ARTBASE (3)
PORTFOLIO (2)
BIO
Christina McPhee http://christinamcphee.net
Mosh Vote
Pass it on...
------ Forwarded Message
From: Mathieu O'Neil <oneil@homemail.com.au>
Reply-To: soft_skinned_space <empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
Date: Fri, 29 Oct 2004 09:40:35 +1000
To: soft_skinned_space <empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
Subject: [-empyre-] Best Pop Propaganda Award 2004
Yo, Americans! - Check it out.
Link to it - get young people to see it NOW...
Thanks,
Mathieu
<http://mosh.eminem.com/video/>
_______________________________________________
empyre forum
empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
http://www.subtle.net/empyre
------ End of Forwarded Message
------ Forwarded Message
From: Mathieu O'Neil <oneil@homemail.com.au>
Reply-To: soft_skinned_space <empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
Date: Fri, 29 Oct 2004 09:40:35 +1000
To: soft_skinned_space <empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
Subject: [-empyre-] Best Pop Propaganda Award 2004
Yo, Americans! - Check it out.
Link to it - get young people to see it NOW...
Thanks,
Mathieu
<http://mosh.eminem.com/video/>
_______________________________________________
empyre forum
empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
http://www.subtle.net/empyre
------ End of Forwarded Message
Fw: ::fibreculture:: Re: Sad news overnight
-----Forwarded Message-----
From: Brett Neilson <b.neilson@uws.edu.au>
Sent: Oct 11, 2004 5:55 AM
To: fibreculture@lists.myspinach.org
Subject: ::fibreculture:: Re: Sad news overnight
The following piece, written late on election night, was published in the
Italian newspaper _Il Manifesto_ on 10 October.
Available in Italian at:
http://www.ilmanifesto.it/oggi/art27.html
Or after tomorrow at:
http://www.ilmanifesto.it/Quotidiano-archivio/10-Ottobre-2004/art27.html
Australia
The illusory drift of Labor to the centre
BRETT NEILSON
Even for us disbelievers, who have witnessed the crumbling of
representative democracy under the media complex of image and spin, it is
difficult to pass an election day without entertaining some small fantasy.
Perhaps this is what elections are all about, anyway. Forget policy. Forget
truth. The field of contestation is now one of emotion and sensitivity. And
the messages are served up in sound-bytes, pre-recorded phone messages, and
personalized letters where the candidate reveals how much information they
have about you on their databases. These are not weapons of mass deception,
because deception is no longer the name of the game. We all expect
deception. Perhaps we even want it, particularly when it protects us from
uncomfortable knowledge that threatens our sense of probity. Why do
politicians go on talk shows, do cooking spots, and kick footballs for
television cameras? They are serving the needs of the imagination, the
domain where elections are now won and lost.
But John Howard, the conservative Prime Minister who only tonight has won a
fourth term in Australia, is no Arnold Schwarzenegger. How can a man so
dull, so ungiven to the skills of celebrity, function so effectively in the
intense media environment of the contemporary election campaign? Putting
aside the depression and outrage, we must confront this question. And it is
a question that has implications that extend far beyond Australia and the
continuing decimation of health, education, and public broadcasting that
this election will inevitably bring. Not only because Howard is Bush's
loyal ally and is likely to follow him into whatever theatre of war opens
next (assuming the U.S. election unfolds as this one has done). But because
it is not only in Australia that the art of emotional modulation, the
interpretation of audience reactions and feedback loops, has been perfected
far better by conservative political forces than by their agonists in both
the institutionalized and noninstitutionalized left.
'Keeping interest rates low.' That was the slogan that appeared underneath
Howard's lectern for the six weeks of the election campaign. The vote, he
insisted was a referendum on who could be trusted to manage the economy
better and secure Australia in a time of war. Time and again, interest
rates and security, and money thrown at the marginal seats where the
election would be won and lost. And little talk of Iraq, or refugees, or
the complex and tragic issues that surround Australia's Indigenous
population. These were the questions that were silenced in the campaign,
both by Howard and his 43 year-old Labor Party competitor Latham, who was
wary of alienating swing voters. Sure these are all polarizing issues in
Australia and Labor's decision to downplay them was one reason why many
voters deserted them for the Greens. But these polarizations were already
factored into the vote and were judged largely irrelevant to the conquest
of the 'aspirational' seats that Labor needed to win back from Howard if
they were to form a government.
