Re: <eyebeam><blast> Different Web Art

[Josephine Bosma <jesis@xs4all.nl>]

I was very happy with Olu Oguibe's reply to the threads of the inclusion
of the so-called other and the locality/nationality illusion. What you
write about your difficulty with the other reminds me a lot of
discussions I have been having on a women only mailinglist. The
discussions focussed mostly on the definition of cyberfeminism. In the
case of cyberfeminism, comparing it to your plea, it is not so much that
certain women are placed outside of whatever group, but that they do it
themselves. In essence though, there is no difference. The problem is
the same. When talking about a discourse and presence online, the
seperatist approach makes no sense. It is reductive and paralizing. Also
when one takes a closer look at what the real 'other' is on the net, it
is not so much found in social and political structures as we know them
off the net, but the way the net transforms all issues. The net itself
is the 'other' everyone here is trying to deal with.

Like the issues around 'equal' rights for women and whatever minority
group (non westerners are a minority on the net) also the question of
the preservation of the uniqueness of certain national and personal
features does need a special focus. This is purely the matter of
resisting an appearant homogenisation through so-called Disneyfication
and the influences of commerce and repressive politics. The problem is
this has to be dealt with in a specific kind of discourse, and this
involves most of all avoiding traps. One has to keep a constant
awareness to not fall into the victim/complainer/master/benefactor
roles. Situations have to be continuously rejudged, as well as tactics.
It is not easy, and it can never be clean in the sense that one has to
realise how, for instance, noise, incomprehensible humour and the
different layers of communication that are inevitable on the net will
always trouble the waters of aestethics and ethics. And they have to.







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