Rachel Greene on Tue, 21 Jan 2003 18:24:08 +0100 (CET)


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Re: <nettime> rhizome: burn rate


so, I was a Rhizomer during the period Ted describes. Rhizome staff was
basically me and Alex then, since Mark was focused more on Stockobjects til
the very late 90s. (though there was, one summer, a rad intern Johnny
Dwyer). 

Factual corrections about Rhizome history --
Rhizome didn't get to hire anyone because of Stockobjects' success -- we
were a separate project, though we did try to find "synergy" for a few
months. it didn't work, and there were no substantial tensions about this
failure. as Stockobjects took off on its own route, Mark, Alex and I decided
Rhizome should go non-profit, and we moved our office out of the one we
shared with Stockobjects to one at Postmasters gallery.

Ted's suggestion that Rhizome was a tax shelter for Stockobjects is patently
wrong, as is the insinuation offensive ("it's hard to imagine what the hell
rhizome could have possibly done to justify burning through...") that we're
pilfering money from the project. Rhizome.org's financials, and '01 and '02
audits, are here --  http://rhizome.org/financials --

Ted, you laughed at Rhizome when it was rhizome.com  -- fair enough. I look
back on those years, on Stockobjects and the other dot coms my friends were
trying to pull off, and at least the entrepreneurial ideas were interesting,
and people trying to do something new.

I feel the history proposed below was little more than a misinformed attempt
to spread rumors, and embarrass Mark, Alex, me, and anyone commited to
Rhizome.



> one thing that hasn't come up in this discussion is history -- that is,
> the history of rhizome. for various reasons, i viewed this all from a safe
> and 100% uninvolved distance, so my memory is probably off when it comes
> to details. mark tribe and/or other rhizomatics are free to correct me, of
> course.
 <...>

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