Interesting. The whole world is watching redux. But I wonder where the models for some behaviors originate--maybe less for Vancouver (think of any football party that gets out of hand) than for events after bin Laden was killed.
-- Paul On Fri, Jun 17, 2011 at 2:10 PM, michael gurstein <[email protected]>wrote: > I was there...from just before the game ended at around 8 pm until just > before it got dark at around 9.30 pm (note that most of the pictures were > taken just at the end of the game when there was still full early evening > light. > > I most certainly am not saying that it was just some good old boys and > girls > having a good time...and I most certainly would not condone the (media > induced self-serving) jingoism or the violence -- although it should be put > in perspective of probably somewhat similar levels of violence occuring on > a > typical summer Saturday night in the same area (but without the car burning > and looting--much higher proportion and visibility of police on a typical > Saturday night... > > What was different (and maybe you had to be there) was the omni-presence of > cameras, people taking pictures, and people performing for people > (including > themselves) taking pictures. I've never seen anything like it at any > public > event I've ever attended in the past. Also, the numbers of women present, > performing, taking pictures with guys or in groups of other women... My > wife > was on a bus coming into town just as the game started and reports hearing > a > couple of young women asking to be let off "where the chaos is" (and I saw > an independent account of another person overhearing essentially the same > remark from another group of young women. > > Finally, the cheeriness of the whole thing... Much different from a demo or > even a concert where there is a specific target for attention and > activity--here folks were just milling around, not doing much except posing > barefaced in front of or with whatever seemed to be at hand--which in a > number of instances were acts of vandalism--as I think can be seen from > most > of the daytime pictures. > > The "riot" in Vancouver to my mind is a signal that the (still) largely > privileged young people in N Am, along with the young folks (and others) > demonstrating in the Middle East and elsewhere are disengaged from an older > paradigm of actions/consequences (posing with faces exposed for widely > distributed pictures committing criminal acts). If I was pressed to answer > I > would argue that the new paradigm is perhaps something similar to the "we > are no longer afraid" (strength in social networked numbers) paradigm of > the > young people in the Middle East but this time without any evident political > content. > > M > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Paul Hertz > Sent: Friday, June 17, 2011 10:42 AM > To: NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity > Subject: Re: [NetBehaviour] Riot as Performance Art > > > 7. Eight people treated for stab wounds. > > Were either of you there? > > I wasn't, but your sanguine view of events hardly seems to be borne out by > some of the reporting, including that from sources like the progressive TPM > blog: > http://media.talkingpointsmemo.com/slideshow/vancouver-riots?ref=fpblg. > > I suggest there was provocation from the police and from a few thugs taking > the opportunity to brawl && the crowd swayed by events. When the crowd > destroys property, the police are designed to intervene (it's a social > priority). Not a good mix. > > Sure, people were performing for the camera. There is a networked culture > that makes these events different. The same was probably true of > "celebrations" of bin Laden's death, people performing what they thought > were culturally endorsable scenes for instant documentation. Doesn't make > the jingoism any less disturbing nor the burning cars and injured people in > Vancouver just an over-the-top good time. > > Coyotes don't do this: to equate their "running wild" with that of humans > seems a kind of willful romanticism grafted onto a rhetorical figure. But > maybe that's not the intention. > > Even if, as a matter of degree, the merry trashing of Vancouver should not > be called a "riot," the violence in riots is no less performed. > Participants > have described riots as parties from way back before the net. > > The issue of who gets to decide what to call "uncontrolled crowd events" > strikes me as a more productive inquiry than casting them as one thing or > another. > > -- Paul > > _______________________________________________ > NetBehaviour mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour > -- ----- |(*,+,#,=)(#,=,*,+)(=,#,+,*)(+,*,=,#)| --- http://ignotus.com
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