That Labor failed to win these seats points to an entrenched dilemma that
signals a crisis in the very notion of a centre left party. Since while
ever they try to match the conservative rhetoric about opportunity and
social mobility that appeals to the voters in these 'aspirational' seats,
they bleed on their left side. For Labor, the drift to the centre is
suicide, yet there is no alternative in the zero-sum game of representative
democracy. And it is this game that they so timidly play, afraid to upset
the middle ground with strong talk about war, undocumented migrants, or
Aboriginals. Yet they lose anyway, and the loss is worse every time. The
stupefying result of this election is that Howard will increase his majority.
But why did these issues become taboo, especially when the war in Iraq,
where Howard is highly complicit, is such a disaster? The sorry fact is
that the voters who count in the representative system (that is, the ones
who change their minds) don't want to know about these difficult and
confronting issues. It's all too easy to displace responsibility for them
(and the violent solutions that governments pursue toward them) on to a
public figure who is easy to disavow: 'Those politicians, they were the
ones that made the war. It wasn't me. I hate politicians. I don't trust
them. They're all the same. And the only reason I vote for one above the
other is because they promise to make things a little easier for me, to
keep interest rates low. That's got nothing to do with war. So don't
lecture me about that. Don't be so condescending.'
These are the attitudes to which Howard was able to appeal, even in the
darkest days of the Iraq insurgency. But there is a lesson to be drawn from
this election result, even for those who don't have to endure the painful
dullness of three more years of conservative government in Australia. What
is at stake is nothing less than the death of the centre left. For the
voter who cynically eyes all politicians as equally dirty disengages from
the system of representative democracy as such. Forced back into the
system, s/he becomes prey to all sorts of political opportunism and
masquerading, the entire apparatus of emotional modulation. But it is
her/his very disaffection with the system that must become the point of
opening and dialogue with the agents of political change, subjects and
movements equally dissatisfied with the representative machine. The voters
who the centre left cannot win back can only be diverted from the
conservative course if approached as something other than voters. But this
requires a politics that refuses the logic of the permanent campaign, a
postrepresentative politics that does not have to wait until the next
election to begin its struggle, a politics of the present that makes this
election result, as devastating and predictable as it has been, less injurious.
Free Trade in the Bermuda Triangle ... and Other Tales of Counterglobalization
http://www.upress.umn.edu/Books/N/neilson_free.html
::posted on ::fibreculture:: mailinglist for australasian
::critical internet theory, culture and research
::(un) subscribe info and archive: http://www.fibreculture.org
::please send announcements to separate mailinglist:
:: http://lists.myspinach.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fibreculture-announce
From: Brett Neilson <b.neilson@uws.edu.au>
Sent: Oct 11, 2004 5:55 AM
To: fibreculture@lists.myspinach.org
Subject: ::fibreculture:: Re: Sad news overnight
The following piece, written late on election night, was published in the
Italian newspaper _Il Manifesto_ on 10 October.
Available in Italian at:
http://www.ilmanifesto.it/oggi/art27.html
Or after tomorrow at:
http://www.ilmanifesto.it/Quotidiano-archivio/10-Ottobre-2004/art27.html
Australia
The illusory drift of Labor to the centre
BRETT NEILSON
Even for us disbelievers, who have witnessed the crumbling of
representative democracy under the media complex of image and spin, it is
difficult to pass an election day without entertaining some small fantasy.
