I'm still thinking about William Gibson's Idoru, still working on fitting it into the context of his overall work. (I haven't read the other two books from this trilogy yet, but they're on the list.)

One of Gibson's most lauded abilities is his ability to represent the informational relationships and processes as a space: a field in which action can occur. This is most obviously apparent in the cyberspace of the Sprawl novels and stories, but it is equally true of Laney's exploration of "nodal points" in Idoru.

Less remarked upon is Gibson's treatment of technology as an arena in which a new kind of spirituality can occur. (The loa that emerge in the matrix in Count Zero, for instance—check out the final eight paragraphs of this essay for an in-depth review of the way they function in that narrative.)

There are no obvious gods appearing in Idoru, but Laney's facility with information (pattern recognition) casts him in the role of oracle, traditionally an individual based in a specific locality (in Laney's case this locality is data-space) who receives transmissions from gods.

A related reminder here that I really should make more of an effort to read Gibson's blog regularly.

Friday, June 27, 2003
12:15 PM
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I can tell that it's getting warm enough that my brain has begun to turn off. One symptom is that I have actually begun to look forward to seeing the following movies:
The Hulk
Charlie's Angels Full Throttle
Terminator 3

Another symptom is that I've gotten sucked into browsing through Friendster profiles. If you're a Raccoon reader and a Friendster user, feel free to add me to your network. My e-mail is jeremy@invisible-city.com.

When I was in New York recently I saw Friendster-related graffiti on the Bowery. I wish I'd taken a picture of it: it was a tag that said "Friendster Demons!" or something similar. Rabid fans using Friendster as tribal identification? Guerrila marketing? Anti-Internet religious fundamentalist? Your guess is as good as mine.

Village Voice article on Friendster's impact on real-world socializing, found through this interesting-looking "social software" blog.

Related: in this post (which points to the "relational aesthetics" stuff I blogged on Saturday), Test writes: "As our understanding of social uses of the internet matures from 'is anybody out there?' to 'so what are we going to *do* here?', so networked art is maturing from its initial investigation of the form-factors and politics of the network to an interest in how people are using networked media to connect, and participate in social exchange."

In terms of how network media can inspire exchange, you could do worse than to examine Art of the Mix, a site "dedicated to making mixed tapes and cds" which has the nice side effect of encouraging a gift economy among music geeks... Thanks to Dirk for the heads-up on that one.

Labels: internet, networks

Tuesday, June 24, 2003
11:38 AM
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An interesting essay on "social art forms" by Sal Randolph, the woman behind the Free Words project.

Also worth checking out is her Opsound project, which "uses the form of an experimental record label to further explore the idea of social architecture as artwork. It is a kind of laboratory for looking at how artists can release music in a manner synergistic with the internet's capacity to encourage communication and sharing. Opsound explores the possibilities of developing a gift economy among musicians, borrowing from the model of the open source software community." And they want your sounds.

Thanks to Test for the link to the initial article.

Saturday, June 21, 2003
12:14 PM
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See America Right is this summer's roadtrip mix, now available through the Raccoon Mix Exchange. From Johnny Cash to P.J. Harvey, from Sleater-Kinney to Prince, 18 tracks in all, optimized for road performance.

Wednesday, June 18, 2003
2:52 PM
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I've been thinking a lot about this quote by novelist James Flint:

"Our artists no longer try to put us in touch with God and the eternal, but with the infinity of our own archives."

I found this quote on the weblog Test, in this post about the "digital sublime," in which the author writes:

"The sublime is a vertiginous moment - the moment when an excess of visual pleasure leads to a kind of terror, or awe - usually interpreted as a humbling realisation of God's power. In a Godless world, the sublime is invoked by the achievements of science [and] technology."

I have some quibbles with both of these quotes: I think "the infinity of our own archives" is a form of "the eternal," and if one believes in God it is not necessary to make a distinction between God and "the achievements of science and technology"—that's a false dichotomy. It is possible to see the technological as another facet of God's multiplicity, or, if you are of a more pantheistic bent, to see it as another facet of the natural world.

(I have found that this mindset is more common in Eastern cultures. It is summed up nicely in Idoru, when Gibson has Mr. Kuwayama say "We [the Japanese] have never developed a sinister view of technology ... It is an aspect of the natural, of oneness.")

Minor complaints with the wording notwithstanding, I think Flint is right when he identifies an increased artistic interest in media archives, and I think the Test author is right when s/he identifies technology as a potential source of sublimity. I've been thinking of these points in relation to my own process music experiments (which are fundamentally technological but which also feel like an expression of my spiritual side) as well in relation to an album like Philip Jeck's Stoke, where turntables are used to create a rich elegiac carpet of sound from a million human fragments.

See also these astonishing visual interpretations of oscillator patterns by feedback artist David Lee Myers, aka Arcane Device.

"I do not make sounds or draw pictures, but allow latent or unseen forces and processes to present themselves via simple technologies. I select the methods, set the stage, and as the phenomena emerge I of course introduce my own aesthetic judgements to the mix. Therefore the sounds and visuals which are presented are neither completely random science nor the gesture of an artist's hand, but something between the two, and I believe this to be the most effective approach toward evoking meaningful impressions of unseen worlds."

10:01 AM
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Today is the first truly free day I've had for as long as I can remember. I'm in my own home and there are no obligations which are immediately pressing. The really beautiful thing about it is that today is not so much an isolated free day but rather the beginning of a big chunk of free time, two whole months between now and my return to the classroom in late August.

I'm almost a bit baffled at what to do with it. I'm spending today thinking about what I really hope to accomplish over the break, trying to order the things I want to do into some sort of prioritized structure. (I know, I know: everyone should be so fortunate as to have this particular dilemma.)

Big long-term priorities include completing my revisions of the first and second books of Imaginary Year, and beginning to send them out to publishers. I also need to spend my grant money before August, which is going to mean completing a big graphic design project (the money is going to pay for postcards, business cards, and ads, none of which are presently designed). Doing "branding" for Imaginary Year is hard, as there's no obvious image that concisely symbolizes the project. I'm open to suggestions here.

More short-term kind of goals include indulging my current David Mamet fixation (yesterday I watched this and today I'll be watching this) and perusing the website for Here Magazine, an engaging little zine about place, which has been redesigned and now features the full text of more articles.

Tuesday, June 17, 2003
11:48 AM
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As of today, it's been four weeks with no caffeine, with the exception of one can of Moxie that I was obligated to have while in New Hampshire.

At the outset of the experiment I decided that if I went four weeks I'd gradually begin phasing the caffeine back in. So I'm about to down this mug of Earl Grey tea. We'll see if the month off has affected my tolerance.

Monday, June 16, 2003
8:40 AM
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I just got back from a three-week trip to the East Coast. Spent quality time in Philadelphia, New York, and New Hampshire (at the Spring Conference).

I was pleased to find a number of mix exchange CDs in my mailbox upon my return. If you sent me one, expect me to reply sometime this week. A new mix will soon be available: this summer's roadtrip mix, See America Right.

This blog now returns to its usual schedule.

Saturday, June 14, 2003
1:49 PM
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Finished Idoru, still off the caffeine.

Thinking about participating in this online Nomic game.

Updates may be sparse(r) for the next week or so. But I'll be back.

Tuesday, June 03, 2003
1:22 PM
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