gmane.culture.internet.nettime

Balaka Storks Dodge A Bullet

Naeem Mohaiemen — 2008-12-01T04:24:59

Images of the statues are at the URL: http://unheardvoice.net/blog/2008/11/30/balaka-statue/ To read about the previous statue incident, go here: http://unheardvoice.net/blog/2008/11/02/smash-palace/ Balaka Storks Dodge A Bullet by Naeem Mohaiemen NEW AGE, December 1, 2008 Unlike the Baul statue circus a month ago, the group that came to smash Balaka Chattar/Biman Office statues (storks, also by Mrinal Haque) came near midnight. This time, no government officials, no advance "protest" in media, no advance anything. They worked quickly, with hammers. Other reports said "ramda", but I tend to think that's fear shorthand. Then the police arrived. According to BdNews24, for the first fifteen minutes they did nothing. Then I suppose the "higher ups" decided whether to stop or allow, impede or accelerate. And then the police "swung into action." Or, as Shamokal reports it, dhawa palta dhawa. Police wounded, attackers in custody, conveniently wearing white robes. Almost ready for their photo-op. The hammers ma

Croatian Facebook Group Results in Arrest

Ana Peraica — 2008-11-30T20:02:37

Copy-pasting an article... best Ana http://www.allfacebook.com/2008/11/croatia-facebook-protest/ Following the actions of U.S. Facebook users isn’t a good idea in other countries, especially Croatia. Niksa Klecak, a Croatian Facebook user decided to create a group protesting the country’s Prime Minister, Ivo Sanader, after seeing the group, “I bet I can find 1,000,000 people who dislike George Bush! ” surpass 1 million users. Klecak’s group, “I bet I can find 5,000 people that hate the Prime minister ” has already surpassed its target size. I doubt Klecak will be updating the title of the group anytime soon though as Svetlana Gladkova reports that he has since been arrested. Prime Minister Sanader has been under extreme pressure as a direct result of the global financial crisis. According to Gladk

Robert Rubin: I had some/all/no responsibility atCitigroup

David Mandl — 2008-11-30T01:01:17

Today's Wall Street Journal features an interview with former Treasury secretary Robert Rubin that probably caused him to squirm for all of thirty seconds, but it's better than nothing. Rubin was in the unique position of being at the very highest (i.e. highest paid) echelon of Wall St., but having a mysterious non- management job that gave him plausible deniability for, well, pretty much anything that went on at the company he worked for. He had an undefined senior role at Citigroup that some people might see as a sinecure--payment for helping the company with their successful campaign to have Glass-Steagall repealed a few years ago. So now he's got to defend the astronomical sums he was paid while claiming that he wasn't really involved in running the company (into the ground). Seeing him spin this is surreal. But he does acknowledge that "there's an enormous amount that needs to be learned." --Dave. ----- http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122791795940965645.html?mod=testMod#

Call for Submissions: It's a pity that we only exist inthe future

Afro Max — 2008-11-29T19:59:30

A show on public space in nairobi, hosted by the Goethe-Institut Nairobi, curated by African Maximalism . Opening 28th February 2009 Call for Submissions: African Maximalism invites you to submit your proposals, papers and artistic works, in order to generate an exhibition on the subject of artistic and cultural practice in public space and the public sphere. As the exhibition will be in Kenya, we particularly encourage submissions from Artists, Theoreticians, Activists working in, or experienced with, the situation in the region. We want to analyse, question and prove what 'Public Space' and 'The Public Sphere' mean in urban Kenya; what happens within that space, and under what terms can Art can enter that space. In fact, does it even exist, or is public space in Nairobi, a simulation, a copy of what "Public Space" in international discourses stands for; often that of a spectacle which, even if its considered to be subversive, contributes to the capitalist urban spectacle, and can

Suketu Mehta : What They Hate About Mumbai

Patrice Riemens — 2008-11-29T21:02:00

The Mumbai spirit is alife and kicking! Bwo Sarai Reader-List/Paul Miller Usual Aps 4 X-posting Suketu is a friend of mine, and it's such a sad strange day to watch all the recriminations going on. From the perspective of NY it's even stranger for me: my landlord was recently put in jail for having a huge cache of automatic weapons (machine guns etc etc). I had no idea he had this kind of stuff around, but then again, it's sometime people in plain site that flip out like this. In any case, I just thought I'd pass this along. Paul What They Hate About Mumbai By SUKETU MEHTA Published: November 28, 2008 MY bleeding city. My poor great bleeding heart of a city. Why do they go after Mumbai? Theres something about this island-state that appalls religious extremists, Hindus and Muslims alike. Perhaps because Mumbai stands for lucre, profane dreams and an indiscriminate openness. Mumbai is all about dhandha, or transaction. From the street food vendor squatting on a sidewalk, fiercely guarding his litt

