Bruce Sterling's Blog, page 208
February 5, 2014
Call for Papers: Defining the Spatiality of Co-Creation, Collaboration and Peer Production in the Digital Age
*I’d never write a paper like this myself, but maybe you would. If you’ve got a passport that allows you into Britain without their customary fierce harassment, it’s probably worth it for the sake of a day-trip to Furtherfield.
CALL FOR PAPERS: RGS-IBG INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE, LONDON, AUGUST 26-29 2014
Session title: Defining the Spatiality of Co-Creation, Collaboration and Peer Production in the Digital Age.
Session conveners: Penny Travlou (University of Edinburgh), Marc Garrett (Furtherfield) and Ruth Catlow (Furtherfield/Writtle College of Design)
Discussant: Michel Bauwens, Peer-to-Peer Foundation
Sponsored by the Social and Cultural Geography Research Group
This session looks at novel models of creativity in reference to collaborative practices, co-creation and peer production focusing on their spatiality within a transglobal and digitally-fused environment. Within this context, creativity is understood as a synergy of spaces, practices and artifacts, interlinked in such a manner that their singularity(-ies) form an assemblage. We can consider creativity, and subsequent knowledge formation, as forms of social interaction rather than the outcomes of social activities. Whilst we commonly perceive creativity as the product of the individual artist, or creative ensemble, from this perspective creativity can also be considered an emergent phenomenon of communities, driving change and facilitating individual or ensemble creativity. Creativity can be a performative activity released when engaged through and by a community. Creativity, thus, can be also regarded as an emergent property of relations, of communities. As James Leach (2004), the British anthropologist, suggests creativity can be proposed as a collective becoming where the creation of new things, and the ritualized forms of exchange enacted around them, function to “create” individuals and bind them in social groups, thus “creating” the community they inhabit and generate new places in the landscape.
Following this theoretical framework, we invite papers that investigate the spatiality of novel forms of creativity presenting examples of creative landscapes. Papers can focus and reflect on one of the following issues:
· Case studies on spaces of collaborative and co-creative practices such as hackerspaces, fablabs, co-design studios, co-working offices, online forums and collaborative platforms, social innovation hubs, DIY biohacking labs etc. We will particularly welcome papers that reflect on spaces of co-authorship and co-production where authority and voice of the persons involved may shift towards horizontal structures of power and control.
· The methodological framework(s) that best accommodate(s) these insights on the spatialities of creativity as an emergent property of assemblages (e.g. collaborative & peer-to-peer ethnography, co-design and prototyping, research by design, digital research methods, multi-sited fieldwork).
· Insights and reflections on the current theoretical approaches on co-creation and peer production in the digital (network) age: collaboration, Do-It-With-Others (DIWO), hacktivism, open source and free software movement, heterarchy, peer-to-peer culture and the commons. Special focus will be on the linkage of the above concepts to current theoretical debates within cultural geography.
The session will also include a fieldtrip to Furtherfield Gallery and Furtherfield Commons in Finsbury Park. Furtherfield is a “dedicated space for media art”, providing a platform for “creating, viewing, discussing and learning about experimental practices in art, technology and social change” (www.Furtherfield.org). Unlike commercial private galleries, however, Furtherfield functions as a non-profit artist-run space, aiming to “initiate and provide infrastructure for commissions, events, exhibitions, internships, networking, participatory projects, peer exchange, publishing, research, residencies and workshops” (www.Furtherfield.org). The scope of the field visit is to look at a ‘creative’ space that champions co-creative and peer production practices where digital artists, audience and local communities work together through cultural practices and creative processes exploring ways to establish contemporary commons.
Please send abstracts of no more than 250 words by 10th February to p.travlou@ed.ac.uk.
Acceptance of the papers will be confirmed by email and they will be included in the conference program me.
Please feel free to contact us with any queries you might have.
Annual International Conference 2014:
http://www.rgs.org/WhatsOn/Conference...
Penny Travlou
Lecturer in Cultural Geography & Theory
Edinburgh School of Architecture & Landscape Architecture
University of Edinburgh
Lauriston Place
EH9 3DF
www.esala.ac.uk
Ryuichi Sakamoto: ART-ENVIRONMENT-LIFE
*”Whatever happens to musicians will eventually happen to everybody.” That probably includes building improbable tech-art installations. Hey, I know I would.
*I’m digging the idea of Ryuichi Sakamoto projecting stuff onto fog. He’s such a cool guy, Ryuichi. I bet artists everywhere could survive on fog and projections if some kind soul would supply some protein and a roof.
Ryuichi Sakamoto
ART-ENVIRONMENT-LIFE
November 1, 2013–March 2, 2014
Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media (YCAM)
7-7 Nakazono-cho, Yamaguchi
7530075 Japan
Hours: Wednesday–Monday 10am–7pm
Admission free
The exhibition ART-ENVIRONMENT-LIFE by musician Ryuichi Sakamoto is being held at the Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media (YCAM), Japan. The exhibition introduces three installations, LIFE – fluid, invisible, inaudible… Ver.2, Forest Symphony, and water state 1, realized in collaboration between Sakamoto, artist Shiro Takatani, and the YCAM InterLab team.
In LIFE – fluid, invisible, inaudible… Ver.2, sounds coupled with visual projections onto fog open up the visitor’s perception of the environment. For this installation, Sakamoto de-/recomposed the opera LIFE (1999), in which he summarized the 20th century as an age of conflict and disruption, and proposed visions of coexistence for the 21st century.
Suspended from the venue’s ceiling are nine water tanks filled with artificial fog, which serves as a screen for successive projections of visuals used in the opera. The piece further incorporates sounds raining down on the audience in concert with the ever-changing imagery, in complex interactions of repeated synchronization and variance.
For Forest Symphony, the YCAM InterLab team developed a sensor device for measuring the bioelectric potential of trees, and collecting the measured data on a server via network. The device is installed on trees at different locations around the globe to measure their respective bioelectric data, which Sakamoto used to creates sounds that envelop the venue along with visuals made under the direction of Shiro Takatani, visualising the changing biopotential and information of the respective environments the device is installed in. These elements are spatially integrated into a “forest-like environment” in the form of a sound installation that continuously transforms in response to seasonal and climatic changes.
In water state 1, the newest piece, new spatial environments are created from the complex state variations of water. Ryuichi Sakamoto has been expressing his fascination with water for a long time, but at the same time also emphasizes the difficulty he has always felt when choosing water as a motif for his work. The YCAM InterLab team eventually developed a device that can be used to let large amounts of water rain down in droplets, which allowed Sakamoto to work with actual water rather than depicting its different appearances in an indirect manner. The device is used in this work to cause complex transformations of droplets and water surfaces, and at once translate these into sounds. The harmonic and contrasting aspects of the work’s visual and acoustic elements call forth a wealth of memories in the viewer’s mind.
Each of these works reflects Sakamoto’s particular awareness of issues related to “ART,” “ENVIRONMENT,” and “LIFE,” and evokes chains of thoughts from the past into the future while causing subtle fluctuations of the viewer’s inner sensitivity.
