<nettime> NODE.London - States of Interdependence

[marc <marc.garrett@furtherfield.org>]

NODE.London - States of Interdependence

A collaborative text written by Marc Garrett and Ruth Catlow, for "Media
Mutandis: A Node.London Reader" (to be published in February 2006)

There is a Sufi fable in which a group of foreigners sit at breakfast, excitedly
discussing their previous night's exploration. One starts saying "and what about
that great beast we came across in the darkest part of the Jungle? It was like a
massive, rough wall." The others look perplexed. "No it wasn't!" says one, "It was
some kind of python". "Yeah" another half-agrees, "but it also had powerful
wings". The shortest of the group looks bemused- "well it felt like a tree trunk
to me."

This fable aptly illustrates many aspects of the NODE.London experience. The name,
which stands for Networked Open Distributed Events in London, indicates the open,
lateral structure adopted to develop a season of media arts. It is intentionally
extensible, suggesting possible future NODE(s), Rio, Moscow, Mumbai etc. As
participants/instigators in the project's ongoing conceptualization and praxis, we
are just two individuals positioned on the interlaced, scale-free networks of
NODE.L (more on these later). As such, our descriptions of this collectively
authored project are inevitably incomplete and contestable, with a complete
picture emerging only in negotiation with others.

Scale-free networks such as the network of Nodes are constantly adopted by
NODE.L's to facilitate the emergence of a grass roots media arts culture in London
and in building its own organisational and communication structure. The Internet
is a scale-free network. Scale-free networks are described by scientists as
maintaining their levels of connectivity regardless of their size. They do this by
linking small =91clusters' of locally networked nodes to more massively linked
hubs, which are in turn connected to each other. Theoretically this allows one to
link from one node on a local cluster to another distant, local node with just a
couple of steps through the hubs. This creates the "small world" phenomena whereby
anyone on the network is felt to = be close to any other as well as to the centre.

To read more of the article visit Mazine:
http://www.mazine.ws/NODE.L_Interdependence.

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More bout NODE.London:

NODE.London [Networked, Open, Distributed, Events. London] is committed to
building the infrastructure and raising the visibility of media arts practice in
London. Working on an open, collaborative basis, NODE.London will culminate, in
its first year, in a month long season of media arts projects across London in
March 2006. http://nodel.org/

Media Mutandis: A NODE.London Reader:

A survey of media arts, technologies and politics which aims to provide a critical
context for NODE.London's activities as an evolving media arts production and
infrastructure-building project. A 1000 publications will be printed initially and
sold at a low price at the events of the March season. Contributing authors and
artists include: Armin Medosch, Simon Yuill and Chad McCail, Adam Hyde, Sabeth
Buchmann, Ruth Catlow and Marc Garrett, Michael Corris, Matthew Fuller, Graham
Harwood/Mongrel, Richard Barbrook and Neil Cummings.

The publication is engineerd via the Print On Demand system by NODE.London partner
OpenMute. It will be available as a printed and bound volume, a PDF document on
the publication website (url tbc) and the texts will be made available in
formatted versions individually for editing and recompilation by readers, who can
either order a printed and bound version of their selections through Print On
Demand or simply print them off at home. Readers can also become 'agents,' or
distributors - please see www.metamute.org for a fuller explanation of the magic
potential of POD.



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