Teshome H. Gabriel was a professor at UCLA in the Theater, Film, and Television department who focuses on Third World cinema. Teshome was not born in the United States; he was born in Ethiopia. Fabian Wagmister is a professor at UCLA and worked in the same department as Gabriel. He also is a filmmaker and created Hypermedia studios. He seems to be interested in technology across the globe as well. For both of the authors, I think connecting technology to other countries is important to them.
The main topic of the essay is comparing traditional weaving and new digital technologies like a computer or the world wide web. They talk about how digital technology is talked about in terms of looking towards the future and making a break with the past. This puts the Third World in a weird position because most of their life is centered on traditional cultures, like weaving.
One of the most interesting comparisons they made was the fact that lots of vocabulary terms are used in both activities. Some of these terms include network, web, and texture. Tradition is another large part of the article. "...the Third World is represented as having a more ecological, more connected, (dare we say) more spiritual view of others and the world, computer technology tends to think of tradition in merely instrumental terms, something to help it designate tools, objects, and users -- all of which are ultimately and tacitly reincorporated in to a Western perspective." From that quote, it sounds as if technology in the Third World is trying to push them toward the more Western culture and ideals. Another thing that I thought was odd in the article was the fact that they said the spiritual is found in digital technologies a lot. The ad with the computer and the monk was mentioned as an example. However, I've never seen an ad or anything like that before in my life.
QUESTIONS:
I don't really understand when they were talking about weaving being digital because you work with digits. "Weaving is digital, in the sense that it relies on digits - on fingers - for its production." If this was true wouldn't almost all craft be digital?
Is weaving always connected to the spiritual world and the Great Mother in all cultures? I don't know if that would effect how different cultures would view the spiritual world in connection to weaving/computers.
Barbrook/Schultz
Richard Barbrook is from the UK and he's a huge critic of the "neo-liberal cyber-elite". He's worked with community radio-broadcasting, media regulations, and he has been the coordinator of the Hypermedia Research Center. This may be the same place that Gabriel worked on. Pit Schultz lives in Berlin. He's worked on radio projects that combine "old" and "new" radio together. He's also an artist, author, and computer professional.
This manifesto is a fake manifesto; almost satirical. It's sarcastic and the manifesto itself talks about his made up group called the digital artisans. The artisans are connected with old-school bourgeois-type social classes when it talks about the present moment. In the next section they talk about this group called EDAN which sounds like a union to me. Government is obviously linked with the unions in the manifesto just like it is in real life, at this time in the United States.
"No society can call itself truly democratic until all citizens can directly exercise their right to media freedom over the Net." This quote shows the link of government and union and also shows how sarcastic this piece is. I think in this section the authors are trying to say that technology represents moving forward to Western cultures and that kind of connects with democracy. Western societies think the only modern, great government can be democratic just like we see technology as more effective/modern than a traditional, simple way of life.
QUESTIONS:
I don't understand why the partying was a part of #17. I understand this is a fake manifesto, but is that a cultural thing for some people do with their unions? Or have people done that before and the authors don't agree with that practice? I feel like it's oddly placed.
Also I didn't fully understand how #20 was sarcastic, satirical, or fake. It seemed like a normal thing for a union to expect; education opportunities for the people who want to pursue that trade. Again, I'm just wondering if in the UK this is some cultural thing that I just don't understand? Are they trying to bash a certain digital/technological union that they have over there?
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