Re: <nettime> From Tactical Media to Digital Multitudes

[Are Flagan <areflagan@artpanorama.com>]

On 11/7/02 5:09, "Brian Holmes" <brian.holmes@wanadoo.fr> wrote:

> We 
> intellectual laborers definitely have some scores to settle with
> finance capital and IP, and those are important struggles, for sure.
> But let's try and keep our intellectual eyes open for the ways that
> everyone else is living too.

The first score is of course how "we" are going to get paid for "our" work
as "intellectuals." Our plan of action must be to isolate certain points and
make them scarce by attributing them to the select few that pose as useful
authorities on worthwhile topics. Let us further form close links where we
quote each other ad infinitum to create the domino effect where arguments
fall real nice and everyone included in the chain reaction make perfect
sense. Oh, and we will of course embrace everything and everyone in our
arguments, so the process should in no way be considered exclusive or
exclusionary (although some _obvious_ exceptions will me made, based upon
our consensus). This is not to say that I don't hungrily read or (dis)agree
with you, but not so deep down I know that theory is some bullshit corner I
paint myself into and admire the view.

What happened to AIDS activism (re: GB words)? If I may reinterpret some of
the sentiments about gay activism put forward by Crimp in Melancholia and
Moralism; it is not just the case that it died as a result of gay
neo-conservatives hijacking its agenda and thereby gaining the mainstream
appeal that eventually defused it. The melancholia part relates to an inward
mourning of its own potential; the loss of its own future as a culture of
sexual possibility. Activism, in other words, grew to the point where it
lost momentum and turned on itself as a melancholic impulse directed toward
its past. My metaphoric guess is that the AIDS quilt can be seen as a
pivotal moment, where this particular movement reached a critical mass in
the west and individuation no longer mobilized but returned to alienation
and loss. The from-to implications in the subject heading of this thread may
signal a similar moment for "new media."

Just listen to what people are saying; the post are infused with melancholy,
for what never was and what is taken away. There are reasonings for hope not
impulsive calls for action. So GB's invite for documentary and poetry to
fuse, following the formula for a.g. intervention through formal invention,
is the proven antidote to such a lethargic moment, and it deserves a little
more than an emoticon smirk, despite its predictability. It also asks for
theory to examine its boundaries and to think rather than quote. To
rejuvenate the grassroots, we don't necessarily have to hose the lawn with
another dose of Empire. Activism moves from the specific to the general and
dies.

I know it scares me that some deadbeat drunk [sorry, Mr. Corso] with an
asylum record can capture more insight in a few stanzas than a whole legion
of decorated laureates can in a whole library. To overcome such fears is the
breach of theory. "Our" work as "intellectuals" is then done. "We" can move
on.

-af 

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