SUSTAINABLE hyperculture:

the conservation of the anarchist spirit-state

If we take as given, the assumption that otherground media is the
element of noise in big brother media's stream of information & that
such noise introduced to a system provokes changes & distortions; & that
the accumulation & collectivization of these cells of noise will slowly
erode the consensus quo. Then, isolated individual information cells
will eventually snowball into a global information avalanche. If sides
are drawn & there is an us-media & a them-media, then each is a metaphor
for the other. If ambiguity is pervasive then the combined spectacle is
theatricalized. Being such inefficient human animals we can only hold
our breath underwater (read underground) for so long. We cannot expect
to seize the media from the deep dark recesses of the underworld. We
must inhabit the media with a polymorphic & long-lived presence.

In the dreamtime of the hyperculture, there can be no single line of
thought, no immanent thread of action but a simultaneous enlivening of
all networker cells & the suggestion of unlimited possibilities. In a
state of oppression the dream is an escapist relapse but once the motive
for activity has expanded into the unthinkable on its own accord, in its
own time & power, a vision of hyperculture will appear that doesn't
appear so chaotic & fragmented. Instantaneous access to the growth of
information. Cassette, computer, copier, fax, telephone, radio, cable
TV, satellite, tourism, festivals. Already cheap technology access to
the electronic smorgasbord is widely available in western countries.
Just as the corporate information machine can manufacture influence over
us, we can register our opposition by publishing images, data & sound,
by dragging the monolith down & replacing it with ten thousand different
& contradictory realities.

We can begin to understand hyperculture as a fully integrated
ecological, biological system. As with any system, the chaos, noise &
disintegration are organically inseparable from life & creativity. Only
since the pasteurization of science & art has our understanding of
information & events been dictated by aesthetic taste. This is the
cultural mentality left from the age of imperialism. Divide, conquer &
place the known universe inside a specimen jar. With the advent of info
technology all that has really changed is that social power is a result
of the exploitation of information, where in previous ages it was people
& land that were victimized.

hyperculture has a unique status in the mainstream world view. From its
point of view, it regards all forms of marginalized dissent &
experimentation as PURE NOISE. & consequently non-processed information
has no value or use. (Or so they think!) There are those whom argue that
it doesn't matter how radical or "noisy" the media; it will nonetheless
be coopted by the mainstream as mere curiosities & eccentricities. This
may be true in the short term but most of the undermedia lives on. If
fact, because those on the periphery are perennially ignored, the
culture of otherness has unlimited territory in which to evolve (or
mutate) in isolation. Not an isolation of removal & quarantine but a
high-powered isolation in the midst of the barrage, in the eye of the
hurricane.

The ability to accept and understand noise as untapped resource will
enable all hypernauts to install the mechanism which will eventually
replace the genericized 2-dimensional view of information & events. It
is a mistake to target the mainstream for seizure & overthrow when it
has become painfully obvious that the imperialistic mentality which
constructed the prevailing information conglomerate also planted the
seeds for its entropy & eventual destruction. It cannot & will not be
able to contain the natural diversity of the globe.

There are several relevant axioms perpetuated by permaculturalist Bill
Mollison. "The problem is the solution." / "Make the least change for
the greatest possible effect." / "The yield of a system is theoretically
unlimited. The only limit on the number of uses of a resource possible
within a system is in the limit of information and the imagination of
the designer." / "Everything gardens, or has an effect on its
environment." / "Work with nature,…so that we assist rather than
impede natural developments."

According to the Gaian hypothesis the earth is a self-regulating
organism. Can the same be said of information? Does it lead a life of
its own or is it merely a disposable by-product of culture? If we
continue the analogy of agriculture, can the information glut be
composted & recycled? Wait a minute! For centuries artists scientists &
inventors have been reusing the detritus of society for their own
benefit. Further, by maintaining a consciousness of infinite
hypertextual links between all information, the fragmentation &
oppression of our daily lives can be reordered into a meaningful
globally oriented lifestyle.

In the dreamtime of the hyperculture, milleniums pass without the
continual division of action into specialization & virtualistic
ego-play. In some traditional African cultures there is no separate word
for music, dance & planting. The impulse to fragment the radical media /
information interface by terminology is certain deevolution. To sustain
the info/action/object dialectic, bury your roots deeps into the global
information matrix & ….