Shaul Schwarz - Drugwar :: Narco Culture @ CCCB, Barcelona, 2012

Read & See more on Schwarz' Narcoculture: Anti-narcos police raid in a striptease club, Tijuana, Mexico, 2011. + Schwarz' website

Shepard Fairey's Free Speech @ London Pleasure Gardens (London, 2012)

Cities Under Siege: The New Military Urbanism - Stephen Graham (Verso, Uk, 2011)

Cities Under Siege: The New Military Urbanism

by Stephen Graham

A powerful exposé of how political violence operates through the spaces of urban life.

Cities are the new battleground of our increasingly urban world. From the slums of the global South to the wealthy financial centers of the West, Cities Under Siege traces the spread of political violence through the sites, spaces, infrastructure and symbols of the world’s rapidly expanding metropolitan areas. 

Drawing on a wealth of original research, Stephen Graham shows how Western militaries and security forces now perceive all urban terrain as a conflict zone inhabited by lurking shadow enemies. Urban inhabitants have become targets that need to be continually tracked, scanned and controlled. Graham examines the transformation of Western armies into high-tech urban counter-insurgency forces. He looks at the militarization and surveillance of international borders, the use of ‘security’ concerns to suppress democratic dissent, and the enacting of legislation to suspend civilian law. In doing so, he reveals how the New Military Urbanism permeates the entire fabric of urban life, from subway and transport networks hardwired with high-tech ‘command and control’ systems to the insidious militarization of a popular culture corrupted by the all-pervasive discourse of ‘terrorism.’

The new urban militarism of law enforcement: interview with Stephen Graham

Last week, Stephen Graham sat down with WBEZ 91.5 in Chicago to talk about the new and increasingly militarized forms of law enforcement that are fast becoming the norm throughout the West. Drawing from his new book on the topic, Cities Under Siege: The New Military Urbanism, he addresses this rapid transformation and critically examines both the subtler and more familiarly overt modes of social control and surveillance that are being put to use in troubling ways. In the interview, Graham touches on these new modes of enforcement and considers how they are used to subdue dissent and criminalize behaviour, among other things. With new technologies and invocations of “security concerns,” these are now becoming a part of our urban landscape and are being used in everything from the increased policing of borders and crowds to the surveillance of public space and police crackdowns. As Graham suggests, it is part of larger, discomforting trends that are changing the way people live and move within cities. 

Please visit WBEZ to listen to the interview in full.

• “Cities Under Siege is a detailed and intense forensics of new urban frontiers, laboratories of the extreme where experiments with new urban conditions are currently being undertaken. In this fascinating new work Steven Graham has created a novel concept of the city, looking at war as the limit condition of urbanity and calling for an alternative urban life yet to come.”
  – Eyal Weizman, author of Hollow Land
• “Roll over Jane Jacobs: here’s urban geography as it looks like through the eye of a Predator at 25,000 feet. A fundamental and very scary report from the global red zone.”
  – Mike Davis, author of Planet of Slums
• “A brilliant critique of the deadly embrace of military violence and contemporary urbanism. Steve Graham writes with immense power and lucidity, layering detail over detail and image over image to expose the shadows that are falling across cities around the world. This is not a dystopian future but the present, and Graham compels us to open our eyes to the dangers military urbanism poses to contemporary democracy.”
  – Derek Gregory, Professor of Geography, University of British Columbia and author of The Colonial Present
  Read more on Verso website

Surveillance and Identity. Discourse, Subjectivity and the State (Introduction) - David Barnard-Wills (Ashgate, Uk, January 2012)

"In many ways this book is the story of three iconic technological artefacts. Or more accurately, the story of a story told about these artefacts.
The first artefact is no longer in existence. On 10 February 2011 the hard drives containing the uK’s national identity register were physically destroyed, putting an end to a scheme which had its roots at the start of the previous decade. it was brought to an end by a change in government, with the May 2010 elections bringing to power a coalition of conservative and liberal democrat parties with shared opposition to the scheme. the national identity card might have been the artefact of concern for many but the database and the political infrastructure that supported it are in many ways more important. this scheme was an attempt to provide an authoritative statement of individual identity in response to a range of social problems that were seen as undermining identity.
the second artefact is the personal document shredder. this device, formerly limited to the office and associated with the disposal of incriminating documents in many a political thriller, is now a common sight in UK homes. It is used to make the paperwork that surrounds modern life unreadable and as such is a tool for physically destroying information. The shredder is put to work to help dispose of the flood of junk mail that has been turning up at the house ever since you signed up to that website. it is also a protection against the identity thieves imagined to be raiding your paper recycling every alternate week. It is relatively inexpensive, you can get one for a little over £20, and they are not difficult to use, but they do represent a change in our information handling behavior.

