<eyebeam><blast> public space and resistance

[Eric Liftin <liftin@mesh-arc.com>]

The threat to public space on the net will only grow as corps develop 
next-generation high-speed networks to supplant today's internet. Rather 
than the current non-hierarchical distribution of bandwith (relatively-- 
of course most people have no access to hi-bandwidth, but most people 
have equal access to blast and to time-warner), new systems of access 
and distribution will link directly to shopping-mall experiences.

The key element that will set the tone for political involvement is a 
displacement of consciousness onto the net. How will people become 
emotionally invested in the new space?  The consensus is that *local* 
political action can be effective on the net, but on a broader scale we 
should focus on information/communication. When will people begin to 
feel that actions on the net have real consequences? The surging libel 
issues remind us that people still think of the net as an underground 
space of unaccountability.


--

| ||| | || || |  || |
Eric Liftin

http://www.mesh-arc.com
|| |  | |||||  ||| ||
-------------------------------------------------------------
a critical forum for artistic practice in the network
texts are the property of individual authors
to unsubscribe, send email to eyebeam@list.thing.net
with the following single line in the message body:
unsubscribe eyebeam-list
information and archive at http://www.eyebeam.org
Eyebeam Atelier/X Art Foundation http://www.blast.org
-------------------------------------------------------------