OPINION POLL

The New Cyber Realm

by Richard Friswell

I have come to the realization that the world is not round as once believed; or flat as purported by Thomas Friedman in his recent book by the same name, describing the new seamless global economy.











The world is, in fact, concave!


It is shaped like a basin or bowl, similar to the one that might collect rainwater if left on the picnic table on a rainy day. What pools in this receptacle, gathering volume and power as the rain of information pours in, is the collective wisdom of much of humanity—and this receptacle is the Internet. The Internet is a mere 15 years old and already this egalitarian electronic tool is amassing information (most useful, some not) at a startling rate. It is said that, since its inception in 1795 the U.S. Copyright Office contains 10 Terabytes of information (10 trillion, trillion bits, or a 1 with 19 zeros after it!). The Internet, with all of its component parts is estimated to be growing at that rate per day. With entire libraries going virtual and vast warehouses of information standing by for digital conversion, the web promises to play an even more important role for amateurs and professionals, alike, who are discovering that they can track almost any slender thread of information imaginable to its source.

I discovered this for myself when I was recently asked to address a professional group on the merits and features of a second-generation Frank Lloyd Wright property that had recently come on the market. I say second-generation because the principle architect for this 1983 property was John Howe, Wright’s protégé, who worked for years as his principle draftsman. Howe continued his own architectural practice and to embody the Wrightian spirit, if not elements of his style, for many years after Wright’s death in 1959. I toured the property with the current owner prior to framing out my comments and found a property that still possesses all the elements of balance, form and function that can best be described as, ‘sculptural’. The power of Wright’s design influence is in its apparent simplicity and close connection to nature---You can’t go wrong with Mother Nature as your guide!

My search for information took me to the Internet and ultimately to the University of Minnesota’s architectural archives, where I found a helpful archivist (Barbara Bezat) and the entire collected works of John Howe-- including photographs of the Connecticut property-- known as the Bowen residence. The collection included memos, photographs by the architect, renderings and blueprints…the works! In a data- swap gesture aimed at keeping their records current, I sent a couple dozen digital shots of the property today (which has undergone two expansions in a manner very true to the Wrightian spirit). My modest contribution to their database helped to expand their Howe files and they, in turn, provided me with information that would have been lost to the exigencies of time and ‘progress’, had it not been for the beauty of the Internet and its search capabilities. The seek-and-find capability of the web seems self-evident until it plays itself out on an actual project—and then it is nothing short of a technological miracle!



Photo montage by John Howe (1983) of home he designed in the Wrightian style (Collection, University of Minnesota)





In his recent book, Collective Intelligence*, author Pierre Levy describes a new “knowledge space”, or cosmopedia, that will emerge as people become truly aware of the power that technology has placed in their hands. He predicts that, while still unfolding, this potential to form a collective knowledge base through shared information has the potential to transform existing structures of social influence and empowerment. With institutional and regional boundaries removed, individual participation in all forms of social, political and intellectual activities become possible. We have seen in a recent presidential election the Internet’s power to rally people to a cause and facilitate their involvement at both micro and macro levels. This is just one example of many current web-based initiatives that draw direct links between knowledge, power and influence. Interest groups, like FaceBook, Twitter and SimCity replace real-life interaction with virtual connections between people (overheard in a teenage conversation recently, “The last time I saw him was on MySpace!). Count on the power of the Internet to continue to evolve!

Compare this reality to the experience of a group of academicians and philosophers in 18th century France, who anonymously published a multi-volume work called, the Encyclopédia, expressing their views on matters of political and social importance. Fearing that if their identities were known, this now-famous group of intellectuals could have been sent to the Bastille, or worse—guillotined—for their bold action. Consider now, projects like Wikipedia serve as a global, self-directed and virtual compendium of knowledge accessible to all.

It has been said that the Internet was ultimately responsible for the fall of the Soviet Union, whose premium on secrecy and the control of information flowing to the population was undone by the readily-available content and unfiltered reality that the Internet-driven, global arena had to offer. This, and other more recent examples in China and Iran are proof that knowledge is power and that oppressive regimes around the world consider the Internet a major threat to their ability to rule and therefore, they continue to attempt to limit access to it.

A R T E S and its right-hand man, the Culture Vulture Blog are powerful tools for you and for me. I can put information in your hands instantaneously and you can respond in real time. It can serve as a reality check, a stimulus, an evolving intellectual organism. Every month, we shape a publication that is designed to challenge, excite and appeal to our readership. We make a point of including sources and contacts at your very fingertips, so that your search for information can continue beyond the ‘pages’ of this site. Our hope and expectation is that the reader will treat the information presented here as a first step in the search for understanding, not the final word.

Utilize thoughtful sites like A R T E S as a tool to seek and discover…and that’s the final word!



Read more about the world of art and design at http://www.artesmagazine.com/

*On Amazon, find, Collective Intelligence: Mankind’s Emerging World in Cyberspace, by Pierre Levy, Plenun Press, New York, NY ISBN 0306456354