As the Walls Fall

"Distance [is] no longer a barrier to communication." -Steve Dixon

This quote reminded me of my favorite book by Dan Friedman, called The World Is Flat, and its thesis of a global economy in which every player starts on an equal footing.  Though Friedman cites the internet as a player, his top ten flatteners are mainly business tools like Outsourcing, Supply-Chaining, and Open-Source organization.  But his premise makes me wonder about the implications of a flat world on performance art.  While it is true that distance is no longer a barrier to communication, this flattening is just one of many factors that is bringing the modern arts together across the world.  Cultural differences, for example, though still deeply ingrained and going nowhere fast, are lessening all over the planet as our global community grows and children start to be born into a truly interconnected world.  It is possible that in the next generation media can be created that truly connects with a world population, either because our understanding of media has grown or because the world has grown closer together.