[NetBehaviour] NetBehaviour Digest, Vol 119, Issue 2
Ana Valdés
agora158 at gmail.com
Thu Aug 30 15:30:04 CEST 2007
Renee, thank you for an optimistic and down to earth reflexion!!
I think you are right about wondering what kind of things generate
discourse or have impact in the media and the kind who don't.
I wrote about the eviction in London this morning of the squat or how
about the Algonquins in Canada are now resisting the Army who want to
give the enterprise Frontenac to dig for uran in Algonquin's land.
Or about the conference in Valencia of Women in Black. Or about the
women you tell in Amsterdam.
The mainstream media don't write about that kind of "activism", it
reaches only the people already subscribing to alternative news, but
it's unknown to unaware readers.
I live in Sweden, a country without organized activism, without
squats, where all activism is institutionalized by parties and
associations. The few squats, back in the 80:s, were evicted with
speed and the use of a enormous force.
It was in Gothemburg, in the riots against the G7 and the visit of
George W. Bush, where a young man was shot with live bullets and many
young people were hurt. In a country with a social democrat coalition
in the government.
How to generate discourse and make the alternative news known? A real challenge!
Ana
On 8/30/07, Renee Turner <geuzen at xs4all.nl> wrote:
> Hi Ana, Marc and Helen,
>
> This thread has really made me think about practices of resistance
> that generate discourse and those that don't.
>
> Recently, the group with which I collaborate (De Geuzen) was in
> Aberdeen and we worked with a group of women on a housing estate.
> These women meet once a week either to chat together about personal
> issues or they organize workshops with their social worker. Their
> workshops cover a wide range of concerns in their lives. For
> example, they have been taught their rights in terms of dealing with
> debt collectors (i.e.. what collectors can and cannot legally do),
> even how they can physically keep the door closed when someone
> forcibly tries to enter. They've also organized cooking classes that
> focussed on basic nutrition, and in the context of our workshop, we
> made commemorative plates of the women they most admired. What was
> striking when talking to them was that while the term "feminism" was
> noticeably absent in our discussions, in practice, it was palpably
> present everywhere.
>
> I guess what I'm trying to say is that I see feminism all around me
> even when it is not named as such. From Gillian Welch launching her
> own record label in the face of Nashville's macho country music
> industry, to prostitutes rights organizations in Amsterdam fighting
> for fair wages and safe working environments, to mother's of
> disabled children blogging about their experiences of being full-time
> caretakers.... Currently, there's a lot of inspirational "named" and
> "unnamed" feminisms going on.
>
> Is it enough? Never... .... but these practices certainly make
> attempts at raising awareness and evoking change....even if only on a
> small scale....... and I still believe ripples can make waves :-)
>
> Renee
> www.geuzen.org
>
>
> >
> > On 8/30/07, marc garrett <marc.garrett at furtherfield.org> wrote:
> >> Hi Helen Ana,
> >>
> >> I think that there are some very important differences which I
> >> believe
> >> you may have highlighted already, that still need to be considered in
> >> respect of Second Life in contrast to other, grass roots platforms
> >> such
> >> as Upstage and Visitorsstudio.
> >>
> >> There is a Sufi saying that says 'if you want to know what the
> >> purpose
> >> of what something is and why it really exits, consider all its
> >> functions
> >> and behaviours', and it seems to me that SL's main interest these
> >> days
> >> is economical and of course, this is fair enough.
> >>
> >> But what effect does it have on grass roots, communities and groups
> >> culturally and economically? All that energy that artists are
> >> spending
> >> inside these environments instead of building more potentially
> >> sustainable groups elsewhere must be having some kind of social
> >> effect,
> >> what are these effects and should we be concerned about this?
> >>
> >> Already we know that users are useful fodder to get social networking
> >> platforms incomes increased, so that larger conglomerates can buy
> >> them,
> >> takeovers by Google, Microsoft, Ebay and The Murdoch Industries
> >> for example.
> >>
> >> Perhaps, I expect too much in this world and am deluded and
> >> presume that
> >> people want more than just corporate parenting. tt is not easy
> >> building
> >> things from bottom up, sharing and constantly re-evaluating one's own
> >> position, whilst making room for others as a way of practice.
> >> Although,
> >> I do think that it offers value and qualities which far out way the
> >> 'spectacle' of SL and many of the other platforms. I sue some of
> >> these
> >> platforms myself such as StumbleUpon, Facebook - but I still feel
> >> that
> >> what I already share with others has something that is special and
> >> different and less disposable...
> >>
> >> marc
> >>> well i'd be interested except for being already over-committed
> >>> already in my own virtual factory ... : )
> >>>
> >>> i've also been participating in the empyre discussion on second life
> >>> & like you it isn't an environment that grabs me. it's been fun to
> >>> get to know it a bit better, & to do the gallery tours with
> >>> others; &
> >>> i'm really happy with my tail : ) but in terms of a creative
> >>> platform i'm much more comfortable & creative in UpStage or Visitors
> >>> Studio ...
> >>>
> >>> will be interesting to see what happens with SL.
> >>>
> >>> h : )
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>> Very funny, as an old activist (four years in jail, etc, etc), I am
> >>>> fully conscient nothing can be achieved by sheer will or alone.
> >>>> Bauhaus was the expression of a special time, the Weimar
> >>>> republic and
> >>>> it's contradictions, the Factory was the expression of Warhol
> >>>> carisma
> >>>> and his need of an arena for his own productions. We need other
> >>>> expressions and other arenas, I am discussing in -empyre the
> >>>> value of
> >>>> the new virtual worlds as frames for activism and art. Many
> >>>> argue than
> >>>> Second Life can transform itself to one of those creative hubs I
> >>>> long
> >>>> to, but I have been in SL several times and never been attracted to
> >>>> it, a bit too sterile and chic for me :)
> >>>> But I am game if someone is interested in a virtual or not
> >>>> virtual Bauhaus...
> >>>> Ana
> >>>>
> >>>> On 8/30/07, Helen Varley Jamieson <helen at creative-catalyst.com>
> >>>> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>>> please don't wait for it, make it happen if it's what you
> >>>>> really want ...
> >>>>>
> >>>>> h : )
> >>>>>
> >>>>>> I was in Faces myself, but never found it was useful to
> >>>>>> generate new
> >>>>>> thinking, it was most linking and socializing among women who
> >>>>>> knew
> >>>>>> each other. But it was not a great collaborative place...
> >>>>>> I think Marc's Furtherfield, Post.Thing, -empyre are this list
> >>>>>> are for
> >>>>>> me the places where I find myself most intellectual nutrition.
> >>>>>> Faces was (is?) most a linking to people's projects but not a
> >>>>>> discussion place.
> >>>>>> I am still waiting for a net Bauhaus, a net The Factory...
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>>> Ana
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>
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> >
> >
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Skarpnäcks Allé 45 ll tr
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"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth
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