[NetBehaviour] (Putting up a piece from a couple of day ago)

Tue Jun 8 17:44:34 CEST 2021

I was a bit puzzled when Alan wrote that -empyre a list where many of us
belong and has participated for more than ten years is about politics. Did
I misread you Alan? That’s the difficulties inherent to have English as
third language :) I feel I sometimes misses nuances and shades.
Because for me, a former political prisoner, everything is political, the
way Furtherfield was created their work to put street art and digital
creation in the first place, etc. This list is for me a political list as
-empyre. They are managed differently but for me it’s a formal difference
not a crucial one.
I should love Netbehaviour to renew itself from bottom up and find in our
own practice and work the tools for a change. But not a cosmetic change but
a change in a deep sense.
If not we risk to do what Burt Lancaster said in il Gatopardo, Lampedusas
great novel and a great movie:
“ We must change something to keep the things as they are”.

Cheers
Ana

On Tue, 8 Jun 2021 at 06:25, Alan Sondheim via NetBehaviour <
netbehaviour at lists.netbehaviour.org> wrote:

> Hi Ruth,
>
> I think you misunderstand, or I do. For me it is a Commons, absolutely,
> precisely because it's not steered by anyone. Steering is restrictive; it
> becomes something else, you're asserting power, of course, as list owners.
> It's been running fine for everyone I've talked to. I think when you say
> "feel the shape of the community" that also implies perhaps that you want a
> different sort of commons, where you alter that shape.
>
> None of us want to let it go and as far as I can tell, none of us have
> felt we couldn't post or threatened or that we needed guidance or anything
> else. There are lists that have tried that - Poetics, which ultimately
> collapsed; the old Fiction of Philosophy list which I ran and tried to
> structure, and so forth. I can find that sort of thing even on Facebook.
>
> Clearly we have different ideas of the Commons; mine is similar to occupy,
> comes from bottom up; yours is top down. I never meant to imply by the way
> that you should steer the list, just the opposite.
> It has to do with power, and clearly you and Marc have that and are
> dissatisfied with what others find valuable and enjoy, a community from the
> bottom up, and one that's pretty self-regulating.
>
> If you let it go, there's no ceremony, it's a disaster based on your
> decisions, not the members of the list. If it's that you're tired of
> running it, because of technical issues, I'm sure a small group of us could
> take that over; it's not difficult.
>
> Best, Alan, getting increasingly despondent over all of this. And now I
> have a close relative who has cancer, I might drop out. Argh.
>
>
>
> On Tue, Jun 8, 2021 at 4:57 AM Ruth Catlow <ruthcatlow at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Dear All!
>>
>> Firstly, Alan I also love your posts -the pattern which I think of as an
>> art ping, and the content (when I watch, listen, read it) is a portal into
>> your art practise which I really enjoy and value.
>>
>> I also think that Alan has a point in saying that Marc and I should
>> provide a steer as list owners. I have a few ideas that I will share at the
>> weekend (it's a hardcore project week this week for me).
>>
>> But in the meantime keeping the conversation open is allowing us to see
>> and feel the shape of the community. It has been so useful to hear from
>> Gretta, Patrick, Paul, Ana, Annie, Johannes, Erik and all. More please! We
>> also appreciate various offers from people to contribute financially to the
>> lists upkeep.
>>
>> We regard the value in this list as the strange undefined collective
>> property of everyone who has ever contributed. But as it is currently set
>> up, it is not a Commons. I personally, would like it if it were.
>> We can also consider Annie's suggestion of letting it go. But if that's
>> the way it goes (and this is not what I want) it should certainly not be
>> done casually, rather with the ceremony befitting the splendour of all that
>> has ever occurred here ; )
>>
>> I do want to reassure you Alan, we will make no sudden moves! The whole
>> point of discussing this now is that it is not an emergency. We just need
>> to work out who "we" are and what "we" want.
>>
>> Warmly
>> Ruth
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Jun 7, 2021 at 11:48 PM Alan Sondheim via NetBehaviour <
>> netbehaviour at lists.netbehaviour.org> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Hi Everyone,
>>>
>>> I think we need some guidance; both Ruth and Marc seem unhappy with
>>> Netbehaviour as it is.
>>> I'm not sure myself whether to post or not.
>>> Certainly calls could be put out to all the subscribers to indicate
>>> whether they want to continue as such or not.
>>> It's all about "as such or not" I think. Technically, Marc and Ruth are
>>> list-owners, I believe. Ultimately they're responsible for the direction of
>>> the list in the sense that any of us could be unsubscribed at the very
>>> least.
>>> There are times I've had to unsub people and that's always painful, as
>>> would be, at least for us, shutting the list down.
>>> I have no idea what to do. I find the situation hugely depressing.
>>> Netbehaviour may be derailing, certainly as a commons. And the longer this
>>> discussion is drawn out, the worse
>>> things will get, at least that's been my experience.
