rebe on Wed, 1 Mar 2017 15:49:14 +0100 (CET)


[Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: <nettime> Armin Medosch (1962-2017)


I am not eloquent at writing obituaries because they always seem inadequate to me but what you outlined seems familiar. It was fantastic to get Armin to speak at our OpentechSummit '15. For me he represented an age of digital reconnaissance, and his presence pointed at the "Leerstelle" that you describe. He was quite positive about past visions and expressed the view developments came too early.

https://voicerepublic.com/talks/the-rise-of-the-network-commons

Listening to the talk again is somehow uplifting.

The Kim Foale's paper echoes the sentiment that future turned out other then predicted. Today I found it insightful to read Erik Möller's intro of "Die heimliche Medienrevolution" (2004) again and the past optimism he expressed. Where did the progressive techno-libertarianism of the web go? I also have the paper edition of Telepolis 0 in my bookshelf. Today the magazine blinks to the right, at times in a refreshing manner: https://www.heise.de/tp/features/Kostueme-und-kulturelle-Aneignung-3635366.html However, I miss the traditional focus on digital matters and rarely read it anymore.

In the period you describe there was a spirit of vanguard in the literal meaning, a pretty good track record in predictions what would be the next big thing and always a safe bet against the old bulls, ignorant contemporaries and philisters, their lawyers, officials and objections against innovation. A belief that you can take technology in your hands and make great social change when parameters are set right, or at least you keep the unaware from shooting in the cradle, so progress could unfold.

The poisonous machines of noise and self-amplification create a new offspring of alt-right and ctrl-left hate and boredom, avalanches of irrelevance and ridicule, and change you don't want to believe in.

Would we ever get the network commons garden Armin described and what make-do-visions would inspire a new generation?

--- André

On 28.02.2017 12:14, Christiane Schulzki Haddouti wrote:

When Armin had to leave Telepolis in 2002 an era ended. In my personal
review the decline started with 9/11 and the sudden loss of interest
in our traditional topics – and the rise of a speculative sort of
journalism at Telepolis.

#  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: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@kein.org
#  @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject: