projekts:
[last edit: 17h01]
words: 248
The Unownership Society
On how proprietary ideas are fettered.
Collaboration is generally considered a convergence of intellectual energies, diversified experience sets, pooled resources, and aligned goals. Collaborations are often held under the auspices of some banner of operating methods or alphabetized participant lists. These collaborations are controlled; the inherent loss of information is conceded by all participants. The collaborative project that is the social world is bound by the same guidelines, charts, and grids; society is a collaboration of parallels, not convergence. Agreements on allowed contributions are silently made.
Yet, within this milieu, a dedicated workgroup of participants pushes forth efforts of production which contain openings for the roguish advances of unknown entities, enabling the group’s efforts to be periodically eclipsed, silenced, blotted, obfuscated, and misunderstood. Rather than taint or obscure progress, the feverish input of the audience serves as fertile mulch for the players. While the collaborations of the corporation are tested and verified, the deposed corporate model is slowed by comfortable hierarchy; the workgroup model is fueled by noise and intrusion.
To investigate one universe, one must create a second; the phantasmagoric diversions from the original serve as its critique. Ex_Nihilo functions as a narrative vehicle to carry out such investigations; the interference faced by the workgroup is reflected in the counter-insurgency of Manhattanville. The modes of intra- and inter-office communication are the traces and scars etched into the walls and floors of the island; IM and FTP are replaced by iron hooks embedded into stone walls and grooves cut into shattered brick.
tagged: abstract, constitution, ex_nihilo, text
