Very much so - thanks! TOM KEENE: Artist/Activist/Researcher Save Cressingham Gardens www.db-estate.co.uk
On Mon, 9 Apr 2018, at 11:12 AM, ruth catlow wrote: > Of interest? > > -------- Forwarded Message -------- Subject: [bgcon] open call: > AMBIENT REVOLTS Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2018 12:03:24 +0200 From: Krystian > Woznicki <k...@berlinergazette.de> Reply-To: k...@berlinergazette.de > Organisation: Berliner Gazette To: digi-ya...@berlinergazette.de> > > Hi, What does it mean to act politically when, like in this very > moment, we are confronting the spread of right-wing populism as an > ambient force that polarizes all of us? What, in other words, does it > mean to oppose the imperceptible power of an atmosphere that outrules > a collectivity that is inclusive of all? What does it mean to counter > the quasi-environmentalization of proto-fascist tendencies that > further foster segregation? Posing these questions in its 19th year, > the Berliner Gazette continues a long-term engagement with > contemporary forms of political agency and the common. In this open > call for contributions, we wish to invite activists, journalists, > researchers, cultural workers, coders and artists to join us looking > for answers. We want to invite you to participate! There are two > different formats of participation: conference workshops (deadline: > May 20, 2018 ) and online newspaper (deadline: June 20, 2018). The > structure of this email is as follows: 1. Development, context, goal > 2. Conference workshops | call for contributions 3. Online-newspaper | > call for contributions Links, that are implemented in the email text > as footnotes, you will find at the very bottom. 1. Development, > context, goal *Development* The BG team [1] began developing the > AMBIENT REVOLTS project in July 2017. We started right after the G20 > summit in Hamburg where some of us joined the alternative media center > FCMC [2] and witnessed with many other journalists the most severe > execution of preemptive state violence in Germany’s recent history > [3,4,5]. The ensuing recreation of the political landscape echoed the > authoritarian approach of the G20 police force: a shift of politics to > the right and even radical right, a restriction of demonstration > rights and of expressions of political dissent, scaling and expanding > security measures, etc. Against this backdrop we developed the concept > for AMBIENT REVOLTS, including the general idea for our 2018 annual > project consisting of a special section in our online-newspaper and a > series of events culminating with our annual conference. Shortly > after the g20-summer the BG annual conference FRIENDLY FIRE [6] took > place and provided many fruitful possibilities to reflect the politics > of citizenship under current conditions. Then, in December 2017, the > BG team contributed to the #LutherLenin festival at the Studio Hrdinu > in Prague [7]. Here we were able to test some of the ideas for AMBIENT > REVOLTS. Finally we launched the project with first contributions to > our online newspaper [8] and with a panel at the transmediale festival > [9] in February 2018. Documents of our transmediale event are > available in audio [10] and video [11,12]. After that few members > of the BG team went on a month-log tour, visiting some of the nodes of > the BG network in Europe, including cities such as Genoa, Barcelona, > Madrid, Lisbon, Porto, Paris and Brussels. We learned a lot about how > the people who contribute to our online-newspaper or to our annual > conferences live and work in their respective local contexts. This > helped substantially honing some of the key ideas of the AMBIENT > REVOLTS project. *Context* When we returned to Berlin in the > beginning of March 2018, the atmosphere was literally spooky as the > ghosts of the G20 summit came to the fore again. Symptomatic of this > was the career step of Olaf Scholz [13]. Instead of paying for the > consequences of his ‘bad management’ as the mayor of Hamburg – we are, > to reiterate, talking about the most severe execution of state > violence in Germany’s recent history –, Scholz became finance minister > and even vice chancellor in Angela Merkel’s fourth cabinet. This > disturbing move echoed the later day promotion of many high ranking > policemen and politicians who had been responsible for the excesses of > violence during the G8 in Genoa 2001 [14]. If such things can happen > ‘in bright daylight’ and if they are taken to be normal, rather than > causing a public debate, then the public sphere is in peril. After > all, Scholz’s promotion was followed by a silence that is telling > inasmuch it expresses an implicit framework for censorship. As such > this silence is a constitutive condition for the post-G20 public > sphere: while (left-wing) criticism of the government and its > interpretation of democracy is quelled, right-wing populists are > elevated, e.g. when readily given stages, even by liberal media. If, > in other words, the broader spectrum of the Left is delegitimized > while the far Right is legitimized, then the public sphere is being > constricted through two simultaneous moves. Both moves, as different > as they are, have in common that they contribute to closing the public > discourse for opposition, for dissent and, above all, for the biggest > possible plurality of contributions – the latter would also include > marginalized, invisibilized and illegalized actors for whom discursive > openings generally tend to be highly precarious. Needless to say, the > aforementioned features have always been the vital basics of any > democracy, yet, remarkably, it is in this historic moment – in > Germany, Europe and beyond – that the greatest collective courage > needs to take hold to actually perform any of such basic democratic > engagement. As it is we are challenged to explore how this courage can > manifest itself in many different ways. *Goal* Against this backdrop > the AMBIENT REVOLTS project takes an international approach, > foregrounding cross-border exchange and cooperation. More > specifically, the project aims at accompanying and advocating an > engagement with the public sphere at the molecular level. There are > two reasons for that. Firstly, we wish to understand better how > ambient forces operate today, meaning: how they colonize the micro- > textures of the everyday, how they enable the contagion of bodies and > the modulation affect, and, more concretely, how they foster right- > wing populism. Secondly, we wish to