[ISEA2016] Panel: Timothy Murray, Renate Ferro, Maurice Benayoun & Randall Packer — e-discourse in online networked communities: structure, timing, tone, and affect

Panel Statement (abstract)

We will discuss the various ways that the Internet has empowered remote, networked, collaborative idea generating, knowledge sharing, and discussion. Through the specific examples of list-serves, e-conferencing, blogging, and e-curating, our assembled group of international specialists will share their experience in managing these online forums. In these virtual collaboratories individual participant contributions create a composite body of knowledge. E-discourse explodes the edifice of code that imposes implicit rules that affect styles of organization and communication — written, aural and visual. From stream of consciousness writing where individuals simply write random internal thoughts and narratives to conversational styles that engage others from the network, or formal lecture style writing where participants simply copy and paste previously published material, networked discourse displays the electric verve of networked communication. Specially coded interfaces can create a rhizomatic flurry of successes and failures affected by time, tone, regularity, and translation. More complicated are the effects of the apparent intrinsic cultural values of race, gender, affect, and politics.

We bring together four scholars and artists whose pioneering projects have established exciting practices of e-discourse.

  1. the thirteen-year history of the -empyre- listserv begun in Australia and carried on in the US with an international subscriber community of 2,000
  2. various approaches to e-curating from Internet art to mobile exhibitions across the globe
  3. reflections on a conceptual blog where unfinished artworks seek online collaborators for their completion
  4. e-conferencing where an expansive model for international networked symposia is modeled

All of our specialists agree that despite the successes and complications of these projects, the importance of archiving is integral in suspending and extending the life of this networked accomplishment and its effect on scholarship and time. In this panel we will additionally consider the after-life of online archives.

  • Timothy Murray, Cornell University, Society for the Humanities, US
  • Renate Ferro, Cornell University, Department of Art, US
  • Maurice Benayoun, City University of Hong Kong, School of Creative Media, HK
  • Randall Packer, Nanyang Technological University, School of Art, Design & Media, SG

Full text (PDF)  p. 423-425