Ryuichi Sakamoto Born in 1952, currently lives in New York. He made his debut in 1978 with the album Thousand Knives. Sakamoto’s diverse résumé include his pioneering electronic works, classical scores including an opera, and being a founding member of electronic music as a part of Yellow Magic Orchestra. His film soundtracks have won many prestigious awards such as an Academy Award for the Last Emperor (1987), two Golden Globes, a Grammy and a British Academy Award in addition to the several Japanese awards for his most famous film score, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence. Since 3/11 in Japan, Sakamoto has been a strong voice for support and help for the victims of the earthquake and the anthropogenic nuclear meltdown in Fukushima. In response, Sakamoto has launched the following three charity organizations: kizunaworld, LIFE311 and School Music Revival.
Station Rose and their digital twenty-five years
*The Vienna duo here are indestructible. They’re like a flourishing rosebush growing out of a cement sidewalk crack. Every wannabe tech-artist should study their efforts and see how they just plain invented themselves and their milieu.
# a lot of material is online about our “Digital Quarter Century” projects in 2013,
Ars Electronica : http://www.flickr.com/photos/stationrose/sets/72157635582410332/
Museumsquartier Vienna:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stationrose/sets/72157638385576306/
Kunsthalle Wien (performance) : http://www.flickr.com/photos/stationrose/sets/72157636555563084/
# plus our book “20 Digital Years plus” is online at issuu now.
http://issuu.com/stationrose/docs/str_20_digitalyears_plus-book
# wanna follow us on twitter ? https://twitter.com/station_rose
–
…………………………………………………………
STATION ROSE ______ Digital Quarter Century (1988-2013)
Elisa Rose (visual art, concept) & Gary Danner (sound, concept)
Station Rose received the City of Linz Lifetime Award 2012
for their artistic work.
………………………………………………………….
The arms merchants of the Cloud
*That’s not a particularly felicitous turn-of-phrase, “arms merchants.” Although, once there is a “Cloud,” you can bet that people will make war with it.
*It’s always good to name and number the actual human beings and institutions involved with a grandiose, abstract tech phenomenon such as a “Cloud.” That way, later, when the abstraction turns out to be whatever it is in real life, you don’t feel like any kind of naive utopian. On the contrary; you commonly feel kind of sorry for those involved, and you want to write them a consoling note, pointing out that electricity and aviation and railroads and nuclear power were all just like that too, only worse.
http://venturebeat.com/2013/08/23/the-top-10-arms-merchants-of-the-cloud/
“A host of companies have been scrambling for a leadership position in one of the hottest areas of the economy: providing the technology needed by businesses to embrace the cloud.
“You could call them the cloud’s arms merchants.
“They’re the ones providing the DNA upon which businesses are building all of their apps and infrastructure and which enables it all to all talk together.
“They include big, recognized names like IBM and Microsoft but also smaller, emerging companies like MuleSoft, Rightscale, and New Relic. All of them are helping businesses transition to the new era in which applications have to not only run superquickly and cost-efficiently but also run on a mixture of environments — whether on a business’s own servers or over the public cloud.
“With all of the activity happening in this sector called the cloud, VentureBeat has decided to create a “Cloud Technology Index.” The index will track the most compelling companies helping businesses adapt to the cloud.
“We designed this curated index to help chief information officers, marketing officers, and other buyers make sense of the hundreds of vendors in this varied landscape. We kick it off today by pointing to an initial list of top cloud technology companies [see the following pages] based on interviews we’ve conducted with experts in the field….” (((Listicle commences, forcing you to click repeatedly and whip up some page counts.)))
February 4, 2014
V. Vale’s RE/Search Newsletter #123
*Lotta Burroughs. But, well, a hundred years is a long time.
***************************************************************************
Welcome To V. Vale’s RE/Search Newsletter #123, February 2014
TO RECEIVE LAST-MINUTE LOCAL S.F. BAY AREA NEWS OF
RE/SEARCH-recommended EVENTS, reply to this newsletter & in subject
line write “local subscribe”
SPONSORSHIP NEEDED! Support independent publishing. Help us keep this
newsletter going. For $66 you will receive a website listing, plus
space for a small message, for 6 months.
SPECIAL REQUEST: At your local library, please ask the librarian to
order all of the RE/SEARCH books!
RE/SEARCH PODCAST: RE/Search Conversations, a free podcast.
Subscribe to the RSS feed here: http://researchpubs.libsyn.com/rss
Recent episodes include Rudy Rucker and Penny Rimbaud:
http://www.researchpubs.com/category/...
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. MESSAGE FROM EDITOR: BURROUGHS CENTENNIAL!
1A. NEW FROM RE/SEARCH: Ed Hardy PocketBook of interviews
2. The Counter Culture Hour: Sat Feb 8, 6pm
3. Forthcoming events
4. OUR PAST LIFE
5. Recommended Links – send us some!
6. QUOTES
7. Letters from Readers
8. Sponsors (Check ‘em out! – they make this possible!)
1. Message from your editor, V. Vale: 2014 is the WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS
CENTENNIAL!
On Feb 5, 1914, William Seward Burroughs was born – an event possibly
more significant than the launching of World War I later that year (on,
by the way, Marcel Duchamp’s birthday, July 28).
What survives bodily death? Your WORDS. Words are a virus from Outer
Space (said WSB) but whatever else they might truly “be,” words are the
time – proven way to influence humans as long as 5000 years after one’s
body has expired. For example, from 3000 B.C. Egyptian stelae we can
read words proclaiming bits of wisdom such as “Your only Free Will Is
Your Power to Say NO.” We may not know which Egyptian scribe penned
this phrase, but we can recognize its seemingly “eternal” wisdom. By
the way, Burroughs studied both Egyptology and the Mayan codices as
part of his research into the history of the Control Process: how
humans have been controlled from the beginning of time and all over the
planet.
Burroughs has left behind probably more than a million words scattered
throughout novels, non-fiction books, magazines, newspapers, zines,
handbills, posters, etc. He also left behind visual imagery incarnated
in paintings, photographs, collages, notebooks and other formats.
Additionally, he left behind audio recordings in media such as vinyl
recordings, CDs, cassettes and reel-to-reel tapes containing his cut-up
sound experiments. Best of all, he left behind lots of video and film
footage in both experimental and documentary formats including filmed
theatre productions, readings and interviews.
One of Burroughs’ least-mentioned but most inspiring “books” was edited
by Sylvere Lotringer and published by M.I.T. Press: BURROUGHS LIVE. The
best way to read this book is with a clear plastic ruler and red pen.
Go through the book, skip most of the prefatory and interrogatory
questions and only read THE BURROUGHS WORDS. Underline the “best”
phrases which resonate with you, personally. Otherwise, plowing through
this book can quickly produce “reader fatigue” on account of the small
type size – additionally, the font itself seems intrinsically
reminiscent of too many boring 20th-century textbooks one was forced to
read as part of one’s so-called “college education.”
With the aid of a Verilux Smartlight desk lamp, we finally made it
through most of this 845-page volume (and when a book is this large,
the term “volume” transforms into a pun). It seems the time has come to
share with you some of El Hombre Invisible’s own WORDS, extracted from
this formerly unreadable tome:
* “The first problem is that of overpopulation.”
