Artist Statement

From Collectivate Course Wikis

Artist (OR CULTURAL PRODUCER OR...) Statement: Loren Sonnenberg (20 WORDS MAX PER SENTENCE)

I am interested in facilitating, documenting, and exploring the ability of new social technologies to change how events enter the public awareness. Forums, blogs, and wiki’s are just a few of these technologies. I believe that the power of these technologies lies primarily in their ability to encourage the self-organization of individuals into motivated, but unpaid, content producing communities. This creation of free content goes farther to undermine the mass media than any demonstration or FCC ruling by recognizing several aspects of the inherent nature of the communications industry. Change cannot be created by working against a system in my view so I am suggesting the possibility of creating change through viral...

If you assume that the production of content for the mass media is merely a cost to be minimized then we have become, as free content producers, the most efficient sources for the next generation of media. The tables are turned. Where once the media determined what was to be discussed and within what framework now we, as the producers of free content, can use more democratic means to do the same (DO WHAT?). Issues will now be prioritized according to the volume of free content available (EXAMPLE). However, we must ensure a multiplicity of voices, a culture conducive to quality content (SUCH AS), and a sense of inter-community unity if we are to make this system work (WHICH SYSTEM).

Such a system dominated by content creates more than its share of new problems to replace the old (EXAMPLES). What is to stop for-profit institutions from organizing content production in a way that offsets the current trend toward democratization? How can participants be made accountable to their content? What steps have the moderators of these new structures taken to control the number of content producing identities each person can wield? What models of collaborative decision making do these moderators use in their gate keeping roles? How do these affect the production of content?

We must fully explore both the democratic possibilities and inherent (INHERENT?) limitations of these technologies (SUCH AS) if we are to best wield the power of our content (WHICH CONTENT, FO EXAMPLE).

We must train as mediators between the media and the world inside us.