Hacking with Wark...

Aesthetics of Information
What is meant by this phrase?
Aesthetic: the underlying principles of the work
Information: data
Is metadata the process in which one produces the aesthetics of that information?
Does the manipulation process produce the aesthetic of the data?
Or is "Aesthetics based on information"? (quoted from Wark)

According to Wark, Information or Data can be based on
Science measures
OR
Artist aesthetics
META to Wark is: making spaces with interesting turbulence
Can the META process facilitate the blending of the science and art schticks?

DRM...Digital Restrictions Management
It's not about our Rights
It's about Restricting our Rights
Wikipedia terms DRM as
"policies controlling access to software, music, movies, or other digital data"
It's about CONTROL
It's about RESTRICTING our RIGHTS

The distinction of plagiarism, copying, and stealing is getting more and more blurry...
Is it based on how much of the original work is used?
Is it based on where it is presented? (public spaces, scholarly media, etc.)
Is it based on the stealer's intention?
Is it based on how much the original work is manipulated?
Or is it just based on monetary compensation?

What if we were to just start making Media Independent data?
What would Media Independent mean?
The author goes away...
Not one particular person, corporation, or entity owns the data
Instead Collaborative Authoring would be promoted
Create the self-fulfilling/perpetuating notion that all the data we create is...
NOT owned by any one person but, if anything, owned by everyone
And data that is owned by everyone should
NOT be restricted to anyone but should be
OPEN to all
Creative Commons is a start...
Wikis are also a start where collaborative authoring is encouraged
And managed by the writers and readers...
The management lies within the creators of the data.

Art, according to Wark, is about
Chance and Risk
It has a function by not having a function...
Non-determinate function

Media, on the other hand, has a function
Media - TV/newspaper/etc. - usually has an underlying and often blatant purpose

"Anti-Media Art" may be the next best avenue
This is how information circulates and should continue to circulate
Where information is of abundance and accessible to all with no commitment
Where the function of the information is not blatant but rather indeterminate

"Flow is in the Chaotic Space"
META is the chaotic space
META is all the stuff - the data - that is
Related to
Connected with
Influenced by
the main subject at hand
Flow comes from connecting these interconnected spaces of meaning...

It's about...
Respecting the audience
Activating the audience
Creating an inclusive space
Embracing community-sense

You must get rid of yourself!
We must embrace collaborativism!