Wendy Ewald (left) and Brett Cook (right)
Learning from two artists, collaborators, and community organizers
2009-03-31
PROPOSAL: Playing
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)
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
Painting the graffiti bridge.
Skill sharing workshop (get together and share one skill we each have).
Skill sharing workshop (get together and share one skill we each have).
PROPOSAL: Playing
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
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
Doing "work". Outside. While we talk about our experience out loud. Duke Community Garden?
PRESENTATION: Obedience and Milgram
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
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
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
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
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
Exchange with the person next to you something that you've never told anyone else.
Proposal: Giving/Recieving/Exchanging - Joseph Cornell
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
Those fountains with the fake children are just begging to be played in.
Proposal: Playing - The Plastic Ono Bowl
I've had a fantasy recently of getting a bunch of people dressed as either John Lennon or Yoko Ono to go out bowling.
2009-03-30
XCO EVENTS 090409+10/Negri+Balibar+Others/The Common & Forms of the Commune:Alternative Social Imaginaries
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
"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
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.”
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.”
2009-03-28
Monochrome Landscape (Green)
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?
2009-03-24
Presentation: Beyond Freedom and Dignity by B. F. Skinner
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
"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 2
We should make/bring each other food and exchange it and eat it.
PROPOSAL: WALKING 3
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
We should make each other postcards and exchange them in class!
2009-03-23
2009-03-17
Proposal/Walking: 1
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
We should play different card games and in the process teach each other new card games. 
NONGOVERNMENTAL POLITICS:Dilemas of Home improvement
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?
PRESENTATION: 090331/LIST-SCIENTIFIC & QUASI-SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENTS
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
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
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.
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
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?
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
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
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?
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
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.
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
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.
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.
2009-03-03
PRESENTATION: President Please
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.
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
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
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.
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
Project Chanology is a widespread protest of the
Protests typically question the status of the
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
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