Re: <nettime> thumbs (as though there weren't more serious things...)

[6 digit <6digit@mixmail.com>]

Well, there _is_ a point in discussing this, and, no Mark, I 
don't think we should simply sink back into the defeatist all-
money-is-rotten argument. There is no human activity - and, 
strange as it seems, this includes research - which is not 
biased, mediated or compromised in one way or another. True. 
But for me the real issue in these situations is not so much 
who's financing the research effort, but how is this conflict 
resolved in the research work itself. I insist - it _is_ a 
conflict, and resolving it, attempting to generate a 
discourse which will play out against the institutional 
assimilation, is what the intellectuals' work is all about. 
This includes Sadie's research into mobile communications 
funded by Motorola, as it does your writing in the Village 
Voice, and, by the way, it also includes the private and 
public funding which helps Coco Fusco's artistic career to 
develop too.

There are no prescriptions for this - which brings to my mind 
the idea that the way to proceed, in this realm of an 
intellectual intervention in the institutional field, falls 
into the sphere of tactical work. 

On the other hand, all this will be over once I finish 
developing my latest project - Beat the System! 
Fotosynthesize!




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