Great! Thanks bro!
Best from northeast br > Em 19 de ago. de 2022, à(s) 12:13, Molly Hankwitz <mollyhankw...@gmail.com> > escreveu: > > Thank you for this report on your environmental activism and network > building! > > Sent from my iPhone > >>> On Aug 19, 2022, at 8:00 AM, Claire Pentecost <cpe...@saic.edu> wrote: >>> >> >> thank you Brian! >> this is a powerful nutrient! >> >>> On Thu, Aug 18, 2022 at 9:02 PM Brian Holmes <bhcontinentaldr...@gmail.com> >>> wrote: >>> At night on the Parana, the stars still shine. The boatman cuts the motor; >>> we drift silently under the light of a full moon. This is the end of a four >>> thousand kilometer-long river, it's the "Delta front." The low islands to >>> the east extend fingers of land into the Rio del Plata estuary, and those >>> forested fingers grow about 70 meters longer every year, catching the last >>> of the sediments carried from the Andes and the Brazilian jungle. To the >>> southwest, the lights of Buenos Aires glitter on the horizon. Someday in >>> the future - quite soon, in geological time - the Delta front will reach >>> the city. Every month it's six meters closer. The mutability of this >>> territory makes my head spin. The stars, the moon, the lights, the islands >>> and the uncanny mirror of the river all come together like a wheel spinning >>> weightlessly in infinite space, or maybe it's a whirlpool, a cosmic gyre. A >>> homegrown joint makes its way from hand to hand, through the calm of a >>> winter night that is windless by good luck, and warm by devastating climate >>> change. The journey is well underway. >>> >>> With Alejandro Meitin of Casa Rio we're making tactical media in the >>> wetlands, along a meandering path that leads from Punta Lara, south of >>> Buenos Aires, all the way north through the Pampa and the arid reaches of >>> the Grand Chaco to Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay. I wrote the paragraph >>> above a week ago; now we're at the halfway point. Our aim is to reach out >>> to riverside communities and build ecological awareness, while also helping >>> to accelerate the process of information-sharing among a network of >>> ecological NGOs called "Humedales sin fronteras" or Wetlands Without >>> Borders, whose member organizations are located in Argentina, Paraguay, >>> Bolivia and Brazil. My contribution as an artist-cartographer is an online >>> map and multimedia platform that can display text, scientific information, >>> photography, video, audio and social networks (it's FLOSS, built by Majk >>> Shkurti to my specs, see info below). The color scheme and iconography of >>> the map has been designed by Dani Lorenzo of Casa Rio, and most of the >>> videos you'll find inside were done by Andres Irigoyen. Lots of others are >>> involved, it would be long to list every one of them. As for Alejandro >>> Meitin, he's an artist, lawyer, environmental activist and >>> jack-of-all-trades who's been doing this kind of thing for thirty years, >>> first with the artists' group Ala Plastica, and now with the broader >>> community-based constellation of Casa Rio. We've taken similar journeys >>> before, stretching back to 2014 when Critical Art Ensemble generously >>> invited me to come along to Argentina for a roving seminar organized by Ala >>> Plastica under the name "Watersheds as Laboratories of Governance." In 2019 >>> we brought an exhibition called "The Earth Will Not Abide" from Chicago to >>> the riverport city of Rosario, and Casa Rio published quite a beautiful >>> book with that material. Now we're in full-on activist mode, meeting >>> network members all along the river, pushing for a Wetlands Law in >>> Argentina, for a halt to dredging, sand extraction and dam-building, and >>> for the development, from below, of what we are calling "Biocultural >>> Corridors." >>> >>> The notion of bioculturalism is grasped intuitively by all the people we >>> meet: It refers to the changes in orientation and behavior that arise when >>> human beings begin to see and feel themselves as participants in a web of >>> ecological relations, such that "an injury to one is an injury to all" - >>> whether it's insect, plant, animal or homo sapiens. The corridor part is >>> somewhat trickier. Many are aware of biological corridors, which are >>> designed by conservation specialists as safe passageways between small >>> islands of habitat which, on their own, are insufficient to sustain bird >>> and animal populations that range widely across the changing seasons. >>> Biocultural corridors, however, are not planned or instituted by experts. >>> They arise in areas where groups of people who might be engaged in >>> agroecological farming, traditional crafts such as willow weaving, >>> small-scale fishing, land defence and indigenous lifeways all come together >>> in mutual recognition and support, building the consciousness of what might >>> someday become truly sustainable productive practices. Like the >>> Bioregionalists of North America in the 1970s, we are inviting communities >>> to use our map in order to draw and describe the components of their own >>> biocultural corridors, which someday, we hope, will extend all the way up >>> and down the great uninterrupted fluvial corridor reaching from the >>> headwaters of the Brazilian and Bolivian Pantanal down to the Rio del Plata >>> estuary. For once, we're not necessarily kidding ourselves. Ideas based on >>> grassroots solidarity spread rapidly in Latin America. All along the vast >>> Parana Delta in Argentina you can see walls painted with the slogan "Pass >>> the Wetlands Law already!" (It's a bit more terse in Spanish: "Ley de >>> Humedales Ya!"). We are also promoting the idea of biocultural festivals, >>> where people can share and celebrate the changes that they are making right >>> now, in their own environments with their own hands. The fact is, many of >>> the people we meet are already doing something similar under other names, >>> so this transformation is definitely