For Those Within From Those Abroad is a public presentation of works created during this Fall’s class Artistic Intervention: Creative Responses to Conflict and Crisis. Two group projects on view explore the notion of a gift as a way of responding to situations of conflict and crises from afar. The students specifically address the people of Minami Sanriku that were severely effected by the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in the Tohoku region of Japan. Please join us in E15-001 (The Cube) on December 5 between 7 and 9 pm to see the gifts produced and the context behind them. MIT Program in Art, Culture and CONTINUE…
There are many interesting aspects of Amar Kanwar’s work that can be discussed in the context of Zones of Emergency, but I’d like to focus on just one: his use of highly spatialized, multichannel presentation of video and audio. As I’ve only viewed documentation of these works I’ve written a framework below as a speculative look into this aspect of his practice from the perspective of someone who has been using similar methods in sound. If an artist tackles a subject with practical urgency, such as the humanitarian situation in Burma as Kanwar has, the formalizing impulse can often become CONTINUE…
This is a working document. Our team is developing this project and the method of its exhibition for the Zones of Emergency seminar. Team members are Daniela Covarrubias, Jenine Kotob, Adrian Melia, Micah Silver, and kswick. Introduction: Our team has been presented with a difficult challenge, requiring the greatest level of finesse and delicacy: we need to provide the people of Minami Sanriku a gift, a gift that would provide for them on opportunity to reflect on the tragedy they survived and a hope for the future of their families and their community. To begin working towards this goal, we CONTINUE…
Nov 162011
In our first group meeting I bring two things, first think in Minami Sanriku as former fishing village and the fish as an important character for the town in terms of what it represent, and potential to use that particular character “The Fish” in a fictional or real way in order to develop a project around him. The other contribution was a collection of updated information from a local website of Minami Sanriku, in order to have more idea of what is the real scenario in the town at the moment, in the website they show different social activities like CONTINUE…
Nov 162011
For our final project, my group has been working towards proposing a ritual or festival as a way of enabling the people of Minami Sanriku to map out their emotional landscape as they work to rebuild their physical infrastructure that has been destroyed. As my group members have already mentioned, our proposed ritual starts with a return from the hills back to the town in the lowlands. Starting with a sound signal, the people will retrieve balloons from the hillside and walk to the locations at which their memories are strongly tied. While the sun is up, they can mark CONTINUE…
Nov 162011
Our group project is a time-based event, a festival or collective ritual that stitches our individual ideas as one facet of a structure to be enacted, filled, and altered by people tied together by a traumatic event. For me it was important to avoid engaging directly with relief-work in a traditional sense, and also to avoid engaging with conventional modes of explicitly socially valuable artistic production. In most cases this work maintains an air and ethical rationale of institutionalized social service or concrete financial or material benefits. I think it is clear that art projects can in some CONTINUE…
Nov 162011
Working on the kid’s storytelling kit for the final proposal and exhibition, my contribution lies in the creation of the costume pieces and larger props, including sketching, designing, and gathering materials. Working with Faye and Giacomo, we have been sketching and designing the costume and the prop pieces to ensure a consistent visual language and aesthetic throughout the pieces. Working in a group began as an intimidating task. As a group focusing more with culture and people, the form of our project arose organically; the project has become an amalgam of all of our interests and strengths. As with any CONTINUE…
Nov 162011
http://books.google.com/books?id=R7M2kS7Q-68C&lpg=PA9&ots=tpM-hamjBR&dq=a%20feminist%20ethic%20of%20risk&lr&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false This is a book from the 80s that was used as a teaching text for a Social Ethics course I took as an undergrad at Wesleyan University. It made an enormous impact on me and I’ve started to re-read it as many of the issues discussed in this class brought me to remember fragments of this text. The first 22 pages are online at the link above. Page 13 sums up it’s premise: “What does it mean to act ethically in a world of expediency, to stand for justice in a world of exploitation, to act with compassion CONTINUE…
