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Pierre
Levy|
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» See document: http://www.life.umd.edu/faculty/wilkinson/BSCI338/L24language/sld030.htm
- Education and Cyberspace
- Communication
- Wittgenstein
- Quotes
- The Global Hypertext
- What is Virtual
- Internet Criticism
- Evolution of knowledge
Education and Cyberspace
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By Pierre Lévy
Professor at the University of Paris VIII Any serious consideration given to the future of education and training in the new cyberculture must be preceded by a careful analysis of the profound changes occurring in the way we learn and acquire knowledge. In this regard, we must first acknowledge the speed at which knowledge and know-how appears and is being updated. For the first time in the history of humanity most of the skills a person acquires at the beginning of his career will be obsolete at the end of his professional life. The second observation, which is related to the first, concerns the change in the way we work, where the amount of time devoted to the transfer of knowledge is constantly increasing. Work is more and more synonymous with learning, transferring know-how and producing knowledge. Third observation: cyberspace supports intellectual technologies which amplify, materialize, and transform a number of human cognitive functions: memory (data bases, hyperdocuments, digital files of all kinds), imagination (simulations), perception (digital sensors, telepresence, virtual reality), thinking (artificial intelligence, modeling of complex phenomena). Such intellectual technologies promote: * new ways of accessing information: hyperdocumentation, finding information using "search engines", knowbots or software agents, contextual explorations using dynamic data maps. * new ways of thinking and reasoning: such as simulation - an industrialized form of thought experiment that cannot be equated with logical deduction or induction through experience. Due to the fact that these intellectual technologies - particularly dynamic memory - have been materialized in digital documents or softwares that can be consulted by network (or easily reproduced and transferred), they can be shared with a large number of people thus augmenting the potential collective intelligence of human groups. The knowledge-flow, the work-transaction of knowledge, the new technologies of collective and individual intelligence are all dramatically altering our approach to education and training. What must be learned can no longer be planned and precisely defined in advance. Career paths and profiles are all different and are more and more difficult to channel into programmes or courses that are valid for everyone. We must build new models that more accurately portray this new space of knowledge. The traditional representation (linear, parallel step-ladders with pyramids structured into levels) geared by the concept of prerequisite and converging toward "higher" education, must be gradually replaced by a representation of open, emerging spaces of knowledge that are continuous, evolving, non-linear, and are reorganising according to specific objectives or contexts and where each individual enjoys a distinct, evolving position. Two major reforms of education and training systems are thus necessary. First, the wider use of Open and Distance Learning (ODL) -- both in spirit and practice -- in daily normal education. Of course, ODL exploits various remote teaching techniques, including hypermedia, interactive communication networks, and all the intellectual technologies available in cyberculture. However, a new pedagogical style is essential: one that promotes both personalized learning and cooperative learning using networks. In this context, the teacher has to inspire the exchange of knowledge and collective intelligence between his students rather than dispensing information unidirectionally. The second reform has to do with the recognition of acquired knowledge. If people learn from their social and professional experiences, if schools and universities are gradually losing their monopoly in the creation and transmission of knowledge, then public educational systems can at least assume a new mantle of responsibility by helping individuals orienting themselves in this new realm of knowledge and by recognizing all the skills and knowledge they have acquired including their non-academic know-how. The new tools available in cyberspace enable the prospective of a vast array of automated tests that could be accessed at any time, and skill supply and demand transaction networks. By organizing the communication between employers, individuals, and learning resources of all kinds, universities of the future will make a valuable contribution to the development of a new economy of knowledge. Professor Lévy's presentation is divided into different parts: * Articulating many points of view without a god's point of view
* The second Flood and the inaccessibility of the whole
* From Noah's Ark to a mobile flotilla
* Who knows? The reincarnation of knowledge
* From chaotic interconnection to collective intelligence
* Open and Distance Learning
* Cooperative learning and the teachers new role
* Breaking down barriers and the flow of knowledge
* Skill recognition
* Towards a public regulation of the economy of knowledge
Trees of Knowledge
In his book "L'idéographie dynamique" (The dynamic ideography) Pierre Lévy postulates the
existence of a new language that would go beyond the distinction between text and image to
provide a dynamic representation of thought models. This new language would radically alter
the role of the creator who would work on interfaces, transforming the "spectator" into a
creative actor. A second book entitled "Les arbres de connaissances" (Trees of Knowledge),
co-authored with Michel Authier, develops an application of dynamic ideography in the field
of forms of knowledge.