* “All is illusion…”
* “It’s all in Korzybski. SCIENCE AND SANITY is one book I insisted
that everybody in my class read. It saves so much time. This entire
either-or thing just doesn’t correspond to what we know about the
physical universe…There’s no such thing as “good or bad” or
“beautiful or ugly” floating around in a vacuum…Otherwise you
just get tied up in these verbal arguments that really mean
nothing. For example, take a word like “Communism or Fascism” –
well, they don’t mean one goddamn Thing. You have as many
definitions as you have people who use them, so why use them at
all? The educational system today has just been permeated with its
either-or thinking.”
* “With Samuel Beckett I like the early novels best, like WATT and
MALONE DIES.”
* “What’s required is a cultural revolution.”
* “[On Warhol]: I don’t think that there is any person there. It’s a
very alien thing completely and totally unemotional. He’s really a
science-fiction character.”
* “Inflation is out of control.”
* “The rock business is a pale shadow of what the kids’ lives are
usually about…the kids are a lot more sensational than the stars
themselves.” [Larry Clark knew this!]
* “I.Q. tests measure nothing but the ability to do I.Q. tests.”
* “This has been happening for many, many years—for thousands of
years – that your privacy is invaded.”
* “The control machine is simply the machinery—police, education, etc
– used by a group in power to keep itself in power and extend its
power.”
* “The whole concept of revolution has undergone a basic change with
the introduction of heavy weapons… with heavy weapons five
percent can keep down 95 percent by just sheer force, if they have
to.”
* “This is a game universe. Basically there’s only one game and that
game is war.”
Maybe these are enough quotations; surely the astute reader already
“got it” a hundred words ago. As an experiment, your editor randomly
opened this book and typed out the first sentences that caught his eye
in a period of about twenty minutes – and that is what you just read.
If you, the esteemed reader, think these quotations are worthy of
further consideration, then we highly recommend you obtain your own
copy of this book and pick out your own favorite quotations!
Regarding the reading of William S. Burroughs’ entire oeuvre, here’s a
hint: from a personal standpoint, we prefer the non-fiction to the
fiction (which, by the way, itself is loaded with quotations and
insights from the non-fictive universe). We prefer the philosophy to
the poetic/surrealist imagery. Why? Because to survive our
corporation-dominated future, we need all the WSB noir insights,
guidelines, aphorisms and “advice” we can memorize. And, sad to say,
William S. Burroughs is one of the very few writers we can trust with
our life.
If you have but one life to live, you can trust Burroughs, J.G. Ballard
and “Surrealism” to give you the guidance you need. On everybody else:
the RE/SEARCH jury is still out. Our job, and our goal, yet remains:
“to wise up the marks!” It isn’t getting any easier…So we advise
scattering your household with books on Burroughs, Ballard, and
Surrealism and opening them up every day. You will randomly discover
inspirations for enough “art projects” for the rest of your life. Maybe
you can one day reach that magical, mythical zone where truly there is
“no separation between art and life.” – All for now, your editor, V.
Vale
1A. BRAND NEW RE/SEARCH POCKETBOOK: Ed Hardy (interviews)
Brand new RE/Search pocketbook: Ed Hardy. Please ask for it in
stores and ESPECIALLY, YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY! Best of all, [9]order copies
direct from us (for obvious reasons)! See “letters” at end of this
newsletter for a “review” by “Andrew”…
http://www.researchpubs.com/shop/ed-h...
ALSO: LIMITED EDITION of SURREALISM SHOW CATALOG (100 made; only 5
left) only available direct from RE/Search! 16 large color pages with
art and bios on Winston Smith, Penelope Rosemont, Marian Wallace and
others: http://www.researchpubs.com/shop/surr...
NOTE: Our Pranks 2 book is available in epub format:
http://www.researchpubs.com/shop/pran...
2. Counter Culture Hour – Sat Feb 8, 2014
The Counter Culture Hour (aka RE/SEARCH TV) is also simulcast ON-LINE
as well as on cable access San Francisco Channel 29 – 6pm Pacific Time,
Sat Feb 8, 2014. See this link at broadcast time:
http://www.bavc.org/public-access-tv/...
You need a fairly decent internet connection and computer to “get it.”
USA west coast: 6:00 PM Saturday, Feb 8, 2014
USA east coast: 9:00 PM Sunday, Feb 9, 2014
Tokyo: 10:00 AM Sunday, Feb 9, 2014
If you cannot get this online email us at info@researchpubs.com
See RE/Search channel on youtube: “researchpubs”
V. Vale interviewing Rudy Rucker is now on Vimeo:
3. FORTHCOMING EVENTS (San Francisco unless Otherwise Noted)
() FREE – ongoing: Mal Sharpe’s Big Money in Jazz band still plays
every Saturday afternoon on Grant Street: at the Savoy Tivoli last
Saturday of month, at the Tupelo the rest of the Saturdays. ALSO Dinner
Jazz at Fior D’Italia, Mason near Chestnut, Wednesdays 6-9PM.
() FREE Emerald Tablet presents AND for Emerald Tablet’s schedule of
events: http://emtab.org/
() FREE thru March 8. www.fraenkelgallery.com presents PETER HUJAR
Photos. 49 Geary St, 4th floor.
() $ Sat Feb 1, 9pm. Blowdryers (w/Jennifer Blowdryer) at Benders,
18th/So. Van Ness. 21 & over.
() FREE **LOS ANGELES** Thur-Sun, Jan 30–Feb 2, 2014 L.A. Art Book
Fair! RE/Search will have a table – visit us! Geffen Contemporary at LA
MOCA, Japantown, L.A. http://laartbookfair.net/about
() FREE Feb 2 All day (parking meters go til 11pm – beware): SF
EXPLORATORIUM, Embarcadero/Green St.
() FREE? Tue Feb 4, City Lights/SFAI host a William Burroughs Birthday
Party Celebration at the S.F.A.I. Auditorium. V. Vale will conduct a
live interview with Burroughs biographer Barry Miles from London, U.K.
() FREE? Wed Feb 5, 7pm The Beat Museum hosts a William Burroughs
Birthday Party Celebration. V. Vale will give a Burroughs presentation
including some of his rare Burroughs photographs projected, etc.
() $ Feb 6-20. Support SF Indiefest: www.sfindie.com
() FREE Fri Feb 7, 4:30-6:30pm KAREN FINLEY (featured in our PRANKS
book) talks at SFAI Auditorium, 800 Chestnut St/Jones, SF.
() $ **INDIANA** Feb 5, Burroughs Centennial Celebration! Indiana
University, Bloomington, IN
http://indianapublicmedia.org/arts/as...
() FREE (?) Sat Feb 15, 11-5pm Ex Postal Facto MAIL ART Expo by Jennie
Hinchcliff RE/SEARCH will have a table at this gala! SF Elks Lodge #3,
Kensington Park Hotel 3rd flr, 450 Post/Powell-Mason, SF. Support Mail
Art! redletterdayzine@gmail.com
() FREE **OAKLAND** Feb 16, 2pm. V. Vale interviewed by George Chen.
Econo Jam Records, 2519 Telegraph Ave/25th St, Oakland CA
() $ Fri Feb 23: Cutting Ball Theater presents UBU ROI: Alfred Jarry’s
1896 parody of Shakespeare’s MacBeth in a new translation by Rob
Melrose. www.cuttingball.com
() $ http://www.thrillpeddlers.com – our favorite local Grand
Guignol Theatre Company needs Your Support!