posting - call for videos

Natalie McKeever — 2008-11-29T00:35:34

Hello, My name is Natalie McKeever, I am a video artist and just joined the nettime list. I wanted to post an open call for video art that I am curating for the Jersey City Museum. The posting is below. Thanks! Natalie McKeever *Investigations of Place Jersey City Museum's 1x1 Media Series Natalie McKeever, Guest Curator* Author and theorist Lucy Lippard defines "place" as "space plus memory." Separate from landscape art, investigations of place explore how the landscapes of personal places such as homelands, childhood homes, and ancestral spaces take on new forms when combined with memories and individual experiences. Jersey City Museum is asking for submissions that successfully use video to illustrate personal narratives imprinted on landscapes, and landscapes imprinted on personal narratives, videos that use experimental imagery to explore how spaces are remade once they are remaining in the mind, and videos that strive to define and delve into the concept ofplace. Between three and nine videos w

Re: An Open Letter to Barack Obama: On Danish Racism

Carsten Agger — 2008-11-28T06:16:56

ons, 26 11 2008 kl. 07:17 -0500, skrev Carsten Agger: Alas, the video was CENSORED by YouTube after about 24 hours. According to the author, the video was removed from YouTube with no explanation apart from this rather terse note: "The following video(s) from your account have been disabled for violation of the YouTube Community Guidelines: Letter to Obama: On Danish Racism." I suppose Google/YouTube have received complaints from persons who do not sympathize with the video's (truthful) picture of Denmark today. I find such censorship rather unacceptable. The video is now online via another service and may once again be seen at http://www.panhumanism.com/letter_to_obama.php and http://blip.tv/file/1515612/ Thanks for your patience. Please help spread the word. -- Blog: http://www.modspil.dk http://www.faklen.dk

Re: Vernacular Video (expanded version), Tom Sherman 2008

Damian Stewart — 2008-11-28T14:02:15

you lost me at that sentence. not in the sense of, i don't understand, but you lost me in the sense of, i've heard this before, and i'm not going to join you on this particular oh-so-deeply-postmodern (sorry) examination of speed. pencil. who am i communicating with? if i'm communicating with the people i care about, them i'm going to use pencil. if i'm communicating with 'everyone else' or 'the world' or whoever else might be watching, why would i do it with short bits of video? there's a built-in sense of denial that sets in with short, snappy video. bred on advertising we tune out anything with a crisp message. it's easier to just not believe it. that's why bafflement and confusion is important: if we're baffled, it means we don't know what to do with it - it also means we don't know how to tune it out. maybe the point of being an artist is to actively _dis_engage from this world. i work outside of institutions (not really by choice), more or less throwing myself to the wind and seeing what happens

7Cs of Deep Search

Konrad Becker — 2008-11-28T15:28:06

The "Deep Search" conference presentation videos are now online at http://world-information.org/wii/deep_search/en/videos - the book (in English and German) will be published at Transaction and Studienverlag in spring. Below some thoughts on search. ~>K * * * * * * * 7Cs of 21C Search Culture, Context, Classification + Command, Control, Communications, Computing How do things relate to each other? What is essential to one thing in relation to another? How does subjective meaning and generalized or objectified attributions of sense interrelate? What does it mean for our sense of self- and how we relate to each other? What is meaning, how does it develop? These questions have puzzled humankind for ages. In an era of digital information, of human-machine interfaces and robotic data spiders, surfing in the vast space of electronic data all on their own, they become vastly relevant. Proteus, an early sea-god In Greek mythology, can foretell the future. But he answers only to someone who is capable of capt

Re: Report on Facebook desk democracy

Andres Manniste — 2008-11-27T13:32:41

Thank you Ana, for your thoughtful response. I sent this one out as a "Hail Mary Pass”, followed by a "Whoops, did I really press the send button?" I tend to agree that Facebook can serve political purposes and does have a very real use as a platform for dialogue about events and so on. I think that what I was addressing was the problem with, for example, Avatars. The devil knows Latin as well, and these things can be manipulated, a traditional problem with direct democracy. We are in the middle of a Provincial election here, and I received an irate email signed by many prominent artists about how there were massive cuts coming to the arts in secondary schools. As it turned out, this hoax, composed four years earlier and identified as such, was simply re-released verbatim. Facebook can be manipulated in the same manner and I am actually interested in watching groups, real or imaginary, appear and vaporise. I tend to think that this represents the true nature of Facebook and so that is why I

