Dear Providence

"Dear Providence," October 2008

Brainstorming, visual arts, random, public audience, technology.
I found a flikr albumn titled "Dear Providence" that encapsulates public writing in a less traditional sense. It was a gallery set up by New Urban Arts to celebrate the dieing art of letter writing and "snail-mail" correspondence (as opposed to electronic means). It featured various bits of correspondence addressed to the city of Providence or the New Urban Arts address, including letters, postcards, scraps of paper, and other articles of random musings. Most of the pieces I looked at were random thoughts or letters, meant to be more artsy than politically charged (almost like a postsecret project). I think this project is public writing in its most simple form---participants wrote whatever they wanted to a public audience. They may not have had a clear structure or purpose, but they put all their thoughts and issues out there for everyone to see. I've actually come to see this gallery as a visual depiction of the brainstorming stage of public writing; I think this was a very cool idea.

Does the internet create democracy?
The web site I found outlines many 21st century ideas about the public sphere, however it mostly focuses on the role of the media and the internet in public writing and democracy. The authors of this article believe that the media is now being used in a way that is detrimental to democracy; most internet sites and popular media have no capacity for political criticism or debate, and the media has become more about ratings, entertainment and performance.

The article goes on to say what the media should do: help organizations and causes attract support, be representative of the views of their supporters, and outline alternative actions and arguments. It also believes that a web site which aims to have any sort of credibility or influence should be backed by enough money and resources to extensively research its topics; it should be well-written and attractively presented, while also being accountable for its words/actions. The main point that this article stresses is that the media should be representative of a group of people and ideas, not just a single, narrow viewpoint.