() $ or FREE: **LONDON, U.K.** Hannah Hoch show at Whitechapel Gallery,
London. ALSO: William S. Burroughs Photography Show at Photographers
Gallery, London. www.thephotographersgallery.org.uk
() $ **OAKLAND** March 23-25, Fox Theatre in Oakland presents KRAFTWERK
with 3-D projections. www.ticketmaster.com
4. What We’ve Experienced (or Wanted to Experience)
() $ Tue Jan 28, 8:30pm Hidé Ultra Bidé 1978 Japan Punk Rock Trio at
Knockout, 3223 Mission/Valencia – Be There Or… RARE JAPAN PUNK ROCK:
the Real Deal! http://www.theknockoutsf.com
() Highly recommend Charles Webb’s new film DEMON CUT. Google to find
it! It was filmed at the storied Market Street Cinema in S.F. (still
there!), the place where on May 16, 1981 V. Vale arranged for the
William Burroughs, John Giorno and Laurie Anderson “Red Night” tour
appearance.
5. Recommended links now on our website
Visit the RE/Search Publications website to view our recommended
links for February 2014.
http://www.researchpubs.com/2014/02/r...
Send your favorite link!
6. QUOTES
“AS: Yeah, absolutely. A lot of it comes from the kind of education
that you got through industrial culture, that there were books [such
as] Re/Search. This is pre-internet, you used to devour the Re/Search
volumes – the Ballard one and Industrial Culture and Pranks and
Throbbing Gristle – because there wasn’t that information readily at
hand. I first heard about Grant by looking at the book references in
the Industrial Culture book, on their reading lists there’d be these
Kenneth Grant books, so it’s honouring that autodidactic process of how
I learnt about countercultural things.
And going back further than Psychic TV, Joy Division were doing that
sort of thing, I first heard about The Atrocity Exhibition because I’d
bought Closer and it had [a track named after] the title on it. Then my
brother was popping into town and said “Do you want to get a book?” and
I said “Yeah, just get us something”, and he came back with The
Atrocity Exhibition and I knew nothing about it, he knew nothing about
it, and it turned out to be the most meaningful book that I’ve ever
read really. So I think you honour that process and hope it propagates
to your audience that that’s a really enjoyable process of learning.” –
http://thequietus.com/articles/14212-...
-heroes
7. LETTERS FROM READERS
() “Hi… I began reading the new RE/SEARCH “Ed Hardy” pocketbook
this morning –it’s very, very good! There is so much more to this than
a book about a tattoo artist –the conversation is about important
topics that concern everybody (or should do).
For example, I was trying to encourage my friend’s girlfriend (who you
met yesterday) to follow her inspiration and try out a tattoo
apprenticeship (and whatever else she’s excited about), rather than get
distracted looking for some “career” that may be a semi-reliable source
of money (a mistake I made in my early 20s!). The Ed Hardy pocketbook
presents this advice much more eloquently and succinctly than I could,
and with the encouraging example of his life.
It’s a little book of wisdom that seems (to me at this moment, at
least) to contain inspiring advice for all situations. It seems to
cover how to navigate life, how to handle authority, how to survive as
an artist, and much more. Somehow all of this is contained in a
casual-seeming conversation about whatever happens to interest two
people. Amazing!
The pocketbook format is perfect for these conversations. They
definitely benefit from being isolated and short, demanding that the
reader focus and take each page seriously. The interviews deserve their
own time and space to actually consider what is being said, and the
pocketbook format demands this kind of attention. Most small books are
designed to be taken lightly, but the RE/Search pocketbooks work with
the looming importance of the small format. They’re weaponised
dispensers of inspiration for concealed carry.
I’m giving this copy to a friend later today, who I think it is perfect
for. When I see you briefly on Wednesday I’ll buy 3 more copies (for
myself and as perfect gifts for other friends I have in mind).
Please keep performing this strange, remarkable magic! Best, Andrew”
() Save the 3 Doggie Diner Heads which need restoration (San
Francisco)! John Law’s (featured in our PRANKS 2 book) kickstarter
campaign:
http://www.dogster.com/the-scoop/dogg...
ickstarter-john-law From John Law via kickstarter:
“We have a team of very talented and skilled craftsmen, mechanics, and
artists ready to spring into action as soon as we get this project
funded. Our hope is to have the Dogs ready to roll by April 1st, so
that they can debut their make-over at the St. Stupid’s Parade in San
Francisco. Although this means finishing the restoration in just two
months, we’re confident that we have the right team in place to
accomplish this!
” Additionally, because there is just a core team of people on this
project, if this Kickstarter is substantially more successful than we
anticipate, we will need to hire extra hands to help us get your backer
rewards to you on time. We are dedicated to doing whatever it takes to
ensure that you know how much we appreciate your support!”
() YES MEN (featured in our PRANKS 2 book) need our help in their quest
to improve the world for everyone with their amazing and hillarous
performance antics and lectures. See them in action in THE YES MEN film
–http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Yes_...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0379593/?...
To contribute:
http://asb.yeslab.org/civicrm/contrib...
Explore their website yeslab.org to read about the action
switchboard and how you can use humor in activism for better results.
() [LETTER FROM LONDON] “Hi Vale, Thanks for the information about the
Hannah Hoch show. It is £9.95 at the White Chapel Gallery and i’m going
to try to go see it (perhaps next weekend). The White Chapel Gallery is
near Aldgate East tube station (near Freedom Books –the bookstore which
was firebombed last year). I have been to the Gallery Bookshop a few
times and only went into that Gallery one time for a free exhibit.
“I went to see the Burroughs, Lynch and Warhol exhibit at the
Photographer’s Gallery. I initially went on the day after the show
opened on a weekend and it was way too crowded so i left without
entering the exhibit. i went back in the middle of the week last week
and saw the exhibit. I like Burroughs’s photographs but I was not too
keen on the ones by Lynch or Warhol. I prefer collage work.
“I’m invigilating at the Longplayer … once or twice a month instead of
once each weekend so that I can have more time to go to see exhibits. I
also have my day job which takes up quite a bit of my time.
“I am planning to read the letter from Stewart Brand today.
http://longplayer.org/what/whatelse/l...
“By the way, you may like the movie Only Lovers Left Alive (Jim
Jarmusch) and Zero Theorum (Terry Gilliam). Are these movies out in SF
yet? –V”
() “As someone who has worked with many small businesses in the areas
of marketing, it was somewhat of a relief to see the RE/Search
newsletter step out of the 1990s and move towards the 21st century
today. Sadly, having moved from the Bay Area, all the local news makes
me a tad wistful but at the same time it’s nice to keep remote tabs on
old haunts and happenings.
“In the summer of 1989, attending the Clarion Writers Workshop in
Michigan, I only took three books along with me for the six week
experience, and two were from RE/Search.
“Blessings for 2014, Rae”
() “Mr. V and co.: It looks fab. All the best for a more golden than
tin year to come… from a longtime humble fan, ML Heath –”Writers and
documentary filmmakers should always remember that Dumb Old Pop Music
must never be taken seriously, while also remembering that nothing in
the world is more important.”–Bob Stanley, GUARDIAN London UK, May ’08
() “Here’s my latest link: http://danielleneu.com/ ” –Danielle Neu
() “Love the new look! Links to publications make browsing
oh-so-enticing. Well done!” –Dolores D.
