Alan Sondheim on Mon, 13 Sep 1999 03:11:52 +0200 (CEST) |
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Re: <nettime> Linux wins Prix Ars due to MICROSOFT INTERVENTION |
Linux is art, not becomes it receives a prize, but because of the aesthetics, in the collaboration, in the organism whose parts are naked and self-evident even to those reasonably unfamiliar with operating systems, in the ability to make and wear it like a skin crossing the world where the Net continues to flow and stumble. Linux in shell mode is a potential field that appears to follow the thinking of the user; it doesn't appear (unless one wants it to) like a carapace or graphic superstructure. It's film-theory '68 all over again, the parameters and articulation of the system vis- ible, the artifice revealed, the imaginary laid out in palimpsest. What's more, it's not only easy to configure (in the sense of speech), but also to program (using shell scripts, 'dialog,' etc.); if art is connected in any way with representation, one might say that the interactive representation of linux is, if not art, at least fashion, wearable, at problematic variance with capital (punk for example), useful for intruders, the mouth and tongue for some of the rest of us. In other words, for some of us, linux _has_ changed the language. Whether a prize for an artwork/works/networks should go to any soft- ware at all (beyond art-specific software projects) is another ques- tion. Alan Internet Text at http://www.anu.edu.au/english/internet_txt Partial at http://lists.village.virginia.edu/~spoons/internet_txt.html Trace Projects at http://trace.ntu.ac.uk/writers/sondheim/index.htm # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net