The third artefact is the credit file. Unlike the other two, this one isn’t really physical. you can have a copy of it printed out and sent to you (and this is your right). But this is just a representation, a snapshot of a moving thing at a moment in time. It is a digital record of selected elements of an individual’s financial history, used to make judgements about their suitability for financial services and to enter into relationship with financial organisations. It is also something monitored by the individual, and an increasingly important part of our identity that we are told we need to protect. The credit file, acting as our representative or an image of us, can have great impacts upon our life experiences and chances.
these three items are in many ways paradigmatic; they represent a particular paradigm, a way of thinking about information, identity and forms of political, economic and social life in the UK in the first decade of the 21st century. They are different types of information technology, each with different patterns of ownership, different uses and different ways that they can be controlled and manipulated.

  
To a particular way of thinking they were all necessary (even the now destroyed identity register). They are also linked. The shredder is supposed to protect from threats to the credit file. The identity card registration process was to draw upon the electronic verification methods developed in the private sector, of which credit histories were a part. the identity card was also pitched by government as a protection from identity theft. they are all ‘humble and mundane’ mechanisms of government through which political rationalities and programmes of government become deployed (Miller and rose 2008:32).
This book is not just about these technologies however. It is much more about the things that link them together. These three technologies are all examples of a nexus of surveillance, identity and language. this is nexus also draws in technology, risk, authority and the contested role of the state."  (...)  
Read the whole introduction

Surveillance and Identity Discourse, Subjectivity and the State - David Barnard-Wills (Ashgate, Uk, January 2012)

• 
  
  Surveillance and Identity analyses the discourse of surveillance in the contemporary United 
  Kingdom, drawing upon public language from central government, governmental agencies, 
  activist movements, and from finance and banking. Examining the logics of these discourses 
  and revealing the manner in which they construct problems of governance in the light of the 
  insecurity of identity, this book shows how identity is fundamentally linked to surveillance, 
  as governmental discourses privilege surveillance as a response to social problems.
  
  In drawing links between new technologies and national surveillance projects or concerns 
  surrounding phenomena such as identity fraud, Surveillance and Identity presents a new 
  understanding of identity - the model of 'surveillance identity' - demonstrating that this is 
  often applied to individuals by powerful organisations at the same time as the concept is 
  being actively contested in public language.
  
  The first comprehensive study of the discursive politics of surveillance in the UK, this book 
  makes significant contributions to surveillance theory, governmentality theory, and to 
  political and social identity theories. As such, it will be of interest to social scientists of all 
  kinds working on questions of public discourse and political communication, identity, 
  surveillance and the relationship between the individual and the state. 
• Contents: Preface; Introduction; Surveillance, governmentality, identity and discourse; 
  Discourse theory and analysis; Representation of surveillance practices; Subjectivity and 
  subject positions in discourses of surveillance; Identity in discourses of surveillance; 
  Conclusions and implications; Bibliography; Index.
• About the Author: David Barnard-Wills is Research Fellow in the Department of Informatics 
  and Sensors at Cranfield University, UK
• Reviews: 'These carefully selected fascinating case studies allow Barnard-Wills to chart the 
  connections between emergent forms of identity, new technologies and governmental 
  projects. The result is a valuable contribution to our understanding of the contemporary 
  politics of surveillance.' Kevin D. Haggerty, University of Alberta, Canada 
  Read more

Mobile Interfaces in Public Spaces Locational Privacy, Control, and Urban Sociability - Adriana de Souza e Silva, Jordan Frith (Routledge, Uk, May 2012)

Mobile phones are no longer what they used to be. Not only can users connect to the Internet anywhere and anytime, they can also use their devices to map their precise geographic coordinates – and access location-specific information like restaurant reviews, historical information, and locations of other people nearby. The proliferation of location-aware mobile technologies calls for a new understanding of how we define public spaces, how we deal with locational privacy, and how networks of power are developed today. In Mobile Interfaces in Public Spaces, Adriana de Souza E. Silva and Jordan Frith examine these social and spatial changes by framing the development of location-aware technology within the context of other mobile and portable technologies such as the book, the Walkman, the iPod, and the mobile phone. These technologies work as interfaces to public spaces – that is, as symbolic systems that not only filter information but also reshape communication relationships and the environment in which social interaction takes place. Yet rather than detaching people from their surroundings, the authors suggest that location-aware technologies may ultimately strengthen our connections to locations.