() “The new design of the newsletter came out great. Read it on my
iPhone without a glitch.”–Kelly Dessaint
() “Hi V. Vale, I like the new look. It’s much easier on my old-man
eyes to read now. Thanks and keep up the great work! Kevin K.”
() “V., While I was fond of the “bare bones” look of the previous
newsletters –such a quiet minimalism –I am not at all disappointed with
the new look. How could I be? We now get visual reminders of the
wonderful RE/Search publications along the left margin!
“Here’s the deal. The RE/Search newsletter comes filled with such
interesting and useful information you could do anything you wanted
with its look and feel and it would still be worth getting. Keep up the
amazing work, Richard H.”
() “Thanks, Vale for continuing these fantastic newsletters. I’ve been
a longtime ‘subscriber’. I have to say I did like the old stripped down
simplicity of the text only…but actually like them both. Nice seeing
the books there on the side (ordering temptations…). Keep up the
excellent work! best, Vincent W.”
()”Dear Vale, I think the new format for your newsletter is good –My
reading experience isn’t that different because I never minded the more
cluttered look of the old newsletter (maybe I even liked it), but I can
see how it helps RE/Search to include book covers on the margin. That
part looks great. Speaking of information on the margins, the lizard
part of my brain was surprised that I couldn’t click the newsletter
contents (um, blue text on left hand) to jump down to the part of the
text represented, like “Quotes from Ed Hardy,” then boom hyperlink. I
don’t even know if such a thing is possible or necessary, but my
want-to-click reflex was thwarted and the serotonin squirt I’d expected
never came. Cheers, Richard Y.”
() “I love it and it’s long overdue. It’s much easier to scan & read.
Thank you very much!–Tim B.”
() “[Screenshot is using Chrome and Gmail on a 13" screen] For me,
fewer line breaks make for an easier read. Always look forward to
getting these, and have recommended to several SF friends that they
sign up (and have heard back that they found out about shows / venues
that were new to them as a result.) Regards, Ryan S.”
() “…with a staple at the corner. It had the necessary form wherein I
might find specific areas of information. Ah, well. I expect I shall
get comfortable with the new aspect which is well finished, a bit like
a printed book. Probably a good idea. Thanks. Larry D.”
() “[The new newsletter format] Is so much better and easier to read!
It also really gives you the opportunity to feature all of the
wonderful publications, people and events within. Good job on the
design for the new year. Happy 2014 (Is everybody happy?)–David”
() “I like the old look better –it was plainer –I like plain. But I can
get used to the new one.–Felicity O.”
() “Hey Vale, Totally noticed the new newsletter w/ HTML template –and
love it! Really like how you have the table of contents and links to
book details on the left-hand side. And the newsletter doesn’t feel too
flashy or commercial. Just easier to navigate with pretty spacing and
better font style + size. Glad it happened –the newsletters have always
been such great reads and now they’re a pleasure to view, too! Hope
you’re all well and HAPPY NEW YEAR!–Ilana”
() “V, Nice re-do. The whole look is easier on one’s eyes –leading one
to be more likely to peruse the Newsletter in full. Nice Table of
Contents and graphics below in the left-hand column. Great content
–interesting, lively, engaging –as always. My only suggestion? Embed
some video, with audio, at the top, under the banner. Give you readers
something stimulating to watch as soon as they open the link. My two
cents… Happy New Year and all the best to you, Marian, and Val… Steve
B”
() “The new look is more corporate but in a good way, should help with
sales. The good old Market Street Cinema, the William Burroughs-Laurie
Anderson-John Giorno was a great evening of the Avant Guard performance
of the time. Ciao, James S”
() “Hey Val, As you may know, I am trying to raise funds on indiegogo
to get our movie, A Noisy Delivery, out on DVD. No one has to remind me
how hard times still are. You and I both know it. BUT, if every one of
my friends here on facebook pledged just $5, I’d have more than enough
to get this very important release out in the real world.
http://igg.me/at/DeliveryDVD/x/2319112 If you haven’t seen the
trailers yet, A Noisy Delivery is an absurdist / experimental feature
about an existentialist visit to the post office. The story is about a
couple (played by Jessica King & Dave Phillips) who were going to get
together after the girlfriend had dropped off her package, but the
boyfriend has to keep waiting. Everyone, it seems, was at the post
office for philosophy instead of postage. Please like our Facebook page
for updates –https://www.facebook.com/ANoisyDelivery We’re also on
Twitter –https://twitter.com/NoisyDelivery Our official site is
“If you can, please pledge. Every little bit helps…!!! Pledges can be
made with a credit card or by paypal.
http://igg.me/at/DeliveryDVD/x/2319112 Thanks again / ALL THE BEST
–GX Jupitter-Larsen”
() “Hi Vale, just wanted to let you know I have since begun reading
your books (specifically the Industrial Culture Handbook) and it has
been one of the most pleasurable (and jarring) experiences I have had
in a while. I wanted to thank you because these interviews are truly
eye-opening. I have read quite a lot from some of these artists in the
past, but reading this now… it is clear that it is the direction of
your questions and arguments that make these interviews so rich and in
my personal journey through these waters, so refreshing. I appreciate
that these are more dialogue than Q&A and that you are not afraid to
steer far from what one would presume to ask these individuals. It was
great to read Cabaret Voltaire’s views on literature, Mark Pauline and
Monte Cazazza’s uncompromising work ethic, and see Factrix mentioned a
couple of times –I like their work. But also, it is great to read
something like this and repeatedly feel uneasy, to have your motives
put into question constantly, while having some part of your
subconscious finally clicking. It’s funny because this kind of makes
you develop a zero tolerance for bullshit policy and I’ve been having
quite a few arguments with my colleagues lately, but all of this is
good change I am sure (and fun)… I was especially intrigued by
Sordide Sentimental and wanted to ask you if you have any
recommendations for Situationist texts (by the way, I absolutely agree
with your last comment in that interview about walking down the
street… I’ve been doing that out of impulse –possibly to fend of
depression too! –for a long time now). Aaaanyways, the only misfortune
with the shipping was that apparently the heat or pressure “melted” the
CD jewel case onto the Burroughs book, so there is a square indent on
the hardcover! But honestly I don’t mind very much. The rest came in
fine and I enjoyed the CD, great drummer!
“Thanks again and I hope I can somehow make it to SF soon! Dan”
8. **SPONSORS** (Without them you would NOT be receiving this
newsletter – Please go to their websites!)
If you would like to be a part of the R/S newsletter please email or
call.
1. 47 Canal Street (Gallery w/events, NYC) – 47CanalStreet.com go
visit & say RE/Search sent you!
2. Emerald Tablet (Gallery w/events), Fresno Alley (100 feet from
RE/Search! in North Beach). Lots of free or low cost local community
events; check out their schedule! http://emtab.org/ – they’re open
during First Fridays North Beach Art Walk…
3. Mrs Dalloway’s Catering (Bay Area) – We at RE/Search are fans of Mrs
Dalloway’s delicious appetizers. Low prices! Willing to do small
events! Call to get specialty appetizers for your next party or event!
www.mrsdallowayscatering.com
4. METASONIX: Since 1999, the world’s only maker of vacuum-tube music
synthesizers. metasonix.com
5. From our friends Amy and Brian – they have a new software in the
works, watch for it! tastysnakes.com
6. V. Vale’s RE/Search Newsletter is cordially sponsored by “Beyond the
Beyond.” Information Wants To Be Free WE MEAN IT MAN!
