"Pedagogy, Activism and Research:

Tactical Media in the Space of the University"

Tactical Media Lab at New York University, December 13-15, 2002

(Draft only 11.5.02)

New York University's Center for Media, Culture and History are hosting a Tactical Media Lab from December 13-15.
Below is the provisional program for this development meeting. I have been asked to emphasize the fact that this is only draft and will almost certainly be subject to a number of changes. Center for Media, Culture and History

New York University

Friday, Dec 13 - Sunday, Dec 15

Saturday, December 14

King Juan Carlos Center, Screening Room

53 Washington Square South

9:30 am - 5:00 pm


 
The Virtual Case Book Project: Evaluation of a Prototype


 
9:30-11:00 am

9-11 and after: a virtual case book (VCB) is a prototype for a series of web publications, each focused on a specific area of tactical media, based on ideas developed at the April 2001 Tactical Media workshop at NYU. This project is part of a broader effort to introduce the ideas and practices of tactical media into the space of the university, as a tool for teaching and an opportunity for research. Conceived as a series, the case book model highlights the situated nature of tactical media, and allows a consideration of the particular ways in which it is deployed in specific social circumstances. At the encouragement of our funders, the first case book focuses on the importance of alternative networks and systems of communication on September 11, 2001 and immediately thereafter.


 
How does 9-11 and after work- as an overall approach to tactical media practices in general, and as a case study of the specific circumstances of September 11? What happens to the tactical when it is filtered through academic discourse and institutions?

Discussion: Pat Aufderheide, Alison Cornyn, Ted Byfield, David Garcia and group


 
11:00 am - 12:30 pm


 
Politics of the Ephemeral: Rethinking the Archive


 
The 9-11 VCB underscores the ephemeral nature of tactical media -- as well as web-based material more generally. Is it a contradiction in terms to archive tactical media? How can we best contextualize this material for pedagogy, analysis, and research? These kinds of questions - generated by the shift to digital media, the exponential growth of cyber communication, and the rapid globalization of capital as well as social movements -- are radically altering archival practices.


 
How can Tactical Media be preserved and made accessible without altering the value produced by its ephemerality? What are the issues in design that facilitate this process?


 
Discussion: Howard Besser, Meg McLagan, Randy Ross, Sandra Braman and group


 
Afternoon session

2:00- 5:00


 
Collaborations


 
How can we develop a productive network that links academic and activist work in Tactical Media? We have invited a number of participants who have generated projects at the intersection of pedagogy, activism, and research to present their work and to discuss the potential mutual benefits of building a collaborative network.


 
Discussion: DeeDee Halleck, Daoud Kuttab, Drazin Pantic, Trebor Scholz and others


 
 
Sunday, December 15

Dean's Conference Room

Tisch School of the Arts

721 Broadway, 12th floor

10:00 am - 4:00 pm


 
Tactical Media and Health Activism: The Case of HIV/AIDS
VIRTUAL CASE BOOK #2


 
This case book is intended to provide an analysis as well as an historical document of the movements for access to HIV/AIDS medications locally and globally, activism that began in an age of video and street theater with groups such as ACT UP, and that has been greatly facilitated more recently by Internet and web-based communications. The implications of this growing movement reach far beyond the issue of antiretroviral medications, especially in light of recent developments in the mapping of the human genome; the debates about intellectual property emerging out of international trade agreements; and the increasing influence of patients who have come to redefine themselves as health activists - a shift that has been greatly facilitated by new media.


 
The objectives of this case book are 1) to collect, organize, frame and present data in a readily accessible form; 2) to facilitate connection among activist groups internationally; 3) to bridge divides between academics, activists, and artists; and 4) to enhance pedagogy on these crucial issues for HIV/AIDS and health activism more generally, which is changing the contours of medical practice and the political economy of health care.


 
10:00 am - 12:30 pm


 
The Long View: From ACT UP to the Treatment Action Campaign (and beyond)


 
It is undeniable that the development of network society and information economy have changed the ground upon which a new internationalist activism can arise. The possibility of organizing unprecedented numbers of people is at hand. Surprisingly, this possibility requires that we focus on the constitution of the individual subject as it arises on a new global terrain.
 


Digital technologies and the development of networks have certainly made exchange and organizing among activists all over the world more efficacious. Yet, there still remain the complexities of inequity and cultural differences. What are the obstacles and limits of international organizing that technological optimism often overlooks?


 
Discussion: Gregg Bordowitz, Julie Davids, *Jean Carlomusto, *Steve Kurtz,
*Julia Treichler, *Jamie Love and group


 
1:00- 2:30 pm

Screening: Habit (Gregg Bordowitz, 2001, 53 min)

This autobiographical documentary weaves together stories of the current history of the AIDS epidemic in South Africa and the struggle for access to medical treatment there, with Bordowitz's personal Odyssey as an activist media maker who has been living with AIDS for over ten years.


 
Gregg Bordowitz and the group will address the intentions and strategies that informed Habit, as well as its reception in different cultural and political contexts. What lessons can be garnered for developing a virtual case book on the history and contemporary practices of AIDS activism, in ways that further both knowledge and action?


 
2:30 - 3:30 pm

Wrap up; future plans


 
NOTE:

 
Members of the Tactical Media Lab are cordially invited to the following conference of related interest, organized by media scholar Arvind Rajagopal, (Culture and Communications)


 
Friday, December 13


 
Kimball Hall

285 Mercer Street

9:30 am - 5:00 pm


 
America and its others


 
"In the beginning was America," John Locke wrote, but America was seen as the future as well. But other futures are being fashioned elsewhere, that become hard to imagine. The September 11 attacks, staged as a media spectacle without any comment from their perpetrators, place a question mark against such utopias, and our own understanding of them. September 11 and its aftermath present an opportunity to re-examine these conceptions in the (hitherto) utopian space of globalization.


 
This is a workshop inquiring into cultural, political and technological histories of "America" as act and idea, and into America's others, as racial or national "outsiders" who may yet be within, and become a troubled medium for performing a utopian project.


 
Participants include: Talal Asad, Lauren Berlant, Craig Calhoun, Jordan Crandall, Allen Feldman and Michael Taussig.


 
For detailed information, contact:

Arvind Rajagopal (Culture and Communication)

rajagopal