To      : Art Kleiner <art@well.com>
Cc      :
Attchmnt:
Subject : Re: MY FUTURES URL
----- Message Text -----
Art,

This is a tough one. I'll keep working on it.

1-The days of the _domination_ of Western thought may be short. The rule
of the machine, the clock for example. It's not that I think Africa is
typical.  There have been many people who have referred to Indian and
Asian culture (Peter Small for example. Had Peter Small known anything
about African ontology, he may have used it as a reference in describing
object oriented programming. I am assuming that he is ignorant of African
thought). African culture is just as rich, and just as sophisticated, but
hardly anyone acknowledges its influences. Due to ignorance of things
African, nobody wants to associate with being African, and with education
and communication about Africa, I believe this will change. As long as we
think AFRICA-oh that's bad--we are closing ourselves off to all of the
good that is Africa.

In what ways has Africa infiltrated our current work? There's probably a
lot of stuff that we all do that is African that we don't even
acknowledge: language traditions, music traditions...

There has been a great influx of African into the "New World"  especially
Kongo and Yoruba culture. Eno mentions his fondness for Brazilian
culture, second to African, but what is Brazil but the largest African
nation outside of the continent of Africa?

I think that there are probably lots of correlations between non-Western
cultures, but I have a particular interest in bringing Africa forward
because it has been unduly put down

2-African culture and multimedia??? I have to pull information on the
African concept of community, humanity, engagement, marketplace, call and
response, the seen and the unseen... I have lots of books on the
subject--most in storage out of state. But, in lieu of my references, I've
attempted to make contact with Dr. Bunseki Fu-Kiau, a Kongo scholar. He's
written books that I would actually repurchase if I could find them.

3-I'm synthesizing, I'm synthesizing. Right now, I don't feel that the
information is developed enough to defend it. I know some people who
would listen to the info as it is, and could just go with it, and
complete the synthesis, but I can't make that assumption everywhere.


-Marilyn

Thu, 16 Oct 1997, Art Kleiner wrote:

> Marilyn, I think this is a terrific subject. But I have two questions:
>
> 1. Is Africa typical? I.e.: Is there something special about African
> culture, as opposed to (say) Indian, South American, Hawaiian, or Southeast
> Asian cultures, that will have a particularly unique impact?
>
> (I think you could make a case either way, but I'm interested in knowing
> what the reasons might be behind either case.)
>
> 2. So what for multimedia? What trends does the African culture make
> palatable that might otherwise be ignored?
>
> The Eno interview is great; the material on Lingo is fascinating... but
> what does it all mean? Please synthesize for us.
>
> I will hold back on putting up your paper on the class website until you
> give me the signal to do so.