On Saturday, the 12th of March 2011, a few minutes before six, the second Video Vortex reader was presented to the audience of the sixth edition of the Video Vortex conference. Editors Geert Lovink and Rachel Somers Miles invited the contributors to the second volume, who were present en masse, to celebrate the launch of the book on stage.
ReadWe are ordinary people. We are like you: people, who get up every
morning to study, work or find a job, people who have family and
friends. People, who work hard every day to provide a better future for
those around us.
Some of us consider ourselves progressive, others conservative. Some of
us are believers, some not. Some of us have clearly defined ideologies,
others are apolitical, but we are all concerned and angry about the
political, economic, and social outlook which we see around us:
corruption among politicians, businessmen, bankers, leaving us helpless,
without a voice.
This situation has become normal, a daily suffering, without hope. But
if we join forces, we can change it. It's time to change things, time to
build a better society together.
The first interview was conducted during the opening of Hybrid Workspace in June 1997, the temporary media lab in the margins of the big art show Documenta X in Kassel (Germany).
ReadInterventions in Engineering Cultures
The most significant underwriter of engineering research in the United
States is the Department of Defense, largely acting through the Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). DARPA exists to channel funds
from the military to academic and corporate research labs in exchange
for technological innovations that serve the needs of its clients - the
Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines. As DARPA public relations officers
are fond of pointing out, innovations funded by DARPA grants may also
find expression in civilian applications, particularly in the
communications and aerospace industries.
It is time to break the silence!
ArtLeaks is collective platform initiated by an international group of
artists, curators, art historians and intellectuals in response to the
abuse of their professional integrity and the open infraction of their
labor rights. In the art world, such abuses usually disappear, but some
events bring them into sharp focus and therefore deserve public
scrutiny. Only by drawing attention to concrete abuses can we
underscore the precarious condition of cultural workers and the
necessity for sustained protest against the appropriation of politically
engaged art, culture and theory by institutions embedded in a tight
mesh of capital and power.
"One formula [...] can be that of the mob: gullible, fickle, herdlike, low in taste and habit. [...] If [...] our purpsoe is manipulation - the persuasion of a large number of people to act, feel, think, known in certain ways - the convenient formula will be that of the masses". - Raymond Williams
ReadIn the wireless era, is the paper medium simply passé for the work of activists? Are zamizdat, fanzines and political magazines just good for historians? After the mid-nineties zine crisis due to a sudden rise of the cost of paper and the advent of the Internet, the actual role of magazines seems to be re-defined and still strategical for the circulation of ideas.
ReadPrivacy, copyright, classified documents and state secrets, but also spontaneous network phenomena like flash mobs and hashtag revolutions, reveal one thing – we lost control over the digital world. We experience a digital tailspin, or as Michael Seemann calls it in this essay: a loss of control or Kontrollverlust. Data we never knew existed is finding paths that were not intended and reveals information that we would never have thought of on our own.
ReadApril 28, 2014:
This Thursday is May Day, international workers' day.
Across
the globe workers will celebrate May Day in various ways, organizing
street demonstrations and protest marches in their communities,
demanding justice and freedom for all oppressed people.
With this occasion, ArtLeaks will inaugurate a visual archive dedicated
to art workers' pride, which will continue to gather material throughout
the year.
As much as images of violence, civil war, and sectarian strife become prominent in the media narrative of the Syrian uprising, little gems of innovative cultural production, artistic resistance, and creative disobedience continue to sprout across the virtual alleys of the Internet. These creative gems are also the germs of a viral peer-production process at work at a grassroots level in the new Syrian public sphere. Such acts of creativity - mash-ups, cartoons, slogans, jokes, songs, and web series - are probably too small and inconsistent in impact compared to the horrific magnificence that shelling, bombing, sniping, and killing scenes that provide daily fodder to global television viewers. It is also challenging to discover them; in fact, as remarked by Tunisian blogger Sami ben Gharbia at the Arab Bloggers meeting in Tunis (3-6 October 2011), Facebook is not the most suitable platform for activists to store, archive, tag, search for content, and give it a context.
ReadWorking with new media in the part of South Asia that I come from is something like crossing a tightrope on a bicycle. The bicycle which could have helped me along were I on my way on flat ground makes the crossing that much more precarious. Consider the bicycle to be the single computer and the internet connection which I use along with at least seventeen other people, friends, colleagues, neighbours and complete strangers.
Read
?In Central and (South-) Eastern Europe the cultural landscape has entered the Post-Soros Era, while still awaiting the arrival of the widely expected EU patronage for the arts and the civil sector ?? (from the original description of the ?Enduring Post Communism? panel)
Dark Markets is a two day strategic conference that looked into the state of the art of media politics, information technologies, and theories of democracy. A variety of international speakers inquired into strategies of oppositional movements and discussed the role of new media.
ReadThe California Department of Corrections (CDC) has established an organizational structure which provides for efficient and effective management of all facets of advertising to include care, treatment, discipline, training, and employment.
ReadDavid Cox is an award winning film-maker, digital media artist, writer, and cultural critic who has lived and worked in Britain, the United States and Australia. His films include OTHERZONE, PUPPENHEAD and BIT. He obtained his Masters Degree in 2003 from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University, Australia. He holds a Graduate Diploma in Applied Film and Television (with Honors) in 1990 from Melbourne's Swinburne School of Film and Television. He also holds a Bachelor of Education degree from Deakin University, Australia.