An Open Letter to Barack Obama: On Danish Racism

Carsten Agger — 2008-11-26T12:17:57

Danish writer Rune Engelbreth Larsen has teamed up with photographer Jacob Holdt (of American Pictures fame, http://www.american-pictures.com/english/intro/index.html) to produce an open letter and YouTube video with an urgent appeal to president-elect Barack Obama concerning the rampant racism and xenophobia in Denmark. Racist sentiment may be common in many countries, but Denmark is one of the only countries where actual demands to deport all Muslims proliferate in a party which virtually dictates government policy. Their parliamentarians say things like: "Muslims come with a beggar's staff in their hand, but as soon as they're in from the cold it becomes a stick to beat us with". Does this rhetoric remind us of something? The Bush-appointed American Embassador has repeatedly stated his shock at the level of racism in Danish politics. This open letter and YouTube video is a desparate attempt to make people see what's going on in a country that was once a champion of social justice and human rights. Not

Report on Facebook desk democracy

Ana Peraica — 2008-11-27T11:00:34

Hi Andres, many of these people are just avatars : ) another thing which is interesting is how it happens that the message account is blocked (it happened to some people) I would like to add another use - aspect, which comes from popularity and easy to use networking which I reported on a week ago and I will use my chance to promote (again) and praise students; consolidating for demonstrations, which is the second time it happens in Croatia. As I said for the first time they really pushed the State Graduation out and Bologna convention transparency, as well as some other demands... There were demonstrations in all cities. Now they appear more aware, working for general social purposes, in two groups, one which is satirical Kako je Ivo ukrao Božic' http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=35433193875 (How Ivo has stolen the Christmas) and the other Stegnite vi svoj remen bando lopovska http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=48786829344 (It is you to fasten your belt a thief band!) which

Lets all get erased from Facebook!

Andres Manniste — 2008-11-26T20:02:43

So I was looking at my list of Facebook contacts and it is Thierry Geoffroy who impresses me the most because he is almost halfway to being eliminated by the facebook robot (apparently your account is erased at 5000). I am also growing very impatient with those who hyperventilate about choosing who deserves to be their "friend". institutional bureaucracies and the formation of communities of artists (Shulgin and Bookchin), yet here we are, artists choosing whom they should accept as contacts. Facebook is an illusion; consequently it makes little sense to begin constructing virtual sand castles with their levels of nobility ( by the way, many of the people below are more famous than you are). We all know that FB will inevitably collapse so what is the hierarchical nonsense about? I suggest to everyone to accept everyone and work towards the magic number of 5000 to vaporise. If you want a family page, make a separate avatar. If you think that Facebook is more than a network node, stop pretending to be involv

Re: Software Takes Command (a new book by Lev Manovich)

Søren Pold — 2008-11-27T07:56:01

Looks like an interesting book, that effectively argues for the establishing of software studies as a discipline and research field. Interesting to follow what Lev Manovich and colleagues can do with this at UCSD and with the book. However, a quick 'software-reading' (using the "search" command) of Lev Manovich's book seems to suggest that the (partly) non-US traditions of software studies, software art and live coding, has disappeared almost entirely from view and the perspective is now on (also important) computing pioneers such as Kay/Goldberg, Ted Nelson etc. After all we've had software art debated at festivals like Transmediale and Ars Electronica, it has had its own dedicated festivals with the Read_me festivals and the Runme.org where lots of software studies work has been discussed and published by people like Florian Cramer, Inke Arns, Alex McLean, Adrian Ward, Geoff Cox, Olga Goriunova, and journals like Neural and Mute (just to mention some...). Only the key important work of Matthew Fuller, and

Re: Vernacular Video (expanded version), Tom Sherman 2008

chad scov1lle — 2008-11-25T14:45:17

'We give away our attention by the split-second to incoming traffic on our cell phones, PDAs and laptops. Our observational skills have suffered as we have mastered multitasking. We now commonly send messages while we are in the act of receiving information.' Yep, we are finally Full Duplex. /*Chad Scoville /*http://ad3pt(dot)tumblr(dot)com /* TWITTER ME >> ad3ptnanosec -----Original Message----- From: Tom Sherman [mailto:twsherma-SjkUwj5B77I< at >public.gmane.org] Sent: Monday, November 24, 2008 09:22 AM To: nettime-l-fO7mttO5ZDI< at >public.gmane.org Subject: Vernacular Video (expanded version), Tom Sherman 2008 [Note: the following is an expanded version of "Vernacular Video,"originally published in shorter form in Les Fleurs du Mal, issue #2,Montreal, Quebec, September 2006; and is now in print in the VideoVortex Reader: Responses to YouTube, Geert Lovink and Sabine Niederer(eds.), Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2008.]VERNACULAR VIDEOTom Sherman Video as a technology is a little over forty years old.

