http://vectors.usc.edu/issues Fall 2006 Volume 2 1
But there is something more at stake here than the planned obsolescence of the technology industries. The environmental destruction and increasing toxicity of our planet during the past half-century is symptomatic of a seeming inability to look beyond the next quarter's profit-loss reports. It is this tendency toward short-sightedness that prompts The Long Now Foundation to carry the year out to five numerical places (e.g., 02006), a subtle reminder of our own decidedly transient role in the history of this planet. Do we dare take comfort in the notion (mixing equal parts Nietzsche and Andy Warhol) that our fifteen minutes of "world history" are nearly up? Since the previous issue of Vectors launched, the average age of justices on the U.S. Supreme Court dropped from 72 to 66. All indications suggest that the Roberts court, like the current administration's "war on terror," will be with us for a very long time. Many of the beliefs that once seemed most deeply etched in our national psyche — ideologies of freedom and privacy, for example — may be the very things that must be asserted most vigorously in the decades to come.

This issue of Vectors is not intended as a celebration of ephemerality, but rather a gesture of respect for the fleeting nature of the present and the material consequences of the past. Historical investigations, as Carlo Ginzburg argues, are sometimes most productive when they look for meaning in the least likely places. Each of the projects in this issue attempts to take seriously the significance of cultural artifacts that would otherwise be forgotten or overwhelmed by more official documents and discourses of history. The voices that reach us via things that were meant to be forgotten may in fact speak most eloquently to the imperatives and contradictions of our present historical moment. It is with equal degrees of irony and hopefulness that we present these works of excavation, rumination and preservation in a form that will soon confront its own likely disappearance.]]> Vectors site represents a long, continuing collaboration among many people and institutions. The site design was orchestrated by our Creative Directors, Raegan Kelly and Erik Loyer, with input from the editors. The site was built by Erik, Raegan and Craig Dietrich with assistance from Chris Wittenberg, Chris Hanson, Kevin Tanaka, and Steve Fong. Additional syndication oversight provided by Greg Smith.

Ongoing support has been provided by USC's Institute for Multimedia Literacy and, originally, by the Annenberg Center for Communication, and we would particularly like to thank Elizabeth Daley, Anne Balsamo, Stephanie Barish, Mark Kann, and Bruce Zuckerman, and the staffs at IML and ACC, especially Vanessa Lee, Shahril Ibrahim, Roberto Gomez, Stacy Patterson, Shelley Cooke, Dave Lopez, Elizabeth Harmon, John Zollinger, Josie Acosta, Rich Edwards, and Steve Adcook.

Various other colleagues have also offered valuable advice and support, including Scott Fisher, Marsha Kinder and the Labyrinth team, John Seely Brown, Joe Hellige, Cathy Davidson, Jeffrey Schnapp, Kathy Woodward, and David Theo Goldberg, as well as members of our Editorial Board and attendees at an early brainstorming session for the journal in summer, 2003. Alex Ceglia and the Stamen team came aboard in the final push to launch in 2005. We're thankful for their vision and hard work.

Vectors is especially grateful for the ongoing support of HASTAC and the recent support of Digital Promise.]]> The Vectors site represents a long, continuing collaboration among many people and institutions. The site design was orchestrated by our Creative Directors, Raegan Kelly and Erik Loyer, with input from the editors. The site was built by Erik, Raegan and Craig Dietrich with assistance from Chris Wittenberg, Chris Hanson, Kevin Tanaka, Steve Fong, and expert "behind the scenes" support from Willy Paredes (IML Systems Administrator). Additional syndication oversight provided by Greg Smith.

Ongoing support has been provided by USC's Institute for Multimedia Literacy and, originally, by the Annenberg Center for Communication, and we would particularly like to thank Elizabeth Daley, Anne Balsamo, Stephanie Barish, Mark Kann, and Bruce Zuckerman, and the staffs at IML and ACC, especially Vanessa Lee, Shahril Ibrahim, Roberto Gomez, Stacy Patterson, Shelley Cooke, Dave Lopez, Elizabeth Harmon, John Zollinger, Josie Acosta, Rich Edwards, and Steve Adcook.

Various other colleagues have also offered valuable advice and support, including Scott Fisher, Marsha Kinder and the Labyrinth team, John Seely Brown, Joe Hellige, Cathy Davidson, Jeffrey Schnapp, Kathy Woodward, and David Theo Goldberg, as well as members of our Editorial Board and attendees at an early brainstorming session for the journal in summer, 2003. Alex Ceglia and the Stamen team came aboard in the final push to launch in 2005. We're thankful for their vision and hard work.

Vectors is especially grateful for the ongoing support of HASTAC and the recent support of Digital Promise.]]> common/images/ephemera_logo.jpg 110 212 Vectors. Andrea Foster writes, "ThoughtMesh is a Web site that tags open-access scholarly papers with key words. Visitors can jump to passages in papers that contain those words. And they can see others' papers, throughout academe, tagged with the same words. A "cloud" of tagged words hovers above each paper."]]> Vectors, "Blue Velvet" enables users to submerge themselves in a poetic wordscape describing the contours of American racial politics post-Katrina.]]> Vectors' fellow Kim Christen was recently interviewed on the BBC's Digital Planet about her continued work developing innovative archives with indigenous peoples.

Kim's Vectors' project, "Digital Dynamics Across Cultures" (in the Ephemera issue), was an early effort in this regard. She has gone on to receive numerous grants and to continue to work with Vectors' team member, Craig Deitrich.]]> Vectors' Perception issue, explores issues of women's incarceration.

As a festival for art and digital culture, transmediale presents advanced artistic positions reflecting on the socio-cultural impact of new technologies. It seeks out artistic practices that not only respond to scientific or technical developments, but that try to shape the way in which we think about and experience these technologies. transmediale understands media technologies as cultural techniques which need to be embraced in order to comprehend, critique, and shape our contemporary society.]]> Congratulations to Vectors Fellow Sharon Daniel and Co-Creative Director, Erik Loyer!

Vectors has received a Webby Honoree Award in the Activism category for their piece, "Public Secrets". The piece, a sophisticated and powerful exploration of the incarceration of women in California, is part of the latest issue of Vectors on the theme of "Perception" and was created as part of the Vectors Fellowship Competition.

The Official Honoree distinction is awarded to work that scores in the top 15% of all work entered into the Webby Awards. With over 8,000 entries received from all 50 states and over 60 countries, this is an outstanding accomplishment for Sharon and Erik.]]>