14 – 16 november: another chance to follow the RFID-workshop at Mediamatic in Amsterdam: http://www.mediamatic.net/artefact-11944-en.html — it’s not booked-out yet & it’s a chance, as well, to hear the opinions of & about the projects of Timo Arnall and Julian Bleecker (http://research.techkwondo.com/); as well as Rob van Kranenburg (http://robvankranenburgs.wordpress.com/, and, yes, me.

Good reader online too: http://www.mediamatic.net/article-9691-en.html.

Btw at the public library in Amsterdam the RFID-system is installed and working & I must say, the first few times one borrows books now, it feels truly like magic. Scan your library card. Put books in two stacks on the lending table. Table ‘says’: “Are there indeed 8 books on the table?”. If the number is correct, push ‘Yes”. Books are lent to you. Takes less than 30, well, 20 seconds.

Jan van Eyck goes Second Life — led (& initiated) by Hinrich Sachs, on Friday 27th October, 5 euro entrance, 21.30 – 3.00. http://www.janvaneyck.nl/0_2_3_events_info/arc_06_galanightofthecannibals.html

Een week lang fiks verkouden en vandaag voor het eerst weer een ritje, al ben ik nog snotterig. Heerlijk oktoberweer, erg zacht, wel een harde zuidenwind maar als de zon door de wolken komt (soms) is het bijna zomers. Kanne – Eben – Halembaye – Haccourt – Hermalle ss Argenteau – Wixhou – Richelle – Feneur – Dalhem – Warsage – Gravensvoeren – Moelingen – Lixhe – Lanaye – Kanne

Just now read Jodi Dean’s paper on blogging for Hyperpolis. Very good, makes quite a few points I would’ve liked to make. I hope it’s allright with her that I already ‘reblog’ & pick some quotes (btw, these quotes do not capture her main point really):

“To be sure, words beyond control are a noted feature of writing. Academics, journalists, and bookwriters have long been familiar with the ways our words take on a life of their own. Blogging accentuates this new life. It makes more people aware of the ways that their words are not theirs.”

“Bloggers imagine communities. In part, they mark this imagining with their link lists. Yet, these lists are as (if not more) changing, uncertain, and porous as any other border.”

“My experience with blogs is that they allow for slower reflection, the emergence of spaces of affinity through specialized writing, and the experience of a presentation and cultivation of a self. These three attributes of blogs—reflection, affinity, self-cultivation—necessarily traverse the old liberal division of the world into public and private spheres.”

“A critical theory of blogging cannot extend out of presumptions of journalism, punditry, and relations to mainstream media. Instead, it has to begin from the communicative practices specific to blogging, practices that install confrontations with difference, with otherness.”

From Jodi Dean, Blogging Difference, 2006, paper for Hyperpolis, see http://jdeanicite.typepad.com/i_cite/2006/10/blogging_differ.html.

With regard to the last point I cite here — basically Jodi Dean’s conclusion — I agree in principle that yes, a critical theory of blogging should start with looking at communicative practices that are specific to blogging. But there are various types of blogs: some are focussed on conversations, some (like that of Jodi Dean) are indeed confrontations with the other (but isn’t all talk, and all writing in a sense a confrontation with otherness?) And then there are also the blogs, (notably some early ones) that are not conversational at all, that do not even want the confrontation, or who prefer to not even look at comments, if there are any. (Hey, why do I write this here and not in the comments of Jodi Dean’s blog? That characterizes me…. — supposing that trackbacking does the job?). Two extremes: there’s the blog as ‘my turf’, ‘my voice’ — and there’s the blog as an invitation to chat. And on a lot of blogs there’s not much ‘otherness’ of ‘confrontation’ going on… I should say that Jodi Dean tackles this issue as well in her paper (and looks at how a blog is also ‘me talking’), yet she emphasises the confrontation with otherness where I’d put more emphasis on the ‘publish for no public’-aspect.

Weer een schitterende oktoberdag, zon en 24 graden: korte mouwenweer. Te mooi om geen halve vakantiedag te nemen en nog een keer in het Hertogenwoud te gaan kijken. 12.30 – 18.15. Kanne – Lanaye – Moelingen – Gravensvoeren – St. Martensvoeren – Veurs – Veursbos – La Clouse – Clermont – Limbourg – Goe – Herbiester – La Gileppe – Limbourg – Henri- Chapelle – Hombourg – Remersdael – Mabroek – Reesberg – St. Pietersvoeren – St. Martensvoeren – Gravensvoeren – Moelingen – Lanaye – Kanne

23 graden, weinig wind, zon. Zomer in oktober. 15.30 – 18.15. Rustig-aan-rondje. Kanne – Eben – Halembaye – Loen – Haccourt – kanaal – Hermalle ss Argenteau – Richelle – Dalhem – Mortroux – Bois de Mauhin – Houliquette – Val Dieu – Aubel – De Plank – Ulvend – St. Martensvoeren – Moelingen – Lixhe – Lanaye – Kanne

Prachtig weer, mijn favoriete weer: oktober gouden zon, 18 graden, (eerst wat ochtendkoelte, later iets warmer, na afloop zelfs nog in de tuin gezeten), beetje zuidenwind. 11.00 – 16.45. De hele dag in de zon door de Hesbaye gereden en zelfs nog een stel niet eerder gereden klims gedaan (bij Jehay en Engins en bij Glons (!)). Paar keer wat zitten dwalen en bijvoorbeeld bij Flone afgedaald, omgekeerd & weer omhoog. Kanne – Eben – Halembaye – Heure L’Romaine – Fexhe – Juprelle – Xhendremael – Hognoul – Fooz – Voroux-Goreux – Lexhy – Awirs – Engins – Stockay – St Georges Sur Meuse – Jehay – Flone (v.v.) – Stockay – St. Georges – Sur le Bois – Awirs – Lexhy – Fexhe les Clochers – Freloux – Kemexhe – Odeur – Villers “Eveque – Othee – Wihoigne – Paifve – Glons – Bassenge – Eben – Kanne.

Wat een rijkdom, zelfs als je maar een uurtje hebt (voor donker), kun je een mooi rondje maken met drie klims en verschillende uitzichten op de ondergaande zon, en — aan het einde — de opkomende volle maan. 18.25 – 19-25. Kanne – Zusserdel – Zussen – Eben – St. Pierre – sluis – Casino Slavante – Zonneberg – Pietersberg – Kanne

Monday at DNK, Amsterdam: No-Input-Night, with a.o. Lucio Capece — Toshimaru (Toshio) Nakamura: http://www.dnk-amsterdam.com/.

Yours truly still has to come up with a bit of publicity text … Though I like the mention that the no-input mixer is such a hip instrument that it doesn’t have a page on wikipedia.

Listening now to a duo of Capece and Yannis Kyriakides; free download here:
http://www.audiotong.net/audio/releases/tng3005-en.html
http://www.audiotong.net/audio/releases/tng1010-en.html.

“Tech refuseniks will emerge as a cultural group characterized by their choice to live off the network. Some will do this as a benign way to limit information overload, while others will commit acts of violence and terror against technology-inspired change.”

Sez a study by PEW Internet Research: http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/188/report_display.asp.

Also at PEW, the fairly extensive survey of (American) bloggers from last July — often referred to since then: http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/186/report_display.asp. “A national phone survey of bloggers finds that most are focused on describing their personal experiences to a relatively small audience of readers”. What is ‘funny’ though is that quite a few of the respondents stated they use MySpace for blogging, and none WordPress, MoveableType &c.

And just in: a small report on the buzzword web2.0: http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/189/report_display.asp.