The following text is based on an interview of Pierre Lévy carried out at the end of 1992. Initially intended for scope magazine, the article was never published as scope ceased to exist. We believe that Lévy's work opens up important perspectives which is why we'd like to make this text available here. From a static to a dynamic medium
To date all language systems have been designed for a static medium. Only since the end of
the 19th century have the cinema given us a kinetic medium for representation. It would be
easy to show that the cinema is not a language due to the fact that it is not an interactive
medium, that it is linear and that it does not permit expression of abstract concepts, or only
indirectly. But today we have a medium that is not only kinetic but also interactive. What is
more, it is capable of memory and independent "reasoning". That medium is the computer.
Yet we are far from extracting all its possibilities. The current use of text and hypertext is a
transfer of material designed for a static medium to a dynamic one. Why not invent a form
of writing designed for a dynamic medium, using animated, interactive images. Doing so is
the aim of dynamic ideography. Such a language would not be a notation using words, but
an expression of our mental models as directly as possible.
Computer assisted imagination
We do not think by making logical deductions or following formal rules; we think by
manipulating mental models which, most of the time, take the form of images. This does not
mean the images resemble visible reality, they are more of a dynamic map-making. If a
dynamic ideography were created, it would constitute a computer assisted imagination. It
would help us construct much more complex mental models than we can with the structures
of our mind and enable us to share these mental models with others.
What would we do with such tools? Give people models of kinds of environments with a certain number of actor-objects - ideograms - capable of a degree of interaction between themselves and with the user. What would the person do? Envisage possible scenarios based on these models: consider the standard scenario provided, alter the behaviour of the actors, invent other scenarios, etc. and then maybe send the new scenario back to the originator of the standard scenario or share it with others. Clearly such a micro-world could have economic, industrial, ecological or political consequences by making interactive imaged representations of collective phenomenon that concern us. Creative decision making
Such tools could help enormously with decision-making, which brings me to another book
"Les arbres de connaissance" (Trees of knowledge), which I wrote with the mathematician
Michel Authier. Michel managed to provide a mathematical answer to questions raised by the
concept of dynamic ideography. How can you create a virtual reality expressing the whole
range of relationships that the members of a particular group of people have with one
another. We are not talking about the kind of communication where one person sends a
message to another who, in turn, may pass it on elsewhere. What we are taking about is
more the kind of communication in which a member of the group transforms his own image
and in doing so sends everyone a message that his images has been transformed.
Simultaneously, the overall map of the group is transformed. In such circumstances,
communication becomes the sharing of a common context and the reciprocal action in this
context.
Trees of knowledge
In the field of the relationship to knowledge, to learning and to skills, Michel Authier and
myself have managed to give a technical form to this apparently purely philosophical idea.
Called the "tree of knowledge", it is a map of all the skills present within a given community
organised on the basis of the order in which they were learnt. Everyone has an
apprenticeship "curriculum" with small icons that represent their skills divided up into
elementary units. A great variety of skills and know-how are included and not just those
currently accredited by formal education and official diplomas. On the basis of these
curricula, a computer charts the skills of the community, not on the basis of a re-established
theory of knowledge, but on the order in which people have learnt things and the co-existence of skills
in the curricula. In the trunk of the tree we have what people learned first,
those skills that are common to everybody and, at the top, what people have learned during
prolonged study or long experience. On the same branch you have what is generally
combined in the curricula of individuals, but which are not necessarily disciplines. Let's give
an example. If, in a given group, all mathematicians play tennis and all tennis players do
mathematics, you are going to have maths and tennis on the same branch. The tree is
permanently up-dated whenever anyone learns something new. Each time a new person
arrives in the group the tree is recalculated in real time. Everyone can locate himself or
herself within this map by charting his or her curriculum in the tree, to obtain what we call
that person's "blazon": a snapshot of the state of his or her current knowledge against the
background of the skills map. The individual can fix a personal itinerary for learning on the
basis of where he or she is in terms of the knowledge and know-how of the whole
community, and not according to a predetermined cursus. Everyone in the community is
situated in this virtual picture. It is not, however, the kind of virtual reality as we know it now
that duplicates physical reality. It is an space for meanings that do not exist elsewhere,
representing a new generation of communication systems.