$0$0$0$0$0$0$0$0$0$0 http://blog.wired.com/sterling
7. www.SOPHIAGASPARIAN.com “fine art about equal human rights
worldwide”
8. Philip Lenihan. A founder of Sluggo magazine from Austin, Texas.
Find him on Facebook?
9. Charles H. Kerr Publishing Company – Penelope Rosemont, Chicago
Surrealist Group founder.
10. Kevin O’Malley+Christie Dames, the High-Heeled Anarchist:
TechTalk/Studio: http://techtalkstudio.com + Commonwealth Club, San
Francisco.
11. Emily Armstrong/Pat Ivers’ pioneering 1st generation NYC 1975-80
punk videos! http://gonightclubbing.com see ‘em yourself @ NYU
Fales Library Downtown Collection, debut: Oct 2013
The end, for now
February 2014 RE/Search Newsletter #123 written by V. Vale & other
contributors. RE/Search website powered by Laughing Squid.
RE/Search Publications
20 Romolo Place #B
San Francisco, CA 94133
(415) 362-1465
info@researchpubs.com
NEW at Art Rotterdam Week: TEC ART: Other Art and Technology, Critical Fun and Play
*If I was in or near Rotterdam, I’d go.
**************************************************************************************
NEW at Art Rotterdam Week: TEC ART: Other Art and Technology, Critical Fun and Play
TEC ART Feb 5-9 feb, Fenixloods 1, Drijvend Paviljoen, Hal Centraal Station
Hacking the NSA, Hacking the NSA, (((everybody’s doing it))) Marching with Meese, Mission to Mars, Sale on Lampedusa, One Way Astronauts, Looking into the Sun, GHB partypeople, Chainsaw Putin, Rabobank Bastards, Running around in Cern, Mental Plastic Body Fillers, Laserguns for Libia, and more, much more…
TEC ART is the festival on art and technology at the Art Rotterdam Week. A different art experience at the South of Rotterdam, with actual, inspiring, confronting art, technology, architecture, an audiovisual adventure.
The Giant Robot of Boris Tellegen, located in the hall of the new Rotterdam Trainstation welcomes you at TEC ART. The Floating Pavillion near the Erasmus bridge, will be transformed into futuristic domes with work of Joris Strijbos, Semiconductor (UK), Paul Prudence (UK), a. o. TEC ART in the 5000 m2 of the Warehouse, Fenixloods 1 is adventurous mix of a cyberpunk carnivale, grindcore-karaoke-club, art lounge, laboratories, chill-out, game area, disco, spaceship, teknoparty. (((Who can’t like that?)))
You can eat, drink, dance, game, experience virtual reality, meet people at the Miele Spacestation bar, play with innovative works of art, perform physics, enjoy weird JODI YouTube-mash-up films, look and buy special books/artworks/magazines/ space punk fashion. You can expect pop-up fashion shows, see horse robots move, see ceramic cars spin, see mechanical snakes film, enjoy speed-lectures on drones en privacy, and see presentations of the Dutch space industry, and much, much more!!
The theme is Operating Manual for SPACESHIP EARTH, after American visionar and architect Buckminster Fuller.
With work of: JODI, Alicia Framis, Daan Roosegaarde, Nicolas Provost, Jonathan Meese, Edwin van der Heide, David Cerny, Teun Castelein, Arno Coenen, Broersen en Lukacs, Charles of London, Maartje Dijkstra, Boris Tellegen, more… With daily live-acts, music, lectures, drinks, and more.
TEC ART Cyber PARTY opens the Art Rotterdam Week, Wed Feb 5 8pm – 2am, Drijvend Paviljoen, Kop van Zuid. tickets 10 euro
www.tecart.nl help us and share online: www.facebook.com/TECART.nl
one of the highlights:
Paul Prudence (UK)
Paul Prudence is an audio-visual performer working with algorithmic and generative environments. His work, which had been shown and performed internationally, focuses on the ways in which sound, space and form can be cross-wired to create live-cinematic visual-music experiences.
Paul maintains the weblog Dataisnature exploring the interrelationships between natural processes, computational systems and procedural-based art practices
- installation: Fenixloods 5-9 febr
- Screening: Drijvend Paviljoen 6-9 febr
- live : Drijvend Paviljoen 5 febr
www.paulprudence.com
TEC ART is powered by MONDRIAAN Fonds, Gemeente Rotterdam, Rotterdam Festivals, Gemeente Enschede, Workx, CTT, RAW Art Fair, WORMshop, Universiteit Twente, Overkill Festival, LIMA, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, MADlab, KABK, Drijvend Paviljoen, ESA European Space Agency, (((
https://www.facebook.com/events/23409...
http://www.twitter.com/TECART_nl
===============================================================================================
Record-breaking Year in Membership for Leading Literary and Human Rights Organization
*Well, what perky good news from PEN-land.
*One may note that I am on the mailing list of this time-honored organization, although I’m not real likely to rush over to Brooklyn to congratulate them on their reviving literary vitality.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 30, 2014
PEN Gathers New York Literati in Brooklyn to Celebrate New Books
Record-breaking Year in Membership for Leading Literary and Human Rights Organization
NEW YORK — PEN American Center brought together over 300 of New York’s most acclaimed writers, translators, editors, agents, and publishers to celebrate new books published in 2013 and the fruits of free expression at its annual New Members/New Books party last night at powerHouse Arena in Brooklyn.
The diversity of PEN’s membership was reflected in the event’s co-hosts: Poet Laureate of Brooklyn Tina Chang, Jezebel founder Anna Holmes, novelists Mitchell Jackson and Dani Shapiro, and author Gary Shteyngart, whose new memoir was published earlier this month. Distinguished and longstanding PEN Members such as Ron Chernow, Elissa Schappell, Roxana Robinson, Lev Grossman, and Elinor Lipman mingled with recently joined PEN members including B.J. Novak, Marie-Helene Bertino, Paul Rome, Patty Chang Anker, Caleb Crain, Mark Binelli, and Dina Nayeri. New PEN Member Lena Dunham, creator of the HBO original series Girls, (((people who read too many novels instead of watching too much TV run some small risk of not knowing who Lena Dunham is))) curated the music for the evening, while Rosie Schaap, author of last year’s memoir Drinking with Men, created literary-themed cocktails courtesy of liquor sponsors Hendrick’s Gin and Zyr Russian Vodka. (((Now that’s some author-pleasing sponsorship, folks.))) Brooklyn Brewery donated the beer.
Guests posed for The Photo Booth Party in front of a collage of 250+ cover images from books published by PEN Members in the last year, many of which were on display that night for guests to review. The rate of new members in PEN has nearly tripled since 2011, with an unprecedented 376 new members joining in 2013.
“Your membership directly helps PEN fight censorship and defend free expression throughout the world for those writers and journalists denied the most basic liberty,” PEN’s Membership Director Paul Morris told the crowd. “A voice.”
Co-hosts and new members offered touching and often hilarious testimonials of their experience as PEN members. “I grew up in a totalitarian society where I was not allowed to express myself,” said Shteyngart. “I’m talking about Hebrew school in Queens!” He continued, “PEN helps people in all parts of the world, from Vladivostok to Kew Gardens Hills. And that is something that you are helping to support right now. The people who you are helping are forever, forever a part of what you do.”
