The Temporary Travel Office produces a variety of services relating to tourism and technology aimed at exploring the non-rational connections existing between public and private spaces. The Travel Office has operated in a variety of locations, including Missouri, Chicago, Southern California and Norway.
Is MySpace a Place?
Networked Performance pointed me toward an interview (download in PDF)with Networked Publics speaker Henry Jenkins and Networked Publics friend danah boyd about Myspace. The site, popular with teenagers, has become increasingly controversial as parents and the press raise concerns about the openness of information on the site and the vulnerability this supposedly poses to predators (Henry points out that only .1% of abductions are by strangers) and the behavior of teens towards each other (certainly nothing new, only now in persistent form). In another essay on Identity Production in Networked Culture, danah suggests that Myspace is popular not only because the technology makes new forms of interaction possible, but because older hang-outs such as the mall and the convenience store are prohibiting teens from congregating and roller rinks and burger joints are disappearing.
This begs the question, is Myspace media or is it space? Architecture theorists have long had this thorn in their side. "This will kill that," wrote Victor Hugo with respect to the book and the building. In the early 1990s, concern about a dwindling public culture and the character of late twentieth century urban space led us to investigate Jürgen Habermas's idea of the public sphere. But the public sphere, for Habermas is a forum, something that, for the most part, emerges in media and in the institutions of the state:
The bourgeois public sphere may be conceived above all as the sphere of private people come together as a public; they soon claimed the public sphere regulated from above against the public authorities themselves, to engage them in a debate over the general rules governing relations in the basically privatized but publicly relevant sphere of commodity exchange and social labor. The medium of this political confrontation was peculiar and without historical precedent: people's ...
SWITCH: Issue 22
HI everyone. Just wanted to announce the new issue of SWITCH:
SWITCH : The online New Media Art Journal of the CADRE Laboratory for
New Media at San Jose State University
http://switch.sjsu.edu switch@cadre.sjsu.edu
SWITCH Journal is proud to announce the launch of Issue 22: A Special
Preview Edition to ISEA 2006/ ZeroOne San Jose.
As San Jose State University and the CADRE Laboratory are serving as
the academic host for the ZeroOne San Jose /ISEA 2006 Symposium,
SWITCH has dedicated itself to serving as an official media
correspondent of the Festival and Symposium. SWITCH has focused the
past three issues of publication prior to ZeroOne San Jose/ISEA2006
on publishing content reflecting on the themes of the symposium. Our
editorial staff has interviewed and reported on artists, theorists,
and practitioners interested in the intersections of Art & Technology
as related to the themes of ZeroOne San Jose/ ISEA 2006. While some
of those featured in SWITCH are part of the festival and symposium,
others provide a complimentary perspective.
Issue 22 focuses on the intersections of CADRE and ZeroOne San Jose/
ISEA 2006. Over the past year, students at the CADRE Laboratory for
New Media have been working intensely with artists on two different
residency projects for the festival – “Social Networking” with Antoni
Muntadas and the City as Interface Residency, “Karaoke Ice” with
Nancy Nowacek, Marina Zurkow & Katie Salen. Carlos Castellanos,
James Morgan, Aaron Siegel, all give us a sneak preview of their
projects which will be featured at the ISEA 2006 exhibition. Alumni
Sheila Malone introduces ex_XX:: post position, an exhibition
celebrating the 20th anniversary of the CADRE Institute that will run
as a parallel exhibition to ZeroOne San Jose/ ISEA 2006. LeE
Montgomery provides a preview of NPR (Neighborhood Public Radio)
presence at ...
Art & Mapping
The North American Cartographic Information Society (NACIS) has released a special issue of their journal, Cartographic Perspectives:
Art and Mapping
Issue 53, Winter 2006
Edited by Denis Wood and and John Krygier
Price: $25
The issue includes articles by kanarinka, Denis Wood, Dalia Varanka and John Krygier, and an extensive catalogue of map artists compiled by Denis Wood.
