LP/SL/BDSM/ADHD and other abbreviations

Power and Community

Upon my first read of the Raley and Backe articles, I found myself slightly at a loss as to how to connect the two. With further reflection, however, I’ve come to see them as sort of counterpoints. Raley and Backe are both examining online communities, but the Listening Post (LP) is defined by its randomness, whereas Second Life (SL) is defined by order. I was concerned that this observation/classification may seem a bit obvious and perhaps even inappropriate, particularly as LP is an art installation/statisticalanalysis, while SL is an entertainment site.

However, I feel the contrast demonstrated between the two illustrates Raley’s conception of the crowd as “a discourse of strangeness…both singular and multiple, not based on self-same identity but instead heterogeneous,” vs. the community, as a “shared social context.” The often bizarre collection of postings found in the LP or its physicalization “The Cave,” defy the specific social requirements of participation in SL worlds.

But, as my mind is a warped space, immediately after processing the above thought, it (my mind, that is) had another one. The LP is still an ordered space with rules. Mark Hansen and Ben Rubin have articulated and executed that system of rules and are, in a fashion, as in control (of the uncontrolled) as those who dictate rules for each individual SL world. The methods through which power has been articulated by each system pose another interesting contrast, however, as Hansen and Rubin’s control of the system is less transparent than that control so clearly displayed by the copious lists of rules present in so many SL worlds, particularly Star Wars. Also the question of choice becomes significant. Backe spends a great deal of time examining the power dynamics of the Gorean gameplay and its strong BDSM themes. And while many of the games themes, particularly in connection with gender roles may seem disturbing, she cites one play, acknowledging, “that everyone is free to choose whether they want to take part.” 

In The LP, however, not everyone has a choice as posts are randomly collected and reposted in a new and public forum without consent. As a side note, I was thinking further about the level of discipline demanded in SL and how those themes are represented in certain projects posted on the Rhizome Artbase website, under the Measure of Discontent series, in particular. The foot-tap amplifier utilizes the undisciplined body experiencing restless leg syndrome, externalizing that energy by honing it to break down a cement block. Within the piece, involuntary energy is reconstituted and redirected for intentional destruction.

Polyattentiveness

I was really struck by Raley’s writing about this subject, and I’m doing it right now as I write this piece, maintaining my word document as I surf the internet and listening to internet radio via my iPhone. Interfacing with multiple technologies and their methods of delivery I am at once part of the community on the Rhizome site, or listening to The Gossip radio at this moment, while maintaining the private world of my doc. Polyattentiveness, it seems, is not just about paying multiple attentions but occupying multiple communities as well. I was thinking about the concept in relation to FB. Every time my homepage updates, I always find myself pleased and a bit overwhelmed, glad to know about my friends but also sometimes confused as to updates about other friends they have that I do not share (posting on their status, commenting on their pictures, etc.) We share a community and belong to others. We are both together and separate. Us and not us. As a final thought, I couldn’t help but consider the LP/The Cave as a sort of poetic experience. Like cutting up a bunch of words and randomly assembling them as collection that forms a poem. Meaning is changed and new relationships among words created through such practices. The Cave is a community and it is capable making meaning as any other.

I just thought this was cool: http://www.gammaraydigital.com/portfolio/case-studies/cave