Experimental Communities

Projects: Cameron - It Takes a Village

2009-04-29T12:08:00.002-04:00

Projects: Cameron - Symbol

2009-04-29T12:07:00.002-04:00

Proejcts: Cameron - Public Imaginaries

2009-04-29T11:49:00.007-04:00

silentio

2009-04-28T09:52:00.005-04:00

Community Garden Workday

2009-04-18T19:44:00.003-04:00

The Garden workday is from 1-3pm on Sunday. Wear clothes you can work in and don't mind getting dirty.

The Community Garden is a student-led project that is attempting to increase the amount of organic produce that students consume on campus. We are currently building the garden; it's located on a small patch of land behind the Freeman center. It's not finished yet, but we're trying to get plants in the ground quickly. We're currently finishing some raised beds, digging a terrace, and erecting a fence; that's probably what we'll work on tomorrow.

To reach the Smart Home from East campus, drive down Campus Drive for about two minutes and take a right on Swift Avenue. Take another right on Faber Street.

To reach the Smart Home from Broad Street, Drive to the South end where it becomes Swift Avenue. Then take a left on Faber street.

Day of Silence

2009-04-17T10:42:00.003-04:00

Hi folks, today's the day of silence. It's a day when participants are silent "in recognition of those who are forced to be silent due to anti-LGBT bullying and violence." You can choose what media you choose to be silent in and how long you choose to be silent. If you'd like to participate in the protest, just pick up a button from the BC Plaza so people will know what you're doing. Otherwise, just pick a length of time and see what social effects emerge from your being silent.

CALENDAR-XCO FINAL SITUATIONS -TEST1

2009-04-14T14:02:00.001-04:00

Event: Buy Me

2009-04-14T11:14:00.001-04:00

BUY ME!

an anti-capitalist cavalcade

Host:	The Performance Collective
Type:	Causes - Rally
Network:	Global

Date:	Friday, April 17, 2009
Time:	5:00pm - 11:00pm
Location:	Swain

Phone:

9199634944

Description

A brilliant mostly non-narrative performance of resistance and obsession.

Come enjoy many moments of heartbreaking beauty as the culmination of our class.

Swain Studio Six

Friday April 17 @ 5 and 8

Event: Love Art Laboratory

2009-04-14T11:00:00.002-04:00

Annie Sprinkle and Elizabeth M. Stephens are COMING to UNC-CH Tuesday, April 14th 5:30 PM Hanes Art Center.

*This event is ***FREE*** and open to the public*

ADVENTURES OF THE LOVE ART LABORATORY

With Annie Sprinkle and Elizabeth Stephens

‘We, Elizabeth M. Stephens and Annie Sprinkle, are an artist couple committed to doing projects that explore, generate, and celebrate love. We utilize visual art, installation, theater pieces, interventions, live-art, exhibitions, lectures, printed matter and activism. Each year we orchestrate one or more interactive performance art weddings in
collaboration with various national and international communities, then display the ephemera in art galleries.
Our projects incorporate the colors and themes of the chakras, a structure inspired by Linda M. Montano’s 14 Years of Living Art. The Love Art Laboratory grew out of our response to the violence of war, the anti-gay marriage movement, and our prevailing culture of cynicism. We hope the Love Art Laboratory will help make the world a more fun, sexy, tolerant, love- filled place.

Love is the new sex! We hope you will join us for a show and tell afternoon."

Annie Sprinkle, Ph.D. is an artist and sexologist.
Elizabeth Stephens a professor of art and is the Chair of the Art Dept. at UCSC.

Event: Suggestion

2009-04-11T11:59:00.000-04:00

Relay for Life runs until midnight on West today.

XCO SOCIAL METHODS / WEEK #1 / 090406-090413 / PROPOSED

2009-04-08T14:00:00.001-04:00

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
XCO SOCIAL METHODS / WEEK #1 / 090406-090413 / PROPOSED
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To be applied in experimental, individual, or coordinated fashion at confirmed XCO SITUATIONS for this week

We discussed these in class, but bring a camera and/or pointed ears to document and later represent what you/we were all doing and then post it on the blog and share with others

XCO SITUATIONS / WEEK #1 / 090406-090413

2009-04-08T13:42:00.002-04:00

--------------------------------------------------------
XCO SITUATIONS / WEEK #1 / 090406-090413
--------------------------------------------------------

More information for the other weeks will follow soon, but I did not want to delay sending this.
I am also working on having a joint google.calendar platform ready soon that will help us coordinate all these events and ideas

Remember that we are still meeting every Tue at 2:50pm but for a much shorter time (2:50pm-3:30pm) mostly to coordinate each week's ideas for events and social methods, actions, and contextual experiments.

--------------------------------------------------------

Confirmed SITUATIONS for us to play out our SOCIAL METHODS this week will be:

WEEK #1
090406-090413

Mandatory
090408 - Wed 10-11pm
Jazz at the Mary Lou Williams Center
http://experimentalcommunities.blogspot.com/2009/04/playing-jazz-at-mary-lou-williams.html
We will also return on Wed 090414, 10-11pm

Mandatory
090409 - Thu 1-3pm
The Commons Conference: Negri & Balibar at Nasher Museum
if you cannot make it to that, go to at least 2hrs of any other part of the 2 day conference and be ready to talk/do something about it. I'll be there for all parts of both days.
Full info here:
http://experimentalcommunities.blogspot.com/2009/03/xco-events-09040910negribalibarothersth.html

Not Mandatory but Almost
090410 - Fri 6:30-7:30pm (time we'll be there, the reception goes from 6 to 9pm)
Classmate Cameron Ayres' exhibition reception at Arts Center in Carrboro
http://experimentalcommunities.blogspot.com/2009/04/invite-reception-for-my-stuff.html

--------------------------------------------------------

XCO EVENTS 090413/YAMILA GUTIÉRREZ CALLISAYA/TOWARD THE COMMUNAL(THE CONSTITUTION OF THE BOLIVIAN STATE AND A THE DECOLONIAL RE-CONSTITUTION OF AYLLUS

2009-04-08T10:49:00.002-04:00

Modernity/Coloniality and the Geopolitics of Knowledge Working Group
UNC-Duke Consortium in Latin American Studies invite you to

A WORKSHOP WITH

YAMILA GUTIÉRREZ CALLISAYA

CONSEJO NACIONAL DE AYLLUS Y MARKAS DEL QULLASUYU (CONAMAQ), LA PAZ, BOLIVIA

ON

TOWARD THE COMMUNAL

(THE CONSTITUTION OF THE BOLIVIAN STATE AND A THE DECOLONIAL RE-CONSTITUTION OF THE AYLLUS)

The workshop will be conducted in Spanish and coordinated by Marcelo Fernández-Osco (Department of Romance Studies, co-founder of THOA, Taller Historia Oral Andina)

Monday, April 13, 2009
5,45 pm to 8 pm

Friedl Building 225A (East Campus, right by the bus stop; parking available at the entrance on Buchanan and Trinity)

Light dinner will be served.

Noam Chomsky describes Bolivia as the most democratic country on earth at this point. Yamila Gutierrez will describe the crucial role that the re-constitution of the Ayllus is playing in this process and the role of the Ayllus in redoing political theory and political economy (e.g., the re-conceptualization of “the communal”), working toward de-colonial democratic futures. We are allowing ample time for debate and exchange of ideas.

For more information about CONAMAQ see http://www.conamaq.org.bo/

PLAYING: Jazz at the Mary Lou Williams Center

2009-04-07T16:39:00.002-04:00

Join us at the Mary Lou Williams Center for a Wednesday night tradition featuring Professor John Brown and his trio. Come enjoy free late-night snacks, bring your drink over from the Faculty Commons bar next door and listen to the sounds of jazz in the cool setting of the Mary Lou.

Co-sponsored by Duke University Union and the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture

Where: Mary Lou Williams Center (above The Loop in the West Union Building; enter through the door under the archway between the plaza and quad and walk up one flight of stairs)
When: 9:30pm - 12:30am

Invite: Reception for my stuff

2009-04-05T17:53:00.004-04:00

So, the reception is this Friday, April 10th from 6-9 at the ArtsCenter in Carrboro. Hope you guys can swing by.

Invitation: Muslims of Metropolis Reading

2009-04-05T17:52:00.000-04:00

Hey fellow Experimental Communitarians,

My very dear friend Kavitha Rajagopalan is coming to town this week to read from her book, Muslims of Metropolis, at Internationalist books - this Wednesday at 7. If you can make it, I promise it will be worth it. I'm reading the book as we speak and am utterly fascinated, and Kavi herself is brilliant, beautiful and a hell of a lot of fun.

Rather than attempt a mini-précis, I decided to beg, borrow and steal from the dust jacket. Here's some info on the book:

Muslims of Metropolis: The Stories of Three Immigrant Families in the West

"Through the microcosm of three Muslim families in Western cities, Kavitha Rajagopalan makes legible features of international migration easily obscured by questions of religion and racism. She brings to life socio-cultural alignments in the larger story of globalization that in turn illuminate those thick microcosms. This is one of the most interesting accounts I have read about the subject." - Saskia Sassen

Bio Blurb:
Kavitha Rajagopalan has worked in international development and finance, and as a journalist in India, Germany and the United States. She is a senior fellow at the World Policy Institute.

Dust Jacket synopsis:
The Muslim population globally is comprised of hundreds of ethnic, linguistic, and religious sub-communities. Yet, more often than not, the public confuses these diverse and unrelated communities, branding Muslim immigrants as a single, suspicious, and culturally antagonistic group of people. Generalizations like these have compromised many Muslim immigrants' sense of belonging and acceptance in places where they have lived, in some cases, for three or four generations.

In Muslims of Metropolis, Kavitha Rajagopalan takes a much needed step in personalizing and humanizing our understanding of the Muslim diaspora. Tracing the stories of three very different families - a Palestinian family moving to London, a Kurdish family moving to Berlin, and a Bangladeshi family moving to New York - she reveals a level of complexity and nuance that is seldom considered. Through their voices and in their words, Rajagopalan describes what prompted these families to leave home, what challenges they faced in adjusting to their new lives, and how they came to view their place in society. Interviews with community leaders, social justice organizations and with academics and experts in each of the countries add additional layers of insight to how broad political issues, like nationalist conflict, immigration reform, and antiterrorism strategies affect the lives of Muslims who migrate in search of economic and personal happiness.

Although recent thinking about immigration policy in the United States and Europe emphasizes the importance of long-term integration, a global attitude that continues to sensationalize divisions between Muslim and other communities thwarts this possibility. Integration cannot occur with policy situations alone - people must feel that they belong to a larger society. Whether read as simple stories or broader narratives, the voices in this revealing book are among the many speaking against the generalization, prejudice, and fear that has so far surrounded Muslims living in the West.

Proposal: Walking - turn left

2009-04-03T13:59:00.002-04:00

I can't find her original text, but there's a Yoko Ono instruction piece where you walk until you have to turn, and then always make a left. I thought we might incorporate some sort of instructional (directional?) parameter on our walking day.

PHOTOGRAPHY: Wendy Ewald and Brett Cook

2009-03-31T17:41:00.006-04:00

Wendy Ewald (left) and Brett Cook (right)

Learning from two artists, collaborators, and community organizers

PROPOSAL: Walking

2009-03-31T17:29:00.001-04:00

Visit each of our homes/dorm rooms as they are (no cleaning up!)

PROPOSAL: Playing

2009-03-31T17:27:00.005-04:00

Hot seat (one person is in the 'hot seat' and we ask them any question we want...they don't necessarily have to answer...this could be played in the car!)

Campfire + songs

Name game (everyone puts a fake name [can be famous or just a random name] into a bowl and there is a process by which we attempt to guess who wrote what name)

PROPOSAL: Giving

2009-03-31T17:27:00.002-04:00

Painting the graffiti bridge.

Skill sharing workshop (get together and share one skill we each have).

PROPOSAL: Playing

2009-03-31T14:19:00.001-04:00

We should cook a meal and eat together while listening to a CD that each of us has burned of music from our own collections.

PROPOSAL: Playing

2009-03-31T14:12:00.002-04:00

We should rent bikes from Duke Bikes and do a bike tour of an area of Durham we want to know more about.

