H|U|M|B|O|T 1999-2004 CONTENT IV created by Philip Pocock 2001.

http://www.humbot.org/static/new/content4.html

Abstract

Grammar for
Invention

Installation

"Rather than
discovering new,
isolated facts I
preferred linking
already known
ones together."

h|u|m|b|o|t

Source:
A.v.Humboldt,
"Personal
Narrative..."

Screenshot: H|U|M|B|O|T installation, 'net

condition', Zentrum fr Kunst und
Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe, Germany,
1999-2000 with a team of hackers, datatects,
artists and architects assembled by Philip
Pocock.

An Aesthetics of Participation
rather than Consumption.
There are risks involved, of course,
facing cybercinema strategies. If an
author usurps his or her authorship,
sharing authority over the production
of media with audiences, as
unpredictable as human nature is.
Applying dated aesthetic criteria
stamped by an imperative of passive
audience consumption, cybercinema
cannot be measured. The value added by
a radical, and in some ways ancient,
rebalancing of consumption and
production, unfolding a new
participatory aesthetic into a
consumptive one, has far too few
precedents of its own in technological
media. Critics must rewind to
pre-literate, pre-technolgical, oral
and corporeal cultures, to imagine a
set of criteria which may be applied to
measure the value of a aesthetic
rebalancing consumption and production
by all participants, authors and
audiences alike.

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Diagram:
FLATMOVIE [Green
- H|U|M|B|O|T]
interweave with
FLATBOOK [Yellow
- Humboldt] on
Internet screens
according to
parameters of
emotion, time,
situation and
keyword combined
with logs of
recent user
cybercinematic
travels at the
site.

20.05.2008 22:51 Uhr

H|U|M|B|O|T 1999-2004 CONTENT IV created by Philip Pocock 2001.

http://www.humbot.org/static/new/content4.html

H|U|M|B|O|T audiences may passively

trace previous interactors on the site,
or lean forward and participate
themselves. If the dramaturgy falls
short due to an ingrained aesthetic
based purely on consumption of our
media, at least, a message encouraging
individual involvement in the
production of global culture is being
delivered, along with lyrical and
informational cybercinema. It may seem
chaotic, just too many interactions,
but essentially interactivity by
individuals in the consensual creation
of content (form and meaning) is as
crucial a tool to ensure personal
freedom and human rights as voting.
There is only an active vote, and
although it may seem lost in an ocean
of votes, it does have meaning. To
produce rather than consume political
leaders may be not much more important
in the unfolding century, as producing
rather than consuming our media
[... Back to Content Page 3]

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20.05.2008 22:51 Uhr