Anonymous Comrade writes:

Draft Timetable for "Continental Drift" Seminar 2

Brian Holmes

New York City, Oct. 20-23, 2005

Tentative Program

1. Hours

2. Invited guests

3. Program properly speaking

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Manhattan.

1. HOURS

Rene and Ayreen, who have amazzzing stamina for essayreading,
workshopping, videostreaming, letterwriting, notetaking and many other
things that are beyond my ken, have proposed these hours:

Thursday 2–6, 7–10

Friday 2–6, 7–10

Saturday 1–8

Sunday 1–8

I'd suggest we consider Thursday–Friday 2 to 4, and Saturday–Sunday 1 to
3, as a true workshop time, where those who wish to come will talk about
"What is to be done?" and take immediate action on a micropolitical
level. This might allow us to start work a project. Every day could also
include an eating hour in the late afternoon; and an eating-drinking
hour at the end is natural enough, but I guess it'll be outside during
the weekend.

Sessions would start promptly at 4 PM on Thursday–Friday and at 3 PM on
Saturday–Sunday, so be there or enjoy something else!

2. GUESTS

Thursday night:
Kolya Abramsky, who is working at the Fernand Braudel Institute for
world-systems theory in Ithaca, and whom I know from activist circles in
Europe, is going to come on Thursday to discuss his paper "Disentangling
the Future from the Past: Internationalism, World Revolution and World
War." It's a long but extremely interesting text and I encourage you to
read it. We will then be able to have the discussion that we did not
have last time, on the usefulness and limits of the Marxist language
(because Kolya is not tied to this kind of language, in fact, he has
worked much more with contemporary social movements). We will also no
doubt take a further look at the debates over the concepts of Empire and
Multitudes. The text is in a PDF at www.u-tangente.org in the
Continental Drift section (16 Beaver sesssions), or directly at the
address below (please don't hesitate to write me if you have any
difficulties downloading it):

http://ut.yt.t0.or.at/site/index.php?option=com_co ntent&task=view&id=265&Itemid=125

Friday afternoon:
Mackenzie Wark, whom many of you know, the author of the Hacker
Manifesto and of a thousand great things you can find on the web, is
going to develop an extremely interesting idea of his, which is an
analysis of the way that the US right wing — what I would call the
hegemony of the military-industrial complex and the fundamentalist
Christians — has created a parallel public sphere of media and
institutions, culminating in the mind-pollution of Fox News. This may
likely end up a kind of idea-generating session, so bring everything you
know about right-wing think tanks, Christian political militancy on the
right and brain-numbing corporate media. And then we'll make a party
with all that, 'cause unfortunately, they already have one and it's
sitting in the White House....

3. "THE PROGRAM PROPERLY SPEAKING"

(...being a tentative proposal with names, hours and dates and still
some holes...)

(This is also up at www.u-tangente.org, so please send changes and
proposals ASAP to the Drift list and we will adjust, we can also add
hours if we need, don't be shy, present something we all need to
hear/see/touch/join)

Thursday

2–4 PM: Opening Session

4 PM: Jim Costanzo: Data Map

5 PM:...

7-9 PM: Kolya Abramsky/BH: The Language of World Revolution

(howd'ya like that for a title? for the idea, see above no. 2)

Friday

2–4 PM: Working Session

4–6 PM: Ken Wark: Parallel Public Spheres of the American Right

7–8 PM:.... (hopefully Emily who's hopefully coming)

8–9 PM: Maribel and Sebastian: Research Riots (or when the Naked City
really starts to cut loose)

Saturday

3 PM: Rozalinda Borcila: Title to be Announced (another hit from the
spontaneous titles dept.)

4 PM: Peter Walsh/Marty Lucas: Public Art and Political resistance

6–8 PM: Brian Holmes: Network Maps, Energy Diagrams

Sunday

3 PM: Claire Pentecost: Plastic Greenhouses by the Sea/BH: The
Urbanization of Blindness

4 PM:.... (maybe the Gabri boys?)

6 PM: Brian Holmes: The Artistic Device (some more reflections on
activism & art)

7 PM: EVERYBODY: Closing Debate

PLEASE DON'T HESITATE TO WRITE BACK AND AMEND/CHANGE/EXPAND/RENEW THIS!