| Geert Lovink on Fri, 17 May 96 20:45 MDT |
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| nettime: about Hypernation |
From: [email protected] (Hank Bull) ----------------------------------------------------------- REPORT FROM HYPERNATION "Sovereign nations' politicos will find that trying to arrest=20 networking is like trying to arrest the waves of the ocean." R. Buckminster Fuller, 1983. Commissioned by OBORO in Montreal, with the assistance of the=20 Western Front in Vancouver, Hypernation is a project in art and=20 telecommunications that was initiated by Daniel Dion and Hank=20 Bull through telephone and e-mail exchanges during the last=20 referendum in Quebec on October 30th 1995. Currently coordinated=20 and conducted by Hank Bull, with the assistance of many artists=20 accross Canada, it is intended to address the impact of network=20 technologies on the identity of nation states in general, and on the=20 future of Canada and Quebec in particular. An Internet discussion list was begun at the end of February, 1996.=20 This group and its debate keeps expanding and 80 people are=20 currently participating. Excerpts of the discussions and more=20 information about the project is available by consulting the Western=20 Front Web site at http://vanbc.wimsey.com/~front/ Between May 27th and June 21st 1996, a number of live=20 communications events will take place, employing IRC, CUSeeMe,=20 fax, mini-FM, videophones and ISDN teleconferencing. At Oboro=20 in Montreal (May 27-31), At S=E9quence in Chicoutimi (June 5th), at=20 Inter/Access in Toronto (June 18th) and at the Annual Meeting of=20 the Film and Video Alliance in Winnipeg (June 20th). "The nation state, as defined by borders, passports, central=20 governments and economic policies, is chronically dysfunctional,=20 destabilized by trans-national capitalism, information technology,=20 and the aspirations of indigenous peoples and communities defined=20 over the centuries by language, religion, and art. Nation is=20 henceforth defined by culture. What nation are you? Maybe you are=20 several nations." From the opening statement. The discussion takes off from the context of Canada and Quebec,=20 and moves quickly onto international terrain. DER SPIEGEL runs=20 an interview with the German Minister of Justice, Edzard Schmidt- Jortzig. "The internet has no borders. What is illegal in one state=20 will simply be served to the net elsewhere... I think the internet with=20 its unlimited possibilites of communication and its anarchistic=20 structure is one of the most amazing challenges the state currently=20 has to face. Faster than we would have thought, the traditional=20 national state will prove obsolete." The idea of the global citizen in=20 the internet, who no longer has to cope with national ideas, is a nice=20 vision, he says, but still very unrealistic. For some time, national=20 states would remain authoritative and defend their function. "But I=20 am afraid that this stuggle will eventually fail." Leaking through the borders of nation states, are nomads, networks,=20 diasporas, genders, triads, refugees. The nation state, construct of a=20 patriarchal imagination, is circumvented, if not rejected outright, by=20 many who prefer to define themselves as First Nations, Queer=20 Nation and and now Netland, not unlike the independent black=20 nation in America proposed by Malcom X. Images of community, based on shared interest, gender,=20 sexuality-are they enough to define a nation? Yes, if their=20 members say so. The Slovenian industrial band, Laibach, starts its=20 own nation, the NSK State, issuing passports (that people have=20 actually used successfully), postage stamps and currency, "based on=20 the principles of no borders, no nationality and so on." Faced with=20 the urgency and compromise of Slovenia's transformation, they=20 "only feel comfortable in the Utopian states that we can create=20 ourselves." The semi-detached parody of political realities.=20 "Territoires Nomades", a project of le lieu, a group from Quebec=20 City, also involves handing out passports and inscribing citizens.=20 The Hypernation discussion rejects the trope of staking a claim to=20 some virtual territory, of recreating the nation, or finding its=20 'equivalent' in cyberspace. "I do not want to participate in the=20 creation of a nation in cyberspace. It is an oxymoron. I propose=20 that we ask: what is culture in cyberspace?" Peter Sandmark.=20 "Communities I can dig," says Pam Hall, "collectives I can ralate=20 to, but 'nations' seem like board games of the male god... In=20 cyberspace, perhaps there is an opportunity to meet the 'curious=20 other' and bond/build/bridge on the basis of consensual=20 participation... I find those things more present in 'neighbourhood',=20 regional terrains of commonality, and little groupings, not in big=20 ideas about the nation state. All nations are imaginary constructions. They are a collective=20 fantasy, depend on a border, and the creation of an outside, an alien=20 unknown. How to resolve the frontiers. It's a framing problem=20 really: how can you have two works of art inside a single frame?=20 There must be a way. But Hypernation also rejects the idea of "one=20 planet one nation" (complete with space aliens as foreigners.) =20 Difference is important, a wealth of cultural diversity, ideally=20 ensured on the net by the difference of languages. Will English,=20 with a California accent, become the lingua france of the net? "I agree with cybercitizen Peter, were it not that I am left hanging=20 desperately to the notion of nation as the last stand against=20 American consumer culture." Ken Anderlini, writing from=20 Vancouver.=20 Corporate powers rule. "As capital becomes more and more mobile=20 the worker, the citizen, the definable by place culture and the nation=20 state itself becomes a side show of the transit and speed of power."=20 Oliver Hockenhull.=20 "Ethnic cleansing is done by accountants according to IMF=20 sanctioned economic models. Clean. Unplug the old and sick." Ken=20 O'Heskin.=20 "Am I paranoid to feel that there's astonishing parallels between=20 Germany pre-WWII and the US now?" Ardelle Lister. "To articulate the past historically does not mean to recognize it 'the=20 way it really was'. It means to seize hold of a memory as it flashes=20 up at a moment of danger... Only that historian will have the gift of=20 fanning the spark of hope in the past who is firmly convinced that=20 even the dead will not be safe from the enemy if the enemy wins. =20 And this enemy has not ceased to be victorious." Walter Benjamin.