Nov 162011
BBC Article “We’re celebrating them as they go to work and explaining that art is not just a photograph or a sculpture or a painting – it is this choreographed set of balloons as they spread throughout the city.” – US artist, Yazmany Arboleda
Nov 162011
Minami Sanriku, a former fishing village, was destroyed in March of 2011 by the Tohoku Earthquake and subsequent tsunami. Buildings were completely demolished, cars and trucks were moved from one side of the village to another, friends and loved ones were lost, and survivors are now scarred for life by the significant trauma. How does one overcome these traumas? Perhaps, the process of recovery begins with the ability to share one’s experiences, to speak up, and be listened to. There needs to be a platform or framework developed that allows for a dialogue between speaker and listener. The conversation can CONTINUE…
Nov 162011
As a team, we are invested in providing the community with the framework for a ritual in which they can take an active role in remembering the places of significance within their former built environment. By providing a method with which they can physically revisit and retrace the spaces that held meaning for them before the destruction, we are allowing them to truly personalize the process of memorializing. The individual act and the aggregation of those acts into a large group becomes the memorial. Rather than instantiating the memory in a single static form, the memory is preserved through a CONTINUE…
Nov 162011
“I’d like to suggest <THERE IS A VILLAGE> for a title of our project.” This first sentence shows both one of my main tasks in our project and direction we’re heading to. I’m a person who enjoys listening to others’ saying as a way of figuring out them. I believe people need to have enough time to listen to one another before mentioning on whatever is relevant to others. I’m also a person who tends to make some words “we” can use together. I would say this position can be likened to a thinker or a choreographer. Thinker conceptualizes individual’s CONTINUE…
In Water for Life, James Wescoat, a historian, geographer, and landscape architect, discusses the interplay between water and human activity, specifically the interrelationship of water’s role in both social and environmental systems. He believes that water has four main functions in systems that are undisturbed by humans, and has different functions in systems that are affected by and that support human activity. He then discusses eight “milestones” that have taken place over time in water management, beginning with water from natural sources to building structures like dams and irrigation systems to today considering the consequences of those systems. However, he CONTINUE…
Nov 092011
I really enjoy the text Realising Voices, reclaiming Power, The personal and collective potential of voice, as an example of a collective medium that include the experience of the personal and collective body through sound and voices as a powerful tools of exchange. After reading the text immediately came to my mind an experience a had in 2005 with an art piece or collaborative performance Murphy Canyon Choir in a military-housing complex in San Diego, when the Canadian artist Althea Thauberger work with eight military spouse to compose and perform a choral event. “Her project Murphy Canyon Choir (2005) is especially revealing in this respect. Commissioned CONTINUE…
Nov 092011
Stella McGregor’s lecture on Monday reminded me of a similar program in St. Louis called City Faces. I had the pleasure of having Bob as a professor. /// City Faces works with children, teenagers, and young adults living in public housing in inner St. Louis. Since the 1993, the program has been run by Bob Hansman, a professor in the architecture school at Washington University in St. Louis, whose goal is “to change the course of the children’s lives by offering art as one alternative to selling drugs and becoming involved in gangs, and to teach kids employable skills to better CONTINUE…
Nov 072011
To remember the victims from New Jersey who died during the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the state of New Jersey recently opened the memorial “Empty Sky” at Liberty State Park in Jersey City. The memorial site is directly across the Hudson River from “Ground Zero” in Manhatten. It consists of “two 30-foot-high rectangular towers that stretch 208 feet, 10 inches long— the exact width of the World Trade Center towers” with a walkway inbetween so that visitors can read the names of those who died in the attacks inscribed on the stainless steel towers. The walls are CONTINUE…