PROPOSAL: Playing

2009-03-31T14:09:00.001-04:00

Doing "work". Outside. While we talk about our experience out loud. Duke Community Garden?

PRESENTATION: Black/White Doll

2009-03-31T14:06:00.003-04:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWEXJ-Qd1uw

PRESENTATION: Obedience and Milgram

2009-03-31T13:52:00.002-04:00

Stanley Milgram's (Yale University psychologist) experiment with obedience can be described as follows: There are three individuals involved--the teacher, the learner, and the experimenter. The teacher is teaching the learner a set of words and, if the learner gets something wrong, the teacher has been instructed (and encouraged) by the experimenter to give the learner a shock. The shock treatment increases with every answer the learner gets wrong. The teacher was the only one who did not know what was going on in this experiment. The learner and experimenter were actors and the shocks were simulated.

Though some teachers stopped after a certain shock level or after the learner was shocked to the point of being unconscious, many of the teachers actually went on. Milgram wanted to experiment with people's willingness to obey an authority figure.

I think these experiments are extremely interesting and disturbing. We all believe that we, ourselves, would never take part in such horrible actions but Milgram's experiments show that human nature is a lot more universal than we thought.

http://www3.niu.edu/acad/psych/Millis/History/2003/stanley_milgram.htm

Presentation: Milgram Experiments

2009-03-31T12:09:00.003-04:00

The Milgram experiments were designed by Stanley Milgram and began in 1961. They intended to answer the question as to whether it was possible that Nazi subordinates who killed and tortured were simply following orders. Thus, the experiment examines the effects of an authority figure giving instructions that conflict with individual consciences. The experiment was designed so that there was a teacher, learner and experimenter. The learner and experiment were separated by a wall and unable to see each other. The teacher was to attempt to teach word-pairs to the learner. He would read a list of word-pairs, then state the first word of a pair and give the learner four options. If the learner guessed wrong, the teacher was instructed to electrocute the learner with a shock, which he had sampled earlier. The teacher would hear screams from the learner, who supposedly had a heart condition. In reality, there were no shocks, the screams were pre-recorded, and the learner was always the same person. The voltage level would gradually increase, and the learner would bang on the wall and complain about his heart condition. Eventually, all responses form the learner stopped.

If the teacher ever wanted to stop the experiment, the experimenter would give four verbal prods:
1. Please continue.
2. The experiment requires that you continue.
3. It is absolutely essential that you continue.
4. You have no other choice, you must go on.

If he continued to try to quit after the fourth prompt, he would be allowed to go. Otherwise, the experiment would only end after three maximum-voltage (450 volts) shocks had been administered. 65% of the teachers reached this point. Locations were varied, but the rate of completion remained from 61-66%. Completion was maximized when the experimenter was there in person but not touching the teacher. This experiment raised considerable concerns about experimental ethics, given the undue stress placed on the teachers, but also revealed the ability of a human to inflict pain without consideration, given only an order.
Several theories used to explain the results are:
• The theory of conformism, based on Solomon Asch's work, describing the fundamental relationship between the group of reference and the individual person. A subject who has neither ability nor expertise to make decisions, especially in a crisis, will leave decision making to the group and its hierarchy. The group is the person's behavioral model.
• The agentic state theory, wherein, per Milgram, the essence of obedience consists in the fact that a person comes to view himself as the instrument for carrying out another person's wishes, and he therefore no longer sees himself as responsible for his actions. Once this critical shift of viewpoint has occurred in the person, all of the essential features of obedience follow.

Proposal: Giving/Recieving/Exchanging

2009-03-31T11:49:00.002-04:00

I heard about a group of guys who stood out on busy street on some college campus and yelled complements at people passing by. We should do the same.

Presentation: Stanford prison experiment

2009-03-31T11:36:00.003-04:00

The Stanford prison experiment was a small-scale simulation of a prison environment, where 24 college males were selected to play either the role of a prison guard or an inmate. Philip Zimbardo organized the experiment with the hope of proving that sadistic tendencies in prison could be traced back to personality traits. After a relatively tame first day, a riot broke out on the second day, after which the actors of either role began to deeply absorb their new identities. Prisoners, when given the opportunity to leave, would remain in the mock jail. Guards became increasingly sadistic and worked together to humiliate the prisoners. For example, the guards simulated homosexual sex with some of the prisoners, forced some to sleep on the concrete floor, forced others to give up their mattresses to free an inmate in solitary confinement, and removed the waste buckets from some of the cells, causing conditions to rapidly deteriorate. After a visiting graduate student called attention to the poor conditions of the experiment, it was shut down after only 6 days instead of the original intended 14.

The experiment has been criticized on a number of grounds, particularly the deterministic nature of the roles. Individuals tended to conform to roles based on hat was expected of them; for example, one of the guards imitated the warden from Cool Hand Luke. Also, language used to describe the experiment may have primed the behavior of the participants, as the setting of the prison likely did as well. Criticisms published in several leading psychology journals challenged the experiment’s conclusions that people slip mindlessly into roles and points out the importance of a leader, in this case, Zimbardo, in the development of tyranny, thus suggesting that Zimbardo’s briefing of the guards also primed them for sadistic action.

Proposal: Giving/Recieving/Exchanging - A Secret

2009-03-31T10:15:00.001-04:00

Exchange with the person next to you something that you've never told anyone else.

Proposal: Giving/Recieving/Exchanging - Joseph Cornell

2009-03-31T10:10:00.002-04:00

Joseph Cornell's boxes (assemblages) were conceived as gifts, often for people he admired from afar - a 19th century ballerina for instance - or Lauren Bacall, a Medici. I don't have a specific proposal, but I like the idea of surreal gifting.

Proposal: Playing - Streets of Southpoint

2009-03-31T09:25:00.001-04:00

Those fountains with the fake children are just begging to be played in.

Proposal: Playing - The Plastic Ono Bowl

2009-03-31T09:24:00.001-04:00

I've had a fantasy recently of getting a bunch of people dressed as either John Lennon or Yoko Ono to go out bowling.

XCO EVENTS 090409+10/Negri+Balibar+Others/The Common & Forms of the Commune:Alternative Social Imaginaries

2009-03-30T19:59:00.003-04:00

Event: Symposium | The Common & the Forms of the Commune
"Featuring Public Conversation w/ Etienne Balibar & Antonio Negri"
What: Lecture
Host: Franklin Humanities Institute
Start Time: Thursday, April 9 at 1:00pm
End Time: Friday, April 10 at 5:00pm
Where: Nasher Museum (Apr 9) & East Duke Parlor (Apr 10)

The Common & Forms of the Commune:
Alternative Social Imaginaries

Thursday April 9, 2009 - Nasher Museum Auitorium

1:00-3:00 PM
ON THE COMMON, UNIVERSALITY AND COMMUNISM
A conversation between Étienne Balibar and Antonio Negri

3:30-5:15 PM
THE COMMON AND ITS PRODUCTION
- The Common in Communism
Michael Hardt, Duke University
- The Institutions of the Common
Gigi Roggero, Universita Di Bologna
- Discussants: Pedro Lasch, Duke University & Aras Özgün, New School

===

Friday April 10, 2009 - East Duke Parlor

10:30 AM - 12:15 PM
THE COMMON AND COMMODITY FETISHISM
- Socialism, Community, and Democracy
David Ruccio, Notre Dame and Antonio Callari, Franklin and Marshall College
- The Common without Copies
Debora Jenson, Duke University
- Discussant: Federico Luisetti, UNC-Chapel Hill

1:15 - 3:00 PM
“MODES” OF COMMUNITY
- Engendering Feudalism: Modes of Production Revisited
S. Charusheela, University of Nevada-LasVegas
- Producing Solidarity
Ken Surin, Duke University
- Discussant
Kathi Weeks, Duke University

3:15 - 5:00 PM
DIFFERENCE IN COMMON
- Translating Difference and the Common
Anna Curcio, Duke University
- Subjectivity and the Forms of the Commune
Ceren Özselçuk, Duke University and Yahya Madra, Gettysburg College
- Discussant: Alvaro Reyes, Duke University

XCO EVENTS 090404/Angel Luis Lara at El Kilombo/INSTITUTIONS OF THE PROCOMMON AND THE WARS OF HARRY POTTER

2009-03-30T19:56:00.001-04:00

INSTITUTIONS OF THE PROCOMMON AND THE WARS OF HARRY POTTER: CONFLICTS OF AUTONOMY IN THE GLOBAL CRISIS
Angel Luis Lara: international activist, sociologist at the Universidad Complutense in Madrid, and rock musician

Saturday, April 4, 2009
5:00pm, at El Kilombo Social Center
324 West Geer Street, Durham NC 27701
(919) 688-8768
Directions can be found at:
http://www.elkilombo.org/about/about-directions.php
**Event will be in Spanish, with translation into English**

Please join us for the fourth and final segment of our Spring 2009 Speaker Series, where we conclude our investigations into the current crisis of capitalism. In our previous events, we discussed instantiations of the crisis in the struggle against gentrification, the attempt to reclaim a connection between artistic creativity and community building, and ever-growing movements for dignified life. We have arrived at the perspective that the real crisis of capitalism resides in the forms of life that overflow the existing geography of the institutional right and left. In his eccentric manner, Angel Luis Lara will look at specific examples of everyday practices that open paths to autonomy in his talk, “Institutions of the Procommon and the Wars of Harry Potter: Conflicts of Autonomy in the Global Crisis.”

Monochrome Landscape (Green)

2009-03-28T20:30:00.002-04:00

Monochrome Landscape (Green) by Laura Kurgar intro by Yates McKee (p. 534)

I think Kurgar's projects adds a new demention to law and environmental regulation. My question is; to what extent can satellite

immagery be trusted and used as evidence of transgrassion in courts, as photographs can virtually seamlessly be faked

in photoshop and other programs of that kind? Who will be inchage of global environment surveillance, and how will it be funded?

How do we make sure that it is fair towards all, and that superpowers are not exceptions to the regulations inforced?

XCO Events/090217/Baker+Eversoll/Images/Violeta

2009-03-25T10:50:00.002-04:00

Presentation: Beyond Freedom and Dignity by B. F. Skinner

2009-03-24T16:09:00.001-04:00

Beyond Freedom and Dignity is a book written by American psychologist B. F. Skinner and first published in 1971. The book argues that entrenched belief in free will and the moral autonomy of the individual (which Skinner referred to as "dignity") hinders the prospect of using scientific methods to modify behavior for the purpose of building a happier and better organized society.

Beyond Freedom and Dignity may be summarized as an attempt to promote Skinner's philosophy of science, the technology of human behavior, his conception of determinism, and what Skinner calls 'cultural engineering'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyond_Freedom_and_Dignity#A_Technology_of_Behavior

Presentation: Walden Two by B. F. Skinner

2009-03-24T15:47:00.004-04:00

"Walden Two (1948) is a utopian novel by behavioral psychologist B. F. Skinner, describing a small, thousand-person, rural planned community of happy, productive, and creative people. Planners and Managers govern a community requiring only four daily hours of work from each person, and that promotes the arts and applied scientific research. The community subscribe to a code of conduct based upon, and supported by, a behaviourism resembling that of author Skinner.

Walden Two challenges contemporary U.S. social conventions such as the value of modern education, the effectiveness of university professors, excessive work volume, and posits a planned economy, critical of inefficient capitalism. The community's government is not democratic; children are reared communally, outside the nuclear family, and loyalty to community, instead of parents, is encouraged. Childbearing is encouraged as soon as possible, in pursuit of a great growth policy, and eugenics are considered in possibly creating a Golden Age.

Walden Two is controversial for its rejection of democracy as effective government, viable socialist economy, an atheist society, the narrow range of available emotional expression, its appeal to dictators and to emulators of T.E. Frazier, the emotionally unstable protagonist. "

The plot

"Six visitors arrive at a thousand-person community then ten years old. A decade earlier, T.E. Frazier wrote an article asking people join him in founding a community based on philosopher H. D. Thoreau's ideas. Two soldiers, returned from the war, seek Frazier, and enlist Professor Burris's help; he finds and communicates with Frazier, then joins the visit to the community. Prof. Burris invites Prof. Augustine Castle, and, with the two soldiers, Rogers and Steve Jamnick, and their girlfriends, Mary Grove and Barbara Macklin, they visit Walden Two.

