Preface

"The survivors in political life, like the survivors of the world of entertainment and the world of sport, are individuals who have grasped the idea of another reality। Their fate is to live in it forever, because to them it becomes more real than any other world" wrote the late Martin Pawley in his dystopian futorology classic The Private Future.





This notion once applied just to famous celebrities. But the internet has brought us all Warhol's 15 mins of fame, not in a nice tasty chunk, but in a thin spread. Dating, social networking, business networking, gaming, second lives, photo blogs - our identities are increasingly mass mediated.



For my part, I've always been very wary of the power of a media existence. It's power against me as well as what it can offer. To this sensitive soul, even writing this blog takes me a tiptoe closer to my Jordan (as opposed to my Katie Price). Next week it's botox and a makeover.



Being a fan, I like David Bowie's solution to the problems of fame - consciously creating avatars. It's nice to compare oneself to David. Nicer than a comparison with roleplaying online gamers.


So, as I take my own web presence up a notch I wonder will it lead to excessive pride and ambition with the enevitable downfall? Am I worthy? Have I achieved anything in my miserable existence?



Hang on, this is just a preface। What I'm getting at, what I'm saying is, although I'm principally a filmmaker, this blog, while talking about video and it's applications, will regularly do so with reference to the theme of the secondary reality. How it works, how we work it.





The marvellous Andre Gorz observed that whereas the industrial revolution had caused inevitable centralisation of society and power structures, the social affects of the micro-technological revolution were less predictable. Either it could lead to more centralisation of production and control, or their decrentralisation. Gorz' point was that this presents an historical opportunity for us to shape our world.



I'm going off to have a think about that.