Re: <nettime> Funding Digital Culture

[Stephen Pusey <scp@plexus.org>]

<tbyfield@panix.com> At 02:52 PM 3/8/98 -0500,:

>Hm. To begin with, I hope we can dispense with this unfortunate metaphor
>of "sucking at the corporate teat": 

	Sorry if I offended anyones sensibility here.  I have nothing against
teats, may they proliferate and nourish all of us.  Nor was I implying that
there was anything inglorious or indignified about sucking on them, to each
his own.  I believe the phrase I used was "sucking at that ONE corporate
teat" inferring a criticism of reliance on not all, but a singular source
of nourishment.

	Though your vernacular is amuzing, you construe from my text much more
than is actually stated.  I am certainly sceptical of the way this drama
has been presented and discussed on the various listservs - the artsite
victimized by the philistine corporation - because I believe that
partnerships are made with some knowledge of who or what is being dealt
with, and a calculation of the likely consequences.

	Your comment about location is very interesting.  What constitutes a
networked entity and where is it located?  At the points of broadcast or
reception?  And of course, all of these names artnetweb, PLEXUS, The Thing,
etc, are but temporary and formative identities that propose indeterminate
perspectives at various times in the shifting milieu of digital culture.
The types of individuals that instigate these projects, are themselves a
guarantee against institutionalization, of that you can be assured.  
Furthermore, my proposal to use an association like digicult (FDC) as a
focal point for lobbying of governments on behalf of digital culture,
should not be interpreted as a move towards insitutionalizing the process.
Such an entity would have its form and policy shaped by an internetworked
community of cultural practicioners and would exist only as long as they
wished it to.  Again, the location for such an association would be its
networked community.  Part of its charter could be the subversion and
persuasion of funding agencies worldwide towards an awareness and support
of a critical digital culture.




PLEXUS Art and Communication
"only connect ..."
http://plexus.org
oracle@plexus.org


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