Hello Tiger!

is a work in progress

Paper Tiger Television is a public access TV show. It looks at the communications industry via the media in all of their forms. The power of mass culture rests on the trust of the public. This legitimacy is a paper tiger. Investigation into the corporate structures of the media and critical analysis of their content is one way to demystify the information industry. Developing a critical consciousness about the communications industry is a necessary first step towards democratic control of information resources. The Paper Tiger Manifesto - 1981

Compiled and Designed by Martha Wallner Design and Layout by Nicole Burgess with help from EAT/Editorial Assistance Team: Maria Juliana Byck, Adriene Jenik & Tammy Ko Robinson

Table of Contents
Tiger Presenters Presente! Paper Tiger and the Roots of DIY, Jesse Drew 2011 Low Tek Wisdom: Memories of Paper Tiger TV, Raul Moarquech Ferrera-Balanquet 2012 Simin Farkhondeh Remembers Her Times as a Tiger 2012 Tumblemedia: A Quest of Two Cowgirls Linda Iannacone & Jessica Glass a conversation Shu Lea Cheang & Adriene Jenik, 2011 reading Paper Tiger: from mini-fm to SNS, 2011--Myoungjoon Kim and tammy ko Robinson in conversation 2011 Stencil 1 Its 8:30.with chair Stencil 2 its 8:30 with tiger prints and chair Paper Tiger TV Stencil with Tiger and TV courtesy of Naomi Wilson, Ireland 2012 Paper Tiger Stripes Again, Glenda Drew 2011 Paper Tiger TV Internship Application Form circa 1995 approx. Media Mogul Flyer 1997 Tiger Survey Part I: One of the Best Experiences I ever Had Working with Paper Tiger Was. One of the most important things I learned with Paper Tiger was Congress of the Collectives Questionnaire 2011 Paper Tiger as a Free School Part I - things I learned from being in Paper Tiger, or preliminary notes for a media arts activism class by Sarah Lewison 2012 Tiger Survey Part II: Have you ever been in a collective (other than Paper Tiger TV)? If yes, what was that like for you? For Tigers: What did you like and/or dislike about the collective structure of Paper Tiger TV? All Aboard! A Survey of Incentives to Public Channel Usage by New York Artists and Fellow Travelers, Liza Bar 1983 The Grassroots Video Pioneers by Dara Greenwald 2007 Interview with Dara Greenwald by Daniel Tucker (excerpt) May 2011 Public Access Television: The Message, The Medium & The Movement jesikah maria ross & J. Aaron Spitzer, 1994 with a reflection written by co-author, jesikah maria ross, Dec. 2012 Tiger Survey Part III: Whats the term radical media mean to you? Describe your relationship to radical media practice. 1 2-5 6-7 7-9 10-11 12-14 14-18 19 19 20 21-24 25-26 27-28 29-32

33-35 36-39

40-45

46-50

51-55 55-59 60-66

67-74

Indymedia: precursors and birth, Miguel Bocanegra interviews Jeff Perlstein 2000 and Indymedia: Who are we? Statement by IMC Argentina Computers Are A Girls Best Friend by Praba Pilar 2005 from Cyberlabia: gendered thoughts & conversations on cyberspace ES DEMASIADO lyrics by Jesusa Rodrguez and Liliana Felipe The Radio as an Apparatus of Communication (exerpt) Bertolt Brecht 1932 Constituents of a Theory of the Media (excerpt) Hans Magnus Enzensberger 1970 For An Imperfect Cinema (excerpt), Julio Garca Espinosa 1979 Towards a Third Cinema, Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino 1979 Choosing the Margin as a Space of Radical Openness bell hooks, from Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics 1990 Charlie Brown, Meet Hanthala, Martha Wallner 2002 Origin of the Peace Symbol Popular Communications in Honduras, Laura Wiens 2006 Images provided by Luz Ruz and Refugio Sols COMPAA The Internet in North Africa, Ramy Raoof 2011 Occupy the Media: The Role of Independent Media at Occupy Wall Street Martin Lucas 2011 Tiger Survey Part IV: What are your desires, wishes for the future in the realm of media and communications practice? What are you concerned about in media and communications today? Statement of Subcomandante Marcos to the Freeing the Media Teach-In 1997 Two or three things that I know about the streaming media Tetsuo Kogawa 2000 The No-Nonsense Guide to Communications Rights summarizing texts from the CRIS Campaign written by Sen Siochr. Reproduced by WACC. Occupy Museums Call to Occupy Lincoln Center at the last performance of the opera Satyagraha Dec. 1, 2011 Quack2012 Dnde Est el Pato? Where is the Duck? Allied Media Projects Principles Listening Manifesto: Examining the Role of Poetry and Sound, Karla Diaz 2007 Poor People of the World UniteUnite! An Invitation to Cry of the Poor Friday, 2011 Cease and Desist letter from @radical.media LLC to Radical Media Conference in London, 2011

75-79 80-84 85 86-87 88-90 91-93 94-107 108-116 117 118 119-124 125-128 129-131 132-138

139 140 141-146

147 148 149 149-150 151 152

Paper Tiger and the Roots of DIY

Jesse Drew

D.I.Y. media is all the rage. One of the defining characteristics of our technocultural moment is the ability and passion for creating ones own media, be it videostreaming, blogging, website publishing, photosharing or another online media format. Paper Tiger Television, which began in 1981 by advocating (and practicing) radical DIY television, can take much credit for helping to popularize and facilitate these momentous developments. In many ways the DIY media phenomenon is the culmination of a Paper Tiger theoretical framework that incorporated the canon of Brechts two-way radio pipes, Enzenzbergers concept of a media democracy and the evolutionary extension of Americas alternative press into modern electronic communications. Today we can survey our media environment and take heart that many of the hopes Paper Tigers could only dream about thirty years ago have become reality. Dont expect to find the contributions of Paper Tiger Television in the columns and punditry of corporate mass media however. In the newsrooms of General Electric, Time-Warner, Disney or Fox, the DIY story is told as one of entrepreneurship and capitalist innovation, not the persistent hard work of a ragtag group of radical activists, artists and educators. Paper Tiger however, would not be expected to look towards the steering mechanism of the US ruling class, (the NY Times) or any other corporate mouthpiece for a pat on the back. Nevertheless those who take the ability to make DIY media for granted should consider the historic contributions the paws and claws of Paper Tiger members made towards tearing down barriers for creating a more democratic media. When Paper Tiger started, television was still inaccessible territory for most. In 1981, the camcorder was still many years away! Cameras were heavy, cumbersome objects that had to be hooked to a separate deck, with tapes that were expensive and the size of a large book. Programs had to be shot in a studio, as portapack units were generally out of reach. Lack of editing equipment and money meant that the shoot had to be completed in one take, so-called live to tape. It took many people to shoot a show, all working together and in-sync in order to pull of the show in sequence and without error, once the tape was rolling. Hand held graphics had to be cued for the cut. A credits cranky took the place of expensive Photocopy, fill-in and become the media! character generators. If there was a magical device known as a time-base corrector available, outside footage could be rolled into the program. It was a high stress, exhilarating collective choreography of camera dollying, button pushing, hand-gesturing and performing.Very few people outside of professional broadcasting were attempting such things in the early 1980s. But creating the show was not necessarily the most radical aspect of their act. The point of Paper Tiger was not just to create television for a small niche of like-minded people, but to inject a critique of media into the heartland of the television audience, while they sat at home in their living rooms. Commandeering the cable system to cast a viewpoint unavailable from mass media was the true innovation, inviting ordinary viewers at home access to it. Paper Tiger was public electronic art that challenged the medium it was viewed on.

Despite the low-tech look they projected and championed, Paper Tigers were among the most technically savvy of artists and activists. Though their work was a television of poverty, they still managed to harness advanced technologies for their televisual interventions. Midnight editing became a familiar part of Tigers schedules, whereby insanely expensive editing systems became available to members willing to sneak into post houses when the staff went home. Portapaks were loaned by sympathetic industry workers and freelancers, and costuming and props were donated by clothing stores and theatre workers. Donations dribbled in for shows, and small grants were awarded for programs with budgets that ranged from 0$ to several hundred dollars. This was more than do-ityourself, this was do-it-despite-the-incredible-obstacles. The Paper Tiger example inspired countless other groups to point their cameras at the mass media, not only to expose their bias, but to explore the stories that they ignored. When prosumer camcorders became available, Paper Tiger members became a regular presence at rallies, actions and picket lines. The collective was a leading voice that was helping lead a citizen media movement of videographers that was reflected by a proliferation of public access television programs, hometown video festivals, organizations of videomakers and community media centers. The Deep Dish Television network, launched by Paper Tiger, took advantage of the most advanced technology of the day, satellite transponders, to put together programming from a nationwide network of videographers in order to beam out a collective video expression to hundreds of public access stations and to millions of viewers. Their collective actions helped facilitate a movement of critical thinking and consciousness about mainstream media that laid the groundwork for todays DIY media. All those who participated in building a movement for democratic media are incredibly heartened by the innovative uses of new media technologies in todays global uprisings against dictatorship, authoritarianism and capitalist greed. Before the victory celebrations begin, however, in typical Paper Tiger fashion, we need to ask ourselves to consider the situation critically, or in the words of Herb Schiller,we need to pierce through the fog that surrounds such triumphalism. Because despite the obvious victories of democracy and media, there gathers increasing fog.

In order to pierce that fog, we need to send out a clarion call that anchors us and lets us know where the shoreline of truth stands and the ocean of myth begins. The call that must ring out loud and clear must proclaim that DIY does not and has never really meant do it yourself. D.I.O We know that capitalism seeks to commodify everything, to co-opt the trends that imperil it, and to render threats harmless. Much of the current popularity of DIY media has little to do with its initial impulse and meaning. The current DIY phenomenon is increasingly driven by a badge of honor earned by doing it yourself, as in i this and i that on your i-pod, i-phone and i-pad, etc. Such a spin conveniently dovetails with a corporate consumer strategy that depends upon marketing trendy products to an atomized and individualistic demographic. This attempt at capturing the DIY spirit rips the heart out of what animated it in the first place. Veteran DIYers know it is really about doing it ourselves. Paper Tiger members know that DIY media come from a collective process of sharing ideas, skills and knowledge and working together. Each one teach one is really the force behind DIY, not ones lonesome self surrounded by the latest consumer gadgets. More importantly, the power of DIY media was built to challenge the status quo, not to be merely ones individual creative outlet. The DIY trend in the hands of capitalism has become a marketing opportunity, not a pedagogical or ideological tool for liberation. The DIY yearning, a desire for control over ones technology and personal space, is today a prime target market for media conglomerates. History repeats itself, of course, so that social media is now being cast to be inconsequential and personal, rather than political, in the way that Ham radio became a hobbyist ghetto, or Super 8 Film became solely a family preservation tool. This is not the DIY Paper Tiger had in mind. Paper Tiger trained hundreds of young and old on new media technologies in order to challenge the political and economic structure by introducing the voice of people outside the walls of power, by emphasizing a collective approach and the importance of doing it ourselves, not relying upon the captains of industry and mass media. Paper Tiger managed to succeed in a hostile technical environment not by relying on yourself, but by relying upon a little help from our friends. Thousands of hours of volunteer labor, of donated materials and space, of supplies, of technical training went into building Paper Tiger. It was thousands of us that built DIY media, not one person. It is high time to realize that DIY (do it yourself) really means DIO (do it ourselves). Radical media is a tool for social liberation, not a style, a posture or a brand. The look of Paper Tiger has a definite aesthetic style that is low tech, handmade, user-friendly and welcoming, and certainly springs from its origins in New York City at the end of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s. The basis of this look, which has remained surprisingly consistent through the decades, evolved from real material conditions impacting the ability of the collective to produce work in the particular epoch it grew from. It reflects a cinema of poverty that made the collective rely upon handmade signs, sometimes cheesy special effects, cheap cameras and all-too-basic editing. The early productions were very much products of barter and thrift stores, not drafting tables and design studios. Rather than let these material considerations hold them back, however, Paper Tiger members held them up to be a point of honor, much the same way punk rockers and hip-hop enthusiasts embraced their ripped clothes and spray paint, their three-chord thrashing or their worn-down vinyl. While many artists dabbling in advanced technologies at that time suffered from inferiority complexes in the face of the overwhelming videopower of corporate media, Paper Tiger relished their funkiness. While many artists struggled to cover up the seams of their productions, Paper Tiger delighted in them. While others carefully edited out all traces of the actual production process, Paper Tiger highlighted them, showing camera people in the studio and even explaining on the audio track that, now we will cut to another camera. The hand-generated cranky is one such way they laughed in the face of highly expensive Character Generators, as the camera focused on the primitive scrolling paper graphic, instead

of linking with the outrageously expensive FX machines. Such demystification became the hallmark of their work, allowing viewers to see more easily how they can themselves become masters of their media environment, rather than its subjects. For Paper Tiger, producing ones own work became the true key to media literacy, as it empowers the media consumer to become the media producer. In this way, Paper Tiger led the way to an experiential pedagogical approach. Today, as we see in countless uprisings, occupations and revolutions, creating ones own media is essential to building new democratic structures for everyday life. Paper Tiger welcomes and celebrates these achievements and looks forward to the continuing media battle between the forces of social justice and that of human exploitation.

The author with DIY mini-FM radio transmitter from 1991 PTTV installation Photo by: Bill Daniel

Low Tek Wisdom: Memories of Paper Tiger TV

Raul Moarquech Ferrera-Balanquet
I first heard of Paper Tiger TV through my college roommate Gloria Williams who was also studying film and video at the University of Iowa. She had shown me some of the programs at the Public Access Television Station located at the Iowa Citys Public Library where she worked. Among the first Paper Tiger TV shows I watched were Noam Chomsky Reading the New York Times (1986), Martha Rosler Reads Vogue:Wishing, Dreaming,Winning, Spending (1982), a program where, Rosler, the director/actress of well known video art piece The Semiotics of the Kitchen made a feminist reading of the portrayal of women in the magazine and Joan Does Dynasty (1986) in which Joan Braderman, hilariously, inserts herself in the TV image becoming a character altering the narrative of the famous TV show. The graphic quality and the two cameras setup called my attention. When I lived in New York City in 1987, I learned, working at the studio where Paper Tiger TVs programs were produced, how to create amazing analogue credits using the camera, transparent paper and the monitor as background. The studio where the programs were produced had only a switcher for two cameras so the graphics and credits were always hand made at the office in Lafayette Street or at somebodys house. Some of them were placed on a music-reading stand, on a chair or were handheld in front of one of the cameras. Since the switcher only allowed for specifics transitions, the way that the graphics were mixed with the live camera always amazed me. That aesthetic practice has been very helpful, especially when I have taught media workshops in rural locations in Yucatan and Quintana Roo, Mexico. When I arrived to New York City in the summer of 1987, I went to the office that Paper Tiger TV and Deep Dish TV shared and met Cathy Scott and Simin Farkhondeh. When I mentioned Gloria Williams name that was enough for my entrance into the production crew. Among the most vivid memories working at Paper Tiger TV are two that have marked my life. The first one was a program where Allen Ginsberg, David Avalos and Coco Fusco participated. Having in front of me such a legend as the poet Ginsberg who represented an icon of the Beat insurrection, reading his poetry was a blessing I cannot forget. David Avalos spoke about the media project his had placed on the buses of San Diego public transportation system called Welcome to the American Finest Plantation. To be honest, I do not remember what Cocos topic was. Although I had known her name and knew who she was, it was the first time we met. I introduced myself as a Cuban in exile, a Marielito who have studied media at the University of Iowa and was eager to go back to Cuba. Coco already had traveled to Havana and collaborated with some of the artists living there. Maybe the impact of meeting her was so strong that I could not record what her topic was at the program, I thank Paper Tiger for that encounter because until this day, Coco and I have been close friends and colleagues. The other experience was working as a producer in The Gulf Crisis TV Project in 1991. I was back at the University of Iowa, working at an MFA with professor Hans Breder when Operation Desert Storm started. Cathy Scott was setting up the network of producers and contacted me. Already, I had experienced some bashing because of my Arab looks in the streets of Iowa City and I knew I had to be part of the project. I produced some images and used the Public Access network to send them to New York. I Still have fond recollections about the friendly and creative atmosphere during the meetings and production where I participated in New York and long distance. I learned to work in a more horizontal and collective decision making environment, but the most valuable knowledge I gained was to understand that in this technized media society

where we live, I dont have to have high quality expensive equipment to produce my views and opinions about the social dynamics affecting my survival. Raul Moarquech Ferrera-Balanquet is a transdisciplinary artist, writer, scholar and Executive Curator of Arte Nuevo InteractivaA

Image: Merida Tho_MX multimedia by Raul Ferrera Moarquesch

Simin Farkhondeh Remembers Her Times as a Tiger

I remember the collective meetings were at once wonderful and grueling. Reaching consensus is an art and test of patience.The structure was sometimes not as transparent or perhaps not as honest.There was an idea that there was no hierarchy, yet there was one.We genuinely struggled with that and also with the idea of working collectively in a society, where the individual is praised.
It was in the late 1980s that DeeDee Halleck came to give a presentation at the Hartford Art School, where I was studying. I had been there for a year. Having experienced the 1979 Revolution in Iran, I was politicized and it was frustrating to be studying with a student body that could not even distinguish between Iran and Iraq. I was taking a critical theory class and the instructor had invited DeeDee Halleck to speak about her work. While she was introducing Paper Tiger TV, her then 4 year old daughter Molly was playing with the chalkboard in the background. I was immediately captivated by the concepts that DeeDee layed out about alternative media and the slogan smashing the myths of the information industry resonated for me. During the revolution we read between the lines of the media all the time, trying to make sense of what was really happening in Iran. Here there was a collective in New York, working on art that had meaning and a purpose, art that analyzed the mainstream media.

I knew about the power of television and the importance of the medium. During the last days of the Shahs regime, there was an intense struggle over the state run media. The image of a parka clad bearded revolutionary pushing over a suit and tie clad fellow who was speaking about science and technology one night during the spring of 1978, will be forever etched into my mind. Dee Dee showed the work of folks who actually analyzed, worked and played with the medium. Needless to say, I wanted to get involved with Paper Tiger TV as fast as I could manage to do so. For my last semester at Art School, I proposed an independent study to my professors, where I would move to New York City, work with Paper Tiger and go to Art related lectures at Cooper Union and SVA. I listened to thinkers and artists such as Yvonne Rainer, Martha Geever, Greg Owens, Benjamin Buchloh and others. Then wrote back impressions and reports of this experience. That spring I met Adriene Jenik who invited me to come to a Paper Tiger meeting. I had met Cathy Scott earlier and we ended up living together. I told her about the meeting and we went there together. We immediately started working on shows with the collective. I loved our fearless approach to making Television each week. The collective working together at 339 Lafayette was magical. Running the finished show up to the cable station for broadcast was magical. The many people that came through Paper Tigers doors in the years that I was in the office and the many experiences became a true education for me. Working with DeeDee Halleck, Cathy Scott, Martha Wallner, Adriene Jenik, Shu Lea Chang, Marty Lucas, Adriene Jenik, Daniel Brooks, Fional Boneham, May Ying Welsh and many many more the list goes on and on. Meeting Alexander Kluge the brilliant German Post-war TV and Film director, Dr. Michio Kaku, Edward Said and many more...was an amazing schooling. I remember the collective meetings were at once wonderful and grueling. Reaching consensus is an art and test of patience. The structure was sometimes not as transparent or perhaps not as honest. There was an idea that there was no hierarchy, yet there was one. We genuinely struggled with that and also with the idea of working collectively in a society, where the individual is praised. Some of the most exciting work I remember of course is the process of making the Gulf Crisis TV Project. I had been working with the collective on making several anti war shows already, the summer of 1990, as the conflict between the US, Iraq and Kuwait escalated. Dee Dee kept telling me to send the tapes around to other cities. And soon people began calling, asking for these tapes. Naturally a kind of Deep Dish TV project was forming. A long meeting was called with Paper Tiger TV and Deep Dish TV folks present to make a decision, whether to launch a larger effort towards an anti Iraq war series. We knew that such an effort would drain resources. If PTTV could provide women and man power and DDTV the outreach and satellite uplink structure to bring the series to people around the country, it would work. After a long and intense struggle and debate it was agreed to go forward with the project. There were many fabulous projects one could speak of. One of the highlights for me was when I picked up the phone one day and a high school teacher from the Schomburg Satellite Academy in the South Bronx, Pam Sporn introduced herself and inquired about a tape. We spoke for quite some time. At the end of the conversation we made plans for me to go to her school and do a PTTV workshop there. The outcome of this wonderful collaboration was a tape examining the media representations of African American and Latino youth in the wake of the Yusef Hawkins murder and the Central Park rape. It was1990. The students explored the role of language and image in shaping public opinion regarding racially-charged issues. Another life-changing experience for me as a young Tiger cub, was working on the show, CBS Tries the NY3, Racist Lies on Prime Time TV, in 1988. Working on this PTTV show meant engaging in a long process of writing to three maximum prisons where the three former Black Panthers, Jalil (Anthony) Bottom, Herman Bell and Noah Washington were kept. The story of these political prisoners and their false depiction in the CBS docudrama The Badge of the Assassin was a true eye-opener. During the process of making the film we entered the maximum security prisons, where they were held and interviewed them. Working with activist and former Black Panter Safiya Bukhari-Alston, and civil rights lawyer Brian Glick as they discussed the Black Panther Party and how an extensive series of covert operations were able to undermine a movement, was an education one cannot forget. The three who have always claimed their innocence, have been in prison since 1978. Noah Washington, has since died in prison.

I was involved in many workshops and installations with Paper Tiger TV, bringing the ideas we spoke about into other contexts such as working with Mary Feaster and Linda Iannacone on installations at the Friesenwall 120 Gallery in Cologne, and in Berlin, Germany. Or the week-long seminar working with students of the Free University of Berlin. The installation at the Powerplant Gallery in Toronto where Cathy Scott and I created a wall of newspaper and a newspaper couch comes to mind. These installations included important discussion with the communities, where we spoke about the significance of political art making in various contexts. The installations were tailored to the cultural contexts. Radical media making with Paper Tiger TV led me to continue in this vein. Labor at the Crossroads, the TV show that I produced and directed for over ten years, was radical in its content and other projects I was involved would fall into such a category. Working in this way, thinking in this way has meant not being afraid to think outside the box. Imagining and living an alternative to the norm. It has meant challenging the established ways of doing things, outlining ideas challenging the mainstream ideology. It has been a struggle towards freeing media from restricted thought and suppressed alternatives. After experiencing the revolution of 1979 in Iran I quickly fell into seeing the world from an alternative angle. The artists and filmmakers I ran with were radical media practitioners. This practice is a crucial part of the struggle towards another world order. Media is so powerful, that the alternative to it has to be even more powerful, sublime and innovative. I am proud of the many people that worked at Paper Tiger and how they have continued working towards bringing positive change. It is my hope that we continue to do this important work as concerns towards the future of the internet and our access to it become our struggles.

Simin Farkhondeh is the Education Director at Democracy Now! & teaches at St. Johns University School of Visual Arts

TUMBLEMEDIA A Quest of Two Cowgirls

Its 1990... cowgirls Linda Iannacone and Jessica Glass

find themselves in the desert...

<static>

<static>

Weve heard a lot about interactive television...

...the barren commercialized landscape of corporate media.

This is the newest channel...

How many times have you turned on your TV and wondered What the heck is on?

Caw! Caw!

Thirsty for a friendly media oasis, they press on,

seeking a cool drink of media truth...

...a peoples media.

Caw!
I sure am parched...theres not much growin here...

My horse is gettin so tired and thirsty hes forgetting his name.

Neighhh
Does anyone know were out here?

Does anyone care?

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Hey! Whats that in the distance?! I think its an oasis of some sort! Mmmmhh, or just a mirage...
The two questing cowgirls ponder the possibility that their sanity may be falling victim to the relentless dry heat of an empty corporate media landscape.

Hey!

Theres a laptop perched here on the fence! Hey, whats that on the screen?!

Somehow Im not feelin so thirsty anymore.

Its looking a lot like some cool non-commercial video made by an un-heirarchical group of volunteers! Yeah! Im feelin a whole lot better already!

I say all the shit that fits the print.

We gotta take our airwaves back!

I think our quest has ended.

Weve discovered a new home!

Produced by Jessica Glass and Linda Iannacone for Paper Tiger TVs 25th anniversary in 2006. See the video at http://youtu.be/MyTfveDXYhY

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a conversation - Shu Lea Cheang & Adriene Jenik october 12 to october 18, 2011
Shu Lea Cheang and Adriene Jenik worked together as members of the Paper Tiger TV collective during the years 1985-1990. During that time they worked together in different capacities producing live PTTV shows in New York City, and representing PTTV at the AFI Video Festival in LA (where they and other Tigers made tape during the week-long festival). Jenik went on to work as Cheangs Production Manager for one of her earliest video installations, Color Schemes and also created a short video Whats the Difference Between a Yam and a Sweet Potato? with J. Evan Dunlap as an invited artist for Cheangs project Those Fluttering Objects of Desire exhibited at the 1995 Whitney Biennial. Since those earlier days, theyve both been active as artists in the new media field actively making live publicly-situated media art.

