[NetBehaviour] A campfire in a ruin in a forest

[Annie Abrahams]

What a beautiful text Adam.  Thanks.

The idea of living in the ruins of media art feels akward to me. Media art,
or at least part of the people concerned with it, tried to go beyond the
"art" system where money is the big thing, tried to make something outside
of canons and hierarchical systems. Furtherfield is part of that. Media art
had something revolutionary and I would like to keep that spirit, with or
with out the media and the internet.
Existing in the ruins of art as we knew it.
I wish it could be true.
How?
de-school, re-learn, re-turn, dare again

I would love to have intimate conversations in small groups on subjects
that are important to me, but have no idea how to organise these in a way
that wouldn't be "exclusive". Intimate, means being few, and taking the
time to understand backgrounds, contexts etc. I also wouldn't like these
conversation to be recorded and available to all afterwards. But there
could be a kind of anarchive made by the participants consisting just of
notes and maybe some images. (an anarchive - a potential for continuation)

Two subjects that actually bother, intrigue me are:
- Care and staying with trouble as attitude is excellent, was refreshing,
but isn't it also contra-productive, because it is not directed to "change"
?
- the NFT craze, wh



On Wed, Jun 9, 2021 at 10:05 AM Gretta Louw via NetBehaviour <
netbehaviour at lists.netbehaviour.org> wrote:

> I find the notion of existing in the ruins of media art and the idea of
> the internet as a positive force absolutely compelling - electrifying
> really!
>
>
> Actually I think this is what all of my current work is doing. Thank you!
>
>
> Gretta
>
>
> On 9. Jun 2021, at 09:32, F3ydrus via NetBehaviour <
> netbehaviour at lists.netbehaviour.org> wrote:
>
> Ironically, I broke my long lurking silence on this list earlier today in
> response to Simon's 'cochineal' message, without yet having read the recent
> and ongoing discussion about the list, which included the question of who
> all these 600+ lurkers might be... Last night I had 2hrs to catch up on the
> whole genealogy of the recent explosion of posts, and then it was too late
> to write. I see further indication this morning of 'moving on' from the
> explosion, and a return of activity about other things, which is great. I
> hope another long response on this isn't too disruptive / painful.
>
> Like Johannes I found Ruth's "campfire in some unmanaged ancient woodland"
> analogy extremely resonant, partly because I too have been reconnecting
> with my local physical space + place over these past 15 months. In fact as
> we come out of lockdown in the UK I continue to get further connected
> locally. I live in Cornwall in the far south west and there aren't many
> great woodlands but some beautiful pockets, often inland away from the
> beaches (which I tend to avoid due to their popularity). I live in Penryn,
> an 800 year-old town where the most important work of literature in Cornish
> was written, the Ordinalia - mystery plays, now understood to have been
> played in the round in the so-called 'playing places' of Cornwall, circular
> arenas with raised embankments, in the pre-modern theatre era. The
> Ordinalia were written in a pre-Reformation lay college called Glasney
> College, which was a grand structure built on low damp ground near the old
> harbour (in what was once woodland). Since the destruction of the
> monasteries and the raiding of all the stones of Glasney by the
> townspeople, there is almost nothing left. Just the eponymous Glasney
> Field, a big open space that's been kept clear of construction for hundreds
> of years, and a fragment of an archway just outside the field in somebody's
> back garden. In the remaining woods nearby there are other larger but less
> significant ruins, from more recent times, overgrown and unattended.
>
> NetBehaviour strikes me as more than a campfire in the forest. It is a
> campfire *in a ruin* in the forest. The ruin of itself, of new media art,
> of the ideas of the web, of the internet as a positive force, and so on.
> Maybe don't knock it down, or clear all the weeds, or rebuild it. There is
> something intensely fertile about congregating in ruins. The most beautiful
> wedding I ever went to was in a ruined church open to the sky and floored
> with grass. We need ruins, to confront us with mortality. To remember. To
> connect with deep time. To think about what we want to build, perhaps
> elsewhere.
>
> As for the mysterious lurkers in the dark woods around the campfire, don't
> fear them. We are woodland creatures, attracted to the fire but nervous of
> it. We won't hurt you. I imagine we're pretty much all like me, nurtured
> and encouraged by the all-so-rare atmosphere of conviviality and
> consideration here. These ruins are beautiful and a good place to take
> inspiration, like Ruskin. By all means hold events in the ruin, concerts,
> processions (NetBehaviour Jitsi meets). But don't fear the forest, its
> labyrinthine paths and trackless undergrowth. Fear the clearing of woodland
> for commerce and the fenced path. The saddest forest experience I ever had
> was going to see the Old Oak in Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire. There was
> a low-fenced path from the visitor centre to the fenced-off tree. It was
> clear where to go.
>
>
> Warmest regards to you all,
>
> Adam Russell
> leelatrope.com
>
>
>
>
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