[iDC] this list

[Trebor Scholz]

Dear all,

Thank you all for an inspiring October discussion. The idea to move some of
the discussion on micro histories of media art to the iDC blog was brought
up. This is most welcome and several people agreed to become co-editors of
the blog. 

In the land of list culture there are much-appreciated forums for
announcements of media art events that are completely 'open' and unmoderated
(e.g. Spectre). Then there are lists that are moderated and topical such as
the "Crumb's new media curating list," <nettime> and many others. This list
is slightly moderated. It does not encourage PR and announcements. It is
also not open to anonymous posts (who wants to talk to a dot?). In addition,
posts of one or two words are discouraged. Who wants to wield through piles
of posts saying "Ok. (-:, F..." ?  There surely is a place for such
conversations. In fact, list culture thrives on conflict but personal
chatter battles are boring (or at least this is not the place for them).
Some people undoubtedly derive pleasure from being flâneurs lurking in and
moving through such crowded environments. But not every list is for
everybody and everything and the balance between openness and closed systems
is difficult to strike.

The Institute for Distributed Creativity (iDC) runs this list and the
long-term vision is to move toward a broad focus on media art, theory, and
education with a particular focus on collaboration and the social context in
which all of this plays out. The idea is not to 'cyberbalkanize' but to
create a concentrated network of people who can share ideas/content in this
area. But it's also open to the discoursive urgencies of the day. There are
more than 500 subscribers on this list right now but it's not about a sky
climbing competition of numbers. The discussion is not necessarily better if
you scale up, if you are among thousands of people. It's more like a "ruin
in reverse," to use Robert Smithson's term-- it's a morphing environment--
subscribers bring their interests to the mix and debate flourishes, others
will realize that it is not for them and will leave. It will flame up at
times and send only smoke signals at others; an armada today, a small vessel
tomorrow.          
     
So, I got some guidelines straight before Robbin adds me to the censorship
database of Muntadas' "File Room." Robbin's post announced a residency
program. We don't even announce iDC events or calls on this list and also
don't post those of others. We support The Thing in New York wholeheartedly!
Wolfgang Staehle has selflessly supported many, many media artists for
almost a decade! The Thing's BBS is part of media art history. The iDC and
The Thing (TT) have collaborated on several events. And we appreciate TT
hosting this list!

Trebor