When you get down to it, there has been some very interesting work on the manifestation of creativity recently. Bits I've come across in the past few days alone would include the kind of mythos surrounding leading-edge design consultancies in the UK - like Andy Law's St Lukes and Paul Thornton-Allen's The Creative Village.
In addition, Demos, the London-based 'think tank', has been giving a lot of time and space to creativity and recently ran an event featuring input by Richard Florida on precisely this topic. Couldn't go. Too much daylife in the way and there's always the nemesis quality to wonder about when considering their events, but I've had a look again through the cyberstuff and the Florida book, and it still reads well.
As usual I'm coming to the forum too late for anything other than gleanings. But, hey, someone has to do the edging... :-) And who knows, I might even get a conference paper out of it.
Of course there's been a bit of a long now around creativity in some ways. Jerry McGovern talked a lot about it when NUA was on a roll, and we all sang along to a point...
But something I read in a coffee shop a few days ago set me really thinking about it this time. And the more I think the more thinking I find I need to do!
When you get down to it, there has been some very interesting work on the manifestation of creativity recently. Bits I've come across in the past few days alone would include the kind of mythos surrounding leading-edge design consultancies in the UK - like Andy Law's St Lukes and Paul Thornton-Allen's The Creative Village.
In addition, Demos, the London-based 'think tank', has been giving a lot of time and space to creativity and recently ran an event featuring input by Richard Florida on precisely this topic. Couldn't go. Too much daylife in the way and there's always the nemesis quality to wonder about when considering their events, but I've had a look again through the cyberstuff and the Florida book, and it still reads well.
As usual I'm coming to the forum too late for anything other than gleanings. But, hey, someone has to do the edging... :-) And who knows, I might even get a conference paper out of it.
Could this be the start of something? Will we finally see who is who and perhaps even know why they do the blog thing?!
Dublin bloggers running the gauntle of public identification :-) Clarence Hotel blog+Pint event... next Saturday 3pm local time.
Dublin bloggers running the gauntle of public identification :-) Clarence Hotel blog+Pint event... next Saturday 3pm local time.
I'm told that a bunch of art & design types at NCAD have been looking over some stuff I did there a while back and are strongly of the view that I'm digitally cool.
I thank you.
2 Euro to the charity of choice please if you want to take, remake, whatever, the ideas... and a rose on Kate's desk :-)
I thank you.
2 Euro to the charity of choice please if you want to take, remake, whatever, the ideas... and a rose on Kate's desk :-)
Sometimes you just get lucky wandering around the backalleys and out of the way places of the internet...
St Luke's -- the real life Blue Ant?
Life in design: "It's about bumping into people for a chat, listening in... No-one ever had a creative idea sitting in a corner..."
Wouldn't life in the office be something else if every office was a bit more like that...
St Luke's -- the real life Blue Ant?
Life in design: "It's about bumping into people for a chat, listening in... No-one ever had a creative idea sitting in a corner..."
Wouldn't life in the office be something else if every office was a bit more like that...
Sunday, October 12, 2003
Been reading Douglas Rushkoff’s latest over the weekend. Like you do when the scene is quiet… More honestly, I’ve been saving it, having downloaded it earlier in the week but then ending up in conference hell for three days. Read ‘Idea Virus’ some time ago and found it absolutely fascinating – which meant I was really looking forward to this one….
So how was ‘Open Source Democracy’?
Very cool. Well worth an afternoon in the big chair with whatever you tipple to hand :-) It’s a well-written, engaging and 95% worthwhile read. It’s thought provoking, enjoyable, decidedly forward-looking and there’s no doubt that the cultural scope of what Rushkoff is attempting is impressive. Not sure I’d go along with James Crabtree’s comments on his own blog and also on Demosabout Big Language, though it is something that has been said about Rushkoff before (on the original publication of Idea Virus, I think): but Bill Thompson’s ‘and yet…’, (also Demos) I can relate to.
For me the real beauty of this peice is in the exploration of the storytelling metaphor as a way into understanding the scale of what’s happening in our world and the careful – and pretty convincing – threading together of thoughts around his four analogies for renaissance. This last bit I found terrific. It works at some deep level as a construct around which to storytell our times. And the placing of this opportunity for renaissance in relation to a search for reassurance 9/11 released upon the world, is strongly convincing.
So why 95% and some sliding towards the ‘and yet…’? I suppose it’s because on a personal level I didn’t find the later part of Open Source so convincing. Yes, there is a frame-shifting move towards the non-local communities that the virtual world allows and yes there are indications that some politicians and activists see possibilities there. But might it all be a bit ‘two tech swallows equals tech summer’-ish?
