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addressing technology

Regarding the Ecosa Institute‘s curriculum re-generation (this note is a draft sketch to be sent to the rest of the dev group. Contextualized, it addresses a program that has not, historically, substantively engaged the communicative technologies and the potentials for social engagement that are currently available — but it does not cover the whole of the issue, by any means!):

I’d like to insert more nuance into the technology (digital or not) discussion that we’ve been engaging in off-and-on over the course of the last half-year. I am somewhat concerned with the question of wider relevance of the program in this regard as I compare it with other creative design situations I’ve observed or participated in over the years.

To begin with, I’d like to propose a model of technology that is more of a sliding scale rather than an ‘on-off’ binary of opposites: somewhere between proto-Luddite and techno-utopian positions. Technology can be imagined as a ‘human-constructed’ or ‘human-formed’ means of directing the pervasive energy flows that we are part of/immersed within. Precisely because of this potential to redistribute tangible power, technology sits squarely in the space of the politic, the space of the personal, and the space of the collective. Altering the flows through any ‘making’ process is just that, regardless of the technology employed. Different technologies sit on different locations on the sliding scale based on how, particularly, they affect the ‘ambient’ energy flows of the infinite surround.

Along the sliding scale, there are, for example, profound shifts in the balance between the personal and the social. The issue of personal autonomy is seen as a crucial metric. This autonomy is a measure of control that the individual exerts directly on their existence in the world. What we face in our contemporary techno-social system is a situation where the technologies and protocols are largely not self-determined or determined by a localized community. Autonomy is thus prone to devolve to a greater degree of social dependence: depending on a technology and, more critically, how a technology is understood and used. This is a crucial issue that directly affects an empowered outcome from any process that questions the status quo (of global human-dominated ecosystems).

Several interconnected points: more “addressing technology”

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  • place: Prescott, Arizona

Ecosa meeting

Meeting with Tony about next spring’s Ecosa curriculum. He shares an organic sketch for the program that will be based in a shared teaching process with simultaneous threads: Nature’s Design; Technical Resources; Community Development; Art & Culture; Communication Design; and Ecological Design Studies. Covering Art & Culture would be my input in the process. The boundaries between the threads would be extremely porous — they would need to be to actualize the potential of the learning instance and to help it stand apart from traditional university/art&design programs. To realize the potential, efforts will have to circulate around how to orchestrate this organic open system.

Meanwhile, writing has fallen away as an expressive medium. The state of mind necessary to craft a meaningful and energized sequence of words on a screen (or anywhere else!) is no longer accessible.

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  • place: Prescott, Arizona

Ecosa Institute and more

Another interesting meeting this month — portending an engaged 2015 — this crossing with Antony “Tony” Brown, the founder of the Ecosa Institute. A possibility to collaborate or so, as they make a systems approach in their educational program that focuses on “regenerative” ecological design. They are on the verge of a major expansion of their mission as a result of a substantial philanthropic gift that allows for a new facility to be built in the Granite Dells. Tony founded the .org about fifteen years ago, and it’s a pity that I didn’t find them sooner than this week. Better late than never!

I’m still learning how to live in a small town. Can’t be a selective hermit. So, made a serious effort to ‘get out.’ Following my own advice to students — do everything [whups, got to change that — this was the original John Cage text — I did a remix on that]. Find the interesting people doing interesting things, one can hardly go wrong.

But it’s been difficult to do this reaching out with the Displace book running far over the allotted month of editing. Many ten-hour days sunk into that, and it’s not going to press until after the New Year now, I think. Mindaugas just sent the cover proof yesterday. These editing projects always run over. It’s rarely possible to estimate what effort it will take to make readable texts from unknown sources.