Re: Vernacular Video (expanded version), Tom Sherman 2008

{ brad brace } — 2008-11-25T19:51:32

"...[subsidized artworld acolytes] only say two things, no matter how elaborate their songs at dawn and dusk. The [acolytes] say 'I have a really good [institutional-position],' and 'why don't you come over and [admire our status]?'..." /:b -- "We fill the craters left by the bombs And once again we sing And once again we sow Because life never surrenders."

Re: Vernacular Video (expanded version), Tom Sherman 2008

Matze Schmidt — 2008-11-25T15:13:54

Hello, and many thanks for this article. But one concern related "the question of art, artists and do we need this and them anyway?" I remember Woody Vasulka talking about the time in New York in the heroic early days when he was shooting everything (everything?) he could possibly find out there ("out there" means what is not in there in this chamber of the self) with his Portapack. And asking him about this issue he offered me the material! I rejected. After this little story I was first: disappointed by myself - I could have done great exhibits with the stuff, I thought. And then: I was glad, cause I don't need Jimi Hendrix on stage (Woody shot in those days [hope I'm right]), I have my own nobody-stars right here and even Warhol cannot make them, they finally make themselfes without any idols. Okay, we know that this is not true, it's the legend of the New Web the Lovink School is constantly correcting. Most of the boys and girls on facebook seem to be those copies of some stars. Onlinestars? So, I be

Finance and Social Production

Adam Arvidsson — 2008-11-25T15:45:08

Full reference at http://blog.p2pfoundation.net/finance-and-social-production/2008/11/25 Finance and Social Production, I'd like to expand a bit on a number of ideas that came out of a discussion with Christian Marazzi on the financial crisis, organized by the student movement at the University of Milano, last Friday. Marazzi has done a lot of innovative and thought-provoking work on the role of finance within the post-Fordist economy and the deep structural roots of the financial expansion that has marked the last two decades (or since 1979 and Paul Volker's monetarist turn at the Fed). Indeed, the growing size and importance of financial markets is one of the two important structural trends that have marked the transition away from industrial Fordism (to an 'information economy' a 'knowledge economy' an 'ethical economy' or simply 'post-Fordism' the exact denomination is not an issue here). Indeed, with Geroge Soros, we can argue that the current crisis is the end of a financial 'super bubble' that has r

Vernacular Video (expanded version), Tom Sherman 2008

Tom Sherman — 2008-11-24T14:22:47

[Note: the following is an expanded version of "Vernacular Video," originally published in shorter form in Les Fleurs du Mal, issue #2, Montreal, Quebec, September 2006; and is now in print in the Video Vortex Reader: Responses to YouTube, Geert Lovink and Sabine Niederer (eds.), Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2008.] VERNACULAR VIDEO Tom Sherman public.gmane.org> Video as a technology is a little over forty years old. It is an offshoot of television, developed in the 1930s and a technology that has been in our homes for sixty years. Television began as a centralised, one-to-many broadcast medium. Television's centrality was splintered as cable and satellite distribution systems and vertical, specialised programming sources fragmented television's audience. As video technology spun off from television, the mission was clearly one of complete decentralisation. Forty years later, video technology is everywhere. Video is now a medium unto itself, a completely decentralised dig

France: "Terrorism or Tragicomedy?" by Agamben FREE THE TARNAC FIVE! "

Louise Desrenards — 2008-11-24T21:53:38

The text of reference published in the newpaper Libération which is translated in FR is below //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// http://farkyaralari.blogspot.com/search/label/semiotext(e) http://farkyaralari.blogspot.com/2008/11/free-tarnac-9-statement-of-support-by.html I quote: This e-mail is from semiotext(e). Nine friends in France have been arrested and accused of terrorism, although no proof has been brought against them. Attached please find a petition written by the publisher Eric Hazan, which can be signed (name, occupation, city) and returned to: lafabrique-ibbCavKMnJKUfUQNvAimHg< at >public.gmane.org A statement of support by Giorgio Agamben is pasted in below. Thanks very much. TERRORISM OR TRAGICOMEDY? On the morning of November 11, 150 police officers, most of which belonged to the anti-terrorist brigades, surrounded a village of 350 inhabitants on the Millevaches plateau, before raiding a farm in order to arrest nine young people (who ran the local grocery store

[iai.europe.en] IAI Newsletter Special,Marseille november 2008: european protest

International Alliance of Inhabitants — 2008-11-19T14:26:35

Newsletter Special Marseille, november 2008 English * www.habitants.org ** * * >> * Marseille mobilisation programme * * >> * News from inhabitants of Europe * * >> * G-20, Appeal: Build a Global Social Pact! * * >> * World Zero Evictions Day 2008 Video Contest! * * >> * Building together the World Assembly of Inhabitants! Appeal for European protest in Marseille 2008 The following appeal was proposed during the Assembly