<nettime> killing shakespeare

["David Goldschmidt" <dgoldsch@tampabay.rr.com>]

KILLING SHAKESPEARE

Did you ever wonder what would happen ... what was suppose to happen ...
when 500 million people connect? When your mind imagined the possibilities
did it get stuck? Did it stop? Did you believe Wall Street and Madison
Avenue when they told you what the Internet was ... and how it was to be
used?

I hope you didn't.

In the late 1500s Shakespeare mastered the printed word. He revolutionized
human expression. He changed the way we saw ourselves. "Personality, in
our sense, is a Shakespearean invention, and is not only Shakespeare's
greatest originality but also the authentic cause of his perpetual
pervasiveness." so says Harold Bloom, one of America's most respected
literary critics. According to Bloom, Shakespeare "invented the human".

It is happening again. We have discovered a new way to express our common
self. Last time Shakespeare did it with mere words. We are not that
limited.

Silent film, AM radio, black & white television ... the birth of these
vehicles are monumental moments in the evolution of man and society. As
great as they were (and have become) they have never been able to easily
overcome the basic tenets of telling a story (of sharing the human
experience). All follow the guidelines established by Shakespeare hundreds
of years ago.

Killing Shakespeare is not a revolutionary technology like the ones above
but is instead, a simple observation: human language is evolving.

A simple observation that newmedia composition can express (and share) the
human experience in a way that is not limited to the predictable patterns
of film, television and Shakespeare.

Unlike film and television, newmedia compositions are not telling a story.
They offer an [experience]. Unlike film and television, newmedia
compositions are not passive. You interact ... and your choices determine
your [experience].

Newmedia artists are less interested in character development and more
interested in your experience (your development).  In other words, as you
interact with newmedia creations the only character being developed is ...
YOU.


david goldschmidt




#  distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net