Based on the book "l'ideographie dynamique" written by Prof. Pierre Levy. The following is some extract and a sum up of his book. Ideography:
- Ideography considered as a knowledge instrument that turns animated image into an
intellectual technology in its whole. The objective is to develop a language that fits a system
of thinking by images with its articulation and the specific rhythms.
- Ideography between the cinema language and the software languages, but more abstract and systematic than the cinema and more flexible and pictorial than the software. -Conception of a dynamic writing whose symbols would be loaded with memory and a capacity of autonomous reaction. -Ideography could be used as a simulating kit, groupware, software support for the production of synthesis films, "tableau de bord", interface man - machine. -Ideography as a mean of communicating a mental model. -"Ideograms" - Ideography associates images to concepts (same as the game pictionary...). we are back to the notion of mnemotechnics and the art of memory that existed before the printing age and when there was not much difference between writing and drawing. Features of ideography: * Communication medium
* Symbolic Intellectual technology for reasoning support
* Modeling and simulation technology
* Pedagogical support
Differences between ideography and interactivity:
ideography does not only offer the user the opportunity to navigate through a network
organized by others; ideography also provides means to respond on the same medium.
Its Grammar can be considered as a repertoire of iconic motives. Relational expressions: * inclusion
* coincidence: share the same part of the screen
* separation: decomposition of an object or its exit
* proximity: included in a field of action
-Equivalent of a "verb" in ideography : the series of movements that can be "perceptible" in the screen. -A sentence in the dynamic ideography means (is translated to) ,with the support of image and movement , a mental model. -Mental models that are used as a support for understanding and for the thought are always iconic.
There are 3 types of mental icons: images, diagrams and metaphors.
Thought without language:
sciences have a heavy use of maps, schemes, software and symbols.
-In order to limit the hypertext explosion , knowledge engineering will limit the space of central representation of the fields according to the objectives and to the interests of the users. We should therefore introduce the notion of hyperfilms that could be made of bits and pieces.
Some pieces of lego would be provided to the users and also what P.Lévy calls "ideograms".
These would represent some mental models (i.e this could represent different context or
environment, but I may be confused) . With a series of tools, and using a somewhat
common grammar, people could develop them.
Part of the lego pieces would simply be an interactivity tool that would help people navigate in
the labyrinth.
Using such legos and ideograms, it would then be possible to reflect a sum (synthesis) of
realities and interactions .
These ideograms would be much more powerful than micros or buttons because they could
evolve along a time scale or according to different conditions & situations/ contexts. Because
of their pictorially state, they would be more easily understood and they would not be based
on a language.
-In a way, they will have at their disposal a large quantity of pre-set routines and a series of tools "aide la mise en scene". -Tools for moving in the "conceptual hyperspace": * Change of scale
* Change of the degree of a detail inside the same cognitive space
* Zoom in and out
Some other tools that could be thought of would be tools to * Change contexts so that a mental model thought/used by a technical person would be translated to the model understood by the sales manager
* link between the different ideograms through an "action field".
* etc.
The main application is the "tree of knowledge" which is now a software programme developed and distributed by TriVium Corp. |
» See document: http://www.connected.org/learn/levy.html
Communication
» See document: http://proximity.dyne.org/where_ans.htm
Wittgenstein
» See document: http://www.island-of-freedom.com/WITTGEN.HTM
Quotes
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" Be happy for an instant. This instant, it's your life " .
Omar Khayam.
''To be present is the most simple and the most difficult of all
discipline. Why is it so difficult ? Because if I am here, really here,
without escaping, I become vulnerable ''.
''Go to the office as if you were going to your first interview. Work as
you make love (and not the opposite). Do your dishes as if you were
contemplating the Niagara Falls. Do your shopping as if you were one of the
Three Kings on Christmas Day. Peel the vegetables as if you were sculpting
the David. Change your baby diapers as if you were doing the first heart
transplant.. ''
''Time does not pass. Time is not to be lost of won. Time is not a burden.''
''Make every second of your life more beautiful, more poetic, more sacred. ''
''What are you doing at this second, when I am talking to you, of the great
gift of human life? ''.
''Beauty is given to us freely and we receive it freely. Out of the
perpetual calculation.''