=20 (Yes, the compiler of citations himself returns, on a listserv.) An oscillation between skeptical and optimistic, between uptopian=20 and dystopian visions of the the future, affects this list as it does=20 many. There is nothing approaching consensus, but the discussion is=20 at least willing to dream of a new democracy. "Synarchy, or synchronous, synthetic anarchy, involves individuals=20 linked technologically, socially, collaboratively, and professionally=20 in organic spontaneous relationship webs instead of linearly defined=20 or institutionally directed roles. Synarchy is an non-organizational=20 non-structure (network) based on the principles of a responsible,=20 synchronous, creative, caring, coordinated anarchistic and artistic=20 involvement. Making this anti-system possible is computer assisted=20 community networking, facilitating intercommunications within the=20 nomadic virtual tribe. Not a collectivist or industrial model=20 cooperative, there are no meetings, no dues, no qualifications=20 except the self-declaration of participatory engagement. I network=20 therefore I am." Derek Dowden. It is difficult putting words to something only now coming into=20 being. The image of a spiral, or helix, is invoked to descibe this=20 evolutionary movement, this new nation. The spiral metaphor leads=20 through poetry, fiction and eventually to Bronze Age Gaelic culture=20 initiates crawling naked through a spiral tunnel dug into a barrow,=20 or some such earthworks. Net spelunking. At one point even the=20 name destabilizes, morphing into Hybernation, Hemponation,=20 Ruination, Slow Sedation, Fast Sedition -- as if the very act of=20 fixing a name to something is a capitulation that our distributed =20 identity can no longer support.=20 "It's the connection between the world and knowledge, between=20 ideas and things, that is really at stake here, for it is our structures=20 of knowledge that are most radically shifting as a result of=20 massively networked culture." Michael Century.=20 The world and knowledge. Here in Hypernation, world means=20 Land. As identity becomes hybrid, and distributed over the the net,=20 how does that change our ecology, the relationship of human=20 community to the land and to other beings? In April, signatures,=20 copyright, the ownership of words become an issue.=20 "Who tills the land owns the land," said Emiliano Zapata. Does=20 anybody really own the land, or is it all usurped? Nationalism is=20 really a local response to imperial oppression. Zapata's, like all=20 agrarian revolutions had the removal of a coercive landlord class as=20 its chief agenda item. It sounds like the contemporary Zapatistas=20 want to move it ahead a notch. The current principle of Aboriginal=20 Title could function as a pointer. It resists ownership of the land. It=20 says rather, "We are the custodians of the land." Can Aboriginal=20 Title permit the possibility of several nations living together on the=20 same territory. Can it recognize nations in motion, nomadic,=20 traversing the land.=20 "I agree that the land is not owned but would add that we are the=20 land; we exist because of the natural process of transforming one=20 life form into another; from rock comes soil comes plant comes=20 animal comes human" Bob Ewing. "Here [on the net] is the mind-world of the people. An abstract=20 world where material objects are replaced by ideas. An anarchical=20 everyone's world with an ethos based on sharing. Long may it stay=20 so. It is the revolution." Samela Harris. Meanwhile, copyright tightens its grip on the planet. Nationalist=20 institutions and the real powers behind them (real power is oil,=20 electricity, coal, nuclear) are still masters on the net. The hierarchies=20 are stronger than ever. Just look at the way your computer handles=20 files and algorithms. Far from decentralizing things, electronic=20 communications, on cables that run along the old railway and=20 automobile rights of way, have concentrated power like never=20 before. At this point there is a sense of melancholy longing about=20 Hypernation. Where is home? Are we exiles in this space? Or is=20 this indeed the site of some great upheaval, a huge turning point in=20 human history, like the invention of agriculture? The net transcends=20 borders, escapes all attempts to control it, deals a post-money=20 economy, and functions, finally, as a massive, entirely innocent, and=20 even unconscious subversion of the existing organization of power.=20 It is easy, and irresistibly tempting, to dream. Geert Lovink calls it a=20 "universal mirror of collective wish production." The net is a=20 desiring machine. What's needed is a "fusion of collective desire=20 and revolutionary organization" Felix Guattari.=20 Tonight, finishing this report, I check for new messages: "All kinds=20 of wonderful things and ideas happen in dreams ... and the net is as=20 close to a dreamscape as I can imagine. I have been sitting in front=20 of a machine like this for as long as I can remember and dreaming=20 my dream across the planet with whomsoever happened by. It is the=20 dream of the ham radio freak, the hacker, the artist ... There was a=20 time when I expected a networked utopia -- a time when we would=20 ALL be "connected" in digital Valhalla ... connected by our=20 fingertips on the keyboard. The remarks above show that I expect=20 that dream to remain a dream ... it was the dream of a "white,=20 middleclass, reasonably educated English speaker" (who does not=20 happen to live in California).... The ~desire~ remains." Robert=20 Adrian. "Politics is the science that teaches the people of a country to care=20 for each other." William Lyon Mackenzie, Canada, 1836 ---------------------------------------------------------- These notes are compiled in Vancouver by list moderator,=20 Hank Bull <[email protected]> Information about Hypernation may be found at=20 http://vanbc.wimsey.com/~front/ You may join the list by sending email to [email protected] with the message: subscribe hypernation ------------------------------------------------------------- Hypernation Zone autonome de recherche, de cr=E9ation et d'=E9change. What is a nation in cyberspace? -------------------------------------------------------- -- * distributed via nettime-l : no commercial use without permission * <nettime> is a closed moderated mailinglist for net criticism, * collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets * more info: [email protected] and "info nettime" in the msg body * URL: http://www.desk.nl/nettime/ contact: [email protected]