Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2004 09:07:48 -0500
Subject: closing shop here


Dear all,

It has been a pleasure to learn about listing and moderating and to engage 
in discussion here on the postcolonial list these past 9 years since I took 
up the task of facilitating the list. I am now leaving Spoon and will also 
no longer be moderating the postcolonial list. I have various interfaces 
already in existence that are mutations and per - mutations of my interests 
in postcolonial theory and the internet etc and those exist outside spoon 
and will continue in  various form(at)s - so I am not altogether 
disappearing from cyberspace.

My work with the spoon collective has allowed to me to continue 
investigations regarding the email list interface, management, moderation 
and communication. I have encountered all sorts of people and machines. I 
started the third-world-women list, women-writing-culture list and the 
sa-cyborgs list because of spoon (some histories of these spaces are 
available in my book cyberselves) - all these are now silent and closed 
down by default sorta. I may consider re-starting an offshoot of sa-cyborgs 
via yahoo or something sometime next year - or not. Meanwhile those 
interested are welcome to participate in my blogspaces, my theoryhead 
formations and so on (see links in sig file).

Below is a message from Malgosia Arkansas of Spoon explaining our 
collective decision to shut down:


>This decision is part of a wider set of decisions having to do with the
>present circumstances of the Spoon Collective.  The Collective, of which I am
>the sole surviving founder, has been operating continually for over 10 
>years.
>Of the 8 people who currently constitute it, 3 have been in it basically from
>the very beginning, and almost all the others for almost as long.
>
>When the Spoon Collective was originally created, a crucial aspect of its life
>was our own passionate involvement in the lists we created or took over.
>As  vehicles for bringing into mutual contact and confrontation thinking
>people from all over the computerized world - people from astoundingly
>different walks of life and with astoundingly different ways of thinking,
>but with a shared passion for more accurate perception and deeper 
>understanding
>- these lists seemed to us to present a stupendous potential for evolving
>new modes of thought and new modes of life.  And it is essential to note that
>when we were motivated by a thirst for new modes of thought and life, it was
>for _ourselves_ that we wanted them.  Our project was not about providing a
>public or academic or political service, discharging a societal duty, or
>providing platforms for this or that political organization or orientation -
>rather, it was about changing life - the life we think and live - right at the
>present moment.
>
>Over the years, however, our relationship with our lists gradually changed,
>and we now find our collective endeavor basically reduced to an indifferent
>performance of a not-excessively-bothersome piece of labor.  The reasons for
>this are undoubtedly complex - the first and simplest one, perhaps, being 
>that
>the same group of people has been doing the same thing for 10 years.  If our
>goal had been less the stability of existing lists and more the preservation
>of our own passion, we probably could have done better.  In any case, we find
>ourselves a bunch of burnt out and apathetic bureaucrats.
>
>I personally find thie prolongation of this situation no longer tolerable or
>sensical.  As a result, I have (1) announced that I am quitting the Spoon
>Collective; (2) decided to close down a number of lists that I have been
>responsible for; and (3) declared the end of the Spoon Collective as a
>certain historic formation, and stipulated that the name no longer be used for
>whatever the present members may undertake in the future.
>
>A number of the other members of Spoon have expressed an interest in either
>continuing their present lists or initiating other collective projects at
>Virginia.  We very much hope that no matter what develops, the Spoon 
>archives,
>which, in large part, constitute an eminently useful and fascinating 
>resource,
>can continue to be housed in their present location.  In addition, a copy
>of the archives is being installed at the domain driftline.org, where they
>will soon be accessible over the Web.
>
>Yours,
>Malgosa Askanas


Radhika Gajjala
http://www.cyberdiva.org
blogs: http://www.cyberdiva.org/cyberdiv/october
research and teaching: http://personal.bgsu.edu/~radhik
Collaborations on Theory heads, MOOing and tinymushing -
http://lingua.utdallas.edu:7000/4425
"Object Stares Back" at http://cyberdiva.mudmagic.com/
http://www.pmcmoo.org:7788/16287 



     --- from list postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---