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BOULEVARD

The Shadow of the Nets


 italiano

Arslab Boulevard da Consolaçao.



Why Boulevard? "Why not..." if I remember well these were Timothy Leary's last words before parting away: "his last piece of art". Personally I would reply, in a somewhat less dramatic manner, because. The reason may be that some people, or groups of people, look at the net from an artistic point of view, still divided between the need of a more scientific approach to connectivity and the ongoing search for beauty. There is the unspoken need to make a choice: either you follow the stalker deep inside the new border, or you go for easier & safer paths that have already been highlighted.

We have made up our mind, and follow the stalker deep inside the new frontier, along unpredictable and winding paths, at a calmer and more thoughtful pace. Some of us may have choosen slowness as opposed to speed; reflection instead of reaction; patience vs. restlessness: Boulevard in lieu of Highway. Normally one would expect Highways to carry a greater flow of "trafic", which is true up to a certain extent, a least in terms of quantity, fluidity, speed, intertwinement of different roads. However, such a congested network of communication, be it in the "real world" or in the as much real "digital world", brings about a series of "newly-made problems", that we have to acknowledge, but not necessarily to share; hence some of us would rather walk down a Boulevard than being rushed through a hectic, monotonous and predictable highway, longing for the next spaghetti-jonction to make a turn.

Let's then walk down an as much hectic, noisy, congested Boulevard; nevertheless the approach to the multiplicity will be different, for it is dictated, oriented & facilitated by a slower gait. I would rather go for this kind of technological flânerie, taking the time to look around, to digest inputs & information, to make new acquaintancies: to wander to and fro between the light and the shadow of the net.

 

                                          DP
                                          Nov. 1996

 

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