[spectre] NODE.London - States of Interdependence

[marc]

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 ‘clusters’ 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.