Not being in WDC, let alone Skopje or Vilnius, I couldn't see the street statements supposedly made in capital cities in many countries Saturday which were organized by people concerned about our shift to a surveillance society/database state. We can see this as an example of how the shape of how we work and live in our world has shifted.
This worldwide October 11 event was coordinated with wikis and websites. If you want to see it, or see photos that pertain to surveillance and fear and freedom, you can go online and get a worldview from people who take photos, upload them and share them with photo tags. Just like our grandmothers could use their networks in over-the-backyard-fence discussions, wikis can network people. Imagine that your backyard fence can encompass the whole world.
While we hope for our markets to lift, and wonder about how things will shake out, I think this one example is just one of many that indicate that we have crossed to the next epoch, like from The Dark Ages to The Renaissance.
These letters, at left, were developed in 1525 by Albrecht Durer as an artistic expression of a letter art form with Roman-esqe structures that became archetypes of the carved letters used for European writing and type. They have an echo of the Latin manuscripts that go back to the first century BCE. Times New Roman is the font we read and typed with most of the time last century. Georgia, a type for digital screens, carries on that tradition. We've gone from ink on sheepskin for the few educated to Gutenberg Bibles to anything printed and distributed by anyone today.
The shape and shift of our letters has lifted with us to new times just like literature itself - the word - came over with William the Conqueror to England and gave the French word for art and culture to the English and here we have it today. Little could that king have thought that cameras would be on every corner, there, monitoring the citizenry. He put together his sheriffs and lords to run the villages and manors and set up a structure of control. We have sheriffs today, thanks to him. Yesterday, however, London had a big gathering of people concerned that there is a camera there for every 14 people. They shared photos illustrating their surveillance state online and made one big collage from them and then posted their photos of the event with the giant photo collage. You can see it, too. This one is The Big Picture from the Open Rights Group, London.
I'd be happy to see my body have a little more lift, shape and shift to it. And the markets, too. But I actually think that, even with a lot of work, my body won't go back to it's 20 year-old shape. It has morphed. So has our world, so have our private rights, our sense of self and identity is also confusing. I don't know if our culture and society can go back now that we're global and knowledge is everywhere. We're out of The Industrial Revolution and well into The (new volatile shape of things). Life art & culture...
I don't like the idea of someone watching my every move. That's how I felt in the first small town I moved to. Maybe if I had grown up in a small town I might have appreciated the attentiveness, but it didn't make me feel secure, I felt like people were being nosy.
Posted by: allison | October 14, 2008 at 08:38 AM
I dont know if our culture and society could go back either.
Amn my body has also morphed! Great expression! Must remember it!
Posted by: Casdok | October 14, 2008 at 11:20 AM
Oh well. It happens to everyone. However, if I had the money and time for a makeover, I think I would enjoy looking like Diana von Furstenburg.
As it is, I'm just plain old me.
Posted by: Hattie | October 14, 2008 at 02:38 PM
what a rosy view that we've moved to the renaissance [sp?] or did i misinterpret you? well, it's late here in nyc. i am ambivalent about the cameras--feel safer in my building's elevator but over-watched on the street.
think we'd feel better about our aging bodies if we saw more of them in magazines, movies, tv?
Posted by: naomi dagen bloom | October 18, 2008 at 11:06 PM