Hi,
I thought I'd way in from San Francisco, where 'socialist' is not a bad
word. One set of terms we haven't explored is 'liberal democrat' which used
to mean, on the East Coast, a left-leaning democratic person, usually from
educated middle class. This is not a term used much on the West Coast -
where, in SF, there has come to pass a very public discourse around
'anarchism' (yes, believe it or not!) put forth by the California Institute
for Integral Studies department of Anthropology and Social Change and a few
died in the wool writers like Erik Lyle, Chris Carlsson, and so forth. I
wish I could name more women among us/them. Whilst it is true that binaries
govern the logic of CNN and FoxNews, it is best to look at the extremities
of publishing here to get an idea of how banned certain labels are. There
is no banning of 'left' or of 'socialist
however you aren't going to get this on the nightly news except as
neo-terrorism. curiously, the Obama administration has ushered in, despite
its hawkish activities when it comes to drone-attacks in afghanistan, an
era where the binary seems to be 'socialism' or 'neo-liberalism' (having
national health care a socialist move to which tea party pundits and young
and ready managers have responded as neo-liberals decrying the lack of
"choice" and control) and this is unfortunately splitting down the breast
of institutions, communities and so forth - even our fair city with her
history of libertarian and 'open' values is under pressures to succumb to
neo-liberalism - a word very much in use at least in bookstores, art
spaces, and among comrades decorated with occupy buttons. neo-liberalism is
the new individualism. those unaffected by the wrecking ball...who, as
Bourdieu writes are busy dismantling all the collectives they can. Suzon -
it took me a while to tune in to the word 'liberal' meaning
ultra-conservative, John Howard, whilst living down under. unfortunately in
California, political culture is frequently spectacularized by the appeal
to personality and vitality of young, tanned neo-liberal flexibility...eek

good luck in isea - you are my proxy consciousness

molly

On Thu, Sep 20, 2012 at 11:11 AM, Suzon Fuks <suzon@???> wrote:

> Am back, I was on the road.
> wow...obviously there are lots of definitions!
>
> jh: Labelling affected me badly throughout my life as an artist and human.
> I have been and am still trying to see how to defragment to reunite
> again...the politic of being!
>
> For people who ask to introduce myself, I am an artist who has been
> experimenting from the early eighties
> exploring the integration and interaction of body and moving image through
> performance, screen, installation and online work.
> I have been researching networked performance and as a result created
> Waterwheel, a platform about water (as topic and metaphor).
> You are welcome to use the tools - amongst which the TAP which is a
> videoconferencing and media mixing system for up to 6 webcams...
> By the way, Venzha and some people at HONF have been involved in testing
> the software last year.
>
> Best wishes for people at ISEA :-)
>
> Suzon
>
>
> On 20/09/12 10:18 AM, "John Hopkins" <jhopkins@???> wrote:
>
> >And all of this points out the futility of labeling people, imho.
> >Futility and
> >danger. When labeling someone isn't it such that we deny any nuance or
> >opening
> >for dialogue that might find some alternative pathway through which to
> >connect?
> >
> >I think the labeling as a mental act definitely contributes to the
> >polarizing
> >mindset of them vs us (or you vs me, for that matter!).
> >
> >> that's all true but in the USA 'liberals' is synonymous with leftists,
> >> socialists, etc.
> >
> >As Auggie points out, most these terms as used in the US are almost
> >without any
> >knowledge of the actual historical sourcing of the terms, and are colored
> >more
> >(perhaps) by the McCarthy Era and the icon of Stalin as represented in
> >the US
> >mindset... (because it is that generation "The Greatest Generation,"
> >those who
> >lived through WWII and the one immediately following it who seem to
> >succumb to
> >the media usage of such terms.)
> >
> >jh
> >
> >
> >--
> >
> >
> >++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> >John Hopkins
> >Watching the Tao rather than watching the Dow!
> >http://neoscenes.net/
> >http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/
> >++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> >_______________________________________________
> >Brico mailing list
> >Website on http://www.bricolabs.net
> >Unsubscribe: http://lists.dyne.org/mailman/listinfo/brico
>
>
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>



--

            "The artist cannot and must not take anything for granted, but
must drive to the heart of every answer and expose the question the answer
hides."

James Baldwin

*
*

*Molly Hankwitz *lives in San Francisco, California where she is a
researcher, writer, artist, and curator of new technologies and
experimental media. She was the principal research architect in the now
completed ad hoc design and research collaboration, Archimedia, (with David
Cox) from 1998 to 2007 and has worked at numerous festivals including Ars
Electronica, Multimedia Arts Asia Pacific and electronfringe festival in
Newcastle, Australia. In 2010, she co-curated the open wireless and
locative media arts exhibition, citycentered.org and in 2011, completed a
Ph.D. in Media and communications from Queensland University of Technology.
She is interested in networked political dimensions of social technologies
and questions of aesthetics and history in electronic media.

http://mollyhankwitz.org