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]
Fwd: last day to help stop vote certification (in the US)
>
> Have you contacted your Senators?
>
> Today is the last day to ask them to investigate the voting
> irregularites in
> Ohio. It probably won't change the outcome of this election, but if
> we let
> our election process go, that's it for democracy!
>
> ********************************
>
> Also, try this page -- web email for all the senators:
>
> http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
>
> ********************************
>
> as before, here is the list of progressive senators:
>
> Senator Barbara Boxer, (202) 224-3553,
> senator@boxer.senate.gov
>
> Senator Dick Durbin, (202) 224-2152,
> dick@durbin.senate.gov
>
> Senator Russ Feingold, (202) 224-5323,
> russ_feingold@feingold.senate.gov
>
> Senator Tom Harkin, (202) 224-3254,
> tom_harkin@harkin.senate.gov
>
> Senator Jim Jeffords, (202) 224-5141,
> Vermont@jeffords.senate.gov
>
> Senator Edward Kennedy, (202) 224-4543,
> senator@kennedy.senate.gov
>
> Senator Patrick Leahy, (202) 224-4242,
> senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov
>
> *********************************
>
> EVIDENCE OF ELECTION FRAUD
>
> here is one good source with links to many other sites:
> http://www.opednews.com/keefer_111504_readings.htm
>
>
> People for the American Way/Election Protection Coalition
> general
> http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oId502
> lawsuits
> http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid521
> ohio
> http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oId457
>
>
> General Accounting Office to investigate
> http://apnews.myway.com/article/20041124/D86IAUGO0.html
>
>
> blackboxvoting has been leading the fight
> http://www.blackboxvoting.org/
>
>
> i have forwarded these sites before, here again:
> http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1106-30.htm
> http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_articleA75
> http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/110804A.shtml
> http://uscountvotes.org/
> http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/3/2004/834
> http://www.unknowncountry.com/mindframe/opinion/?idr
> http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-5197870.html
>
>
> MORE:
> States using e-voting gave Bush mysterious 5% advantage
> www.newstarget.com/002076.html
>
> Bizarre Florida results, county by county
> http://uscountvotes.org/
>
> Mark Crispin Miller, writing for salon.com
> http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?
> az=view_all&address
> 4x2596312
>
> Volusia anomalies caused the election to be called for Bush
> http://markcrispinmiller.blogspot.com/
> 2003_10_19_markcrispinmiller_archive.h
> tml
>
> *********************************
Re: Frieze on Political Art
> cube, thus it is not really seeing other things that are happening
> beyond an established art arena. Fair enough to some point - he is
> engulfed in his work, but there is a lot more going on, as we all
> know. So, I cannot take this article that seriously - for it is not
> being representative, and looks inwards rather than outwards.
i agree with Marc here... there's lots going on that has little to do
with a gallery wall, but still utilizes processes related to art. And
Sam Durant and Andrea Bowers are easy targets to attack when one's
looking for problematic "political art." But then, not many of their
critics really deal with the conceptual and material aspects of their
work, instead critiquing it as bad direct action - which it isn't. And
i'm not a big fan of their work, but to critique it based on its direct
political efficacy, just because it depicts images of protest, is odd.
Not many people critique Richter paintings in the same fashion.
Nostalgia, conflict and visual archives are certainly well-worn
subjects for traditional art practice, no?
when the author writes:
"Isaiah Berlin held that disagreement is a fundamental part of being
human. Art, in asserting itself politically, is a form of disagreement
with the way the world is. But then again, art is not inherently big
yahoo groups + surveillance
http://dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/110895
Whether it's totally legit or not, it is a reminder to NOT trust the
internet, and companies like Yahoo in particular!]
On Saturday a little after 1PM, a flashmob action was scheduled to
take place at Pentagon City mall. Only thing is, the mall was
crawling with rentacops and FBI(!) when an advance team arrived.
The email group used to set up the event was on Yahoo, and someone
snitched to Yahoo. Yahoo responded by blocking the list but
accepting incoming messages and forwarding them to Pentagon City
security.
This is not the first time Yahoo has done something like this. In
Jan 2002, they blocked the MGJ list of that time, gave the FBI all
subscriber data, and then sold it to spammers as well, probably in
violation of both federal law and their own privacy policy.
Fortunately, our people had inside access as well, thus gaining all
kinds of information about security's plans-in particular, the
compromise of the email list. The action was called off, but a lot
of interesting intel was gathered for our side.
