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<font face="Arial" size="+0" color="#4C4C4C" style="font-family:Arial;font-size:12pt;color:#4C4C4C;">comments on trebor's essay, and then connecting to brian's reply.<br>
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Thanks for starting us off with this insightful essay. </font><font face="Arial" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family:Arial;font-size:12pt;color:#000000;"><a href="http://collectivate.net/journalisms/2005/12/5/activism-now.html" target="_blank">http://collectivate.net/journalisms/2005/12/5/activism-now.html</a><br>
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2 thngs: not sure what this means:<br>
"The centers of power are<br>
now distributed. Deviance is about hot bodies and the dark fiber of cold<br>
cables. Resistance is about the "streets," about demonstrations,<br>
door-to-door grassroots campaigns, in-flesh sit-ins, and other affective<br>
manifestations of contestational presence." <br>
<br>
say more about hot bodies and dark fiber and what this really means or how it plays out and which bodies?<br>
<br>
On the other hand this i clearly understand as a praxis and applaud:"Each context requires a different<br>
language. The question of activism is obviously not new. Cooperation<br>
enhancing technologies have somewhat shifted the debate recently. Camps now<br>
also divide in pro-or-con technology, which is unuseful. We should support<br>
extreme sharing networks wherever we come to encounter them....<br>
"Such social<br>
networks I call extreme sharing networks (derived from the concept of<br>
extreme programming). They allow access to a distributed talent pool and<br>
associated resources. Just in the spirit Peter Kropotkin people provide<br>
mutual aid to each other. They can create visibility for discourses and<br>
artworks that would otherwise be overlooked. They can inspire younger<br>
generations of artists by exposing them to ideas and art projects. They have<br>
the ability to respond to issues in a fast, and flexible way. They shape<br>
expectations. But such extreme sharing networks are not alternatives or<br>
heads on opposition to institutions. Such alternative social networks can't<br>
claim snow-white innocence. They are fluid. They are inside and out of brick<br>
and mortar institutions." <br>
<br>
i think this describes need well. <br>
<br>
<br>
holmes then writes:<br>
</font><font face="Arial" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family:Arial;font-size:12pt;color:#000000;">"Resistance is cultural. It's about ideas, it's about <br>
feelings. ..<br>
</font><font face="Arial" size="+0" color="#4C4C4C" style="font-family:Arial;font-size:12pt;color:#4C4C4C;"><br>
</font><font face="Arial" size="+0" color="#000000" style="font-family:Arial;font-size:12pt;color:#000000;">"Change <br>
countries, keep a line into wilder places. Produce culture, <br>
create latency, pay attention to process, keep the free <br>
spaces free. The next wave is gathering. Que ondas? Life <br>
comes in oscillations. Culture holds the rising curve."<br>
<br>
which makes me think of my heated conversation at the re-activism conference in budapest last month with new media artist Petko Dourmana (interspace mdia art center) who strongly objected (in light of cold war histories in eastern europe)during a culture jamming session that art should not even be in conversation with politics, the twain do not meet, and that north america cannot produce a resistance move to save its life. i disagreed.<br>
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on a related note, i am trying to understand the kinds of publics which are in fact being created in intermedial spaces. sara diamond [and by the way her talk with physicists to close the code zebra show was really interesting] just said [at this sylvere lotringer and mark kingwell debate in TO at the drake last week, as the white boys were discussing whether art is dead and whether that is the question and the illusions of outside of ...capital?] that irony is not an adequate response to the crises of our times. lotringer said "humor is, but not irony which is always top-down."<br>
<br>
what is the purpose and function of irony in moments of political repression? that is my current question regarding tactics and secret meetings.<br>
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