Nov 072011
On April 12th of this year, various members of the Urbano Project exhibited their works at Violence Transformed at the Massachusetts State House. Violence Transformed this year included performances from Urbano’s spoken word teen curators, Pedro Reyes’s Palas Por Pistolas, and many pieces from Urbano’s young artists. The event embodies the idea of using art as a form of empowerment and a way to address issues in the world around us. Here, the pieces of the Urbano Project focused on violence and how it permeates the lives of teens living in the Boston urban environment. Art Voice Empowerment CONTINUE…
Nov 062011
“The physical voice is an expression of our social voice and through its use, we either reinforce or shift our sense of power” -Heather Chetwynd, “Releasing Voices, Reclaiming Power: The Personal and Collective Power of Voice” Chetwynd, in her article, discusses the role of liberating one’s physical voice to galvanize people to act and to express their thoughts. Her connection between the vocal and the ability for activism raises the general question: how can any form of voice prompt action, provoke people to release their thoughts and opinions to the public? We use the term voice to describe an author, CONTINUE…
Nov 022011
This is a cross posting of a short interview of Lucy Walker by Koji Steven on 8Asians What is the significance of the title, The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom? The title is really literal – because the film is truly about the tsunami and also about sakura, the Japanese word for cherry blossom. But I like the title because it sounds a bit like a fable, and in a way the film is very simple but profound like a fable. I actually had trouble picking between a couple of different titles, so I asked my friends on Facebook to help me choose, CONTINUE…
Nov 012011
Zainab Salbi is the founder of Women for Women International. A network that provides the possibility for women of war-torn countries to develop relationships through the exchange of letters with women in the United States. These letters offer women who often go unheard in the midst of war with the opportunity to share their stories, and in effect help in the healing process post war. Salbi’s model has proven to be successful, and can be seen as a simple tool that solves the issue of post-trauma silence. I have shared a link to a video of Salbi speaking on TED. CONTINUE…
Oct 312011
I’d like to reflect on the readings and promotional material about WASTELAND in two ways: focusing on its tactical framing and its meaning/message. Tactical Framing As Faye has introduced, one of the central intricacies of any tactical intervention is its inevitable affect on the communities in which it intervenes. Many interventions are oriented towards affecting the subject community; perhaps the intervention is meant to raise awareness about an internal problem within a community or frustrate the inner-workings of a questionable institution. Other interventions are oriented towards raising awareness about a victimized community to outsiders that might have the ability to CONTINUE…
Oct 312011
Waste Land (2010) – Official Trailer [HD] – YouTube. The impetus to help is a sentiment that many people, especially Americans, experience when acknowledging the disparity that fellow human beings face throughout the world. There exist gaps between American standards of living and human rights in comparison to many other countries. People respond to these inequalities in different ways—volunteering, going on missionary trips, and sending money to charity organizations are just a few examples of involvement. Artistic intervention is also used to address these issues. Despite well-placed intentions, however, the notion of “helping” others can be quite the loaded subject. CONTINUE…
Oct 272011
Check out this amazing project. How do we make a monument active? I believe this project does it successfully. http://www.gerz.fr/html/main.html?res_ident=5a9df42460494a34beea361e835953d8&art_ident=e796072e25c4df21a6a3a262857e6d3f With the help of Germany’s then 61 Jewish communities, a list was compiled of all the Jewish cemeteries that were in use in the country before the Second World War. The names of these 2,146 cemeteries were engraved on an equal number of paving stones, which were removed from the alley crossing the square in front of the Saarbrücken Castle, the seat of the Provincial Parliament. Initially, the work was carried out without a commission, in secret and illegally. The CONTINUE…
Oct 262011
