From bret@eskimo.com Wed Mar 15 16:57:40 PST 1995 >From bret@eskimo.com Wed Mar 15 16:57:39 1995 Return-Path: Received: from mx5.u.washington.edu by lists.u.washington.edu (5.65+UW95.02/UW-NDC Revision: 2.32 ) id AA25374; Wed, 15 Mar 95 16:57:39 -0800 Received: from mail.eskimo.com by mx5.u.washington.edu (5.65+UW95.02/UW-NDC Revision: 2.31 ) id AA26161; Wed, 15 Mar 95 16:57:38 -0800 Received: from [192.0.2.1] by mail.eskimo.com (5.65c/1.35) id AA05495; Wed, 15 Mar 1995 16:57:28 -0800 X-Sender: bret@mail.eskimo.com Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Wed, 15 Mar 1995 17:02:00 -0800 To: cyberartists@u.washington.edu From: bret@eskimo.com (Bret Battey) Subject: Re: Group's future >Bret Batteyaside to Bill Ritchie: > >*** So, if any of any of you have access to articles of incorporation for a >group that provides a good, bad, or even indifferent model for us to >consider, how about sharing them? Bill Ritchie -- I think you in particular >might know where to look. *** Bill said > >Oh Bret, I am being tempted again to historicize, but what good is it? It >takes so long to read. Better we ask ourselves how much time we have, and >why spend it thus? Bill, I think you may underestimate the value of sheer experience. I think that your experiences have provided you with an intuitive, internalized summary of lessons that guide your own decision making. You've hiked over enough of the landscape to have some sense of what has worked in what ways -- and you won't bother yourself with hiking down some dead-end paths, because you've "been there, done that." But I think most of us don't have the benefit of that kind of experience. Of course, we can just stumble along and hope we come up with the right answer (pretending that one is comfortable with the stumbling process is a necessary ingredient of leadership, actually), but even the most brazen leader doesn't eschew a chance to absorb knowledge from persons who have already learned about a difficult arena. > >What I need is to believe NWCA can match what I saw in the NYT early this >week, about the white suprematist somewhere in the midwest who was featured >in a fairly long news article, with a couple pictures, explaining how his >mission was succeeding partly because he uses high tech, e.g., desktop >publishing, pre-press color photos probably, and no doubt EDT and, did I >read, the Internet? > >My feeling--perhaps paranoia--is that there is a war going on, and >technology will be used by both the good guys and the bad guys. At stake is >sustainability of biological life, human life as we would like to have it. > >In the end, the victor will be the biological life in all of its richness >(including the pests and viral hazards, etc.) or mineral "life". > >The histories of cultural groups that animate our NW region (though regions >now have glass walls) have been print-based. I made it part of my daily work >to preserve the magneto/silica based histories in the mediums-of-origin. > Let me say in a more direct sense what I tried to express yesterday: Any individual or group, to be effective, must be able to balance abstraction, idealism, and process on one hand with concreteness, pragmatism, and forward motion on the other. Too much of either extreme is destructive. The first alone leads to rich but impotent speculation. The later alone leads to non-adaptive efficiency. Let me take this idea and try to use it to translate what you are saying. I hear you expressing passionately felt concerns and values -- but stepping back from (and I do not know whether consciously or not) translating those visions into concrete action steps -- waiting for others to demonstrate a zeal for a similar vision so you know whether to invest yourself in a next step with the group (?) Or am I misunderstanding (?) I feel like I need to explain why I'm not tending to exhibit zeal, since being rather neurotic I tend to feel somewhat guilty about it, and since I want you to take the next step and lead NWCA to be a part of your vision =)... For people like myself who are not visionaries, visions in themselves are impotent. But visions translated into concrete demonstrations of potential and plans are exciting and motivating, and lead to a desire to participate. ==== So, at the first CyberArts meeting I was at, someone came forward and said, "It seems like we should have a performance." My response: "Yawn" The second CyberArts meeting I was at, Steve Macatee stood up and said, "We've been talking about a performance, and, well, I'm going to try to help make it happen. So come up to me, tell me what you do and would want to do, and I'll try to start hooking folks up together in collaborations." Then the next meeting: "Well, we've got some people, and we are going to have a first meeting this month and try to identify dates and locations." Then the next meeting: "We're narrowing down locations, and now we have a form for you to fill out describing your project. The submission deadline is XXXX." It didn't happen immediately, but excitement and participation were built up. A concrete path of action was started, small step after small step, to translate the vision into reality. I could sink my teeth into it. (yum!) ===== Someone stands up at a meeting and says: "Well, I'm kind of interested in designing a game. I want collaborators." The communal response: "Yawn" They assume because of the vagueness that there is nothing really there worth responding to. Imagine the same person standing up and saying: "I'm designing a game based on the 100 years war translated into a Japanese cyber-punk aesthetic.I am going to create a demo that I am going to shop around to Borland and Voyager, at least -- and by the end of the year. I want to work with someone who wants to partner with me who can scan and manipulate calligraphy and likes William Gibson. It will be hard work, and I can't promise any return, but this is a first concrete step I want to take towards a vision of recasting of history in interactive games. It can be a learning experience for both of us. Come up to me afterwords, and I'll show you my storyboards and proposed timeline." This person is more likely to get respondents. ==== So now we starting to do new things in small steps. Pierre and I have started the Open Studio to translate our vision of a greater aesthetic depth in NWCA into reality. It may not fly, it may not fit what this group needs or is about, but the only way to find out if it is a worthwhile meme is to translate it into a small step to which others can respond to in a concrete fashion, nurse it along for a while, and see if it gains momentum. Even if it fails, I will have learned some lessons about the vision, and about how to (or how not to) translate it into reality. Auriana is now calling for people to give her resumes and portfolios and is announcing performance opportunities. She may need to demonstrate some concrete results with a few intrepid individuals before other folks catch on and realize that there can be a return on the investment of giving her some information. We now have opportunities with Black Citron. Perhaps someone will take a small step and say "Let's have a Techno-Arts open-mike night there, I'll talk to the place and give me your name if you want to perform" though maybe there will only be a handful of attendees. Then, maybe there will be a second that goes smoother and has some more people. Then, maybe there will be a scene. But casting those first, concrete steps which other people can step on -- and placing those steps/opportunities clearly and unambiguously before people -- is critical to translating vision into reality. So, to return to our original topic: looking at some articles of incorporation and looking at the history/function of other groups in town is a small, concrete action step that can move us closer, perhaps, to putting an effective shape on how this group should be structured and led. Because, otherwise, our brains are just generating vaporware. -=Bret ============================================================================== Bret Battey * Seattle, Washington, USA * bret@eskimo.com Composer, Acoustic and Interactive-Algorithmic Music The Bat Page: Online Gallery and Downloadable Creative Works available at http://www.eskimo.com/~bret/ .