The story concerns the arguments among founder Frazier and Prof. Castle and Prof. Burris, which exposit the reasons for the community's structure, its past and its future.At story's end, one couple stay in the community, while the other visitors leave, however, in a sudden change of heart, Prof. Burris quits his university post and returns to the rural community."

Creating a "Walden Two in real life are detailed in Hilke Kuhlmann's Living Walden Two^[10] and in Daniel W. Bjork's B.F.Skinner."

"Some of them include:

1955 In New Haven, Connecticut a group led by Arthur Gladstone tries to start a community.
1966 Waldenwoods conference is held in Hartland, Michigan, comprising 83 adults and 4 children, coordinated through the Breiland list (a list of interested people who wrote to Skinner and were referred to Jim Breiland).
1966 Matthew Israel forms the Association for Social Design(ASD), to promote a Walden Two, which soon finds chapters in Los Angeles, Albuquerque, and Washington, D.C..
1967 Israel's ASD forms the Morningside House in Arlington, Massachusetts.
1967 Twin Oaks Community (web site) is started in Lousia, Virginia.
1969 Keith Miller in Lawrence, Kansas founds a 'Walden house' student collective that becomes The Sunflower House 11.
1971 Roger Ulrich starts Lake Village in Michigan originally conceptualized as a 'scientific behaviorist experiment'.
1971 Los Horcones (web site), is started in Hermosillo, Mexico.
1972 Sunflower House 11 is (re)born in Lawrence, Kansas from the previous experiment.
1979 East Wind in south central Missouri.^[12]
1998 Efforts by Mike Ray of Turlock, California, since 1998 to discuss and plan a community based on Walden Two. See his Walden Two web site."
Bibliography:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walden_Two

http://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/images/9780252029622.jpg

http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/bestselling-sci-fi-fantasy-2006/1128-1.jpg

PROPOSAL: GIVING/ RECEIVING/ EXCHANGING 3

2009-03-24T15:43:00.002-04:00

We should exchange little gifts (less than 5$)!

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://theshbeautysalon.co.uk/products/images/BWL_white.jpg&imgrefurl=http://theshbeautysalon.co.uk/products/index.php%3FosCsid%3Dc0067f78ba7e54e847e4b0767069c717&usg=__HZQ3bddekOJsA7tw1Q7p8gyXHdU=&h=430&w=450&sz=23&hl=en&start=8&sig2=1GBF3Uy4mhtq0t4NuiNfTg&um=1&tbnid=wk9kVK93Ie0pgM:&tbnh=121&tbnw=127&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dgift%2Bwrapped%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG%26um%3D1&ei=1zrJSYCgEYaeM-bNpd0D

PROPOSAL: GIVING/ RECEIVING/ EXCHANGING 2

2009-03-24T15:39:00.002-04:00

We should make/bring each other food and exchange it and eat it.

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.whytraveltofrance.com/images/beignets.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.whytraveltofrance.com/2006/08/&usg=__Ny9ZlRHPrGMLx5FGGys9D881wI0=&h=357&w=400&sz=30&hl=en&start=8&sig2=nNkfS7mnmd46hM4DTq8W0A&um=1&tbnid=PJXboYbi5NWEAM:&tbnh=111&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dfrench%2Bpastries%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1C1GGLS_en-USUS295US304%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1&ei=CDvJSYuPMoPCMuCHlbsD

PROPOSAL: WALKING 3

2009-03-24T15:32:00.002-04:00

We should work in Durham again taking pictures similar to the exhibit we saw about a walk through Mexico City.

PROPOSAL: GIVING/ RECEIVING/ EXCHANGING 1

2009-03-24T15:29:00.005-04:00

We should make each other postcards and exchange them in class!

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://preetamrai.com/weblog/images/postcards.jpg&imgrefurl=http://preetamrai.com/weblog/archives/2006/01/07/postcards-make-me-happy/&usg=__U-Vj-fyv9Fvuu8cQ8gfdakmo88s=&h=357&w=499&sz=128&hl=en&start=2&sig2=X2V0t4ub1Rw-xaz2YzuOEw&um=1&tbnid=AED-JhsbPCXYWM:&tbnh=93&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dpostcards%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1C1GGLS_en-USUS295US304%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1&ei=IzvJSay0Gpi-M6LHsb0D

Proposal/Giving, Recieving, Exchanging

2009-03-23T12:02:00.003-04:00

We should do some work at the Duke Community Garden.

Proposal/Playing

2009-03-23T11:58:00.001-04:00

We should play an online co-op game.

Proposal/Playing

2009-03-23T11:57:00.001-04:00

We ought to play mafia in class.

Proposal/ Walking: 2

2009-03-17T16:09:00.001-04:00

We should just start walking and take turns inventing how to walk.

Proposal/Walking: 1

2009-03-17T15:14:00.002-04:00

Proposal/Walking: 1

We should walk from East Campus to West Campus taking pictures on our way. Similar to the exibit we saw that recorded the walk in Mexico City.

Proposal/Playing: 3

2009-03-17T15:12:00.002-04:00

We should play different card games and in the process teach each other new card games.

Proposal/Playing: 2

2009-03-17T15:09:00.002-04:00

Proposal/Playing

We should teach each other magic card tricks!

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2005/10/02/03CARDS.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.theage.com.au/news/arts/dizzy-spells/2005/10/02/1128191601234.html&usg=__RhcR7Pg--Qui8kvTSSNsQAYd3Cw=&h=450&w=300&sz=34&hl=en&start=13&sig2=5EZai3UedlZHyEonb3iLNQ&um=1&tbnid=GHGA-puAV8lVwM:&tbnh=127&tbnw=85&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcard%2Btricks%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1C1GGLS_en-USUS295US304%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1&ei=jjvJSZK4OZjCMra8ucID

Proposal/Playing:1

2009-03-17T15:08:00.003-04:00

I propose we play Monopoly in class! Perhaps Duke Monopoly!

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://phd.blog.googlepages.com/monopoly_board.jpg&imgrefurl=http://lutheransurrealism.blogspot.com/2008/12/monopoly.html&usg=__7_DB7PFQKgkWqrRSZQ94dx3V3yE=&h=300&w=300&sz=54&hl=en&start=3&sig2=1VoDr3cFkbPTwUvwg1tuDg&um=1&tbnid=AZe7yNJYD79muM:&tbnh=116&tbnw=116&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmonopoly%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1C1GGLS_en-USUS295US304%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1&ei=fjvJSfnXLI_EMtfg2b0D

NONGOVERNMENTAL POLITICS:Dilemas of Home improvement

2009-03-17T14:55:00.004-04:00

NONGOVERNMENTAL POLITICS: Dilemas of Home improvement: Can Clean Energy Technology Mediate Civic Involvement in Climate Change. (p. 368 by Noorje Marres)

Questions:

Why are we depending and relying so little on solar energy?

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.instablogsimages.com/images/2007/10/30/solar-energy_7071.jpg&imgrefurl=http://starrynightlights.com/blog/category/solar-power/&usg=__l20sfOdN-LFSBpBwmNNVkup5ZBw=&h=380&w=450&sz=44&hl=en&start=2&sig2=BNX9uL9fUbo5AMX0qv1ZBQ&um=1&tbnid=_cc2FjKSvutGqM:&tbnh=107&tbnw=127&ei=Wfi_SczeO6CwmQfG2LShDw&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsolar%2Benergy%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1C1GGLS_en-USUS295US304%26sa%3DG%26um%3D1

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/3200/r139061476078vo1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://lightbulbs.org/phoenix-solar-energy-grid&usg=__3OH0f73mDqcH05wHZAXq10RtYsQ=&h=505&w=840&sz=63&hl=en&start=3&sig2=6zFvfZ4-aJ-KTaAKSyMfiw&um=1&tbnid=PafRCv0q_bvtPM:&tbnh=87&tbnw=145&ei=Wfi_SczeO6CwmQfG2LShDw&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dsolar%2Benergy%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1C1GGLS_en-USUS295US304%26sa%3DG%26um%3D1

PRESENTATION: 090331/LIST-SCIENTIFIC & QUASI-SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENTS

2009-03-17T14:33:00.006-04:00

PRESENTATION: 090331/LIST-SCIENTIFIC & QUASI-SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENTS

Assigned:
AT- Studies on Native Remains
CA-The Nazi Concentration Camp as 'Scientific' Experiment
LH- 'Remote Viewing' and Star Gate
MB- Stanford Prison Experiment
RS- Obedience and Stanley Milgram
SK- LSD & the Military
VF- B.F.Skinner's 'Walden Two'

Self-selected
chose on 'collective experiment' where participants are also creators and have specific scientific or knowledge creation intended goals' (updated 0902xx):
AT
CA
LH
MB
RS
SK
VF

More suggestions for:

AT

CA

LH

MB

RS

SK

VF

Readings: Non-Governmental Politics / Nongovernmental Generation of International Treaties

2009-03-17T14:20:00.003-04:00

This article speaks to access to knowledge issues, intellectual property rights, and the role of the UN in promoting/regulating these fields. It also goes on to describe the entanglement of political ideology with opinions on intellectual property rights.

These are important dialogues to have, especially in an increasingly informational world where small ideas can transform societies. Good questions to ask are: why do we need international regulation of intellectual property issues? Who would write these treaties and who would the regulations best serve? Is the notion of "property rights" a universal value?

These are questions that I had for myself, and I am glad that the author addressed our emotional relationship to property rights issues. This pushes people to think of their basic motives in establishing regulated global intellectual property rights, whether these motives are profit, power, or philosophically oriented.

Readings: Non-Governmental Politics / Civic Think Tank

2009-03-17T13:56:00.002-04:00

This chapter talks about an organization in D.C. called Public Citizen's Health Research Group that lobbies and pushes for legislation on The Hill. They advocate consumer rights via their expertise. The overarching goals are to change larger structures that promote ill industries instead of just changing one or two corporations. Because they work to change regulations, their work is largely non-partisan.

I am very interested in advocacy and lobbying groups in Washington, where private and public interests meet. How is one lobbying group able to speak on the behalf of an entire consumer base? What are the most effective methods of lobbying for health care issues this year, as we are probably going to see a change in the overall structure of the system?

Readings: The Governed in Politics

2009-03-17T12:00:00.002-04:00

I just read the introductory essay, Michel Feher's The Governed in Politics, partly because a friend in my PhD program told me that he didn't really believe in nongovernmental politics, so I was hoping with this essay to get a better understanding of what they are (or aren't if my friend is right.) Feher points out that the term covers a wide range of activity, and that some of the actors would certainly not recognize what they are doing as nongovernmental or political. What is our understanding(s) of the term and how it relates to what we're doing and the world at large? It seems like we've talked about it in terms of specific groups and practices, but not so much as a larger unifying idea.

Readings: The Closing of American Society

2009-03-17T11:47:00.002-04:00

What does is mean that, as LaMarche notes, many "liberals" have begun referring to themselves as "progressives?" Are Progressives now trusting to the popularity of their vision of/for the US (and marketing it)? Are we now at the beginning of a possible "opening" of American society and if so, what role(s) might artists play?
Many things I've read lately were written in the last few years of the Bush administration. This interview (and the concept of nongovernmental politics generally) resonates with Stephen Duncombe's book Dream: Re-Imagining Progressive Politics in an Age of Fantasy (I know, I've mentioned it a few times, sorry.) In this book, he calls on "mainstream liberals" to learn from the media success of more marginalized, spectacular activist groups - Billionaire's for Bush & Reclaim the Streets, for example. This is similar to LaMarche's complaint that liberals haven't tended to trust in the popularity of their vision(s) and so don't "package it for consumption" or present it boldly. Has what they were calling for recently come to pass? What has shifted?