This wiki-dialogue took place with Cheang dialing in from a beach and Jenik from the desert. Q1. AJ>SLC > What do you remember from our PTTV days? A1. SLC > in a circle, we exchange ideas, in the small TV studio, count down to zero Q2. SLC>AJ> was this collective/collaborative approach a foundation for your artistic works? A2. AJ> absolutely - manly because I got to see and experience how working intensely with others bringing ideas and talents and critical thinking made the pieces better than they would be with just one persons ideas and talents. It helped me trust that process, and also not be afraid to step into new creative or technical roles. Q3. AJ>SLC > I love the memory of the countdown and the flurry of excitement and activity and here we go! feeling of it. Is there a particular PTTV show you worked on or directed that stands out for you?A3. SLC > i was happy to bring in Renee Tajima and Thulani Davis who deal with media racism; on the other hand, i enjoy the frenzy switching for Joan Does Dynasty. Q4. SLC>AJ > i am curious about the style/format change these days for PPTV, do you follow up on this? A4. AJ > I know the collective had been shifting away from live shows to pre-recorded/edited pieces more and more, with the live shows being more of an anomaly or special event. My sense is this happened for a number of reasons - they were working many times in workshop models with people, and the editing technology became easier to operate and use - with more people with those skills. Its funny that the shift happened during a time when MNN (Manhattan Neighborhood Network) moved and got the new studios - I think something about the studios made it harder to develop really crazy live shows like what we were doing in the studio on the east side MNN was a more controlled atmosphere where you had to have official levels of training on equipment through an official process. I recall my first show I attended, where I thought I would just be watching on the sidelines, and the camera operator that was expected didnt show. Someone (Daniel Brooks? Roy Wilson? Diana Agosta?) was walking around with 5 mins to go before we went live asking everyone if they knew how to operate a camera, and I jumped on! It was that openness and embrace and expectation of people all rising to the occasion to pull something off together that has really stuck in my memory. Q5. AJ>SLC> I also worked alongside you on the Thulani Davis show Thulani Davis asks Why Howard Beach? and the Joan Does Dynasty show.The Thulani Davis show was very intense as it was made in the midst of a really fraught time in NYC, within two weeks of that incidence of racial violence in Brooklyn. I remember being surprised, since there was so much anger and protest going on, at her very low-key delivery. Now I look at that tape and appreciate the tone, as well as the complex ways that you organized the additional materials. How are you addressing these + other socio-political issues in the work you are doing now? A5. SLC > speaking of live, i am touring UKI, a viral performance, live code live spam. live processing 70 minute cinema material with visual and noise. I adopted an open call way of seeking sound jammers locally in the city in which the piece is performed. I refuse any preview of the visual materials while concept/stories are well conveyed. It is a 70 minute viral ride, count down to zero. speaking of socialpolitical issues, yeah, i am overstretching myself at this moment, simply say, i am dealing with the virus, the girls, the compost and the forest!! The forest is Moving Forest which i started workshopping this nov-dec in london with labs, art centers and goldsmiths cultural studies and interactive media studio. I am really exciting about taking this project to london for infiltrating olympics2012. Q6. SLC>AJ > yeah, so speaking of work, what are you working on now? I think the last work i saw of yours is the book project? in Zero1 in San Jose? back in 2006? I dont remember seeing you since A6. AJ > You are right, we havent seen each other since then. I took on the chairmanship at UCSD of the Visual Arts Dept., and then

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accepted the leadership position I have now at ASU, directing the Herberger Institute School of Art, so my practice has been shifting alot from bigger ambitious projects to other ongoing things that I can move in and out of. A few things Ive done since you last saw me are a street art projection piece called Language Lessons that was commissioned by Intrude/Art/Life - a really ambitious project staged in 2008 where the curators working with the Zendai Museum to commission and produce a new work of site-specific public art/performance every single day all throughout Shanghai. I was living there at the time, teaching Digital Performance at Shanghai University to Chinese students in their Digital Art College, and my piece was set in the Chinese concession near the port. It was a live projection with hundreds of photos I had taken of a neighborhood that was slated for demolition and people in Chinese and English could caption with cel phones the images which updated live across a grid. The piece highlighted the importance of context in language comprehension and in a culture where teachers are revered, it was about celebrating the types of teaching and learning that are embedded in cultural interchange. I also developed a digital mixing system called Open_Borders Lounge with Charley Ten that enables people from anywhere in the world to use internet cafes or other easy to access videophone platforms to be mixed into an evenings lounge entertainment. The idea was to enable people in war zones or other areas affected by the US war/economic policies to offer performances or interventions that could be introduced into environments where first worlders are comfortably lounging. The first version was commissioned by UCLA for a Women in the Americas performance conference and we had 44 artists from 11 countries and 4 time zones- crazy! So Im still doing live stuff and still trying to make meaningful media> Q7. AJ>SLC > You have always been a decade or more ahead of the cultureI see your work, shulea, and somehow I feel like I get it, even if it is so tripped out and already existing in another realm beyond this current time. I want to hear more about the Moving Forest - could you tell me more? A7. SLC > yes, moving forest, in brief - Moving Forest is a 12 hour, five act, visual, sonic, digital, electronic and urban performance which maps an imaginary Castle and a camouflaged forest revolt onto the modern day metropolis. Thematically derived from the final 12 minutes of Spider Web Castle, in Kurosawas film version of Macbeth, Throne of Blood, Moving Forest expands each of these minutes into sixty, generating a sustained event mixing performance, sound art, visual expression, media intervention and interaction between numerous performers and the general public. The event takes place both in a central location and in dispersed units across the city. Following devised and pre-scripted acts and actions, the performers and the public converge to arrive at a narrative climax of the scenario. Projecting Moving Forest for Olympics London 2012, MOVING FOREST holds collaborative research and development workshops towards building an innovative & participatory London specific electronic media art performance. For such large scale work, we name our collective AKA the castle, a temporal performance troupe bringing together visual artists, writers, soundists, silk threaders, codedecoders, macromikro, boombox mass, mobile agents, wifi fielders and urbanites to realize the 12 hour Moving Forest. It was premiered at Transmediale2008 in Berlin. For London 2012 we are organizing workshops for nov-dec with SPACE studio, Furtherfield, V&A museum, Centre for Cultural Studies, MA Interactive Media, Goldsmiths, university of London. It is another collective endeavour, but i want to emphasize the temporal nature of this collective, not being fixed, we recruit locals and that makes it site-specific. In this process of organizing the insurgency force in London now, I am happy to discover new forces, i.e. MzTEK a learning community in technology and arts for women; University for Strategic Optimism of a very young generation. Interesting to hear about your current projects also, I have also been thinking about this kind of large scale public projects as time-based art. Coming from video age of time=based concept, i am re-discovering the idea of durational endeavour. Q8. SLC>AJ > You have arrived in the academic world, i am also happy to learn that you continue making projects; indeed, i consider making art as live processing now, do you want to expand on this? A8. AJ > Yes, I have gravitated throughout my creative and professional activities toward the live event. It is a great space for experimentation, and especially, as you know, in new media forms and processes, the media aspects of whatever story or experience we are trying to relate needs to harness (not ignore or shutdown) the many directions of media flow. For my project SPECFLIC, (the 2.0 version that was at the San Jose Public Library), I orchestrated a live exploded media event which projected a story arc about the near future of the book and the near future of the library. The building was transformed into a large projection armature and bits of the story were in the live mixed spatialized audiotrack, other bits arrived in your pocket via cellphone, while the anchor of the interactive event was a live infospherian performed by Praba Pilar

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whose character oscillated between the seductions of extreme openness and precise control that are inherent in networked technologies. I see the desire to produce something that is fun and pleasurable and visually compelling to watch, at the same time it is deeply critical as an important throughline in Paper Tiger productions and your work and mine. Im so very glad you are out there kicking up media dust, and that we had the chance to work together those many years ago. Q9. AJ>SLC > Any last thoughts before we sign off and commit this to print?! A7. SLC > I totally agree with the idea of pleasure, keeping positive and solidarity. At this particular moment, sitting by the pacific ocean with high bandwidth, organizing 4 participating performances in berlin, bilbao, madrid and london for the next two months. I consider myself blessed to have great partners, friends and collaborators who receive me in each city. I do hope theres another chance we can work together again. Adriene Jenik - http://www.adrienejenik.net Shu Lea Cheang - http://www.mauvaiscontact.info

Myoungjoon Kim (aka MJ) and tammy ko Robinson in conversation reading Paper Tiger: from mini-FM to SNS
tammy ko Robinson: Lets begin with our most memorable PTTV production. Myoungjoon Kim: For me, it is Tetsuo Kogawa Cooks Up an FM Transmitter 1992 tape on pirate radio or community radio for the people where activist and Professor Tetsuo Kogawa shows us how to assemble a radio. A PTTV staff person was on the streets of NYC and after Tetsuo assembled the radio, he tested it, and she was able to hear it. I recall when I first saw it, I had thought of radio then as a rather primitive technology, but to see the transmitter tested and radio used to communicate with folks on the street was interesting. It enacted for the audience the concept of mini-FM and how frequencies should be managed and owned by the people. It also underscored how media freely used by the people can be so easily realized. It very clearly expressed radios potential as a form of democratic communication for the people. I regularly use this tape in the university class I teach although, I began first using it as a resource 15 years ago during workshop trainings with NGOs, activist organizations and trade unions as it allows us to facilitate thinking differently about our media system. tkR: For me, it has to be both Renee Tajima Reads Asian Images in American Film: Charlie Chan Go Home! 1984 and Freeing the Media and Marcos Message of 1997. Loretta Ross and the Center of Human Rights Education, a participant at the Freeing the Media Conference, had served as both our fiscal sponsor for when I was active with Incite! Women of Color Against Violence and one of our anniversary advisors for Video Machete. These two PTTV tapes and in particular Subcommandante Marcoss message on the necessity of our alliances really spoke to me as an immigrant woman of color living in the US and my relationship to questions of dominant representations and media systems. They resonated with the spirit of the work we were trying to take on as a collective as Video Machete to transform conditions of inequalities that we were able to perceive through our diasporic and indigenous perspectives about colonialisms. But before I ever saw either of these tapes, and this gets us to our next question, I had seen works made by other PTTV members that then led me back to PTTV productions, like Shu Lea Cheangs Titled Arc. Her coverage on the hearings on the removal of Richard Serras commissioned sculpture for the Federal Plaza captures a significant set of questions about art as a public resource. Related, you and I have talked on past occasions in how differently the context, questions and terms for media movement are here in South Korea. For example, art and democracy, art for democracy, art and dissidence,

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minjung misul, are terms that still resonate here to some extent. Now were seeing, and youve played a key part in, shifts in this discourse towards questions of public as in public media [gonggong media] or citizens media. MJ: Radical media as a concept is rather vague and not really in use in [South] Korea, and instead, progressive media[jinbo media] or participatory citizens media [chamyeo and yeondae] have emerged. We also have 25 local media centers sited throughout most major cities in South Korea, so a majority of people are now within an hour distance of a local media center that is connected to a public media [gong-gong media] network that is articulated by a broad coalition of organizations, mainstream media, alternative media, audio visual media workers including journalists, jinbonet and so on. And, I believe this is partly due to the productive encounters and international dialogues we have participated in on democratic communications. For example, the first time I met DeeDee Halleck of PTTV/Deep Dish was in India in 1994 for the Vidazimut Conference. Representatives from various movements for democracy were all together discussing the topic of development and participatory media systems. While AMARC, the association for community-based radio broadcasters, had existed for a decade by then,Vidazimut had only recently been founded in 1990. Until then and back in Montreal in 1990, I had found very few others who were working in a resonant manner to what media movement looked like or what we wanted it to look like in South Korea.Vidazimut facilitated a resourceful space for exchange for alternative audiovisual activists, independent filmmakers, programmers affiliated with public access stations, folks working on open channel in Berlin, and video activists from Latin America and Europe. And although it discontinued in the late 90s, Ive maintained contact with several folks, including PTTV members. Related, do you feel as though PTTVs work informed the terms that characterize Video Machetes work? tkR: Beyond PTTVs work with public access, yes, I do think several registers of PTTV collectives life course of work had a deep resonance. In other words, our Video Machete collective though in a more compressed lifetime likewise: produced pieces in collaboration with partners for public access and also distributed our content through film festival circuits, curated tapes and community organizing convenings; and raised issues of infrastructure, spectrum management andsocial policy; and were also invested in facilitating popular education exchanges for pushing localized and national conversations towards one dominated by media rights or civil rights discourse to one of a translocalized media justice connecting communication rights with realizing other human rights. That said, we developed our own grammar: Global Youth, Machete Volante, Mucho Coco, and Conversations. And I believe our siting in Chicago made a difference, and provided an impetus for how Video Machetes work and the formation of our collective was informed by [Freirian approaches to] popular education and our commitments to conversation and conscientization. Where you were working towards democracy in South Korea, I believe we did not similarly share in common the want to advance democracy in the US, as it didnt serve as our dominant framework or measure for justice. For us, we were working across our intergenerational and disparate and conjunctural histories/aesthetics/visual languages/temporalities as some members had experienced migration from the South, living in diaspora from Panama, South Korea, Colombia, and displacement as indigenous peoples from Guatemala, Rose Bud Sioux Nation, Mexico. That we felt we had to work in various decolonizing media modalities to transform our encounters with each other reminds me of when I first heard about your vision for Mediact, South Koreas first media center, prior to the its founding in 2002. I was interested in how you had hoped to integrate all of these seemingly resonant areas of work together: support for independent filmmakers, content production trainings and lifelong media education, media policy development and media network building.Your Mediact collective has celebrated its 9thanniversary, but was also forced unjustly to relocate and use the occasion for a Mediact 2.0 rebirth. From your perspective, could you talk about how these components of media movement came together or might newly come together? MJ: During the 1980s, filmmaking in South Korea until the mid-1990s was a significant form of media activism. We would work as filmmakers with peoples organizations and struggles producing different contents that were unrepresented in the mainstream broadcast media monopoly or due to state censorship. Its fair to characterize media activism of this time period as very much defined by peoples struggles for democracy. From the mid-1990s and the transition from dictatorship onward, there were two important changes. First, the introduction of IT and computer networks and communication systems became widespread in a relatively short amount of time, and a new media movement related to these developments emerged led by

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Jinbonet. Second, a classical dictatorship was replaced with a democratic political system based on elections. Formerly it was enough for media activism content to articulate alternative ideas and critiques of the state and public policies, but then becoming involved with the implementation of public policies and allocation of public resources became realizable.

Together with fundamental changes in laws regarding the freedom of expression, we were able push forward with the establishment of local media centers for the people. We have since been able to realize ourselves as citizen media makers or independent media makers. The idea of community media, e.g. radio owned and run by the community, and the introduction of a new policy on media literacy have all been possible whereas before we were restricted by our government. Indeed, all presidential candidates immediately after the late 1990s ran on a platform that included: introducing media education into the national curricula, providing media education for lifelong learners (e.g. seniors), and introducing a public access structure.

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Galeano Dictionary from Video Machete Mucho Coco Continuing Colonialism projects cartoons by Natalia Castro, 1998

tkR:From my diasporic perspective, the ground covered in South Korea this last decade since has been impressive, especially if one considers the passing of the Broadcast Act in 2000, the growth of a vibrant network of local media centers, and the establishment of migrant worker produced content on must-carry public access channel RTV in 2002. The latter is in some ways reminiscent of PTTVs approach regarding the 1972 cable requirement for public access. Conversely, we have seen the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 in the US under Clinton that allowed for media cross-ownership, the Bush administrations first term that maintained withdrawal of support from UNESCO, and whose delegation to WSIS advocated for stronger participation by private media industry over civil society actors and a lack of support for a digital solidarity fund. But recently, theres been controversy regarding South Koreas mediascape, especially in terms of media ownership reform and the upcoming switchover of 2012 as we are seeing President Lee Myungbaks administration attempt to use the occasion of media convergence to privatize two of the three broadcast TV networks owned by the government (KBS2, MBC) and permit the conservative newspapers [ChoJoongDong + Yonhap news agency] to own new TV stations. From the comparative perspective of how the US managed the DTV conversion, I feel as though communication rights activists, independent filmmakers, social justice activists together working on media justice used it well as an occasion to both inform President Obamas administration on how to manage the switchover, and also push the wiki-President [whose win many say was secured by mobilizing online supporters] to differentiate himself from his predecessors and make clear the linkages in his position in relation to the economy, job stimulus packages, broadband and spectrum issues. Likewise, and since you are going to be speaking at the forum held at the National Assembly with members from the Peoples Coalition on Media Reform on these issues, what would you want to see built into South Koreas switchover in order to consider it a successful one. MJ: Digital spectrum allocations/relocations are occurring now and in addition to some of the coverage we see on media ownership reform, we need a wider, pubic conversation and focus our attention on: how to guarantee frequency allocations for community radio in a digital era; and how to use this relocation as an opportunity to establish new terrestrial TV channels for citizens and independent filmmakers. Within South Korea, there should be more discussion on how to make use of the analog frequencies and if it requires a new structure of frequency management, new policy on smart technologies and opening up of frequencies for public use. There is a community radio station program in Taegu run by mothers who were homeschooling their children with disabilities. Before the program was launched they were isolated, and in their own words, their primary wish was expressed as wanting to live one second longer than their children. But as their network has grown through the development of radio program content, interviews with each other and mutual training, they have emerged as a strong presence with an ability to influence local municipal policies in terms of access and curriculum. This case demonstrates that in this time of DTV, the need and possibilities for radio and terrestrial television are not obsolete. tkR: It is a really interesting time to be in remigration, to see what has emerged as un#occupywallstreet, and to compare it with the perspective of international news media and students perspectives grounded in what is going on here in South Korea. In inventorying news coverage, it has become so common to see how South Koreas mediascape or indicators of its smart cities are about ubiquitous technologies and not about solidarity and sustainable development. Indeed the coverage that characterizes South Korea so often as the most wired country or the depictions of the recent referendum put forward by former Mayor Oh and then the subsequent win by Mayor Park as the product of a generational divide by Internet natives and Internet immigrants both miss this bigger picture of a more widespread use of all kinds of media by people to impact the direction of all kinds of policies towards justice. MJ: If Mayor Ohs referendum about free lunch for children or a comparable policy debate had taken place 20 years ago, it wouldnt have been easy for people to be heard or even make the choice to not participate, which is how he lost. Less than 25 percent of eligible voters participated in the referendum and knew not to participate if they supported universal welfare. Now we have widespread communication platforms and SNS culture, so people are not only able to educate themselves on the issues at hand, but also know how to participate and send a very clear message to the leaders. The introduction of a better welfare system is inevitable; This is the direction our society is heading in. This reminds me that we towards the start of this conversation you mentioned the question and possibilities of media as a

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public resource. Formerly, I believe under an older paradigm, this meant translating conservative right wing media system into realizing a so-called public broadcasting system that was defined by its entertainment/commercial potential. As an alternative, we pushed to realize the development of community media and local media centers with the effort of independent filmmakers, community radio broadcasters, Internet bloggers, media specialists and professionals. Currently and as a result, we have very divergent media ecologies operating all at the same time. And whats interesting to me is how more and more, we realize that these three are not working and are indeed failing us politically. SNS is our future as it includes everyone and not just one specific media system. Indeed, it exceeds a citizens media framework and goes back to what you are saying about a translocal movement. For example, major cases about privacy and the Internet have emerged, and with it a public push to reform our national ID system. Presently, it is very easy to identify minorities, migrant workers, and non-nationals, which can lead to discrimination. So, what should be the new dynamics, and new policies affecting all of us as actors and facilitating new and different connections across all the former systems? Thats my concern. You and I teach similar courses; Its interesting to comparatively work with my students to inventory the perspective of international news media and their own about un#occupywallstreet. And my message to my students is that whether they end up working for a company or for an NGO or activist organization and I comparatively work on alternative media systems, that they each have a necessary role in making a better society. We all share a connection [inyun] just as PTTV demonstrated with the production and circulation of their tapes. That PTTV tape on Tetsuo Kogawa and the miniFM movement inspired an idea about frequency use and our media policy development process here in South Korea. It has resulted in changing a lot of peoples lives. I think when we do something that is right or just, we should do it regardless of the size of our audiences. Perhaps if PTTV had not existed, we would still have the media policies we have here. I dont know, but it had some effect and we should never underestimate the potential and value of what we do. Bios: Myoungjoon Kim is President of Mediact, South Koreas first public media center and serves as adjunct faculty at Sungkonghoe University. Previous to Mediact, in the 1990s he co-founded Labor News Production to create activist documentary films by and for workers, expand distribution platforms for independent media, and an international labor film festival. In 2000, LNP successfully fought to legalize community television in Korea. He speaks regularly at international film festivals, and teaches classes in documentary filmmaking and media. For more on Mediact, read John Downings Encyclopedia of Social Movement Media. tammyko Robinson is an artist-researcher currently living in Seoul, and serves as an associate professor of Applied Arts at Hanyang University. Her works while with the Video Machete collective 1999-2006 have shown widely at film festivals and community organizing conferences in the US and internationally, on CAN TV, Deep Dish, and PBS. Her work for media justice included co-organizing the North Americas and indigenous media justice delegation to WSIS in Tunisia. Her subsequent works take up notions of public remediation. For more on Video Machete Machete Volante (1994-2006) distribution initiative, explore content from YOMO media online searchable database that has been housed within MediaRights.org searchable database, and works included in the PBS Not in Our Town series.

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Paper Tiger Stripes Again

Glenda Drew

Orange on red. Black on orange. White on red. Blue on green. Striped, solid, outlined, layered. Horizontal baseline.Vertical baseline. What baseline? The Paper Tiger Television logo at some point in time has been all of these and more. Not only does Paper Tiger smash the myths of the information age with home-grown and collective video production, but it also smashes the myths of the established rules of graphic design. Demonstrated by its approach to graphic design, Paper Tiger speaks to a Situationist dtournement, subverting an established medium by appropriating it and turning it around on itself. From the typographic PTTV logos to the tiger mascot, Paper Tiger applies strategies that both adhere to and counteract graphic design branding standards, all the while successfully expressing the identity and mission that is Paper Tiger. Graphic design as a profession and field was coined by William Addison Dwiggins in 1922 to describe a way of working with text and image to communicate public messages, usually at the beckon of capital or propaganda1. Even earlier, at the turn of the century, Peter Behrens, a German designer, who was part of the Deutsche Werkbund, a collective of European, mostly German, designers, established linchpin elements of identity design that included a prescriptively consistent logo, a specific typeface and standardized layout formats as applied almost militantly to all visual communications of a particular entity2. The Swiss International movement further advocated a formulaic, Helvetica-speak approach to logotype development (and design in general) that continues to dominate the field today. By the time Paper Tiger was forming in the early 1980s, established rules guided the creation and critical evaluation of any logo, layout or motion graphic sequence. Today logos fill a great deal of public space, creating dense patterns of visual consumer static. According to Naomi Klein, there are already ads on benches in national parks as well as on library cards in public libraries, and in December 1998 NASA announced plans to solicit ads on its space stations.3 The intricate process of logo development is the costly foundation of branding/identity design. Once established, a system of rules for type treatment, color use and layout conventions dictate all visual communications within a company or organization.Variation from this approach is uncommon because consistency and reinforcement have been proven to create and solidify identity in the public eye. Once established, it is no small undertaking to change a logo. A recent change in the Gap logo proved this: Gaps expensive new logo change prompted a fury of negative feedback via social media and the new logo was almost immediately discarded. The public depends on graphic language to navigate the media landscape and the corporate structure depends on immediate recognition and association for success. Paper Tigers approach logo development in ways that reference the punk-rock approach of Jamie Reid, designer of many Sex Pistols albums, who in turn was inspired by the simplicity and by whatever means necessary approach of the May 68 Atelier Populare posters4. There is no one logo, or typeface, or layout plan; no singular approach or definitive set of rules. That alone calls into question the prescriptions of design serving a client of corporate interest and an audience of consumers. A delightful journey into style, retro describes one Paper Tiger logo, while machine describes another. One logo looks hand-made and spray-painted and the next rubber-stamped. One speaks to the age of the typewriter, and the next to the age of the abundance of digital typefaces and effects that bend, slant, warp and outline type (fig 1). And, yet they all communicate Paper Tiger.

1 2 3 4

Bennett, Paul A. Postscripts on Dwiggins, 2 vols. New York: Typophiles, 1960 Meggs, Philip B. Meggs History of Graphic Design, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 2012 Klein, Naomi, No Logo, Canada: Knopf Canada, 2000 Cramsie, Patrick, The Story of Graphic Design, New York: Abrams Books, 2010

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Figure 1: Paper Tiger logos

What might begin with a punk-rock-inspired approach to form is enhanced by an engaging and positive approach to process. It is clear that the designers had fun designing, while audiences delight in the many forms and messages within each logotype. Although there are other examples of logos that are rooted in concepts that negate the standard rules of branding by creating changing logos, such as MTV and google, few examples exist of an identification system that is as free-associating as Paper Tiger. This is the authenticity and success of the PTTV strategy. Paper Tiger logos are easily identified and valued by their audiences. The established design community applies the same painstaking process of logo development to symbol and trademark development. A negative identification with a symbol can contaminate the adoption of that symbol by any other group (as seen with the swastika, once used with positive associations by groups including the Celts and Native Americans, now forever tainted with association to Nazism). Symbols are commonly used to communicate authority and power, such as the all-seeing/all-knowing eye in the sky, the CBS trademark designed by William Golden in 1951. Paper Tigers, however, continue their engaging, by all means approach in the design of the beloved tiger mascot, using a postmodern approach that values and emphasizes free association. Past tigers have been made with vintage magazines, trade journals, newspapers, rubber stamps, stencils, spray paints and woodcutting tools in styles that include cartoony, child-like, collage, East Indian and tribal (fig 2). Figure 2: Tiger mascots

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Paper Tiger graphics do resonate with some established design strategies, such as a consistent use of bright color and a purposeful diversion from corporate-speak graphics of the modern landscape. The designs share a common result of being very approachable and tend to combine the retro and the techno (fig 3). With an air of self-reliance, PTTV graphics become a sign system unto themselves and the designers are inventive, not following any formulaic method. The process in place is open, creative and ultimately deeply communicative. Deconstruction, referring to the visual unpacking of the design process, became one popular strategy for postmodern designers and can be seen throughout Paper Tigers aesthetic. Figure 3: The retro and the techno

Combining the various logos and tigers into content-rich layouts further elaborate the punk-rock design sensibilities of Paper Tiger designers. PTTV graphics initially might be appropriated/created from above-mentioned sources, but new graphics have the options to be original designs, or any combination of re-use of the array of past PTTV graphics. Graphic re-use has been used historically for economic savings, from the printer Anton Koberger in the Nuremberg Chronicles in the Middle Ages to the modernist Bradbury Thompson, who reused individual CMYK plates lying around the studio (to save costs), creating stunning layouts that were selfreferential and yet original. Paper Tiger members recycle previous graphics into new treasuresthrift store graphics; recycled, creative, purposely low-brow and genuine (fig 4). Figure 4: Recycling graphics

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Graphic design has historically been defined by the means of production and an unwavering dependence upon technology. Paper Tigers embrace all means and are not limited to any set of tools of production. Technological processes include the analog and the digital, old media such as copy machines and new media, such as early adoption of the web. All processes are accepted as valid and all tools of production contain the potential for a dynamic PTTV message. While some who are versed in a particular technology tend to fetishize and mystify it, Paper Tigers use all means and while doing so, they reveal and demystify the production itself, which in turn encourages others to get involved and make some media of their own. It becomes infectious and (not by accident) ties to the mission of PTTV itself. As the world moves toward template-based design of the digital realm, Paper Tigers will have to decide how to continue to work with a fresh and non-formulaic approach. Primarily focused on video output, the tiger aesthetic translates the still image into motion. Animation and motion graphics are additional essential components of the Paper Tiger media package. As Paper Tigers move graphics from the realm of print to the realm of time-base, the conceptual framework and working processes are applied (fig 5). Figure 5: From print to motion graphics (re-use of woman play-kicking brain)

Another common design theory (battlecry), dating to the architecture of Louis Sullivan in the 1930s, is that of form follows function. Paper Tigers exude this theory, decidedly using a hand-made cranky, functional because it represents the hand-made and DIY approach to making media that is Paper Tiger (fig 6). The graphics even become performative as they move from static to dynamic media. Figure 6: The cranky

It is clear through the work of Paper Tiger that design is not relegated to the inhabitants of the business (or academic) world. Paper Tiger approaches design with wit and possibility. Adding embellishment, creating style that engages Paper Tiger graphics encourage critical thought. The look of Paper Tiger logos, graphics and animation/motion graphics all contribute to a sense of unity and towards the ultimate goal of Paper Tigerto encourage us all to make (y)our own media!