happening. >>> >>> The reception of the mapping project is overwhelmingly positive. There may >>> be a bit of initial suspicion and resistance toward a Yanqui with a magic >>> box, but Alejandro speaks very convincingly and people get it: This is >>> sophisticated technology that can be seized by grassroots groups and used >>> in political struggles as well as popular education processes, in the face >>> of complex problems where all the legitimate expertise is typically on the >>> other side. The editing tools developed by Majk Shkurti make it possible to >>> place points and draw lines or polygons with ease, and then fill out a data >>> template that yields structured text and audiovisual content - stuff that >>> young people can learn in an afternoon. It's GIS on the easy and the cheap, >>> it can transmit knowledge and enthusiasm, and it can be put to political >>> work when it's time to stand up against municipal councils, provincial >>> governments and national legislatures. The idea this time is not just to >>> get spontaneous contributions from individuals - because we've already done >>> that in an earlier mapping project that's still being filled out, mainly >>> with denunciations of abuse. Instead, before they start drawing on the map, >>> we are asking existing community groups to engage in some collective >>> reflection about Casa Rio's three basic questions: Who designs the >>> territory? For whom is it designed? And what would a collaborative design >>> of territories look like? This is how the "laboratory of governance" idea >>> becomes a full-fledged social experiment. >>> >>> Just two days ago I met an old fisherman who in the early 1990s had played >>> a decisive role in stopping a US-backed dam project, with no resources >>> except a good friend, a canoe and a pile of photocopied flyers. A regional >>> hero, exactly my kind of hero. He, too, seemed a little suspicious at >>> first. As a media maker I was profoundly moved when he later came up to me >>> and told me how vital our work would be to the educational project and >>> wetlands observatory that he's now coordinating with a local social >>> movement. What they've already done is to convince the city (it's actually >>> called Parana city) to pay for a bunch of wood, and then in three months >>> time the movement built a dock on a small island, a welcome center and an >>> elevated boardwalk about half a kilometer long through the swamp, where >>> they bring boatloads of schoolkids who live right next to the river and >>> have no contact with the water or the islands. Next they want to put their >>> interpretation center in the middle of a huge wetland on the city's edge, >>> which without a watchful eye is likely to be taken over illegally by gated >>> communities, factories or other profitable enterprises. You can imagine >>> they have a different interpretation of what this land is good for! These >>> are people who know their environment through generations of intimate >>> experience - and today that's something many others want to learn. With any >>> luck, we're about to discover a whole lot of local knowledge taking form >>> inside our magic box, and being shared along the entire wetlands corridor. >>> >>> Today's environmental conditions are helping with this good reception - >>> unfortunately. In the context of a three-year drought and the arrival of >>> increasingly large herds of cattle, the traditional islander practice of >>> burning dry winter brush to stimulate the growth of fresh spring grass has >>> morphed into an emergency situation of uncontrolled fires in the Delta, >>> choking populations in urban centers with heavy smoke and even causing >>> freeway pileups due to loss of visibility. For two years in a row, while >>> lockdowns and pandemic anxiety reigned, a plunge in water levels revealed >>> vast sandy deserts where the Parana once flowed, causing many to fear that >>> the river would never come back again (thankfully it did this year). Sure, >>> it's always hard to attribute local phenomena to climate change - but the >>> best Brazilian science says that the atmospheric rivers arising from the >>> evapotranspiration of the Amazon jungle (aka flying rivers, "rios >>> voladores") are now drying up due to massive deforestation, leading to a >>> loss of rainfall at the headwaters of the Parana, way up there in the (for >>> me) mythical Pantanal wetlands. At the same time, it's well known by >>> everyone in the region that over a mere thirty years, industrial >>> monocropping (aka GMO soybeans doused in Round-Up) has devastated the >>> ecology of South America at continental scale, ruining entire drainages, >>> pushing cattle from bulldozed pastures into the wetlands, and provoking all >>> the above-mentioned disasters, at least as far as we can tell - with a big >>> push from rising CO2 levels, for sure. Now, horror of all horrors, the >>> government of Paraguay is calling on the US Army Corps of Engineers for >>> "help" in managing the Paraguay river, which is the major tributary of the >>> Parana, directly connected to the Pantanal headwaters. In case you don't >>> know, the Army Corps are the folks who destroyed the ecology of the >>> Mississippi river system with a straightjacket of dams and levees. Along >>> with the oil industry, the Corps is responsible for most of the land-loss >>> crisis in Louisiana - not to mention what happened to the Columbia River, >>> etc. Common people don't need the kind of "help" such agencies bring. >>> >>> To increase awareness and spread more precise knowledge of all these >>> converging dangers, we have given our map of biological corridors a dark >>> side, which is a topology of the extractive corridors that are threatening >>> the Paraguay-Parana watershed. Here, instead of lush organic green >>> traversed by mud-brown water, what you see is a dessicated cinder, like the >>> leftover coals of some immense and gruesome barbecue - the frightful, yet >>> increasingly predictable and literal