[NetBehaviour] NetBehaviour Digest, Vol 119, Issue 2

Thu Aug 30 15:14:19 CEST 2007

Hi Ana, Marc and Helen,

This thread has really made me think about practices of resistance  
that generate discourse and those that don't.

Recently, the group with which I collaborate (De Geuzen) was in  
Aberdeen and we worked with a group of women on a housing estate.   
These women meet once a week either to chat together about personal  
issues or they organize workshops with their social worker.  Their  
workshops cover a wide range of concerns in their lives.   For  
example, they have been taught their rights in terms of dealing with  
debt collectors (i.e.. what collectors can and cannot legally do),  
even how they can physically keep the door closed when someone  
forcibly tries to enter.  They've also organized cooking classes that  
focussed on basic nutrition, and in the context of our workshop, we  
made commemorative plates of the women they most admired.  What was  
striking when talking to them was that while the term "feminism" was  
noticeably absent in our discussions, in practice, it was palpably  
present everywhere.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I see feminism all around me  
even when it is not named as such.  From Gillian Welch launching her  
own record label in the face of Nashville's macho country music  
industry, to prostitutes rights organizations in Amsterdam fighting  
for  fair wages and safe working environments, to mother's of  
disabled children blogging about their experiences of being full-time  
caretakers....  Currently, there's a lot of inspirational "named" and  
"unnamed" feminisms going on.

Is it enough? Never...  .... but these practices certainly make  
attempts at raising awareness and evoking change....even if only on a  
small scale....... and I still believe ripples can make waves  :-)

Renee
www.geuzen.org

>
> On 8/30/07, marc garrett <marc.garrett at furtherfield.org> wrote:
>> Hi Helen Ana,
>>
>> I think that there are some very important differences which I  
>> believe
>> you may have highlighted already, that still need to be considered in
>> respect of Second Life in contrast to other, grass roots platforms  
>> such
>> as Upstage and Visitorsstudio.
>>
>> There is a Sufi saying that says 'if you want to know what the  
>> purpose
>> of what something is and why it really exits, consider all its  
>> functions
>> and behaviours', and it seems to me that SL's main interest these  
>> days
>> is economical and of course, this is fair enough.
>>
>> But what effect does it have on grass roots, communities and groups
>> culturally and economically? All that energy that artists are  
>> spending
>> inside these environments instead of building more potentially
>> sustainable groups elsewhere must be having some kind of social  
>> effect,
>> what are these effects and should we be concerned about this?
>>
>> Already we know that users are useful fodder to get social networking
>> platforms incomes increased, so that larger conglomerates can buy  
>> them,
>> takeovers by Google, Microsoft, Ebay and The Murdoch Industries  
>> for example.
>>
>> Perhaps, I expect too much in this world and am deluded and  
>> presume that
>> people want more than just corporate parenting. tt is not easy  
>> building
>> things from bottom up, sharing and constantly re-evaluating one's own
>> position, whilst making room for others as a way of practice.  
>> Although,
>> I do think that it offers value and qualities which far out way the
>> 'spectacle' of SL and many of the other platforms.  I sue some of  
>> these
>> platforms myself such as StumbleUpon, Facebook - but I still feel  
>> that
>> what I already share with others has something that is special and
>> different and less disposable...
>>
>> marc
>>> well i'd be interested except for being already over-committed
>>> already in my own virtual factory ...  : )
>>>
>>> i've also been participating in the empyre discussion on second life
>>> & like you it isn't an environment that grabs me. it's been fun to
>>> get to know it a bit better, & to do the gallery tours with  
>>> others; &
>>> i'm really happy with my tail : )  but in terms of a creative
>>> platform i'm much more comfortable & creative in UpStage or Visitors
>>> Studio ...
>>>
>>> will be interesting to see what happens with SL.
>>>
>>> h : )
>>>
>>>
>>>> Very funny, as an old activist (four years in jail, etc, etc), I am
>>>> fully conscient nothing can be achieved by sheer will or alone.
>>>> Bauhaus was the expression of a special time, the Weimar  
>>>> republic and
>>>> it's contradictions, the Factory was the expression of Warhol  
>>>> carisma
>>>> and his need of an arena for his own productions. We need other
>>>> expressions and other arenas, I am discussing in -empyre the  
>>>> value of
>>>> the new virtual worlds as frames for activism and art. Many  
>>>> argue than
>>>> Second Life can transform itself to one of those creative hubs I  
>>>> long
>>>> to, but I have been in SL several times and never been attracted to
>>>> it, a bit too sterile and chic for me :)
>>>> But I am game if someone is interested in a virtual or not  
>>>> virtual Bauhaus...
>>>> Ana
>>>>
>>>> On 8/30/07, Helen Varley Jamieson <helen at creative-catalyst.com>  
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>  please don't wait for it, make it happen if it's what you  
>>>>> really want ...
>>>>>
>>>>>  h : )
>>>>>
>>>>>> I was in Faces myself, but never found it was useful to  
>>>>>> generate new
>>>>>> thinking, it was most linking and socializing among women who  
>>>>>> knew
>>>>>> each other. But it was not a great collaborative place...
>>>>>> I think Marc's Furtherfield, Post.Thing, -empyre are this list  
>>>>>> are for
>>>>>> me the places where I find myself most intellectual nutrition.
>>>>>> Faces was (is?) most a linking to people's projects but not a
>>>>>> discussion place.
>>>>>> I am still waiting for a net Bauhaus, a net The Factory...
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> Ana
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
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