[-empyre-] Liquid Narrative for June 2006
Christina McPhee:
hi all, I am not sure we got this message out to Rhizome!
Please join our guests this month, Dene Grigar (US), Jim Barrett
(AU/SE), Lucio Santaella (BR), and Sergio Basbaum (BR) , with
moderator Marcus Bastos (BR), for a spirited discussion of "Liquid
Narratives" ----- digital media story telling with a dash, perhaps,
of 'aura' .
Here's the intro from Marcus:
The topic of June at the - empyre - mailing list will be Liquid Narratives. The concept of 'liquid narrative' is interesting in that it allows to think about the unfoldings of contemporary languages beyond tech achievements, by relating user controlled applications with formats such as the essay (as described by Adorno in "Der Essay als Form", The essay as a form) and procedures related to the figure of the narrator (as described by Benjamin in his writings about Nikolai Leskov). Both authors are accute critics of modern culture, but a lot of his ideas can be expanded towards contemporary culture. As a matter of fact, one of the main concerns in Benjamin's essay is a description of how the rise of modernism happens on account of an increasing nprivilege of information over knowledge, which is even more intense nowadays. To understand this proposal, it is important to remember how Benjamin distinguishes between an oral oriented knowledge, that results from 'an experience that goes from person to person' and is sometimes anonymous, from the information and authoritative oriented print culture. One of the aspects of this discussion is how contemporary networked culture rescues this 'person to person' dimension, given the distributed and non-authoritative procedures that technologies such as the GPS, mobile phones and others stimulate.state of the planet infographics
a small collection of beautiful information graphics documenting the current state of the planet.
see also gapminder & 3d data globe.
[seedmagazine.com]
People Like Us
who has done some great audio/visual performances with PLU, has posted
some events they'll be performing in London. The first one's past, but
the Christian Marclay event's upcoming...
http://detritus.net/blog/archives/000228.html
Re: Fwd: DOW 'HELP' FOR BHOPAL A HOAX
The Bhopal disaster is a reality, so i'm sure you don't mean to imply
that that part is a hoax.
There are two hoaxes at work here (perpetrated by the same party),
neither of which would ever qualify as an urban legend, simply because
they are purposefully exposed well before they could become a "legend."
The first hoax was the Yes Men impersonation of a Dow representative in
a BBC interview. The second hoax is the impersonation of Dow in the
form of the retraction letter recognizing the first impersonation, also
by the YM.
All the stats on people effected by the Union Carbide accident are
available, as is the amount of money (not) spent by UC or Dow in clean
up and medical costs.
Sadly, moral outrage seems to be passe, unless it's about taxes and sex.
ryan
On Dec 3, 2004, at 4:53 PM, steve.kudlak@cruzrights.org wrote:
>
> Hasn't this one been making the rounds for years?
> There are Urban Legends sites devoted to tracking tbis
> sort of thing.
>
> Out of curiosity how many victims were in need of
> compensation and say it were $1000.00 per person
> how much would it cost for some entity to quietly
> pay people off the way they do in rich countries
> under threat of lawsuits?
>
>
> Have Fun,
> Sends Steve
>
> P.S. It is occassionally fired up and passed around to
> arouse moral outrage.
>
Fwd: DOW "HELP" FOR BHOPAL A HOAX
> From: Dow Chemical Corporation <retractions@dowethics.com>
> Date: December 3, 2004 9:18:25 AM PST
> To: "grifray-yahoo.com" <grifray@yahoo.com>
> Subject: DOW "HELP" FOR BHOPAL A HOAX
>
> December 3, 2004
> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
>
> "DOW" STATEMENT A HOAX
> "Historic aid package for Bhopal victims" a lie
>
> Contact: Marina Ashanin, Corp. Media Relations, +41-1-728-2347
> Related information: http://dowethics.com/bhopal/
>
> Today on BBC World Television, a fake Dow spokesperson announced fake
> plans to take full responsibility for the very real Bhopal tragedy of
> December 3, 1984. (1) Dow Chemical emphatically denies this
> announcement. Although seemingly humanistic in nature, the fake plans
> were invented by irresponsible hucksters with no regard for the
> truth.
