Please don’t print the internet, petition against Kenneth Goldsmith performance

please_don_t_print_the_internet

“Please don’t print the internet” is the title of the petition Justin Swanhart is promoting on Change.org in order to ask the artist to stop encouraging people to “print the internet.” A classic case of how performance can trigger the insurgence of contradictory (and in this case very mislead) feelings. The symbolic crowdsourced act of Goldsmith is filling the space with print exactly when this space should be empty and abstracted. And the sharing of what’s on servers in a common space, without the constrain of screens is another liberating approach (not to mention the Aaron Schwartz constant reference). Maybe a petition directed to MIT would have been more appropriate (and environmentally effective).