The Alan Sondheim Mail Archive

Denuded Prims


When one loads Second Life, servers and bandwidth, not to mention
your local machine, might slow things up; the image passes from
incomplete to the masquerade of a replete and fecund world. Here
are a few examples:

http://www.alansondheim.org/rush1.jpg
http://www.alansondheim.org/rush2.jpg
http://www.alansondheim.org/rush3.jpg
http://www.alansondheim.org/rush4.jpg
http://www.alansondheim.org/rush5.jpg

It's the reverse of the hypnagogic, beginning with the blank slate
of antiquated neurophysiology, ending with an ostensible real that
is equally within the imaginary. You see this out of the corner of
your eye, all the time; you don't quite trust yourself, trust your
vision.

"Shattering a moment of intimacy - for me, the Net doesn't do it, I long
for real intimacy beyond this space the longer I'm on-line, closeness,
pressure, of the body against the keys, the intimacy which is touch, the
intimacy of nest, domus, place. Love is the occasion of all, the light
itself floats, transforming the world of intimacy into the weight or
intimacy of the screen - nothing, in short, that is desirable - intimacy
may result after all. But the activity is very different, like formation,
the hunt, the studied mannerist intimacy of speaking, drugging, posses-
sion, the contract. Intimacy forestalls occupation, the experiential. The
writing should be the exposure of every intimacy and secret, should be
exposure, of intimacy, every secret intimacy the secret should shout all
self, the vanishing- point, plane and punctum."