Author: Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron
BASIC BANALITIES by Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron
Common sense for the digital age
Information technology has no destiny – it simply mediates social relations between people.
Cyberspace is not a consensual hallucination, it is a construction site created by human labour.
People create their own technology, but not in circumstances of their own choosing.
Cyberspace is where the imaginary can become real.
Artist-engineers must create virtual spaces fit for human habitation.
The desire for union with the machine is fear of the flesh.
Po-mo is retro.
The electronic marketplace – spend in private.
The electronic agora has yet to be built.
Your taxes built the Net – thank the agencies of the state for their visionary planning.
The information superhighway is a Keynesian jobs creation scheme.
State, corporate and DIY – mix ‘n’ match the path to the digital future.
Information doesn’t want to be free – but people do.
Technology is not the issue.
Within this MySpace version of the electronic agora, cybernetic communism was mainstream and unexceptional. What had once been a revolutionary dream was now an enjoyable part of everyday life.