Adriana de Souza e Silva is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at North Carolina State University. Her research focuses on how mobile and locative interfaces shape interactions with public spaces and create new forms of sociability. She is the co-editor of Digital Cityscapes: Merging Digital and Urban Playspaces, and co-author of Net-Locality: Why Location Matters in a Networked World,

Jordan Frith is a doctoral candidate in North Carolina State University's Communication, Rhetoric and Digital Media program. His main research interests are locative media and space, particularly how locative media may influence interactions in urban spaces. He has recently been published in the journals Mobilities and Communication, Culture, and Critique.

"Mobile Interfaces in Public Spaces presents an insightful analysis of how mobility affects behavior in public settings, and how public settings affect communication behavior. The authors cast their net broadly, encompassing a range of significant issues including voice and sound, privacy and publicity, and norms and policies." –James E. Katz, Professor of Communication and Director of the Center for Mobile Communication Studies, Rutgers University

"An incredibly clear and useful guide to how mobile technologies are re-shaping our connections to locations and to other people. In considering devices that range from the paperback book to the portable music player to the smartphone as different kinds of "interfaces" with public space, the authors offer great insight into how we filter, control, and manage our relations with spaces and social situations that blur the boundaries between private and public. This is a much-needed contribution to the literature on the new location-based technologies that will become increasingly significant in the coming decade. Consider it an operating manual for the future." – Mimi Sheller, Professor of Sociology and Director of the Mobilities Research and Policy Center at Drexel University

"Mobile Interfaces in Public Spaces is an historically situated and nuanced account of the role interfaces – from books and Walkmans to iPods and mobile phones – play in our relationships to self, others and everyday urban life. Connecting contemporary practice with classic social theory, this evocative and engaging book is a much needed contribution to this cutting edge field of research." – Heather A. Horst, RMIT University, Australia

Massimo Banzi: How Arduino is open-sourcing imagination @ TED Talks, 2012

Massimo Banzi helped invent the Arduino, a tiny, easy-to-use open-source microcontroller that's inspired thousands of people around the world to make the coolest things they can imagine -- from toys to satellite gear. Because, as he says, "You don't need anyone's permission to make something great." TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the "Sixth Sense" wearable tech, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at http://www.ted.com/translate

This is r0ket science! Modernity, Capitalism and Liberalism in Hacker Culture - Dunajcsik Péter (Hungary, 2012)

This is r0ket science! Modernity, Capitalism and Liberalism in Hacker Culture


2011 August, Finowfurt airport, Germany. Around 5000 hackers gather for a week in tents and hangars to celebrate knowledge, sharing and creativity. The conference is called Chaos Communication Camp, and all participants receive a conference badge called the r0ket. It displays your name on an LCD panel, but it does much more than that: it is a primitive computer and wireless device designed to trigger all the cultural allergies of hackers. You can play the famous retro game Space Invaders on it, and the high scores of the game are shared amongst the crowd. Two hours after takeoff the high score system is already hacked: somebody leads the top of the list with -27500 points. Before the end of the conference, the badge is used as a component in a Do It Yourself Geiger counter, as a remote control for drones, as an electronic torch, and a dozen other amazing purposes. It has no price and it cannot be bought, but anybody can build one from basic components following the online documentation. It is a typical result of the work that goes on in more than 500 hackerspaces around the world. 

Abstract
In this study I follow a technological artifact called r0ket as it moves through the hackerspace scene. I concentrate in tracing the connections the r0ket makes inside and outside the scene as well as its internal technological structure. Based on the ethnographic data, I ask whether these connections make sense in the framework of categories like modernity, liberalism and capitalism. I posit an interactive relationship between the categories and the network data, in which the data can modify categories, but categories can also highlight the more interesting patterns and connections in the data itself. Finally, I ask if theories of nonmodernity can explain some of the discrepancies between categories and data.

Read more on pdf

After "La Dolce Vita": A Cultural Prehistory of Berlusconi's Italy - Alessia Ricciardi (Stanford University, Usa, 27 maggio 2012)

This book chronicles the demise of the supposedly leftist Italian cultural establishment during the long 1980s. During that time, the nation's literary and intellectual vanguard managed to lose the prominence handed it after the end of World War II and the defeat of Fascism. What emerged instead was a uniquely Italian brand of cultural capital that deliberately avoided any critical questioning of the prevailing order. Ricciardi criticizes the development of this new hegemonic arrangement in film, literature, philosophy, and art criticism. She focuses on several turning points: Fellini's futile, late-career critique of Berlusconi-style commercial television, Calvino's late turn to reactionary belletrism, Vattimo's nihilist and conservative responses to French poststructuralism, and Bonito Oliva's movement of art commodification, Transavanguardia.


