Filter-It-Yourself
Every attempt to communicate an idea has to start somewhere, and the
person or persons seeking to communicate must have at least a vague
notion of whom they want to reach. However, the starting point and the
intended recipients are often not explicitly defined, especially if
the communication is supposed to be neutral and objective. Discourse
usually appears most effective, if communicator and recipients belong
to the same subset of society, such as a certain academic discipline,
a specific profession or special interest group. If there is a shared
basis for communication, it may not be necessary to explicitly name
starting points, intended recipients, certain premises, in order to
reach an understanding. Yet if this shared basis for communication is
placed in a larger context, read from the perspective of a different
standpoint, then meanings, intentions, consequences can shift.
Unintended or unimagined connections can arise, and unexpected
overlaps can lead to strategic alliances, open up previously unnoticed
spaces, or reveal hidden pitfalls and obstacles.
Discordia refers to this process as filtering. This is a way of
dealing with information to probe its usability, malleability,
applicability. The idea of filtering information presupposes that the
information is read from a certain perspective, based on certain views
or values, involvements or ideologies. In other words, a certain
"filter" determines the perspective. Some examples of filters could be
feminist critique, postcolonialist analysis, neoliberal apologetics,
transversal activism, etc. The point is not to seek an arbitrary
relativism of any and all positions, but rather to collectively
subject available existing information to different types of critiques
to discover connections and divergences that are not immediately
obvious, and reveal possible implications and consequences in a
broader framework.
The Filter-It-Yourself section is an experiment in the practical
application of this filtering principle. Here users are invited to
take stories and comments from other areas of Discordia, to link to
articles found elsewhere on the Internet, or to present positions,
statements, proposals from their own fields of experience and
expertise, and then run these through an explicitly stated filter of
their choice. In other words, users critique, analyze, discuss the
information at hand from a certain perspective that is identified at
the beginning of the post. As one of Discordia's experimental
features, this section depends on the intelligence and initiative of
the users, rather than software mechanisms, since the latter would
necessarily limit the choices to the developers' experience and
awareness of possible mental filters.