Re: <documenta X><blast> home
Jordan Crandall (xaf@interport.net)
Thu, 10 Jul 1997 13:37:37 -0400
In thinking about homelessness and nproctor's mention of the cyber-cafe
I'm reminded of a somewhat recent 'occupation' that Geert Lovink told me
about in Paris. The cyber cafe at Pompidou Center was occupied one day
by the homeless, who simply sat blankly at the terminals, unable either
to eat or to log on. Not only were these streetlevel citizens out of
bounds within this strange mix of public and private space that has
always had a problematic relationship with them, but they were unable to
be productive--to pay or 'interact,' and thereby assume the position
expected of one in informatic society. The position of sitting at the
monitor is charged with expectations and demands (we don't realize the
extent to which this is the case) that are not being fulfilled. Here
these radically different conceptions of place and space collide
(BOOM!), leaving the staff enraged and dumbfounded--up in arms about
what to do, what action to take, in a collision that spirals outward,
leaving chaos in its wake. One wonders what these nonusers were
thinking, and to what extent they were aware of the charged space
between their body and the interface, or for that matter, the
'placeless' realms on the other side of the screen. Did they sit
blankly, forlornly, stubbornly, rigidly? or with a certain glee? I am
haunted by this image. To think of all of the elements in this picture
that impact in a space that doesn't 'fit,' tearing open some other
realm. de Certeau and William Bogard locate this space (in terms of 'la
perruque') but there is something much more than this at work. How to
deal with this in terms of Greg Ulmer's method? how does this object
become a subject...