This is Rhizome Today for Thursday, October 9, 2014
Rhizome Today is an experiment in ephemeral blogging: a series of posts that are written hastily in response to current events, and taken offline within a day or so. The latest post can always be found at rhizome.org/today.
OkCupid, I have some alternative questions for you.
They're about the sudden collapse of the private and the public
Orchestrated in spectacularly insensitive style
Why is breaking up so hard to do?
And
Divorce, even between good natured, amiable, educated people, is apt to stir up a dust-cloud that covers and discolours all it touches. It is as if the sphere of intimacy, the unwatchful trust of shared life, is transformed into a malignant poison as soon as the relationship in which it flourished is broken off. If dragged into the open, it reveals the moment of weakness in it, and in divorce such outward exposure is inevitable. It seizes the inventory of trust. Things which were once signs of loving care, images of reconciliation, breaking loose as independent values, show their evil, cold, pernicious side. (p.31, Adorno, Minima Moralia)
Is this Alt Lit?
A field played by the unfortunately initialed.
Reading sentimentalities off your iPhone isn't poetry (or no more poetry than projecting Grindr exchanges onto Berlin walls is art)
This, however, is a Rhyme Against the Internet and what is "shielded" in their lines (scroll down to "Come kettle…")
"is a part of their meaning, for while hyperlinks may open into the nested user-generated content of Wikipedia, the divination of private consciousness has not yet been web-facilitated." (p.40, Danny Hayward, Perfect Capitalism)
An outage is defined as 'a period when a power supply or other service is not available or when equipment is closed down'
The Outage: Her Story is the fictional memoir of Erica Scourti, as told—ghostwritten—by J.A. Harrington who used something akin to 'online stalking' to write biography in the first person, for someone else
A real OkCupid question is
Do you Google someone before a first date?
- Yes. Knowledge is power!
- No. Why spoil the mystery?
The only question that counts is 'Are you someone I can trust?'
I can't be publicly eloquent about a subject that demands more careful thought. I can't choose a different topic so I'll mimic a problematic form.