A Reminder that every crisis irreversibly changes the lives of those affected http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15437414 On Sunday, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit southeast Turkey, and rescue teams are working to find survivors and care for the thousands that were injured. Already, BBC News reports that there have been more than 260 reported deaths and likely more. News outlets across the world are showing videos and images of buildings torn to the ground, families mourning and searching for their loved ones, and rescue teams working to find survivors buried under debris and rubble. Although on a smaller scale than the Japan earthquake earlier CONTINUE…
Monday — 10.24.11 — Necropolitics of Radiation and the Struggle CONTENTS: 1. About this Monday 2. Films 3. Participants 4. Suggested Readings 4.1 Dystopia of Civil Society / Part 1 and 2 4.2 Notes on the 4.5 Great Kamagasaki Oppression and Nuclear Power Industry 4.3 Must We Rebuild Their Anthill? A Letter to/for Japanese Comrades 4.4 An Elementary Algebra of Common Goods and Evils 4.5 Soil and Farmers 5. links __________________________________________________ 1. About this Monday What: Films & Discussion When: Monday — 10.24.11 @ 7:00PM Where: 16 Beaver Street, 4th Floor Who: Free and open to all In many ways, CONTINUE…
Moore’s law and the Internet have dramatically reduced the cost of producing and distributing information. This has greatly lowered the cost of collaboration and has empowered a qualitatively different “public” to think, express, and act without, or in spite of, central authority. These changes and advances in technology enabled interventions such as low-cost video cameras in the case of WITNESS; blogs (Global Voices); or open hardware and software used to build, distribute, collect and visualize data from geiger counters (Safecast). Ito will discuss how these trends relate to media, citizenship, academics, and conflicts. Joichi Ito was named Director of the CONTINUE…
Oct 122011
An article from the Guardian this week describes how unions and anti-capitalist campaigners in South Africa are protesting the upcoming takeover of the Massmart supermarket chain by Walmart, currently the largest grocer in the United States. The protesters “fear job losses, the livelihoods of local producers and Walmart’s reputation for being anti-union and, allegedly, aggressive in its dealings with staff and competitors.” It will be interesting to see what happens when this case is heard by the tribunal at the end of October, although, as the article suggests, it seems unlikely that a deal long in the making will CONTINUE…
tess thackara, director, survival international (USA) lecture at ACT: september 26, 2011 popularizing the fight for indigenous rights: how using films and images can shift public opinion and change history respondent: ute meta bauer, act associate professor, MIT This lecture explores the work and methodology of human rights group Survival International, with a particular focus on the group’s efforts to generate a groundswell of support for tribal people all over the world. Using Survival films and campaigns as case studies, the lecture will focus on the need to popularize the narrative surrounding indigenous land rights. Tess Thackara directs the USA CONTINUE…
El Puente_lab is a production platform for art and culture. Their objectives are “develop cultural projects on a local level, building bridges of communication with artists and experts through a strategy of international cooperation. The projects developed by el puente_lab meet the specific needs of the social context where they are carried out, using artistic creativity as a tool of activation of cultural projects that initiate, facilitate and/or accompany processes of education, communication and urban and social transformation.” http://globalvoicesonline.org/2011/10/04/colombia-el-puente_lab-making-a-difference-in-moravia-medellin/
The Cooper Union Interdisciplinary Seminar is presenting talks by members of the Occupy Wall Street movement. 6:00 pm | Zuccotti Park (Broadway between Liberty and Cedar Streets) “On September 17th thousands of people gathered in the financial district of lower Manhattan in order to occupy Wall Street. The occupation settled in Zuccotti Park indefinitely, with hundreds sleeping in the park each night and many more passing through each day to take part in general assemblies, marches, working committees, informal discussions, and meals. The Interdisciplinary Seminar has, in the last twelve years, been a space for open dialogue between invited speakers CONTINUE…
Oct 032011
Museveni’s grip on Uganda – An op-ed in today’s Boston Globe on Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s critique of criticism, by Jackee Budesta Batanda. Jackee Budesta Batanda is a visiting student of Artistic Interventions – Creative Responses to Conflict and Crises and the 2011-2012 Elizabeth Neuffer fellow at the Centre for International Studies at MIT.
