BARBARA RAUCH   

Relations, not things, are real; dialogues, not the men themselves, are relevant; the self is a node in an entire network of connections’
(Writings, Vilem Flusser, University of Minnesota Press Minneapolis/London, 2002)

My contribution to this project is concerned with the nature of collaboration in the digital age. It is based around communication and non-linear thought processes.
Vilem Flusser discussed in the beginning of the 1980s that human communication is an artificial process. As human beings we have a strong need to acquire and store information to give meaning to our meaningless existence until death. Flusser also explains the idea of linear thought versus surface thought, and culminates in stating that when dialogue and discourse are balanced between men, then we have a communication, a net dialogue.

My approach will be as follows:
To use the e-mail list of the 15 artists working within the project as a beginning and starting point in order to collect all communication between the participants of the ‘digital surface’ collaboration. Obeying a set of rules, I will put the writing in an order and re - create a digital story.

With this work I hope to explore the differences between linear and multi- layered surface of information and communication. Chat lines and e-mail communication now play an very important role within our daily lives, and through my work, I would like to contribute to the discussion of the nature of the digital surface of thought.

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