PEN Executive Director Suzanne Nossel ended the night with a call to action, encouraging all in attendance to send a postcard or email to Chinese President Xi Jinping demanding the freedom of PEN member and poet Liu Xia, who has been under house arrest in Beijing since her husband, jailed writer and Independent Chinese PEN Center President Liu Xiaobo, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010.
###
PEN American Center is a community of 3,500 writers working to bring down barriers to free expression worldwide. Its distinguished members carry on the achievements in literature and advancement of human rights of such past members as Langston Hughes, Arthur Miller, and Susan Sontag. To learn more, visit www.pen.org.
February 3, 2014
The Chaos Computer Club suing spies for civil rights violations
*It’s an ultimate “man bites dog” tech development. It’s like the Cuckoo’s Egg hatched and turned out to be a pterodactyl.
http://ccc.de/en/updates/2014/complaint
Chaos Computer Club files criminal complaint against the German Government
2014-02-03 00:18:00, henning
On Monday, the Chaos Computer Club (CCC) and the International League for Human Rights (ILMR), have filed a criminal complaint with the Federal Prosecutor General’s office. The complaint is directed against the German federal government, the presidents of the German secret services, namely Bundesnachrichtendienst, Militärischer Abschirmdienst, Bundesamt für Verfassungschutz, and others. We accuse US, British and German secret agents, their supervisors, the German Minister of the Interior as well as the German Chancelor of illegal and prohibited covert intelligence activities, of aiding and abetting of those activities, of violation of the right to privacy and obstruction of justice in office by bearing and cooperating with the electronic surveillance of German citizens by NSA and GCHQ.
After months of press releases about mass surveillance by secret services and offensive attacks on information technology systems, we now have certainty that German and other countries’ secret services have violated the German criminal law. With this criminal complaint, we hope to finally initiate investigations by the Federal Prosecutor General against the German government. The CCC has learned with certainty that the leaders of the secret services and the federal government have aided and abetted the commission of these crimes.
It is the understanding of the CCC that these crimes are felonies persuant to German federal laws, specifically 99 StGB (illegal activity as a foreign spy), §§ 201 ff. StGB (violation of privacy) and § 258 StGB (obstruction of justice).
“Every citizen is affected by the massive surveillance of their private communications. Our laws protect us and threatens those responsible for such surveillance with punishment. Therefore an investigation by the Federal Prosecutor General is necessary and mandatory by law – and a matter of course. It is unfortunate that those responsible and the circumstances of their crimes have not been investigated,” says Dr. Julius Mittenzwei, attorney and long time member of the CCC.
It is unacceptable that the public offices have not helped in the investigation of these crimes even if the spying is widely visible, for example, in the so called Dagger-Complex and on the August Euler airfield near Griesheim. Together with the International League of Human Rights and digitalcourage e. V., we want to bring to light more information about the illegal activities of German and foreign secret services and intend to bring the offenders of those crimes to accord.
In the criminal complaint, we ask to hear technical expert and whistleblower Edward Snowden as a witness, and that he be provided safe passage and protection against extradition to the US.
We do not only want to call the Federal Prosecutor General’s office to investigations but also ask you to get involved and also file a criminal complaint. The text of the complaint is transmitted on demand.
Contact:
H.-Eberhard Schultz and Claus Förster, solicitors
Haus der Demokratie und Menschenrechte, Greifswalder Str. 4, 10405 Berlin
Links:
Internationale Liga für Menschenrechte e. V.: http://ilmr.de/
If Nettime is still complaining, the Internet can’t quite be undead yet
*How many times have I seen the Internet killed in my lifetime? After a while one starts to get a tender, sentimental feeling about the prospect. It’s like hearing about theater getting killed, or the novel getting killed.
*Also I periodically hear about the nettime list getting killed. Hey, nettime is older than a horseshoe crab, and it’s still got some pretty good stuff on it. Things I’d never see anywhere else.
*Imagine being Mark Zuckerberg and realizing that you’re both Facebook Revolution and Facebook Counter-Revolution, a make-believe company of no commercial value whatsoever and also the ruthless sledgehammer of capitalist domination. All that, and you haven’t even changed your T-shirt and hoodie. You got married, but you don’t even have a kid yet, and already life is all over; it’s the gotterdammerung of social sharing stream access as dust settles slowly on the console-cowboy desktop machines of the electronic frontier… I bet Zuck gets up every morning weeping uncontrollably at the lack of worlds to conquer.
*Also, even though I was also at Transmediale this year, I didn’t realize that they were too austere to afford any techie artwork. Hey, tech-art comes pretty cheap nowadays. They coulda taken up a Kickstarter or something; for tech art, you don’t even need a cathode-ray tube any more.
Rasmus Fleischer
Some thoughts on the counter-revolution (input to Transmediale)
“A few days ago at Transmediale in Berlin, I took part in a panel
discussion under the fuzzy title “After the revolution(s): Internet
freedoms and the post-digital twilight”.
“What follows is an attempt to summarize my input to that panel.
# # #
“The revolution is over”, stands as a motto for this year’s
Transmediale. I guess that I share the feeling, but I think the
statement is wrong. Instead of talking about some revolution in the
past, I think we should talk about the ongoing counter-revolution and
to situate that in history.
“When thinking about the direction in which the internet is developing,
we must go beyond the simplified opposition of “old times” versus “new
times”. In order to do that, we must periodize the history of the
internet.
“When trying to do that, I have come to regard year 2007 as a
turning-point. That was when the counter-revolution took over. And on
its flags, the counter-revolutionary forces had written words like:
social, share, mobile, stream, access, open…
“For now, we don’t need to name these counter-revolutionary forces.
Although it is obvious that the counter-revolution on the internet is
largely about centralization and monopolization, it would be wrong to
reduce this process with a few giant corporations.
“The monopolizing tendency has been a much broader thing and has also
ruined the potential in projects like The Pirate Bay and Wikileaks. If
such projects initially had the ambition to set examples, to be copied
and multiplied, they were caught in a dynamic where they seemed to
have no alternative but to stage a new riot every week, or to fade
away. Or take the Pirate Parties, which have tended to monopolize
internet-related issues which are then re-encoded in the language of
rights, endlessy re-enacting the immanent contradictions of liberal
ideology: copyright vs. privacy, privacy vs. transparency, etc. etc.
Nowadays, I feel that the very concept of “internet freedom” is caught
in the same kind of double-bind, making it increasingly hard to use.
And this feeling of mine is probably just another aspect of the
counter-revolution.
“Hito Steyrl is to the point: “The internet is not dead. It’s undead
and it’s everywhere.” It feels awkward, she writes, “obviously
completely surveilled, monopolized, and sanitized by common sense,
copyright, control and conformism.”
“But there was never any digital revolution in the past. If we could
ever talk about a digital revolution, it could only mean the third
industrial revolution, which has been going on for decades and which
is definitely not about to end. But as an industrial revolution, that
is simply an acceleration in the continuous process of minimizing the
need for human labour in the production of commodities. That process
is driven by the competition over profits on the market, and the
current crisis is only intensifying that competition, pushing all
kinds of corporations towards Big Data and threatening to eliminate
those who fail to live up to the new standards of data mining.
