[iDC] Re: iDC Digest, Vol 12, Issue 15

[ryan griffis]

On Oct 31, 2005, at 4:18 PM, Julian Bleeker wrote:

> I tried being outside of the power blob — it's cold, there's no
> money, and it's dogmatic to a fault. It's more fun, creative, and
> intellectually challenging to be inside of the blob. Sitting in a
> seminar room in the company of Naimark, John Seely Brown, Natalie
> Jeremijinko, Bruce Sterling, Hoberman, an Army "analyst" awkwardly
> swaddled in civilian clothes, a Disney engineer, a founder of
> Electronic Arts, and a guy from RAND is way more intellectually
> invigorating and creatively rich than sitting in a room with a bunch
> of people with the same point of view. It's not about resisting the
> influence of the military-industrial-light-and-magic complex because
> it is us, wherever you go. And knowing how to navigate all those
> worlds is probably the best mode of professional survival. The mil-
> ilm-complex is figuring that out; I think the more savvy emerging/
> media-artists are figuring it out, too, at least in the United States
> where the routes to financing production are full of dead ends and
> potholes.

i'm not sure about this whole duality that's being created here - 
either in terms of SoCal v non-SoCal or the "inside the system" v 
"outside the system."
having lived in LA for a short time (just over a year) i found some 
pretty exciting things related to new media going on - LA Freewaves, as 
someone mentioned, being one of the more interesting institutionalized 
efforts. but there were also smaller efforts that had some amazing 
energy, and they weren't trying to work "outside of institutions," they 
were just creating their own micro-institutions (often with help from 
larger institutions in the form of jobs). i'm thinking of Mark Allen's 
Machine Project, the former C-Level, AUDC and a few others, where "new 
media" is de-facto sited with practices of engagement, research, and 
networking beyond specialized interests in digital culture.
but i also didn't find LA to be a hot bed of critical new media work 
either. just like other cultural centers, other forms of aesthetic 
fetishizing took center stage.
i've also lived in the midwest (and do currently) and have found a 
larger culture of support in places like Chicago through other 
micro-institutions like Version, Select, Mess Hall and other various 
initiatives going on there.
When it comes to being "inside" or "outside" of a 
"academic-military-entertainment" (AME) complex... it's important not 
to flatten the different desires and ambitions here. not everyone 
working with a computer wants to make a huge impact on the world of 
images. it's a little too easy to suggest that the complex surrounds 
us, therefor all our actions must be necessarily subsumed by it. so 
either join it, or forget about it. i would make the assertion that the 
desire to produce things requiring such difficult financing (as to 
necessitate a relationship with the AME complex) needs to be critically 
engaged and not take for granted.
as for navigating that complex... the Institute for Applied Autonomy 
recently gave a talk here (UI in urbana-champaign) discussing just 
that.
best,
ryan