XCO EVENTS: 090318 Etienne Balibar-Homi Bhabha-Wendy Brown/Time, Agency, and the Banality of Evil

2009-03-17T10:36:00.001-04:00

Wednesday, March 18, 2009, 3:00-6:00pm
Room 240, John Hope Franklin Center (with Overflow Spaces)

SOVEREIGNTY AND SECURITY
FHI Annual Spring Symposium

Porous Sovereignty, Walled Democracy
Wendy Brown, University of California, Berkeley

Strangers and Enemies
Etienne Balibar, Université Paris X - Nanterre & University of California, Irvine

Respondent: Homi Bhabha, Harvard University

Profs. Balibar and Brown are Distinguished Scholars in Residence at the FHI this Spring.
Prof. Bhabha will deliver the 2009 A. W. Mellon/Franklin Humanities Institute Distinguished Lecture on Tuesday, Marh 17, 2009.

XCO EVENTS: 090317 Homi K. Bhabha/Time, Agency, and the Banality of Evil

2009-03-17T10:34:00.001-04:00

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

This is a reminder that the 2009 A. W. Mellon Foundation/Franklin Humanities Institute Distinguished Lecture will take place on Tuesday, March 17, 2009, 5:30 PM (the second day back after break) at the Nasher Museum of Art. We are extremely pleased to have Homi K. Bhabha, Anne F. Rothenberg Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University, as our Distinguished Lecturer this year. Prof. Bhabha's lecture is entitled “Also, I Know That a Man Can Become of an Incredible Wickedness Very Suddenly”: Time, Agency, and the Banality of Evil."

On the following day - Wednesday, March 18, 3:00 - 6:00 PM - Prof. Bhabha will serve as respondent in the FHI's 2009 Spring Symposium, "Sovereignty and Security." The symposium will feature talks by Wendy Brown (Professor of Political Science, UC Berkeley) and Étienne Balibar (Professor Emeritus, Université Paris X & Distinguished Professor in the Humanities, UC Irvine). This event will take place in Franklin Center Room 240. Profs. Brown and Balibar are both FHI Distinguished Scholars in Residence this Spring.

The lecture and symposium are free and open to the public - no registration is required.

We hope that you will be able to join us at both of these exciting programs. I encourage you to visit our webiste (http://www.fhi.duke.edu/) or contact our staff (fhi@duke.edu) for more information, including details regarding other public events and opportunities to engage with Profs. Brown and Balibar.

PRESENTATION: President Please

2009-03-03T17:15:00.002-05:00

http://www.presidentplease.com/ (go here for video clips)

President Please is an organization that is trying to replace the "N-Word" with "President". They are clearly experimenting with words during a post-Obama win and, more importantly, trying to get rid of a word that has a whole history of connotations.

I am not sure if I agree with what they are doing. There is something clearly taboo about replacing the "N-Word" with a word that describes the highest elected office in our country. Clearly it gets people to think, but I don't know if its connecting two words that shouldn't be connected.

PRESENTATION: LA Riots

2009-03-03T16:56:00.002-05:00

Video taken from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROn_9302UHg

The LA Riots were a response to the verdicts rendered in a 1991 case involving Rodney King (an African-American male), the victim of a brutal beating at the hands of the LAPD. On April 29, 1992, the courts cleared three of the four LAPD officers of all charges and charged one with excessive force.

In response to this ruling, citizens rioted for days. Over four thousand were injured and fifty were killed. The city suffered one billion in property damage.

Many were outraged due to the obvious racial implications of the situation and, in addition, the fact that King suffered repeated beatings for simply leading police in a car chase after they attempted to stop him for speeding violations. To many in the African-American community, the tape of King was just proof of what people had been yelling for years--that racism and sexism was rampant in the LAPD. The riots also revealed deep racial tensions between all of the ethnic and racial groups in LA, including Black-Korean tensions in areas where Korean businesses seemed to be doing quite well.

The King case and the LA riots are a testament to the fact that often times, racial tensions lay far beneath the ground in our communities because people turn a blind eye until they are forced to watch. Often times systemic racism (such as the way it manifests in the police force) is hard to prove and the video tape of King literally shoved it in people's faces. Do we have to have an event like this to believe that racism still exists? How can we probe and experiment with racial and gender relationships in a way that will reveal our unconscious (and often times naive and ignorant) prejudices even when they are not at the extreme level of a brutal beating?

http://www.usc.edu/libraries/archives/la/la_riot.html
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/US/04/28/la.riot.anniversary/index.html
http://www.asiasource.org/news/at_mp_02.cfm?newsid=79441

Presentation: Teenage Fan Hysteria

2009-03-03T12:29:00.000-05:00

hysteria
a condition of extreme excitement characterized by emotional disturbance, sensory and motor derangement and sometimes the simulation of organic disorders. — hysterie, n. — hysteric, hysterical, adj.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/17/robert-pattinson-causes-s_n_144271.html

Teenage fan hysteria is a phenomenon that occurs when teenagers are in the presence of an idol or a desired object. There have been numerous consistent riggers of hysteria throughout history, including appearances of Elvis, the Beatles and other music stars. The term conjures a generalized image of shrieking fangirls and roaring, moblike teenage crowds. The term is very much associated with fads and brief episodes of fame. Notably, however, in the twenty years of Elvis’ career, his fans aged with him.

The term has been expanded in recent years to accommodate irrational behavior around collection and consumption of Japanese consumer goods and popular books releases. The term gained ground with the reports of hundreds of Japanese children lining up outside toy stores to receive their first (or fifth) Tamagotchi. During the Pokemon craze, however, this became a global phenomenon affecting numerous media, including trading cards, costumes and toys. Such patterns of excessive purchase of brand-like lines of consumers goods have since been extended to books such as the Harry Potter series and to an extent the Twilight series.

Presentation: Project Chanology

2009-03-03T12:01:00.001-05:00

Project Chanology is a widespread protest of the Church of Scientology by Anonymous, an internet collective based on 4chan. The protest is a spontaneous, loosely organized event that occurs outside various Scientology churches. The events are coordinated on the website 4chan through simple discussion and announcements of places and times for the protests. Protestors arrive wearing signature Guy Fawkes masks and hold signs with memes and catchphrases in protest of the church. The masks serve an additional purpose in protection from legal complaints by the Church.

Protests typically question the status of the Church of Scientology as a religion instead of a corporation and the ethics of information control. The latter is their primary grievance, as the Church of Scientology has a long history of controlling critical information about the organization in both video and textual information online and in print. Anonymous insists that information be free and accessible to all. Anonymous also engages in frequent denial of service attacks on Scientology websites. They also “bump” information and links about unethical Scientology behavior on Digg.com and in google results.

The following video outlines some of their rules to follow when protesting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-063clxiB8I

http://www.anonymousresources.com/protesting

Protest Guidelines

Be aware that you are taking a risk by protesting. Note a huge risk - this isn't the Mafia, after all - but the danger is real. In the past, protesters have been followed, harassed, or assaulted. Scientology is dangerous; that's why we're protesting. But have a little courage, and follow these guidelines, and you'll be fine.
Stay calm. Don't let yourself be baited into anger. Just relax. You have nothing to gain by screaming, and everything to gain by staying calm.
Cover your face. A Guy Fawkes mask is preferred (see section below on masks) but the important thing is just to conceal your identity. We're called Anonymous for a reason.
Cooperate with law enforcement and city officials. If you're new, someone else will probably be notifying city officials of the protest, you don't need to worry about that. But if a police officer tells you to do something, comply as best you can. Anonymous has a good relationship with law enforcement as a general rule; let's keep it that way.
No violence or weapons. This goes for fake weapons too.
Don't do anything stupid. This includes drinking alcohol (before or during), violence, vandalism, obscenities, hate speech, messing with cops, and going into the Scientology building.
Never be alone. Strength in numbers.
Think about what you'll wear. Generally there is no dress code for protests, but dressing more formally (as in a suit and tie) does make the public - and Scientologists - take you more seriously. Also consider bringing a change of clothes so as to throw off pursuit once the protest ends.
Bring water.
Know how to contact law enforcement if necessary. For many protests, police officers will be standing nearby. It's also a good idea to have the local police on speed-dial.
When you leave, watch for pursuit. Scientologists do sometimes follow protesters back to their cars. If you think you are being followed, do not go to your car. Notify law enforcement.

From the Encyclopedia Dramatica:

Anonymous is devoid of humanity, morality, pity, and mercy.

Anonymous works as one, because none of us are as cruel as all of us.

Anonymous cannot be harmed, no matter how many Anonymous may fall in battle.

Anonymous doesn't fall in battle, anyway.

Anonymous only undertakes Serious Business.

Anonymous is everyone

Anonymous is everywhere.

Anonymous cannot be out-numbered.

Anonymous is a hydra, constantly moving, constantly changing. Remove one head, and nine replace it.

Anonymous reinforces its ranks exponentially at need.

Anonymous has no weakness or flaw.

Anonymous exploits all weaknesses and flaws.

Anonymous doesn't have a family or friends.

Anonymous is your family and friends.

Anonymous is not your friend.

Anonymous is not your personal army.

Anonymous is in control at all times.

Anonymous does not accept failure, Anonymous delivers.

Anonymous has no identity.

Anonymous cannot be betrayed.

Anonymous does it for the lulz.

Anonymous is humanity.

Anonymous are created as equals.

Anonymous is a choice.

Anonymous is an unstoppable force.

If Anonymous must have a name, his name is David.

Anonymous obeys the Code.

Anonymous is Legion.

Anonymous does not forgive.

Anonymous does not forget.

Also:

Anonymous, in addition to being responsible for 85% of all quotes ever made, is the source of 91% of all internet truth and justice and 32.33, repeating of course, daily dosage of Vitamin /b/. Anonymous is void of human restraints, such as pity and mercy. Those who perform reckless actions or oppose Anonymous will be eliminated. Failure is not tolerated. Enemies are to be dealt with swiftly and efficiently. Anonymous must work as one. No single Anonymous knows everything. Anonymous is everyone and noone. You are. I am. Everyone is. Anonymous is humanity when the gloves come off.

Anonymous is not a person, nor is it a group, movement or cause: Anonymous is a collective of people with too much time on their hands, a commune of human thought and useless imagery. A gathering of sheep and fools, assholes and trolls, and normal everyday netizens. An anonymous collective, left to its own devices, quickly builds its own society out of rage and hate. Anonymous can be anyone from well-meaning college kids with highly idiosyncratic senses of humor trying to save people from Scientology, to devious nihilist hackers, to thirteen year old boys who speak entirely in in-jokes on an endless quest for porn.

Anonymous is not so much unlike other web communities, it has in-jokes, culture, extended debates, etc, just like everyone else. Well, anyone stupid enough to join a web community. The difference, and the reason they visit other communities is that Anonymous have a need to be harassed by "nannying" moderators. They hate being denied late night sleepovers. Here, there isn't anyone to do that - yet long and productive edit wars spring up at about the rate you'd never tolerate elsewhere, on topics you'd never believe. They have no leader, no pretentious douchebag president or group thereof to set in stone what Anonymous is and is not about. This makes them impossible to control or organize. Not really a collective at all - more like a stampede of coked-up lemmings. They don't dare to lead for will but rather break the "bridge" instead. And since it's all made out of Legos, fuck it.

Starting as an in-joke itself, "Anonymous" is the name assigned to a poster who does not enter text in the [Name] field on chan imageboards. Anonymous is not a single person, but rather, represents the collective whole of the internet.

As individuals, they can be intelligent, rational, emotional and empathetic. As a mass, a group, they are devoid of humanity and mercy. Never before in the history of humanity has there once been such a morass, a terrible network of the peer-pressure that forces people to become one, become evil. Welcome to the soulless mass of blunt immorality known only as the Internet.

Anonymous are the Monsters from the Id.

PRESENTATION: Jonestown massacre/collective suicide

2009-03-03T11:52:00.006-05:00

The Jonestown massacre happened in 1978.

It was a political and religious cult called the Peoples Temple that was started by Jim Jones. Jim Jones was first an active KKK-member, then turned completely and began a struggle against racism. He met Father Divine (a legendary black pastor from Philadelphia) and was very inspired by his preaching as well as his control over the congregation. JJ founded the Peoples Temple in 1965 in Indianapolis. Later the church moved to San Francisco.

The church had from the start very positive engagements, such as working against segregation and racism, and they also did a lot of humanitarian work (soupkitchens, helping orphanage children). They were well respected in the community – as late as 1978, the year of the massacre, the famous politician Harvey Milk articulated his support for Jones – but ended up committing collective suicide costing 918 lives after moving to Guyana, South America.

