Ontologies of the Wayward Drone - Part II 

A Salvage Operation:

Ontologies of the Drone

Amplifying Expertise

• art,
• war,
• surveillance,
• drone

Ontologies of the Wayward Drone - Part I 

A Salvage Operation

On a clear evening in December, as the sun was setting over the Texas horizon, a Mexican drone entered U.S. airspace and crashed into a backyard in El Paso.

• art,
• war,
• surveillance,
• drone

Historical Background of the US Biowarfare Program 

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.

• biotechnology,
• biowarfare

Notes for a R-evolution 2 (version 2.0): Stage two: Vices vs. New Tactical Virtues 

What we've learnt from the Net and how we can extrapolate it to all spaces of struggle.

(Some thoughts geared towards action, compiled for the Radical Community Manager courses that we organise at X.net)

• politics,
• activism,
• post-governmental organisation,
• info-activism,
• free culture,
• occupy

Political Ecology Begins When We Say "Black Lives Matter" 

"They say it's a joke they say it's a game." The slogan was launched on the Chicago streets by the group We Charge Genocide, in the middle of a demo demanding reparations for victims of police torture. The folks on the street chanted those words, we hurled them out of our mouths in staccato bursts, while looking round at the passers-by who pretended not to notice. What the chant means is either enigmatic, or it's painfully obvious. There is a kind of disdain that minimizes a death or a beating or a torture or a life sentence for black people in the name of lawfulness, efficiency, morality and humanist ideals. That kind of disdain has made democracy impossible in the US - and other places too.

• cartography,
• activism,
• social justice,
• democracy,
• BlackLivesMatter

From #Takethesquare to São Paulo's #FreeYourPark 

After the square occupations of the past years, the Augusta Park actions in São Paulo, Brazil, open a new phase based on a vision of the commons.

• public space,
• Brazil,
• occupy

Re:Group: Beyond Models of Consensus 

Please join Not An Alternative, Eyebeam Art and Technology Center, and Upgrade NY! this Thursday, June 10 for the opening of Re:Group: Beyond Models of Consensus, an exhibition which examines models of participation and participation as a model in art and activism.

Re:Group proposes that with participation now a dominant paradigm, structuring social interaction, art, activism, the architecture of the city, the internet, and the economy, we are all integrated into participatory structures whether we want to be or not. The exhibition showcases work that subverts existing systems or envisions new alternatives to the ways in which individuals can take part, or choose not to take part, in social and cultural life.

• art,
• activism,
• participatory media,
• collaboration

In Brazil, Mídia NINJA's indie journalists are gaining attention and sparking controversy 

Providing journalism from within Brazil's protest movement has led the 'ninjas' to find an audience that wants to be represented in media.

• tactical media,
• community media,
• grassroot journalism,
• diy media,
• media criticism,
• self-mediation

Misopolis Campaign: Diesel Response 

"This is an email we got from the Diesel office.
Notice how there is no mention of workers rights, or rebuking any of the points raised by our website."

- www.dieselforwomen.com

• activism,
• culture jamming,
• yeslab,
• women's rights

'Diesel' hoax press release 

A Brave New World for Female Factory Workers: Misopolis

Diesel is proud to announce a new milestone in its ongoing campaign for successful living. To make a free lifestyle possible for young women in emerging markets, it will help them conquer a key life challenge: the right to safe abortion. Welcome to Misopolis, a brave new world for female factory workers.

• campaign,
• activism,
• culture jamming,
• yeslab,
• women's rights

About Diesel's New Campaign Called Misopolis 

Clean Clothes Campaign release

Diesel says to take female workers' rights serious, with their release of the campaign Misopolis (see www.dieselforwomen.com). With this campaign Diesel wants to improve the living conditions of female garment workers by distributing free abortion pills.

• activism,
• culture jamming,
• yeslab,
• women's rights

The Undisciplined and Punishment 

In the past several years a lively list serve has evolved that addresses issue of incarceration and justice in the United States. Each night I log on to messages that range from desperate pleadings for someone life to cautious discussions of what the slogans should be on the posters for the next Mumia march. There are technical descriptions of prison architecture and quests for herbal cures to cell block bronchitis epidemics. It is the underside of what is one of our leading industries: locking people up.

• mumia,
• prison,
• death row

Conference Report ‘The Society of Post-Control’
 

Summary of the extended conversation on the emergence, consequences, and activist responses to the concept of "post-control"
Report of the conference 'The Society of Post-Control', organised by Eric Kluitenberg and David Garcia, tying into the opening of the exhibition As If.

• art,
• infopolitics,
• info-activism,
• culture jamming,
• meme wars,
• visual culture

Electronic Civil Disobedience, Simulation, and the Public Sphere 

What counts in the long run is the "use" one makes of a theory....We must start from existing practices in order to retrace the fundamental flaws.
--Felix Guattari, "Why Marx and Freud No Longer Disturb Anyone"

In 1994, when Critical Art Ensemble first introduced the idea and a possible model of electronic civil disobedience (ECD) as another option for digital resistance, the collective had no way of knowing what elements would be the most practical, nor did it know what elements would require additional explanation. After nearly five years of field testing of ECD by various groups and individuals, its information gaps have become a little more obvious and can finally be addressed.

• civil disobedience

Subject: txt-tracks 1-5 from techNet, uk 

gruesse von ELEKTRO
From: Pit Schultz
Status: RO
Techno: Psycho-Social Tumult

The Corona Reboot 

An attempt to provisionally theorize the emergence of new subjectivities in the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic.

• theory,
• biopolitics,
• ecology,
• earth systems,
• virus

Hollaback #Harassmentis 

What is Hollaback?
The real motive of street harassment is intimidation. To make its target scared or uncomfortable, and to make the harasser feel powerful. But what if there was a simple way to take that power away by exposing it? You can now use your smartphone to do just that by documenting, mapping, and sharing incidents of street harassment. Join an entire community ready to Hollaback!

• activism,
• public space,
• social justice,
• street harassment

We are all Khaled Said 

Against torture in Egypt and inhuman treatment of Egyptians in their own country

"It's Khaled Said...
He is a 28 years old Egyptian who was tortured and killed by two policemen in the street where he lived in Alexandria, Egypt. Khaled's death further exposed the Egyptian police brutality and their systematic torture of Egyptians. Khaled died, but many Egyptians have become alive where his picture has now become the symbol of Egyptians' struggle for their rights and freedom."

• activism,
• state repression,
• middle east