Outer 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.
March 2003
Democracy can be understood in two notably distinct ways. In the institutional view democracy is understood as the interplay of institutional actors that represent 'the people' and are held accountable through the plebiscite; public votes, polls and occasionally referenda. The second view on democracy is radically different in that it sees the extent to which people can freely assemble, discuss and share ideas about vital social issues, organise themselves around these issues, and can freely voice their opinions in public fora, as a measure for just how democratic a given society is.
Facial Weaponization Suite protests against biometric facial recognition–and the inequalities these technologies propagate–by making "collective masks" in community-based workshops that are modeled from the aggregated facial data of participants, resulting in amorphous masks that cannot be detected as human faces by biometric facial recognition technologies.
ReadFollowing the September 2009 roundtable conference organised by the World Information Institute in New York, the follow-up publication will be presented on Thursday April 15 at the New School University. The book launch hosted by Ted Byfield,
with remarks by Marco Deseriis (NYU), Steve Kurtz (Critical Art
Ensemble), Andy Bichlbaum (The Yes Men), Ken Wark (NSU), and Trebor
Scholz (NSU)
Wollman Hall, New School University, 65
West 11th St, 5th Floor, New York, NY.
6:30 - 8:15 pm
There is a last enterprise that might be undertaken. It would be to seek
experience at its source, or rather, above that decisive turn where,
taking a bias in the direction of our utility, it becomes properly human
experience. (Bergson, 1991: 184).
This text was written in July 2003, at the height of the tension on the border between India and Pakistan. Following elections in Pakistan, and in the Indian administered part of Kashmir, the two countries have agreed to de-escalate and troops on both sides are now on their way back to "peace time" positions. Relations between the two governments however, continue to be tense.
ReadCAPABLE OF cutting through time and space, the Internet offers a means of communication not previously dreamed of. It has created important new possibilities as it shrinks distances and provides an astounding volume and variety of information to those who have computer access. One result of these is the acceleration of the development of solidarity networks among peoples, regions, and countries. In Indonesia, it has even managed to help topple a strongman who, until his unscheduled resignation in May 1998, had been Asia's longest reigning postwar ruler. To Indonesia's powers that be, controlling the Internet has become close to being an obsession.
ReadShell is not going to forget lightly its misadventures with the Brent Spar. The Oil Major was taken by complete surprise when the Greenpeace campaign against sinking that former drill platform achieved its goals. What happened to Shell can in fact happen to any corporation. Loosing control of the situation as result of the activities of a pressure group has become a nightmare scenario for the modern multinational enterprise.
Read01. These are precarious times. These are eventful times. Let us note some of the symptoms of this instability. There is September 11,and the prospect of a new form of American empire that uses September11 as its pretext. There is the global stock market slide, triggered by the collapse of American tech stocks, which altered the lives of chip-makers in Korea and Coltan miners in the Congo. These are instances of what I call weird global media events. They are events because they are singular. They are media events because they happen in a vectoral space of communication. They are global media events because they call a world into being. They are weird global media events because they defy explanation. They subsume every explanation as mere ripples and eddies in their wake.
ReadThe twin phenomena of immediacy and of instantaneity are presently oneof the most pressing problems confronting political and militarystrategists alike. Real time now prevails above both real space and thegeosphere. The primacy of real time, of immediacy, over and above spaceand surface is a ~fait accompli~ and has inaugural value (ushers a newepoch). Something nicely conjured up in a (French) advertisementpraising cellular phones with the words: "Planet Earth has never beenthis small". This is a very dramatic moment in our relation with theworld and for our vision of the world.
ReadDisruption Network Institute:
Investigating the Kill Cloud
A new hub for investigations and empirical research on how artificial intelligence impacts new technologies of war, automated weapons, and networked warfare.
How 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.
ReadThe 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.
ReadFilmmaker and activist Gregg Bordowitz's passage through the
1980s mirrors the course of AIDS activism in that decade. From the very
first ACT up demonstration in New York to the triumphal storming of the
FDA headquarters outside Washington, DC, he deployed his art in the
battle against AIDS. Bordowitz leads off this two-issue series of
personal chronicles of the decade, recounting his experiences as an
activist and guerrilla filmmaker at the forefront of the fight.
"Art
does have the power to save lives, and it is this very power that must
be recognized, fostered, and supported in every way possible."
- Douglas Crimp, introduction to AIDS: Cultural Analysis/Cultural Activism (MIT Press, 1988)
DICTIONARY OF WAR is a collaborative platform for creating 100 concepts
on the issue of war, to be invented, arranged and presented by
scientists, artists, theorists and activists at four public, two-day
events in Frankfurt, Munich, Graz and Berlin. The aim is to create key
concepts that either play a significant role in current discussions of
war, have so far been neglected, or have yet to be created.
Webcasting often is seen as an alternative for experiments which would not be able to get a licence for ethertransmissions. The difficulty projects and broadcasting initiatives encounter when trying to get legal airspace has caused a limited view of the possibilities of working within the ether as such. It is already clear that connections between networks like the internet and the ether can be most interesting, but this is of course not the only reason to have a look at the possibilities of broadcasting more closely. The ether is still the easiest way to reach large numbers of people fast. We should always be aware it is there when we need it.
ReadWe've had the camcorder revolution. It made making videoprograms
cheaper. Audio-equipment is affordable, so radiomaking is possible for
a large amount of people too. So for a long time already the masses are
potential mediaproducers. There were only minor successes in accessing
the broadcast channels both legally and illegally. But the efficient
one-to-many distribution system (radio and tv) are chocked, regulated,
hard to get access to. The Internet having the capacity for streaming
media seems to promise new possibilities. Boundless access, for anyone
making radio, and maybe in the near future TV. Some are pessimistic,
and see these channels soon closed and regulated as well. What will
this streaming media look like and who will be streaming?
A Body for Cultures in Ruin
For Whom It May Concern,
We would like you to read this document and respond to this idea. It
was our wish and motivation to consider a format which could
accommodate certain situations in which countries and cultures find
themselves in these days. Ever increasingly, we are witnessing the
phenomena of ruined nation states, crashing financial markets and
bankrupt governments. So far, this is only interpreted in the usual
journalistic way of reporting the political and financial aspects of
the crises. But we, cultural workers, know better. It is only perceived
as 'news'. Arts and culture in this situation are the last to be
considered contemporary, sensitive instruments that could express the
'signs of the times'. First of all culture is a prime target of budget
cuts and this has become the only language in which officials can
speak. Art, by definition, is always in a defensive role and cannot
make demands. We do not like to further the culture of complaint, nor
is this the right time to dream up new utopias. We propose to radically
face current global economic forces. We want to intervene in their
sphere. Culture should not be left out: condemned to compensate for and
be at the receiving end of this trauma.
