Re: <nettime> ISEA 2011 fees

[John Hopkins <jhopkins@neoscenes.net>]

Ei GÃvan --

> personally I am not so much interested in that for the moment, and would rather
> opt for going to smaller and more DIY organizations, with a fresher attitude and
> focus, and not burdoned by its predefined mission, curriculum or status. there
> are a couple of those gathering places but too few and what we need here is more
> diversity for sure...

Statements like this bring me to wonder why it is in the first place thatpeople 
are compelled to seek mass audiences, mass accumulations of people in order to 
either be told what is interesting, or tell Others what is interesting.  The 
most interesting question in this is the scalar value.  How many people do you 
need in order to have an inspiring and life-changing encounter?

I would suggest that you need only one other.  And, proceeding from there, there 
is a strong negative correlation between deep human encounter and greater 
numbers.  Clearly human social systems have collectivity and 
one-speaking-to/for-many-Others as core requirements for the functionality of 
the system, but why should any particular individual see this as a necessity -- 
to participate in the one-to-many manifestations?  While, yes, as an audience 
member, I have experience modestly interesting expressions coming from a podium 
impress themselves on my Self; and yes, having an sizable rapt audience is a 
remarkable experience, but what is that in the scope of life?  Is it onlyego 
fodder, to be placed in a position of speaking to many ears?  Is being anear in 
that situation a dereliction of individual responsibility to think?

It is merely, as Ted Kaczynski suggested once upon a time, the drift towards the 
soothing confirmation of hyper-socialization?  This being a drift away from 
idiosyncrasy and a trust in one's own life experience and the relevance of that 
as it accumulates as wisdom in the individual?

Martin Buber suggests that it is in the activated space between the Self and the 
Other where reality, life, comes to be.  This of course doesn't mandate where 
those encounters might happen (i.e., at a conference) but it conversely suggests 
that they can happen at any point where two humans cross paths.

Personally, these days, like GÃvan, I seek the intensity of small numbers. 
Perhaps conference/symposia attendance is just another cost of participating in 
transnational new media "Road Warrior" networks -- where we are forced to 
optimize interaction 'costs' with the network when a big event brings many nodes 
together.  We are victims of our own enthusiasm to reach out, perhaps, rather 
than making smaller and more sustainable lives which contain a private intensity 
unreachable through any collectivization...

etc,
jh


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
John Hopkins, Researcher
Centre for Creative Arts
La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria 3086
http://neoscenes.net/
http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/
chazhop@gmail.com; skype: chazhopkins
AU Mobile - +61 (0)40 696 4610
US cell - +1 928 308 6466
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