Mall security had a description of the shirt out coordinator was
supposed to wear-and a description of what that kind of garment was
supposed to look like. They had printouts of the emails that never
arrived.
Mall security and cops approached and threatened people they could
identify, never realizing they were themselves under surveillance as
well. This was an errie flashback of NY city in many ways.
There was suspicion that the Enemy had an agent in our meetings to
be able to go after the Flashmob so easily, but I suspect electronic
surveillance of ASFC(where DAWN meets) instead. It is far easier and
produces much of the same info.
It is very interesting that people in flak jackets who were NOT mall
security and NOT Arlington cops were there. It is believed they were
FBI, and their interest in such a mild action is highly unusual and
suspicious.
In addition, security was talking about "prosecuting" people-but for
what? Flashmobs, where people suddenly start chanting of having loud
conversations for 2-5 minutes, violate no laws.
Anyway, Pentagon City has made themselves a target for more than
flashmobs by their actions, and surely will be visited again in ways
they will have far less control over. They will with they had let
teh flashmob take place when this ends.
NewGenics
Science Commons is a new project of Creative Commons and will launch on
January 1, 2005. The mission of Science Commons is to encourage
scientific innovation by making it easier for scientists, universities,
and industries to use literature, data, and other scientific
intellectual property and to share their knowledge with others. Science
Commons works within current copyright and patent law to promote legal
and technical mechanisms that remove barriers to sharing.
http://science.creativecommons.org/
An interview with the new SC Ex Director, John Wilbanks is also on Open
Access Now.
http://www.biomedcentral.com/openaccess/
archive/?%20pagethatures&issue#
another response to the Fusco essay
Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2004 17:08:14 +0100 (CET)
From: Brian HOLMES
Subject: <nettime> A Reply to Coco Fusco
As a critic it's important to read your peers, and try to assess the
pertinence of your own work in the mirror of theirs. So I was curious to
read Coco Fusco's recent article on mapping
[www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/ questioning_the_frame].
However, I must say that her continuous assertions of cultural authority
leave me feeling highly ambivalent. On the one hand, the threads of
historical memory she brings up are extremely welcome. On the other, her
unwillingness to engage with current conditions and projects tends to
reduce the past to a complaint: Why isn't it the present anymore?
It's true that the raw fact of being older than the majority of the
people in a given crowd can make you feel uncomfortably lucid. When I
went to a conference on so-called "locative" or GPS-based media at the
RIXC center in Latvia, I found most of the projects quite naive,
developing a few stylistic traits of situationist psychogeography in the
absence of any geopolitical critique of power relations, or any
philosophical critique of instrumental rationality. In effect, a
Cartesian worldview has been built into the computerized technology of
graphic information systems, which are undergirded by megaprojects of
military origin, or what I call "imperial infrastructure." But rather
than just giving a disciplinary lecture with all the answers stated in
general terms, I tried to show how changing conditions had made the
once-subversive traditions of psychogeography quite superficial, to the
point where the aesthetic forms the artists were using seemed to render
the very infrastructure of their projects invisible. And when I recently
published that paper out of context in Springerin, I took the time to
name all the artists and projects in question, so as to establish the
precise referents of the critique [www.springerin.at/dyn/heft.php?pos=1&
lang=en]. I wish Coco Fusco would make that kind of minimal effort, as
it would bring her sharp observations into contact with actual projects,
and open up a space of possible transformation.
More to the point: When I began my work on mapping, about four years ago
now, as a direct result of involvement in demonstrations against the
policies of the WTO and IMF, I too felt that the most important
reference was the history of the Third World movements of national
liberation, in their relations to the Western civil rights and new left
movements of the 60s and 70s. In an early text that was finally
published in the book Moneynations, I tried to show how the very concept
of the Third World, and then above all, the reality of the Movement of
Non-Aligned Nations, acted to open up new imaginary and real spaces
within the dominant bi-polar map of the Cold War
[http://2002.memefest.org/en/defaultnews.cfm?newsmem]. I asked the
question whether the emergence of the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre
could be compared to the Bandung Conference in 1955. Obviously, the
answer was that it could not: both because the current antisystemic
movements do not (yet) have the strength that Bandung represented, and
because the operative modes of opposition may well have changed
fundamentally since 1955.