'' Do not get lost in the ''serious business'' of life. Do not get lost in
the clouds of your ego. Enjoy your simple breath. Appreciate the great
present of sight, the gift of hearing, the fragrance of smells, the
mysterious presence of beings. Dive into the poetry of the world as it
continually gives itself.''
''Bring your soul to the cosmic dance, to the other souls, to herself. It
is all one. ''
''There is nothing to wait for and nothing to reach for. We are there. We
are already there. We have always been there. ''
Pierre Levy |
The Global Hypertext
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Metamorphosis {HYPERLINK "page6.htm"}{PRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=PREVIOUS"}{HYPERLINK
"page6.htm"}{PRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=UP"}{HYPERLINK "page6.htm"}{HYPERLINK
"page8.htm"}{PRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=PREVIOUS"}{HYPERLINK "page8.htm"}
The network is in constant change and renegotiation.
You cannot control it. The standard is the change, to garantee stability, even if temporarily, you need to work.
The design, extension and composition of the web are always changing.
Heterogeneity {HYPERLINK "page7.htm"}{PRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=PREVIOUS"}{HYPERLINK
"page7.htm"}{HYPERLINK "page6.htm"}{PRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=UP"}{HYPERLINK
"page6.htm"}{HYPERLINK "page9.htm"}{PRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=PREVIOUS"}{HYPERLINK
"page9.htm"}
The parts that compose the Web are heterogeneous. Memory stores images, sounds, texts, etc., making logical and affective connections.
The messages are multimodal, multimedia, digital and analog.
All the actors can be in this game, in any type of association, building a socio-technical process.
Fractality {HYPERLINK "page8.htm"}{PRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=PREVIOUS"}{HYPERLINK "page8.htm"}{HYPERLINK
"page6.htm"}{PRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=UP"}{HYPERLINK "page6.htm"}{HYPERLINK
"page10.htm"}{PRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=PREVIOUS"}{HYPERLINK "page10.htm"}
The Web has a fractal organization
At any node or connection, you can find a completely new network!
In a critical circunstance, a very small detail can have gigantesque effect!
Exteriority {HYPERLINK "page9.htm"}{PRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=PREVIOUS"}{HYPERLINK
"page9.htm"}{HYPERLINK "page6.htm"}{PRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=UP"}{HYPERLINK
"page6.htm"}{HYPERLINK "page11.htm"}{PRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=PREVIOUS"}{HYPERLINK
"page11.htm"}
The growing, shrinking, composition and recomposition of the Web depend of the undetermined exterior world.
The network has no organic unity, not even an internal engine.
At every instant, new elements interfere in the interactions inside the Web.
T
{HYPERLINK "page12.htm"}{PRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=PREVIOUS"}{HYPERLINK "page12.htm"}opology
The Web does not belong to the space, it is the space.
Everything works by proximity, by neighborhood.
Everything that moves should use the network, or modify it.
There is no universally homogeneous space where the messages can freely circulate
(since the messages are the space).
Center Mobility {HYPERLINK "page11.htm"}{PRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=PREVIOUS"}{HYPERLINK
"page11.htm"}{HYPERLINK "page6.htm"}{PRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=UP"}{HYPERLINK
"page6.htm"}{HYPERLINK "page13.htm"}{PRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=PREVIOUS"}{HYPERLINK
"page13.htm"}
The Web does not have a unique center.
There is no right place to start.
The Web has, permanentily, various centers, that are mobile luminous
pointers, jumping from node to node.
Each center creates a infinite network around it, defining a instantaneous map.
What these principles mean? {HYPERLINK "page12.htm"}{PRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=PREVIOUS"}{HYPERLINK
"page12.htm"}{HYPERLINK "page1.htm"}{PRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=UP"}{HYPERLINK
"page1.htm"}{HYPERLINK "../CursoHTML/page14.htm"}{PRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=PREVIOUS"}{HYPERLINK
"../CursoHTML/page14.htm"}
We must understand that the main topological difference between a text and a hypertext is:
In a hypertext, every word is a link in potential.
In a global hypertext you cannot control anything, even your creation, since every
other participant on the network can point to it, modifying its meaning.
Planning your Web {HYPERLINK "page13.htm"}{PRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=PREVIOUS"}{HYPERLINK
"page13.htm"}{HYPERLINK "page1.htm"}{PRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=UP"}{HYPERLINK
"page1.htm"}{HYPERLINK "page15.htm"}{PRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=PREVIOUS"}{HYPERLINK
"page15.htm"}
You want people to read your pages, so you must plan for it. You must make them have a reason to read your pages and also you must help them to {HYPERLINK "textos/terms~1.htm" \l "navigation"} navigate inside your {HYPERLINK "textos/terms~1.htm" \l "web"} web .