Oct 032011
In response to Jack Persekian’s work, I wondered how far the limits of expression could go in retaliation against injustices without leading to action taken against the artist. I stumbled across the work of artist, JR, who is the recent winner of the TED prize 2011. In the following video, you can see the different areas of the world where JR installs extremely large photographs of people on buildings, houses, roofs, etc. These images portray the very essence of what it means to be human, even in spite of the destruction that surrounds us. In the case of Israel and CONTINUE…
Oct 022011
Jack Persekian’s dismissal as director of the Sharjah Art Foundation following an exhibition that the government and community viewed was an attack on Islam and the community is another pointer to artistic expression under attack. In her blog post, Christine Donley reports, “The dismissal reportedly centers around a work by Algerian Artist Mustapha Benfodil. It has No Importance featured headless mannequins in soccer uniforms staged in a parody of a football match, that incorporated texts from stories, folk songs, jokes, urban legends, and graffiti culled from Algerian popular culture. Before the work was removed, it was on display in a CONTINUE…
Oct 022011
Jack Persekian’s controversial work as curator for the Sharjah Art Foundation has stirred conversation in the international art community and has received extreme reactions from the Sharjah government. On one hand Persekian has served the artistic community by fostering an environment that allows for freedom of expression using art as a medium. On the other hand, the collected art also led to the removal of Persekian from his position as head curator for the Foundation. One specific piece called It has no Importance by Algerian artist Mustapha Benfodil, was seen as the “straw that broke the camels back” – because CONTINUE…
Oct 012011
I stumbled on this interview and thought it was relevant for us in considering the dilemma of our role as “givers”. Some interesting insight on giving. (the first half of the interview)
Oct 012011
A conflict or symptom of other conflicts (2011) selected by Sei (first year graduate in a.c.t program) * 2083: A European Declaration of Independence (by Anders Behring Breivik) Excerpts from 1,500-page Norway terrorist’s manifesto (By REUTERS) (link from arabnews.com) Norway killer’s manifesto praises Japan for not adopting multiculturalism (japantoday.com) Norwegian Terror Suspect said “I have nothing to do with Jesus” (christiantoday.co.kr) Is Christian fundamentalist label correct for norway terror suspect? * As They Happened: England Riots 2011 England Riots (wikipedia.org) London Riots: Live Skype Interview With London’s Finest (What It Means To Black & British) Live Riot Map, CONTINUE…
Sep 302011
“The 3.75-mile dam will displace 30,000 river dwellers, partially dry up a 62-mile stretch of the Xingu river, and flood large areas of forest and grass land.” Those “river dwellers” = indigenous tribes. The dam will be comparable to China’s notorious Three Gorges, the largest dam in the world. Read the articles here and here. Farre Nixon, 09/30/11
Sep 292011
This is a cross-post from Critical.Org that sheds some light on art and commerce as we talked about in class. Dear Levi’s, I love your pants but… Sarah Witt is a close friend of mine. She recently received an email from someone speaking on behalf of Levi’s, asking her to be interviewed and profiled on a website called Shape What’s to Come, supposely an iniative to mentor and empower young women. Sarah considered it because she is generous with her time and as a female artist that understand the world’s inqualities, she of course wants to help empower young woman as CONTINUE…
Sep 292011
Below is an excerpt from my blog, loveandfashism.blogspot.com, that I found incredibly relevant after addressing crisis and conflict. Conflict is profitable, as the stark juxtaposition in the entry below may suggest: April 2011–Peppered with business savvy folk of all ethnicities, the Emirates Air Basra flight surprised me a little. Once Iraq’s most romantic riverside town, Basra is a governance in Southern Iraq located on water and oil. Having been warned of potential danger, I was told to stick to my second tongue of Iraqi dialect Arabic. Yet, this plane had business men from China, Eastern Europe, India, and America. I was baffled. I CONTINUE…
Sep 292011
