Re: <nettime> 20 years Californian Ideology!

[Paolo Ruffino <p.ruffino@gmail.com>]

Perfect timing! I just gave a lecture on the Californian Ideology at
University of York this week, as part of the module where I teach,
'Interactive Media and Society'. I will certainly forward this
publication to my students.

Other interesting historical coincidences, that I offered to my
students as further food for thought: the 'Think Different' campaign
by Apple was conceived around 1997, not long after the publication of
Barbrook and Cameron essay. That campaign reinforced and popularised
the idea that computers are not just tools but liberating machines
(and that freedom was a commodity that Apple could sell). 1997 is also
the year when Wired published 'The Long Boom' editorial (available at
http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/5.07/longboom.html). And that
also replicated the mantra of the Californian Ideology in quite
explicit terms: technologies will make the world a better place, if we
let the Silicon Valley work by itself.

I also proposed to the students to look at how the Burning Man
festival changed in the last years. From the original idea of the San
Francisco Cacophony Society, strongly inspired by the concept of the
Temporary Autonomous Zone, the festival later evolved in a party for
the rich CEOs of the Silicon Valley, where freedom can only be
guaranteed at the cost of others' liberty and exploitation (this
article puts it quite well:
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/08/burning-man-one-percent-silicon-valley-tech/).
But the ideology is not contradicted, it is still perfectly consistent
with the original formulation as it was in Jefferson's conception of
freedom.

What is Larry Page's dream of 'setting aside part of the world for
unregulated experimentation', if not the dream of TAZ and Burning Man?
http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/15/4334356/larry-page-wants-to-set-aside-a-part-of-the-world-for-experimentation


Thanks again for taking care of this publication, it is very much needed.


On 16 October 2015 at 18:18, Speakeasy <popeye@speakeasy.net> wrote:

> I love you guys!
>
> Please respond to popeye@speakeasy.net
>
>
>> On Oct 16, 2015, at 7:28 AM, Geert Lovink <geert@xs4all.nl> wrote:
>>
>> http://networkcultures.org/blog/publication/no-10-the-internet-revolution-from-dot-com-capitalism-to-cybernetica-communism-by-richard-barbrook-with-andy-cameron/
>>
>> Dear nettimers,
>>
>> we're proud to present the 20th anniversary edition of the nettime
>> classic The Californian Ideology.
>  <...>
 <...>

-- 
paolo ruffino
http://paoloruffino.com


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