BlogWalk: Digital Bohemiens, Part I

Speed Space and Scale are the three words that summarize the things that inspired me at BlogWalk in Amsterdam last week. But first some thoughts about the theme Digital Bohemiens.

The theme of this BlogWalk was Digital Bohemiens. In Germany a book (Wir nennen es Arbeit, We Call it Work) has been published that describes the large group of creatives in Berlin that work independently, free-lancing, and see the city's cafés and parks as their offices which they inhabit with their laptops. Romantic as this may sound, it is good to note that this behaviour is at least partly the result of structural problems on the German labour market for new members of the work force.

To me it seemed a useful theme as it creates images in your mind easily about what type of person you are talking about. To me the theme merely served that role, and the part of the group discussion that tried to come up with definitions of a Digital Bohemien was not for me. Looking deeper into the behaviour of the, let's say, avant garde of internet users is for me a way to create a notion of the type of behaviour that will become mainstream. The bohemian, outsider's part of it all is therefore perhaps romantic, but not my main concern. Especially since the outsider's part has rough edges that are often frustrating and hard to escape. Ana-Despina Tudor words this well, almost poetic, and Bicyclemark said as much during the day itself.

Which type of Bohemian are you?

That is why I ridiculed the notion of Bohemianism somewhat last Friday, typefying Bohemians wearing floppy hats and Howard Rheingold shoes (mind you: Howard is a worthwile rolemodel in this digital age, the pun is about his shoes, not him). And why I came up with the idea of creating a bumper sticker "Ex Bohemian" to stick on your SUV.

I concur with Gabriela Avram, who formulates digital bohemianism as a mindset more. Looking at that mindset we can look at how that manifests itself in behaviour. Manifests itself in Speed, Space and Scope. I'll leave that for the next posting.

(both photos by Elmine)

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(posted by Ton Zijlstra at May 24, 2007 08:21 PM)