There are many interesting and horrifying aspects of this cult.

- it wanted to do good to begin with. Had a visionary leader that seemed very generous and good. Jim Jones also had very good connections with respected politicians. He was well known and very appreciated.
- Interesting mix of beliefs: Christianity & socialism.
- Had control over so many (7500 people at one time)
- Goes so far. They´re prepared to kill other people and themselves for a cause- socialism- nothing promising on the other side.

I believe it is a myth that only weak, confused people end up in cults. It is a process of socialization that happens gradually. The signs aren’t noticeable in the beginning. In the case of Jonestown the good deeds, the fellowship, and a charismatic leader. Even the leader has probably good intentions to begin with.

The reaction of society towards a radical group can in fact strengthen the tendencies to fanaticism. When threatened and encountering external critique the group grows tighter and is strengthened in their beliefs.

No faith, dogma, or political ideology is safe from ending up fanatic and can all go this far.
The conclusion is usually that we need stricter laws and more control to prevent this from happening. But that could in extension mean making society more “sectarian” in not allowing anything that deviates from the norm. No system can guarantee absolute soundness. Does that mean that it is ultimately up to the individual?

PRESENTATION: snakehandling

2009-03-03T11:48:00.004-05:00

Snakehanding belongs to a wider religious phenomena which involves taking high risks in the framework of religion.

Exists mostly in the United States, particularly in the Appalachian mountains.

While extreme, snakehandling is part of a more bodily, ecstatic form of religion. This type of religiosity tends to be more associated with the less economically well-of classes. In the west, physical and emotional expressions are often seen as crude, and upper-class religiosity is generally more intellectual and focused on dogma.

Nongovernmental politics/ The Migreurop Network and Europe's foreigner camps/ Claire Rodier

2009-03-03T11:46:00.002-05:00

The article is about a network called Migreurop who wants to point to and discuss the immigration policies used by the European union. The discussion in Europe is whether or not the asylum seekers should be taken care of outside or within the European union.

Seems to me like a horrible suggestion. Like the text says it just puts the problem and the effects of the mistreated immigrants farther away so the it becomes more distant and less our problem.
Also the countries in the European union have such different views and policies to immigration that it seems difficult to unite on one way of handling the issue.
And when the asylum seekers are fleeing their country they are usually in danger in neighboring countries as well and need to cross the border in to safer territory.

Presentations: Street Level Youth Media

2009-03-03T11:24:00.002-05:00

http://www.street-level.org/

Presentations: Urban Street Gangs

2009-03-03T11:08:00.002-05:00

http://www.gangwar.com/dynamics.htm

www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/PUB597.pdf

Here are links to two studies of Street Gangs, one sociological that identifies the reason for joining gangs as: Identity, Recognition, Belonging, Discipline, Love, Money. The other from a military, strategic point of view that poses street gangs as a threat to the nation, as existing in direct opposition to the government. Really interesting to think of gangs through the lens of non-governmental politics. Both make reference to what is probably the most popularly known gang war, that between the L.A. centered Bloods and Crips.

Presentations: Zapatistas

2009-03-03T10:30:00.003-05:00

- citations are from Stephen Duncombe's book Dream: Re-Imagining Progressive Politics in an Age of Fantasy.

"It is New Year's Day 1994, the day the North American Free Trade Agreement goes into effect, and out of the mountains of southern Mexico walk three thousand indigenous peasants wearing black ski masks, some carrying rifles, others with merely machetes or long sticks, declaring war on the Mexican oligarchy. The 'First Declaration of the Lacondon Jungle' of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) explains that this ragtag band of rebels are taking up arms in the struggle for political democracy and economic justice. The Zapatista's resident poet-in-arms Subcomandante Marcos then lays out their plans. The first step is: 'to advance to the capital of the country, overcoming the Mexican Federal Army, protecting in our advance the civilian population, and permitting the people liberated to elect, freely and democratically, their own administrative authorities.' It's a tall order. The Mexican army is 130,000 soldiers strong, and Mexico City, the capital, is 663 very indirect miles away; the Zapatista army numbers in the low thousands and many carry only sticks." pp. 165-6

This guerilla army manage to be simultaneously real and imaginary, or at least, imagined. They actually have taken control of sections of Chiapas, but most of their actions are more aimed at hijacking the media, creating what Duncombe proposes as the "ethical spectacle." A great detail is that when Subcomandante Marcos was interviewed by Gabriel García Márquez, he insisted that Don Quixote is the best book of political theory. The strength of their insurrection lies not in the accomplishment of stated goals - though they have arguably had effects on the ground level - but in the imagining of other possibilities.

"Six years after the EZLN demonstrated their formidable army to the world, they unveiled their 'air force' against a Mexican army encampment. Guerillas wrote notes to soldiers asking them to put down their weapons, then folded these notes into hundreds of paper airplanes and flew them over the razor wire encircling the armed camp." pp. 166-7

Presentations: Billionaires for Bush

2009-03-03T10:26:00.002-05:00

http://video.google.com/videosearch?um=1&hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&q=Billionaires%20for%20Bush&ndsp=21&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=iv#um=1&hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&q=Billionaires+for+Bush&ndsp=21&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=iv&start=0

The video (as does the name) pretty much says it all.

LINKS: 090220/NYU Student Occupation & Protest

2009-03-03T08:31:00.001-05:00

LINKS: 090220/NYU Student Occupation & Protest

Texts, reports, and images by students at:
http://politicalpoet.wordpress.com/2009/02/20/student-occupation-and-protest-at-nyu-411-photos-editorial/

OPPORTUNITY: 090316(Deadline)/Open Call/Local Farms-Local Art Exhibit

2009-03-03T08:26:00.002-05:00

OPPORTUNITY: 090316(Deadline)/Open Call/Local Farms-Local Art Exhibit

For more information contact Mary Votta at Weaver Street Market

application form: Deadline: 5pm, Monday, March 16, 2009
DeaDline: Submissions must be at Weaver Street Market in Carrboro before 5 pm, Friday,
March 16, 2008. Please mail materials to:

Mary Votta c/o Weaver Street Market
437 Dimmocks Mill Road, Ste 10
Hillsborough, NC 27278

about this exhibit opportunity:

This is our second year presenting the Local Farms/Local Art Exhibit. It will
be displayed in Panzanella and the Hillsborough Weaver Street Market from April 5 through June 8, 2009.
While the Piedmont Farm Tour involves only farms within the Piedmont, the artwork may represent farm
subjects anywhere in North Carolina. Artists must currently reside in North Carolina. The submissions will be
reviewed by a screening panel of local art professionals. The artists whose work is selected will be contacted
to arrange for delivery of artwork. All artwork will be insured for the duration of the exhibit, in accordance
with Weaver Street Market policy. Panzanella is a part of the Weaver Street Market Cooperative, which is a
founding sponsor of the Piedmont Farm Tour.
enClose in a 10” x 13” envelope:
1. resume & artist statement: Resume should include arts-related background (previous training,
exhibitions, shows, etc.) Statement should be one to two paragraphs explaining the work submitted.
2. up to 10 images: Submitted images must show the pieces the artist wishes to exhibit. Digital images:
Save in jpeg format, 980 pixels by 1080 pixels, on CD with images numbered. Write name on CD.
If submitting slides: Write with permanent marker image number (to correspond with image script),
name, title. Indicate top of slide. Please submit slides in clear sleeves.
3. image script: Using numbers on slides or jpegs, list the title, medium, size and price for each work.
4. s.a.s.e.: Please include a self addressed stamped envelope with sufficient postage to return your slides
or CD, if you wish to have them returned. (No S.A.S.E. is necessary if you do not want your materials
returned.) Images of selected artwork may be used in publicity materials.
5. Completed application form (below)
6. application fee: Check or Money Order for $15 to submit up to 10 images. No cash or credit cards please.
Local Farms / Local Art

An Art Exhibit Celebrating the 14th Annual Piedmont Farm Tour
This spring, Panzanella and Weaver Street Market’s Hillsborough store will host a juried exhibit
to explore what North Carolina artists create when the inspiration is local farming. Selected
artists will be part of a 9-week exhibit of work based on NC farms. Farmers and their families,
crops, animals, landscapes, farm buildings and equipment are all possible subjects.

OPPORTUNITY: 090306(Deadline)/Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowship

2009-03-03T08:21:00.000-05:00

OPPORTUNITY: 090306(Deadline)/Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowship

------------ Forwarded Message ------------
Date: Thursday, February 26, 2009 1:16 PM -0500
From: URS Office
To: ursoffice@duke.edu
Subject: Summer Research Funding for Undergraduates

The 2009 submission deadline for the Trinity Deans' Summer Research
Fellowship has been extended to Friday, March 6. This Fellowship supports
undergraduate research and inquiry in all areas of the arts and sciences.

Approximately 30 Trinity College students will be awarded fellowships of up
to $2,500 toward reasonable expenses associated with research projects
planned for the summer. Several awards are designated for research for
first year students, for students with study abroad-related projects and
for students whose projects span one summer term and who are enrolled in a
class in the alternate term.

For information and an application, students should refer to
.

Also, ,
the opportunities section of the Undergraduate Research Support Office's
web site, lists other Duke research funding including awards from Latin
American and Caribbean Studies, European Studies, Visual Studies, and more.

We hope that students will take advantage of Duke's undergraduate research
support.

The Undergraduate Research Support Office
011 Allen Building
684-6536

ursoffice@duke.edu

OPPORTUNITY: 090310/StorySLAM Open to All/Durham

2009-03-03T08:18:00.000-05:00

The Monti is proud to introduce the very first StorySLAM to hit Durham on March 10th at Alivia's Durham Bistro. If you're a fan of The Monti, then you'll certainly be a fan of this new twist on an old idea. The concept is simple: you come to the StorySLAM on March 10th; if you have a story to tell on the theme of Secrets & Lies, submit your name to the hat. If you just want to watch - relax and enjoy! Throughout the show, we will randomly choose 10 names from the hat, and one by one, storytellers will take the stage. Each story is limited to 5 minutes, and the stories will be judged by select members of the audience. At the end of the night, we will have a winner of the StorySLAM.

10 STORYTELLERS
5 MINUTES EACH
1 WINNER

The doors at Alivia's will open at 7pm and the cover is $5 at the door. There will be NO advanced ticketing! Based on The Monti's popularity (the March 3rd show sold out in 7 minutes), it is advisable to arrive well before 7pm, especially if you hope to tell a story. Seating will be limited; there will be standing room as well. Food and drink will also be available! Stories begin at 8pm!

For more information, go to The Monti's StorySLAM page or email jeff@themonti.org.

The Monti StorySLAMs join the schedule of the monthly, curated Monti events. Following the premier SLAM, the next SLAM is slated for April 14th directly following the curated Monti event with a special guest host and author, Sara Barron, from New York City’s The Moth. Once there have been ten StorySLAMs, a GrandSLAM competition will take place with the ten previous SLAM winners.

XCO EVENTS: 090303 Gustavo Esteva at El Kilombo/THE END OF AN ERA: THE NEW UNREST AND THE EMERGING COMMONISM

2009-03-03T08:08:00.002-05:00

XCO EVENTS: 090303 Gustavo Esteva at El Kilombo/THE END OF AN ERA: THE NEW UNREST AND THE EMERGING COMMONISM

THE END OF AN ERA: THE NEW UNREST AND THE EMERGING COMMONISM
**with GUSTAVO ESTEVA**
March 3rd, 2009 (Tuesday)
7:00pm, at El Kilombo Social Center
324 West Geer Street, Durham NC 27701
(919) 688-8768
Directions to Kilombo: http://www.elkilombo.org/directionstospace/directions.html

**This panel will be conducted in Spanish with translation into English.**

Guest speaker GUSTAVO ESTEVA is a 'deprofessionalized intellectual.' He is the founder of the Universidad de La Tierra in Oaxaca, and author of several books, including Grassroots Post-Modernism: Remaking the Soil of Cultures, and Escaping Education: Living as Learning within Grassroots Cultures.