The global importance of the Third World movements lay in the new kinds
of international solidarity that they helped provoke. But something
important remains unstated in Fusco's references to these movements, and
this is the fact that the major links that tied them to the First World
do not exist anymore (nor, indeed, do the movements themselves, for we
are talking about specifically national movements in the period of
decolonization). One of these links was an aspiration to create a
non-Stalinist form of communism, according to the examples given by the
successful Cuban and Vietnamese guerrilla insurgencies, and also by
Yugoslav self-management (one must remember that the non-aligned
movement came officially into existence in Belgrade). Another powerful
link was the notion of cultural authenticity, or inherent difference
from the Western norm, as a liberating foundation upon which newly
independent nations could be built. This Third World concept served as a
basis for the struggles toward a multicultural society in the First
World. Today, however, the egalitarian aspiration to a self-managed
communism has no objective touchstone in reality, leaving those who feel
its lack in a deep state of ideological disarray. At the same time, the
notion of cultural authenticity has been largely usurped by nationalist
or fundamentalist projects which, although they have fortunately not
eradicated all work towards equal rights in a multicultural society,
have nonetheless made it very difficult to raise the banner of cultural
or ethnic difference as a rallying-point for international solidarity.
Instead of relying on the old internationalist slogans (Third Worldist
or proletarian), the transnational movements of dissent that gathered
strength throughout the 1990s tried to use the communicative power of
the discourses of human rights that had gained currency in the 80s,
largely through the resistance of people in the former Eastern bloc to
totalitarianism, and in Latin America to dictatorship. It was
subsequently necessary, in the late 90s, for the Western participants in
these transnational movements to take the further step of putting their
own bodies on the line, of taking direct action against the
international economic institutions, in order to go beyond the abstract
character of the human rights discourse. This was a way of responding,
in the overdeveloped countries, to the sacrifices of the many "IMF
riots" that had been held, often at great cost of life, in what was now
being called the Global South. Anyone who believes this step was taken
by middle-class white kids acting on internet fantasies, in the absence
of direct input from social movements around the world, quite obviously
didn't go to any of the demonstrations and paid no attention to the
planning process or the reports.
The point, however, is not to suggest that a brief flare-up of worldwide
protest has brought about any substantial change. It is rather to recall
what a difficult and long-term effort is really needed, both to grasp
the way that transnational state capitalism now functions, and to
articulate large-scale resistance. When Josh On [www.theyrule.net] or
Bureau d'Etudes [http://utangente.free.fr/index2.html] make their
complex charts of contemporary power relations, one can be assured that
the cold and abstract character of the results is very painful to them.
I can testify, particularly in the second case, that they are acutely
aware of what is missing from such documents: namely, some affective
indication of resistance from below, who does it, how they work and why.
What has been achieved in such cartography projects, however, is a
contribution to the very large-scale effort to rebuild a critical grasp
of the oppressive forces that create the dominant map of the world. This
kind of power-mapping is a necessary prelude to any effective resistance
or counter-proposition. The fact that the difference between such
efforts and the current military maps used by the Pentagon does not
appear clearly on American TV is hardly something you can blame the
artists for! There is a difference between general culture critique and
constructive critique directed toward people carrying out specific
projects.
Somewhat like Coco Fusco, I often wonder why contemporary artists appear
so broadly unable to infuse the dominant map with representations of -
or even better, direct links to - the many and diverse dissenting groups
and alternative philosophies that are now emerging in the world, or that
have remained active over decades. Unlike Coco Fusco, however, I don't
think it's useful or necessary to berate artists today for not having
been born earlier. The great philosophical frameworks of national
liberation and egalitarian self-management that were able to articulate
far-flung resistance movements in the past are inoperative in our time.
The urgency is for real individuals of all generations, on all
continents, to put their heads and hearts together and create new
articulations. The specific job of writers and organizers is then to
give those articulations conceptual clarity and popular currency, so
that they can effectively challenge the absurd world-views presented on
American TV.
As to artists, for whom the naked power structures of the contemporary
world must now be quite visible, I encourage them to delve more deeply
into the diverse efforts that are being made to resist the imposition of
a homogeneous control structure on the entire world. This requires
looking outside the boundaries of class, ethnicity and nationality, as
certain artists and intellectuals of previous generations effectively
did. To live up to the great examples of the past then means imagining
something quite different for the future. Need it be said that certain
kinds of imagination can serve as the first steps towards a
transformation of reality?