Re: [microsound] neo romanticism, Lev Manovich, postmodernity discourses

["The pHarmanaut" <pharmanaut@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jon, I really like the direction in which this thread points. And thanks for
reminding me of Coyne's book. I'd had that on a reading list, then lost the
list. I'm ordering it today.

I think it's a good move to question Manovich's lack of contextualization. I
hadn't realized some of the bigger problems with Manovich's aesthetics until
a student of mine working in the area of disabilities studies and IT brought
up that Manovich makes no allowance whatsoever for those with physical
disabilities. I find this one of the more troubling ways that he's inherited
certain aspects of "modernist purity" and its aesthetic ideals, which don't
necessarily allow for the alternative aesthetics that might be projected
from those with different physical and mental forms than the "standard
norm".

Back to the technoromanticism issue, since the days I worked on my Ph.D. in
English literature, I've been tracking the relationship between technology
and spectacle from romantics through situationism. Working more in the area
of microsound and such has encouraged me to move past the visual-obsessed
metaphors of both groups of thinkers, as well as to chronologically update
my work, as well. I'm very interested in a form of technological sublime,
which I think was first espoused in the drug literature of Thomas De
Quincey. Here we have, for the first time, I believe, a romantic writer
openly acknowledging the ability of technologically-engineered states of
sublimity.

Anyway, thanks again for the links.

-=Trace

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jon Cates" <jcates@xxxxxxxxx>
To: "microsound" <microsound@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, December 16, 2002 10:57 AM
Subject: [microsound] neo romanticism, Lev Manovich, postmodernity
discourses

> Those following these threads may be interested in a recent nettime
> post, 'Processual Media Theory and the Art of Day Trading' by Ned
> Rossiter. In this draft of a presentation paper Rossiter takes issue
> with the modernist purity or lack of economic/social/cultural
> contexts in Manovich's New Media discourse. Rossiter states
> "Aesthetic production is defined by transformative iterations, rather
> than supposedly discrete objects in commodity form. Processual
> aesthetics is related to the notion of the sublime...". The focus on
> "transformative iterations" creates a direct link to remix culture.
> The critique of commodity status parallels the practice of posting
> urls for downloading files, creating small gift economies. His use of
> the sublime raises the issue of Romanticism, which has yet to be
> discussed overtly in these microsound threads. Richard Coyne's
> _TechnoRomanticism_ draws interesting connections w/current
> technological/digital/new-media arts and various aspects of the
> Romantic ideologies. Has anyone onlist read _TechnoRomanticism_?
> Jon Cates
>
> nettime post, 'Processual Media Theory and the Art of Day Trading' by
> Ned Rossiter
> http://www.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-0212/msg00091.html
>
> Richard Coyne's (_TechnoRomanticism_) site, featuring many shorter
> works for download in PDF format
> http://www.caad.ed.ac.uk/~richard/
>
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