TALK DESCRIPTION
Which voices, social movements, and ideas currently resist and challenge dominant political and economic paradigms and policies? Which are the pathways now opened for dignified work and meaningful life? A new unrest reveals the search for alternatives, in the epic now unfolding at the grassroots. In this third panel in the ongoing series we seek to learn from the forms of resistance created by many others, and to continue to develop our own strategies of resistance. Members of El Kilombo will give opening and closing remarks.

SERIES DESCRIPTION

An enormous political crisis is emerging in the United States, involving the privatization of public goods, the elimination of public space, the marketization of political representation, the displacement of poor communities—in short, the privatization of wealth and the socialization of misery. All evidence seems to suggest that these watershed transformations resulting from global capitalism are picking up speed. If one were to listen to prevalent media discourse, however, the global supremacy of the US, our dysfunctional party-political system, and the power of neoliberalism will survive the coming crisis unscarred. The perspective from below is somewhat different. History teaches us, and the debacle of the current financial crisis bears out, that the brunt impact of these changes will fall hardest on working class and people of color communities. Furthermore, it was from below that the "modern world" was made possible, and it is here (away from the cameras and microphones of those above) that another world is already under construction. In this context, the El Kilombo community speaker series provides us with a space to think strategically about the struggles that must be continually developed in the face of this gathering storm. We will examine these transformations through multiple lenses, in conversation with national and international guest speakers on issues including: the relation of movements to electoral politics; gentrification, the logic of racialized power, and the central importance of territorial control; and the inspiration of global struggles for dignity and autonomy.

Things Unseen, the El Kilombo Speaker Series, will continue in April with:

Part 4: GLOBAL MOVEMENTS FOR AUTONOMY
April 4, 2009 (Saturday)
5:00pm, at El Kilombo Social Center

**Speaker: Angel Luis Lara, Musician and sociologist; Lara conducts research at the Universidad Complutense in Madrid

NONGOVERNMENTAL POLITICS: THE CASE FOR COMMUNICATION RIGHTS: after the world summit on the information society.

2009-03-02T22:17:00.002-05:00

THE CASE FOR COMMUNICATION RIGHTS: after the world summit on the information society by Soenke Zehle

Summary:

Questions/Concearns/Ideas/Comments

COLLECTIVE PHENOMENON: IMPROV EVERYWHERE

2009-03-02T21:48:00.004-05:00

COLLECTIVE PHENOMENON: IMPROV EVERYWHERE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdeBp8J0rqs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9La40WwO-lU&feature=channel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoPmd_wc7s8&feature=channel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggm_j_6jgTc&feature=channel

Improv Everywhere (often IE) is a comedic performance art group based in New York City, formed in 2001 by Charlie Todd. Its slogan is "We Cause Scenes."The group carries out non-threatening pranks, which they call "missions" in public places. The stated goal of these missions is to cause scenes of "chaos and joy." Some of the group's events are similar to flash mobs, but the group's website insists that they have nothing to do with flash mobbing and that IE was created years before flash mobbing gained popularity.IE claims the missions are benevolent, aiming to give the observers a laugh and an experience.

Bibliography:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Improv_everywhere

http://www.youtube.com

PRESENTATION: Collective UFO Sightings

2009-03-02T21:29:00.007-05:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFO_sighting

UFO:

Unidentified flying object (commonly abbreviated UFO) is a term used to refer to any aerial phenomenon whose cause can not be easily or immediately determined.

How IT All Started:

The first reports and official investigations of UFOs began during World War II with sightings of so-called foo fighters by Allied airplane crews, and with widespread sightings of European "ghost rockets" in 1946. UFO reports became more common after the first widely publicized US sighting - reported by private pilot Kenneth Arnold in 1947 - which gave rise to the popular terms "flying saucer" and "flying disc". Since then, millions of people believe that they have seen UFOs, and tens of thousands of such reports have been catalogued.

To account for unsolved UFO cases, several hypotheses have been proposed.

The Extraterrestrial hypothesis (ETH), defined by Edward U. Condon in the 1968 Condon Report as "The idea that some UFOs may be spacecraft sent to Earth from another civilization, or on a planet associated with a more distant star", further attributing the popularity of the idea to Donald Keyhoe's UFO book from 1950, though the idea clearly predated Keyhoe, appearing in newspapers and various government documents (see immediately below). This is probably the most popular theory among Ufologists.
The Interdimensional hypothesis, that UFOs are objects crossing over from other dimensions or parallel universe, popularly proposed by Jacques Vallée, though also predating him.
The Paranormal/Occult Hypothesis; A variant of the Interdimensional Hypothesis, invoked to explain so-called paranormal aspects sometimes associated with UFO reports
That UFOs are time machines or vehicles from a future Earth, perhaps made by our descendants.
The Psychosocial Hypothesis, that what people report as UFO experiences is the result of psychological misperception mechanisms and is strongly influenced by popular culture.
That UFOs represent poorly understood or still unknown natural phenomena, such as ball lightning or sprites.
The Earthquake lights/Tectonic Strain hypothesis: UFOs are caused by strains in Earth's crust near earthquake faults, which can also supposedly induce hallucinations.
That UFOs are military flying saucers; top secret or experimental aircraft unfamiliar to most people.

Bibliography

NonGovernmental Politics: Continuities a profile of Memorial

2009-03-02T20:19:00.005-05:00

NONGOVERNMENTAL POLITICS: MEMORIAL by Philippe Mangoet

Memorial was founded in 1989 to seek "justice for the victims of political persecution in the USSR by providing a tombstone, however symbolic, for the dead, and thereby writing an alternative history of the Soviet empire." (p.83).

"To promote mature civil society and democracy based on the rule of law and thus to prevent a return to totalitarianism;
To assist formation of public consciousness based on the values of democracy and law, to get rid of totalitarian patterns, and to establish firmly human rights in practical politics and in public life;
To promote the revelation of the truth about the historical past and perpetuate the memory of the victims of political repression exercised by totalitarian regimes."

Questions/Comments/Concerns

Why did the essay refer to Vladimir Putin's presidency as an "authoritarian regime"? Putin is a president not a dictator.

I think it is unfortunate that this society is loosing its powers, because so much of Russian history was deleted by wars and they are doing an amazing job restoring it. There is also a lot of old propaganda that is unfortunately firmly infused in the thoughts of many Russian citizens and i think Memorial is doing well in at time disillusioning the populace.

I think its truly outrageous that the Russian government in the 21st century seized the 12 computer hard disks containing the entire digital archive of the atrocities committed under Stalin. What are they trying to hide after all, we all know he committed many atrocities.

Bibliography:

Nongovernmental Politics. New York: Zone Books, 2007.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_(society)

NonGovernmental Politics:The Case for Communication Rights: After the World Summit on the Information Society

2009-03-02T16:35:00.002-05:00

This article discusses whether the World Summit on the Information Society was a success or failure and other potential ways of speaking about the “information society” than those privileged at the event. There are two major positions on contemporary communications; the first, neoliberal technomanagerialism, champions the information society driven largely by government and corporate influences. The second tries to define human rights to communication and defines the current network as a communication society driven by the actions of many. The article discusses the current shift to a philosophy of multi-stakeholderism and connections between the human right to communication and a human right to speak. The article then identifies two ways in which demands for human rights to communication could manifest; organizations could simply make demands and clearly define what constitutes communication rights, or they could slip the term and thus the concept of “human rights” into discourse on the information society. The article seems to argue for the second, suggesting that democratic efforts and representation could be removed from government and reapplied to the communication sphere with the influence of such a paradigm.

NonGovernmental Politics: Loose Bonds

2009-03-02T15:28:00.000-05:00

In this interview, Lovink discusses several elements of the internet including its particular political and social qualities. He defines the community of computer scientists and engineers designing the internet as libertarian, their ideology disguised as technological issues on the website Slashdot. These people seek out capital without considering ramification; they may be building censorship tools for China while making tools that allow a user to surf anonymously. Lovink calls for an approach to the internet that does not rely on outdated postmodern philosophy. Finally, he discusses the internet as a network and argues that it is driven by sporadic yet intense noncommittal interaction that does not mimic former religious or political organizational structures. He questions whether this society must become fully integrate in order to integrate capital into the network.

VIDEOS: Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus

2009-02-27T09:33:00.003-05:00

This is a really good movie about the religion, culture and music of the south.

"I was looking for the gold tooth in God's crooked smile"

NonGovernmental Politics: Governance and Policies in Nongovernmental Organizations

2009-02-26T23:27:00.002-05:00

This chapter discusses the issues of “governance” in non-governmental organizations. This can mean a variety of things, but predominantly how the organization is run. Frequently, these organizations are directed laterally, and numerous people with experience who are active in the organization direct its engagements on a case-by-case basis. The article deals with issues of transparency and the idea of executive governance; this is the use of full-time directors and organizers to enable the organization function more smoothly. The article discusses possible conflicts in the choices of having unrelated or fully involved people direct the organization. The article finally discusses the possibility of using a celebrity personality to raise awareness for the organization, depending on its needs.

NonGovernmental Politics: Bhopal: Unending Disaster, Enduring Resistance

2009-02-26T23:19:00.001-05:00

In this article, Hanna discusses the multiple effects of a disaster at the Union Carbide chemical plant in Bhopal, India. In December 1989, due to poor construction and safety measures, a tank of toxic material burst and spread over the slums surrounding the city, killing 7,000- 10,000 people and disabling thousands more. In addition to this initial disaster, chemical contamination continues to spread from waste pits around the plant. The government placed the poor citizens around the site under parens patriae, preventing them from advocating for themselves legally. In spite of this suggestion of responsibility, the government and company reached insufficient settlements with the survivors, and advocated for better health care and occupational accommodations until 2003. This conflict highlights the connections between state and corporation as well as the state’s ambiguity towards responsibility for its poor citizens.

The response to this situation has been a remarkable show of independent groups. Numerous NGOs have interpreted the disaster within their own specialty; for example, Greenpeace seeks restoration purely on an environmental basis. Many citizen groups have sprung up in protest; frequently women’s groups, these societies maintain government support of occupational alternative for disabled women. They also stage mass protests to raise awareness and to intimidate officials into supporting favorable legislation.

Non-Governmental Politics: The Consumer Dimension of Stakeholder Activism-- The Antisweatshop Movement in the United States

2009-02-24T14:30:00.002-05:00

This chapter in Non-Governmental politics uses the example of the antisweatshop movement to speak to "ethical consumerism" (215), or the idea that the market can be a crucial weapon in fighting for social change. When governments are not powerful enough to keep corporations in line, the market can be an avenue that rallies the power of consumer choice to enact change. Until the state takes up the regulatory role, the market seems to be the best avenue. The markets are not without their challenges, however, and things like economic nationalism ("Buy American" [215]) are intertwined with social justice issues. Also, real change could require quite a drastic restructuring of factories. For example, factories could transition to "worker-owned cooperatives" (212) so that they are more democratically run.

Non-Governmental Politics: The Closing of American Society

2009-02-24T14:18:00.002-05:00

This piece in Non-Governmental Politics talks about the Open Society Institute (OSI), an organization started by George Soros (philanthropist) who directs his investments towards "open society, civil society, independent media, independent academy." (622)

They have previously worked in countries that are in the middle of a transition to democracy, but now work very actively in the United States also. They counter the threat to "an open society", a threat which is initiated by the "desire to sap government of its capacity to serve human needs." (625) Soros specifically sought to fight the "growing inequalities produced by market fundamentalism" (the idea that all problems can be solved by using the market as the sole solution). (626)

Ultimately, OSI seeks to build "an infrastructure for progressive advocacy". (633)

EVENTS: 090302/The Impact of Fair Use on Scholarship and Free Expression

2009-02-24T13:54:00.001-05:00

EVENTS: 090302/The Impact of Fair Use on Scholarship and Free Expression

"From James Joyce to Harry Potter and John Lennon: The Impact of Fair
Use on Scholarship and Free Expression"

Date: Monday, March 2, 2009
Time: 5:00 pm
Location: Schiciano Auditorium A, Fitzpatrick CIEMAS building, Duke
University
Reception to follow

You are invited to an upcoming lecture on Monday, March 2, at 5:00 p.m.
by Anthony Falzone, the Executive Director of Stanford University*s
Fair Use Project. It will take place in Schiciano Auditorium A, in Duke
University's Fitzpatrick CIEMAS building.

