Weblogs and latitudes hurt by a global age.

When considering Fran Ilich’s work, one cannot ignore the geography that originally gave rise to it. Fran comes from Tijuana, a city caught right in the middle of the South and North, at the Northeast corner of Mexico (and some may add) Latin America. A place where many experience the painful tensions between the third and first worlds: its sweatshops, crystal manufacturers and illegal immigrants physically lie just outside of California.

In this context, one may begin to understand why Fran would be interested in creating spaces in which people from different geographical locations would actually have to bother to listen to each other. One such space is big (b)Other , a collaborative weblog that he coordinated during February 2003 which was part of the Walker Art Center’s “How Latitudes Become Forms” exhibition. In the about section, big (b)Other describes itself as “a different kind of reality show that bothers to attempt to explore the many ‘Others’ that constitute our globally (dis)connected world”.

big (b)Other is simultaneously a “different kind of reality show” and a textual critique thereof. A shared space in which, for one month last year an international array of people wrote about their daily lives. The collaborative weblog became thus a sort of big brother house where bothersome dialogues with the ‘Other’ took place. The conversational themes were varied, reflecting a time period on a personal level as well as on a global scale. Punk, feminism, the Berlinale and anti-Bush demonstrations are just a few of the themes that the entries concern themselves with.

One may find echoes of Fran’s use of the weblog in his previous textual work. Take for example “Metro-Pop” the novel he wrote at the age of seventeen. Metro-Pop is like a weblog and is also semi-biographical. On par with big (b)Other , it is an example of art finding its basis in the lives and personalities of actual people:

Alberto (un trekkie…), Skin (…un tipo acostumbrado a vestirse como Alex de Naranja Mecanica), Alex (…baterista de un grupo hardcore punk), Daniels (un muchacho adorador de la musica industrial), Carlos (un social de esos que ya no saben en que gastarse su dinero…), Karlos (un pintor de quince a’os…)

The above, is a passage from “Metro-Pop” in which Daniel Franco describes the friends he will be joyriding with on a Thursday night. It is telling that, in big (b)Other , similar descriptions of the participants are given. It is almost as if, in collective weblogs, Fran had finally found a way for these friends to speak out for themselves. The difference is that now their collective journeys take them across oceans and geographical borders.

Overall, big (b)Other reads like a good old fashioned networking of an online forum. Friends see each other, new people meet, people have a drink together… but of course I am sharing my own opinion here. Some of the viewers/visitors may pay more attention to the hacktivism or the literature or the theorizing around it. So it’s probably best to go visit and read it oneself. I hope that I have managed to offer some indication of why, in my opinion, it was at home in “How Latitudes Become Forms”.

Fran ilich’s website is https://arteedadsilicio.com/especial-2005/2004-delete-tv-de-fran-ilich/
Ivan Monroy-Lopez’s web site.