Hi, my name’s Matt. I’m interested in the way things work. I was trained as an artist and although that might seem like an unusual grounding for a project such as this, bear in mind that being an artist really comes down to having a carefully developed way of approaching the world, absorbing as much of it as you can stand, and expressing some of the things you absorb back at it by arranging situations you think might be interesting or fun.
I strongly feel that humanity, and as a consequence the world, stands on the brink of a tremendous potential. We have reached a watershed moment in social and technological development, when the decisions that we make and the things we produce have enormous repercussions for the planet, in terms of sheer population effects and the exponentially increasing powers of technology. The technological capacity to satisfy our desires is unprecedented, yet that brings with it its own dangers and imbalances. If technology is a physical expression of desire, it is best controlled by examining and compensating at the source, the desire itself. Frequently the most damaging effects on the environment have their source in unexamined inherited traits or preferences which can be solved in other ways. The capacity for human ignorance far exceeds the capacity for human evil to destroy what is best in life and in the world.
If you read through many of these posts you’ll no doubt recognise that I have a strong interest in exploring the links and symmetries between technology, society and nature; in a sense these are the knowable surfaces of deeper rhythms and principles, and I hope to explore and clarify some of those in this blog. Technology and art share a root in artifice, the made, the constructed, the artificial; like art, technology tells us things about our needs and desires and unconscious drives that we may not recognise even as we embody them in everything we make.
As the title says, this site is all about speculation, some of it assuredly wild, improbable, preposterous. Although I’m approaching this material systematically, I’m not a scientist and that grants me certain liberties (as well as limitations). I’m not obliged to rely on what has already been proven, postulated or formulated, although I’m definitely making the most of the work of people who seem to me to be on to something interesting and applicable. As we should all know by now, knowledge is transitory and above all, relative to the culture that creates it. As in life, truth, biases and sheer idiocy remain up to you guys to figure out for yourselves. I may well quote and footnote, but these aren’t necessarily marks of truth. Sometimes it’s just nice to acknowledge that once upon a time, somebody said it beautifully and better.
My aim, above all, is to generate a useful (and usable) body of work. This means core ideas have enough simplicity to survive popularisation intact while being fleshed out in enough depth to provide some room for discussion. It also means trying not to get caught up in biases and prejudices – and as earnest and liberal as that sounds it really is necessary here.
That’s probably more than enough of all that. I hope you enjoy the blog.
