[NetBehaviour] dismal news
Alan Sondheim
sondheim at panix.com
Thu Sep 3 18:31:17 CEST 2015
And even Canada -
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/09/03/drowned-syrian-toddlers-family-had-refugee-application-rejected/71628002/
I started to write a long reply to Ana and Gaza in relation to Auschwitz,
and decided to let it go; I only want to say I was in Israel very early
on, was shot at, had a knife pulled on me, and a restaurant destroyed, our
one Arab friend beat up and thrown in a ditch - the Jews, who at that
point were the sons and daughters of Europe, if not from Europe
themselves, were unbelievably paranoid; Jews had been rejected from
landing in the U.S., were thrown back into the camps when they escaped in
Poland, blah blah blah, and they were scared - a different kind of prison
yet again, but a prison.
- Alan
On Thu, 3 Sep 2015, Johannes Birringer wrote:
>
> dear all
>
> I hesitated before responding and yet perhaps one can just let thoughts flow here, I'm just embarrassed
> and feel I have now nothing to add, except a certain disgust or despair at inabilities. I feel the discussion
> proves helpless, and maybe that is what it is.
>
> I saw listmembers here propose opening all borders, managing the flood of refugees as there is enough money in northern europe (US? Australia, Canada, New Zealand?, Japan?), helping (a blog was cited where people 'speak out' or say they are upset), getting rid of politicians, putting bankers in prison, offering food and house spaces; and now there's suggestions of intervention, of taking command of social and political spaces? But you can't abolish banks or elected politician nor stop propaganda and fear or xenophobia/racism, nor do I see media artist virtually/symbolically or physically
> having an inch of a chance.;
>
> A friend of mine, Maria Kastrinou, reports how dire the situation is in Greece ? having become unmanageable; the reports from there include
> volunteer groups, yes, something really admirable stuff, as seen in germany and other places (now noted by the BBC and interviewed)
>
>>> a nonprofit organization (founded by Tirikos-Ergas) called Angalia is one of the initiatives helping the country cope with a massive wave of migrants to Greek islands, tens of thousands, most of them refugees escaping conflict and violence in Syria and Afghanistan. The run-up to elections set for next month has further paralyzed Greece?s response to the migration crisis as authorities are already struggling to cope with the skyrocketing number of arrivals amid the country?s debt woes and near-empty public coffers. Volunteers such as Mr. Tirikos-Ergas are often all that prevents complete chaos on the islands bearing the brunt of the migration, fueled this summer by the worsening war in Syria.
> These helpers warn that they have their limits. ?We are under enormous pressure, especially from the people that we can?t help. At the same time, we are juggling all of our other responsibilities.?
> The migrants are crossing into Greece from Turkey before heading to Northern Europe by way of the so-called Balkan corridor through Macedonia and Serbia and on into Hungary & then Austria. Nearly 142,000 migrants have arrived by sea in Greece since June 1, according to the International Organization for Migration.>>
>
>
> As to acting my media artist role trying to film and speak to refugees
> when on Tuesday i passed through Calais en route to Dover (UK), not so
> good, not a chance, there was barbed wire fences all around travelers
> trying to reach ferry port, armed French police and UK border guards
> with dogs searching cars just as they do in Texas when i cross from
> Mexico into the US. The barbed wirefence allowed travelers like me to
> see hundreds of refugees with plastic bags stumbling along the fences, a
> devastating scene right out of "Blindness" (the film adaptation of
> Saramago's text that deals with state terror and incarceration after an
> unknown disease breaks out), I don;t want to tell what I felt or saw nor
> does a reference to literature help, I was safe and after long queues
> and questioning allowed to pass through customs, but the physical
> experience of such crossing right through a refugee camp was utterly new
> to me. No one on the ferry spoke out about it when I asked, but some guy
> from the British Tourist Ministry showed up requesting me to answer
> questionnaire about my frequent travels and how much I spend on them,
> business or pleasure?
>
> Blindnesses here generate thanatopolitics, and terror and war (in the decolonized zones/recolonized interest spheres) their spiral effects, migration (that, historically reflected, the old empires [e.g. Rome] should not survive, they should collapse) will force more death politics, erosion of community (even as we see the volunteers and the speakers-out momentarily), immunology having to do with disorder, and immunity will creep forward as the core issue, how the developed countries and proprietary classes used to comfort zones can keep the latter by any means necessary (borders will be reappear soon and are already in operation, police controls, movement controls) -- and relational aesthetics and mediation, interventionist art & good intentions, well. well.
>
> regards
> Johannes Birringer
>
>
>
> ________________________________________
> From: netbehaviour-bounces at netbehaviour.org [netbehaviour-bounces at netbehaviour.org] on behalf of Randall Packer [rpacker at zakros.com]
> Sent: Thursday, September 03, 2015 4:57 AM
> To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity
> Subject: Re: [NetBehaviour] Not quite so dismal
>
> Alan, great question and I welcome anyone who wants to reflect on the idea of the artist as mediator or interventionist. There is a history of artists and activists taking control of public spaces, either physically (Yes Men), virtually / symbolically (Ricardo Dominguez), or in the example I provided of the US Department of Art & Technology I created in 2001. Of course there are many more interventions to reference.
>
>
>
>
> On 9/3/15, 11:45 AM, "Alan Sondheim" <netbehaviour-bounces at netbehaviour.org on behalf of sondheim at panix.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> How do you go about doing that? As you know there was a huge amount of
>> activity of this sort in the 60s-80s US and it vanished; there's nothing -
>> now - to take control of - those spaces are abject and fractal and not
>> amenable to control from within or without - look at for example how Trump
>> has penetrated, fragmented electorates, even Fox news itself -
>>
>> - Alan
>>
>>
>> On Thu, 3 Sep 2015, Randall Packer wrote:
>>
>>> Hi Dave? I would like to add that there is always the proactive strategy:
>>> form your own artist-driven government agency; and create your own
>>> artist-driven media. As media artists, we have access to the same techniques
>>> and tools of propaganda as the mass media, and in most cases we are more
>>> adept and nuanced in their use. So I say, we should do what we can to take
>>> command of the social and political spaces that are governed & controlled by
>>> the powers that be and make them our own.
>>>
>>> I.E.: http://zakros.com/projects/usdat/
>>>
>>> Best,
>>>
>>> Randall
>>>
>>> From: <netbehaviour-bounces at netbehaviour.org> on behalf of dave miller
>>> Reply-To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity
>>> Date: Thursday, September 3, 2015 at 2:50 AM
>>> To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity
>>> Subject: Re: [NetBehaviour] Not quite so dismal
>>>
>>> Thanks Edward. That's really encouraging to see. Glad finally people are
>>> speaking out. When government and news media control the discussion we get a
>>> really unrepresentative picture.
>>>
>>> Ana I totally agree we have to get to rid of these people - and particularly
>>> the bankers.
>>>
>>> On 2 Sep 2015 18:53, "Edward" <edward at edwardpicot.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> I've just spent a few minutes looking at the Avaaz
>>> petition/volunteer page on the subject of the refugee crisis:
>>> https://secure.avaaz.org/en/uk_refugees_volunteer_thank_you_3/
>>> There are new comments arriving every few seconds. People are
>>> calling on the UK Government to change its stance and
>>> volunteering
>>> to help, in many cases volunteering to give house-space to
>>> refugees. I think the government have misjudged the public mood
>>> on
>>> this one.
>>>
>>> - Edward
>>> --
>>>
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>>
>> ==
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