explore possibilities for > interventions upon the ambient forces at their operational level. > Hence the AMBIENT REVOLTS project focuses on micro-politics in the > expanded micro-worlds of the networked public spheres: small acts and > minor gestures in the everyday – be it when engaging in the class room > or chat room, on the street or online, with friends or colleagues. > 2. Conference workshops | call for contributions Who: activists, > journalists, researchers, cultural workers, coders and artists What: > responses, ideas, commentary, material, links Deadline: May 20, 2018 > Email: info(at)berlinergazette.de The AMBIENT REVOLTS conference will > take place November 8-10, 2018 at the Center for Arts and Urbanistics > (ZK/U) in Berlin. There will be five workshop tracks bringing together > civil society actors from more than 20 countries. We are now inviting > activists, journalists, researchers, cultural workers, coders and > artists to submit ideas, questions, material, links. All of this will > contribute to the shaping of the respective five workshop tracks. > Please respond to the questions below by May 20, 2018. Workshop > Track: Rebooting Populism? Keywords: Populism, Authoritarianism, > Social Media, Liquid Democracy Questions: If right-wing populism (and > populism in general) today hinges upon social media, are then the top- > down logics of demagogy reversed? Is populism nowadays a bottom-up > affair? If so, can this reversed logic be deployed for emancipatory > and, ultimately, democratic ends? Workshop Track: Hacking the > Urban Backend Keywords: Smart City, Programmed Environments, > Appropriation, Hacking Questions: If in today’s smart city the > urbanite is becoming one element of the programmed environment, then > how are the boundaries for political action being redefined in the > course of this? What happens to public space as a realm in which > political actors voice their concerns? Is the arena of political > intervention being relocated to the invisiblized backend of the city? > Workshop Track: Involuntary Community Keywords: Interconnectedness, > Disruption, Social Networks, Community Questions: If under today’s > conditions of all-encompassing interconnectedness right-wing populist > moods can spread in a viral, quasi-contagious fashion, then what role > do system errors, glitches and other (planned or unplanned) > disruptions play? Can the surprise element of involuntary > connectedness or disconnectedness gain a political valence? What forms > of community can emerge, when technologies such as "Near Sensing" are > deployed for unexpected social ends? Workshop Track: Challenging the > Capitalocene Keywords: Capitalocene, Automation, Dehumanization, > Racism Questions: If capitalism in the current stage is a quasi- > automated matter, then what role can human actors play? If algorithms > operate according to racialized categories, then how does racism play > out in quasi-automated capitalism? What are possible strategies > against dehumanization? Workshop Track: Unlearning Learning Keywords: > Artificial Intelligence, Self-Learning, Politics of Learning If self- > learning systems define our age, if, at the same time, AI-driven > social media come to provide pseudo-classrooms while traditional media > lose their authority as ‘educational institutions’, then what is the > present and future of pedagogy? What kind of unlearning needs to be > done? What, if at all, do we need to learn from self-learning systems? > In what kind of networked public spheres (and atmo-spheres) do we want > to be learning tomorrow? 3. Online-newspaper | call for > contributions Who: activists, journalists, researchers, cultural > workers, coders and artists What: essays, interviews and reports > (9.500 chars) Deadline: June 20, 2018 Email: > info(at)berlinergazette.de At the beginning of this year we have > started publishing essays, interviews and reports in a special section > of the Berliner Gazette dedicated to AMBIENT REVOLTS [15]. We are > planning to publish approximately 50 contributions by the end of the > year. Assembling this material we would like also to elaborate a > concept for a book with a selection of texts on our annual theme – > expanding the BG series of by now eight books (5 of them > anthologies/readers). If you have not heard about the BG annual > projects before, please have a look at our most recent projects > UN|COMMONS [16], TACIT FUTURES [17] and FRIENDLY FIRE [18]. Please > spread the word about this open call for contributions. And please let > us know if you have any questions regarding the call. Stay tuned, > Krystian (for the BG team) Links 1. https://bit.ly/2GK2LQb 2. > https://fcmc.tv/ 3. https://bit.ly/2IEJH6i 4. > http://berlinergazette.de/g-20-gewalt-aus-der-zukunft 5. > https://g20-doku.org 6. https://berlinergazette.de/friendly-fire 7. > https://studiohrdinu.cz/en/predstaveni/lutherlenin 8. > https://bit.ly/2HiFdTu 9. https://bit.ly/2uZV6M8 10. > https://voicerepublic.com/talks/ambient-revolts 11. > https://vimeo.com/262355303 12. https://vimeo.com/262354951 13. > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olaf_Scholz 14. > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/27th_G8_summit 15. > https://bit.ly/2HiFdTu 16. https://berlinergazette.de/uncommons 17. > https://berlinergazette.de/tacit-futures 18. > https://berlinergazette.de/friendly-fire -- > -------------------------------------------------------------- > BG – Berliner Gazette | since 1999 | http://berlinergazette.de > -------------------------------------------------------------- > BG BOOKS OUT NOW @ DP: FUGITIVE BELONGING > https://diamondpaper.net/title_27 A FIELD GUIDE TO THE SNOWDEN FILES > http://diamondpaper.net/title_26 AFTER THE PLANES > http://diamondpaper.net/title_25 > -------------------------------------------------------------- > CHECK DOCU OF LATEST BG EVENTS: FRIENDLY FIRE – BG Annual Conference > 2017 https://berlinergazette.de/friendly-fire SIGNALS – Exhibition > of the Snowden Files http://berlinergazette.de/signals > -------------------------------------------------------------- > _______________________________________________ Digi- > yards_berlinergazette.de mailing list digi-ya...@berlinergazette.de > https://ml06.ispgateway.de/mailman/listinfo/digi-yards_berlinergazette.de >> _________________________________________________ > NetBehaviour mailing list > NetBehaviour@lists.netbehaviour.org > https://lists.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
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