To make people interested in your pages, you must {HYPERLINK "page15.htm"}
plan
your goals.
To make navigation in your pages easy, you must plan your {HYPERLINK "page11.htm"}
topology
.
To plan your topology, you can draw a diagram map of all your pages. Some tools
available in the market can help you to do that.
Planning your goals {HYPERLINK "page14.htm"}{PRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=PREVIOUS"}{HYPERLINK
"page14.htm"}{PRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=UP"}{HYPERLINK "page14.htm"}{HYPERLINK
"page16.htm"}{PRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=PREVIOUS"}{HYPERLINK "page16.htm"}
When you write your pages you must understand that you want to pass a message and the readers want to get some information.
So, you must have the information the users want, and you want to give them,. These
are the clear goals of your pages.
Meanwhile, while reading your pages, the reader will form a mental image of you
(or your organization). The goals related to controlling this image are the hidden
goals of your page. They are the subliminar message you pass.
The Clear Goals {HYPERLINK "page15.htm"}{PRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=PREVIOUS"}{HYPERLINK
"page15.htm"}{PRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=UP"}{HYPERLINK "page15.htm"}{HYPERLINK
"page17.htm"}{PRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=PREVIOUS"}{HYPERLINK "page17.htm"}
These goals are the information you pass. You can have pages informing about your work, your hobbies, your las lunch, you can choose.
It is important to make clear what you are talking about.
Also, if you plan to inform about the work of other, you must be aware of copyright
laws.
The Hidden Goals {HYPERLINK "page16.htm"}{PRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=PREVIOUS"}{HYPERLINK
"page16.htm"}{HYPERLINK "page15.htm"}{PRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=UP"}{HYPERLINK
"page15.htm"}{HYPERLINK "page18.htm"}{PRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=PREVIOUS"}{HYPERLINK
"page18.htm"}
These are related with the image the reader builds in his mind about the writer (or writers) of the page he is reading.
For example, if you must pass a image of seriousness, you could show only your
serious work in your page.
If you want to pass an image of helpfulness, you can have lists helping people to find
information.
The list goes on, but I think you got the general idea: the media is the message, and,
in the hypertext case, the message is its own media.
Designing your Web {HYPERLINK "page17.htm"}{PRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=PREVIOUS"}{HYPERLINK
"page17.htm"}{HYPERLINK "page14.htm"}{PRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=UP"}{HYPERLINK
"page14.htm"}{HYPERLINK "page19.htm"}{PRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=PREVIOUS"}{HYPERLINK
"page19.htm"}
Your Web must have a start page. In this page you must do a general introduction to your {HYPERLINK "textos/terms.html" \l "web"} web .
You should them design the Web, maybe drawing it as a graph. Try to make one page
per idea, and connect the pages with links.
You should not make a linear text with your pages, but you can linearize them, as this
text. In this tutorial there is always a next page and a previous page, but you can do
different jumps "out of order".
After you have each page designed, you can write each one of them. To write the
pages you must use an editor capable of writing in {HYPERLINK "page19.htm"}
HTML
.
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What is Virtual
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What is the Virtual? Pierre Lévy
Lévy's writing grew prolifically towards the end of the nineties so that by the new
millenium his work formed a large, influential and coherent body. Since his style
often shifted between the erudite and the popular he had attracted an eager audience
ranging from the readers of Magazine Litteraire to the MEPs of the European
Parliament in Strasbourg. It would be unfair to label him as an apologist for the
burgeoning information society although his theme is often bordering on the
evangelical, no, Lévy does examine the human condition in cyberspace bringing to
bear interesting and illuminating theoretical approaches to understanding the
Information Society at the start of the new millenium.
