Although networking by its very nature lends itself to rhizomic as opposed to hierarchical evolution, many current tendencies in IT development and cultural politics perversely counter this kind of growth: top-down and trickle-down thinking prevails amongst industrial and institutional giants reluctant to concede the logic of a bottom-up approach to networks. Consequently, whereas networked art forms withhold considerable potential in the public sphere, much emerging work is being channelled into prestigious infocultural superhighways, i.e. high-end platforms which are the prerogative of major cultural institutions and the privileged few equipped to access them.
This anachronistic approach sadly fails to recognise the unique dynamics of small, localised, coordinated, complementary sites – in other words, the nodes that form real live networks. Over recent years in Europe, highly committed individuals and groups have nevertheless proved the dynamics of such nodes. These often (too) modest sites form effective relays, hosting activities which better reflect and nurture the singularities of networked electronic arts than those ensured by their top-heavy counterparts. Clearly, associations of motivated individuals are more likely to weave new cultural webs than massive stand-alone structures fired by a museum mentality. The latter institutions have a key role to play as facilitators in the invention of a novel cultural dynamics; at the same time, policy-makers and IT developers seeking to promote cultural infocommunications through improved network access might reconsider this goal by posing an obvious question : what is a (human) network and how does it grow best ?
http://www.culture.fr/culture/mrt/bibliotheque/norman/norman.rtf
Norman, Sally Jane, "Culture and New Media Technologies" working paper for
the Unesco Stockholm Cultural Conference (1998)
http://www.kit.nl/kvc/norman.html
Other texts at http://uchcom.botik.ru/~norman
