Read this blog post (Thanks, Allen!) over the weekend and got both (a) thoroughly confused and (b) really jealous I didn't end up making it.

How was it? What'd I miss?

We were told the video would be on the museum or Rhizome sites, so not to worry that you missed it, Libby.

I'd expected a panel talk between three wickedly smart people, but was delighted instead by three monologues that bordered on travelogues. It definitely lived up to the title "Stories from the New Aesthetic."

Stories of the people in google street view interiors; of the factory where paper books are transcribed into ebooks; of data centers as civic monuments; of intent and of opening closed spaces.

Wonderful, all.

Hi Libby – I enjoyed it – and I don't think your confusion is unwarranted or even unexpected. All three speakers delivered the rhetorical equivalent of free verse, in three distinct and complimentary styles, centered around the unheimlich puberty of the network.

James, at the very end, seemed to state the crux most clearly, in effect: we need better metaphors for what's happening, or we won't be able to control it. Aaron's thesis, centered around the increasingly slippery idea of "motive", was a good setup for this, and Joanne's narrative discursions were an excellent tour of the problem.

Well said, Peter. Well said.

I think I always prefer the academic sense of "panel"—short, connected talks—to the web conference version.

All three talks were exceptionally good. James's in particular touched on a bunch of ideas and specific details that I want to connect with a number of things I'm working on, so I'm really looking forward to full video and/or transcripts. (I find it difficult to understand the underlying argument of talks as a live observer. The full meaning doesn't usually yield to a single, linear experience.)

Videos!

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