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Thursday, January 19, 2012

Lying

I think I will do it more often, more brashely and more fancifully.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

SOPA and PIPA

Privatising the internet - can it be achieved?

Apparently so, as the "backbone" of the internet is all in the US. 

This is tragedy on a historical scale.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Superflex and the Limits of Ethical Capitalism

Do you think the critique Kester presents in this essay on Superflex's Biogas project is a bit simplistic and bears an uncomplicated relation to the market? In the sense that the knee jerk reaction of most artists and critics is the simple fact they understand that 'Neo-liberalism=bad', wefareism=good. So when he charges Superflex with siding with the market against the negative aspects of aid dependency in the developing world, ie. structural adjustment, multinational corporate unaccountability, as necessarily an act of complicity, does he miss the advantages of the market in the role of economic development? What he sees as a patronizing and paternalistic position on the part of Superflex in trying to encourage entrepreneurship can also be seen in terms of initiatives like Maker Faire Africa, where small business and small-scale innovation is seen as a necessary condition for national progress when combined with favorable conditions provided by the state.

Wazungu Means White Man: Superflex and the Limits of Ethical Capitalism (2008)

Monday, January 9, 2012

De-Skilling and Re-Skilling

I really love to hate Claire Bishops writing because she has my number every time. I begrudging concede that she really doesn't cut artists any slack. From her critique of participatory art to this critique of de-skilling/re-skilling by artists re: artists dabbling in theater and theater people dabbling in contemporary art brings up some good points. Her acknowledgment that the former is traced to a democratization of the concept of theater and its funneling through punk and DIY in contemporary work is accurate. And the strategy of 'outsourcing' the performance to amateurs as a mirror of the Conceptualist's outsourcing of the fabrication of instruction and text based works to Fordist production process combined with the 'naive' and 'unknowing' amateur performer practicing a kind of art brut, unmediated everyday creativity is exactly what we were doing intuitively in Nomads on Vacation.

http://www.brooklynrail.org/2011/12/art/unhappy-days-in-the-art-worldde-skilling-theater-re-skilling-performance