rough guide to connected / disconnected society (for courses)
(more holes than wholes here)
stages of networking:
A degree zero to telegraphy: cohering with the obdurate/analogic real. to
get from here to there: move from here to there. cross the rubicon. slip-
pages: smoke signals, voice, military bugles, etc. but not enormous. this
is the world before the jump-cut. industrial revolution. local knowledge.
bullae, tablet, mail.
B degree 1/2 to telephony: linear non-redundant communication, voiceless,
abstracted. where wire is, communication is; the obdurate/analogic appears
in the form of linear connectivity: from here to there, is wire. morse and
other codings tending on one hand towards universal standards and on the
other towards local compaction. mass industrialization. regional know-
ledge. visual telegraphy, telegraph, pony-express. digital loom, early
digital constructs. diorama, inert real-time special effects. concepts of
class consciousness, alienation.
C degree 3/4 to internet: multiplexing, voiced, incipient digital communi-
cation. beginnings of satellite technology. party-lines, cb and ham radio
- carriers are abstracted, but voice returns the analogic, presencing of
the body. connection almost always appears to be one-to-one. start of
internet, fidonet, bbs, buffered news including radio and television. the
social characterized by intensifications and delays. fordism, beginnings
of post-fordism, communication-mode community. nation-centrism, patriot-
ism. airmail, telegram, tickertape. vacuum tube, mercury delay lines,
mainframes, beginnings of protocol suites. role-playing games. inert and
buffered special effects. concepts of mass society and culture industry.
D degree 1: internet: universal abstracted digital connectivity, construc-
ted truth and truth values. web 2.0, beginnings of universal interfacing,
community, connectivity. hidden costs of industrialization 'elsewhere':
universal exploitation as well. (inauthentic) transparency of time and
space, collapse of histories into micro-histories. what might have been
the simulacrum or society of the spectacle becomes everyday life. capital,
communication, data-base, and body are one. universal knowledge for those
who have both economic and cultural capital. email, online communities and
virtual worlds. digital special effects, buffered and non-buffered.
concepts of identity theft, conspiracy, matrix, singularity.
E degree > 1: information-mass, mass individuation, encapsulation of
history, tottering eco-systems, populations, massive extinctions, mass
starvation, and so forth. 'the wobbling pivot.'
degrees of disconnect: this is a mapping of 'degrees of separation' with
dual tendencies:
1. towards the elimination of alterity in favor of protocol-relationships.
complex relation with capital, personal accumulation; local, national, and
international knowledge, sequestered fundamentalisms. accommodation to
power. (exceptions abound.)
2. towards clandestine, hidden, or effaced alterity and analogic labor,
governance, regional knowledge. top-down multinationals, regional con-
flicts, gangsterisms, overpopulation, open fundamentalisms. (exceptions
abound.)
as with lyotard, we look entanglement of 1 and 2, and of network degrees.
these are better more experimental saz
i tend to do things beyond my capability, or rather to extend myself until
things begin to break down. i hear them in my head, not in my fingers.
it's frustrating - my nails are a mess. but on these two pieces i found
workarounds and they sound the way i heard them, just so. they're also
using an interesting scale, among other things - not to mention some odd
techniques.
and i knew they worked because i stopped thinking about the techniques, or
rather would release one, and then let my hands take over autonomously,
i'd slide from one to another like this, something similar to tantra, a
conjuring and generating. rarely completion, but here it surrounds me.
http://www.alansondheim.org/sazzz1.mp3
http://www.alansondheim.org/sazzz2.mp3
note - correction to essay on connected / disconnected society; the last
line should read:
as with lyotard, we find entanglement among 1, 2, and network degrees A-E.
apologies, Alan
rough guide to connected / disconnected society : REVISED
(more wholes and holes here)
stages of networking:
A degree zero to telegraphy: cohering with the obdurate/analogic real. to
get from here to there: move from here to there. cross the rubicon. slip-
pages: smoke signals, voice, military bugles, etc. but not enormous. this
is the world before the jump-cut. industrial revolution. local knowledge.
bullae, tablet, mail. analogic truth values located in obdurate-inert.
there is here here. use value conflated with exchange value.
B degree 1/2 to telephony: linear non-redundant communication, voiceless,
abstracted. where wire is, communication is; the obdurate/analogic appears
in the form of linear connectivity: from here to there, is wire. morse and
other codings tending on one hand towards universal standards and on the
other towards local compaction. mass industrialization. regional know-
ledge. visual telegraphy, telegraph, pony-express. digital loom, early
digital constructs. diorama, inert real-time special effects. concepts of
class consciousness, alienation. truth values located in obdurate-inert -
hermeneutics of truth. there is there there. exchange value, capital.
C degree 3/4 to internet: multiplexing, voiced, incipient digital communi-
cation. beginnings of satellite technology. party-lines, cb and ham radio
- carriers are abstracted, but voice returns the analogic, presencing of
the body. connection almost always appears to be one-to-one. start of
internet, fidonet, bbs, buffered news including radio and television. the
social characterized by intensifications and delays. fordism, beginnings
of post-fordism, communication-mode community. nation-centrism, patriot-
ism. airmail, telegram, tickertape. vacuum tube, mercury delay lines,
mainframes, beginnings of protocol suites. role-playing games. inert and
buffered special effects. concepts of mass society and culture industry.
truth values entangled with media, embedded in obdurate-inert, protocol
statements. there is here there. abstract exchange, trans-capital.
D degree 1: internet: universal abstracted digital connectivity, construc-
ted truth and truth values. web 2.0, beginnings of universal interfacing,
community, connectivity. hidden costs of industrialization 'elsewhere':
universal exploitation as well. (inauthentic) transparency of time and
space, collapse of histories into micro-histories. what might have been
the simulacrum or society of the spectacle becomes everyday life. capital,
communication, data-base, and body are one. universal knowledge for those
who have both economic and cultural capital. email, online communities and
virtual worlds. digital special effects, buffered and non-buffered.
concepts of identity theft, conspiracy, matrix, singularity. truth values
sublimated, ostensibly located in obdurate-inert, protocol statements.
truth values surface as binary constructs. on one hand, digital universal
abstraction - on the other, the truth (setting) of the pixel or smallest
element. the analogic returns in the form of the pixel within its
potential well. there is no there there. there is no here here. phantom
capital.
E degree > 1: information-mass, mass individuation, encapsulation of
history, tottering eco-systems, populations, massive extinctions, mass
starvation, and so forth. 'the wobbling pivot.' truth values mediated and
remediated from the obdurate inert. there is no there. there is no here.
remediation of capital, phantom capital.
degrees of disconnect: this is a mapping of 'degrees of separation' with
dual tendencies:
1. towards the elimination of alterity in favor of protocol-relationships.
complex relation with capital, personal accumulation; local, national, and
international knowledge, sequestered fundamentalisms. accommodation to
power. (exceptions abound.)
2. towards clandestine, hidden, or effaced alterity and analogic labor,
governance, regional knowledge. top-down multinationals, regional con-
flicts, gangsterisms, overpopulation, open fundamentalisms. (exceptions
abound.)
as with lyotard, we find entanglement among 1, 2, and network degrees A-E.