culmination of the centuries-old >>> colonial process. We focus on the heavily dredged Hidrovia, or Water >>> Highway, which is what the transnational capitalist groups see when they >>> look at the Paraguay-Parana River. IIRSA, which is the South American >>> banking complex behind the design of the Hidrovia, has for decades wanted >>> to extend their favorite transnational canal all the way to Amazonas and >>> beyond. What Eduardo Galleano called the "Open Veins of Latin America" are >>> in fact the waterways, which the European colonists used to carry away the >>> treasures of the continent, resulting in the denomination of the Parana >>> watershed as the "Plate Basin" or Silver Basin - the Moneyshed, you might >>> as well say. Well, the only thing that has changed is that the major cargo >>> is now GMO soybeans, and the chief destination of the ships is China, >>> followed closely by the EU of course. What Marx once called the "metabolic >>> rift" between the city and the country has now opened up between South >>> America and Eurasia. It's a process of alienation in every sense of the >>> word, at the largest possible scale. There is a tremendous amount to be >>> learned about all this, and we are currently multiplying our research >>> collaborations into the global political economy of extractivism, while >>> also engaging discussions about how to bring the many specialized reports >>> authored by members of Wetlands Without Borders onto our more popular and >>> intuitive map of extractive corridors. The whole project is a work in >>> progress with lots of gaps and question marks, but it's live on the net >>> right now, and I expect it to remain under active development for the next >>> couple years. >>> >>> Life does not happen elsewhere, in some ideal garden to which you could >>> escape on vacation. Life happens right here and now, in a double world with >>> an inhuman and more-than-human face. I have always felt most alive amid the >>> struggles of this double world, in collaboration with all kinds of people, >>> of all races and classes and stations and professions, whenever and >>> wherever they are finding their own ways of resisting alienation and >>> contributing to a better life - some soft and affective, some local and >>> productive, some political and confrontational, or even better, political >>> and constructive. We live in a time when the so-called middle classes are >>> finally realizing that their seemingly higher station - their literally >>> higher ground, in river terms - will not protect them. The storms, floods, >>> droughts and fires of global ecological change are coming for them, or >>> rather, for *us*, as I'd put it from my own middle-class position. The big >>> question is this: Do the middle classes - including industrial workers >>> attached to states and large corporations - go fascist under the pressure >>> of rising threats to their old lifestyles and identities, or can we find >>> shareable biocultural pathways toward reparative socio-ecological worlds, >>> and through collaboration with other classes and cultures and races, create >>> neo-ecosystems that can ramp down the causes and mitigate the effects of >>> climate change? Please don't explain to me that such a swerve away from >>> ruling norms is impossible, due to human nature or economic law or >>> historical destiny or some other bullshit, because such self-serving >>> explanations have long been part of the problem. For a metamorphosis to >>> occur, everyone has to bring their own skills and dreams into play somehow >>> - preferably right now, because tomorrow is always a little hotter. >>> >>> Therefore my dear friends, here I am in South America with some good old >>> tactical media. >>> >>> All the best from https://tinyurl.com/jaaukanigas - >>> >>> Brian >>> >>> *** >>> >>> Corridors Map: https://map.casariolab.art >>> >>> Casa Rio: https://casariolab.art >>> >>> Humedales sin fronteras: https://humedalessinfronteras.org >>> >>> Project repo: https://github.com/crystalball-mapkit/crystalball >>> >>> Installation guide: >>> https://wiki.timetochange.today/home/installation/terminal-commands >>> >>> The Earth Will Not Abide: https://www.regionalrelationships.org/tewna >>> >>> (Feel free to contact me if you want some tips about deployment and use of >>> the software) >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >>> "DeepTimeChicago" group. >>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >>> email to deeptimechicago+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >>> To view this discussion on the web visit >>> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/deeptimechicago/CANuiTgwV0cWFb%2B2yOS-%2B0KvovwKdR3y1%3Dz4e8qzpEYtnpgnPDA%40mail.gmail.com. >> >> >> -- >> Claire Pentecost (she, her) >> Professor, Department of Photography >> The School of the Art Institute of Chicago >> www.clairepentecost.org >> www.deeptimechicago.org >> I acknowledge and honor the original peoples of the Chicagoland area – the >> Three Fires Confederacy, Potawatomi, Odawa and Ojibwe Nations, as well as >> other Tribal Nations that know this area as their ancestral homeland, >> including the Menominee, Ho-Chunk, Miami, Peoria, and Sac and Fox. >> >> # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission >> # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, >> # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets >> # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l >> # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org >> # @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject: > # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission > # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, > # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets > # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l > # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org > # @nettime_bot tweets mail w/ sender unless #ANON is in Subject:
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