"There is no sweetness, lightness, weakness, or softness in Ricciardi's indictment, but hard facts and bitter truths piled up to heavy conclusions: Italy's intellectual life is the very culprit of a historical process of progressive civic and social degeneration that has led to the catastrophe that many have called Berlusconi's Italy. A very courageous book."—Roberto M. Dainotto Duke University


Alessia Ricciardi is Associate Professor of French and Italian at Northwestern University. Her book, The Ends of Mourning: Psychoanalysis, Literature, Film (Stanford, 2003), won the MLA's 2004 Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Comparative Literary Studies.
Read more on Stanford website

Europe, n.996, Avril 2012: Gilles Deleuze

Europe

Revue littéraire

La revue EUROPE a été fondée par Romain Rolland René Arcos, l'un de ses premiers animateurs parmi lesquels on compte Jean Guéhenno et Jean Cassou, expliquait ainsi le choix du titre : "Nous disons aujourd'hui Europe parce que notre vaste presqu'île, entre l'Orient et le Nouveau Monde, est le carrefour où se rejoignent les civilisations. Mais c'est à tous les peuples que nous nous adressons [...] dans l'espoir d'aider à dissiper les tragiques malentendus qui divisent actuellement les hommes". Jusqu'en 1939 où elle est suspendue à l'annonce de la signature du Pacte germano-soviétique, elle suit la route des communistes dans le combat anti-fasciste. À partir des années cinquante, Europe paraît sous la forme de numéros spéciaux et devient une revue littéraire de référence.

La revue Europe a publié les textes d'auteurs aussi divers que Aragon, Jean-Richard Bloch, Céline, Emile Danoën, Jean Giono, Panaït Istrati, Tagore, Tristan Tzara...

N.996: Gilles Deleuze

L’une des caractéristiques les plus constantes de la philosophie de Gilles Deleuze est sans doute à chercher dans le rapport très paradoxal que ce penseur n’a cesse d’entretenir avec ce qu’il appelait tantôt la « non-philosophie » (d’abord les sciences, les arts et la littérature, mais aussi la psychanalyse, la politique, l’économie, la géographie, l’animalité…), tantôt une « compréhension non philosophique » qui opérerait non plus par concepts mais par « foncepts » (les fonctions de la science), « affects » (les blocs d’émotions de l’art, notamment de la littérature), et « percepts » (les blocs de perceptions impersonnelles de l’art, notamment en peinture et en cinéma).

• Gilles Deleuze : sortir dans la philosophie— Par Evelyne Grossman, Pierre Zaoui
  Dossier Gilles Deleuze
• Deleuze braconnier— Par Pierre Zaoui
  Dossier Gilles Deleuze
• Logiques de l'incorporel— Par Evelyne Grossman
  Dossier Gilles Deleuze
• Deleuze et les cartographies du style— Par Anne Sauvagnargues
  Dossier Gilles Deleuze
• De la pollinisation en philosophie— Par Peter Pál Pelbart
  Dossier Gilles Deleuze
• Deleuze et le personnage conceptuel— Par Frédéric Rambeau
  Dossier Gilles Deleuze
• L'immanence et son dehors— Par Jérôme Rosanvallon
  Dossier Gilles Deleuze
• Géophilosophie de la musique— Par Jehanne Dautrey
  Dossier Gilles Deleuze
• L'aventure des surfaces— Par Philippe Choulet
  Dossier Gilles Deleuze
• Deleuze et le dehors cinématographique— Par Dork Zabunyan
  Dossier Gilles Deleuze
• Un calcul différentiel des idées ?— Par David Rabouin
  Dossier Gilles Deleuze
• Pour une nouvelle critique des traductions, Gilles Deleuze— Par René Lemieux
  Dossier Gilles Deleuze
• Ouvrir des chemins— Par Emmanuel Hocquard
  Entretien avec Francis Cohen.
• Writing in the wind— Par Alain Damasio
  Entretien avec Mathieu Potte-Bonneville
• Deleuze, le dehors entre les murs— Par Richard Pinhas
• Boule de neige en hiver— Par Pascale Bouhénic
• Read more on Europe website