Migration and media-activists gather with theorists and labour organizers to discuss and share best practices in the fight against precarity and insecure labour conditions. Sharing inspiring examples of social justice unionism and creative campaigning like Justice for Janitors in the U.S. and Cleaners For a Better Future in the Netherlands.
ReadThe idea for the Art of Campaigning topic originates from the works of
the McLibel group [www.mcspotlight.org]. Their type of net.campaign
questions previous forms of activism, which was focused on the mass
media and their ability to influence public opinion, by staging direct
action (targeted at known media makers). Big NGO's such as Greenpeace
have built up experiences with this model for decades. The scenarios
they use have not changed much since the seventies. There is the usual
PR material: official reports, books, folders, flyers, magazine and
original video footage, shot on location. Campaigns are being planned
long in advance. The way of working does not differ much from a
campaign to launch a new product. Professionalism has taken over the
task of volunteers. Their role is being reduced to that of a local
support group, doing the actual grass roots work with the population.
Xnet publishes a Basic How-to guide for preserveing fundamental rights on the Internet
#Democracy – Rights and freedoms protected by the people: recent events in Catalonia as a case study
How-to guide: https://xnet-x.net/en/how-to-for-preserving-fundamental-rights-internet/
Even more basic PDF version.
April 19, 2012 - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ON-THE-BRINK BANK STILL NOT YOURS (YET)
Dow Jones posts fake release for two hours; bank gets fake website blacklisted, briefly
Bank of America executives, investors, and opponents alike reacted with
surprise to yesterday's news - posted for two hours on Dow Jones Newswire
and elsewhere - that the mammoth financial institution, realizing it was
heading for a taxpayer bailout, was asking Americans to start thinking
about what they'll do with the bank once they own it, and to start
advertising that vision too.
a year ago wikileaks was as known as any other hacker project on the
chaos computer congress in berlin. its organizers which you remember
only by surname were talking about technical and organisational
issues, smoking a joint and gathering collaborators and co-developers.
like often german or swedish hackers were running the backend of this
project. they like the technocratic part where organisation and code
goes together. here is where wikileaks has its center, and the idea of
it was rather a channel, a protocol, or a p2p network to allow more
transparency in information. the opposite movement against closing
down on information which belongs to the public, and a direct result
of a cyberpunk worldview, where an oligarchy of a few corporations
runs the world.
In the beginning was the Ad. The Ad was brought to the consumer by the Advertiser. Desire, self worth, self image, ambition, hope; all find their genesis in the Ad. Through the Ad and the intent of the Advertiser we form our ideas and learn the myths that make us into what we are as a people. That this method of self definition displaced the earlier methods is beyond debate. It is now clear that the Ad holds the most esteemed position in our cosmology.
ReadWhen looking at technology, we barely see machinery, let alone the people who made it. We seem to take technology and its development for a given, neglecting the process of its creation. We live off the fruits of the tree, without examining its roots.
ReadTactical Media are what happens when the cheap 'do it yourself' media, made possible by the revolution in consumer electronics and expanded forms of distribution (from public access cable to the internet) are exploited by groups and individuals who feel aggrieved by or excluded from the wider culture. Tactical media do not just report events, as they are never impartial they always participate and it is this that more than anything separates them from mainstream media.
This short essay for Cahiers Costech explores the complicated relationship of activist and experimental / artistic practices around digital and online media to the problem of time.
ReadHow much of this is fiction. focuses on politically inspired media art that uses deception in all its forms, and will be showing at HeK (House of Electronic Arts Basel) from 23 March until 21 May 2017.
ReadWorld-Information.Org is an trans-national cultural intelligence provider, a collaborative effort of artists, scientists and technicians. It is a practical example for a technical and contextual environment for cultural production and an independent platform of critical media intelligence.
ReadAmsterdam & Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 12-14 March, 1999
The third Next 5 Minutes, an Amsterdam based conference on tactical communications culture, featuring do-it-yourself media, dissident art and electronic media activists from around the world, took place on the 12th, 13th and 14th of March 1999.
N5M3 archived festival website
ReadNext 5 Minutes is a festival that brings together media, art and politics. Next 5 Minutes revolves around the notion of tactical media, the fusion of art, politics and media. The festival is organised irregularly, when the urgency is felt to bring a new edition of the festival together.
ReadTranslating the abstraction—and banalities—of the Anthropocene into readable cartography has resulted in many past attempts that often ended up reproducing those same qualities. But, as Brian Holmes asserts in this essay, we seem to have found ourselves in a moment where collaboration, engagement, and new forms of knowledge exchange are breaking that deadlock. Tracing his own involvement with artistic practices that both engage with and attempt to represent a “political ecology,” Holmes explains how the evolving, collaborative cartographic practice that brought the "Mississippi. An Anthropocene River map" into being simultaneously reveals and interrogates the power structures of Anthropocence society.
ReadOuter Spaces Conference Series 2017
An analysis of ISIS and its media strategy, the meaning of cyber jihad, and why people enrol as foreign fighters.
The 12th conference of the Disruption Network Lab
Directed by Tatiana Bazzichelli. Studio 1, Mariannenplatz 2, 10997 Berlin.
The need for net criticism certainly is a matter of overwhelming urgency. While a number of critics have approached the new world of computerized communications with a healthy amount of skepticism, their message has been lost in the noise and spectacle of corporate hype-the unstoppable tidal wave of seduction has enveloped so many in its dynamic utopian beauty that little time for careful reflection is left. Indeed, a glimpse of a possibility for a better future may be contained in the new techno-apparatus, and perhaps it is best to acknowledge these possibilities here in the beginning, since Critical Art Ensemble (CAE) has no desire to take the position of the neoluddites who believe that the techno-apparatus should be rejected outright, if not destroyed. To be sure, computerized communications offer the possibility for the enhanced storage, retrieval, and exchange of information for those who have access to the necessary hardware, software, and technical skills. In turn, this increases the possibility for greater access to vital information, faster exchange of information, enhanced distribution of information, and cross cultural artistic and critical collaborations. The potential humanitarian benefits of electronic systems are undeniable; however, CAE questions whether the electronic apparatus is being used for these purposes in the representative case, much as we question the political policies which guide the net's development and accessibility.
ReadWikiLeaks Reveals Secret Files on All Guantánamo Prisoners
On Sunday April 24, 2011 WikiLeaks began publishing 779 secret files
from the notorious Guantanamo Bay prison camp. The details for every
detainee will be released daily over the coming month.
In light of the current FBI/Patriot Act investigations against Critical
Art Ensemble (CAE), it is worthwhile to point out two moments from the
history of the US government?s involvement in biowarfare. The first
concerns the specific issue of access to knowledge, education, and
resources in the life sciences. The second concerns the general
backdrop of US biodefense ideology. All of this information has been
confirmed by several sources, and has been in the public domain for
some time (see the references below).
Needless to say, this is not meant to be a comprehensive ?history? of
biowarfare. Instead, it is a perspective on biowarfare from the vantage
point of US involvement. What is evident is that the US government?s
involvement in biowarfare raises far more substantial questions than
the investigation of dissenting artists.
I.
We start with the current strategy debates of the so-called 'anti-globalisation movement', the biggest emerging political force for decades. In Part II we will look into strategies of critical new media culture in the post-speculative phase after dotcommania. Four phases of the global movement are becoming visible, all of which have distinct political, artistic and aesthetic qualities.
Summary of the presentations and public debate on digital archiving practices, activism, and the role of the artist.
Report of the event Vox Populi and the Syrian Archive on 21 January 2017, organised by Eric Kluitenberg..