>>>
>>> Meanwhile I keep writing/performing/worlding, whatever I do.
>>>
>>> Best, whatever that is,
>>>
>>> Alan
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Mon, Jun 7, 2021 at 5:57 PM Johannes Birringer <
>>> Johannes.Birringer at brunel.ac.uk> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hello all. shapeshifters!
>>>>
>>>> just watched Alan's video and also realized it may be the last one, as
>>>> he may not be posting his poetic writing and music here, anymore....
>>>> so I watch it as the last one Alan! thank you....
>>>>
>>>> The conversations about how we might shift this "net- behavior" and
>>>> become more attuned again to what Ruth and Marc may have imagined -
>>>> "a place for free and open artistic experimentation with networked
>>>> media, and community building"  is very intriguing. I just reread the many
>>>> postings here, and am stimulated and confused, loving all the responses,
>>>> disagreeing with some......as it should be. I try to be short;  Ruth's
>>>> parables of the forest (and our poor presence as merely "ethnographic
>>>> peculiarities") inspired me:  >a campfire in some unmanaged ancient
>>>> woodland...>>......>>The woods around the campfire are full of watchers and
>>>> listeners (who knows who??)<<
>>>>
>>>> ...the analogies resonated with me, especially over the last 14 months
>>>> in a pandemic that made me leave academia and spend more time in the
>>>> forest, recording, performing, linking up, in the valley, with my village
>>>> community, inventing new rituals, listening to others and what they thought
>>>> the "latende Allmende" (latent commons, as Anna Tsing calls it in her book
>>>> on mushrooms and living in the ruins of capitalism) might be like. No one
>>>> knew exactly, but we talked, and took our masks off.... and walked along
>>>> the river [see pic]
>>>>
>>>> Well.. what is our "latende Allmende" going to be, with other (younger)
>>>> participants? do we know the age and gender of the members who post here? i
>>>> don't, and it never mattered, nor the the number of subscribers ("we don't
>>>> really know much about us") ? 643,  1625?  59?
>>>> is that true?
>>>>
>>>> well, if the commons are evoked, and Furherfield's new director, and
>>>> new policies or strategic aims (inclusivity, intersectionality, link to
>>>> local neighborhood) are mentioned in the organization's remit, now what
>>>> exactly do you want us to do, in our shapeshifting? Have we not actually
>>>> been engaged....learning/contributing "about what it means to aim for a
>>>> commons of diverse cultures in connected physical to digital realms. It
>>>> requires careful planning, partnership building and a lot of production
>>>> work"......
>>>>
>>>> yes, it does. and we do.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> with warm regards
>>>> Johannes Birringer
>>>>
>>>> ________________________________________
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> NetBehaviour mailing list
>>> NetBehaviour at lists.netbehaviour.org
>>> https://lists.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Ruth Catlow
>> she/her
>> Co-founder & Artistic director of Furtherfield & DECAL Decentralised Arts
>> Lab
>> +44 (0) 77370 02879
>>
>> *I will only agree to speak at events that are racially and gender
>> balanced.
>>
>> **sending thanks
>> <https://www.ovoenergy.com/ovo-newsroom/press-releases/2019/november/think-before-you-thank-if-every-brit-sent-one-less-thank-you-email-a-day-we-would-save-16433-tonnes-of-carbon-a-year-the-same-as-81152-flights-to-madrid.html> in
>> advance
>>
>> *Furtherfield *disrupts and democratises art and technology through exhibitions,
>> labs & debate, for deep exploration, open tools & free thinking.
>> furtherfield.org <http://www.furtherfield.org/>
>>
>> *DECAL* Decentralised Arts Lab is an arts, blockchain & web 3.0
>> technologies research hub
>>
>> for fairer, more dynamic & connected cultural ecologies & economies now.
>>
>> decal.is <http://www.decal.is>
>>
>> Furtherfield is a Not-for-Profit Company Limited by Guarantee
>>
>> Registered in England and Wales under the Company No.7005205.
>>
>> Registered business address: Carbon Accountancy, 80-83 Long Lane,
>> London, EC1A 9ET
>> <https://www.google.com/maps/search/80-83+Long+Lane,+London,+EC1A+9ET?entry=gmail&source=g>
>> .
>>
>>
>>
>
> --
> *=====================================================*
>
> *directory http://www.alansondheim.org <http://www.alansondheim.org> tel
> 718-813-3285**email sondheim ut panix.com <http://panix.com>, sondheim ut
> gmail.com <http://gmail.com>*
> *=====================================================*
> _______________________________________________
> NetBehaviour mailing list
> NetBehaviour at lists.netbehaviour.org
> https://lists.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
>
-- 
https://anavaldes.wordpress.com/
www.twitter.com/caravia158
http://www.scoop.it/t/art-and-activism/
http://www.scoop.it/t/food-history-and-trivia
http://www.scoop.it/t/urbanism-3-0

<http://www.scoop.it/t/postcolonial-mind/>

cell Sweden +4670-3213370
cell Uruguay +598-99470758

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with
your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you will always
long to return.
— Leonardo da Vinci
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.netbehaviour.org/pipermail/netbehaviour/attachments/20210608/6f7c3ff6/attachment.htm>