Perhaps this is what elections are all about, anyway. Forget policy. Forget
truth. The field of contestation is now one of emotion and sensitivity. And
the messages are served up in sound-bytes, pre-recorded phone messages, and
personalized letters where the candidate reveals how much information they
have about you on their databases. These are not weapons of mass deception,
because deception is no longer the name of the game. We all expect
deception. Perhaps we even want it, particularly when it protects us from
uncomfortable knowledge that threatens our sense of probity. Why do
politicians go on talk shows, do cooking spots, and kick footballs for
television cameras? They are serving the needs of the imagination, the
domain where elections are now won and lost.
But John Howard, the conservative Prime Minister who only tonight has won a
fourth term in Australia, is no Arnold Schwarzenegger. How can a man so
dull, so ungiven to the skills of celebrity, function so effectively in the
intense media environment of the contemporary election campaign? Putting
aside the depression and outrage, we must confront this question. And it is
a question that has implications that extend far beyond Australia and the
continuing decimation of health, education, and public broadcasting that
this election will inevitably bring. Not only because Howard is Bush's
loyal ally and is likely to follow him into whatever theatre of war opens
next (assuming the U.S. election unfolds as this one has done). But because
it is not only in Australia that the art of emotional modulation, the
interpretation of audience reactions and feedback loops, has been perfected
far better by conservative political forces than by their agonists in both
the institutionalized and noninstitutionalized left.
'Keeping interest rates low.' That was the slogan that appeared underneath
Howard's lectern for the six weeks of the election campaign. The vote, he
insisted was a referendum on who could be trusted to manage the economy
better and secure Australia in a time of war. Time and again, interest
rates and security, and money thrown at the marginal seats where the
election would be won and lost. And little talk of Iraq, or refugees, or
the complex and tragic issues that surround Australia's Indigenous
population. These were the questions that were silenced in the campaign,
both by Howard and his 43 year-old Labor Party competitor Latham, who was
wary of alienating swing voters. Sure these are all polarizing issues in
Australia and Labor's decision to downplay them was one reason why many
voters deserted them for the Greens. But these polarizations were already
factored into the vote and were judged largely irrelevant to the conquest
of the 'aspirational' seats that Labor needed to win back from Howard if
they were to form a government.
That Labor failed to win these seats points to an entrenched dilemma that
signals a crisis in the very notion of a centre left party. Since while
ever they try to match the conservative rhetoric about opportunity and
social mobility that appeals to the voters in these 'aspirational' seats,
they bleed on their left side. For Labor, the drift to the centre is
suicide, yet there is no alternative in the zero-sum game of representative
democracy. And it is this game that they so timidly play, afraid to upset
the middle ground with strong talk about war, undocumented migrants, or
Aboriginals. Yet they lose anyway, and the loss is worse every time. The
stupefying result of this election is that Howard will increase his majority.
But why did these issues become taboo, especially when the war in Iraq,
where Howard is highly complicit, is such a disaster? The sorry fact is
that the voters who count in the representative system (that is, the ones
who change their minds) don't want to know about these difficult and
confronting issues. It's all too easy to displace responsibility for them
(and the violent solutions that governments pursue toward them) on to a
public figure who is easy to disavow: 'Those politicians, they were the
ones that made the war. It wasn't me. I hate politicians. I don't trust
them. They're all the same. And the only reason I vote for one above the
other is because they promise to make things a little easier for me, to
keep interest rates low. That's got nothing to do with war. So don't
lecture me about that. Don't be so condescending.'
These are the attitudes to which Howard was able to appeal, even in the
darkest days of the Iraq insurgency. But there is a lesson to be drawn from
this election result, even for those who don't have to endure the painful
dullness of three more years of conservative government in Australia. What
is at stake is nothing less than the death of the centre left. For the
voter who cynically eyes all politicians as equally dirty disengages from
the system of representative democracy as such. Forced back into the
system, s/he becomes prey to all sorts of political opportunism and
masquerading, the entire apparatus of emotional modulation. But it is
her/his very disaffection with the system that must become the point of
opening and dialogue with the agents of political change, subjects and
movements equally dissatisfied with the representative machine. The voters
who the centre left cannot win back can only be diverted from the
conservative course if approached as something other than voters. But this
requires a politics that refuses the logic of the permanent campaign, a
postrepresentative politics that does not have to wait until the next
election to begin its struggle, a politics of the present that makes this
election result, as devastating and predictable as it has been, less injurious.
