The World's First Published MooInterview

by Mark J. Jones

CyberStage: "Oh musEleanor"

     Sphinx whispers, "is that you MJ?
     Sphinx: "Say, you look awfully familiar!"

CS: "It is"

     Sphinx:  "Give me a sign that its really you....."

CS: "The CyberStage is over the mountain."

     Sphinx:  "how far ..... over the mountain :)?
     Sphinx:  musEleanor would like to extend greetings 
to you. 

     MusEleanor:  "We (royal) are delighted to see you...
welcome to the MuseLodge!"

CS: "I return the sentiments."

     Sphinx: "So how shall we proceed!!!"

     MusEleanor :  "God, you always jump the gun, Sphinx!! 
Hold your heavenly horses, will you?"

CS: "I would like to talk to MusEleanor"

     MusEleanor is satiated with the satisfaction of being 
singled out as special.

     Sphinx :  "oh, well, ok, so I'm chopped liver............"

     MusEleanor :  "Please have a seat.  Make yourself 
comfortable."

     MusEleanor continues, "In the 13th century space was 
defined as a shape ideologically. 

We do that in cyberspace too.   In cyberspace, we are not 
limited to a flat, circular disc. We are not limited to a 
round sphere.  In fact, we are not limited."

CS: "We are limited only by our 
imaginations."

     MusEleanor :  "YES YES YES YES!"

CS: "And by technology?"

     MusEleanor :  "The shape of the 
technology will be the one we will probably impose on it, most 
likely in our own image, or in the image of our limitations.   On 
its own, the World Wide Web is a chameleon, and can change 
shape, color and scope at will. The limitations of technology are 
irrelevant in a lot of ways, but in one way they are not.

CS raises his eyebrow in curiosity.

     MusEleanor :  "That is, we are capable of a 
disembodied limited to a flat, circular disc. We are 
not limited to a round sphere.

CS raises his eyebrow in curiosity.

     MusEleanor :  "That is, we are capable of a 
disembodied communication that is virtually real.  We 
create our own space as we move and work along in it. 

I should be saying 'you' and not 'we' since I am not of 
your time == I am of ALL time...............and dont you 
forget it!!! :)"

CS: "How does one argue with a diety?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

CS: "In cyberspace,  although we are disembodied, we are 
not without our prejudices.  How does an artist work 
with this?  Do we create new identities or name new ones?"

     MusEleanor :  "You want the long or short answer?"

CS: "Oh hell, long."

     musEleanor :  "Its as if we are all amoebae 
that do not know we existed unless we are irritated by a 
contradiction or juxtaposition.  Only linearity and 
hierarchy and juxtaposition were understood as paradigms 
for structure, for behavior, for laws.  

Without the limitations of a linear, incremental path 
connecting a beginning and an end, art can simultaneously 
emulate experience and also be experiential.  And, time is 
democratized because past, present and future can be presented 
simultaneously or in other orders or be experiential. The 
technology empowers us with a perfect model because it 
fosters pluralistic work and emphasizes process.  Creating 
virtual multi-faceted work allows us to truly live in our 
imaginations.  

We should be hard pressed to trade that in for making work 
that is a substitution for the real.  I have a motto, want to 
hear it?"

CS:  "YES!"

     musEleanor:  "Its good..... ready?"

CS sits and anticipates.


"EMULATION, OK FOR TERMINALS
TERMINAL FOR ARTISTS!"

     MusEleanor :  "Artists may currently 
experience crisis because of the discomfort of floundering with 
a new technology and a lack of efficacious models."

CS: "Absolutely"

     MusEleanor :  "It is a positive act of faith to surrender 
to uncertainty at this time. Surrender offers room for ventilation 
and development for art as well as for the emergence of new and 
appropriate critical theory.  And substituting virtuality for the 
real in art or life, could be interpreted as a form of madness, so 
its scary.   Do you know the story of James Joyce and his visit to 
Jung?"

CS: "No."

     MusEleanor :  "James Joyce once went to consult Jung 
about his daughter, who was schizophrenic.  Joyce, also 
cognizant of the seeming parallels between his written, and his 
daughter's spoken, speech, asked just how this was possible.  
Jung replied, 'You dive, she sinks.'"


CS:  musEleanor, could you explain the meaning of this a bit more?

     MusEleanor :  "there are other issues too, 
about arbitrary borders between countries, between disciplines, 
particularly between language and image."

CS: "In some ways we are living in the 
Renaissance today. No?"

  MusEleanor:  "I think its earlier -- I think its the 
13th century. And this time, it'll go right!!"