[introduction]
fen-om is so much, and so little.

fen-om is organized by Sandro Alberti [resumé]. fen-om is fueled by Erin Sharp, Mariana Boctor, José Fontiveros, Kima Wakefield, and Vicente Sastrús (in Los Angeles, California), Sandro Alberti, Alberto Sanz, Galia Bermudez, and Laura Jacott (in Guadalajara, Mexico), and Eduardo López (in Madrid, Spain). We are 'rebels', happy to be empowered by the Internet. fen-om= non-profit difusion of information.

fen-om presents itself in 4 web sites:
www.fen-om.com
www.fen-om1.com
www.fen-om2.com
www.fen-om3.com

First of all, we would like you to notice that, although we are a non-profit organization, we have opted to be listed under the .com domain, since it is more popular than the .org domain (face it, there are still people out there who think everything is .com). The most important thing, both in the Internet and in our contemporary age of 'attention', is to become recognized (the legitimacy provided by a .org extension falls by the wayside).

As far as our 4 sites are concerned, fen-om.com is the primary site, serving to orient our public and redirect it towards the other sites as well as to project web sites. Each of the other sites deals with 3 layers of 'fictional' representation. fen-om1.com is entitled 'Madrid's Metro. Its primary content consists of resumes (for fen-om members as well as several young designers who, we feel, excel in their field) and theoretical texts (older texts from our e-mail lists, which have fallen under the domain of our database). The site presents itself through the fiction of Madrid's Metro, which connects various web pages ('stations') full of Madrid's history, and linking 'heaven-wards' to the Theoretical Ether, where the theoretical texts are contained. fen-om2.com is entitled 'Digital San Diego'. Its primary content consists of virtual-reality projects. The site presents itself through the fiction of a meta-real, Digital San Diego, which presents the culture of consumption, as stereotyped by California, and linking 'natural' to virtual. Finally, fen-om3.com is entitled 'Villa Duz'. Its primary content consists of information topics useful to the local community (Guadalajara, Mexico). The site presents itself through the fiction of a Mexican 'hacienda' (the Villa Duz), presenting historical conflict (Europe vs. the minor) and information in pages set-up as separate areas of the 'hacienda'.

fen-om distributes information, pertinent to designers (in film, architecture, graphic, and new media). Primarily, this is done in the form of 2 e-mail lists, in Spanish (fen-om Spanish Theory) and English (fen-om Theory). We have found that many students, specially in Mexico, are lacking access to the latest 'thoughts'. The response to these lists has been tremendous (people do want to be informed, after all!). We have found that many non-designers are interested in the list topics, as they tend to be 'trendy' or 'theoretical' (in a sense, akin to 'fairy tales').

fen-om critiques ultra-conservative, backward attitudes. We publish on our e-mail lists and on separate Web pages (specifically developed for the purpose of review and critique). We have critiqued and presented conferences, lectures, projects (the Milenium Tower, the Arches of the Third Milenium, and the JVC Cultural Center, in Guadalajara, Mexico). This lends itself to misunderstanding, especially by most Mexicans (in the case of fen-om3), who refuse to believe that a group of people would be willing to do anything without profit (quite a surprising reaction, coming from such a 'communal' and religious society): No, we don´t work for the Omnilife Group, or the University of Guadalajara, or the University of Veracruz (we just develop sites which critique, review, or aid these institutions, among others).

fen-om also designs Web pages. if you are interested, please contact us (fenom@fen-om.com), but we must warn you that we are a bit 'back-logged'.

Finally, to the issue of the name. Why 'fen-om', and not 'doodle-doo', etc.? Well, as anyone who has studied contemporary culture knows, in the end, a brand name, as long as it is brief and not excessively difficult to pronounce or remember, can be anything it wishes to be, as long as it is well publicized.The 'sale' is more important than the 'item'. But fen-om does have a bit of history:
Once upon a time, 'fen-om' did not yet exist, but needed to. At that initial moment, of creation, it was represented by 'om', the seed-sound from which the entire universe, in its reflected vibrations, originated. So that is all there was: 'om'. Initially. And in the biblical sense as well, for it is man (better known in the international language of fragrances and fashion as 'homme') who was there at the beginning. And that, in a sense, was the second step in the process of 'fen-om': 'om'= 'homme'. But, in the classical pattern, we now needed 'femme' (logically, to be represented by 'fem'). So, 'fem' and 'om', existing simultaneously, but not yet unified. In the coupling/ collision ('fem'-'om') 'fem' loses part of its 'm' ('m' becomes 'n'; at the same time shifting its pronunciation). In the end, 'fen-om', with the particular side effect of association to phenomena, the phenomenal, phenomenons, phenomenology, and phenomenalism.