![[ipa] investigating crisis](http://zonesofemergency.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/thumb-cache/c575f3758c66d6fc5348286caf5dc2f0-515e10c3659754c100e9edb43dd9b4a3-129x200-6-nocrop.png)
contested space case study [Quoted from previous project proposal] http://ipacambridge.com/ Current Initiative: The Institute for Profitable Art, an art startup – residency at the CIC Introduction: We are happy to announce that we’ve secured our curatorial residency at the Cambridge Innovation Center! So on to the innovation! Until the end of Summer 2011, our head curator, kswick, will be setting up shop at least once a week in the CIC’s “Co-Working Space,” a space where small start-ups can work in an office setting with minimal commitment of capital and time to establishing a permanent office; clients of this section of CONTINUE…
Sep 292011
![[ipa] profiting from crisis](http://www.nowtoronto.com/_assets/daily/news5_4685.jpg)
for SALE: protest kits I’m interested in creating a “protest kit” for use in civil disobedience and selling it to protesters in upcoming protests locally. This kit will be in the same vein as DIY kits and/or instructions made available by artists, activists, NGO’s, etc. Examples: G20 Toronto Protest Kit “DON’T FORGET TO BRING ALONG A FUN ATTITUDE AND TEDDY WITH YOUR TEAR GAS REPELLENT” September 15 Protest Kit and Shop Planning or attending a protest in your area? Here are some resources to help you make an impact on September 15. Organize Locally Shirts, Slogans & Signs Synchronize Make CONTINUE…
Sep 282011
Through and art exhibition in Tijuana in 2008 Named Proyecto cívico /Civic Project, I get in intrigued by a concept “State of Exception” from the Italian political Philosopher Giorgio Agamben. I think in the context of this class when we are trying to define and expand the definition of conflict, crisis and emergency the concept of State of Exception also designated state of emergency can play an important role in expanding the definition. State of Exception (2005) “In this book, Agamben traces the concept of ‘state of exception‘ (Ausnahmezustand) used by Carl Schmitt to Roman justitium and auctoritas. This leads CONTINUE…
Sep 282011
The question of what constitutes conflict and crisis today is perhaps most critically defined by the difficulty in finding the limits of that very definition. Of course there are large scale events and situations that are undeniable as conflicts or crises, but our day-to-day experiences are also filled with individual moments of conflict and crisis. So where do we draw the line between the extraordinary and the ordinary? What determines which conflicts and crises deserve priority over the others? Is it simply a matter of scale? Or the number of people affected? We have a tendency to focus on extreme CONTINUE…
Sep 282011
In order for us to address crisis victims via artistic interventions, we must first fully understand the terminology of “crisis” and the implications, methodologies, histories, and speculations surrounding it. Comments and discussion are welcome and appreciated! Understanding and Interpreting Crises: Some Definitions What are the defining characteristics of a crisis? Disruptive (ex: earthquake) Heightens levels of risk and uncertainty (ex: viral epidemics) Threatens present standards of living, security, freedom, or aspirations (ex: rising national unemployment levels) Finite thresholds at risk of being breached (ex: ozone layer levels) Need for immediate human intervention in a preventative or reparative capacity (ex: CONTINUE…
Sep 282011
The Oxford English Dictionary defines crisis as: A vitally important or decisive stage in the progress of anything; a turning point; also a state of affairs in which a decisive change for better or worse is imminent; now applied especially to times of difficulty, insecurity and suspense in politics or commerce. We see crisis as a state where great turmoil has shattered and interrupted the lives of individuals. Often crisis stems from political and economic turmoil but also a natural disaster. Crisis often involve great brutality and oppression, poverty and a threat to survival, and overall, a great loss of CONTINUE…
Sep 282011
A creative summit is being held in New York City that celebrates 20 years worth of socially engaged art. Dates: September 24 – October 16, 2011 Where: Essex Street Market Living as Form Living as Form: Socially Engaged Art from the Last 20 Years from creativetime on Vimeo.
