[grid::ritual] recursion

the second grid::blog is on, and focused on ritual. And I'm about to make it a bit recursive, because a blog itself is often a ritual.

For me perhaps its not as much a ritual as an emergent property a ritual. The site grows as an emergent property of a daily breakfast of information. As a nomad the ritual itself varies depending on the physical space I'm in. The past few months have found me waking up, visiting my own site where I mine the rss feeds along the sidebar, generating more site. The very codes that generate the content on this site are open and visible to all.

In other spaces the actions are different but the ritual essentially the same. Sometimes the info is obtained through a cellphone as I ride public transit. Sometimes it comes through a newspaper, or perhaps even a radio. And without a doubt new forms are in the works. But regardless of the form, morning in morning out, the info feeds are obtained before the first cup of caffeine.

Perhaps in this data rich age I'm just syncing myself to the network, like some intricate appliance? Perhaps as I scroll through the daily feeds, digitally crossing off data that has been scanned, processed and perhaps archived on this very site, perhaps I am just making my peace with the information gods, a 21st century nightly prayer.

The rituals of the digital are poorly documented. There is a rhythm of observation, transmission and creation that these millions of websites are paced to. It cycles across the globe paced to the sun, syncopated by the politics of time zones and regulated by the codes of the work day. The grid::blog peels back a window into these patterns and rituals. And then it dives right through that window, chasing its own tail into the next day, a recursion into an expression that this very post sits inside...

Posted by William Blaze at January 15, 2004 06:07 PM | TrackBack