As Executive Director of Stanford University's Fair Use Project,
Anthony Falzone has fought to clarify, and extend, the boundaries of
"fair use" in order to enhance creative and academic freedom.
Mr. Falzone has been involved in several fascinating and high-profile
fair use cases, including the current lawsuit seeking a ruling that
artist Shepard Fairey's iconic Barack Obama HOPE poster is protected by
the fair use doctrine and does not infringe copyrights asserted by the
Associated Press in a news photograph of Obama. Mr. Falzone also
represented the publishers of the Harry Potter Lexicon in the highly
publicized lawsuit by J.K. Rowling, successfully defended Professor
Carol Shloss's right to use copyrighted materials in connection with her
scholarly biography of Lucia Joyce, and vindicated the right to use a
short fragment from the John Lennon song "Imagine" in the controversial
documentary "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed."

PRESENTATION: Thuggee

2009-02-24T13:35:00.003-05:00

Thuggees were a group of people actively involved in the robbery and murder of travelers in India. Their presence has been recorded in the Indian sub-continent as early as the 13th century and lasting all the way through the 19thth century. The modern use of the word "thug" is derived directly from this Sanskrit original sthaga (meaning scoundrel).

Particular groups of thuggees developed methods of crime that helped them evolve from simple fraternity like organizations in the beginning to large crime families, preserving their secrets and initiating new members as apprentices. Their organization borrows from piracy, the mafia as well as religious cults. Certain large scale thuggee exploits have also been likened to paramilitary operations. Some literature even describes them as a military caste of Hindu society.

They flourished during the period when caravans were the main mode of transportation. Often, members joined the caravan to be attacked as bonafide travelers and spent a lot of time gaining the trust of their fellow travelers. They would also keep in touch with their members and communicate information about the movement of the caravan. Attacks were carried out as primarily ambushes across particularly rough terrains, desert land or when escape was cut off by rivers. Prefered methods of killing were strangulation but sometimes there were massacres that helped perpetrate the aura of ruthlessness and elite force of the Thuggees.

Thuggees have frequently played a part in folkore and were known for their ability to evade capture and plan strategies that lasted over journeys of hundreds of miles and changing terrain.

(A group of thuggess circa 1863, source: http://www.harappa.com/photo2/lufr.html)

Non Governmental politics/ 2006 Immigrant Mobilizations in the United States/ Claudio Lomnitz

2009-02-24T13:31:00.003-05:00

The article is about a mass protest in the United States on May 1st, 2006. More than three million ”illegal aliens” and supporters marched across cities in the U.S. hoping to change the strict immigration policies.

Comments.

- Interesting how they dared to march despite them being ”illegal” and that so many went through with it.

- Shocking that eleven million immigrants are living and working in the U.S under illegal circumstances.

- The whole system of immigration is absurd to me. The green card lottery! Even the idea that we actually have states that we belong to, and that there is nothing that can change that.

PRESENTATION: Mujahideen

2009-02-24T13:10:00.002-05:00

Mujahideen translates from the Arabic as a struggler involved in a holy war. It has specific religious and military connotations as it was employed by Muslim rulers/warriors who conquered land in the name of spreading Islam. Today, it often stands in for an "insurgent".

Mujahideen are best described in the 21st century as armed warriors who subscribe to militant Islamic ideology. Their presence is established in various countries of the world but they are best known for their exploits in Afghanistan, Pakistan/India (Kashmir), Chechnya Somalia/Ethiopia, and the Balkan region. They however are also found in Myanmar, Phillipines, Iran and Iraq.

Mujahideen have been alternately romanticized and demonized in the public perception. As late as the Regan era, they were praised as "freedom fighters" and portrayed as heroes in hollywood movies including Rambo 3 and The Living Daylight.

Much of their training came through established Western (or pro-western) government agencies including the CIA, China, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia - especially during the height of the Cold War and the Soviet war efforts in Afghanistan.

In the modern war against terrorism, the word has taken on important meaning as a renewed symbol of resistance to Western power. New encryption software known as Mujahideen Secrets was described "the first Islamic computer program for secure exchange [of information] on the Internet" on Al-Ekhlas (an Islamic news forum) in Jan 2008.

PRESENTATION: Gulabi Gang

2009-02-24T13:06:00.002-05:00

Gulabi Gang
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7068875.stm

The Gulabi Gang is a group of Indian women and their allies who fights for women's rights, specifically in rural regions in India. They are using force and strength to combat a systematic oppression of women and impoverished individuals, forcing communities and government officials to value all people. The group works outside the traditional system of NGOs and government programs/police because they feel that taking the law into their own hands is more effective.

From the BBC article above:
"
The pink women of Banda shun political parties and NGOs because, in the words of their feisty leader, Sampat Pal Devi, "they are always looking for kickbacks when they offer to fund us".

Two years after they gave themselves a name and an attire, the women in pink have thrashed men who have abandoned or beaten their wives and unearthed corruption in the distribution of grain to the poor.

They have also stormed a police station and attacked a policeman after they took in an untouchable man and refused to register a case.

'Nobody comes to our help in these parts. The officials and the police are corrupt and anti-poor. So sometimes we have to take the law in our hands. At other times, we prefer to shame the wrongdoers,' says Sampat Pal Devi, between teaching a 'gang' member on how to use a lathi (traditional Indian stick) in self defence.

...

Sampat Pal Devi is a wiry woman, wife of an ice cream vendor, mother of five children, and a former government health worker who set up and leads the "pink gang".

'Mind you,' she says, 'we are not a gang in the usual sense of the term. We are a gang for justice.'

PRESENTATION: Situationists

2009-02-24T12:46:00.001-05:00

Taken From: http://libcom.org/thought/situationists-an-introduction

"A short introduction to the ideas of the Situationists. Based in France, their strand of libertarian Marxism became popular after the mass strikes of 1968.

Situationist ideas came from the European organisation the Situationist International, formed in 1957. While it lasted only 15 years, its ideas were deeply influential, and have been a part of Western society - and radical movements - ever since.

Resisting any attempts to file their ideas into a static ideology, situationism, the SI called attention to the priority of real life, real live activity, which continually experiments and corrects itself, instead of just constantly reiterating a few supposedly eternal truths like the ideologies of Trotskyism, Leninism, Maoism or even anarchism. Static ideologies, however true they may be, tend, like everything else in capitalist society, to rigidify and become fetishised, just one more thing to passively consume.

Partly as a result of this, Situationist ideas are notoriously difficult to explain, and open to a wide degree of interpretation. However, a few facts can be stated. Most introductions to the Situationists focus on their cultural ideas, particularly in relation to detournement ( subverting elements of popular culture) and the development of punk, but the roots of Situationist ideas are in Marxism. Libertarian Marxism, closer to anarchism than authoritarian strands of traditional Marxism, with the central idea that workers are systematically exploited in capitalism and that they should organise and take control of the means of production and organise society on the basis of democratic workers' councils.

The Situationists, or Situs, were the first revolutionary group to analyse capitalism in its current consumerist form. Then as now, in the West most workers were not desperately poor, toiling 12 hours a day in factories and mines (workers' struggles over the previous 150 years saw to that) but the poverty of everyday life had never been greater. Workers were not beaten down with savage repression, so much as with illusions in empty consumer goods, or spectacles, which were imbued by culture and marketing with characteristics they don’t really possess. For example, that purchasing this or that gadget or brand of shoes will make your life complete, or make your sad life like that of the celebrities and models culture shows us.

The Situs argued that increased material wealth of workers was not enough to stop class struggle and ensure capitalism’s perpetual existence, as many on the left argued at the time, since authentic human desires would be always in conflict with alienating capitalist society. Situationist tactics included attempting to create “situations” where humans would interact together as people, not mediated by commodities. They saw in moments of true community the possibility of a future, joyful and un-alienated society.

"People who talk about revolution and class struggle without referring explicitly to everyday life, without understanding what is subversive about love and what is positive in the refusal of constraints, such people have corpses in their mouths." 1

In a (anti-)spectacular demonstration of the validity of their ideas, a group of Situationists, along with anarchists, at the Nanterre University were instrumental in sparking the Revolt of May 1968 which swept the country, bringing it to a state of near-revolution, with 10 million workers on General Strike, many of them occupying their workplaces.

The key figure in the SI, Guy Debord, committed suicide in 1994 but Situationist ideas live on, having been made a fundamental part of most anarchist theory today, as well as their thoughts on consumerism which are now held as truisms by most people."

PRESENTATION: 090303/LIST-COLLECTIVE PHENOMENA

2009-02-24T12:26:00.003-05:00

PRESENTATION: 090303/LIST-COLLECTIVE PHENOMENA

Assigned:
AT- Flash Mobs
CA- Urban Street Gangs
LH- Jonestown Massacre and Collective Suicides
MB- Teenage Fan 'Hysteria'
RS- LA Riots
SK- Swarming
VF- Collective UFO Sightings

Self-selected (updated 0902xx):
AT
CA
LH
MB
RS
SK
VF

More suggestions for:

AT

CA

LH

MB

RS

SK

VF

Non governmental politics/ Faith Liberty and the Individual in Humanitarian Assistance/ Erica Bornstein

2009-02-24T11:31:00.005-05:00

The essay concerns the Charitable choice-act that was passed by president George W Bush in 2001. It gave funding for religious charity organization, something the author sees as problematic. "As secular freedom yielded to religious freedom, a discursive shift occured so that the state a protector of freedom against religious authority became an instigator of freedom for religious authority".

Bornstein also talks about how this act has an individualizing effect. "Charity is distributed through individuals not through civic groups. Government relies on charitable institutions to do the work of compassion". She also discusses how it then is up to the individuals and not the government to take care of the problems and the damage that failed politics have created.

Comments:
I find this very interesting and problematic. One problem I see with individual charity is that it has to be creative to attract attention. Like breast cancer events for example -"throw your bra"- type things that to me can become very tasteless. And people might only give to their certain interest instead of seeing the bigger picture and giving to those who actually need help the most.

Yet the other side of it is more like we have it in Sweden. The government "takes care of everything", and we, the people, become comfterable and passive. Further, the government might be "wrong" in their choice of who needs charity the most.

Regarding religious vs. secular organisations there is defenetly a possibility that they will work towards other goals simulatneously as they do the charity, for instance religious conversion. Yet I think it also is important to remember that the other organizations are not completely neutral, they also have agendas or certain "beliefs". (One can think about the World bank, who conditioned their credit to nations with a full acceptance of the liberal, capitalistic ideology.)

PRESENTATION: ROSICRUCIANS

2009-02-24T10:34:00.005-05:00

Rosicrucians is a secret society of mystics formed in medieval Germany. Between 1607 and 1616 two anonymous manifestos were published, Fama Fraternitatis RC and Confessio Fraternitatis. The manisfestos told the legend of a German doctor and mystic philosopher Christian Rosenkreuz who studied in the middle east under various masters and then gathered a small circle of friends and founded the order of the RC sometime in the 1400.

The modern groups who link themselves to Rosicrucian tradition can be devided into three categories:
- Esoteric Christian Rosicrucian
- Masonic Rosicrucian
- Initiatory groups as the magical order Golden Dawn

According to the "Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis" it is ”not the thoughts of a single teacher or group, not a religion, dogma or single philosophy. It is knowledge”.

Through their teachings you ”gain knowledge of metaphysics, mysticism, philosophy, psychology, parapsychology and science not taught by conventional educational systems or traditional religions”.

They promise a life change and amazing results:

”Imagine having the ability to actualise your highest potential in all areas of life including family and social relationships, career, health and personal development. Imagine developing greater creativity and discipline to overcome life's problems. Imagine setting a new course for your future; one that promises to be more in line with who you really are and more fulfilling than anything you've previously experienced!”

Here is the knowledge they provide through home study lessons.

PRESENTATION: Monastere di Bose

2009-02-24T10:02:00.012-05:00

A christian monestery in Bose, Italy.

- a monastic community of men and women belonging to different Christian churches.
- a monastic community seeking God in prayer, poverty, celibacy and obedience to the Gospel.