>
> As Dow has repeatedly noted, Dow cannot and will not take
> responsibility for the accident. ("What we cannot and will not do...
> is accept responsibility for the Bhopal accident." - CEO Michael
> Parker, 2002.) The Dow position has not changed, despite public
> pressure.
>
> Dow also notes the great injustice that these pranksters have caused
> by giving Bhopalis false hope for a better future assisted by Dow.
> The survivors of Bhopal have already suffered 20 years of false hope,
> neglect, and abdication of responsibility by all parties. Is that not
> enough?
>
> To be perfectly clear:
>
> * The Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) will NOT be liquidated. (The
> fake "Dow plan" called for the dissolution and sale of Dow's fully
> owned subsidiary, estimated at US$12 billion, to fund compensation
> and remediation in Bhopal.)
>
> * Dow will NOT commit ANY funds to compensate and treat 120,000
> Bhopal residents who require lifelong care. The Bhopal victims have
> ALREADY been compensated; many received about US$500 several years
> ago, which in India can cover a full year of medical care. (2)
>
> * Dow will NOT remediate (clean up) the Bhopal plant site. We do
> understand that UCC abandoned thousands of tons of toxic chemicals on
> the site, and that these still contaminate the groundwater which area
> residents drink. Dow estimates that the Indian government's recent
> proposal to commission a study to consider the possibility of proper
> remediation at some point in the future is fully sufficient.
>
> * Dow does NOT urge the US to extradite former Union Carbide CEO
> Warren Anderson to India, where he has been wanted for 20 years on
> multiple homicide charges. (3)
>
> * Dow will NOT release proprietary information on the leaked gases,
> nor the results of studies commissioned by UCC and never released.
>
> * Dow will NOT fund research on the safety of Dow endocrine
> disruptors (ECDs) considered to have long-term negative effects.
>
> * Dow DOES agree that "One can't assign a dollar value to doing
> what's morally right," as hoaxter Finisterra said. That is why Dow
> acknowledged and resolved many of Union Carbide's liabilities in the
> US immediately after acquiring the company in 2001. (4)
>
> Again, most importantly of all:
>
> * Dow shareholders will see NO losses, because Dow's policy towards
> Bhopal HAS NOT CHANGED. Much as we at Dow may care, as human beings,
> about the victims of the Bhopal catastrophe, we must reiterate that
> Dow's sole and unique responsibility is to its shareholders, and Dow
> CANNOT do anything that goes against its bottom line unless forced to
> by law.
>
> For more information please contact Marina Ashanin, Corporate Media
> Relations, +41-1-728-2347, or reply to this email.
>
>
> NOTES TO EDITORS:
>
> (1) On December 3, 1984, Union Carbide - now part of Dow -
> accidentally killed thousands of residents of Bhopal, India, when its
> pesticide plant leaked a vast cloud of lethal gas over the city.
> Since that date, at least 12,000 more people have died from
> complications, and 120,000 remain chronically ill. The Dow Chemical
> Corporation hereby expresses its condolences to the victims.
>
> (2) Union Carbide was originally forced to pay US$470 million in
> compensation to survivors, which amounts to about US$500 per victim.
> (Note: Dow hereby wishes to retract the 2002 statement of Dow PR Head
> Kathy Hunt as to US$500 being "plenty good for an Indian." The poor
> phrasing of this statement has often come back to haunt us.)
>
> (3) Arrested in India following the accident, Andersen posted
> US$2000 bail and successfully escaped India.
>
> (4) Dow settled Union Carbide's asbestos liabilities in the US, and
> paid US$10 million to one family poisoned by a Dow pesticide. This
> is a mark of Dow's corporate responsibility.
>
> # 30 #
>
>