Academy Ephemera

I think one of the greatest potentials of the Digital Bicycle lies in the opportunity to explore the ephermeral nature of media. Analog in the form of film, photographs, records, cassettes deteriorate over time. Digital formats such as DVD, CD and hard drives promise perservation into a boundless infinite future. The reality is painfully human. Discs get scratched and digital formats such as those mentioned require a complex electronic device to deencode the information contained within. Analog formats may last longer than digital formats in terms of years, there may be less potential for scracthes - but there is a point at which these will become useless junk, too. And I think this is a blessing, really, a reality check we are long overdue for.

It is a game of self deception on the highest magnitude to think that we are eternally preserving our culture in some mediated form. To think this process is sustainable is ridiculous. Written history is a drastic change from oral history but, when it comes down to it - all we are doing right now is extending written history in a different form. Rather than using letters and symbols - we are using ones and zeros - writing history to our hard drives instead of stone tablets.

But how far can this take us? Culture is an activity - not solely accumulation of objects. Sharing information over a network is a form of communication - an activity - not just accumulation. The Digital Bicycle can help us build culture. It can make the process of moving sounds and images that we have created and built and transformed ourselves between communities and individuals. It is not about writing history or capturing it or trying feverishly to grasp onto it - but about returning to the communal nature of the oral culture experience with a new set of tools.

Imagine this...

After awhile this Digital Bicycle thing will be up and running and hopefully getting some whacked out fragments of video and audio from every source imaginable. This reservoir is the collective consciousness from which the alchemists and shamans tap into. Their work stews in a cauldron of synthesizers and editing software, analog mixers. These visions are then integrated into performances - live video screenings that can be part of larger theatrical events. In this way the technology that has pushed us to the brink of losing our humanity does not necessarily lead us to a path of self destruction.