<nettime-ann> PicoPond

["ars publica" <noemata@gmail.com>]

.
Picopond is a microfunding system for financing the net projects of
Noemata. It's a nickel-and-dime operation run out of an exploration of
ways of making a living from doing public domain, copylefted work on
the internet.

http://picopond.arspublica.noemata.net/

With Picopond you can fund a net project by Noemata with a small
amount of money. The funding is displayed on the project web site and
appears as a one-line text or text-link. See example below:
Funded by:
Monty Cantsin
Art Institution
neighbour dog
my mom or MoMA

Net projects by Noemata are dispersed on different web sites. Funding
information is generally available at the bottom of a project page at
a web site. Generally Noemata keeps all projects online and publicly
accessible. The funding information will be attached and displayed
together with the project, whether as material for exhibitional,
documentational, or archival purposes.

Alias Noemata is the working moniker of Bjørn Magnhildøen born 1966 in
Norway by his mother. Noemata has been active within net art and
technology for a quarter-century, from mail art to internet art,
1982-2007 [1]. From this, Noemata has received prizes and funding to
some degree but not enough to make a living in Western Europe. After
having given up his regular job as a system developer in an insurance
firm in the year of poom, around 2000, Noemata has been supporting
himself and not from doing net projects within art and new technology
(insert comma to disambiguate the sentence).

According to EU's definition of poverty he's poor - below 50% of his
country's average income; on the other hand this definition makes 10%
of the population poor in one of the richest countries in the world.
With OECD's definition he's still below the poverty line. As with
other lines they aren't visible in reality; the only line we can see
is the horizon - maybe that's why the sea symbolizes death, the only
straight line?

Anyway, who's he to complain? One billion people live on less than 1
dollar a day [2]; he's a citizen of a rich country; in fact, he's so
spoiled that he can work without being concerned about always getting
paid.

So what's the idea? In reality I'm not sure. We all need things to do,
we need to do things. I was lucky to be born at this place and time,
though I'm not sure that sentence has meaning. If I believed that
everybody could be happy and content I would rather work in that
direction than do net project, but luckily enough I don't believe
that. On the other hand my forefathers were murderers, and in the
future still the lamb won't sleep with the lion.

Well, if you like some of these projects you might want to give some
money to them and show your appreciation; maybe the schema here is
sharing-similarity and a form of social networking in part - we all
like each other, maybe because we all become more and more alike each
other? Let's move on to the next paragraph.

In 2003 Ars Publica was established as a means of exploring ways of
funding Noemata [3][4]. PicoPond is founded now as I write this
introductory text, or in reality, will be founded later, because the
text comes first, as an alternative way of funding Noemata, exploring
the concept of small-time microfunding of net projects, hoping people
might find them $adjective.. By the time you're reading this, you, not
me, ... Sorry, I just realized that there's a distinction between a
writer and a reader of this text - I didn't realize it before now,
which also makes one think ... What does that mean? When I read what I
wrote, am I a writer or a reader, and what's the difference? It seems
the difference is that the writer can edit the text, and that that's
the only difference. That's also why I copyleft my projects and
material and just leave it in the public domain; I don't think anybody
owns it - once it leaves me, well, me leaves it also; it occurs to me
this relation is less a parent-child type than a peer-peer type - I
mean, like a writer has several readers for instance - one to one too
many. As there isn't any aura around the artwork or the artist, I
don't even care to finish that sentence properly. OK, you might edit
this text, but you might not edit it while you read it. I guess. But
then, when you edit it you have to read it - it's called writing. The
writing is formulated. The reading is formulated. We approach the
state where editing isn't the difference between writing and reading.
Born to be alive. It was written to be read. It was read to be
written. Alive to be born. I was born for nine months. There is no
beginning, there is no writer, so to say. Every leaf grows as to get
as much sun as possible; this defines the exact angle of the
bifurcation. If there is anything it would be a reader. The sun made
us. And the reader devours.

Fine. As this introductory text comes to an end one gets the idea.
Does that mean the idea comes last? How strange that would be. Finally
we have the beginning!

--
Best regards,
PicoPond - http://picopond.arspublica.noemata.net/
Bjørn Magnhildøen Alias Noemata
contact: noemata@gmail.com

Notes

1. CV of Bjørn Magnhildøen Alias Noemata
2. Poverty Reduction - OECD
3. Rhizome.org : Welcome to Ars Publica - net.art commerce on the net
4. ARS PUBLICA – Curator Ana Buigues´ report. March, 2007
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