GlimpseCulture writes:

"Sixty Cameras Against the War"

Feb. 15, 2004 Documentary

Feb 15 2003 saw hundreds of thousands of demonstrators in NYC, and Julie Talen's "Sixty Cameras Against the War" presents a unique document of that day. Talen collected footage from sixty different videographers present at the march, and edited it together in multiple screens. This multichannel narrative at times juxtaposes the experiences of activists across Manhattan, and at other times provides different angles on a single arrest or happening.



The film presents the NYPD's use of pepper spray, horse charges and barricades to cleave the march in two. Feb 15 turned out many people, in NYC and all over the world, but I think if more Americans saw how New Yorkers said "no" in the leadup to war some opinions about Iraq would change. Also, those who see demonstrators as an inhuman mob should see regular people facing extreme cold and claustrophobic conditions to make a moral stand.



The film toured swing states before the election, and has screened in exhibits in NYC and Los Angeles. Anyone can download the film for free, under a Creative Commons license. Take a look at a film that is both visually interesting and painfully relevant.

warpunk-dept. writes:

"Warporn Warpunk!
Autonomous Videopoiesis in Wartime"

Matteo Pasquinelli

Warpunk is a squadron of B52s throwing libidinal bombs and radical images into the heart of the Western imagery.

Grinning Monkeys



How do you think you
can stop war without weapons? The anti-war public opinion that fills squares
worldwide and the cosmetic democracy of International Courts stand powerless in
front of the raging US military. Against the animal instincts of a superpower
reason cannot prevail: a homicidal force can be arrested only by another,
stronger force. Everyday we witness such a Darwinian show: history repeating
itself through a cruel confrontation of forces, whilst what rests is freedom of
speech exercised in drawing-rooms. Pacifists too are accomplices of instinctive
forces, because animal aggressiveness is inside us all. How do we express that
bestiality for which we condemn armies? Underneath the surface of the self-censorship belonging to the
radical left (not only to the conformist majority), it should be admitted
publicly that watching Abu Ghraib pictures of pornographic tortures does not
scandalize us, on the contrary, it rather excites us, in exactly the same way
as the obsessive voyeurism that draws us to videos of 9/11 videos. Through such
images we feel the expression of repressed instincts, the pleasure rising again
after narcotized by consumerism, technologies, goods and images. We show our
teeth as monkeys do, when their aggressive grin looks dreadfully like the human
smile. Contemporary thinkers like Baudrillard and Zizek acknowledge the dark
side inside Western culture. If 9/11 has been a shock for Western
consciousness, Baudrillard puts forward a more shocking thesis: we westerners
were to desire 9/11, as the death drive of a superpower that having reached its
natural limits, knows and desires nothing more than self-destruction and war.
The indignation is hypocrisy; there is always an animal talking behind a video
screen.

Gavin Evans writes:

Dear InterActivists,

I would be most grateful if you could take the time to visit http://mmseyewitness.org. This is a new platform that utilises the mobile camera phone as means of instantly delivering accounts of human rights abuse, crimes against humanity and environmental destruction. Within seconds an image taken anywhere in the world can be live on the internet. Monitoring groups and local networks can quickly decide upon what course of action to take. I sincerely hope that, in the spirit of freedom of information and empowerment of the individual, mmseyewitness strikes a chord.

The concept of mmseyewitness.org has so far been enthusiastically received. We intend to launch the service shortly and would be grateful for any input, comments, advice or recommendations.

Best wishes in your endeavours,

Gavin Evans