#digitaltheory — Public Fediverse posts

I was part of that wave of optimism that engulfed digital technology, and particularly the Internet in the first decade of the 21st century. Knowledge wanted to be free, 'Desktop Publishing' wasn't just a marketing campaign, it was real. Music, books and films were being shared online as the means had outstretched the laws. Free Media took a million forms.

I was a researcher, teacher and PhD candidate (successful defence 2015) at a well funded and progressive center for 'digital humanities' within a university in the north of Sweden. The famous and the wise visited and worked there from around the world. I once spent a week in the company of Bruce Sterling and Jasmina Tešanović (Bruce would later link from Wired magazine to the article I wrote below in 2010). I was taught by Henry Jenkins and Katherine Hayles to name but two of many great minds. Laurie Andersson dropped by for an afternoon once and we had fika (she was texting Lou Reed during our conversation). It was an amazing time.

Sadly, the vision and scope of what digital technologies could do for humanity have been degraded on the broad scale to the values of the market today.

https://web.archive.org/web/20140902051235/http://blog.humlab.umu.se/?p=2315

#DigitalTheory #DigitalCulture #Cyberspace #Cyberculture #Cyberpunk