Presently the neoscenes occupation project consists of semi-annual collaborative online happenings, along with heavy-duty networking and communications behind the scenes. The neoscenes mailing list now has around 200 subscribers in 40 countries. During the years since its inception (1998), it has functioned as a vital tool for the distribution of pertinent info about online events, educational possibilities, subscriber’s research and projects, and related trends. Sustaining active contact with so many of my former students allows me to frequently cross-connect them in different locations with energized results.
text from the original launch of nso:
Much of the educational process in the developed world is irrelevant, dead, or dying. neoscenes wants to re-create and re-new learning, making it an omni-directional flow of energies with a force multiplied far beyond the meat count and with a reach that is far ahead of the game. Join neoscenes occupation, speak, act, make a difference in your own head and body and soul. The revolution will not be televised, it will simply be a praxis embedded in the network that is community. The occupation is of the network, is of each others lives, is of being, is of body, it is of it all.
neoscenes is about the creation of personal spaces where-in the individual realizes the potential of individual and collaborative creativity. It is about seizing the opportunity presented by the internet and contemporary tele-communications to create active spaces that are autonomous from the traditional “institutions of higher learning”. It is about sharing.
neoscenes established a primary level of mechanisms for this engagement in the basic technologies of the web (this site), irc (internet relay chat), and the neoscene listserv (mailinglist). IRC, a live text-based communications medium is widely available on any networked pc; the neoscenes mailing list allows distribution of information via email, and this website will become a central point to network neoscenes participants and their relevant web-based information. Other means of collaboration including iVisit, CUSeeMe, ftp, ISDN, streaming media, and other technologies as they become available are employed as participants determine whether they facilitate human-to-human connection. The all-important flesh-factor is incorporated into the plan whenever possible!
On the invitation of curators at Ars Electronica in the spring of 1998, neoscenes occupation was initiated and submitted as a project in the second incarnation of the openX networking venue at the fall 1998 InfoWar Festival. Several neoscenes students from the neoscenes “networking and creativity” workshop at the Western Lapland Polytech (LLAKY — now Lapin AMK) attended the festival in support roles.