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When considering Fran Ilich's work, one cannot ignore the geography that originally gives rise to it. Fran comes from Tijuana, a city caught right in the middle of South-North relationships. Tijuana lies at the Northeast corner of Mexico (and some may add) Latin America. As such, it is a place where one may actually inhabit the painful tension between the third and first worlds: its sweatshops, crystal manufacturers and illegal immigrants physically lie just outside of California. In this context, one may begin to understand why Fran would be interested in creating spaces in which people from different geographical locations would have to bother to listen to each other. One such space is big [b]Other, a collaborative weblog that he coordinated during February 2003 and that was part of the Walker Art Center's "How Latitudes Become Forms" exhibition. In the about section, big [b]Other describes itself as "a different kind of reality show that bothers to attempt to ... explore the many Others that constitute our globally (dis)connected world". big [b]Other is simultaneously a "different kind of reality show" and a textual critique thereof. It is the shared space in which, for one month last year, an international array of people wrote about their daily lives. A collaborative weblog became thus a sort of "big brother house" in which that bothersome dialogue with the "Other" took place. The conversation themes vary a lot and are in itself a reflection of a time period both on a personal and on a global scale. Punk, feminism, the Berlinale and anti-Bush demonstrations are just a few of the themes that the entries concern themselves with. |