Bracha
Yes, I think that we can sense this clearly on a basic level in the present
forum. At the same time that the computer seems to bring us together, it
helps keeps us very far apart. Without a very clearly defined problem, the
bubbles of dialogue tend to spin off in an ever widening circle of
directions (this may be positive, but it usually amounts to everybody
tooting there own horn into a vacuum). I also think that it's ironic, that
we have fallen into so much jargon ridden speak defined in such mechanical
terms, that the psychological aspects of the loss of spatial articulations,
the collapse of perspective, and so on is of little interest.
Yes of course VRML is neat, it's cool, but when all is said and down, there
still isn't that much to salivate about, because of the nagging bandwidth
problems. So where stuck with these very minimal interventions and some
absurdly simplistic "chromed" images and/or objects we can twirl around. I
hazard a guess that many probably spend over 50 hours a week in front of
one kind of monitor/screen or another. I recently read that an fitness
company was starting to make machines for computer gaming youngsters, so as
to keep them physically fit. I'm sure it will do well, especially if the
machine can make the games even more compelling. And this of course is only
the tip of the iceberg, there are hundreds of examples.
Information as decoration: Karrie Jacobs has ironically observed: [Some
would argue that screens, whether they show video images or computer data,
are appearing on building walls because they dispense information. I
suspect the screens (and their cousins, the news zippers) proliferate
because they represent THE LOOK OF INFORMATION=8ATV sets adorn buildings all
over town, and still there's nothing to watch].
We eat our hyperaccelerated selves daily, just as information traveling at
the speed of light devours itself as quickly as it can be produced.
[end of transmission]
over...
JB
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-- John Beckmann A x i s M u n d i 124 Watts Street New York, NY 10013 jbeckmann@axismundi.com tel: 212.966.5310 fax: 212.966.3574