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Paper Tiger Television

Internships
!!! E NOW BL AVAILA
f Tired o o c fe ur cr fffe t osy uooe e p te t e tin t yt kills? nesn h g a i t r si sh aking s m

unable to don that suit ?

EXCIT ING ! ! !
AT PAPER TIGER TELEVISION, YOULL LEARN TO MAKE VIDEOS, NOT PHOTOCOPIES.
Paper Tiger Television is a non-profit volunteer video collective, a pioneer in media criticism since 1981. Weve made over 280 videos about democratic communications, media representation, and the economics of the information industry. Our videos look critically at: sexism and racism in advertising, media censorship, and the politics of the information superhighway. We are looking for dedicated interns to help with the daily functioning of the collective. Responsibilities include cataloging of the video library, filling orders for tape distribution, upkeep of our data base, answering phone calls, and equipment maintenance. Yes, sometimes you will have to make photocopies, but youll also get to participate in our open collective, where youll learn about activist video production, the independent media community, and much more. We
Paper Tiger Television Smashing the Myths of the Information Industry
For more information, visit us on-line at: http://www.papertiger.org 339 Lafayette St. NY, NY 10012 (212) 420-9045, tigertv@bway.net

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Paper Tiger Internship Application Form

Name ____________________________________________________________ Address ___________________________________________________________ Phone _____________________________________________________________ E-mail ______________________________________________________________ College/University __________________________________________________ Year: Freshman Sophomore Junior Senior
(circle one)

Date __________

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(circle all that apply)

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What area(s) are you most interested in pursuing?

Promotion Fundraising Production Workshops Membership Other Outreach Distribution Video Preservation

What would you like most to gain from this position? _______________________________________ _______________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ Other Comments?_____________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ Pop Quiz Please identify these individuals:

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Please return this application with proof of purchase to: Paper Tiger Intern!, 339 Lafayette St. NY, NY 10012

The media industry is a monopoly of big companies driven by profit. So, whats the problem?
In 1983, Ben Bagdikian revealed that the newspaper, book publishing, TV and movie industries were controlled by a total of 50 corporations. Almost 15 years later, that number is less than 20 and decreasing rapidly due to merger mania, especially in broadcasting. The rhetoric surrounding the recent Telecommunications Act told of a wondrous multichannel future, where cable and other providers will offer hundreds of channels. The fact is that a few companies hold inordinate power over what those channels offerin short, hundreds of channels amplify only a few voices. Undue media concentration obliterates the notion that there is a marketplace of ideas where different viewpoints, perspectives, and opinions compete for public attention in the search for truth, for mobilizing public opinion or for empowering citizens to make informed decisions.

What can we do about this?

These people control your airwaves: Isnt it time for a change?

DISNEY/ABC/CAPCITIES
Annual sales (1996): $22 billion Soft money contribution in 1995-6: $1,359,500 (over $1 million to the Democrats) In 1990, ABCs Primetime Live produced Tragic Kingdom, a tough investigative piece on the negative impact of Disneys theme parks on the local communities. Can we expect to ever see such reporting again? It is doubtful. In 1994, ABC bent over backwards to apologize to cigarette manufacturers three times for a news report on the manipulation of nicotine levels in cigarettes. Waving the white flag like this not only compromises ABCs journalistic integrity, it sets a dangerous precedent for other networks as well. Disney exploitation of overseas labor (particularly in Haiti), its appalling labor record here in the U.S., and its monopolistic business practices will likely go unnoticed by ABC News. The historical context here is particularly ironic: In 1966-7, the Justice Department blocked a takeover attempt of ABC by ITT, noting that it could affect ABCs political coverage. At that time, the Disney purchase would certainly have been blocked as well.

NEWSCORP/FOX

Annual sales (1996): $10 billion Soft money contributions in1995-6: $674,700 (the Democrats received $20,000 of this total, and it does not include Murdochs $1 million donation the California GOP) Fox/News Corporation is controlled by Rupert Murdoch. And why not? Murdoch was named UJAs Humanitarian of the Year at a gala event on May 29th. Murdochs achievements are far from humanitarian, though. When the Chinese government complained that BBC programming airing on Ruperts Star TV was focusing on Chinas notorious human rights abuses, Murdochs response was simple- drop BBC from Star TV. Locally, the absence of Murdochs Fox News Channel from the Time/Warner cable franchise was a lesson in city politics. Mayor Guiliani stepped in and threatened to take away Time/Warners franchise agreement unless Murdoch was given a slot. Rudys interest in Murdochs success is not coincidental; Foxs contributions to the Republican Party, along with New York Posts boosterism of Guiliani, make Murdoch as much a political ally as a media mogul. Murdoch doesnt mince words when it comes to using his company and our airwaves to his financial and political advantage: The buck stops on my desk. My editors have input, but I make the final decisions.

GENERAL ELECTRIC/NBC

Annual sales (1996): $5 billion (thats NBC alone; with GE, $80 billion) Soft money contributions in 1995-6: $263,280 (about half to each major party) Only in the world of the Media Moguls would $5 billion in sales be considered below average. Luckily, NBC can rely on General Electric, a key player in the militaryindustrial complex, who make the detonators for nearly all of Americas nuclear bombs. GEs history is littered with convictions, fines, and management practices that should disqualify them from owning a major broadcast network. During WWII, GE was convicted of collaborating with Germanys Krupp Company. In 1961, GE was convicted of price-fixing, bid-rigging, and committing antitrust violations, and paid out a $57 million settlement in addition to a hefty fine. In 1992, GE pleaded guilty to charges of fraud, corruption, and money laundering in the sale of military planes to Israel. Could GEs past affect NBC News? On the Nov. 30, 1989 Today show, GEs name was purposely removed from a segment on substandard products. Faulty bolts made by GE were used to build planes, nuclear missile silos, and NASA space equipment. The 1987 NBC News special Nuclear Power: In France it Works was a poorly disguised promotional film for nuclear power, and hence for GE. Nonetheless, the special aired without any disclaimer concerning GEs ownership of the network. Some viewers were thrilled, though; the following year the documentary won a 1st prize award for science reporting- presented by Westinghouse.

VIACOM

Annual sales (1996): $13 billion Viacoms principal interests lie in the entertainment industry, with the acquisitions of Paramount and Blockbuster in 1994 to compliment their main weapons: MTV and Nickelodeon. Viacoms global strategy is a cross-promotional fantasy: Paramount films can be heavily promoted on MTV, with promotional tie-ins at video stores months later. Such practices, global in scale, encourage the kind of harmless fluff and tabloid-style sleaze that appeals to the lowest common denominator. Viacoms immense holdings turn youth rebellion and music into just another profit center.

TIME/WARNER

Annual sales (1996): $25 billion Soft money contribution in 1995-6: $726,250 (divided equally between the 2 parties) The global strategies of Disney and Viacom pale in comparison to the power and scope of Time/Warner, the largest media corporation in the world. With over 200 subsidiaries (including CNN, HBO, and the WB network), the global plan of Time/Warner relies heavily on television. With the launch of HBO International, global expansion is now HBOs manifest destiny, according to president Jeffery Bewkes. The Time/Warner merger created a media conglomerate with the reach and definition to practically re-define the term monopoly. Nonetheless, the deal went through, thanks to hard lobbying on all fronts. Antitrust laws and public interest considerations were never considered during the nondebate over this media consolidation. Given Warners history of hesitation and censorship, more thought could have been given to this merger. In 1974, Time Inc.s Fortune Book Club dropped a book critical of DuPont, fearing the company would pull substantial magazine advertising. The preceding year, Ed Herman and Noam Chomskys Counter-Revolutionary Violence was canceled by a subsidiary of Warner Communications, and the 10,000 printed copies were destroyed. Ted Turners recent gift to the Untied Nations is yet another example of his giving spirit; in 1993 he donated money to Bob Packwoods legal defense, causing a protest amongst staffers at CNNs Washington bureau.

CBS/WESTINGHOUSE

Annual sales (1996): $5 billion Soft money contributions in1995-6: $177,925 (Over $140,000 to the GOP) Westinghouse and General Electric together are the Pepsi and Coke of the nuclear industry. Obviously, Westinghouses relatively puny sales totals for the year make them the most diminutive of the media moguls. Nonetheless, 40% of the worlds nuclear plants use Westinghouse engineering ,and the company relies heavily on their waste disposal investments (nuclear or otherwise) to pull in profits. Another network dominated by nuclear interests? Westinghouses corporate interest are not only in plant engineering and waste: Westinghouse is one of the top government contractors for nuclear weapons and weapons facilities- many of them with horrible pollution records. It doesnt end there. ABCs tobacco problems became an issue for CBS recently, when 60 Minutes was ordered to kill an interview with a whistleblower

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NEW YORK FREE MEDIA ALLIANCE

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NEW YORK FREE MEDIA ALLIANCE VOICEMAIL: (212) 969-8636 WEB SITE: http://artcon.rutgers.edu/papertiger/nyfma

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Join the Protest: March on the Media Moguls Disarm the Moguls and their Weapons of Mass Distraction

Revised route 10/16/97

VIACOM, 1515 Broadway near 45th Street DISNEY, 42nd Street and 7th Avenue NEWS CORP, 48th Street and 6th Avenue TIME WARNER, 1271 6th Avenue Museum of TV and Radio CBS, 6th Avenue and 52st Street NBC, 1230 6th Avenue at 49th Street

Thursday October 16th Meet at 4:30 pm March at 5:00

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MEDIA FOR CHANGE

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NEW YORK FREE MEDIA ALLIANCE

)) CHANGING THE MEDIA

VOICEMAIL: (212) 969-8636 WEB SITE: http://artcon.rutgers.edu/papertiger/nyfma

What is your name? The close relation and care among members and their openmindedness to welcome all people that want to join them.
That sometimes it seemed that nobody in America ever heard of Paper Tiger, but then a Japanese film crew would come along and it turned out they knew all about us! It was also amazing having Berit Bua there, an anthropologist form Norway. We should get her the survey! It was amazing to witness myself, and ourselves, as objects of study. Super meta-meta.

One of the best experiences I had working with Paper Tiger was when

One of the most important things I learned at Paper Tiger was

Jimmy Choi Kam Chuen

Hong Kong

the whole process like making a programme against the Somali invasion and other activities such as a summer break at Dee Dees house.

Randi Cecchine New York

I went to Cuba! That was amazing. Thanks to Dee Dee for pushing that one. I also got to travel a lot to ACM and other kinds of conferences. I loved meeting people, connecting with other organizations, letting people know what we were up to. That was the best part of the job!

Felicia Sullivan Boston, Mass

I got involved with the Gulf War TV series and the public screens of those.

that things didnt have to be perfect and the process was important.

pete tridish

Where are you now Pete? Philly & beyond.

mike eisenmenger really helped prometheus radio project launch. when we were still beginning, before we had had any real successes, paper tiger fiscal sponsored us and mike even wrote our first grant. he had no way of knowing what prometheus would become, but he gave a lot of time to supporting our movement and helping us get our selves organized

Mary Feaster New York City

I have fond memories of sitting at the office well into the night putting together one of the first cat-a-logs, mass mailings of the schedule, our show at the Whitney Museum, the Wexner Center in Ohio - every cranky I ever made!

I learned a lot - technically, politically, socially. It would be difficult to pin point one thing.

jesikah maria ross

Davis, CA

How powerful we can be as an organized group using media to reach out and involve others (pre-internet!). How humor and hope play an important role in media activism and should not be underestimated or left aside in the production and outreach process.

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One of the most important things I learned at Paper Tiger was
.

What is your name?

One of the best experiences I had working with Paper Tiger was when

Nathalie Magnan

Paris, France

we did the show with Donna Haraway and UCSC history of consciousness grad students. and baby SM with martha, but dear Ill need to go back to it later, how do I do this ... thanks nat

Sarah Lewison you know where i am! Carbondale, IL

oh my god this is long!! i guess producing one of our pieces where we had someone on a step machine on top of a car in downtown san francisco- hilarious..

thinking through how to tell a story

Luhuna Carvalho

Patricia and I finally started to share gossip

too many to choose

you know where to reach me

Portugal

Patricia Gonzlez Ramrez

to learn how to work with people I might not even like. Patience. collective process.

Brooklyn, NY

we did the little mermaid sing a long. I havent laughed so much in a while! The entire thing was hilarious and frankly I dont even know how we got trough it since everybody was laughing their faces away and at times not even looking at monitors/ control room gadgets (oops! dont tell MNN)

Nadia Mohamed

Many! Lots of laughs and fun before, during, after meetings.

New York City

The rare occasions when I was able to help others (mainly, Lily) with techy stuff. In most circles, I am known to be kryptonite to anything electronic.

How to work in a collective; how to take initiative and responsibility.

What is your name? One of the most important things I learned at Paper Tiger was

One of the best experiences I had working with Paper Tiger was when

Carlos Pareja New York City .Making

Reuniting with my life partner, Jennifer Whitburn, who was a collective member at the same time I was. We are both city kids, raised in 1970s and 1980s NYC, and although we met briefly when we were adolescents we connected again at Paper Tiger.

media is every bit a process as it is an end product.

Pennee Bender New York City

We organized the first Deep Dish series and so many people, reached out to so many varied constituencies to involve them in the production and everyone worked together to pull it off.

Always remain open to the serendipitous

Denise Gaberman

NSW, Australia

We brought a bunch of young people from various youth media groups (and our own youth media group-Green Chimmneys) to the WTO protest in DC and reported on the youth of colour or lack of at the protest which was included in the Breaking the Bank video. It was intense week of work for everyone involved but what an experience of going to a huge protest with young media makers that never had that experience before. And also being involved in the rather new Indymedia centers that Paper Tiger help support.

I learned how to teach young people production skills and still do to this day! I am so thankful for the opportunity to facilitate the youth media projects for Fenced Out and Homecoming Queens.

At my first collective meeting I signed up to work on a show-they put a camera in my hand and told me to shoot. I was so scared but excited to not have to go to university again to learn all thisof course it took awhile before I could hold the camera steady!

jennifer whitburn

media activism is needed for social change

Brooklyn, NY

close call.. either when we danced and stired the pot with the green chimneys crew or seeing elicia torrez from 7th street / esperanza garden see herself in the play for keeps when we finally finished it..

Lauren-Glenn Davitian Burlington, VT

Meeting Dee Dee and Diana in 1985 at Temple University. They opened the door that I dreamed of.

how powerful cheap media can be.

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One of the most important things I learned at Paper Tiger was
Working with a group of people. Also organizing video workshops for youth at Satellite academy and making tapes with students from Ramapo College in New Jersey about the Iran Contra Affair, were the first classes I taught. The experience at Paper Tiger TV gave me confidence to speak in public and to moderate group discussion. I learned about broadcasting albeit in a funky way, and editing and so much more.

What is your name?

One of the best experiences I had working with Paper Tiger was when

Jamie McClelland New York City

We responded to 9/11 with a huge live show that brought together loads of people.

Simin Minou Farkhondeh

New York City

I loved organizing the group photos every so often that we took at the office. That image of everyone goofing around in front of the camera is sweet.

The activism we were engaged during the struggle to improve our public access station at the time was amazing. In order to make it a visually interesting public event as we spoke out against Time/Warner we made these large, colorful video cameras and wore them in the street action. It was empowering to be able to use a literal soap box to make our voices heard.

Kathleen Hulser

You can do it, if you just go ahead and do it.

New York City

Production meetings in my living room, where everyone pitched ideas, we freely and recklessly altered the script, mere minutes before going out to shoot, while making sandwiches for our own in-house catering service.

Adriene Jenik

Phoenix, AZ

Working on the Martha Rosler Reads the Strange Case of Baby S/M we had an amazingly rich reading group of texts from news, science, analysis, and everything else on surrogacy and infertility clinics. This was all rather new at the time (mid-1980s) and the group of women tigers of all ages and class backgrounds that came together to try and grapple with the original text that Martha Rosler wrote and the issue was very memorable. I remember a late night argument with Martha Rosler when Cathy Scott and i were doing the final cut of the piece and Martha was insisting that Cathy and I break out our credit to reflect the significant work we had done, but we both felt very strongly that everyone that had contributed should be listed as usual - in a big list, no matter how large or small the contribution.

It is amazing what a group of people can do when they have a collective purpose! I really valued the amazing experiences of seeing pieces come together and take shape with a variety of voices not arguing for control, but trying to make the best piece. Organizing around a main point a spokesperson was making helped focus people alot, as did the early hour limit (30 mins setup, 30 mins onair) at the first studio. I learned that I love the energy and comradarie of live media making - a love that continues to this day.

Jesse Drew Davis, CA

We all traveled to LA for the international video awards event and AFI. Very fun to live/work together in that pressure cooker.

Collaboration! Maintaining your principles and sharing work and life.

The following questionnaire was filled out by current members of Paper Tiger TV for a book documenting the Congress of the Collectives, a month-long series of interlocking events through NYC in the fall of 2011. It provides a way to make the CofC more than a one-time event in a set location but a meaningful tool, source of inspiration and support mechanism to everyone interested in and/or participating in collective activities.

Congress of the Collectives QUESTIONAIRRE

Name: Paper Tiger TV Current location: New York, NY Questions: 1. What constitutes a collective? How would you describe your collective, what differentiates it from a collaboration or other group structure? A collective is a group of people working together motivated by a larger mission. If there was a spectrum with informal collaboration at one end, and formal group structure at the other, our collective would be somewhere in the middle. To us, a collaboration is highly project-based and subsequently, fixed in time. While a collective is an ongoing group structure which changes with different members and projects but remains true to a mission and identity. Our collective is amorphous--were a group of people- working together to produce video. Over the course of 30 years the size and makeup of our collective has changed but the ideals have stayed much the same. In speaking to formerly active members, working in the collective in the early 1980s was very different experience from what it is now. Production/creation coalesced around weekly live or live-to-tape public access TV shows. This created a regular structure for collective members and weekly presenters to plug into and natural deadlines. Each show was a collaboration with the presenter- usually an academic, activist or artist who deconstructed or provided a deep critique of the mainstream media. While live/live to tape shows created in collaboration with others are still a part of our creative practice, we also create more traditional style documentaries with extended post-production editing. Many of the production ideas come from within the collective and videos are a collaboration among collective members rather than outside organizations or presenters. 2. Membership of the collective? How is the membership of the collective structured? Does this include regular members and project specific members? Are these members in different locations? If so what hierarchies does this create? Paper Tiger Television is an open collective. People interested in joining the collective usually get an orientation to learn about Paper Tiger and current projects. They are invited to join our internal listserv and attend weekly meetings. Regular membership generally translates into attending meetings and working on projects. Generally, members are in NYC-- though wed like to explore ways for people in other locations to become more thoroughly involved. There are classic tigers , some of whom no longer live in NYC, but have been involved with the collective from the very beginning, or at least a very long time. They are mentor figures who remain in contact with the collective through email and our collective listserv. They advise the collective, remind us of our past and participate in certain projects-- like our upcoming 30th anniversary celebration. More active members create natural hierarchies-- wherever knowledge is concentrated, there is a power differential. Members who come to meetings and work on projects have more power because they are the ones doing stuff. Those who dont attend meetings and only communicate through the email have less power as they can only suggest that others do stuff.

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Throughout most of the collectives history there has been a paid staff person who handles the day-to-day administrative work of coordinating the office. This person has usually been responsible for distribution and outreach work. There have been various points in time where the collective has experimented with running the collective without a staff person. Generally, the consensus from these experiments is that having a structure that depends on volunteers to do the less sexy work (read:general administrative tasks) inhibits the amount of creative production and fun stuff. Nevertheless, in order to be more stable and less dependent on a staff person ( and subsequently outside funding) we are exploring ways for the collective members to help more regularly with those necessary tasks. 3. What would a collective do? Why do you choose to work collectively, what does it allow you to do that would not otherwise occur? We chose to work collectively because it enables us to experience media making in different ways-- less professionalized, less compartmentalized. A collective structure encourages people to constantly be teaching and learning from each other. Rather than keeping expertise, or individual identity, we are a part of larger identity, which allows ideas and experiences to expand in ways that typical more hierarchically organized structures hinder. Because there are no formalized roles when we make video, there is no single cinematographer, producer, director, editor etc, we experience media making as more fluid and flexible. Producing video is traditionally a very hierarchical process. By challenging not only the content of the mainstream media, but also the process and form, we seek to break the dominance of traditional corporate media. 4. How does the collective operate? What forms of coordination and decision-making structure the working of the collective, what types of interaction, participation or other forms of exchange allow the collective to work together? Is the collective location or venue specific? We aim to be non-hierarchical and decisions are made by consensus. Coordination and decision making can be a longer process than in other structures. Regular Wednesday meetings are generally the time when we make decisions about what projects to embark on and discuss collective tasks, but the listserv can also be a space to share information and perspectives. Project specific decisions generally are made in separate meetings of the smaller project groups--and then shared with the larger collective for feedback. Anything that needs to be cleared by the collective--use of equipment, money expenditures-- are discussed through email or at meetings. We try to have retreats twice a year to spend one or two days exploring larger ideals and goals, as meetings often focus on the day to day operations and specific projects or problems. When big difficult decisions have to be made we sometimes call separate meetings to just focus on the issue at hand. Paper Tiger has long had its headquarters in Soho/Nolita area of Manhattan. This central location provides a regular place to meet, edit, administrate, hangout and often functions as a mini TV studio and craft space. It has been a stronghold of the organization for 28 of 30 years. Although at times it is a financial burden and seems stagnant and cluttered with old junk, most of the time it provides a stable, comfortable home for the collective. 5. The individual vs. the collective Does the collective replace the individual? What is the position of the individual within the collective, and how does individual will relate to the collective will of the group? Paper Tiger is bigger than the sum of its individual members. Over the years it had developed a identity of its own that is quite distinct. Individual members relate to the collective will by the strength of the powerful identity that is Paper Tiger. An irreverent look at the power structures that dominate corporate media, treating everyone equally in the production process regardless of their skills or experience, and playfulness with which the collective can be seen experimenting with video-- these are all long time distinctive features that have been with the collective since the beginning. As members change, the collective changes depending on individual interests, but we are always operating under a larger umbrella of the collective identity and history, for better or worse. The collective is a supportive group

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to work within rather than an entity that flexes its will on individual members. We make a point not to attribute productions to individuals by title/role and first and foremost attribute productions to the collective as a whole. Individuals are free to try on different hats, take the lead or be an assistant, and defer to the wisdom of the group when feeling overwhelmed as an individual. 6. The collective as artwork Does the collective exist as an artwork in itself, or only as a means to produce something other than itself? Getting people to work together collectively (and voluntarily) while experimenting with organizational structures while producing anything is a challenge and accomplishment. As an artwork? Not sure. But it is definitely a structure worth admiring and experiencing. It is an evolving creative process which continually refines and shifts as members move on to other projects, or new members join. It helps us see ourselves and our relationship to others in new ways. 7. The collectives social position How is the collective (and what it produces) positioned in relation to the social, political, economic or philosophical situation? By collectively creating media that is critical of media, yet fun and engaging, Paper Tiger challenges the social, political, economic and philosophical assumptions of the capitalist system perpetuated through corporate media. Our manifesto from 1981 sums it up pretty well: Paper Tiger Television is a video collective. We look at the communications industry via the media in all its forms. The power of mass culture rests on the trust of the public. This legitimacy is a paper tiger. Investigation into the corporate structures of the media and critical analysis of their content is one way to demystify the information industry. Developing a critical consciousness about the information industry is a necessary first step towards democratic control of information resources. 8. The collectives relationship to an audience Does the collective have more than one type of relationship to audiences, either as audiences, participants or collaborators? Paper Tiger exists to encourage people to be the media-- which is fundamentally a challenge to media outlets that encourage a producer-consumer relationship in regards to their audience. Moreover, our interactive screenings and events are an opportunity to engage our audience and make them participants and collaborators rather than merely spectators.

