Wednesday, May 12, 2004

Negativland and Decentralization

"Bootstrap" for Douglas Engelbart and Dave Winer has different meanings. To the first, is to boost the society to successfully cope with complex and urgent problems. To the second, is stuff the trunk with groupies. Decentralization is the key word. As the time of connection passes by, dynamic IP addresses acquire the status of a true and perennial peer. Even for the eyes of BitTorrent networks and Donkey meshes. Decentralization and freedom are actually key words. Scoble has been complaining that his newsreader doesn't read Atom feeds. Why implement an auto-censor policy against yourself, my friend? Go change the newsreader! Next time better choose a decentralized one, as the cool Bloglines. Speaking of BitTorrent, I was flopped today trying watch The Mashing' of the Christ, the last Negativland prank and top-secret-not-for-viewing video. Video? Why not call it beforehand a footage frottage? Yes, because the guys had filtered the most violent movie scenes related with Christ's crucifixion, like Barabbas (1962) and, sure, Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. UPDATE 1: A new flop with Negativland's video. Seems like I don't have a MPEG-2 codec installed in my box. Thanks God, VideoHelp.com exists. UPDATE 2: Now I have seen Negativland's work craft. It was well edited. The devil baby skull morphing into Nikita Khrushchev's head is very scary, though I'd like to better know the connections between communist leaders and the martyr. UPDATE 3: Jon Udell is as much dazzled as I'm. The network is the computer. And the computer is the network. We live in interesting times! This is exactly what I meant by "decentralization". The circle is closed now. Good night.

[Listening to: Iron And Wine - Bird Stealing Bread]