A professor in the department of hypermedia at the University of Paris VIII, he had half a dozen books to his name by the time he published Qu'est-ce que le virtuel? This book heralded a new maturity in his thinking. He had found the confidence to investigate more complex issues in the formation of Cyberfrance by drawing on his reading of Deleuze. "Le virtuel" gives contemporary French thought a clear definition of the virtual and, while not coining the neologism "hominisation", he brings it into play in French and European culture in an innovative and persuasive way. The new vocabulary and the new concepts that this philosopher of post-industrial France prepares in "Le virtuel" are greedily absorbed into the culture of the growing class of thinking knowledge mediators across the metropolitan francophone world. French universities have a tradition of professionalising and intellectualising the role of the knowledge mediator in the old broadcast media and have quickly begun to treat the Internet and the Worldwide Web in the same thoughtful and reflective way. Lévy along with other philosophers of la Toile (the web) provide this technologically literate class with the intellectual tools it demands to make sense of the new cultural imperatives of francophone cyberspace. I'll now look in detail at the new concepts he opens up which have gained currency and now inform thinking in 21st century France. "Le virtuel" opens with the spectre of Paul Virilio, Lévy asks if it is necessary to believe in Virilio's terrifying implosion of the space-time continuum which Virilio best expresses in his long dialogue "Le pire". Tellingly, Lévy avoids giving his readers the necessary reference to pursue this antithesis in the 'selective, annotated bibliography' of "Le virtuel". Instead he proposes to express a pursuit of the human or to show the increasing use of networked computing in everyday communications as a humanisation process and as such, as a good thing. He employs historical precedents in his rhetorical formation of the concept he calls "hominisation". To do this he conflates the humanist and modernist project by saying that, despite the brutality of the current crisis in civilisation, the strange changes we are living through can be reassessed in the light of the continuing human adventure. Take language, for example. The historical emergence of language, a very human thing, gave us direct access to the world of the past. Humans no longer needed to exist in the here and now like animals. The storage property of language meant that we could re-visit the past, moving with ease between then and now. This, Lévy says, is humanisation; the ability to create oneself with language, a tool of the virtual. With this tool of the virtual humans can open new spaces and complete a cultural apprenticeship which is much faster than the biological evolution which the non-human being has to wait for. As humans emit sounds, stories, music, pictures they contribute to a world outside of normal reality and outside of present time. It is this making external the internal and the internalising of the narratives available in the public sphere that is both humanising and is the process of virtualisation. His evocation of times past or, in his words, le passe herité and les choses absentes, step over the existential ethos of living in the here and now. On the cusp of the new millenium he uses this sentiment of a return to the past to give comfort to a generation of 21st century screenagers. This may seem to make him slightly reactionary, however, he is also the writer who spent the first part of his project defining a new collectivism which he had found in the newsgroups of the web that he repeatedly explained was profoundly different from the collective hysterias of fascism and stalinism that gripped popular thought in the first half of the 20th century.
It is worth explaining this position since he relies, quite rightly in view of the
exposure he received in metropolitan France in the mid-nineties, upon his audience
being familiar with his position on collective intelligence and Internet
communication. His is a neat archaeology of social communication with three strata
visible to the structuralist eye. First, a tribal age where spoken transactions and the
absence of the written ensured that face-to-face communications were always
conducted in the same context. The boundaries of the tribe removed
misunderstanding in these verbal transactions. The second age was that of the printed
word and broadcast media. Powerful élites could transmit their message directly to
an unanswering and aquiescent audience. However, context was removed,
misunderstanding arose and the rôle of mediator was introduced. Finally, the
networked age dawned and once again tribes with the same needs and interests could
communicate directly across vast distances without need of publisher, broadcaster or
knowledge mediator.
What is virtualisation? Lévy must tackle this question in a work called Qu'est-ce que le virtuel? In his answer to this he introduces the names of Gilles Deleuze and Michel Serres but wishes to work in the another direction from them. His study analyses the transformation from one mode of being to another, like Deleuze, but studies the move from the real towards the virtual. It is this upward movement from the real towards the virtual (ce retour amont) which he thinks characterises the development of the human species. The virtual is not the false nor the imaginary. The virtual is the power that something has of becoming something. A tree is virtually present in a seed. The virtual and the actual are simply two ways of being different.
Virtualising something consists of discovering a general question to which that thing
can reply and then in moving or mutating the thing in the direction of the question.
The virtualisation of a company makes an illuminating case study. Information and
communications technologies, like ISDN links (Numéris) mean that the staff of the
company can be geographically separate and hence near to the service they provide.
The datacommunications links provide access to shared data; remote clerical staff
can all interrogate and update the same files with only a few seconds waiting time, a
type of cooperative tele-working. This virtualisation moves from a stable solution,
that is a single head office near the service provided, to a permanently posed
problem. The new business leader must constantly ask, how do I coordinate all this?