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Paper Tiger as a Free School Part I

things I learned from being in Paper Tiger, or preliminary notes for a media arts activism class by Sarah Lewison

Course type: Combined seminar and practice. Subtitle? histories, theories and practices of activist and engaged media. For: Graduate and undergraduate students from across the campus. Allow people in who are not officially students of the university? Structure: Think of as a collectively organized study group. How to reflect, restrain or modulate or amplify my role as teacher? Personal preference: Avoid working on the electoral process! Boring! Location: Meet in caf? Sessions should have content at the center: What is important to the collective members? What pisses them off and needs to be addressed? What urgency is there? What are the histories- past, present, speculative futures of these issues? Why are they significant and for whom? In what ways do the urgent needs and problems (of the collective members) have emergent potential to connect and form solidarities with others? What others? What kinds of different analysis do these contingencies contribute? Use the class to create encounters. Could it be assigned through a self-directed and collaborative process? What about obligatory readings so we are all informed by the same history? Is there a canon? Do we need to have it? Do we need to have one because we are doing this in a university? Arent there multiple histories of resistance? Research (Reading and Writing) Reading could all be based in developing an understanding of the above. Research can be conducted in the classroom, web and library but also in the city: Go to people and find out what they know, how have they survived, meet people we do not know. Writing is for personal development, and toward the production of public documents. Writing is part of a process of inching toward forms of analysis that can be used personally, Discussions can be guided toward answering the above questions. Use the readings of those we know as much as possible. See if we can get them to read their readings on camera. There should be some form of collective note taking. How? Videotaping? Whiteboard? Minutes? Do I have to make sure this is happening? Production: What will we do with this information? What will we make? There should be stakes; some kind of outlet beyond the walls of school where voices from the class might reach someone for whom this information and creative expression will be valuable. The point is to reach others. How will we get equipment for this class? Things we might look at Movements that have changed the discussion or kept it going all these years: US civil rights movements, and organizations that produce their own strategic media; Panthers, WEAP (Oakland; Womans Economic Agenda Project), and the Peoples Tribune, both associated with the Poor Peoples Movement. Art and Activism in the past Benjamin, Author as Producer, Gene Ray, Art Schools Burning; Ranciere, Aesthetics and Politics, Courbets Letters during Paris Commune, Early mass production/Daumier; Delacroix / Blake (Romantic); Dada, Heartfield, Futurism, Film and Photo Leagues, Rivera/Orozco (as described by Brian)(WPA?) Paris/France strike; Artworkers Coalition, Raindance, ACTUP, Queer Nation, Carol Leigh, collectivization and Avant Garde. Exercise: Re-imagining/redefining media, art, activism; starting from where we are

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Media Self-Determination and DIY Communication rights as a social and economic issue: The airwaves are taken up by commercial messages that engineer mass disempowerment. What means are used to create accessible platforms? Community Media/ Guerilla Media/Pirated Media Low power FM movement, Tetsuo Kogawa, Prometheus, youth pedagogy, collectivized media literacy practices (Paper Tiger TV; Media Mobilizing project; Allied Media Conference), in art: Culture in Action Exercise: Acquire lpfm radio transmitter and make decisions about deployment: better, find someone to teach us how to build it. Question of definitions: media, art, activism: to me, mycelia of fungi are a medium, as is air and water. Something that looked just only content becomes carrier. Strategies and Tactics (a couple weeks perhaps) Read De Certeau- The Perruque, and Strategies and Tactics. Locate case histories we can describe as tactical vs strategic approaches for putting message into the public sphere. What kinds of intentions, demands, pressures do these create in addressing injustice or in calling for social transformation. Questions of scale and subjectivity: Fereshi Toosis work, Processed World Magazine. Story-based strategy (Doyle Canning and Patrick Reinsborough)/smart-memes; a short book that reassesses Seattle 1999, building out of it a strategy based on narrative production by activists. Used in ongoing Baltimore human rights campaign. Tactical media art Thinking about scales. Ways of imagining and intervening in the public sphere. Readings on public sphere (Fraser?) Hersheys summer workers video. Making or imaginging demands. Media as call and response.Yes Men. Infiltration, Intervention, Direct Action Make a subcategory to talk about multiplying impacts? Yes Men, Pie Fight 69, Ztohoven, Plane Stupid Exercise: download website and appropriate Audiences Circulation and distribution- talk about more Paper Tiger TV, public access, Alexandra Juhasz, (Media Praxis/Scale), social media, intervention/interruption Research Collectives and think tanks: Activist think tanks that research collectively and integrate a range of media strategies, from social media to webbased platforms to live intervention to distributed pedagogy: Situationist International, Platform London, Deriva de Las Precarias, Case St, Edu-factory,Yes Men/ Yes Lab,the Center for Artistic Activism. Exercise: develop a research based campaign and a form for deployment. Media as info-graphics: mapping, and web-based tools for aggregating and visualizing public research and knowledge (Josh On: They Rule). -Ursula Biemann, Shiloh Kapur, Amy Balkin and other individuals Storytelling and narrative forms of advocacy Expository documentary, WPA films, Visual Voices, Greg Bordowitz, radio, Invisible 5 This Black Soil, Michael Moore and spectacular investigation Problematics Who speaks for whom etc.?

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Possible Readings Andors, Ellen, The Task of Activist Media Benjamin, Author as Producer Bloom, Brett and Ava Bromberg, Belltown Paradise and Making their Own Plans. (New York) White Walls 2004. BLW, I have to tell you something.. in JOAAP Boggs, Grace Lee and James Boggs; selected readings on Detroit Boyd, Andrew, Truth is a Virus; Meme Warfare and Billionaires against Bush. Boyd, Andrew. Activist Cookbook, Canning, Doyle and Patrick Reinsborough Re:imagining change: an introduction to story-based strategy Cieri, Marie, Activists Speak Out, ED. Macmillan, 2001. Cohen-Cruz, Jan. Ed. Radical Street Performance: An International Anthology, De Certeau the perruque practice of everyday life; tactics v strategies. Deriva de las Precarias. First Stutterings of Precaria a la Derivas Duncombe, Stephen Dream (selections) and Grand Theft Auto the Game Freire, Paolo. The Act of Study Group Material. Education and Democracy Who Cares Show and Tell Hakim Bey, excerpts, Temporary Autonomous Zone Harvey, David. A Difference a Generation Makes and Uneven geographical developments and universal rights in Spaces of Hope. Berkeley: University of California Press. 2000. Holmes, Brian, The Flexible Personality and other readings Kester Grant, Conversation Pieces, Kopechne, Teresa. This Black Soil. a story of resistance and rebirth.Video. 58 min. 2004. Lippard, Lucy. Time Capsule, Art and Social Change A Critical Mark P. Petracca. Elections offer only an illusion of participation Moore and Sholette, Collectivism After Modernism, Patomki, Heikki and Teivo Teivainen, The World Social Forum: An Open Space or a Movement of Movements? Raley, Rita. Tactical Media, excerpts (Virtual War and tbd) Ray, Gene. Art Schools Burning Shepard, Benjamin and Ronald Hayduk, ed. From Act Up to the WTO: Urban Protest and Community Building in the Era of Globalization Situationist International on detournement Stevens and Conley, Build a Bigger House Uezelman, Scott. Hard at Work in the Bamboo Grove in Autonomous Media Activating Resistance & Dissent Rules of thumb: Remember the separation between academy and outside is constructed; aim to destabilize that boundary, while enjoying the resources. Work collectively, which means figuring out what that means; attempt horizontality. Keep antennas up for disinformation and misinformation. Keep aware of our various desires, wants and needs as well as our potential audiences. Dismantle, critically, carefully, distinctions of professional and amateur. Do things that we dont know exactly how to do, even if we dont know what is going to happen. Draw on institutions for resources. Explore all disciplines that are interesting to us. Footnote: In 1992, Dee Dee Halleck came out to San Francisco to organize an exhibition/installation at the San Francisco Art Institute. My first involvement with Paper Tiger was through that show, and by the next year, a group of us, all women, took on a series of videos addressing gender, power, and feminism. This was in 1993 or so. It was our observation that peoples political identities were quickly being hijacked and appropriated as commodities; this was particularly explicit in the way that pseudo-feminist discourses were inserted into ads targeting women. We made three videotapes; I mention two here for the way they turned the identity discourses of the time

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aside, and struck out to address issues of class and economic subjugation instead. Sisterhood TM explicitly addressed uneven income distribution. For the most part, sadly, the tape still stands up, except for a weak ending that offered up EMILYs list- a political fundraising organization, as an example of collectively aggregated power without elucidating the connection between reproductive choice and economic stability.

Better I think was our targeting of clothing manufacturers with the suggestion, directed to female consumers- to not shop if its a sweat shop. The depth of inadequacy in addressing labor injustice that we felt then was somewhat ameliorated by making and distributing a video, but I also remember how hard it was to find a positive ending for that piece. The other tape I like from that series was illustratively called Wired for Action: Activist Womens Organizations Jammin the Media. It opens on an interview with Ethel Long Scott introducing the Womens Economic Agenda Project, which works for economic justice for women and for all poor people, by organizing from, as she put it, the bottom of the political ladder.

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For Tigers: What did you like and/or dislike about the collective structure of Paper Tiger TV?
I worked with it for a short period between 1993 and 1994. I like the atmosphere and my comment on collective can be applied equally to Paper Tiger. Good question. I think the attempt at a non-hierarchical system is often a flawed attempt. There is always hierarchy. People with more experience should be listened to for their wisdom. People with less experience should be listened to as well, everyone should be respected, but there is nothing wrong in acknowledging the relative strengths, experience and weakness of ourselves and others. If the power positions are not recognized and named, they will continue non-theless, simply with no official recognition. Better to get it all out in the open! I only worked with Paper Tiger briefly in conjunction with the DCTV space. Being that place that didnt have too many barriers to get involved was important.

What is your name?

Have you ever been in a collective (other than Paper Tiger TV)? If yes, what was that like for you?

Jimmy Choi Kam Chuen

Hong Kong

Yes, I initiated and co-founded the first video activist collective ---videopower in Hong Kong in 1989 and am now working with the second video activist collective --- v-artivist on Hong Kong Social Movement Film Festival. Collective has no leader and is loosely organised. It may be less efficient but the relationship among memebers are more affective, humane, and suffers less from power fight.

Randi Cecchine New York

It wasnt a collective, but I was making a documentary with a group of political street performers called the Missile Dick Chicks who had a very similar political viewpoint. The Missile Dick Chicks were seasoned activists who were tired of going to meetings and decided instead to sing and dance on the streets. It was nice not to have a lot of meetings, and things got done anyway. It was usually a strong personality who pushed something through, and sometimes it was unpleasant. But that was the case at paper tiger as well.

Felicia Sullivan Boston, Mass

Many. Challenge always to keep the energy and enthusiasm up and preventing burnout. Finding ways to constantly bring people in as a way to to maintain and sustain the endeavor. Lack of coordination or a core who kept things going always a struggle. Keeping that culture of openness and welcome sometimes hard. Really destructive individuals can take root if there are not those to counter them.

Mary Feaster New York City

No, but I have been in bands for many years, some more collective than others - at certain times I found my experiences in PTTV to be helpful, for example in decision making processes.

I liked how we worked together on everything from smaller projects/ shows to the bigger installations we did. Sometimes having to sit down and hash out an issue could be frustrating when you just wanted to move ahead with something but in the end it was worth doing.

What is your name?

Have you ever been in a collective (other than Paper Tiger TV)? If yes, what was that like for you?

For Tigers: What did you like and/or dislike about the collective structure of Paper Tiger TV?

DIANA CAROLINA BERMUDEZ S.

no, I would love to belong to one.

Colombia ?

pete tridish

Where are you now Pete? Philly & beyond.

ive been in a lot of collectives, most prominently prometheus radio project.

collectives are fantastic for leadership development and training and accomplishing certain types of tasks. they tend to do best among relatively homogenous groups of like minded individuals- real, serious diversity ( more than just benetton advertisement level diversity) and collectives dont always work out as well as we might wish they would. they are very difficult when the collective has to interface with normal institutions of power and regular market forces. people often walk into collectives thinking that they will solve all the problems of power and alienation. that is not true at all- in fact, instead of having one boss who may or may not be mean or incompetent or whatever--- in a collective you generally end up with 7 or 10 bosses, and at least a few of them are likely to be mean!!!

Chris Rob Pembroke Pines, FL

Yes. The work produced was much better than what I could imagine on my own. It is frustrating come to consensus and progressing efficiently at times.

jesikah maria ross

nope, havent done it

Davis, CA

I was a very peripheral tiger--heading up some distribution and networking efforts throughout California. not sure i qualify, though i attended some NYC meetings and worked closely with several tigers.
At the time i work with Pttv, it was ponctual, a lot of fun and savy, what else do you need ;-) We could have been a tad better at technical issues and pay more attention to form, but fast and dirty was the mode wasnt it. The constant emergency mode isnt sustainable.

Nathalie Magnan

Paris, France

always, the most challenging is to be able to work collectively.

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For Tigers: What did you like and/or dislike about the collective structure of Paper Tiger TV? wasnt always as democratic feeling as I would have expected.. but that was just the personalities i think uff complex and cant really answer right now
Collectives are great in theory, but in practice working with people that you do not know or might even have much in common with in a collective can be hard. I am personally all for collectives and other organizational models such as cooperatives for all forms of collaborations, from artists, to businesses. It is one of the few ways I could imagine, to start building towards making this world a better place since it puts in practice equality of individuals. Long term it works, since you will only see after you have built with others the value of what you did, not only for doing it, but how you did it: anyone can make a video, and any traditional production crew can make a video, but not everyone can make a video within a collective structure as it is a challenge to the ways we have been traditionally been taught to navigate in society: hierarchical. Being in a collective is great when brainstorming ideas, getting feedback and learning/sharing skill sets. Learning with and through other people is perhaps one of the most rewarding aspects of being part of paper tiger. Being in a collective can be difficult when organizing who/how/when the unsexy administrative stuff needs to get done. I think this is especially difficult for this wave of tigers, living in one of the most expensive cities in the world in an age of chronic underemployment and lower wages. Balancing work life and volunteer time at Paper Tiger can be difficult, especially if you have to divide the 10 hours a week you can dedicate to Paper Tiger between grant writing, attending meetings and making media.

What is your name?

Have you ever been in a collective (other than Paper Tiger TV)? If yes, what was that like for you?

Sarah Lewison you know where i am! Carbondale, IL

yes, most challenging is keeping it together over space.

Luhuna Carvalho

lots of them

you know where to reach me

Portugal

hidden hierarchies vs effectiveness serious discussion vs conformity to a party/ideological/ aesthetic line militancy versus pleasure in doing things the activist ghetto versus the conformist boredom

Patricia Gonzlez Ramrez

Brooklyn, NY

I was not in a self-described collective before paper tiger. although I have been part of other groups with horizontal structures

Nadia Mohamed

I have not been in another collective

New York City

What is your name? For Tigers: What did you like and/or dislike about the collective structure of Paper Tiger TV?

Have you ever been in a collective (other than Paper Tiger TV)? If yes, what was that like for you?

Carlos Pareja New York City

No, although I just became a member of the leadership committee for Mayfirst/Peoplelink, the radical technology collective.

My experiences with the collective structure at PTTV was generally positive. I appreciated that everyone had input in the decision-making process and could influence production projects and other collective work. However, because of deadlines or other time-sensitive demands, decisions were sometimes made that precluded collective consensus. In addition, within this loose structure it often seemed the same collective members stepped up when grant proposals and reports were due, meeting notes had to be taken or logs of talking head footage needed to be transcribed. It was a challenge keeping collective members accountable to the collectives work and not burn out the the more active tigers. I was active in the earliest years and the collective energy of putting on the live shows was great because it allowed room for many types of creativity.

Pennee Bender New York City

Ive been involved with a range of collective endeavors and usually find the process very fulfilling with the biggest challenge being fairness and patience with the decision -making process.

Denise Gaberman

No

NSW, Australia

I think we struggled to get younger people that did not have the University education involved and to stay involved. Especially when meetings were a set time every week where most people (younger people) could not attend. I think when we expanded to do youth trainings we changed that a bit, but it was frustrating.

Dee Dee Halleck Willow, NY

In the seventies I worked with three collectives: Image Union was a group of video activists in the seventies. It was creative and inspiring to work with such a group. We covered the 1976 conventions and election. Then I worked with Shirley Clarkes Tee Pee Video Space Troupe. exhilerating! challenging. communications update was a sort of collective founded by Liza Bear. Paper Tiger grew from that work. We made a series for access in manhattan.

jennifer whitburn

Brooklyn, NY

besides PTTV I have been involved with more gardens and times up collectives.. collective structure takes time and this is challenging in nyc where rents are high. open collective structures allow people to be involved in a fluid, organic manor where they can focus on a project intensely, learn, share and more on allowing the next generation to continue and grow.

open collective structures allow people to be involved in a fluid, organic manor where they can focus on a project intensely, learn, share and more on allowing the next generation to continue and grow. it works when you are focused on a project and driven my social issues you are passionate about.

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For Tigers: What did you like and/or dislike about the collective structure of Paper Tiger TV?
I liked that it made it easy for new people to participate and that it was consistent with PTTVs philosophy on making media - that we dont need a top down structure, that we can produce media in a collaborative way that builds organizing. This approach is really transformative and powerful. It was difficult to integrate new people who were not comfortable in the collective social scene, since the informal consensus process was largely based on social relations and it was not always clear how to get decisions made. Working collectively was difficult as most are not used to working in this way. It was refreshing to work all together and try to give each job the same hierarchy and importance as the other. When I first arrived at Paper Tiger TV, this way of working together was very present. Everyone who was involved in a production would have their name on the end of the show regardless of what they had done. This seemed to change towards the end of my active membership at Paper Tiger. We were trying to challenge the art world idea of the artist as single genius and worker, and wanted to emphasize the importance of every Tigers work. This was challenging to the world outside. Again and again places that invited us wanted to know a single name associated with the work. Inside the collective that was challenging too. The consensus model used for meetings during the time I was at PTTV was satisfying at times, but it could take a long time for decisions to be made. Patience was necessary. I started with Paper Tiger in the summer of 1987 and ended active membership in 1992 I believe. During those years I spend most of my week at PTTV and certainly every Wednesday was spent at the office. For two years during that time I acted as collective liaison working in the office. This used to be a position that rotated, since it was the only position that had an honorarium in place so people could get paid a little for their work.

What is your name ?

Have you ever been in a collective (other than Paper Tiger TV)? If yes, what was that like for you?

Lauren-Glenn Davitian

Deep Dish TV. Not enough training about how to work in this sphere.

Jamie McClelland

New York City

Yes. I was a co-founder of the May First Technology Collective, which existed from 1999 - 2005 (it later merged with People Link to form May First/People Link which is not a collective, its a membership-based organization).

The experience of being in a collective was very satisfying from a workers perspective. However, it contributed to us approaching the organization as a business (essentially it was a consulting firm that provided tech support to nonprofits). As a way to make a living it was great, but as a political project, the consensus-decision making process made our decisions more conservative and self-preserving and less outward-looking.

Simin Minou Farkhondeh

New York City

What is your name?

Have you ever been in a collective (other than Paper Tiger TV)? If yes, what was that like for you?

For Tigers: What did you like and/or dislike about the collective structure of Paper Tiger TV?

Kathleen Hulser

New York City

Yes. several. Frustrating because hard to get much done. Very slow going. Great people, ineffective work structure.

Loved working with people. I would never have done the shows without it. Difficult when I realized that I was so outspoken, I had offended others without realizing it. duh.

Adriene Jenik

Phoenix, AZ

Deep Dish TV Collective, Screambox Zine collective, San Diego IndyMedia Collective

I liked everything about it - really. I thought the open structure was brilliant and allowed the collective to continue for the 30 years it has and grow and continue to reflect the members interests and commitments. I liked especially the way that we (at least when I as involved) rotated roles in the shows and also the amount of teaching and learning new things that occurred. The amount of debate that occurred around shows is memorable. I found unequal skills and levels of leadership led to some problems sometimes. The tension between getting the work done and trying to be overly-democratic. On the other hand, mutual help and support is/was invaluable.

Jesse Drew Davis, CA

Sure, many. Right now Im more in a family structure which is sometimes difficult enough to handle. Ive lived in urban and rural communes that required a strong commitment to collective living and practice.

Lisa Rudman Oakland, CA

. Yes a femninist anti-imperialist collective. Supporting leadership even when being a leader is something everyone is learning to be...Clear roles and responsibilties --i dot think a collective means everybody knows every detail of everythinga sn each detail has to be decided via consensus :-) Most fulfilling is being fully alive, engaged...not thinking oh thats just the way its done here (by someone else).

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The Grassroots Video Pioneers

http://www.brooklynrail.org/2007/05/express/video by Dara Greenwald
Ed.s note:The following is adapted from Dara Greenwalds chapter in Realizing the Impossible: Art Against Authority, edited by Josh MacPhee and Erik Reuland, which was recently published by AK Press. Images of street medics with home-made red crosses adorning their clothes, protest marching bands, cops in riot gear, tear gas in the streets; ideas and practices of decentralized organizations, anti-copyright, shared resources, networked communications, ecstatic experience, DIY media, pirate broadcasting, communal living, participatory culture, collective process. Im not talking about the twenty-first century alternative globalization movement, but rather the documents and practices of the early 1970s video movement in the United States. These tendencies and images which, in recent years (since the 1999 Battle of Seattle and the birth of Indymedia.org) have emerged as an exciting aspect of current Left political movements were also here in the USA in the late 1960s and early 70s, and were documented and practiced by a little known, but highly productive media democracy and experimental art movement. This movement focused its experiments with social relations and cultural production around the use of portable video technology. I first became interested in video groups from the early 70s in 1999 when the Video Data Bank (VDB) in Chicago (where I worked) acquired the collection of the Videofreex, one of the early video collectives. This was an incredible collection made up of over 1,300 videotapes, the majority of which were on obsolete tape formats. These tapes were mostly raw footage shot between 196978 and some edited programs. After seeing the first tape we preserved and converted to a viable format, an interview with Black Panther leader Fred Hampton from the fall of 1969 just before he was murdered by the Chicago Police Departmentit became apparent that this collection would have significance and resonate with todays media activists, as well as anyone interested in the history of radical culture. Upon further investigation, I found that it wasnt just the video documents themselves that would resonate with anti-authoritarian media makers, but also the communal context and non-hierarchical process by which they were produced as well as the video movements practice-based critique of centralized communication structures. They werent just criticizing the media, they were making their own. Videos origins are in radio and broadcast technologies, rather than in film or photography, thus early video users and critics were responding more to television than to cinema. By the 1950s, televisions were becoming basic furniture in peoples homes. By the late 1960s, when portable video equipment became available, many people in their early twenties had experienced TV both as ambient noise/images in their living rooms and as a focal point of their family and social development. Unlike cinema, rarely was there a focused viewing in a darkened theater surrounded by strangers; TV watching was an intimate experience in the private sphere. Unlike film, video was quick to process and easy to reproduce. When people shot video, they could immediately watch it, talk about it, and get feedback.Videotapes ability to be cheaply and infinitely copied, and thus distributed and screened in multiple contexts was crucial to the development of ideas about the mediums democratic potential. Sony Corporation introduced the Portapak (its generic name was VTR for Video Tape Recorder) to the US market in 1965. By 1968, Sony was widely advertising the technology to educators, artists, and general consumers. The Portapak was one of the first portable and relatively affordable video cameras. Before that, video technologies were quite heavy, expensive, and only used by broadcast professionals and the military. But this was 1968, and counter culture and revolutionary thought and movement were gaining momentum. Quickly, these video technologies got into the hands of artists, activists, and participants in the counter culture. By 1969, several video collectives had formed, including: The Videofreex, Commediation, Peoples Video Theater, Raindance, Revolutionary Peoples Communication Project, Ant Farm, and Global Village. Some began using the technology as a focal point for their experiments in social organization as well as to document the changing world around them. Essential to many of the alternative video makers of the time was a critique of communication structures and a desire to challenge corporate TV broadcastings tendency toward

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the centralization of information and one-way communication from the corporation to the viewer, but not vice versa. Some video users were also interested in challenging what was represented or rather excluded from representation on corporate television. The Videofreex Three people (David Cort, Parry Teasdale, and Mary Curtis Ratcliff) founded the Videofreex in 1969 and their numbers quickly grew to ten (to include Skip Blumberg, Nancy Cain, Bart Friedman, Davidson Gigliotti, Chuck Kennedy, Carol Vontobel, and Ann Woodward). Although they did not share a defined ideology, they did share the belief that, placing video camerasin the hands of ordinary people would make the world a better, more just, and beautiful place. In 1971, they moved from New York City to Maple Tree Farm in the upstate NY town of Lanesville to live communally and make videos. This context helped them continue to develop a collective support system to make individual and group video projects. At Maple Tree Farm, the Videofreex began a pirate TV station called Lanesville TV. In the beginning, they broadcast three times a week, later reducing to one. Lanesville TV was on air from 19721977, making it the longest running pirate TV station in the US (I have been unable to find evidence of any other US-based pirate TV broadcasts.) The Videofreex programmed both their own experimental work and local content such as town hall meetings or news from the local farms. They believed media should be interactive and participatory, and broadcast their phone number so that viewers could call in and comment on the broadcast. They also had plans for a media busa kind of touring video production studiobut this remained unrealized. The collectives practice was informed by a do-it-yourself, selfsufficiency ethic and a belief that users of technology should be empowered to fix it. They did not want the movement to have to rely on Sony to repair their machines, so they published a book on how to use and repair video equipment called the Spaghetti City Video Manual. They also had a production studio on their farm which was visited by up to 200 people a year. These visitors would come to learn video skills and contribute to Lanesville TV programming. Each member of the Videofreex brought different skills and interests to the collective, and their documents reflect their diversity (from art to social action from community building to video erotica, among other things). In addition to the TV station, they made their work available to viewers through screenings in NYC and through what was called bicycling the tapes, meaning trading tapes through the mail via a network of other collectives and through listings in the movement periodical Radical Software. Their documents were often raw unedited footage, shot hand-held without voiceover. The footage is gritty, black and whitethe technical limitations were incorporated into the style. Their aesthetics were influenced by learning the new technology while using it and by a belief in process over product. Some members saw themselves as artists with cameras who were making TV experiments. I asked Parry Teasdale, a founding member of the Videofreex and author of Videofreex: Americas First Pirate TV Station and the Catskills Collective That Turned It On (1999) about the politics of the video collectives. He responded: I think the Beatles, Stones, and possibly Dylan were far better known and more frequently quoted than Marx (except for Groucho). I cant claim to have read Das Kapital and certainly wasnt a Marxist. I had read McLuhan and did read Michael Harringtons Socialism, and later Wilsons To the Finland Station, but theoretical politics was not a topic of discussion at Videofreex or among the other groups that we knew, at least to the degree I am aware of their internal dialogues. Certainly none of the video groups in and around New York City were modeled on any particular social experiment or based on a particular theory as I understand them.You should check with the others, though.This is not to say that we had no political outlook. But most of it was colored by a universal (among the groups) opposition to the war in Vietnam. I suppose we accepted the language of the political people that the war was in pursuit of American imperial ambitions. But anyone who went around spouting doctrinaire phrases like that would have been ridiculed or been made the subject of a tape.We did spend a lot of time in the early days taping Abbie Hoffman and other Yippies. And we had shot some footage of Tom Hayden, who was probably the most politically articulate of the anti-war movement people. But they were grist for tapes, and what we did we did in the service of furthering a more liberated television medium, not in service

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of a broader political purpose. Or so I see it. Even in Teasdales reporting of history he takes an anti-authoritative positionrevealing his subjectivity, encouraging me to ask others for their version of that history. Other Groups and Tendencies The Videofreex were just one group from this period, and they often collaborated with other video collectives. In 1971, the May Day Video Collective came together in Washington, DC to document the protests against the Vietnam War. People from around the country participated in the May Day Video Collective (including members of the Videofreex) by traveling to DC, shooting tape, and sharing footage. There was a cultural rejection of individual authorship; everyone was able to use any of the footage that was shot. This convergent and shared media practice to document the streets from an on-the-ground perspective evokes the atmosphere in Indymedia Centers during recent national protests (19992004). The documents created from these different historical moments not only overlap in their confrontational imagery of protest and repression, but also by the collaborative process in which they were created. Many of the 1970s groups worked in a style termed street tapes, interviewing passersby on the streets, in their homes, or on doorsteps. As Deirdre Boyle writes in Subject to Change: Guerrilla Television Revisited (1997), the goal of street tapes was to create an interactive information loop with the subject in order to contest the one-way communication model of network television. One collective, The Peoples Video Theater, were specifically interested in the social possibilities of video. On the streets of NYC, they would interview people and then invite them back to their loft to watch the tapes that night. This fit into the theoretical framework that groups were working with at the time, the idea of feedback. Feedback was considered both a technological and social idea. As already stated, they saw a danger in the one-way communication structure of mainstream television, and street tapes allowed for direct people-to-people communications. Some media makers were also interested in feeding back the medium itself in the way that musicians have experimented with amp feedback; jamming communication and creating interference or noise in the communications structures. Video was also used to mediate between groups in disagreement or in social conflict. Instead of talking back to the television, some groups attempted to talk through it. One example of videos use as a mediation tool in the early 70s was a project of the students at the Media Co-op at NYU. They taped interviews with squatters and disgruntled neighbors and then had each party view the others tape for better understanding. The students believed they were encouraging a more real dialogue than a face-to-face encounter would allow because the conflicting parties had an easier time expressing their position and communicating when the other was not in the same room. Groups were not only interested in making their own media but also in distributing it. At Antioch College, the Antioch Free Library (19661978) was set up so people could distribute their tapes by sending them in and requesting tapes in exchange. During its time, the Antioch Free Library copied thousands of tapes for free, sending out twenty-five to fifty a week. Theories of a Guerrilla Television Many of the ideas these video groups were working with influenced or were influenced by the periodical Radical Software started in 1970 and the book Guerrilla Television, authored by Michael Shamberg in 1971. Both of these publications were developed by the group Raindance. Raindance got its name from R & D (research and development) and after the influential think tank, The Rand Corporation. They fancied themselves a think tank for the early video movement. Raindance was supported financially through the donation of $70,000 from a members family money. Its mission was promoting video as a tool for change. Raindance and other participants in the movement were heavily influenced by the theoretical work of Marshall McLuhan, Buckminster Fuller, and Gregory Bateson.

