Radical media, politics and culture.

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NWD writes:

New World Disorder Magazine

Issue Three Now Online


The furthest fringes of the culture — in its obscure webpages, zines, and samizdat publications, eerie shortwave and streaming audio radio voices that sound like they're coming from the other side (or maybe just a trailer in Lawrence, Kansas) — and the memes they contain, can be used as a magic mirror, a shewstone, Delphic vapors where the future can be divined, where the cultural matrix you will find yourself in the future can be glimpsed now.


In part, that's what the New World Disorder project is attempting to do (the other aspects of this working to be revealed as they manifest): to illuminate some of the weirdest and mind-bending culture from the edge, some of which, following the trajectories of centripetal culture, will come to dominate our lives tomorrow as much as space age religious warriors and mutant pop stars do today.

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

The eBay Reader

Editors: Ken Hillis, Michael Petit, Nathan Epley

This anthology, under contract with Routledge and scheduled for Spring
2006 publication, is the first book-length academic inquiry within the
humanities into the cultural implications of eBay. The essays collected
analyze specific socio-economic, cultural and political practices
engendered by eBay; the site's structural organization, material/technical
interface, and cultural appeal; the "experience economy" eBay has been
central in developing and promoting; and the kinds of cultural changes
this has wrought to aspects of everyday life.

"Collage as Cultural Practice"

Iowa City, March 24–26, 2004

Collage as Cultural Practice seeks to examine interventionist collage practices
in all media, with an emphasis on the social, political, and legal implications
of this method of appropriation. The conference, taking place March 24–26,
2005, at the University of Iowa, will interrogate the political and social
dimensions of collage as a practice that enables oppositional commentary across
the cultural spectrum: from the leftist collages of the Dadaists and the
Situationists to the unauthorized use of corporate trademarks, interventions by
queer activists, and the more recent flurry of Internet-distributed antiwar
video collage pieces that appropriate from the mainstream media in satirical
ways.

"Flow" Critical Media Forum Site Launches

Flow: A critical forum for television and media culture will launch its first
issue on Friday, October 8, 2004. The Flow web address is www.flowtv.org

Flow’s mission is to provide a space where researchers, teachers, students, and
the public can read about and discuss the changing landscape of contemporary
media at the speed that media moves.

Chit Chong writes:

"Modern Society Condemned for Exploiting Future Generations"

Rights for Future Generations Workshop

European Social Forum, London, Oct. 16, 2004

The Rights for Future Generations workshop at the European Social Forum will demand the recognition of the fundamental rights of people in future generations.

NOT BORED! writes:

This work was first published in Italian, in a privately printed, numbered edition, under the title Rapporto veridico sulle ultima opportunita di salvare il capitalismo in Italia (Milan, August 1975), and attributed to "Censor." In October 1975, the pamphlet was reprinted by a small commercial press. In December 1975, Gianfranco Sanguinetti revealed himself to be the book's real author and a scandal ensued. In January 1976, Editions Champ Libre published a volume that was translated from the Italian by Guy Debord, entitled Veridique Rapport sur les dernieres chances de sauver le capitalisme en Italie, and supplemented by Sanguinetti's December 1975 statement and a collection of press clippings relative to the "Censor" scandal. In February 1976, under great pressure, Sanguinetti left Italy and tried to enter France, from which he'd been deported in 1971; he was refused entry.

In 1997, Len Bracken produced a rough translation of the Italian original that was published under the title The Real Report on the Last Chance to Save Capitalism in Italy. Finding this translation to be substandard, NOT BORED! made a new one between July and October 2004 — mind you, using Debord's French version, not the Italian original.

To Contact NOT BORED: Info@notbored.org

"Veritable Report on the Last Chances to Save Capitalism in Italy"

Censor (Gianfranco Sanguinetti)

In amicable memory of Raffaele Mattiolo, who taught us to be prodigal with the most precious of our goods: the truth.

Table of Contents
Preface

I. Why capitalism must be democratic and the grandeur it attains in being so

II. How capitalism has been badly managed in Italy, and why (1943-1967)

III. In which social war begins again and why nothing is more fatal than prematurely declaring victory (1968-1969)

IV. Why it is never good to only defend oneself, because victory belongs to those on the offensive

V. What the world-wide crisis is, and the different ways in which it manifests itself

VI. Who the communists effectively are, and what one must do

VII. Exhortation to deliver capitalism from its irrationalities and to save it

"Black Marxism" Symposium

Santa Barbara, Nov. 5–7, 2004

in honor of the 20th anniversary of Cedric J. Robinson's Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition, the UCSB Interdisciplinary Humanities Center will be hosting a "Symposium on Cedric J. Robinson's Radical Thought: Toward Critical Social Theories and Practice." It will be held at the University of California, Santa Barbara on November 5-7, 2004.


The Symposium will provide a forum for dialogue about the historical legacy and future development of the Black radical Tradition in the academy as well as an opportunity to celebrate and reflect on the important contributions made to that tradition by Professor Robinson's long record of activism and committed scholarship.

Cultural Production and the State

San Diego, March 23–26, 2005

Papers are currently being accepted for the National Popular Culture &
American Cultural Association’s Joint Conferences being held in San Diego March 23–26, 2005.


This year a new Area has been developed entitled “Cultural Production and
The State.” This Area has been created to explore the ways in which
cultural production reproduces and/or undermines the State.

This Area is currently seeking new and provocative papers that illustrate
the critical role popular culture assumes in constructing our collective
understandings of the political landscape(s) in which we live.

NomIg writes

"Revolution: USA"

A Coldcut/NomIg Project

Revolution USA is an online, multimedia political art project put together by Coldcut and collaborators NomIg. Using samples of the last 40 years of American presidents and media figures, we have created an online Archive of Political Corruption and Scandals.

This site features an interactive timeline of major US political scandals and corruption with an integrated database containing: pertinent video clips and samples for download and streaming; pictures; a textual description of each event and offsite links for further research. The site contains hundreds of clips of US politicians in ‘awkward’ moments and other relevant footage, free audio loops and tracks created by Coldcut which are available for download (currently totaling over 13GBs).

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