[Nettime-bold] [the metaversity] few are called

["Lachlan Brown" <lachlan@london.com>]

> 
> Speed ironically, is so often a symptom of total immobility.
> 

How true, Brad, how true. Arthur Kroker and I had two conversations on the matter
in 1994 and in 1995. I am sure Arthur recalls them well.

> 
> 
> By purposes of general regard, what is the idea of a metaversity?  
> 
> OK then,
> 
> Max Herman


You know Max, those who are called or subscribe will be the first to know.
They will then go abroad in the world spreading the good news of the Metaversity
to all they meet. The idea of the Metaversity is in the teaching. it is also in
the learning of the teaching.

I would hate to exclude cynicism or scepticism from the teaching process - indeed 
I would positively encourage it - as it helps us identify the sincerely
cynical from the insincerely cynical.

A test text: I found this in undercurrents this morning from Pauline of 
White+Mute Magazine

Will the idea of the Metaversity like so many ideas attract ALL of the pigs 
to the trough of potential funding?

---cynically insincere striving snippet---

Dear Maria and Undercurrents,

Thanks for bringing this all �back to basics�. In a way, for me it�s 
possibly a bit too early to imagine what our commonalities are - apart,
that is, from us all feeling quite strongly about what happens on this
list and what it (could) mean(s) for us and all our different experiences.
What I can ruminate on a bit more, and have wanted to on several occasions
over the past months but never really found the right moment to, is what
appears to be the potential of lists in general. Although I don�t believe
many of them come to fulfill it (as here pointed out via hundreds of different
illustrations of their role in consolidating emergent power), their 
potentiality points to a space/place that is at once dialogic and pedagogic.

Now of course that all sounds very well and high fallutin�, precisely the
kind of problematic orthodoxy that a more critical examination of their
role in exclusions, cultural power formations, etc. would seek to expose,
but let�s just go with the Utopian View for the moment. Where - for me
- it gets interesting is precisely in their most problematic qualities,
e.g. their near total erasure of context. If you step back and actually
remember how you first approach a list, how you read someone�s words,
how you might try and imagine �where they�re coming from�, as it were,
you have a 
situation in which a *lot* of empathy is required, as well as a lot of
guess work.

What it typically also means is that - apart from all the other 
cultural/social identifiers we have mentioned before - you *can* have the
old and the young, the classically and the unclassically educated, the
teacher, the student, the good typer, the bad typer, she with oceans of
time, she with none of it, the native English speaker and the non-native
English speaker and the shy and the outrageously unshy talking/typing
to each other - as well as to some imaginary space in which they have
a 
notional commonality.

On a list that, although it has decided to stay relatively closed and 
�constitute� itself according to a non-standard list demographic, has vowed
to explore some very complex (and I mean this on both personal, 
philosophical and political levels) subjects, this means something very
exciting. It means precisely (and again, I say this not exactly knowing
how this list is constituted - so I may be wrong) that people�s differences
can be explored, but not immediately used to place them, and their words,
in a particular category or classification.

Now I know this sounds naive, because it�s important to know in �real�
terms �where people are coming from�. Then, people give so much of 
themselves away the minute they speak/type (I know I do, and did) anyway.
And, for those who own, moderate or are addicted to lists ;) , much about
each poster is probably already known. On a more general level, having
continuous access to any list is some form of privilege... But - again
in the Utopian View - what I find exciting about it is that you have a
type of pedagogy, and dialogue, that exists *outside* of (but in parallel
to) the strictures of schools, universities, places of work, and that
offers the possibility of inter-generational exchange that legitimately
combines personal experience with conceptual, political, intellectual
exploration. 
For me, who had a short and very frustrating (well, at least on the 
academic side) arts school education, lists have functioned to introduce
me to voices, experiences, and especially �link-formations� (I can�t find
a better way of explaining how a post can educate you in how to link one
idea to another, how to explain a cultural or political phenomenon through
someone�s own personal context of doing-and-learning) and as such been
primary educational spaces.

This is not to say that everything I learn on them I believe... That I
never read books... That I don�t learn as much or more from my friends.
Or that each single poster I view as some kind of teacher-god. It is just
to say that their capacity to combine registers legitimately, and to let
people of different generations and levels of experience speak to each
other on something like an equal level, is really important - and something
that should be cherished, nurtured, rather than merely mistrusted for
the sake of some more virtuous way of doing things where you have proper

respect for authority, your betters, and the past - and where you �speak�
on that basis, and never out of turn.

A lot of blabla maybe, but that�s the main thing I wanted to say at this
point.

All the very best,

Pauline.


>After Amelia�s and Diana�s thoughtful posts it may be a good time to change
>the focus of the discussion. So far we have stressed our differences.
>Perhaps we could begin to try to find our commonalities? This is what
I was >hoping to achieve when I asked all of us to reflect on what brought
us to >this list. Amelia commented on the irony of alienating those who
share >similar political positions. How can we bring our resemblances into
relief? >Suggestions are welcome.





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