January 10, 2007

Glimpse at a World Forbidden

What is your first memory of technology?

My first tech memory was the reel to reel tape recorder my mother used to train for stenography back in the 60's. Then came answering machines, pagers. Computer classes in college in the 80's involved the punch cards. After undergrad schooll came the Mac classic. Cell phones. I remember the dawning realization that architects could take on bigger projects with smaller staffing. The profession of architecture changed radically that way. Then the internet came on strong in the mid nineties.

Technological change disrupts social networks. That's cool, they spontaneously reform again anyway.

This morning, I read this post from The Belmont Club, drawing dotted lines into our artworld:

The cell phone story in Kenya represent a liberation moment that neither elite had intended to offer them. And they will endeavor to close it out. To some extent, blogs perform the same function as cell phones. They are little "first Amendment machines" in countries in which neither the latifundistas nor the "guerilleros" have any use for the real notion of freedom of speech. It's not surprising that some countries in Latin America are trying to regulate them. The cell phone in Kenya represents an earnest in freedom, not its full payment. It is a glimpse at a world forbidden, a reminder of what we were meant to be. Not the "masses" but men. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Dangerous words spoken by true revolutionaries.
(Emphasis Mine)
Along the lines drawn by Arnold Kling, after the end of the legacy of artist-as-courtier, the artworld was a primitive order of small bands back in the hey day of Picasso's Paris... and now we are living at the end of the long era of the limited-access order. Admittedly, the correlation I'm attempting here is difficult if not a bit strained but I think there is enough space between the lines for you to see what I'm seeing.

Posted by Dennis at January 10, 2007 8:47 AM

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