Wheras the norm in business is to move from a problem to a solution, virtualisation
mutates a traditional or known solution to a problem which is completely other.
The term virtual can be applied to help understand the documents of the Internet. As
you read this text it is clearly here with you, possibly printed on an A4 sheet. But
consider the text of a document on a web server. That text can be called and
presented on any screen connected to the web; in fact you may be reading this on the
screen of a networked computer. The text and the networked screens therefore have a
virtual relationship in Lévy's terms, since the power or potential exists for the text to
appear anywhere. The problems this poetential creates also adds to this notion of
virtuality, especially when the text is a hypertext. As soon as it arrives on the screen
of a distant computer the original file on the server may be erased or the hypertext
links to other documents be altered by the file's owner. That text being read on the
screen is suddenly problematized, it was an original when you first called it from the
server but now it is a mutation or the original on the server is a mutation.
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Internet Criticism
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In T.S. Elliot’s cultural system, critics played a necessary role as ‘second order
minds’ that enable the distinguished ideas of others to circulate. The periodical press
was ‘an instrument of transport’ and critics their conductors.
T.S. Elliot inhabited a world of books, often quite expensive or rare and kept in
libraries open to the few. As the current logic goes, when knowledge is inscribed on
paper, it encourages a hierarchical system. This logic now looks to our own world,
where atoms replace bits, and the increasingly rhizomic platform for knowledge. It is
in this world, particularly the Internet, where the conductors of information find
themselves made redundant, along with editors, curators, ticket collectors and,
recently in Melbourne, tram conductors. Naturally, the disbandment of these groups
is celebrated with great democratic excitement.
But it’s easy for this excitement to turn bland. Like the catch-word of liberalism,
‘diversity’, it is possible for a noble ideal to lose its transformative potential once
its becomes embedded in public rhetoric. To this end then, let’s examine more
closely the way a critical field might be constructed in cyberspace.
There’s a lot of ground to cover in a short time, so let’s get a leg up from a French
philosopher of cyberspace, Pierre Lévy. Pierre Lévy’s book Collective Intelligence
takes the ideas of digital revolutionaries, such as Nicholas Negroponte, beyond the
world of fancy business gadgets to something that begins to resemble a social vision.
Though he doesn’t use the phrase himself, Pierre Lévy bases his ideas on the
existence of a ‘hive mind’ that manifests itself in a system such as cyberspace where
knowledge is transparent to itself. A dentist in Beijing might discover a new
acupuncture point for pain relief. If he’s on a dental mailing list, this discovery can
be instantly present in all corners of the world.
To the humanist within some of us, the ‘hive mind’ evokes the spectre of loss of
individuality, as made dramatic in the Star Trek race known at the Borg, who
assimilate all other cultures into their own collective consciousness. Gentler
approaches such as that of Wired magazine editor Kevin Kelly, celebrate this entity
as a chance to ‘let go’ the anxious responsibility of individual consciousness and
allow other structures of knowledge to spontaneous emerge.
Pursuing the insect metaphor, this attitude opens a path for intellectuals as
beekeepers to lay out the hive in order to allow these structures to develop.
{PRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=Pierre "}
Pierre Lévy does something like this in his concept of the ‘knowledge tree’. This device provides a picture of the skills available in the community. Common denominators of knowledge, such as primary and secondary schooling, provide the basic trunk. Further study in university or training in trades provides for the branches. Eventually, we find our way to the individual leaf ¾ the fruit of an individual trajectory along the knowledge tree (‘blazon’). The ‘knowledge tree’ includes not only formalised education but also behavioural abilities and theoretical knowledge. So far it has been applied in corporations such as Peugeot & Citroën and universities.
The ‘knowledge tree’ seems like an excellent management tool, enabling
corporations to maximise their use of human resources. But it’s potential goes
beyond that. Once the idea of information mapping is out, we can easily envisage
other possibilities. The one that concerns us particularly at the moment is the cultural
sphere, in particular the visual arts ecology of studios, exhibitions, publications and
audience.
To explore this potential, we need to move away from the tree metaphor. In visual
arts we move not from a common positive to more specialist, but in the opposite
direction
¾
from isolated artist studios to public galleries. A hydrological metaphor
suits this distribution better. The metaphor offers us a progression from source, to
creek, to stream, to river and eventually to sea.
