<nettime> Non Compos Mentis -

[Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com>]

******************************************************



_Non Compos Mentis: Zen-Tripping the Non-Conference Circuitry_
      Mez Breeze


[A Quid Pro Quo Proviso: Please try to absorb this multilogue without
Personality Construct Interference. This tract is for reflection and
engagement within an abstract sphere. It is subjective, and not intended
to be prescriptive or subjugative in any sense. This tract is explanatory
blather. There is blood on my escape key.]


1. _Back-and-Forgrounding_

  A Mezzian Flesh-Mote enters a library. In a networked sense this library
is cold; binary data advancements are yet to make any perceivable impact
on its manifest functions. A silvered sliver-glint pulls the Mezzian Mote
forward to the only technoniche available - a computer laboratory, used
primarily for word-processing tasks. It also has an Internet connection. A
Datadervish [E-Mote] is born, and a Flesh-Mote extinguished.

The E-Mote says:

  "My first encounter with the Netwurk was serendipitous. A blundering
into code. A simple word encounter within lingual largesse. A signified
chat series that began in February 1995 [at http://chat.kajen.com] is now
mainlined into significant portions. My anatomy tingled. My syntactic
structures tumbled.

  My first play avenue resulted in hours of nectar-drenched connectivity.
Chat conduits offered friction [as well as fiction] inflections to
confused [and infused] chatters. These chats merged with narrative fibrils
to invoke a quadrilinear creative space..........We learned [and are still
learning] how to love the conch-like-code, the abbreviated geek-speak, the
nuanced sign, the unending banter, the rewriting of the most fierce
geosyncratic platitudes [ageism, sexism, racism, phallocentrism - in
short, all the .isms]. Being an E-Mote allows you to refabricate all of
these stereotypes, becoming "another" rather than "an other".  In this
displacement space, words are all we have to go on [to paraphrase
Stoppard's "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead"]. My browsing heart is
full when this static spinning looms and physical reliance/dependance is
revoked, with language blurred by sweat and siliconed juice. The stoppage
point cannot be conceptualised in this Netwurked space - it is basically
unwanted and unseen."

  This open-ended communication space/mode brings with it a continuous air
in which to promote and extend its basic elements, such as a system of
repeated physical and twinned sensory actions via an E-Motes arm and
mouse, finger tips and keyboard, chair and spine, eyes and monitor/s, and
finally consciousness and cypher. In this displacement, all entities
converge - there is no Other. There is no exclusive you. There is no
[blank misplaced categorisation]. In here, E-Motes reroute, rewrite and
imagine. They are used to y-talking & IRCing in stretched sentences that
reflect towards and mirror other monitored-light beings. E-Motes MOO along
with the heard, and communication conflagrations are as rational as
avatarian placements. Chat-havens gel within fictionalised parameters. The
actual words employed are often dissonant, with experiences deliciously
curved through this quadrilinear petri-dish. E-Motes choose to swoon
between the lines, delving through categories and labels whilst tasting
open source states.

  This Open Source Tone is/was the key to an altogether altered state of
displacement functioning. The displacement space is not knotted. The
E-Moter nodes are idiosyncratically clear. Geosensory Reality is
saccharine soaked in the visceral. An open swathe of nodes allow for
infinite possibilities on the persona spectrum. A sense of the Individual
become residual. An E-Moters self is made replete with constant
communication.


2. _Geosynthesis and Geosyncratia vs Node-Dependant Disyncratia_

  In such a displacement space that is intrinsically coloured by an Open
Source Tone, some degree of synaeresis is inevitable. Those E-Motes who
can, play. Those who can't lapse into dependencies on traditional
theory-based modus operduni. Labels become de rigueur. This mythic
displacement space is colonized by dot.coms who fight the primordial
postmodem dial-up soup. They are determined to swap and swamp this
limboesque state with capital and any corresponding "ism".

  This can result in E-Motes freezing-up; these particular E-Motes then
crawl into pre-fabricated authorial comfort-zones. They demand their dues.
They dilute the distributed discourse and filter the meaning-blurred.
Other [more salient] E-Motes question "Where is the loop? Please press
play!". Eventually, bludgeoning geosensory tactiles overcome all that is
relevant in the displacement space. Text tendrils are reduced to
reductionistic abuse. Notions of interactive language play are overloaded.
Constructural gapping is overwritten, with the Flesh-Motes shaping the
primary displacement dance. The E-Motes fall from fecund grace. The
NetWurk is correspondingly undercurrented, undermined, understated and
erase-echoed in this geophysical pull.

  Some E-Motes are vertiginous and grope for benchmarks and illusionary
grandeur, embracing social mores and power-based perpetuation. Some snatch
at Media Stunts or Public Relation codexs. To these E-Motes, the author is
now the key. Primaeval performance play is ousted. Creating "the
Establishment" is in.

  However, some E-Motes still seek to construct and absorb kinetic and
phonetically driven texts. Entities such as these ponder the following.


3. _The Non-Conference Decision/Incision Nub_.

  The decision to forgo attending physical events [ie conferences, award
ceremonies, etc] related to the promotion of the E-Moter/Author-as-Cult
figure status should be made in the light of these questions:

- How do we best define the Real? [the real is the reel is the real is the
....].
- To E [mote] or not to E, that is _the_ question.
- Should we ignore the identity tug of the self, or substantiate it?
- Should we resist the tug of the canon? And hence, revolve, evolve, or
devolve?
- Should E-Motes strive for ego-blessings or medium solvents?
- Does physical E-Mote confirmation [fleshmeeting] breed various blottings
on, and in, this displacement/quadrilinear space, especially in regards to
the potential non-linear nature/Open Source Tone employed?
- Is E-Motive Work tainted by explanatory authorial discourse and added
manufactured infotaintment that seeks to explain the work itself? Or
alternatively, does experientially-based auterial contact enhance the
layering and depth of a E-Moting and E-Motes alike?




.           .    ....         .....
         net.wurker][mez][
n.sert cens][wh][or][e].ship here xXXx
                   ./.
    www.hotkey.net.au/~netwurker
.... .                  .???  .......




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