Free Trade in the Bermuda Triangle ... and Other Tales of Counterglobalization
http://www.upress.umn.edu/Books/N/neilson_free.html
::posted on ::fibreculture:: mailinglist for australasian
::critical internet theory, culture and research
::(un) subscribe info and archive: http://www.fibreculture.org
::please send announcements to separate mailinglist:
:: http://lists.myspinach.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fibreculture-announce
Correction...re "Locative City"
Hello to all interested in the -empyre- discussion on locative media,
urbanism and narrative...,
Inadvertently I sent out an inaccurate pr yesterday regarding September's
guests and their work in locative media...
Here's the correct info
Hope that you are able to join Jeff, Naomi and jeremy for the conversation
on the meanings of landscape/city/newmedia intersects..
All best
Christina
>
>> September on -empyre-: Locative City
>>
>>
>>
>> -empyre- joins city stories to locative media and narrative archaeology in
>> September.
>>
>>
>> Using locative media to "read" a space with gps and other wireless
>> technology, artists Jeremy Hight, Jeff Knowlton and Naomi Spellman (US)
>> dig
>> into deep city spaces. Marking narrative triggers through locative media,
>> they draw many lines --from archaeology, fiction, architecture, and design
>> --into the urban terrain.
>>
>> <http://34N118W.net/>
>>
>>
>>
>> Their locative media artwork "34 north 118 west" uses gps data and
>> interactive map that triggers live data through movement in downtown LA.
>> "34 north 118 west" premiered November 15, 2002 at the Art in Motion
>> Festival. It won the grand jury prize at Aim IV in 2003
>> <http://www.usc.edu/dept/matrix/aim/aimIV/>
>> Collaborative artworks have also shown at LA Freewaves, Futuresonic, and
>> online at <http://www.mediatopia.net/>
>>
>> In New York at the beginning of October, Naomi and Jeff will debut a new
>> 'interpretive engine' for various places on earth, which uses wireless APs
>> in New York to determine more generalised location: see Spectropolis:
>> Mobile Media, Art and the City, NYC <http://www.spectropolis.info/>
>>
>>
>>
>> Please join Naomi, Jeff and Jeremy on location at
>>
>> <http://www.subtle.net/empyre>
>>
>>
--
soundart performance videoinstallation multimedia painting theory
<www.christinamcphee.net>
<www.naxsmash.net>
<www.naxsmash.net/inscapes>
urbanism and narrative...,
Inadvertently I sent out an inaccurate pr yesterday regarding September's
guests and their work in locative media...
Here's the correct info
Hope that you are able to join Jeff, Naomi and jeremy for the conversation
on the meanings of landscape/city/newmedia intersects..
All best
Christina
>
>> September on -empyre-: Locative City
>>
>>
>>
>> -empyre- joins city stories to locative media and narrative archaeology in
>> September.
>>
>>
>> Using locative media to "read" a space with gps and other wireless
>> technology, artists Jeremy Hight, Jeff Knowlton and Naomi Spellman (US)
>> dig
>> into deep city spaces. Marking narrative triggers through locative media,
>> they draw many lines --from archaeology, fiction, architecture, and design
>> --into the urban terrain.
>>
>> <http://34N118W.net/>
>>
>>
>>
>> Their locative media artwork "34 north 118 west" uses gps data and
>> interactive map that triggers live data through movement in downtown LA.
