Re: email as communicative form

[SisterSunshine <sistersunshine@twistedvillage.com>]

Hi.

Paul put this well:
	there is a certain melancholy in this. we become isolated by the very
tools which allow us the freedom to explore and exchange
ideas. is this the ambiguity of modernity? the way in which we are at
once both constrained and free? i am interested in this
question because i enjoy participating in this list a lot - or at least
reading it - yet i think that it is one of the most impersonal
forms of communication there is.

However, I'd say that the isolating factors of contemporary media are
also prerequisite for any sort of abstract communicating.  And that's
what allows the perception of any communication as artful, if not
downright art.  Releasing a record, for instance, is a far more isolated
and constricted way of getting something across to someone than sending
them an email.
Although Paul didn't say so himself, one of the conclusions people tend
to draw from what he did say is that technological advances in
communication are dehumanizing even though they are empowering.  Just
wanted to point out that it ain't necessarily so.  Seems to me like new
media merely hike up the stakes for those people doing the
communicating.  Joseph probably had to work harder to get his point
across to list members than he would've had to in getting the same point
across to someone who's built up a context for talking to him (like his
girlfriend or even his cat).  However, part of the reason messages like
these can have any poignancy is that they're by nature more fragile.
	Feel free to respond.

And for those of you who feel there ought to be more on-topic content: a
local magazine named "Hornswaggle" is planning to transcribe a 1982
interview between the ol' double G and Tim Page.  I haven't heard or
read of this one anywhere else re: mass publications in the English
language.  They talk very specifically about the 2nd Goldbergs recording
techniques, and also gloss more typical interview topics like concert
playing, imitating cab drivers, and living in Canada.  If you're
interested give me a holler and I'll send you one gratis.

--
-Angela
Twisted Village Records
12B Eliot Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Phone: (617) 354-6898
Fax: (617) 354-6899
http://www.twistedvillage.com