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Eleven issues of Radical Software were published between 19701974. The magazine acted as a networking tool for these media collectives. In the first issue alone, there was contact information for over thirty groups and individuals. Every issue included lists of available tape titles for sale and trade, contacts of video enthusiasts who had resources such as cameras or editing equipment to share, and articles crucial to the theoretical development of the community. Some of the ideas written about in the pages of Radical Software included: media ecology, the information economy, technological utopianism, media democracy, and videos therapeutic potential. In this space, art, cultural theory, community media, and activism all came together. Michael Shambergs Guerrilla Television borrows heavily from different theories expressed in Radical Software, but claims that the movement is not political at all. He argues that, In Media America, real power is generated by information tools not by opinion. The information environment is inherently post-political. Guerrilla Television places a strong emphasis not on replacing content on broadcast TV (old structures) but actually transforming information structures of both production and transmission and building alternative support system for information. He states, No social change can take place without new designs in information architecture. And only through radical re-design of its information structures to incorporate two way decentralized inputs can Media America optimize the feedback it needs to come back to its senses. The aesthetics of guerrilla TV documentary or do-it-yourself TV differed from broadcast news in that there was no spokesperson or mediator, it was mostly shot from inside events not outside, it included environmental sound, was from a first person perspective, and didnt have the traditional documentary voice of god voiceover (which was considered authoritarian). There was an emphasis on a multiplicity of voices. There was concern with not exploiting the subjects and giving the subject the option to destroy any footage they did not want recorded. In Shambergs words, a participant should be given maximum control over his own feedback. Some of the concrete suggestions the book offers for decentralized communication projects include storefront information centers, wiring apartment buildings for closed circuit TV, pirate TV, micro broadcasts, mobile shows, taping police behavior, taping broadcast TV crews, having festivals in domes and inflatables (challenging dominant architectural structures), using tape to decode bureaucratic structures, multi-monitor juxtapositions, and using tape to analyze behavior for therapeutic purposes. There is also a section in the book that attempts to help the reader figure out how to access enough money to make videos, which includes, among other suggestions, sell your car. Connecting to Today There seems to be some continuity in thought of the media democracy movement over the past thirty years. Tendencies in thematic content include that regular peoples voices, countercultural voices, and social movements matter. Engaged media attempts to include the subject as a participant and allows the participant to have a say in how they are represented. Process is as important as content; it is not just that alternative media is being made that is important, but how it is being made. Sharing resources, technological knowledge, and video footage is crucial to the process. Distribution is important. Non-institutional spaces for communication and information sharing are crucial. These may include storefront theaters and infoshops, artist-run spaces or community centers, bicycling/mailing media through informal countercultural networks, and pirate broadcasting. Publishing journals and magazines also supports the alternative social networks. Media should be decentralized and both localized and internationalizedreflecting local lived experience and struggle, and at the same time being shared through a global network with other groups interested in survival. The media landscape has shifted dramatically since the introduction of the portable videotape recorder, but surviving in the information environment is no easier. The media democracy movement has grown alongside access to the tools of media production at lower costs (i.e. digital cameras, personal computers, copy machines, the World Wide Web, etc.), yet corporations still seem to have a hold on our media, and the art market often absorbs our experimental cultures. The dream of the early video collectives is far from realized but it is still informative. Flipping through the dozens of channels

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on cable TV, there are certainly more offerings than the 1970s, but nonetheless, a monoculture of expressive forms and commercial values persist. The one-way communication structure of mainstream television itself has not changed dramatically. The World Wide Web has been the strongest threat to corporate controlled, one-way communication structures, and anti-authoritarians have been quick to pick up and participate in this medium. Interactive communication structures on a global scale have finally seemed possible, yet currently a battle rages with corporations (and the State) attempting to control access and use of the Internet. Like their early 70s forerunners, media activists today must continue critiquing the coercive power of dominant media structures and representations while at the same time creating alternatives that prefigure a media world we want to live in. You can check out Dara Greenwalds work at www.daragreenwald.com.

Dara Greenwalds passing January 9, 2012 is a terrible loss. One of the many unheralded tasks she accomplished in her much too short life was the review and preservation of the Videofreex tapes when they were moved to the Video Data Bank. Daras intimate knowledge of that history surpassed even the collectives own recognition.The selections she included in several presentations of that work were happy surprises to the Freex themselves. Light Industrys evening with Dara and the collective was a magical and deeply moving (and historic) event. Dee Dee Halleck Jan 14, 2012

This is an excerpt from an interview between Daniel Tucker and Dara Greenwald downloaded from The Never the Same archives - http://never-the-same.org/interviews/dara-greenwald .The Never The Same archives contain printed material related to the Pink Bloque. Please contact us to make an appointment to see this and other printed materials from Chicagos rich political and socially engaged art history.

Interview with Dara Greenwald (exerpt)

DT: What precipitated the creation of the Pink Bloque for you, or the instigation? DG: Ive gone to protests and been involved in social justice activism most of my life. I was working at the Video Data Bank and I had a pretty time-consuming job there. Blithe Riley, who was also working at VDB, told me that she was working on Ladyfest Midwest, and I knew about Ladyfest, because I had been involved in this music sub-culture and I knew some of the organizers of the first Ladyfest in Olympia. So I started getting involved in organizing Ladyfest Midwest Chicago. That was in 99 or 2000, the festival took place in the summer of 2001. Ive always liked cultural organizing. Even if it was just my birthday party, it would become a happening, an event where there were costumes and themes and such. I got very involved in Ladyfest and it became a huge event with fifty of us working together. It was challenging at times, but it was pretty great and pretty successful. After the event we were all burnt out. The Department of Space and Land Reclamation was cool and had happened the April before. Between the WTO protests in Seattle in 99, working at Video Data Bank, organizing Ladyfest, and becoming familiar with a lot of tactical media and DSLR happening, I got really excited. There was this convergence of things that made me feel like I wanted to be involved in this kind of political culture, that there were possibilities for itthat there were possibilities of merging all these disparate threads of culture and politics. I had thought about going to Seattle but didnt and then at the Video Data Bank we watched it in the office on Indymedia, which had just been developed. These connections and overlaps finally started happening for me in ways that seemed interesting and fun and not alienating.

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Then September 11th happened a month after Ladyfest. After September 11th, all the patriotic battle cries made it seem like whatever the U.S. response was, it was going to be really intense. I felt a sense of urgency. I had been following the counterglobalization movement on the Internet, so I had seen many of the new protest tactics developing around the globe, like the Tute Bianche AKA White Overalls in Italy, and the Pink Blocks in Prague. I went to an organizing meeting in Chicago for an anti-war protest. There was an arts working group that I joined and I said, Look, the world has really, really changed from the sixties to now, its just so much more saturated with media and information. I think the old protest tactics need a re-vamping. I remember sitting in this meeting and saying, I feel like Im in this circle, this loop that we cant get out of. Were just going to keep doing the same old protest tactics over and over even though the world has changed. And were not going to get any new people involved. Somebody in the meeting responded, Cant we just at least play Give Peace a Chance? Ill bring my guitar. I felt like saying, No, we cant. We cant just sing Give Peace a Chance. I know there was a Hip Hop Block at some protest I went to recently, where are they? We need other cultural forms in the street protest. So thats when I sent out an e-mail to friends who I knew through the music scene and Ladyfest, seeing if they wanted to wear pink to the next protest together. And we met up, and we wore pink. But it was an uncoordinated and very depressing protest. Our small group decided to have a more formal meeting, name ourselves the Pink Bloque, and we developed the project together from that point on. Pink Bloque, March for Womens Lives in Washington DC

DT: And what were some of the kinds of things that the Pink Bloque did? DG: Well, mostly we did dance routines in the streets, which you can look at on pinkbloque.org, our archive website. We did coordinated dance routines to very popular mainstream songs, and we handed out political fliers to the crowds that gathered to watch. We did creative protest tactic workshops, we had a lot of meetings, and developed a lot of friendships, relationships, working methods, and ways of communicating. DT: When you were out doing these kinds of actions, what were some of the kinds of reactions that you got? DG: The reaction was usually mixed. Other protestors tried to turn the music off on occasion and said we were being inappropriate at a protest. Sometimes people would dance with us and loved it. Some people were very interested in what we were doing. We were always causing a scene, a spectacle, which of course we wanted to cause. People would want to talk to us, and we would talk to them about the issues we were protesting, like the Patriot Act.

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DT: And you said you wanted to cause a spectacle. What was informing your thinking about that? DG: Like I said, I had studied a lot of feminist performance theory prior, and other people in the group were also informed by these types of ideas. Our analysis was that you needed to do something different in this media-saturated world to get peoples attention. Our analysis started with the question, whats the point of a protest? Partially, its a performance of your political views, although there are different kinds of protest. But if youre doing a performance, you might want to think about your audience. We were thinking about a lot of things around those issues: what body languages and aesthetic languages, would speak to a public where they might stop what theyre doing for a second and engage. The streets should for be for dancing and dialogue, not just for shopping, was one of our slogans. DT: Based on several years of doing that work with a consistent group of people in a consistent place, for the most part, do you feel like there are lessons from that work that you continue to draw on or have informed other things youve done since? DG: One of the things I liked is we were pretty focused. Maybe not politically, but in terms of what we were trying towe were going to do dance routines. It wasnt like, oh, and were going to open this store front, and, oh, were also going to have this seminar. Many of us who had worked on Ladyfest had learned a lot from it. We didnt want to do something on that scale. We didnt want to do something totally open to whoever wanted to be part of it. We just wanted to do something that was tangible and doable. We were going to be a dance troop. We might have buttons this time, and we might have fliers the next, and we might decide to make matching outfits, but the overall action was consistent. I really liked that. Sometimes things are out of control in order to be open to all the different possibilities that are going to happen, and were going to do them all. Ultimately, all the possibilities can never happen anyway. DT: At some point then, after working at the Video Data Bank and doing the Pink Bloque, you started to participate more in other curatorial projects and also in talking about the intersections of art and politics in a more academic or critical kind of discourse. DG: I think so much of our theories, our collectively developed theories in Pink Bloque, came out of our practice together. People might have read stuff beforehand and been informed by it, but in terms of anyone speaking as the Pink Bloque about art and politics, the practice informed the theory more than the theory informing the practice. We all felt we needed to do something about what was happening in the world. We developed this thing (the Pink Bloque), and then we developed all of these theoretical threads out of it because some of us enjoyed doing theoretical work. DT: Since that time, youve invested a lot of energy in actually presenting and framing and writing histories of art and politics intersecting. Where did that come from? DG: These intersections are exciting to me. When politics enters the dialog many people feel the need to ask Is it still art? I dont need to call it art. Who cares? Better questions are: Is it interesting? Is it meaningful? There have been times when the political and the aesthetic avant-gardes have been very engaged with each other. I find those times and those stories to be the most exciting to me. I have found that a lot of people who are more committed to art for arts sake, whatever that means, are very defensive and very questioning if you attempt to bring politics to art. That seems ahistorical to me. If you are an artist committed to social transformation, you cant really do anything without certain people questioning it under the idea of defending arts neutrality or some bullshit. But if somebody gives a talk about the aesthetics of photography, for example, I have never seen an audience member raise their hand and say, um, excuse me.You only talked about aesthetics, what about the politics of these pieces? But the reverse always happens. Theres this weird defensiveness on the part of people who are very invested in aesthetics without context. Im not sure what it is. A lot of things defend the status quo and no one is saying thats a politic, but it obviously is a politic, a status quo politic.

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DT: Do you feel like youve been a part of moments or groups or experiences where the aesthetic and the political avant-garde have really been in conversation? DG: I do think that the counter-globalization movement, tactical media, the DSLR time, that there was a period that I experienced where it felt very exciting and that these things could help each other out. Riot Grrrl was another interesting moment. Heres this cultural space we are in and there are these politics that are personal and political and they impact each other and were going to talk about them in the context of this culture, which is a music culture. DT: Within Riot Grrl or musical contexts, what do you think is an example of those kind ofall that stuff meshing in a way that seemed significant to you. DG: I dont know. When I say culture Im not talking about one night of something. Its a whole lived experience of being in a certain time that things are happening in. It might not be a specific space, it may not even be one city. It may be a whole network of cities with spaces that people interact with, and zines and communications, and a set of ideas in the air. But then theres also just your daily lived experience where these ideas are being tested, likely to both ill effect and positive effect. Sometimes Ill talk to friends about how the intensity of that Riot Grrrl moment dissipated. Now youll go to shows and it will be a totally sexist environment and there will be no one trying to intervene in that. Its kind of sad that it seems like less people are talking about ideas that are related oppression and violence in our lived daily experience in the cultural sphere. DT: Something that youve talked about recently is that being a part of the Pink Bloque, one of the rich parts on a personal level was dancing on a regular basis. DG: I really care about embodiment. I engage in a lot of academic contexts where embodiment is so removed. Were all embodied if were here, alive; embodiment is being alive to me, in these vessels that were in, these bodies. And they communicate, they communicate lots of things. And in a lot of academic contexts, and activist contexts too, you speak speaking is using your body, obviouslybut there is more of an emphasis on whats coming from this part of your body (points to head), instead of any other part of your body. DT:The head. DG:Yes, because your mouth is in you head.Yes, your head.Your brain is in your head, and your processing information and your delivering, and youre reading this paper. The traditional form in the academic world is the reading of the academic paper without concern for the physical. When you go to street demonstrations and protests you are using your body. Theres a lot of activist theory around putting our bodies on the line, but what else can we do with our bodies in those spaces? The Pink Bloque was proposing a different thing we can do with our bodies: have a dance party! And maybe we can even choreograph, maybe some of us can do the same dance moves together at the same time. Maybe we can move in concert for a little bit of this day. DT: Did you think that those ideas that you all were experimenting with trickled out or affected people in other ways? DG: Well, there were a couple of other groups that started dance troupes in other places. And the latest batch of [protest] marching bands started around that time. I dont think it had anything to do with us. I think sometimes things just geltheres an energy in the air. Because a number of different people are doing things, and its generative of other people doing things and creating a richer culture. DT: Is there anything else that you want to say in retrospect about your time in Chicago or the work that you were doing and how its been formative for yourself or you ideas, in retrospect? DG: I like doing things with other people. I like participating in things. I like doing things outside. While I was in Chicago a lot of

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group activities happened, and there was enough of a community, enough support, and enough spaces and resources to make it happen without commercial backing, or even not-for-profit backing. It was all D.I.Y., all the funding for every project we did in Chicago. It was cool that there was enough of a culture to support that. I spent ten years there, I really liked it. I have a lot of good friends from there. DT: Ill ask a few more little things, but nothing big.You, at some point in there, you started making video works and works that were your own individual pieces that started to bring together these interests DG: I had been making videos about gender-related things since college. Nothing that I ever distributed. The first video that I showed outside of my living room was about a rabbit in the hills of France. Have you ever seen that? Its a fairytale about a rabbit who gets drunk. And then I made a video about my body, Bouncing In the Corner #36 DDD. I made that in 1999 and it was the first video I distributed. Then I made the Strategic Cyber Defense video, which was more inspired by Animal Charm. They were remixing old video, so tried my hand at that. Another thing I do with video is document ephemeral actions, which is something that I think is important. When you do these ephemeral, one-day events, or creative protests, they happen once, so I feel like it is important to document them. Those are the kind of videos I tend to want to coordinate and do. DT:Youve talked about strong communities as well as individual projects. Can you share any observations or thoughts you have on the connection between internal transformation that youve experienced versus more external or social/community transformation? [pause] How those are different or how they are connected or affect one another? DG: For me theyre connected. I transform in relationship to others. Even the current transformation of my body is very internal and personal, but it is very communal too. The response to my health is communal, and that transforms me, too, in a different way. That transforms me in a totally different way than the disease transforms me.

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This article was published in Art Papers Vol. 18, No. 3., May 1994. It is followed by a reflection written Dec. 2011 by one of the authors, jesikah maria ross

Public Access Television: The Message, The Medium, & The Movement
by jesikah maria ross & J. Aaron Spitzer (True democracy is) the opportunity for all persons to take part-- directly or indirectly, both in large and small measure-- in decisions that affect themselves, others, and the larger communities in which they are a part -Betram Gross1 Democracy is not a spectator sport.

-Wavy Gravy2

Turn on your TV. (You probably never expected to read that in the pages of Art Papers.) Start flipping through the channels, past the Weather Channel, past C.B.S., past any of those premium channels that you might secretly subscribe to while asserting to friends that you never actually turn the damn thing on. Keep searching until you come to the channel that stands out-- maybe because the show stars the guy who sells you bread or features the local punks sharing their views on the lack of adequate municipal skateboard facilities. Maybe its a boring planning commission hearing or a mesmerizing locally-produced documentary, or maybe just something so odd that it defies categorization. Youve probably discovered your local public access station; that little corner of the television world where norms are broken, bottom lines are ignored, and participatory democracy occurs in a meaningful way, far beyond the late night public service announcements of commercial broadcasters. Like many other non-profit organizations in your town, public access television was created with the goal of community service. But public access television isnt the Kiwanis Club; It is your coaxial connection to the community, via the local cable franchise. This link to the communication system of television provides a unique forum for civic participation. Communication, especially the diversity of opinion, is fundamental to a democracy, and the freedom to communicate is useless without the ability to do it. Public access television was set up to revitalize a participatory democracy by empowering citizens to take the tools of television into their own hands and create local programming on issues, ideas, and talents important to them. Public access television also provides a channel and audience for artistic expression, often engaging television viewers who would never venture into a gallery, stage theatre, or alternative art space. It can even become a place of worship for those faiths who lack the fiscal power of the evangelical movement. Access (as it is commonly referred to by its advocates and practitioners) is a remarkable resource that should not be ignored by anyone with something to say or an open mind. Appreciating public access television requires an understanding of power relations: to what extent do people have the ability to shape their environment and social conditions? In this age of electronic communication, television is the blood of the body politic. Those who control the stories of a culture, control the culture. 3 Television, which is dominated by commercial networks and their overriding concern with financial gain, has become our primary means of circulating stories, and the commercial control of program content largely defines the ideological, social, and cultural perspectives of our society. To ensure the continuing development of the United States as a democratic society, television must be more than a one-way funnel of status quo platitudes and advertising. Through the public access movement, television has the potential to become a transceiver for our communities to speak to themselves about art, politics, and culture. Moreover, television must begin to incorporate the voices of those communities marginalized by the mainstream media. And finally, media resources can begin to educate rather than sedate us about the very nature of electronic media.

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Andrew Blau, The Promise of Public Access, The Independent, Volume 15, No. 3 (April 1992), p. 22 Wavy Gravy, Daily Sermon, Address presented at the University of California Davis Whole Earth Festival, Davis, May 10, 1993 3 Laurel M. Church, Community Acces Television: What We Dont Know and Why We Dont Know It, Journal of Film and Video,Volume 39, No. 3, (summer 1987), p. 13

1 2

The growth and success of the public access movement has provided a space on the cable menu for an alternative to the market controlled network infotainment monologue that has defined the medium. This alternative takes many shapes, as many shapes as there are producers of programming, but it all contributes to the same payoff: community development. Lets consider three ways in which public access television facilitates community development-by stimulating local communication, encouraging cultural participation, and providing media education. Community Communication Joseph Stalin held regular, public elections. Soviet citizens were required to line up at polling places on election day and cast their votes. Given that the ballot provided only one name for each of the offices, it isnt surprising that the Communist Party, under the wise eye of Stalin, did exceptionally well. Americans dont have the luxury of such simplicity. Their votes, especially on local issues and leaders, can radically affect their lives. They determine where the schools are built, who polices the streets, or how much money is spent for public art. For those votes to have any meaning, they must not be cast out of ignorance. The people pulling the levers in the voting booth are not supposed to be playing political roulette, and betting wrong could create big problems for their communities. It is unlikely, however, that Ted Koppel is going to provide much information on your local school board race, and the local newspaper (which many smaller communities do not have) is but a single voice and often only a single editorial perspective. Modern communities must develop locally based community media or risk drowning in the mass market appeal of the big players. Access television can be a dynamic venue of local communication. It is more than televised town hall meetings where issues are debated by those who have something at stake. It is more than a means for local problem solving, sharing of resources, or fresh artistic explorations. Or more than just an electronic soapbox, where individuals can freely express themselves in the manner of their choice. Access plays all of these roles and so many others; it is whatever we chose to make it, and the costs of participating rarely amount to anything beyond some time and effort. Access makes it possible for community members to engage in affordable production and circulation of electronic media messages by providing low or no cost access to the equipment, facilities, and training required to make a television program. Because access channels exert no editorial control, public access television producers can use their technical skills to express their views however they please; distribution of producers work is guaranteed as long as the work is non-commercial and does not violate the First Amendment. There are no limits on program length, content, objectives, or production quality. Public access gives new meaning to the First Amendment of the Constitution by providing the technical capacity for all of us to speak to our communities.4 Some might argue that as a negative. The popular image of public access often includes the rants of white supremacists and the fuddled mumblings of bored high school graduates unable to secure jobs or social lives (a la Waynes World). Public access strives to live up to its name, and accessibility is the root of its philosophy. No one is turned away, no matter how repugnant, disturbing, or down right bizarre their perspectives may seem. Having Tom Metzger, the San Diego leader of the White Aryan Resistance organization, on community television is the price we may pay to ensure that the medium will always be available to us, regardless of how our views or creative expression might be regarded in a nation that worships Steven Seagals penis and Danielle Steeles literary style. There may even be a silver lining to the participation of what might be considered offensive political groups in this forum. Access has the power to serve the community as a starting place for dialogue, interaction, and debate. By bringing people into the marketplace of ideas they learn to become better shoppers. We can also benefit from the reminder that these difficult opinions really do exist among our neighbors and that many of the problems that trouble us begin in our own neighborhoods. It is just as important that audiences have access to the variety of viewpoints presented by public access channels as it is that producers are able to exercise an electronic form of free speech using the stations facilities. During the Gulf War, for example, people across the country had a wide range of opinions regarding US military involvement in the Middle East, but commercial television retained its myopic focus on non-offensive centrist viewpoints. From CBS to CNN, Americans were presented essentially only one perspective; war as the liberation of the Kuwaiti people from the Hitleresque Saddam Hussein. But on access channels people could voice their ideas as well as hear the diversity of opinion on the war fermenting among their neighbors. Mid-Peninsula Access Corporation (MPAC) located in Palo Alto, California, for instance, became a non-stop live forum for their communitys reflections and emotions. The

Fred Johnson, Access Challenges The Structure Of Television, Community Television Review, Volume 9, No. 3, 1986, p. 34

