Like moths to a flame, ambitious minds seek out the spirit of their age. The project that is now well under way is purely that; an ambitious attempt for me to understand and challenge the 'spirit' with which this age will be historically remembered. An attempt to do such a thing is worthy to anyone at any moment in time, as it is a journey of discovery in the present. However, the current climate in which I have the opportunity to explore is rich with fascinating challenges and new perspectives. What is more I will become a product of the spirit of this age. As I take my first steps from being a student of the past into a practitioner of the future, I will mark my age. So this is a rare chance for me to survey the landscape with which I hope to cultivate in the future.
Barney gives spirit a complex of meanings with which to understand it by. His use of Weber's understanding of the spirit of capitalism gives spirit a practical historic being. I am learning that this project, which started as an attempt to look at how digital technology can influence culture, and more specifically, how networked social technology may be implemented to innovate performance practice, is revealing much more about my practice as an individual and how my immediate surroundings are influential to it. I am spending this project looking at various combining and often contradictory sources of information to gage the social practices of now. It is almost saddening to know that historically this may all be boiled down into a stock representative, a character with which future generations can settle their consciences with. I could guess it may well be a converse-wearing, shabby-chic fashionista, with white ear-phones plugging them into an introspective, narcissistic window of the world as they want to see it. This is, at least, how I see the spiritless of industrial capitalism as a being.
The book then goes on to open discussion on the network society, a theory of how one may read the spirit of the age of now. He also gives context to other examples where attempts have been made at identifying the essence of our climate, including post-industrialism, information society, post-fordism, post-modernism and globalization. The network society encompasses elements of all of these into its idea. Barney emphasises that the network society thesis is not the successor to these eras, but "...one star among these others in a constellation of relatively recent attempts to understand and characterise an evolving range of interrelated social, political, economic and cultural forces."
What this book questions is whether we can consider ourselves amidst a 'digital revolution. Have new information and communication technologies given birth to a new form of society, or do they reinforce and extend existing patterns and relationships?'
This book has been a great tool in helping me look at the wider context my project can ring-fence. In a traditional thesis-style it gives a range of arguments that challenge and reinforce the case for the network society. However it concludes that it is too early to tell if this thesis is in fact substantial, and that only time will. Granted this book is considering global economics and industrial values, taking a distant look at society. This will no doubt help my perspective. But this project is the opposite. It must start with each individuals experience, giving an idea of the actual ground-climate is right now.
As this project and the research that must shape it leads me into new discoveries I am realising that simply looking at 'networks' or 'social media' is not an option. There is a broader conversation. I can look at how I see society engaging with social media tools and using computer-aided networks. I can then view how this is impacting the industries and cultural producers of the 20th century. I can then see some higher conversation that puts these observations into economic, or political significance. Above that there is a discourse of more global proportions.
Just as my research had to start close to my previous knowledge and understanding and gradually took wider steps to give me a clearer perspective, the project must start with a close relation to my own capacity and then, as I practically experience more, let it become something of larger scope and thus greater significance to my understanding.
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