Page 210 - World of Art Contemporary Art magazine: The 2023 Guggenheim issue

university, but he is a great, great mind.” and look at them critically to decide that Brown is the
So he was ready to disregard Smith’s message, probably best. Brown is the one you met. So if you don’t have
because he did not like the first ten lines, or possibly a background code, at least as a first filter, the fact of
because Smith was wrong on this particular point. I don’t knowing that Smith is famous should not stop you from
know. While he ought to have taken him very seriously, reading Brown. OK, this happens every day: you open a
but he couldn’t know that. Smith was just one among the journal. There is an article by somebody there you don’t
hundreds that were discussing Peirce at this moment on know. You start reading and say OK, that’s good. I have
the Net. Once again: which are the criteria by which you made interesting discoveries in my own life by reading
are able to select a Smith? articles by unknown scholars, and I discovered that they
They cannot come from Internet. were great. And maybe I discovered later that they were
“The criteria cannot come from Internet?” famous: it was only due to my own ignorance that I did
No. You have to find something, for instance in the not know their name. So it is always possible to make
journal Versus, in which someone says that the opinions random discoveries, but a filter is in some way important.
of Smith are very important. So, once again, if you don’t “Well, again, it’s this community thing...?
have a filter, you are unable on the basis of a single There can also be internal filters. You can look at one
message to understand that Smith has to be taken hundred messages on Peirce and see that each of them
seriously. That’s the risk. is quoting Smith. At a certain point you feel that Smith
probably has a certain...importance, or something to
say, considering that everybody is quoting him. But OK,
it is once again this art of filtering and choosing that
becomes a very complex art.
“But it has to do with two things, doesn’t it? A sense
of community: a specialised community, people with
common values and specific goals. And it has to do
with a sense of trust: that the people in that “space”
are talking sense, and that there will be mechanisms
operating there which will get rid of extraneous stuff. I
think that is one of the most fascinating things, but also
one of the most difficult things is: just how do you find
the right community? On UseNet, alone, there are over
3000 News groups ...”
Listen, I am not saying that Internet is, or will be a
UMBERTO ECO IN CONVERSATION WITH PETRU RUSSU BRIEFING ON MY negative experience. I am saying on the contrary that
FOUCAULT’S PENDULUM '89 EXHIBITION, INSPIRED BY ECO’S SECOND NOVEL it is a great chance. Once we have asserted this, I am
FOUCAULT’S PENDULUM, WRITTEN IN 1988 AND PUBLISHED IN 1989. PICTURE
CREDIT: © MARTA DIMITRESCU trying to isolate the possible traps; the possible negative
aspects. I am trying to focus on the critical aspects of a
positive experience. I think it is also my role as a critic
“But on the other hand, if you are a participant in one of
of media to do that. I believe that once completely
these virtual communities - Let’s call them communities
developed and implemented, Virtual Reality will be
- like these discussion groups and if you have got a kind
enormously important for a lot of scientific experiences,
of critical sense yourself, and if you know a bit about the
but I have also to remark that if Virtual Reality becomes
field...?”
only entertainment for solitary persons, it can become a
Certainly, and you can discover that Brown, who is
new kind of technological masturbation.
absolutely unknown is in any case so smart that it is
So we have to consider both.
worthwhile to keep in touch with this person. Well, OK,
“Yes, yes. I think that is a very real problem, but again
there are also these positive aspects. OK, OK. But there
this is a question of solitude versus community, isn’t it?”
is still a risk that if there are at anyone time one hundred
The problem of solitude is enormous...
persons discussing Peirce, your discovery of Brown, as
Eco pauses for a moment, and leans back in his chair.
well as your disregarding of Smith will be purely random.
It is a community but it is only a virtual community. Now,
“You think so?”
it is true that great artists spend their lives living in
You cannot read one hundred messages in one night

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