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war erupted during the first year of MPAC operations, when they had an unfinished studio and precious few community producers. In order to insure that people could address the issue as well as hear the views of others, MPAC staff wired a camcorder directly into the cable system, drafted their two-line office phone into community service, and initiated a series of live, interactive programs. According to MPAC executive director Elliot Margolies, The phone kept ringing with callers of all ages and persuasions; others came over to our makeshift studio to make a statement on camera and participate in one of the least sophisticated, but most important TV shows in Channel 6 history.5 Access TV generates more than just community dialogue on politics; it also reaches into creativity and expression. Grand Rapids Television and the Urban Institute for Contemporary Art in Grand Rapids, Michigan teamed up to have regular video artists-in-residence utilize the public access channel as an electronic palette. Most recently, artist-in-residence Robert Mark Packer used the electronic palette to create an interactive sculpture. Live phone calls from Grand Rapids residents would direct Packer in how to work on the piece or what he might add to it. Between callers, Packer would share his views on television (he loathes it!), art, or anything else he cared to discuss at the moment. He also rigged the camera to a pulley mechanism that attached to his body, enabling him to move freely around the studio while simultaneously involving the audience in his creative process. There was no studio crew, no fast action or great variety of camera movement, yet the program was engaging because community members would continue to call in to discuss art and creativity, comment on why he should or should not add something to the sculpture, or just ask Packer what the hell he was doing on television. This innovative use of interactive television demonstrates how even entertainment programs on public access serve the goal of local communication. Access TV communicates ideas, whether they are political, artistic, or in the broad category of perhaps what can be labeled none of the above. Free from the restraint of owners and editors, a community can talk to itself in voices that are loud, soft, angry, ecstatic or strange. The influence of this tool is potentially monumental to the otherwise ignored voices of our communities who have always felt they had a message to share, but lacked an effective way to reach the people around them. We may like what they have to offer or we may be disturbed, but communication is a two-way process, and those who are voicing new opinions on the local access channel might be listening to fresh opinions as well. Community communication through a public access channel can help to ensure that television remains accessible to everyone who chooses to participate. Cultural Participation The year 1954 might have seen the beginning of racial integration, but forty years later, we have hardly begun to see the end. America suffers the costs and reaps the enormous benefits of encompassing a brilliant spectrum of peoples, customs, languages, and ideas. But this diversity means that cultural participation must be more than showing matinees of Do the Right Thing in the burbs. Understanding our diverse community demands that we challenge ourselves constantly with ideas and expressions that would otherwise be alien to us. Cultural participation is key in order to enfranchise everyone in determining the collective fate of a community, and discovering different segments of our community across the narrow tabletop of Access TV. provides a starting point for developing tolerance and respect across the divides of race, gender, class, regions, and sexual preference. Back in the Paleobroadcast Age, when television was just the twelve or thirteen channels ransomed out by the F.C.C. to the highest bidders, the ability for minority segments of our society to develop programming was limited to the economic clout they could gather together to either purchase a TV. station or to attract the attention of the demographers on Madison Avenue. Although the medium has always had the potential for expanding cultural participation, the financial dimensions guaranteed that television serve more as a tool for entrenching ideas than for generating them. Although the addition of the cable spectrum has mostly provided more of the same, public access channels are the exception. Prior to cable television, the medium had no regularly accessible venue for voices outside the mainstream. Because of the structure and objectives of Access, minority groups of every sort can now get on the airwaves by learning how to use the technology and committing the time to producing their own shows. Public access fosters greater cultural participation by offering cultural minorities the opportunity to represent themselves the way they choose to be represented, rather than through the eyes of commercial stations which often value good teeth and accentless pronunciation above a commitment to incorporating diversity into their brief bursts of airtime between advertisements. Through Access, many ethnic, religious, and gay/lesbian groups are responding to the marginalization and the misrepresentation of their culture by using television to address their issues, share their stories, and redefine their lifestyles beyond common stereotypes. Haiti Reontre (produced through Chicago Access Corporation) for example, presents the public with a Haitian perspective of Haitian culture. For producer Jacque

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Elliot Margolies, Amend Access First, Community Television Review,Volume 16, No. 3, 1993, p. 7

LeBlanc its important that people recognize and understand that Haitians are not just AIDS victims that are trying to get US citizenship.6 Dr. Arvindhumar Parikhs monthly program This Is India (produced through Cox Cable Access of New Orleans) likewise focuses on generating awareness: The goal of the show is to educate Americans about India, its culture and people.7 Dyke TV, now offered on public access channels in 15 cities across the country, offers viewers a rich variety of programming on lesbians. Public access television not only invests participants with the capacity to communicate their ideas based on their own direct experiences, it also reveals the multicultural reality of communities across the United States. Access channels can likewise be a way for community members from various cultural groups to connect and to speak with their own subcultures. Variety Creole (produced through Boston Neighborhood Network TV), for instance, focuses on issues of concern to the Haitian community such as immigration laws, housing, and job opportunities and is cablecast in Creole. InnerVisions (produced through Dekalb Center for Community TV) covers African American history and culture from a contemporary African American perspective. And then there is H30 --the chemical element for heavy water-- a program that proclaims with a Voice of God narration Television by surfers, about surfers, and for surfers (produced through Olelo Access Corporation in Oahu). By televising programming for their own communities, ethnic and cultural minorities can document and preserve their traditions, values, and customs while exploring their cultural identity with one another. These programs are made by specific groups for other members of their own community, yet their participation in creating programming benefits all cable viewers; it exposes audiences to the information and expression of their neighbors while providing members of these groups with the opportunity to assert their identity through an otherwise unresponsive medium. Besides these examples, access has been a potent tool for artists because of its ability to reach out beyond the closed nest of the art community. This is especially vital for art practitioners from marginalized communities, because they often express themselves in aesthetic languages conceived by and intended for their own communities, and these pieces might not always appeal to many people who do not share their backgrounds. Without public access, these artists could only find a forum for their work if their community provided the financial weight to justify commercial investment. Public access not only gives local artists the opportunity to get their hands on expensive video equipment, but it also provides them with guaranteed distribution of their work--something that PBS, ITVS, network and cable channels could never promise. On access television artists can transgress aesthetic formulas, embrace controversial topics, and express themselves in their own languages, regardless of commercial sponsorship. Even the concept of what an artist is can be redefined; anyone at any level in the development of their artistic expression can work through the access channel to communicate their vision, experience, meditations, or quirks. There are so many voices in our communities that have been excluded from mainstream television, and we should all regret that loss regardless of whether we are one of those voices or not. Not only do we lose what cultural minorities offer, but we risk marginalizing our neighbors into apathy or anger. Public access might only be one slot on the dial, perhaps among hundreds, but the seating is unlimited to anyone with cable television. Access television transforms communities from mere consumers of predetermined programming into active participants in the creation and circulation of their own stories, cultural traditions, opinions, and visions. From Media Access to Media Education TV is not a window on the world or a slice of life, but an illusion-- a carefully packaged re-presentation of reality. Media are never value free; they use an assortment of identifiable techniques to achieve their purposes, regardless of whether the medium is commercial or noncommercial. As television continues to assert its supremacy as the medium of choice for news and entertainment, some kind of process is necessary to reinforce our intellectual independence from the sedative tyranny of shows like Married...with Children, to Nightline. These shows are not inherently detrimental, but by establishing the definitions of what we call news and entertainment without our critical participation, they often restrict our understanding to the narrow paths laid out by advertisers and other sources of entrenched cultural influence. As Barbara Osborn notes, we all participate actively in the media wrestling match. But for those not trained in media literacy the contest is unconscious and therefore unequal.8 Media literacy (the ability to critically analyze and produce media) teaches people to identify and to question the language of television, its conventions, and its political and economic underpinnings. Although a lot can be learned about

6 7 8

Phone Interview with Greg Boozell, Program Director, Chicago Access Corporation, March 9, 1994 Phone Interview with Dr. Arvindhumar Parikh, Producer, This Is India, March 9, 1994 Barbara Osborn, TV Alert: A Wake-up Guide For Television Literacy, (Los Angeles, CA: Center for Media and Values, 1993) p. 2

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television through producing a public access program, community media advocates are discovering that providing citizen access to television equipment and offering a channel to view local programming does not guarantee an understanding of dominant TV forms, their limitations, why they exist, and who they serve. To meet the need for media education, public access stations are beginning to incorporate critical viewing exercises into their hands-on production curriculum. This new curriculum begins by making a distinction between reality and the mediated information that television provides. It might seem obvious that television and real life often have little in common, since Gilligan and the Skipper are unlikely to show up at your next luau, but the important concept for media educators is that media construct reality; that is to say, someone somewhere makes the decision about what is to be shown and how it will be presented. Understanding their desires and agendas becomes crucial when they expect something in return for their services, such as brand-name loyalty to Cheer detergent or political affiliation. No form of communication lacks intention; learning the skills to determine that intention helps us to become autonomous and critical thinkers. The attention of viewers is a highly valued commodity, sold by commercial television producers to their advertisers. If that attention is not conscious and critical, the audience is susceptible to manipulation. The second step of access media education programs is fostering the ability of viewers to question and analyze the television information they receive, and then teaching the skills required to make informed choices about their responses to mass media. That choice might be as simple as asking themselves questions about what they are watching (why do disasters and shootings so often kick off the newscasts?) or as complex as producing alternative programming, but either way, viewers can begin to steer television in the direction of their choosing. A stellar example of implementing this curriculum is happening at the Chicago Access Corporation (CAC). CAC has developed a series of videotapes and study guides to use in their production courses that demonstrate the key concepts of media literacy. The first tape addresses how TV doesnt reflect it represents reality. Tape 2 covers how commercial interests determine access on commercial TV and how that process eliminates certain voices. The third tape poses questions such as who is producing the images?, who is the target audience?, and what is the purpose of the program? to underscore televisions ability to validate the value system put forth on behalf of the speaker. And Tape 4 shows how commercial media speaks to us as consumers instead of constituting us as active, informed citizens. Integrating media literacy into public access production courses aids the arts as well. Media education develops the viewers palette for video art forms that cannot be found on other channels. Appreciation of any media form is related to what the viewer brings to the screen/text.9 Encouraging a recognition, if not a taste for unconventional forms, nonstandard formats, and unusual content increases the sophistication of the viewer and such sophistication can translate into support for independent media artists, whose work often breaks with political, aesthetic, content formulas. This support can also pave the way for increasing viewership of non-traditional television programming which, in turn, might open up both cable and network TV to new voices. It might also increase public support for congressional funding for alternative or innovative uses of television through PBS or ITVS. Most media education has been confined to K-12 school. But technology and media expertise is limited in many public schools, especially those in rural and inner city areas. Its unlikely that these schools will be able to purchase new equipment, bring in new teachers, or create new departments. Public access television stations are uniquely positioned to step into this unfortunate vacuum by establishing media education programs as part of their producer training or as independent community service projects. They possess the equipment, facilities, teaching experience, and distribution mechanism that no other community center can match. As we move steadily into the 21st century along with its technological promise of 500 channels of television, it is vital that the public possesses a critical understanding of media and its relation to exercising citizenship skills. What those 500 channels might say will be determined by people who take an active role in mass media communication, and that requires the sort of education provided by public access television. Media literacy education has the potential to realign an equitable relationship between knowledge and power and to revitalize the central, democratic goals of community access in the age of digital communication.10 Media education through public access can equip students with both the video and critical thinking skills required to analyze as well as produce media messages. Thoughts and Conclusions Assuming your television is still on, turn it off. Because if the television is playing in the background while you are

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9 10

Fred Johnson, The Real Work Is Media Education, Community Media Review,Vol.ume 16, No. 7, 1994, p. 8 Kathleen Tyner, Access In A Digital Age, Community Television Review,Volume 16, No. 3, 1993, p. 24

reading this article, youre likely missing the point; television requires active, conscious participation if it is to be more than a rubber nipple feeding us the social formulas of those who determine what is shown. We might appreciate what they are offering or we might not, but either choice requires that we are involved in the process of communication. The alternative is passive acceptance of what others would choose for us, and they may not always have our best interests at heart. Public Access is part of the solution to the dilemmas of mass media. The Access mission is to transform television into a tool for community-building and participatory democracy. All of the examples weve seen, from Variety Creole to Dyke T.V., demonstrate the freedom that your local public access forum has to offer towards sharing visions, replacing negative representations, and incorporating marginalized communities into the wider dialogue of our society. The number of possibilities reflects the number of people who get involved. For all of its potential, Access is still an underutilized resource facing the simultaneous threats of budget cuts, alterations in franchise agreements, and changes in technology which could limit their access to our homes. Even in its present form, Access is limited to those who subscribe to cable television services, which cost money and are not available everywhere. Although there are over 3000 public access stations in the United States, they are concentrated in suburban communities rather than metropolitan areas, reflecting the middle class demographics of the cable industry itself. The result, arguably, has been to place more Access power in those communities while at least partially excluding urban Americans. For all of these caveats, however, it is difficult to think of another community forum that can meet the challenges of democratizing electronic media. Given the likelihood that television and other emerging media are here to stay, the only feasible response is to join the call that these media be responsible and accessible to their diverse communities. The more people who take the time to produce programming, participate in media education, or even simply watch public access, the more support this movement will have in ensuring its slot on the dial. Dont just view it, do it. Bios jesikah maria ross is the Production and Human Resources Manager at Davis Community Television Public Access Channel 5 in Davis, California. J. Aaron Spitzer is a freelance writer and community media enthusiast based in Davis, California > > > Fast Forward to Dec. 2011 jesikah maria ross reflects on what she wrote in 1994 Its great to see this piece in print again after so many years. Of all the articles Ive generated on community media its still my favorite. Maybe its because it was my first publication in a national journal (and an arts journal no less!). Or it might be the somewhat irreverent tone that reveals my youthful spirit at the time. But I think its probably because it was my first serious crack at expressing why I was so committed to the public access TV movement. Re-reading the article reminds me of what an amazing concept public access television is and how the Access movement fundamentally altered the media landscape from the 70s to the 90s It kind of makes me pine for those pre-internet days. A lot has changed in the mediascape since 1994 when Aaron Spitzer and I penned the piece. It feels like I was in another universe when we wrote In this age of electronic communication, television is the blood of the body politic. Thats so old school now. TV is no longer king and community TV is not the only (or best) game in town when it comes to accessing the tools, training, and distribution outlets for your media work. With the advent of the Internet, more people became able to create and circulate their news, views, culture, and talents. And there became many more ways to do it via the netbe it via radio/video webcasts, maps, blogs, tweets or other social networks. I still see public access TV as all about community development. And I dont view the Internet that way. Access brings people together, often in the same bricks and mortar space, to figure out collectively how to express ideas on a topic of interest or importance to them. TV production usually requires a team and a plan. In that way, Access often generates collective action towards a shared goal. The Internet, on the other hand, seems to be used in private spaces by individuals who wish to access and share information or engage in business. Accessing and sharing that stories or participating in the economy may well be for creative self-expression, collection action, cultural participation, or media education. But its not the same.

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Both are important, dont get me wrong. And the Internet certainly creates ways of networking and activating across boundaries far wider and more rapidly than Access TV ever could. But there is something fundamentally different about people working together, on the ground, in the same physical space than people engaging one another individually or through conference software across the ether. Both can be used for participatory democracy for sure. Maybe Im getting O-L-D, but I feel that deep change happens more often through face-to-face encounters. Engaging people in real time in physical places can make us confront and shift our attitudes, behaviors, stereotypes, and certainties, not to mention what we know about our selves and the places we live. I said that a lot when I was deep in the Access movement as well. To me it was never enough to create and make TV for cablecast; we needed to be thoughtful about how we engaged people in the production process (i.e. dealing with issues of power, telecommunications policy and media literacy) as well as how we used our video pieces in community and government settings after they aired. I still feel this is one of the great triumphs of Access: setting up community hubs for multi-dimensional learning, reflection, action and social change and opening the doors to people of all walks of life. Thinking about the Internet, it too has been a triumph in terms of setting up hubs, just in virtual communities and networks. And this has its advantages. Maybe Ill tackle that in my next article! A few other things stand out to me revisiting the piece Aaron and I wrote. Since 94, it could also be argued that Access has become more, well, accessible! Back then the movement was just entering into a serious self-critique about some of the gaps between its vision and implementation. The build it and they will come attitude gave way to recognizing the need for outreach, engagement, and additional support for groups who arent on the same playing field. As a result, many centers began to allocate resources toward specialized trainings and production collaborations with non-profit organizations and cultural groups to produce programming by, with, and about groups who were socially, economically or politically disadvantaged. With this came an important shift away from the traditional Access focus on free speech to an emphasis of on community development and social transformation. Consequently, there seems to be a wider diversity of users of Access facilities across the country. In the early 90s, media literacy was rarely discussed at Access centers. Now its a core part of many centers training curriculum. Today, media literacy has blossomed into its own full-fledged movement in the US (its been a key aspect of K-12 education in most western countries since the 80s) and there is crossover between Access and media literacy conferences, projects, and advocacy. While in the early 90s Access stations were often the only place you could find community-centered production facilities and technical support, now most schools have some form of video equipment and lots of teachers integrate media analysis and media making into their courses. This makes Access centers less vital in terms of providing media education. Still, many schools are under-resourced and most teachers are overworked so that a collaboration between schools and Access centers could be a win-win for all. Especially considering their shared mission of fostering and enacting citizenship skills. What else has changed? Id say that fewer artists and indy media makers share their work through Access TV now that they can distribute it via the internet. And media activists too have migrated to the web. On top of that, Access centers have been subjected to never ending series of budget cuts, alterations in franchise agreements, and changes in telecommunications policy that consistently favor corporate media over community media. Given all that its amazing that Access has survived and, in some places, even thrived. It gives me hope that community TV will find new and better ways of being a transceiver for our communities to speak to themselves about art, politics, and culture. jesikah maria ross December 20, 2011

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What is your name?

Whats the term radical media mean to you?

Describe your relationship to radical media practice

Jimmy Choi Kam Chuen very intimate at times and at other times very very remote

Hong Kong

Radical media is the use of media to effect social change for and with the underpreviliged.

Randi Cecchine New York

Radical Media is a term that any group could pick up and associate with their own meaning or cause. I consider myself a documentarian. I make videos because I like to learn about the world, to explore territory I know little about, to investigate with an open heart. My favorite documentaries are ones that start with something important to be investigated, and that reveal the layers of complexity associated with that topic. I find that so-called radical media often begins with a premise- begins with an idea that one wants to prove, and sets about to find the material to prove it. I dont like this kind of work as a viewer, or as a maker. I think that it simplifies reality, and doesnt help us learn or grow beyond what we already believe to be true. I learned a tremendous amount from Paper Tiger, and I also had to un-pack its ideological framework in order to grow beyond it. Absolutely important. Ive spent over 20 years working with youth and communities to help them pick apart mainstream media and find their own voice through media.

In the case of Paper Tiger, during the time I was involved, it meant a position that challenged the corporate media, primarily for being profit-driven, and that heralded community based media, mostly when it was fighting an entity of greater power. It also was about sharp critique articulated by academics. It encouraged community engagement, a sense of activist democracy, and associated itself with other like-minded organization.

To me, the term radical media it is much to vague. It alludes to a particular leftist orientation, but not in specific enough of a way for anyone to make much sense of it. It comes from a place of much struggle- fight- and conflict. But what does it stand FOR? I dont know.

Felicia Sullivan Boston, Mass

Radical in the true sense of looking at the root or core of things. Media that attempts to look at and question things from a critical perspective to get at the core.

pete tridish

Where are you now Pete? Philly & beyond.

like, dude, its when you rubberband your cell phone to your forehead when you are doing an ollie on your skateboard on a half pipe, and then you post it on youtube and tweet it to your homeslices. and they all say thats a radical video of you on your board, bro! fuckin sick, dude!

it sure is. corporate media train us to be consumers, and radical media trains us for everything else.

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Describe your relationship to radical media practice
it sure is. corporate media train us to be consumers, and radical media trains us for everything else. For myself, I have moved away from the hands on practice of producing work as I did when involved with Paper Tiger but it still is something I believe is important to us. I write about it often and have many friends involved with it. I tend to contribute when I can, but more important for me is situating it historically and theoretically. My relationship is to radical media is one of support, admiration, and engagement. I endeavor to support groups practicing it (financially, as a trainer/ consultant, via networking), i am inspired by the work, and when possible or called up i participate in making and circulating it!

What is your name?

Whats the term radical media mean to you?

DIANA CAROLINA BERMUDEZ S.

It has to do with the position assumed by the media against democratic processes over funding as a company, refers to the dichotomy between the right to the business and journalistic duty to put into practice the right of citizens to information facilitate the exercise of democracy.

Colombia ?

if you look at the newspaper must be half the term radical is redundant, but if you take into account that not all media has journalistic purposes, it is quite appropriate, because it delimits a stand. excuse my English

Mary Feaster New York City

Media produced outside of the traditional mainstream channels by a person or group of people with a real first person connection or interest in their particular subject, no media middle man interpreting the story. Its generally (but not always) shown or distributed by those people in some sort of alternative venue, be it public access TV or a small theater or community space or gallery. I believe the term radical media still has value.

Chris Rob Pembroke Pines, FL

jesikah maria ross

Davis, CA

Although I know that the term can apply to both progressive and conservative media, I tend to use it in regards to Left media that is based on alternative production models from the corporate media. In other words, the practices of the radical media groups are as important as the media produced. For me, radical media is a process, product, and movement. As a process, its about using media tools for sparking dialogue and action that lead to social change. As a product, its the the media piece created through a radical media process--usually generated to challenge mis/under-representation/marginalization in the media landscape and/or to advance social justice and community needs. And as a movement is a group of allies endeavoring to challenging corporate or other media systems that render most voices marginal in the public/larger media landscape. The shared theme is that radical media has a social change focus, it fosters agency, democracy, and inclusivity and it is practiced by a wild variety of makers with diverse intentions.

Whats changed? A ever-growing body of literature on it as well as many more folks engaging in it via new technologies--from smart phones to GIS systems to website and social networks.

What is your name?

Whats the term radical media mean to you?

Describe your relationship to radical media practice

Nathalie Magnan

Paris, France

its about collective self representation, its about rupture in what is said and how its said, its about savy distribution modes, its about media doing it for ourselves, ourselves being a political collective body. Its a necessity, a sane response to main stream difuse propaganda, its about understanding the rethoric lines produced by people who protects interest which arent commons, but their own.

radical media is a necessity, a continuous pactice through different modes from pirate tv, to hacking practices. A necessity to cut the flow of the redondant main media massage.

Its about finding camarads, community, common grounds.

Sarah Lewison you know where i am! Carbondale, IL

maria juliana byck

radical means to me that a kind of a line- spoken or unspoken -- delineated or not-- is being crossed. The line drawn by capitalist thought.. and it says that if it cant make money or support capitalism, it isnt going to go on. Radical means talking back to those ideological forces, and also creating horizontal communication systems that promote a just society. as far as media goes,certainly noncommercial,and then any kind of media that is produced and disseminated in unorthodox places, ways and channels, as well as things like ultra local radio, and publications coming from those who are least represented by mainstream commercial media. I also think that the other species in life are producing media- that they are communicating in their own ways, but that we are not sensitive to it. I think that is a radical idea.

i teach conventional tv production, so that is a good place to try to get students to question what they see on tv and to imagine a media that would align more with the truths of their lives. I also produce art that is intended to stretch the idea of what media is, and where communication happens

New York City

Media that gets to the root of the problems of a democracy dependent on mainstream, corporate, profit-driven media for information. . Today we have a completely new media landscape, ripe with opportunities for innovation and collaboration. We are now challenged to find inventive ways to use digital platforms to compile information/ideas into an accessible format that builds on the ideals of non-hierarchical-participatory culture, critical analysis, activism and innovative aesthetics

I believe that a more democratically controlled media is essential for information equity. People need to have access to a wide variety of perspectives in order to make informed decisions as citizens.

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Describe your relationship to radical media practice
I have participated in some radical media, but I rather participate in radical organizing. Radical media doesnt become radical by assuming different aesthetics, it becomes radical by questioning aesthetics For me, Radical media is sort of queer by way of medium and content. In many ways my activism, and critical thinking comes from a social/economic justice, antiracist queer perspective. By that I dont mean just a plain ol whitewashed sexuality based queer, but political, philosophical, cultural and counter cultural queer. There is no way I can separate my relationship to radical media from my understanding and deconstruction of the world through the queer perspective and its intersection with others mentioned. However, many others who are not framed by these perspectives make rad media too, so i do think there is no one single media practice that can fall into it. That said, I personally have become more interested in exploring radical media practices that fall outside of video art, which is how I was introduced to in college. I think fashion, rhetoric, behavior in public space, especially with new mobile technologies and its DIY reactionaries are important in the future of radical media. Making radical media is important to me because it allows me to continue to challenge, learn and share with others in the most fun of ways! I came to Paper Tiger without a background in video production and have learned so much- both technically and about what it is to be part of an alternative social structure.

What is your name?

Whats the term radical media mean to you?

Luhuna Carvalho

you know where to reach me

1 - media that truly tells whats happening 2 - media whose reflection is radical in the sense of going to the roots, and that enables people to see the bigger picture

Portugal

Patricia Gonzlez Ramrez

Brooklyn, NY

Radical media is a challenge of mainstream media. It challenges the status quo, the power structure and the creative possibilities. For me, Radical Media used to mean that it was really different from everything mainstream. Now I do not see it that way because I consume/make media that is outside of corporate media structures and the mainstream and I dont like to think of my cultural production as outside from anything normal just what I thing is right. Radical Media provides a necessary voice, a wide array of perspectives, but is in no way at the margins. I sort of see it as not partaking but still being close enough for those who also decide not to partake on the mainstream get it Does that make sense?

Nadia Mohamed

New York City

Radical media means media that challenges the structures of the what bell hooks calls the (imperialist) white supremacist capitalist patriarchy. It can be radical in both form, content and also how it is distributed.

I dont have grounded historical sense of how it has changed, but imagine it has much to do with the way media conglomerates have become larger and more powerful in the last 30 years, while new forms of creation and dissemination have arisen with the proliferation of media making devices and the rise of the internet.

What is your name? Describe your relationship to radical media practice

As an educator, organizer and filmmaker working in community media, I think my most radical practice is employing an approach that consciously subverts the teacher-student hierarchy and assiduously works to develop leadership within historically under-served and underrepresented communities including immigrants, low-income folks and public school students.

Whats the term radical media mean to you?

Carlos Pareja New York City

Since most communications media move from a period of amateur tinkering, developing, visioning to a time of severe corporate dominance and restrictive, closed platforms, I see radical media as a return to this origin of experimentation, openness and enthusiastic imagination.

Pennee Bender New York City

Continue to make media of all types that educates and inspires -- I see it as my lifes work.

Most of my inspiration comes from engaging with public media and the process of making and discussing media rather than specific writings.

Louis Massiah Philadelphia, PA

Radical Media is media that consciously helps re-create and reform society in a way that allows us all to be more human, more humane.

I aspire to create and help to facilitate the production of radical media. Yes, its important to me - as a maker, as a teacher and as an arts administrator.

Its media that based on self-determination, respect, connecting us to the planet, and to generations ahead, and the struggles and history before us.

