Fwd: RHIZOME DIGEST: 5.21.04

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Ann Tomoko Yamamoto <[email protected]>
> Date: May 25, 2004 2:19:18 AM EDT
> To: <[email protected]>
> Cc: <[email protected]>
> Subject: Re: RHIZOME DIGEST: 5.21.04
>
>
>> +thread+
>> 8. t.whid, Mac McKean, Geert Dekkers, ryan griffis, Marisa S. Olson, =

>> Joy
>> Garnett , Rob Myers, Christina McPhee, richard willis, marc, Rachel
>> Greene,
>> patrick lichty, Edward Tang, CK SHINE, Patrick Simons: rhizome needs
>> to drop
>> its membership fee and free its content
>
> This thread is fascinating. I read through the posts in the digest
> version,
> and can I add my 2 cents?
>
> This seems like a variation on the classic free rider problem: With
> every
> new member, the entire Rhizome becomes richer. But at the same time,
> communities are expensive to maintain (sewage lines, self-defense,
> etc.)
> Impose a tax and you kill the community, but without a tax everyone is
> a
> free rider and the community withers away under piles of uncollected
> garbage.
>
> The entire field of urban planning emerged precisely in response to
> these
> kinds of problems, and you can see there are no easy answers – gated
> communities, privatized public spaces, business improvement districts,
> etc
> etc.
>
> It seems to me that an issue with this kind of significance is fertile
> ground for media/net/interactive/digital art. The problem of sustaining
> community involves technology, design, architecture, human behavior,
> economics, global politics, local culture, public policy. Yes, mobile
> phones
> and games are important, but (I think) art cries out first and
> foremost for
> relevance; I might be totally naive, but I think this could be framed=

> as a
> media art problem, and not an administrative problem. What do you
> think?
>
> Ann Yamamoto
>