[iDC] animism and such

[Julian Bleecker]

Aiyee.. I'm not sure I heard Sterling come up _against_ animism or  
magic, did I? I mean, I heard him take a position, but I'm not 100%  
sure that it was _against_ magic, the way one might be unquestionably  
against fascism or something, like it's a bad thing, unexceptionally.  
What would it mean to be against magic, anyway? Seems a bit like  
being against breakfast cereal or summer or something.

Anyway, for myself, admittedly, I have limited exposure to this magic  
trope. My bargain-basement understanding of magic is that, on one  
hand, it can produce fascinating, awe-inspiring delight and candy for  
the imagination (the guy at the kid's birthday party or at the Magic  
Castle supper club over there in Hollywood.)

Then there's the other kind of magic that articulates the will of the  
guy who happens to have the beater for the medicine drum and the  
necklace with the most bear claws, sublimating his will through the  
deployment of magic.

The latter is really a cloaked, non-transparent process for  
activating power and will, the former a playful and metaphorical  
interface between our desire, imagination and our objects.

I suspect magic has its place as an intermediary, as do most tropes.  
I really don't want any magic mumbo-jumbo in the technical documents  
produced by the aeronautical engineers who are trying to work out how  
a 617 ton Airbus A380 will actually get off the ground and stay off  
the ground in a controlled manner for the duration of its 9,000 mile  
flight. That's just not funny or helpful. Same goes for the civil  
engineer's bridge, the politician's environmental action plan, or the  
prostate surgeon's procedures.

Magic and animism works well-enough for me as a way to describe the  
quirky personality traits of a cranky laptop, for example, the  
culinary flair of a dinner chef or the sudden appearance of favorable  
weather. The stakes are in the description.

Am I for it, or agin' it?

Julian

On Oct 3, 2006, at 3:27 PDT, molly wright steenson wrote:

> Did no one here attend Ubicomp? Animism was out in force. In the  
> opening keynote, Bruce Sterling ranted about (that is, against)  
> animism. Brenda Laurel, in the closing session, was all for it.  
> Karen Martin, in the EngD program at the Bartlett, provides a write- 
> up here:
> http://www.prusikloop.org/mrwatson/?m=200609
>
> Which reminds me... in 2003, Mike Kuniavsky <www.orangecone.com>  
> wrote an essay about animism and ubiquitous computing while he was  
> a founding partner at Adaptive Path.
> http://www.adaptivepath.com/publications/essays/archives/000272.php
>
> On Oct 2, 2006, at 9:10 PM, Kazys Varnelis wrote:
>
>> I always hope to make longer posts and never do, so let's put an  
>> end to that idea quick.
>>
>> Indeed, this is something we've been covering with AUDC in our  
>> upcoming book and, to some extent in the wiki section of our site,  
>> audc.org/projects.
>>
>> The last chapter of Elaine Scarry's the Body in Pain is a great  
>> source on contemporary animism (you stubbed your toe on the  
>> garbage can so you threw it across the room. REVENGE! etc.).
>>
>> On Oct 2, 2006, at 12:03 PM, idc-request at bbs.thing.net wrote:
>>
>>>>> Many human cultures have traditions of animism and the  
>>>>> imanenence of
>>>>> space.I suspect that this cultural history is also part of the  
>>>>> drive
>>>>> to
>>>>> make an Internet of Things.
>>
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