Denise Gaberman

NSW, Australia

Something that is rarely seen in the mainstream/corporate media space but once you get a taste of it you know deep in your bones it is closer to the truth than what you have experienced before. My ideas about radical media always change- it is often dependent on the different cultural spaces I am in and what it means to others around me at the time. Sometimes radical media is seeing a different face/opinion represented in the mainstream media. Other times it is a community radio station or indy media center focused on representing the peoples views or covering a protest. Or Democracy Now reporting on stories that are buried in the mainstream. Other times it is a young person taking up a camera for the first time and creating something that is important to them.

yes definitely important to get a variety of viewpoints in the present and historical record. If we look at the world around us and only get one type of viewpoint our reality is completely distorted-and we make decision based on the things we see/hear. I feel it is our duty to get all stories represented so we can have a well-rounded worldview and act accordingly. We also need to be able to look back at our past to understand fully what was happening and not just the 1 percents priviledged account of the event.

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Describe your relationship to radical media practice
my life it is critical for all to practice radical media creation It is the air that I breathe, the work that I do, the thoughts that I think. My entire life is dedicated to presenting alternative views of reality, the human struggle to make our world a better, more thoughtful, democratic, beautiful and caring place. As Director of May First/People Link Im engaged in a particular part of radical media - the Internet. May First/People Link both builds the Internet as a space for radical political thought and action and participates in social and political movements locally, nationally and internationally. Ive been involved in producing, directing and/or consuming radical media in some form or another for a long time. The necessity for radical media became clear to me, when I witnessed the 1979 Revolution in Iran. I remember how revolutionary guards in parkas stormed the official government TV station and declared victory, as they pulled a suite and tie clad anchor off the stage. They felt the need to reform the existing media order. Sadly, one media was not really replaced by another that is much better. It was still state run and one-sided. I learned that when there is no progressive media that provides various view points and voices it is importance to know how to read between the lines. It is crucial to have radical media in place to open eyes, to ask questions, to widen horizons. In most places, unfortunately the media is not progressive and a radical media movement has to exist to push for progressive thought and media literacy. This is true especially in the United States, where media impacts not only our lives, but has an impact globally creating consumer culture and values everywhere.

What is your name?

Whats the term radical media mean to you?

Dee Dee Halleck Willow, NY

my life

jennifer whitburn

radical media is created by the people for the people and is antithetical to the mainstream corporate media.

Brooklyn, NY

Lauren-Glenn Davitian Burlington, VT

Radical media departs from the mainstream versions of reality designed to sell capitalist world view so that we buy more things and consume more resources. Radical media challenges the this ideology and promotes a world view inhabited by real people engaged in meaningful work and human relations.

Jamie McClelland

New York City

Radical media is media produced by individuals and organizations that are part of, and identify with, leftist political movements. Radical media is not independent of or separate from the movement.

Simin Minou Farkhondeh

New York City

Radical media is media that inspires thought, debate and action to improve our lives. Media that is empowering not intimidating. Media that is independent not underwritten by big corporate money. Media that is progressive.

What is your name? Describe your relationship to radical media practice

Whats the term radical media mean to you?

Kathleen Hulser

New York City

Skeptical, critical media that originally was outside the corporate mainstream, advertiser supported system. Originally radical media referred to the way the media was positioned in an overall system, as well as its content and the ideas of its producers and writers.

Now, the system is so different from when Paper Tiger and Deep Dish were founded, the term radical seems to refer more to stance of writers and less to the position of independent media, which is something many voices now have. Whether or not the many voices of the internet can or will be heard, clearly the platforms available now are huge.

Still like, it, read, it, practice it, teach it. As a teacher and a mother, the notions of questioning, testing ideas, not taking the world at face value, probing the spin and superficially polished statements of elected leaders and pundits are a fundamental part of exercising citizenship in a democracy. This democracy is threatened by newly insidious ways of creating a semblance of free forums and open debate which are biased, planned, cooked and spun so carefully they make Kraft single cheese slices look like organic food. In this Orwellian atmosphere, the habits of radical media are indispensable for a civic order in which power must be ultimately traced back to the people.

Certainly radical media has been a huge success in advocating for free, open access information -- although it is always an on-going fight. But many people who would not see themselves as kin to the founding core of Paper Tigers firmly believe in the principles of open access and have powerful and active commitments to First Amendment Rights that can in part be attributed to the vigor of radical media in the preceding generation.

Adriene Jenik

Phoenix, AZ

Radical media is media that exists outside the corporate media structure and has the primary purpose of questioning and examining and shining light on the military-academic-prison-industrial complex that sets the underlying assumptions through which media operates.

This is very important to me since our communications, relationships, and learning are increasingly mediated experiences, thus the hegemony of the mainstream media perspective and structures is all the more powerful in shaping what and how we think and who we are. Very important and something Ive worked on all my life.

Jesse Drew Davis, CA

Media that is created to change society in a meaningful and deep way.

Lisa Rudman Oakland, CA

media that both in process and in final pieces produced looks at roots at deep change; Radical Media explores outta the box processes and methods as well as deep thinking on issues and stories. Radical medai makes sure people can speak from their direct experiences.

Yes its important to me although i myself often have to fall short of what id consider radical media making. I think changing the way we communicate with one another is central to making change in all other spheres. Radical media questions all the dominant paradigms and explores solutions so we can remain inspired and mobilized...

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Describe your relationship to radical media practice
I have worked as a media maker, scholar and teacher trying to raise the question of radical media and what the possibilities and potentialities are for radical counter-media practice. I have made film and video work across a range of forms and technologies, from personal fine art and experimental forms, to more public activist contexts. I also write film and media criticism theorizing work I consider to be radical media that I wish to bring to public attention. I have also experimented with different kinds of exhibition contexts for my own work and others as a way of making a social context for people to actively experience counter-media together as viewer/participants. As teacher I am primarily committed to teaching media as a form of praxis moving between making and scholarship as media study. Today I see teaching radical media praxis within the university context to be a form of political activism. All of this has been at the center of my life for nearly 30 years and yes, its very important to me. cont from left column: In doing all of this, Radical media works to dislodge sedimented and habituated modes of perception and thought, which cause us to see, hear and think passively. Radical media brings people together to think, discuss and (hopefully) act on the questions and ideas that are raised in/by/through the medium. Radical media is part of a process of coming to know something rather than simply telling something that is already known or presumed to be known. Radical media challenges us to think about the nature of our experiences, our perceptions and the condition of the worlds around us and others. I think most of these ideas have been the basis of thinking about the notion of a radical media practice since the early 20th century if not before. Perhaps the biggest change, Ive seen has been that there are many more people making radical media and in myriad forms, contexts and technologies than ever before. The level of invention, the range of issues contexts and approach is staggering. No one can keep up with the extraordinary range of radical media practices going on across the globe. This has made for greater openness and receptivity toward the creative and aesthetic possibilities for radical media allowing more hybridization of genres, technologies and modes of dissemination. There is no longer a single position on what kind of work or correct approach is understood to be socially and politically transformative, as some have argued in the past. No longer are there grand claims for what radical media is or must be. Rather each of the many practices that exist today is being understood in its own context as a modest contribution to the larger radical struggle for social and cultural change. Finally!

What is your name?

Whats the term radical media mean to you?

Jeffrey Skoller

Berkley, CA

I think Godards old adage, Not to make political films, but rather to make films politically still embodies many of my ideas about radical media practice. This is to say, that to make radical media, we must respond to the constantly transforming social needs, political, economic realities and cultural contexts that surround it. Radical media is a form of praxis--at once theory and practice. Such praxis challenges media makers and their audiences to engage intellectually, strategically and to participate critically with what is being made. Radical media is not just the subject matter of the work. It embodies all the elements that mediate the meanings that are made, from its modes of production, to its disseminationincluding technologies used to make and present, forms of distribution, exhibition and other forms of access. Beyond the work itself, radical media also concerns the facilitation of a critical context in which people can actively work on and through these materials in collective and personal ways.

Radical Media uses formal/aesthetic means to explore and imagine transforming social and political formations and power structures and that challenge dominant modes of perception-the lens through we perceive the world, and it, in turn perceives us. Accordingly Radical media is constantly experimenting and inventing new ways to adequately represent the subjects and issues it is working on. In this way, radical media challenges dominant modes of production and reveals new ways of using the technologies that mediate our perceptions, our ways of seeing, hearing, speaking. But what is understood to be radical practice in one medium, may not be radical media in another. What makes media radically engaging in one political or cultural context, may be very different in another. Radical media makers are tactical and strategic employing different forms and technologies that best meet the needs of the audiences, movements, communities, that the media is trying to engage. In this sense, Radical media is site specific, contextually and culturally specific. Radical media is not a numbers game. Neo-liberal models for effective cultural engineering and financial return cant be the only metric for political impact. How many people see/hear the work, is not necessarily the measure of its impact or importance. Rather it is what people take with them from the work, is the point, be it seven people or seven million. (response cont in next column)

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W E A R E N O T O U R S E L V E S . .

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Computers Are A Girls Best Friend lyrics, Praba Pilar sung to the tune of Diamonds Are A Girls Best Friend They say us girls will die for love and swoon for a mans erection Girl, I just say to hell with men Give me wireless connection A kiss on the lips may be quite elemental but Computers Are A Girls Best Friend.
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A kiss can be bland, and it wont pay the rental for a new laptop, or help you with a web cam pop Men grow cold as girls grow old and he cant get it up in the end. But on sound cards and desktops hard drives dont lose their props Computers Are A Girls Best Friend ... DELL ... Microsoft ... Xe--RoxHewlett Packard... Talk to me, Fiona, tell me all about it! There may come a time when a gal needs a cover CComputers Are A Girls Best Friend. There may be some cheating you need to uncover, its your behind, spying is fine when youre online. Download music and cable shows but beware when cyber cops descend, Just send on those louses straight back to their mouses Computers Are A Girls Best Friend. Ive heard of a life before HTTP Computers Are A Girls Best Friend. Ive heard of a time before T1 lines, or cable Tell you right now, just the thought of that makes me unstable Time rolls on and youth is gone and you cant straighten up when you sleep but stiff wrists or stiff necks are worth being a wreck Computers... Computers... I dont mean the users but Computers, Are A Girls Best Best Friend.
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Computers Are A Girls Best Friend, by Praba Pilar

I was driving through the gritty streets of East Oakland in 2003, trying to nd a cheap radiologist Id been referred to for a mammogram when I heard a man over the radio talking about Marilyn Monroe, the diamond industry, and seedy cover ups. Altogether it sounded like a snow job Id been exposed to again and again.

acquire, update, upgrade, upload, download, unload, and reload.

He was talking about the movie Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. I saw it when I was around 12 years old, ogling the impossibly platinum Marilyn Monroe with her oozing femininity and her raunchy glamour as she chased the ugly old man who gave her the most beautiful of diamonds. And yes, as a young girl, I sang along with the theme song, Diamonds are A Girls Best Friend, coupling diamonds and women forever in my young mind. Ill never know who was on the radio that day, but he led me to Edward Jay Epsteins book, The Rise and Fall of the Diamond, and what he lays out piqued my interest. Epstein describes how the De Beers diamond cartel of South Africa helped nance lms like Gentlemen Prefer Blondes as part of a nely orchestrated campaign to drive up demand for diamonds. De Beerss advertising agency came up with a strategy in the 1930s to exploit what was then the exciting new medium of motion pictures. The agency contacted writers and directors to arrange for scenes and songs featuring diamonds to be inserted into lms. De Beers also gave diamonds away to hot celebrities, as symbols of indestructible love that would spur further sales. De Beers advertising campaign had many fronts, and they were very successful at driving up demand in a very short time - just between 1938 and 1941, diamond sales went up 55 percent. By 1980, sales had gone from $23 million in 1939 to over $2 billion. This put me in mind of the personal computer industry, and the hyped up hoopla Ive been spoonfed over the whole arc of the personal computer boom. For years Ive heard the relentless chants of the heralds of the information revolution - acquire, update, upgrade, upload, download, unload, reload. Apple and Microsoft promised a revolution in all senses of our lives, born of a computer in every home. It was a good strategy for moving product, and moving product is what they did. In tempo with the breathless incantations of the glory of the information revolution, hundreds of millions of personal computers were sold within the United States over the last ve years. Diamonds have always been marketed as cool, smooth, impeccable gems, appearing in very glamorous or romantic settings. Underlying these fancy rocks are grossly oppressive conditions under which diamonds are mined and cut. Much of the mining work is unhealthy, unsafe and dangerous. Many of the countries where diamonds are extracted end up poor. Consumers dont
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computer manufacturing has created its own oceans of toxicity

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know a thing about the diamond cutting industry, which employs children in slave conditions. Consumers never get a glimpse of the conict diamonds imbroglio that European diamond traders play along with. Like the ugly and well hidden mining secrets of the diamond industry, computer manufacturing has created its own oceans of toxicity. Silicon Valley, birthplace of the electronics industry, now has twenty nine Super Fund sites and 150 groundwater contamination sites. The Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition warns that electronic waste is the most rapidly growing waste problem in the world. Toxic ingredients such as lead, beryllium, mercury, cadmium and brominated ame retardants are being exported from the First World to the Third for disposal. These e-waste operations in the Third World are extremely polluting and damaging to health through exposing workers and their children to toxic solvents, the open burning of plastic waste, river dumping of acids and wide spread general dumping. Theres a funny thing about diamond rings. Contrary to the hype of the Diamonds Are Forever campaign, diamond jewelry has very little resale value, another parallel with personal computers with their 18 month life cycles. By 2004 the US had over 315 million obsolete computers. Even worse, the International Association of Electronics Recyclers noted in its 2004 report that about one billion units of computer equipment will be trashed between 2004 and 2010. Then theres the whole womens liberation shtick I remember hearing about. Computers were going to take us beyond gender and free us up. Well, things are not really quite like that in the information technology age. Its like that old saying, la misma mierda, diferente olor. (same old shit, different odor.) The fact is, womens work with computers is concentrated in clerical work. United Nations and Agency for International Development reports show that women are employed in end user, lower skilled information technology jobs related to word processing or data entry and make up small percentages of managerial, maintenance, and design personnel in networks operating systems or software. Very few women are actually producers of information technology, whether as Internet content providers, programmers, designers, inventors or xers of computers. Women are absent from decision making structures: from the boards and senior management of private IT companies; from senior management and advisors of policy and regulatory organizations such as the International Telecommunication Union, the World Trade Organization, the World Intellectual Property Organization; from technical standards setting organizations, industry and professional organizations such as the internet society, national policy and regulatory organizations; and from international development organizations and agencies. Looking at the bigger picture, information technology greatly facilitates the transfer of goods, services and
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The Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition warns that electronic waste is the most rapidly growing waste problem in the world.

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nance around the world, thereby facilitating globalization - a process that has been none too kind to women worldwide.

one billion units of computer equipment will be trashed between 2004 and 2010
What about the Internet and the Web? Isnt that the level playing eld weve been dreaming of? Cant we be equal, free from the bias surrounding race, class and gender? Free from ever present patriarchy? In much of the world, women lack access to literacy and education, making up nearly two-thirds of the worlds illiterate. One out of every two women in developing countries is illiterate. One needs basic literacy and basic numeracy in order to write or read emails, to navigate the Internet, or surf the World Wide Web. Women lack the time to learn and operate the equipment, and lack the money to pay for it, while they often are prevented access to community centers by cultural and social norms. Most women around the world dont speak the primary language of information technology: English. Reports keep coming out of the United Nations pointing out that poverty, and lack of literacy, education, healthcare, and employment are still prominent in the lives of women around the world. These are not being addressed nor solved by our current formulation of information and communications technologies. Furthermore, the web is being used in various ways as a tool in the prostitution of women, with global sex syndicates recruiting women from all over the globe. Womenspace.org has posted reports on how pimps now use the web to stalk, sell and exploit women, enabling sex tourism and the meeting of mail order brides. There is increased trafcking of women online, a further globalization of the sex trade, with the use of this communications tool for sexual exploitation. In some ways this emerging ubiquitous cybersexuality leads en-abled to consume but dis-abled to create, to a divorce away from copulation and the corpo- disseminate and control the technology real into a telesexuality and telerelating that isnt going to improve the status of women around the world. If anything, it seems that more visible forms of subjugation of women are proliferated through readily available pornographic sites. With women shut out of the power centers of this technological shift, we will be en-abled to consume but dis-abled to create, disseminate and control the technology. We will be dis-abled to create alternatives to current status quo of environmental damages caused by the manufacturing, consumption and disposal of computers and the hazardous e-waste dumping in the Third World. If so, then perhaps computers, like diamonds, will turn out not to be a girls best friend.

Reprinted from Cyberlabia: gendered thoughts & conversations on cyberspace available for download at www.prabapilar.com Praba Pilar, a Bay Area/Colombian multi-disciplinary artist, explores the intersections of art, science,technology and community through site installations, public art, performances, streettheatre, writing and websites. She is a Phd. candidate in Performance Studies at UC Davis.

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ES DEMASIADO

de Jesusa Rodrguez y Liliana Felipe interpreta Denisse Villuendas Listen & sing along to this tune / Escucha y canta con la cancin http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjIOM9e7ROg
Demasiada riqueza en manos de pocos, demasiado voraces Demasiada rapia, demasiada codicia, demasiada usura Demasiada miseria pa ser los dueos de tanta feria Demasiado gandallas para ser hermanas de la caridad Demasiada mentira, demasiada calumnia, demasiada patraa Demasiado cinismo, demasiada censura, demasiada basura Demasiado canallas pa ser los hroes de la pantalla Demasiado mediocres para ser los dueos de la realidad Es demasiado, demasiado pa vivir engaados Demasiado quedarnos callados Nos llegaron hasta aqu ( x2 ) Nos censura, no ms basura Aqu se va acabar la teledictadura! Nos censura, no ms basura Aqu se va acabar la teledictadura ( x2 ) (SE REPITE TODO)

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The Radio as an Apparatus of Communication -excerpt

Bertolt Brecht 1932
In our society one can invent and perfect discoveries that still have to conquer their market and justify their existence; in other words discoveries that have not been called for. Thus there was a moment when technology was advanced enough to produce the radio and society was not yet advanced enough to accept it. The radio was then in its first phase of being a substitute: a substitute for theatre, opera, concerts, lectures, cafe music, local newspapers and so forth. This was the patients period of halcyon youth. I am not sure if it is finished yet, but if so then this stripling who needed no certificate of competence to be born will have to start looking retrospectively for an object in life. Just as a man will begin asking at a certain age, when his first innocence has been lost, what he is supposed to be doing in the world. As for the radios object, I dont think it can consist simply in prettifying public life. Nor is radio in my view an adequate means of bringing back cosiness to the home and making family life bearable again. But quite apart from the dubiousness of its functions, radio is one-sided when it should be ttwo It is purely an apparatus for distribution, for mere sharing out. So here is a positive suggestion: change this apparatus over from distribution to communication. The radio would be the finest possible communication apparatus in public life, a vast network of pipes. That is to say, it would be if it knew how to receive as well as to transmit, how to let the listener speak as well as hear, how to bring him into a relationship instead of isolating him. On this principle the radio should step out of the supply business and organize its listeners as suppliers. Any attempt by the radio to give a truly public character to public occasions is a step in the right direction. Whatever the radio sets out to do it must strive to combat that lack of consequences which makes such asses of almost all our public institutions. We have a literature without consequences, which not only itself sets out to lead nowhere, but does all it can to neutralize its readers by depicting each object and situation stripped of the consequences to which they lead. We have educational establishments without consequences, working frantically to hand on an education that leads nowhere and has come from nothing. The slightest advance in this direction is bound to succeed far more spectacularly than any performance of a culinary kind. As for the technique that needs to be developed for all such operations, it must follow the prime objective of turning the audience not only into pupils but into teachers. It is the radios formal task to give these educational operations an interesting turn, i.e. to ensure that these interests interest people. Such an attempt by the radio to put its instruction into an artistic form would link up with the efforts of modern artists to give art an instructive character. As an example or model of the exercises possible along these lines let me repeat the explanation of Der Flug der Lindberghs that I gave at the BadenBaden music festival of 1929. [Brecht repeats here the second, third and fifth paragraphs of An Example of Pedagogics] In obedience to the principle that the State shall be rich and man shall be poor, that the State shall be obliged to have many possibilities and man shall be allowed to have few possibilities, where music is concerned the State shall furnish whatever

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needs special apparatus and special abilities; the individual, however, shall furnish an exercise. Free-roaming feelings aroused by music, special thoughts such as may be entertained when listening to music, physical exhaustion such as easily arises just from listening to music, are all distractions from music. To avoid these distractions the individual shares in the music, thus obeying the principle that doing is better than feeling, by following the music with his eyes as printed, and contributing the parts and places reserved for him by singing them for himself or in conjunction with others (school class). Der Flug der Lindberghs is not intended to be of use to the present-day radio but to alter it. The increasing concentration of mechanical means and the increasingly specialized training--tendencies that should be accelerated--call for a kind of resistance by the listener, and for his mobilization and redrafting as a producer. This exercise is an aid to discipline, which is the basis of freedom. The individual will reach spontaneously for a means to pleasure, but not for an object of instruction that offers him neither profit nor social advantages. Such exercises only serve the individual in so far as they serve the State,a nd they only serve a State that wishes to serve all men equally. Thus Der Flug der Lindberghs has no aesthetic and no revolutionary value independently of its application, and only the State can organize this. Its proper application, however, makes it so revolutionary that the present-day State has no interest in sponsoring such exercises. This is an innovation, a suggestion that seems utopian and that I myself admit to be utopian. When I say that the radio or the theatre could do so-and-so I am aware that these vast institutions cannot do all they could, and not even all they want. But it is not at all our job to renovate ideological institutions on the basis of the existing social order by means of innovations. Instead our innovations must force them to surrender that basis. So: For innovations, against renovation! [Der Rundfunk als Kommunikationsapparat in Bjitter des Hessischen Landestheaters Darmstadt, No. 16, July 1932]

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Constituents of a Theory of the Media (1970) [excerpt]

Hans Magnus Enzensberger
1. With the development of the electronic media, the industry that shapes consciousness has become the pacemaker for the social and economic development of societies in the late industrial age. It infiltrates into all other sectors of production, takes over more and more directional and control functions, and determines the standard of the prevailing technology. In lieu of normative definitions, here is an incomplete list of new developments which have emerged in the last twenty years: news satellites, color television, cable relay television, cassettes, videotape, videotape recorders, video-phones, stereophony, laser techniques, electrostatic reproduction processes, electronic high-speed printing, composing and learning machines, microfiches with electronic access, printing by radio, time-sharing computers, data banks. All these new forms of media are constantly forming new connections both with each other and with older media like printing, radio, film, television, telephone, teletype, radar, and so on. They are clearly coming together to form a universal system. [...] So far there is no Marxist theory of the media. There is therefore no strategy one can apply in this area. Uncertainty, alternations between fear and surrender, mark the attitude of the socialist Left to the new productive forces of the media industry. The ambivalence of this attitude merely mirrors the ambivalence of the media themselves without mastering it. It could only be overcome by releasing the emancipatory potential which is inherent in the new productive forces a potential which capitalism must sabotage just as surely as Soviet revisionism, because it would endanger the rule of both systems. [...] 2. For the first time in history, the media are making possible mass participation in a social and socialized productive process, the practical means of which are in the hands of the masses themselves. Such a use of them would bring the communications media, which up to now have not deserved the name, into their own. In its present form, equipment like television or film does not serve communication but prevents it. It allows no reciprocal action between transmitter and receiver; technically speaking, it reduces feedback to the lowest point compatible with the system. This state of affairs, however, cannot be justified technically. On the contrary. Electronic techniques recognize no contradiction in principle between transmitter and receiver. Every transistor radio is, by the nature of its construction, at the same time a potential transmitter; it can interact with other receivers by circuit reversal. The development from a mere distribution medium to a communications medium is technically not a problem. It is consciously prevented for understandable political reasons. The technical distinction between receivers and transmitters reflects the social division of labor into producers and consumers, which in the consciousness industry becomes of particular political importance. It is based, in the last analysis, on the basic contradiction between the ruling class and the ruled class that is to say, between monopoly capital or monopolistic bureaucracy on the one hand and the dependent masses on the other. This structural analogy can be worked out in detail. To the programs offered by the broadcasting cartels there correspond the politics offered by a power cartel consisting of parties constituted along authoritarian lines. In both cases marginal differences in their platforms reflect a competitive relationship which on essential questions is nonexistent. Minimal independent activity on the part of the voter/viewer is desired. As is the case with parliamentary elections under the two-party system, the feedback is reduced to indices. Training in decision making is reduced to the response to a single, three-point switching process: Program 1; Program 2; Switch off (abstention). [...] 3. The electronic media have not only built up the information network intensively, they have also spread it extensively. The radio wars of the fifties demonstrated that in the realm of communications, national sovereignty is condemned to wither away. The further development of satellites will deal it the coup de grce. Quarantine regulations for information, such as were promulgated by fascism and Stalinism, are only possible today at the cost of deliberate industrial regression.

