Summary
The first chapter of ‘Control and Freedom’ by Wendy Chun looks at the emergence of the Web through the birth and life of what we know as ‘cyberspace’. Explaining the legal context of the ‘official’ creation of a new electronic 'space' in which things 'happened', and that had originally no local standards. She addresses the notions of place and space in relation to a network that went from being public (government owned), to privately owned and being massively commercialized. Then she goes into the field of cybernetics, talking about controls systems and how cybernetics work, which is explained to be all about maintaining internal communications through an external central nervous system. She also talks about the origin of the word 'cyberspace' which came from literature (Gibson’s Neuromancer). The ‘cyberspace’ is described as unnamable and unlocatable, as a 'free' space, using symbolic addresses and naming systems to facilitates human comprehension. It is said that ‘space’ and ‘time’ are used interchangeably, and that while ‘cyberspace loosens place, place is no longer stable or proper, and disappear and move rapidly’ . It is question of Manovich’s 'database complex' , meaning the desire to store everything. Then talking about how new media and navigable spaces, throughout interfaces, establish new relations between space and tours.
Other ideas explored are : The notion of ‘time’ as much important as space, and the active participation required by the web, compared to non-interactive TV (passive).How most DSL offer download speed faster than upload (consumer mode). Example of spatialized web (VRML) where no space exists but only objects belonging to different individuals (just like in SecondLife). Virtual realities, and multiple persona, alter-egos, The web as a space for compensation, compensatory heteropias, or spaces of pure order. The example the of the e-commerce paradise, internet as a perfect other space. Foucaults example of the boat as the perfect heterotopian example, also in close relation with colonial moments. The use of the word 'pirate' , in relation to exploration and piracy, which may indicate or create radical changes. The web surfer, who feels as home while, constantly moving from place to place, (Beaudelair's Flâneur). The perfect spectator who can see but must not be seen, who leaves not trace, but reveals other people traces. The gawker, a commodity dependent being, that stands an stares. The myth of the superagent, leading you to think that you leave no trace. Controlling code, and the architecture of the internet, content and code as parallel systems. The founding principle of the net as being control and not freedom. Open source softwares.
Near the end, she mentions that , instead of exploring utopian possibilities, it would be better to see how the web can enable something similar to democracy.
Discussion
We began with a discussion on how we approach the internet. I told of how, for me, the internet is a space, be it social or utilitarian. My paths through the net are like my daily routines through the city. It is also a social space -- a place I go when in need of social interaction. For Nic, on the contrary, the internet is an information resource, like a book. What I consider to be social arenas (forums, lists, irc, social nets etc.) are merely sources to be mined for Nic.
He is a lurker. We then looked at the cyberpunk fantasy of cyberspace as an environment for heterotopia. How would it even be possible given current technology? Isn't it disappointing that the web has become private, commercialized, and homogenized? Was it ever possible for the web to have the richness (space) depicted in Neuromancer? Are "underground" hacker-type internet users closer to the cyberpunk aesthetic than the average user? How did the open source movement emerge from cyberpunk and in what way does it differ? Unrealized are the images of the lone hacker, roaming the net. The new power lies in mass emergence. Taxonomy. Web 2.0. Is the clean, user-friendly aesthetic of the web 2.0 (the antithesis of cyberpunk aesthetic) an effect of (response to) privatization? Perhaps open source is anti-cyberpunk in that the software is competing with commercial software. In an open cyberspace, the hegemony of dominant software configurations would disintegrate. But open source creates a "structure of sharing". This reminded us of Yuill who talks of "socially directed" creation.
Is cyber-space desirable? Should the advantages of the web be integrated into the real, or are the heterotopic benefits of the division between real and virtual worth the schism of the individual?
The first chapter of ‘Control and Freedom’ by Wendy Chun looks at the emergence of the Web through the birth and life of what we know as ‘cyberspace’. Explaining the legal context of the ‘official’ creation of a new electronic 'space' in which things 'happened', and that had originally no local standards. She addresses the notions of place and space in relation to a network that went from being public (government owned), to privately owned and being massively commercialized. Then she goes into the field of cybernetics, talking about controls systems and how cybernetics work, which is explained to be all about maintaining internal communications through an external central nervous system. She also talks about the origin of the word 'cyberspace' which came from literature (Gibson’s Neuromancer). The ‘cyberspace’ is described as unnamable and unlocatable, as a 'free' space, using symbolic addresses and naming systems to facilitates human comprehension. It is said that ‘space’ and ‘time’ are used interchangeably, and that while ‘cyberspace loosens place, place is no longer stable or proper, and disappear and move rapidly’ . It is question of Manovich’s 'database complex' , meaning the desire to store everything. Then talking about how new media and navigable spaces, throughout interfaces, establish new relations between space and tours.
Other ideas explored are : The notion of ‘time’ as much important as space, and the active participation required by the web, compared to non-interactive TV (passive).How most DSL offer download speed faster than upload (consumer mode). Example of spatialized web (VRML) where no space exists but only objects belonging to different individuals (just like in SecondLife). Virtual realities, and multiple persona, alter-egos, The web as a space for compensation, compensatory heteropias, or spaces of pure order. The example the of the e-commerce paradise, internet as a perfect other space. Foucaults example of the boat as the perfect heterotopian example, also in close relation with colonial moments. The use of the word 'pirate' , in relation to exploration and piracy, which may indicate or create radical changes. The web surfer, who feels as home while, constantly moving from place to place, (Beaudelair's Flâneur). The perfect spectator who can see but must not be seen, who leaves not trace, but reveals other people traces. The gawker, a commodity dependent being, that stands an stares. The myth of the superagent, leading you to think that you leave no trace. Controlling code, and the architecture of the internet, content and code as parallel systems. The founding principle of the net as being control and not freedom. Open source softwares.
Near the end, she mentions that , instead of exploring utopian possibilities, it would be better to see how the web can enable something similar to democracy.
Discussion
We began with a discussion on how we approach the internet. I told of how, for me, the internet is a space, be it social or utilitarian. My paths through the net are like my daily routines through the city. It is also a social space -- a place I go when in need of social interaction. For Nic, on the contrary, the internet is an information resource, like a book. What I consider to be social arenas (forums, lists, irc, social nets etc.) are merely sources to be mined for Nic.
He is a lurker. We then looked at the cyberpunk fantasy of cyberspace as an environment for heterotopia. How would it even be possible given current technology? Isn't it disappointing that the web has become private, commercialized, and homogenized? Was it ever possible for the web to have the richness (space) depicted in Neuromancer? Are "underground" hacker-type internet users closer to the cyberpunk aesthetic than the average user? How did the open source movement emerge from cyberpunk and in what way does it differ? Unrealized are the images of the lone hacker, roaming the net. The new power lies in mass emergence. Taxonomy. Web 2.0. Is the clean, user-friendly aesthetic of the web 2.0 (the antithesis of cyberpunk aesthetic) an effect of (response to) privatization? Perhaps open source is anti-cyberpunk in that the software is competing with commercial software. In an open cyberspace, the hegemony of dominant software configurations would disintegrate. But open source creates a "structure of sharing". This reminded us of Yuill who talks of "socially directed" creation.
Is cyber-space desirable? Should the advantages of the web be integrated into the real, or are the heterotopic benefits of the division between real and virtual worth the schism of the individual?
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