Hi NBs I feel a little sheepish about what I'm about to do (they are so long), but I'm going to do it anyway to finish the series here on Netbehaviour: )
======================== Overland: Turkey, floods and /ETC Back-blogging on Thursday 10th September (or read with links and images here http://blog.furtherfield.org/?q=node/30 ) Tuesday morning we made our way through pouring rain to Haymatlos (which translates as Homeless), in the Taksik district of Istanbul, which is the bar and meeting place for this year's /ETC. Everyone is running around, busy organising things. We hear the terrible news that 40 Turkish people have died as a result of flash flooding - some not far from Istanbul. We meet with HelenVJ who suspends her preparations for the Upstage Festival 090909 (due to start the following morning) to join us for lunch at a local cafe. It's Ramadan, she explains, and so at the moment most eateries are quiet at lunchtime and heaving with people for dinner feasting. Lunch consists of Turkish tea, soya chicken and delicious fresh salad. Later in the afternoon Ruzgar, Helen and I go to collect chairs from LAMBDA's (5th floor!) offices. Helen drove (a big white van) and Ruzgar directed us through the narrow and steep inclines of the busy backstreets. It was great fun and Helen's confident driving caused a stir. Most men still appear to feel they own public space in Istanbul, staring, hooting, calling out, offering advice. It's rare enough to find a woman driving let alone driving a van. When we arrived back the venue a group people (both men and women) came down to collect the chairs and table tops. I was aware for the duration of my stay that Resistanbul (who published a friendly challenge to the Istanbul Biennial in the form of an open letter) were holding long discussion meetings to coordinate actions in preparation for the meeting of the IMF and World Bank. This same collective of people fed us with bounteous breakfasts and dinners: cheese omlettes, salads, spinach and cheese pastries, herby salads, aubergine stew, rice & lentils, sweets and chocolates. Lots more women showed up on the first night (over the next 2 days people arrived from Turkey, Holland, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Spain, France, Belgium) and I ate, drank and signed and mimed (as the only stupid monolinguist in the group) and laughed a lot. I returned with Aileen to our flat excited and happy. On Wednesday morning I started to feel my DIY spirit rehydrating. /ETC is a revelation and inspiration, as much for its open, humorous informality as for the quality of its workshops, events and performances including: the Upstage performances, DIY wireless microphone production (using FM transmitters), how to make a performance from nothing, masssage techniques to relieve tension in the trapezius muscle (the one that takes a hammering when you spend too much time at your screen), an introduction to Drupal, a review of women working in FOSS with a focus on Turkey, an introduction to FOSS social media (such as that run by Riseup.net) and the reasons to choose it over commercial services (like Google Docs), maintaining privacy of communications and actions over the Internet in the context of increasing state surveillance. In the background people gradually get to know each other and solve problems together. It's all low-key and very productive. In contrast with recent events in London where I sense that the pressure (from all directions) for grass roots organisations to rationalise, institutionalise, professionalise and commercialise has lead to an increase in swagger, guff and time wasting, /ETC was low on bombast and high on effective knowledge transmission and action. I hope that when I get home I can hold on to the wisdom of balancing strategic with soulful and smart, tactical approaches to organisation. My Wednesday ends enjoying three hours of Upstage Festival performances in the Haymatlos bar watching collaborative work by international cyberformers with approaches rooted in disciplines as diverse as theatre, performance, VJ, live art; from restagings of Ionescu to multimedia metalogical jams on Manuel de Landa and a thrash mashup that re-appropriated all the players, sounds and backdrops from all other performances. Impressed by the ongoing heckling and all manner of participation with audiences. Then home through streets that are running in deep rivers of rainwater. We drink tea, chat, and I do some writing. I go to bed late and am taken aback by crashing thunderstorms. ===================== We Won't Fly For Art! http://www.pledgebank.com/wewontflyforart
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