Started in 1965 by Enzo Bianchi. Now the community is made up of about 80 members, men and women from different denominations.

They live a simple life focused on prayer and work. They do gardenwork, ceramics, icon painting, carpentry, publishing and printing. Traditional monasteries are not always recognized as "creative communities", but creativity is in fact a large part of their life together, exemplified in practices such as those mentioned above. Through their work they wish to serve the community and the local churches in their surrounding. Their community receives no financial assistance and lives entirely on what its members earn. It is open to and welcomes all visitors.

A day in the community starts at 4.30 for their personal reading of the scripture and prayer. At 6:00 there is the first of the three daily community prayers. From 7:00 to 8:00 they have an additional hour of silence to focus on prayer or spiritual reading. At 8:00 is the end of silence and work begins. They work until 12:00 and at 12:30 is the midday prayer. After that they eat lunch in silence with classical music. Work begins again at 2:00 until 5:00.At 6:30 the evening prayer begins. Dinner follows the prayer, with conversation. At 8:00 the grand silencio begins, a time for personal meditation and rest.

http://www.monasterodibose.it/

Presentation: ACT-UP

2009-02-24T10:02:00.011-05:00

ACT UP: AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power

"For meeting the challenge of the AIDS epidemic and its crisis of conscience with vigilant acts of political and cultural provocation – thereby giving voice to the essential creative will of our humanity."

ACT UP is a diverse, non-partisan group of individuals united in anger
and committed to direct action to end the AIDS crisis.

We advise and inform. We demonstrate.
WE ARE NOT SILENT

Act-UP is an organization dedicated to spreading awareness of the HIV-AIDS epidemic and the prevention failures of the U.S. government through protest and informational campaigns. It was formed in 1987 and for a time was very active. The organization is designed to operate spontaneously and without a central leader, instead utilizing smaller-scale organization based on affinity groups. They follow a general principle of civil disobedience and non-violence, seeking instead to optimize media attention and impact. There are clear guidelines on the website for what actions are acceptable, what happens in an arrest, and how to form affinity groups:

“Affinity groups are self-sufficient support systems of about 5 to 15 people. A number of affinity groups may work together toward a common goal in a large action, or one affinity group might conceive of and carry out an action on its own. Sometimes, affinity groups remain together over a long period of time, existing as political support and/or study groups, and only occasionally participating in actions.”

“1. Your objectives must be reasonable. You must believe you are fair and you must be able to communicate this to your opponent.

2. Maintain as much eye contact as possible.

3. Make no abrupt gestures. Move slowly. When practical, tell your opponent what you are going to do before you do it. Don't say anything threatening, critical, or hostile.

4. Don't be afraid of stating the obvious; say simply, "You're shouting at me," or "You're hurting my arm."”

Act-Up has done numerous major demonstrations, typically towards the goals of raising awareness about AIDS, AIDS prevention, government inaction and mismanagement, the high cost of antiretroviral medications, and other major concerns.

The first major protest done by Act-Up was on Wall Street, where activist demanded access to potentially life-saving medications. The protestors practiced civil disobedience, and several were arrested by the police.

http://www.actupny.org/documents/1stFlyer.html

Time Line: 1987-1988

March, 1987: Outraged by the government's mismanagement of the AIDS crisis, concerned individuals unite to form the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power. Our first demonstration takes place three weeks later on March 24th on Wall Street, the financial center of the world, to protest the profiteering of pharmaceutical companies (especially Burroughs Wellcome, manufacturer of AZT). Seventeen people are arrested. Shortly after the demonstration, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announces it will shorten its drug approval process by two years.

June 1, 1987: ACT UP joins other national activist groups in civil disobedience at the White House in Washington, DC. In a display of AIDS-phobia, the police wear rubber gloves while arresting protesters. Another demonstration is held at the Third International Conference on AIDS.

June 4, 1987: When Northwest Orient Airlines refuses passage to people with AIDS (PWAs), ACT UP erupts in protest at the airline's New York offices. Two suits are brought against Northwest. The policy is reversed.

June 21, 1987: ACT UP's four-day, round-the-clock protest at New York City's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital, one of four AIDS Treatment Evaluation Units (ATEU's) in the City, demands more clinical trials of promising drugs other than AZT and more people with AIDS in the trials.

September 9, 1987: ACT UP protests the inadequacies of the newly-formed Presidential Commission on AIDS when it meets for the first time in Washington, DC. Several ACT UP members give testimony.

January 15, 1988: ACT UP NY's Women's Caucus organizes first ACT UP action focused on women and HIV. Five hundred people protest an article telling heterosexual women that unprotected vaginal intercourse with an HIV+ man is safe. A documentary about the action, "Doctors, Liars, and Women: AIDS Activists Say NO to Cosmo," produced by two Women's Caucus members, is later shown around the country, winning awards and placed in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art.

March 24, 1988: To celebrate our first anniversary, ACT UP returns to Wall Street. More than 100 activists are arrested; ACT UP receives major media coverage and issues central to the AIDS crisis are reported. The concept of "AIDS activism" gains credibility.

May 1-9, 1988: ACT UP branches around the country mount nine days of protests focusing on specific, unattended aspects of the epidemic such as IV drug use, homophobia, people of color, women, testing programs, prison programs and children with AIDS. More than 50 cities participate.

June 23, 1988: ACT UP meets homeless people at a "Talk-In" at a Tent City in City Hall Park, built to protest the city's policy on the homeless. ACT UP gives out information on AIDS and distributes condoms; the homeless share their experiences in the shelters and in the streets.

October 11, 1988: ACT UP, joined by the national ACT NOW coalition, closes down the FDA outside of Washington, DC. More than 1,000 activists stage a series of demonstrations which result in almost 180 arrests. The event receives international press coverage. A historical event, shutting down the FDA represents to a vast audience the lethargy of this dysfunctional bureaucracy, which is in charge of testing and approving possible AIDS treatments.

November 25, 1988: Trump Tower Thanksgiving Action - ACT UP protests a lack of housing for PWA's while city gives tax breaks to wealthy developers. Numerous affinity group actions and arrests are made.

Presentation: Radical Faeries

2009-02-24T09:47:00.002-05:00

Raven's Head Communications Presents
The Fairies Gather
Photo copyright 1980 Rita Rose
Calligraphy WM Stewart
An oral history of
The spiritual gathering for Radical Fairies
Colorado, August 11-15, 1980

the Tropical Paradise Gathering:

"For more than 25 years Faeries have been coming together in community to create magic. Faerie gatherings happen all over the world, principally in the United States. Faeries came out of a groups formed in the 1970s to bring gay men together in a space different from the bars and nightclubs. We come together to celebrate our distinctive and unique qualities and to let our true selves be free. Most of us are gay men, but we have had a queer woman attend our gathering. Ladyboys and toms are welcome. Anyone who is comfortable with gay people is welcome to join us.

The faeries are an opportunity to create abundance from our many talents and gifts. The faeries are also an opportunity to create a true classless society where no one is identified by their wealth or lack of wealth, and where no person has power or authority over another person."

The Radical fairies are a loosely organized group of gay men, who seek to explore what it means to be and its spiritual components. In accomplishing this, they attend gatherings and go to retreats at sanctuaries. At these places, they experiment with a variety of activities to better understand their qualities as gay men and to examine what is suppressed by living in a largely heterosexual world. This is both in terms of everyday life and of philosophical discussion.

Breitenbrush:

"Through ritual, workshops, socializing, heart circles, hugs, soaking, hiking, performance, sex, song, and solitude, Radical Faeries seek the beauty and passion within each of us, reflect those gifts to each other, and challenge ourselves to share them with the world around us. We go inside to come outside."

Tropical Paradise Gathering:

"Trips to nearby islands for snorkeling and swimming, Meditation, Exercise, Hiking, Rituals, Workshops , Community Building, Kick Boxing Lessons, Making Music, Drumming, Massage, Talent Show, Fashion Show, Manly Activities, Swimming, Boating, Reading, Poetry, Puppy Piles, Napping, Art Projects and Yoga"

This group consistently performs a heart circle at its gatherings. This is a discussion where the men discuss experiences and opinions and attempt to develop emotional connections between one another as homosexuals. In addition to exploration, this group is oriented towards establishing what is precluded by contemporary social structures, primarily the social and emotional links that are lost between homosexual men.

The group is closely connected to paganism, and frequently meets to celebrate on major holidays. A reconnection with nature and others is a central part of their aims. A major part of radical fairy philosophy is the concept of coming together and briefly forming a community of freely homosexual men. The group explores the spiritual elements of being homosexual, and their festivities are geared towards this inner energy. Many of their collective activities are closely related to their pagan influences; however, these ceremonies are freely adapted regardless of the gender of the participants, thus allowing traditional gender boundaries to be crossed and mixed even in the context of paganism.

Wolf Creek Sanctuary:

"Through our gatherings, circles and in the community at the Sanctuary, we develop and foster our shared ideals having to do with faggot-oriented spirituality, community and collectivity, living in harmony with the Beings around us, and subject-subject consciousness."

The Radical Fairies have considerable output, including art, collective activities, journal authorship, and the production of philosophy. They contribute to a number of other organizations, including gay wisdom and white crane. They also found sanctuaries for the year-long exploration of what it means to be homosexual, these often host retreats and workshops.

Breitenbrush Sanctuary:

"Breitenbush Hot Springs is located in the Cascade Mountains at the base of Pahtu (Mount Jefferson) near Detroit, approximately 60 miles east of Salem, Oregon. For thousands of years, the land has been a place for healing. On the property are a rustic wooden lodge, rock-lined meadow pools, spiral temperature soaking tubs, a quiet Sanctuary, workshop spaces, a greenhouse, a mineral spring sauna, geothermally heated cabins, labyrinth, and a resident community of workers who've welcomed Radical Faeries at least once every year since 1982."

http://www.radfae.org/breitenbush/

http://www.nomenus.org/aboutrf.html

http://www.asianfaeries.com/

XCO EVENTS:090217/REPORT/CONVERSATION/Peter Eversoll and Carole Baker

2009-02-23T09:33:00.005-05:00

Visit at Golden Belt with Peter Eversoll (marcha forzada collective: 38 eyes x 57,436 steps) and Carole Baker (Mary: the paper doll project).

Some of the conversation that followed after the artists' introductions was about how these two projects intertwined and if there were any similarities.

These were some of the suggestions:

- the forbidden. How crossing Mexico city is just something that you're supposed to do or be able to do. Especially people from one part of the city should not walk around in another part where they don't belong and how it's prohibited to take pictures of certain areas in the city.
Compared to the Madonnas that are considered sacred and should not be handled in that blasphemous way and art in itself that is almost also sacred by how it's usually prohibited to touch it.

- the playfulness. Both projects have a playfulness to them. In the Madonnas it's the play with dolls and that you're supposed to move them around. In the march it's the playfulness of the photographs; the themes, the objects portrayed and the way they're displayed.

- pilgrimage/journey. Both have somewhat of a journey theme. The long walk through the city and the Madonnas who travel from different cultures and to different settings.

Radical Goups: Yippie (group of choice)

2009-02-22T14:23:00.003-05:00

YIPPIES

"The Youth International Party, whose members were commonly called Yippies, was a highly theatrical and anti-authoritarian political party established in the United States in 1967. An offshoot of the free speech and anti-war movements of the 1960s, the Yippies presented a more radically youth-oriented and countercultural alternative to those movements. They employed theatrical gestures — such as advancing a pig ("Pigasus the Immortal") as a candidate for President in 1968 — to mock the social status quo.They have been described as a highly theatrical youth movement of “symbolic politics."

Yippie Flag: was frequently seen at anti-war demonstrations.

The term Yippie was thought up by one of the fouders Paul Krassner : "We needed a name to signify the radicalization of hippies, and I came up with Yippie as a label for a phenomenon that already existed"

The Yippie "New Nation" concept called for the creation of alternative, counterculture institutions (food co-ops, underground newspapers, free clinics, etc.). Yippies believed these cooperative institutions and a radicalized hippie culture would spread until they supplanted the existing system.

Bibliography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yippie

http://media.npr.org/politics/politicaljunkie/2005/sep/pig140.jpg

http://img403.imageshack.us/img403/5472/us7dyipcw8.gif