Sep 272011
Music, being a common language, is used by this group to promote peace in a contested area. Al Kamandjati was developed in 2002 by Ramzi Aburedwan teaches music to Palestinian children throughout the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and parts of Lebanon. Teachers from all over the world, meet in this zone of emergency, and provide these otherwise silent protesters, with an opportunity to express themselves through music. Finally, the students have an outlet – a moment where they can forget the war torn area they live in, and enjoy first class lessons in music. The organization is also CONTINUE…
Sep 262011
In an attempt to dissect and analyze Freud’s discussion of melancholia and mourning, Judith Butler in Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence, addresses this idea of a, “hierarchy of grief.” We live in a society so engulfed in war and death that so quickly decides the value of one human life and so easily dismisses the sacredness of another. Media outlets tend to lump and calculate overseas death tolls for certain regions of the world, and not others. We decide what groups deserve a lengthy broadcast that clearly depicts their loss and touches on our need to grieve CONTINUE…
Sep 262011
This lecture explores the work and methodology of human rights group Survival International, with a particular focus on the group’s efforts to generate a groundswell of support for tribal people all over the world. Using Survival films and campaigns as case studies, the lecture will focus on the need to popularize the narrative surrounding indigenous land rights. Tess Thackara directs the USA office of Survival International, whose major campaign successes include the Indian government banning aluminum giant Vedanta Resources from mining the sacred lands of the Dongria Kondh tribe in 2010, and the High Court of Botswana’s affirming the Bushmen’s CONTINUE…
Sep 262011
To me, a zone of emergency is a location that has been affected by a debilitating crisis and needs cultural restoration to help regrowth and rebuilding. As a physics major, I have taken a history of physics class and learned about the Manhattan Project and the thoughts and emotions behind the atomic bomb from the side of US physicists. Unfortunately, I have not learned about anything that was done culturally to help rebuild Japan or support the civilians there who were devastated by the aftermath of the nuclear bombings. This information is overshadowed by the death toll and the fact CONTINUE…
Credit: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/26/us-africa-famine-idUSTRE76P1A220110726 Crisis begin more often with ideas than actions. Actions substantiate the circumstances implied by an idea. One example is American Exceptionalism. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_exceptionalism American Exceptionalism fuels US foreign policy and domestic self-image unconsciously, while framing the global psychological and philosophical position of the country. It functions as an enabler for influence and intervention by shifting the frame of judgement for our actions from practical implications and measurable outcomes to emotion, belief, and rhetoric. ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// One of the most damning paradoxes of the USA’s efforts to spread it’s style of democracy globally is the fact the USA imprisons a higher percentage CONTINUE…
Sep 252011
Website as a platform and Network of this kind of websites 01. OVERLAP is a network platform that provides a space of reunion and screening for audiovisual researchers dealing with the theoretical, ethical and aesthetical questions of representation and subjectivity. http://vimeo.com/groups/overlap 02. Archives Documentary Educational Resources http://der.org/ National Anthropological Archives http://www.nmnh.si.edu/naa/index.htm
Sep 252011
04. Indigenous Media Public Sphere Project is to help create and support equitable and effective public spheres all over the world. http://www.publicsphereproject.org/drupal/ http://www.publicsphereproject.org/drupal/node/254 Indigenous Action Media was founded on August 25th, 2001 to provide strategic media support and action to directly address issues impacting Indigenous communities. http://www.indigenousaction.org/ Global Indigenous Media (Pamela Wilson, Michelle Stewart, 2008) http://www.dukeupress.edu/Catalog/ViewProduct.php?productid=16275 In this exciting interdisciplinary collection, scholars, activists, and media producers explore the emergence of Indigenous media: forms of media expression conceptualized, produced, and created by Indigenous peoples around the globe. Whether discussing Maori cinema in New Zealand or activist community radio CONTINUE…
Sep 252011
01. Yes, I know there are absolute urgent situations all over the world. I would say, however, zones of emergency may exist only from the perspective of people who are able to feel a sense of emergency. In terms of this, multimedia can play a crucial role as a way of making knowledge, which helps people figure out co-existing but unknown worlds. ‘The beautiful, breathtaking Human Planet footage allows us a tiny window on the lives of an uncontacted tribe. Watching it is quite overwhelming, and amazing numbers of people who have seen it have been moved to take action to protect CONTINUE…