In a sense, we didn’t have to look far to find this metaphor. To quote from Pierre
Lévy, ‘Time in the intelligent community spreads itself out, blends with itself, and
calmly gathers itself together like the constantly renewed outline of the delta of a
great river.’ This metaphor is already part of how we conceived of culture, with its
‘mainstream’.
Let’s then lay out our visual arts ecology along this hydrological matrix.
Source is where the work springs. Typically, this is the artist’s studio. This is the point
where the artist has more or less sole voice. This voice is expressed most often in
interviews.
Creek is a showing to initiates. This is most often fellow artists, such as one of the small
artist-run spaces that can be found in capital cities around Australia. In this situation,
word of mouth is pre-eminent.
Stream is a commercial gallery where the work is offered to the art world for inspection.
Here people with a special knowledge in contemporary art can read how the work fits
into the field. This is space for critics to cast their judgments about how the work fits into
the archive it is their responsibility to maintain.
River is a place for the world to be seen to a broader public who may have little
specialised knowledge. In Australia, this function is performed by the National Galleries,
with blockbuster shows and large advertising budgets. At the moment, such an audience
lacks a voice within our culture. Guest books are usually left for smaller venues.
Ocean is the transmission of the world to the public at large, independently of their
interest in art. When art reaches the ocean, is dissipates into the mass media, of
commercial television and newsprint such as weekend supplements. Here it is opened to
the vox pops, letters to the editor, and journalist commentary.
{HYPERLINK "images/critflow.gif"}{PRIVATE "TYPE=PICT;ALT=Critical flow"}
{HYPERLINK "images/critflow.gif"} Click here for flow chart
As with any metaphor, there are implicit assumptions that sneak in. There is one in
particular that you would have noticed. Given the force of gravity, this picture makes
the popularisation of art seem inexorable, like the ‘trickle down’ economics. Such
movement goes against the grain of much art-making, particularly that which
subscribes to the logic of distinction, where cultural capital is inversely proportional
to worldly success. We might just be able to sneak this exception in an alternative
provision for lakes and dams.
Where this picture becomes interesting then, is working out how the flow between
stages is regulated. Now, in the ancient world of atoms, the critics regulate artistic
capital. In 1960s New York, Chairman Greenberg was singularly responsible for the
progress of many artists downstream. While not exactly a democratic arrangement, it
does offer a particular economy of scale. Not everyone has the opportunity to visit
studios, artists’ bars, and obscure galleries. We can be quite grateful for a Greenberg
to save us time by filtering out the imitative from the self-assured.
In cyberspace, however, this function is not longer necessary. With the collapse of
time, we are offered access to all these obscure art crannies at once. Anyone
anywhere can now become an expert on web artists.
What does that mean for the visual arts ecology? Is there any need or desire for
levels, as in the old system? Why not open everything up at once
¾
put art ‘out there’
with everything else?
This is not the way creativity works. If works are to benefit from exposure, the need to be gradually introduced to the world. What is conceived in the studio cannot be immediately translated to a blockbuster exhibition? To accommodate the various life stages of work, it is important to retain a graduated system such as our ‘critical flow’.
So, how might we accommodate this system to the information economy?
As a web site, it might be easy to incorporate a layered site, with levels for artist’s statements, expert opinion, and public chat. Something of this order is already happening with online magazines such as Feed and Salon.
The {HYPERLINK "http://www.imdb.com/"}
Internet Movie Database
is a substantial product of the hive mind applied to
cinema culture. Here visitors can supply information about credits and even reviews,
while registered voters can give any film a score out of ten.
These structures offer a purely quantitative response that would fit perfectly the democratic aspirations of cyberspace. In this context, is there any room left for qualitative responses? While we have kept open a place for critics in the ‘stream’ level of the critical flow, it is necessary to also include individuals who might facilitate the responses others, when necessary, as happens now when list moderators are called in to quench a flame war. How exactly such sites might be designed in the future is very much in the hands of those responsible for larger cultural sites, such as galleries, newspapers and classifieds. We only hope that they consider not only roller coaster graphics and high-octane search engines, but also the need to nurture creativity.
Copyright held by author Kevin Murray
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Evolution of knowledge
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Venice, 07-03-1997
"The evolution of the concept of knowledge in the computer age"
SUMMARY:
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