On The Middle

How the middle moves to the margin: If we think of the middle as the place where things meet or come together, let's say people and ideas, the internet functions as a middle space. We can also talk of coffee shops, discussion groups, governmental meetings, etc. Essentially, the middle is the public sphere. It's where you go when you want to get close to something.

But if everyone uploads content on youtube, wikipedia, flickr or myspace, all of sudden you are closer, but not actually closer. It puts you back where you started.

In the Borges story about the Empire that draws the map so detailed it exactly covers the territory, the map becomes useless because it ceases to function as a map. When the archive becomes so large as to include everything it will cease to be an archive and simply be the world.