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manifesto draft from brian -- please discuss 
01.19.2007, 7:05 PM
There are diametrically opposed cultural forces ranged in conflict across the world. In the face of increasing atomization, suspicion and hierarchical privilege, the digital age has opened vast new possibilities for human creativity and communication. It is challenging and transforming the ways in which ideas are transported between cultures, countries and communities. It threatens the power of gatekeepers and censors. It has made possible and visible networks of human discourse, collaborative production, critique and action.
Paradoxically, networked communication is fostering intense individual creativity. The Internet, born as a tool for scientific collaboration, has opened a dramatic new universe of cultural cooperation. There is a synergy between an emerging networked culture and creative individuality. It finds metaphorical parallels as we more profoundly grasp the vast network of stars and galaxies in which our small blue dot is a vibrant, intelligent and totally dependent speck; as we more profoundly grasp the dense network of life on this planet of which we are only one, brilliant manifestation.
The birth of the networked culture we are observing seems spontaneous, a force of life itself. But in reality it is the intentional creation of hundreds of thousands of people who work painstakingly to invent the tools that make it possible. The forms of this communication do have a spontaneous aspect that is both exhilarating and deeply unsatisfying. Some are put off by the banality inherent in mass communication. Some fear the dictatorship of the crowd. There is no guarantee that the promise of communication in the digital age will not emulate earlier technologies breech of hope. Already sharp battles are emerging in the market place over access and content control.
Yet it is certain that something new is being born within the constraints of the old economies of creation and communication. Collaborative authorship, interaction between creator and reader/viewer, collapse of time and space between production and consumption, new criteria of authenticity, versioning, fixity of boundaries and media.
Publishing in the digital age is undergoing a profound metamorphous. The Institute for the Future of the Book is a focused project to explore and test the possibilities that the constantly developing digital technologies are opening for human discourse. The Institute is an experimental publishing node in the network of authors, artists, editors and filmmakers, discovering new ways to present their creations and to generate interaction between them and the networks of people who are drawn to respond to their work. We will continue to explore new ideas for collaborative, networked production and intend to build a library of networked publications that can be widely tested for their substantive originality, usability and impact.
We invite you to join us.
Consumers of Culture Arise. We have nothing to lose but our eyesight. We've got a world of merriment to gain!
Posted by bob stein at January 19, 2007 7:05 PM