a week has gone by, and i'm still thinking about it. a very insightful observation on last friday's opening ceremonies.
kevin kelly says:
The most alien, shocking and awesome portion of the Opening were the mass routines. Part of this is cultural. The Koreans are good at these mass effects, and the Japanese too. It's somewhat an East Asian thing. Historically these mass dances are designed to resemble machines. The wave rippler in the Opening Ceremonies appeared to be a cool mechanical effect until the disguised boys inside them were revealed. The mass fou drummers beat so rapidly and in synchrony that when their lights started blinking it seemed as if we were watching a computer chip, or the innards of a drum machine. See the pic above. We are a machine! Machine are us! That is our first reaction but I think it goes further than that. The 2008 fou drummers represent the We -- the power of the collective. The West and particularly Americans have traditionally emphasized the Me -- the individual. China is a culture more comfortable with the We than the Me, and here they were showing both the power of the We and its modern face -- blinking LED drums. We once thought computers were about individuation, but these days we see they are about socialization as well. More importantly, the social aspects of web 2.0 have shifted the center of gravity from Me to We.
via ct2 thru good experience
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