Sep 252011
Where is the tribal voice? We publicize the thoughts and voices of tribal peoples and consider them our partners. We provide a platform for tribal representatives to talk directly to an international audience. We help tribal representatives talk face-to-face with companies and organizations violating their rights. We do not claim to represent tribal peoples, unless they ask us to. How do we achieve our objectives? We investigate the atrocities committed against tribal peoples. We are in direct, personal contact with hundreds of tribal organizations and communities (as well as many others) which give us information. These contacts are, where CONTINUE…
United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Adopted by General Assembly Resolution 61/295 on 13 September 2007 The General Assembly, Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, and good faith in the fulfilment of the obligations assumed by States in accordance with the Charter, Affirming that indigenous peoples are equal to all other peoples, while recognizing the right of all peoples to be different, to consider themselves different, and to be respected as such, Affirming also that all peoples contribute to the diversity and richness of civilizations and cultures, which constitute CONTINUE…
Survival International is a human rights organization formed in 1969 that campaigns for the rights of indigenous tribal peoples and uncontacted peoples, seeking to help them to determine their own future. Their campaigns generally focus on tribal peoples’ fight to keep their ancestral lands, culture and their own way of living. (wikipedia.org) Other Organizations that struggle for indigenous rights Friends of Peoples Close to Nature http://www.naturvoelker.org Cultural Survival http://www.culturalsurvival.org/ Interview with Survival Internationals US Director: Tess Thackara http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gErHmejy6T4
I saw this video maybe a year ago, is a video/investigation produced by Bernardo Roca Rey and Hernando de Soto, Research Director Ana Lucía Camaiora, A Becket Films LLC and Institute for Liberty and Democracy Production. The Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto focused during his carrier in developing economic strategies to empower the marginal people to benefit from their own land, in the cities like Lima he addressed the informal housing problems through legal property rights. In this video he explore and present similar approach but to the indigenous and tribal population of the Peruvian Amazon.
Sep 212011
After reading a couple articles from the website of Tess Thakara, Survival International, an organization working for tribal peoples’ rights worldwide, and environmental issues. I was intrigued by an article about “uncontacted Indians From Peru”, as Peruvian I am aware of several cases of tribal’s population being threatened not only by oil and mining foreign companies but by their own Peruvian government interested in develop and exploiting their lands to export their natural resources at any cost. After reading the article about “Uncontacted indians from Peru” I remembered a you tube video when the ex president of Peru Alan Garcia, who was a CONTINUE…
Sep 212011
Crisis via conflict Layla Shaikley, Baghdad A photo journal// The term crisis is often referred to in a plethora of ways–the outcome of war is often defined as a crisis, water shortages fall under the scope of crises, and one may have an identity crisis. A crisis refers to intense difficulty or trouble. To analogize between Newtonian physics, crisis to the 3rd Law of Motion is the reaction to conflict. To narrow my scope, I will focus on crisis in conflict. To use the example that pertains directly to my field of study, the subject is the most CONTINUE…
This is a cross posting from Network for Historical Materials, 09/04/2011 By Ikuyo Numura, a secondary school teacher and a researcher of the medieval history and women history I still remember the stains whose colours were just like the strawberry and lemon syrup. I participated in the voluntary operation in the secretariat office of the Miyagi Network for Preserving Historical Materials in Tohoku University, Sendai City from 8th to 9th of August. On the morning on 8th, I headed to the Centre for Northeast Asian Studies by bus which was full of students who weren’t on summer vacation yet, but I CONTINUE…
Sep 032011
Memorial objects collected amongst debris by volunteers and the Japan Self-Defense Forces. Tens of thousands of these objects, including photos, trophies and funerary tablets are cleaned and displayed at the Iritani Junior High School in Minamisanriku. Notice given out at the the entrance (translated from Japanese): We are holding the exhibition of memorial objects! “It’s been long time since the last exhibition of memorial objects which was held from May 28th to June 5th. Now we are back, as the details shown below. This exhibition projects is what Mayor Sato proposed – he knew that everyone was suffering from the CONTINUE…