Perhaps I’m not countercultural enough! Perhaps I’m coming to this a bit too much from the catholic mass rather than protestant reader perspective, but while I’d strongly resonate with Rushkoff’s call for restoring & encouraging broader participation in the internet’s more interactive forums, I’d be a lot more skeptical about the realworld possibility of realising legislative and political rebirth in the context of our networked reality. Order change is not quiet as simple as kicking sand on the campfires and debunking the tribal myth – if it ever was. A point which Rushkoff well understands. And while ‘our’ networked reality is still an unreality for too many people in too many parts of the existing pre-renais@nce order, I would be a bit more doubting about the political side of the project.
Looking back over what I’ve written so far it sees a bit ungenerous and carping. Old world ‘homo academicus’ book review almost! But that wasn’t my intention. I suppose what I really want to say is that Open Source is a well-crafted, challenging read; it’s enjoyable and a bit exasperating by turns. And that what Rushkoff has to say about the cultural side of renaissance in out of the ordinary. The kind of thinking Open Source offers on this is vibrant, fully convincing and travels well – it would connect with much of what Pat Kane did recently in Scotland on E2-Herald for example and echoes a lot of stuff I’ve come across while reading into emergence and policy activism. And Rushkoff’s deep immersion in contemporary culture and its icons just blazes through; it’s good to see C3PO and Darth Vader, PDAs, cyberpunk, and most iconic of contemporary icons – the surfer – in the mix.
That conversation between surfer and cartographer is so spot on as a metaphor for much of our times and the disconnection we experience and cause. A recommended read...
So how was ‘Open Source Democracy’?
Very cool. Well worth an afternoon in the big chair with whatever you tipple to hand :-) It’s a well-written, engaging and 95% worthwhile read. It’s thought provoking, enjoyable, decidedly forward-looking and there’s no doubt that the cultural scope of what Rushkoff is attempting is impressive. Not sure I’d go along with James Crabtree’s comments on his own blog and also on Demosabout Big Language, though it is something that has been said about Rushkoff before (on the original publication of Idea Virus, I think): but Bill Thompson’s ‘and yet…’, (also Demos) I can relate to.
For me the real beauty of this peice is in the exploration of the storytelling metaphor as a way into understanding the scale of what’s happening in our world and the careful – and pretty convincing – threading together of thoughts around his four analogies for renaissance. This last bit I found terrific. It works at some deep level as a construct around which to storytell our times. And the placing of this opportunity for renaissance in relation to a search for reassurance 9/11 released upon the world, is strongly convincing.
So why 95% and some sliding towards the ‘and yet…’? I suppose it’s because on a personal level I didn’t find the later part of Open Source so convincing. Yes, there is a frame-shifting move towards the non-local communities that the virtual world allows and yes there are indications that some politicians and activists see possibilities there. But might it all be a bit ‘two tech swallows equals tech summer’-ish?
Perhaps I’m not countercultural enough! Perhaps I’m coming to this a bit too much from the catholic mass rather than protestant reader perspective, but while I’d strongly resonate with Rushkoff’s call for restoring & encouraging broader participation in the internet’s more interactive forums, I’d be a lot more skeptical about the realworld possibility of realising legislative and political rebirth in the context of our networked reality. Order change is not quiet as simple as kicking sand on the campfires and debunking the tribal myth – if it ever was. A point which Rushkoff well understands. And while ‘our’ networked reality is still an unreality for too many people in too many parts of the existing pre-renais@nce order, I would be a bit more doubting about the political side of the project.
Looking back over what I’ve written so far it sees a bit ungenerous and carping. Old world ‘homo academicus’ book review almost! But that wasn’t my intention. I suppose what I really want to say is that Open Source is a well-crafted, challenging read; it’s enjoyable and a bit exasperating by turns. And that what Rushkoff has to say about the cultural side of renaissance in out of the ordinary. The kind of thinking Open Source offers on this is vibrant, fully convincing and travels well – it would connect with much of what Pat Kane did recently in Scotland on E2-Herald for example and echoes a lot of stuff I’ve come across while reading into emergence and policy activism. And Rushkoff’s deep immersion in contemporary culture and its icons just blazes through; it’s good to see C3PO and Darth Vader, PDAs, cyberpunk, and most iconic of contemporary icons – the surfer – in the mix.
That conversation between surfer and cartographer is so spot on as a metaphor for much of our times and the disconnection we experience and cause. A recommended read...
Saturday, October 11, 2003
Better give this a try, I suppose....
Come in, pull up a ch@ir, kick back a while... let's talk about demystifying technology & having a bit of fun in the digital world.
And here's a wild enough way to start.
Come in, pull up a ch@ir, kick back a while... let's talk about demystifying technology & having a bit of fun in the digital world.
And here's a wild enough way to start.