>> "34 north 118 west" premiered November 15, 2002 at the Art in Motion
>> Festival. It won the grand jury prize at Aim IV in 2003
>> <http://www.usc.edu/dept/matrix/aim/aimIV/>
>> Collaborative artworks have also shown at LA Freewaves, Futuresonic, and
>> online at <http://www.mediatopia.net/>
>>
>> In New York at the beginning of October, Naomi and Jeff will debut a new
>> 'interpretive engine' for various places on earth, which uses wireless APs
>> in New York to determine more generalised location: see Spectropolis:
>> Mobile Media, Art and the City, NYC <http://www.spectropolis.info/>
>>
>>
>>
>> Please join Naomi, Jeff and Jeremy on location at
>>
>> <http://www.subtle.net/empyre>
>>
>>
--
soundart performance videoinstallation multimedia painting theory
<www.christinamcphee.net>
<www.naxsmash.net>
<www.naxsmash.net/inscapes>
Prelude: September Jeff, Naomi and Jeremy on "Locative City"
<www.subtle.net/empyre>
Prelude September:
" When experiencing narrative elements onsite, the site itself provides a
framework, with the senses providing active as well as subconscious
associations. The mind can then incorporate these cues in formulating a
rich, complex, and meaningful experience.
Do we still need myths today, when we are no longer baffled by the physical
phenomena that surround us? It is important to remember that besides its
connective and educational function, myth
Prelude September:
" When experiencing narrative elements onsite, the site itself provides a
framework, with the senses providing active as well as subconscious
associations. The mind can then incorporate these cues in formulating a
rich, complex, and meaningful experience.
Do we still need myths today, when we are no longer baffled by the physical
phenomena that surround us? It is important to remember that besides its
connective and educational function, myth
September on -empyre-: Locative City
September on -empyre-: Locative City
-empyre- joins city stories to locative media and narrative archaeology in
September.
Using locative media to "read" a space with gps and other wireless
technology, artists Jeremy Hight, Jeff Knowlton and Naomi Spellman (US) dig
into deep city spaces. Marking narrative triggers through locative media,
they draw many lines --from archaeology, fiction, architecture, and design
--into the urban terrain.
<http://34N118W.net/>
Their locative media artwork "34 north 118 west" uses gps data and
interactive map that triggers live data through movement in downtown LA.
"34 north 118 west" premiered November 15, 2002 at the Art in Motion
Festival. It won the grand jury prize at Aim IV in 2003
<http://www.usc.edu/dept/matrix/aim/aimIV/>
Collaborative artworks have also shown at LA Freewaves, Futuresonic, and
online at <http://www.mediatopia.net/>
In New York at the beginning of October, Naomi and Jeff will debut a new
'interpretive engine' for various places on earth, which uses wireless APs
in New York to determine more generalised location: see Spectropolis:
Mobile Media, Art and the City, NYC <http://www.spectropolis.info/>
Please join Naomi, Jeff and Jeremy on location at
<http://www.subtle.net/empyre>
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
--
soundart performance videoinstallation multimedia painting theory
<www.christinamcphee.net>
<www.naxsmash.net>
<www.naxsmash.net/inscapes>
-empyre- joins city stories to locative media and narrative archaeology in
September.
Using locative media to "read" a space with gps and other wireless
technology, artists Jeremy Hight, Jeff Knowlton and Naomi Spellman (US) dig
into deep city spaces. Marking narrative triggers through locative media,
they draw many lines --from archaeology, fiction, architecture, and design
--into the urban terrain.
<http://34N118W.net/>
Their locative media artwork "34 north 118 west" uses gps data and
interactive map that triggers live data through movement in downtown LA.
"34 north 118 west" premiered November 15, 2002 at the Art in Motion
Festival. It won the grand jury prize at Aim IV in 2003
<http://www.usc.edu/dept/matrix/aim/aimIV/>
Collaborative artworks have also shown at LA Freewaves, Futuresonic, and
online at <http://www.mediatopia.net/>
In New York at the beginning of October, Naomi and Jeff will debut a new
'interpretive engine' for various places on earth, which uses wireless APs
in New York to determine more generalised location: see Spectropolis:
Mobile Media, Art and the City, NYC <http://www.spectropolis.info/>
Please join Naomi, Jeff and Jeremy on location at
<http://www.subtle.net/empyre>
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
--
soundart performance videoinstallation multimedia painting theory
<www.christinamcphee.net>
<www.naxsmash.net>
<www.naxsmash.net/inscapes>