“But during this long process, during the third industrial revolution,
there has been times when the uses of digital technologies has tended
to break away from this industrial logic.
“There were a few interesting years in the 1990s, before the dotcom bubble.
And there were a few interesting years after the dotcom crash, in the
beginning of our century.
“These two episodes in the history of the internet were indeed no
revolution. But these times saw the multiplication of autonomous
innovation, and of new forms of collective practice which where not
easily integrated in any economy, and not very suited for data mining.
“I think it makes more sense to talk about a digital counter-revolution
than to talk about a digital revolution. But the current
counter-revolution did indeed react against something, against a
subversive or revolutionary potential which were building up in the
years following the dotcom crash.
“If the internet tended towards a decentralized or even revolutionary
direction between 2001 and 2007, this must somehow be related to the
financial dynamics in global capitalism. The afterglow of the dotcom
bubble began in one crisis, but ended with the onset of the next
crisis. How come?
“In the very beginning of this century, capital fled from the dotcom
sector. For capitalism as a system, the dotcom crash revealed a
serious threat of deflation, but central banks injected enormous
amounts of stimulative liquidity, credits which rushed towards other
sectors, most notably housing, building up a new and even larger
bubble. However, on the internet of 2001-2007 there was a relative
lack of venture capital.
“The dotcom crash had revealed a surplus of bandwidth, of hardware and
of highly skilled hackers. Many of these hackers which had been
working in the dotcom sector were no longer employed (or working as
consultants effectively on part-time), meaning that they had free time
to experiment with available resources.
“Out of the early 00′s recession grew a boom for free software and
file-sharing. Innovation tended to be about new protocols (from RSS to
bittorrent) rather than new platforms. The new standards for sociality
on the www – the blog, the wiki, the threaded forum – could all be run
DIY on simple servers with open-source software.
“The afterglow of the dotcom bubble, in other words, allowed for a
certain degree of autonomous innovation on the internet. It resulted
in a net characterized with a plurality of interfaces: the older
duality of horizontal hypertext (HTTP) and hierarchical folders (FTP)
was complemented by various kinds of feeds and flows, not to forget
the tag clouds and the virtual realities, as well as the search
engines.
“This amounted to a plurality of speeds: many degrees of fast and slow
communication could co-exist in the everyday use of the net. We don’t
have that plurality anymore. Since 2007, time on the internet is being
homogenized.
“The counter-revolution is slowly abolishing hypertext as well as
folder hierarchies, in favour of a new monoculture. Today’s undead
internet has a universal interface based on only two functions: the
search and the feed.
“The search is there for you when you already know what you’re looking
for. When you don’t know, you can always get fed by your feed, the
singular and personalized home feed, whose function is to homogenize
time, synchronizing our attention at one singular speed. What could a
concept like “internet freedom” posibly mean in such an environment?
“Of course I agree that decentralization is the way to go. But by now
it should be obvious, that they way to go is not to build
decentralized copies of Facebook or Twitter. We need something else,
and we can’t say what it is without lots of more experimentation. But
who will do all this experimentation? The hacker surplus do not exist
any more. The skilled hackers are now employd to develop platforms and
apps which conform to the new monoculture and with the new standards
of data mining. Some years ago, young programmers in Sweden where
swarming to promote P2P file-sharing in solidarity with the Pirate Bay
- soon after, they were all employed by Spotify.
“I don’t know if we are now entering a second dotcom bubble to be
followed by a second dotcom crash. But to me, it’s clear that the
counter-revolution began when venture capital once again began to rush
towards the internet.
/ Rasmus
PS.
“By the way, as we talk about Transmediale and crisis. Isn’t the
concept of “Art Hack Day” basically a way of administrating austerity
in art institutions? You can fill an exhibition with artworks without
having to paying the artists, while covering it up with glossy
language about spontaneity. Maybe I’m wrong, but I wrote down some
notes about that as well:
http://copyriot.se/2014/02/02/art-hac...
# distributed via : no commercial use without permission
# is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
# collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
# more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/n...
# archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@kein.org
The Manifesto of Speculative Posthumanism
*Just on general principles, I like an out-there manifesto.
*Also, I’m pretty sure that this manifesto is one of the few examples of human writing that a posthuman would find genuinely funny.
http://hplusmagazine.com/2013/02/06/manifesto-of-speculative-posthumanism/
“Over the last decade the possibility of innovations in areas such as artificial intelligence or biotechnology contributing to the emergence of a ‘posthuman’ life form has become a focal point of public debate and mainstream artistic concern. This multi-disciplinary discourse is premised on developments in the so-called ‘NBIC’ technologies – Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Information Technology and Cognitive Science. The transhumanist claim that human nature should be improved technologically is likewise predicated on the NBIC suite affording the necessary means for enhancement.
“In philosophy, discussion of the posthuman has been dominated by concerns about the ethics of enhancement or by metaphysical issues of embodiment and mind. Transhumanists draw on Enlightenment conceptions of human nature as an improvable ‘work in progress’ in arguing for the moral benefits of enhancement and its political legitimacy. Likewise, ‘bioconservative’ critics of transhumanism employ traditional frameworks such as Christian theology and Aristotelianism to argue that such developments may violate the biological integrity of species or undermine constitutive conditions for the good furnished by an unbiddable nature.
“Speculative Posthumanism does not deny the importance of these debates but claims that they are too regional in scope to address the potential for ontological novelty implied by NBIC technologies. If it is possible for our technical activity to ultimately engender radically non-human forms of life we must confront the possibility that our ‘wide’ technological descendants will be so alien as to fall outside the public ethical frameworks employed by the majority of transhumanists and bioconservatives.
“Among the intellectuals to have appreciated the ontological stakes are those poststructuralists and ‘critical posthumanists’ who claim that the trajectory of current technoscientific change ‘deconstructs’ the philosophical centrality of the human subject in epistemology and politics – by, for example, levelling differences between human subjects, non-human animals, or cybernetic systems. However, while critical posthumanism has yielded important insights it is hamstrung by a default anti-realism inherited from the dominant traditions in post-Kantian continental philosophy. The deconstruction of subjectivity is an ambivalent philosophical achievement at best; one that cedes ground to potent forms of humanism while failing to address the cosmic likelihood of a posthuman dispensation.
“Speculative Posthumanism accordingly rejects the post-Kantian epistemology that deploys the ‘posthuman’ as a fashionable trope to mark intrinsic limits on thought. Its project is ‘speculative’ insofar as it explores ways of conceiving the posthuman independently of its relationship to human cognitive forms or phenomenology. It argues, instead, that the posthuman should be understood as a real, though not-yet actual, condition resulting from the technological modification of humans or their wide technological descendants.
“Speculative Posthumanism claims that an augmentation history of this kind is metaphysically and technically possible. It does not imply that the posthuman would improve upon the human state or that there would exist a scale of values by which human and posthuman lives could be compared. If radically posthuman lives were very non-human indeed, we should not assume them to be prospectively evaluable using the ethical frameworks available to us. This does not indicate that the posthuman is ‘impossible’ or, like the God of negative theology, transcends our epistemic capacities. Rather this proposition indicates a problem that is still ‘ours’ insofar as the posthuman could result from an iteration of our current technical praxis.”
Bruce Sterling's Blog
- Bruce Sterling's profile
- 1195 followers