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[...] 4. The electronic media do away with cleanliness; they are by their nature dirty. That is part of their productive power. In terms of structure, they are antisectarian a further reason why the Left, insofar as it is not prepared to re-examine its traditions, has little idea what to do with them. The desire for a cleanly defined line and for the suppression of deviations is anachronistic and now serves only one's own need for security. It weakens one's own position by irrational purges, exclusions, and fragmentation, instead of strengthening it by rational discussion. [...] 5. Manipulation etymologically, handling means technical treatment of a given material with a particular goal in mind. When the technical intervention is of immediate social relevance, then manipulation is a political act. In the case of the media industry, that is by definition the case. Thus every use of the media presupposes manipulation. The most elementary processes in media production, from the choice of the medium itself to shooting, cutting, synchcronization, dubbing, right up to distribution, are all operations carried out on the raw material. There is no such thing as unmanipulated writing, filming, or broadcasting. The question is therefore not whether the media are manipulated, but who manipulates them. A revolutionary plan should not require the Manipulators to disappear; on the contrary, it must make everyone a manipulator. [...] 6. The new media are egalitarian in structure. Anyone can take part in them by a simple switching process. The programs themselves are not material things and can be reproduced at will. In this sense the electronic media are entirely different from the older media like the book or the easel painting, the exclusive class character of which is obvious. Television programs for privileged groups are certainly technically conceivable closed circuit television but run counter to the structure. Potentially, the new media do away with all educational privileges and thereby with the cultural monopoly of the bourgeois intelligentsia. This is one of the reasons for the intelligentsia's resentment against the new industry. As for the spirit which they are endeavoring to defend against depersonalization and mass culture, the sooner they abandon it the better. [...] 7. The new media are oriented towards action, not contemplation; towards the present, not tradition. Their attitude to time is completely opposed to that of bourgeois culture, which aspires to possession, that is to extension in time, best of all, to eternity. The media produce no objects that can be hoarded and auctioned. They do away completely with intellectual property and liquidate the heritage, that is to say, the class-specific handing-on of nonmaterial capital. That does not mean to say that they have no history or that they contribute to the loss of historical consciousness. On the contrary, they make it possible for the first time to record historical material so that it can be reproduced at will. By making this material available for present-day purposes, they make it obvious to anyone using it that the writing of history is always manipulation. But the memory they hold in readiness is not the preserve of a scholarly caste. It is social. The banked information is accessible to anyone, and this accessibility is as instantaneous as its recording. It suffices to compare the model of a private library with that of a socialized data bank to recognize the structural difference between the two Systems. [...] 8. It is wrong to regard media equipment as mere means of consumption. It is always, in principle, also means of production

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and, indeed, since it is in the hands of the masses, socialized means of production. The contradiction between producers and consumers is not inherent in the electronic media; on the contrary, it has to be artificially reinforced by economic and administrative measures. [...] 9. One immediate consequence of the structural nature of the new media is that none of the regimes at present in power can release their potential. Only a free socialist society will be able to make them fully productive. A further characteristic of the most advanced media probably the decisive one confirms this thesis: their collective structure. [...] 10. Any socialist strategy for the media must, on the contrary, strive to end the isolation of the individual participants from the social learning and production process. This is impossible unless those concerned organize themselves. This is the political core of the question of the media. It is over this point that socialist concepts part company with the neo-liberal and technocratic ones. Anyone who expects to be emancipated by technological hardware, or by a system of hardware however structured, is the victim of an obscure belief in progress. Anyone who imagines that freedom for the media will be established if only everyone is busy transmitting and receiving is the dupe of a liberalism which, decked out in contemporary colors, merely peddles the faded concepts of a preordained harmony of social interests. [...] 11. [...] But it is the harbinger of something else. Consumption as spectacle contains the promise that want will disappear. The deceptive, brutal, and obscene features of this festival derive from the fact that there can be no question of a real fulfillment of its promise. But so long as scarcity holds sway, use-value remains a decisive category which, can only be abolished by trickery.Yet trickery on such a scale is only conceivable if it is based on mass need. This need it is a utopian one is there. It is the desire for a new ecology, for a breaking down of environmental barriers, for an aesthetic which is not limited to the sphere of the artistic. These desires are not or are not primarily internalized rules of the game as played by the capitalist system. They have physiological roots and can no longer be suppressed. Consumption as spectacle is in parody form the anticipation of a utopian situation. [...] 12. Summary Repressive use of media Centrally controlled program One transmitter, many receivers Immobilization of isolated individuals Passive consumer behavior feedback Depoliticization Production by specialists Control by property owners or Emancipatory use of media Decentralized program Each receiver a potential transmitter Mobilization of the masses Interaction of those involved, A political learning process Collective production Social control by self-organization bureaucracy

Source: John G. Hanhardt (Hg.), Video Culture A Critical Investigation, 1986, Text corrected.

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For an imperfect cinema

by Julio Garca Espinosa, translated by Julianne Burton
from Jump Cut, no. 20, 1979, pp. 24-26 copyright Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media, 1979, 2005 This translation, based on the original essay as published in number 66/67 of Cine cubano, is substantially different from the other English-language version published in the summer 1971 issue of the now defunct British film magazine Afterimage, where various sentences and paragraphs were omitted with no acknowledgment of the deletions. Excerpt: On the level of cultural policy we are faced with a serious problem: the film school. Is it right to continue developing a handful of film specialists? It seems inevitable for the present, but what will be the eternal quarry that we continue to mine: the students in Arts and Letters at the University? But shouldnt we begin to consider right now whether that school should have a limited lifespan? What end do we pursue there a reserve corps of future artists? Or a specialized future public? We should be asking ourselves whether we can do something now to abolish this division between artistic and scientific culture. What constitutes in fact the true prestige of artistic culture, and how did it come about that this prestige was allowed to appropriate the whole concept of culture? Perhaps it is based on the enormous prestige which the spirit has always enjoyed at the expense of the body. Hasnt artistic culture always been seen as the spiritual part of society while scientific culture is seen as its body? The traditional rejection of the body, of material life, is due in part to the concept that things of the spirit are more elevated, more elegant, serious and profound. Cant we, here and now, begin doing something to put an end to this artificial distinction? We should understand from here on in that the body and the things of the body are also elegant, and that material life is beautiful as well. We should understand that, in fact, the soul is contained in the body just as the spirit is contained in material life, just as to speak in strictly artistic terms the essence is contained in the surface and the content in the form. We should endeavor to see that our future students, and therefore our future filmmakers, will themselves be scientists, sociologists, physicians, economists, agricultural engineers, etc., without of course ceasing to be filmmakers. And, at the same time, we should have the same aim for our most outstanding workers, the workers who achieve the best results in terms of political and intellectual formation. We cannot develop the taste of the masses as long as the division between the two cultures continues to exist, nor as long as the masses are not the real masters of the means of artistic production. The revolution has liberated us as an artistic sector. It is only logical that we contribute to the liberation of the private means of artistic production. A new poetics for the cinema will, above all, be a partisan and committed poetics, a committed art, a consciously and resolutely committed cinema that is to say, an imperfect cinema. An impartial or uncommitted (cinema), as a complete aesthetic activity, will only be possible when it is the people who make art. But today art must assimilate its quota of work so that work can assimilate its quota of art. The motto of this imperfect cinema (which theres no need to invent, since it already exists) is, as Glauber Rocha would say, We are not interested in the problems of neurosis; we are interested in the problems of lucidity. Art no longer has use for the neurotic and his problems, although the neurotic continues to need art as a concerned object, a relief, an alibi or, as Freud would say, as a sublimation of his problems. A neurotic can produce art, but art has no reason to produce neurotics. It has been traditionally believed that the concerns of art were not to be found in the sane but in the sick, not in the normal but in the abnormal, not in those who struggle but in those who weep, not in lucid minds but in neurotic ones. Imperfect cinema is changing this way

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of seeing the question. We have more faith in the sick man than in the healthy one because his truth is purged by suffering. However, there is no need for suffering to be synonymous with artistic elegance. There is still a trend in modern art undoubtedly related to Christian tradition which identifies seriousness with suffering. The specter of Marguerite Gautier still haunts artistic endeavor in our day. Only in the person who suffers do we perceive elegance, gravity, even beauty; only in him do we recognize the possibility of authenticity, seriousness, sincerity. Imperfect cinema must put an end to this tradition. Imperfect cinema finds a new audience in those who struggle, and it finds its themes in their problems. For imperfect cinema, lucid people are the ones who think and feel and exist in a world which they can change. In spite of all the problems and difficulties, they are convinced that they can transform it in a revolutionary way. Imperfect cinema therefore has no need to struggle to create an audience. On the contrary, it can be said that at present a greater audience exists for this kind of cinema than there are filmmakers able to supply that audience. What does this new interlocutor require of us an art full of moral examples worthy of imitation? No. Man is more of a creator than an innovator. Besides, he should be the one to give us moral examples. He might ask us for a fuller, more complete work, aimed in a separate or coordinated fashion at the intelligence, the emotions, the powers of intuition. Should he ask us for a cinema of denunciation? Yes and no. No, if the denunciation is directed toward the others, if it is conceived that those who are not struggling might sympathize with us and increase their awareness. Yes, if the denunciation acts as information, as testimony, as another combat weapon for those engaged in the struggle. Why denounce imperialism to show one more time that it is evil? Whats the use if those now fighting are fighting primarily against imperialism? We can denounce imperialism but should strive to do it as a way of proposing concrete battles. A film which denounces those who struggle against the evil deeds of an official who must be executed would be an excellent example of this kind of film-denunciation. We maintain that imperfect cinema must above all show the process which generates the problems. It is thus the opposite of a cinema principally dedicated to celebrating results, the opposite of a self-sufficient and contemplative cinema, the opposite of a cinema which beautifully illustrates ideas or concepts which we already possess. (The narcissistic posture has nothing to do with those who struggle.) To show a process is not exactly equivalent to analyzing it. To analyze, in the traditional sense of the word, always implies a closed prior judgment. To analyze a problem is to show the problem (not the process) permeated with judgments which the analysis itself generates a priori. To analyze is to block off from the outset any possibility for analysis on the part of the interlocutor. To show the process of a problem, on the other hand, is to submit it to judgment without pronouncing the verdict. There is a style of news reporting which puts more emphasis on the commentary than on the news item. There is another kind of reporting which presents the news and evaluates it through the arrangement of the item on the page or by its position in the paper. To show the process of a problem is like showing the very development of the news item, without commentary; it is like showing the multi-faceted evolution of a piece of information without evaluating it. The subjective element is the selection of the problem, conditioned as it is by the interest of the audience which is the subject. The objective element is showing the process which is the object. Imperfect cinema is an answer, but it is also a question which will discover its own answers in the course of its development. Imperfect cinema can make use of the documentary or the fictional mode, or both. It can use whatever genre, or all genres. It can use cinema as a pluralistic art form or as a specialized form of expression. These questions are indifferent to it, since they do not represent its real alternatives or problems, and much less its real goals. These are not the battles or polemics it is interested in sparking.

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Imperfect cinema can also be enjoyable, both for the maker and for its new audience. Those who struggle do not struggle on the edge of life, but in the midst of it. Struggle is life and vice versa. One does not stuggle in order to live later on. The struggle requires organization the organization of life. Even in the most extreme phase, that of total and direct war, the organization of life is equivalent to the organization of the struggle. And in life, as in the struggle, there is everything, including enjoyment. Imperfect cinema can enjoy itself despite everything that conspires to negate enjoyment. Imperfect cinema rejects exhibitionism in both (literal) senses of the word, the narcissistic and the commercial (getting shown in established theaters and circuits). It should be remembered that the death of the star-system turned out to be a positive thing for art. There is no reason to doubt that the disappearance of the director as star will fail to offer similar prospects. Imperfect cinema must start work now, in cooperation with sociologists, revolutionary leaders, psychologists, economists, etc. Furthermore, imperfect cinema rejects whatever services criticism has to offer and considers the function of mediators and intermediaries anachronistic. Imperfect cinema is no longer interested in quality or technique. It can be created equally well with a Mitchell or with an 8mm camera, in a studio or in a guerrilla camp in the middle of the jungle. Imperfect cinema is no longer interested in predetermined taste, and much less in good taste. It is not quality which it seeks in an artists work. The only thing it is interested in is how an artist responds to the following question: What are you doing in order to overcome the barrier of the cultured elite audience which up to now has conditioned the form of your work? The filmmaker who subscribes to this new poetics should not have personal self-realization as his object. From now on he should also have another activity. He should place his role as revolutionary or aspiring revolutionary above all else. In a word, he should try to fulfill himself as a man and not just as an artist, that its essential goal as a new poetics is to disappear. It is no longer a matter of replacing one school with another, one ism with another, poetry with anti-poetry, but of truly letting a thousand different flowers bloom. The future lies with folk art. But let us no longer display folk art with demagogic pride, with a celebrative air. Let us exhibit it instead as a cruel denunciation, as a painful testimony to the level at which the peoples of the world have been forced to limit their artistic creativity. The future, without doubt, will be with folk art, but then there will be no need to call it that, because nobody and nothing will any longer be able to again paralyze the creative spirit of the people. Art will not disappear into nothingness; it will disappear into everything. Havana, December 7, 1969

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Towards a Third Cinema

by Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino
...we must discuss, we must invent... Frantz Fanon
Just a short time ago it would have seemed like a Quixotic adventure in the colonized, neo-colonized, or even the imperialist nations themselves to make any attempt to create films of decolonization that turned their back on or actively opposed the System. Until recently, film had been synonymous with spectacle or entertainment: in a word, it was one more consumer good. At best, films succeeded in bearing witness to the decay of bourgeois values and testifying to social injustice. As a rule, films only dealt with effect, never with cause; it was cinema of mystification or anti-historicism. It was surplus value cinema. Caught up in these conditions, films, the most valuable tool of communication of our times, were destined to satisfy only the ideological and economic interests of the owners of the film industry, the lords of the world film market, the great majority of whom were from the United States. Was it possible to overcome this situation? How could the problem of turning out liberating films be approached when costs came to several thousand dollars and the distribution and exhibition channels were in the hands of the enemy? How could the continuity of work be guaranteed? How could the public be reached? How could System-imposed repression and censorship be vanquished? These questions, which could be multiplied in all directions, led and still lead many people to scepticism or rationalization: revolutionary cinema cannot exist before the revolution; revolutionary films have been possible only in the liberated countries; without the support of revolutionary political power, revolutionary cinema or art is impossible. The mistake was due to taking the same approach to reality and films as did the bourgeoisie. The models of production, distribution, and exhibition continued to be those of Hollywood precisely because, in ideology and politics, films had not yet become the vehicle for a clearly drawn differentiation between bourgeois ideology and politics. A reformist policy, as manifested in dialogue with the adversary, in coexistence, and in the relegation of national contradictions to those between two supposedly unique blocs - the USSR and the USA - was and is unable to produce anything but a cinema within the System itself. At best, it can be the progressive wing of Establishment cinema. When all is said and done, such cinema was doomed to wait until the world conflict was resolved peacefully in favour of socialism in order to change qualitatively. The most daring attempts of those film-makers who strove to conquer the fortress of official cinema ended, as Jean-Luc Godard eloquently put it, with the filmmakers themselves trapped inside the fortress. But the questions that were recently raised appeared promising; they arose from a new historical situation to which the film-maker, as is often the case with the educated strata of our countries, was rather a latecomer: ten years of the Cuban Revolution, the Vietnamese struggle, and the development of a worldwide liberation movement whose moving force is to be found in the Third World countries. The existence of masses on the worldwide revolutionary plane was the substantial fact without which those questions could not have been posed. A new historical situation and a new man born in the process of the anti-imperialist struggle demanded a new, revolutionary attitude from the film-makers of the world. The question of whether or not militant cinema was possible before the revolution began to be replaced, at least within small groups, by the question of whether or not such a cinema was necessary to contribute to the possibility of revolution. An affirmative answer was the starting point for the first attempts to channel the process of seeking possibilities in numerous countries. Examples are Newsreel, a US New Left film group, the cinegiornali of the Italian student movement, the films made by the Etats Generaux du Cinema Francais, and those of the British and Japanese student movements, all a continuation and deepening of the work of a Joris Ivens or a Chris Marker. Let it suffice to observe the films of a Santiago Alvarez in Cuba, or the cinema being developed by different film-makers in the homeland of all, as Bolivar would say, as they seek a revolutionary Latin American cinema. A profound debate on the role of intellectuals and artists before liberation is today enriching the perspectives of intellectual work all over the world. However, this debate oscillates between two poles: one which proposes to relegate all intellectual work capacity to a specifically political or political-military function, denying perspectives to all artistic activity with the idea that such activity must ineluctably be absorbed by the System, and the other which maintains an inner duality of the intellectual: on the one hand, the work of art, ,the privilege of beauty, an art and a beauty which are not necessarily bound to the needs of the revolutionary political process, and, on the other, a political commitment which generally consists in signing certain anti-imperialist manifestos. In practice, this point of view means the separation of politics and art.

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This polarity rests, as we see it, on two omissions: first, the conception of culture, science, art, and cinema as univocal and universal terms, and, second, an insufficiently clear idea of the fact that the revolution does not begin with the taking of political power from imperialism and the bourgeoisie, but rather begins at the moment when the masses sense the need for change and their intellectual vanguards begin to study and carry out this change through activities on different fronts. Culture, art, science, and cinema always respond to conflicting class interests. In the neocolonial situation two concepts of culture, art, science, and cinema compete: that of the rulers and that of the nation. And this situation will continue, as long as the national concept is not identified with that of the rulers, as long as the status of colony or semi-colony continues in force. Moreover, the duality will be overcome and will reach a single and universal category only when the best values of man emerge from proscription to achieve hegemony, when the liberation of man is universal. In the meantime, there exist our culture and their culture, our cinema and their cinema. Because our culture is an impulse towards emancipation, it will remain in existence until emancipation is a reality: a culture of subversion which will carry with it an art, a science, and a cinema of subversion. The lack of awareness in regard to these dualities generally leads the intellectual to deal with artistic and scientific expressions as they were universally conceived by the classes that rule the world, at best introducing some correction into these expressions. We have not gone deeply enough into developing a revolutionary theatre, architecture, medicine, psychology, and cinema; into developing a culture by and for us. The intellectual takes each of these forms of expression as a unit to be corrected from within the expression itself, and not from without, with its own new methods and models. An astronaut or a Ranger mobilizes all the scientific resources of imperialism. Psychologists, doctors, politicians, sociologists, mathematicians, and even artists are thrown into the study of everything that serves, from the vantage point of different specialities, the preparation of an orbital flight or the massacre of Vietnamese; in the long run, all of these specialities are equally employed to satisfy the needs of imperialism. In Buenos Aires the army eradicates villas miseria (urban shanty towns) and in their place puts up strategic hamlets with town planning aimed at facilitating military intervention when the time comes. The revolutionary organizations lack specialized fronts not only in their medicine, engineering, psychology, and art - but also in our own revolutionary engineering, psychology, art, and cinema. In order to be effective, all these fields must recognize the priorities of each stage; those required by the struggle for power or those demanded by the already victorious revolution. Examples: creating a political sensitivity to the need to undertake a political-military struggle in order to take power; developing a medicine to serve the needs of combat in rural or urban zones; co-ordinating energies to achieve a 10 million ton sugar harvest as they attempted in Cuba; or elaborating an architecture, a city planning, that will be able to withstand the massive air raids that imperialism can launch at any time. The specific strengthening of each speciality and field subordinate to collective priorities can fill the empty spaces caused by the struggle for liberation and can delineate with greatest efficacy the role of the intellectual in our time. It is evident that revolutionary mass-level culture and awareness can only be achieved after the taking of political power, but it is no less true that the use of scientific and artistic means, together with political-military means, prepares the terrain for the revolution to become reality and facilitates the solution of the problems that will arise with the taking of power. The intellectual must find through his action the field in which he can rationally perform the most efficient work. Once the front has been determined, his next task is to find out within that front exactly what is the enemys stronghold and where and how he must deploy his forces. It is in this harsh and dramatic daily search that a culture of the revolution will be able to emerge, the basis which will nurture, beginning right now, the new man exemplified by Che - not man in the abstract, not the liberation of man, but another man, capable of arising from the ashes of the old, alienated man that we are and which the new man will destroy by starting to stoke the fire today. The anti-imperialist struggle of the peoples of the Third World and of their equivalents inside the imperialist countries constitutes today the axis of the world revolution. Third cinema is, in our opinion, the cinema that recognizes in that struggle the most gigantic cultural, scientific, and artistic manifestation of our time, the great possibility of constructing a liberated personality with each people as the starting point - in a word, the decolonization of culture.

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The culture, including the cinema, of a neocolonialized country is just the expression of an overall dependence that generates models and values born from the needs of imperialist expansion. In order to impose itself, neocolonialism needs to convince the people of a dependent country of their own inferiority. Sooner or later, the inferior man recognizes Man with a capital M; this recognition means the destruction of his defenses. If you want to be a man, says the oppressor, you have to be like me, speak my language, deny your own being, transform yourself into me. As early as the 17th century the Jesuit missionaries proclaimed the aptitude of the [South American] native for copying European works of art. Copyist, translator, interpreter, at best a spectator, the neocolonialized intellectual will always be encouraged to refuse to assume his creative possibilities. Inhibitions, uprootedness, escapism, cultural cosmopolitanism, artistic imitation, metaphysical exhaustion, betrayal of country - all find fertile soil in which to grow. (1) Culture becomes bilingual. ...not due to the use of two languages but because of the conjuncture of two cultural patterns of thinking. One is national, that of the people, and the other is estranging, that of the classes subordinated to outside forces. The admiration that the upper classes express for the us or Europe is the highest expression of their subjection. With the zof the upper classes the culture of imperialism indirectly introduces among the masses knowledge which cannot be supervised. (2) Just as they are not masters of the land upon which they walk, the neocolonialized people are not masters of the ideas that envelop them. A knowledge of national reality presupposes going into the web of lies and confusion that arise from dependence. The intellectual is obliged to refrain from spontaneous thought; if he does think, he generally runs the risk of doing so in French or English - never in the language of a culture of his own which, like the process of national and social liberation, is still hazy and incipient. Every piece of data, every concept that floats around us, is part of a framework of mirages that is difficult to take apart. The native bourgeoisie of the port cities such as Buenos Aires, and their respective intellectual elites, constituted, from the very origins of our history, the transmission belt of neocolonial penetration. Behind such watchwords as Civilization or barbarism, manufactured in Argentina by Europeanizing liberalism, was the attempt to impose a civilization fully in keeping with the needs of imperialist expansion and the desire to destroy the resistance of the national masses, which were successively called the rabble, a bunch of blacks, and zoological detritus in our country and the unwashed hordes in Bolivia. In this way the ideologists of the semi-countries, past masters in the play of big words, with an implacable, detailed, and rustic universalism (3), served as spokesmen of those followers of Disraeli who intelligently proclaimed: I prefer the rights of the English to the rights of man. The middle sectors were and are the best recipients of cultural neocolonialism. Their ambivalent class condition, their buffer position between social polarities, and their broader possibilities of access to civilization offer imperialism a base of social support which has attained considerable importance in some Latin American countries. If in an openly colonial situation cultural penetration is the complement of a foreign army of occupation, during certain stages this penetration assumes major priority. It serves to institutionalize and give a normal appearance to dependence. The main objective of this cultural deformation is to keep the people from realizing their neocolonialized position and aspiring to change it. In this way educational colonization is an effective substitute for the colonial police.(4) Mass communications tend to complete the destruction of a national awareness and of a collective subjectivity on the way to enlightenment, a destruction which begins as soon as the child has access to these media, the education and culture of the ruling classes. In Argentina, 26 television channels; one million television sets; more than 50 radio stations; hundreds of newspapers, periodicals, and magazines; and thousands of records, films, etc., join their acculturating role of the colonialization of taste and consciousness to the process of neocolonial education which begins in the university. Mass communications are more effective for neocolonialism than napalm. What is real, true, and rational is to be found on the margin of the law, just as are the people.Violence, crime, and destruction come to be Peace, Order, and Normality.(5) Truth, then, amounts to subversion. Any form of expression or communication that tries to show national reality is subversion.

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Cultural penetration, educational colonization, an mass communications all join forces today in a desperate attempt to absorb, neutralize, or eliminate any expression that responds to an attempt at decolonization. Neocolonialism makes a serious attempt to castrate, to digest, the cultural forms that arise beyond the bounds of its own aims. Attempts are made to remove from them precisely what makes them effective and dangerous; in short, it tries to depoliticize them. Or, to put it another way, to separate the cultural manifestation from the fight for national independence. Ideas such as Beauty in itself is revolutionary and All new cinema is revolutionary are idealistic aspirations that do not touch the neocolonial condition, since they continue to conceive of cinema, art, and beauty as universal abstractions and not as an integral part of the national processes of decolonization. Any attempt, no matter how virulent, which does not serve to mobilize, agitate, and politicize sectors of the people, to arm them rationally and perceptibly, in one way or another, for the struggle - is received with indifference or even with pleasure. Virulence, nonconformism, plain rebelliousness, and discontent are just so many more products on the capitalist market; they are consumer goods. This is especially true in a situation where the bourgeoisie is in need of a daily dose of shock and exciting elements of controlled violence (7) - that is, violence which absorption by the System turns into pure stridency. Examples are the works of a socialist-tinged painting and sculpture which are greedily sought after by the new bourgeoisie to decorate their apartments and mansions; plays full of anger and avant-gardism which are noisily applauded by the ruling classes; the literature of progressive writers concerned with semantics and man on the margin of time and space, which gives an air of democratic broadmindedness to the Systems publishing houses and magazines; and the cinema of challenge, of argument, promoted by the distribution monopolies and launched by the big commercial outlets. In reality the area of permitted protest of the System is much greater than the System is willing to admit. This gives the artists the illusion that they are acting against the system by going beyond certain narrow limits; they do not realize that even anti-System art can be absorbed and utilized by the System, as both a brake and a necessary self-correction.(7) Lacking an awareness of how to utilize what is ours for our true liberation - in a word, lacking politicization - all of these progressive alternatives come to form the leftist wing of the System, the improvement of its cultural products. They will be doomed to carry out the best work on the left that the right is able to accept today and will thus only serve the survival of the latter. Restore words, dramatic actions, and images to the places where they can carry out a revolutionary role, where they will be useful, where they will become weapons in the struggle. (8) Insert the work as an original fact in the process of liberation, place it first at the service of life itself, ahead of art; dissolve aesthetics in the life of society: only in this way, as Fanon said, can decolonization become possible and culture, cinema, and beauty - at least, what is of greatest importance to us - become our culture, our films, and our sense of beauty. The historical perspectives of Latin America and of the majority of the countries under imperialist domination are headed not towards a lessening of repression but towards an increase. We are heading not for bourgeois-democratic regimes but for dictatorial forms of government. The struggles for democratic freedoms, instead of seizing concessions from the System, move it to cut down on them, given its narrow margin for manoeuvring. The bourgeois-democratic facade caved in some time ago. The cycle opened during the last century in Latin America with the first attempts at self-affirmation of a national bourgeoisie differentiated from the metropolis (examples are Rosas federalism in Argentina, the Lopez and Francia regimes in Paraguay, and those of Bengido and Balmaceda in Chile) with a tradition that has continued well into our century: national-bourgeois, national-popular, and democratic-bourgeois attempts were made by Cardenas,Yrigoyen, Haya de la Torre,Vargas, Aguirre Cerda, Peron, and Arbenz. But as far as revolutionary prospects are concerned, the cycle has definitely been completed. The lines allowing for the deepening of the historical attempt of each of those experiences today pass through the sectors that understand the continents situation as one of war and that are preparing, under the force of circumstances, to make that region the Vietnam of the coming decade. A war in which national liberation can only succeed when it is simultaneously postulated as social liberation - socialism as the only valid perspective of any national liberation process. At this time in Latin America there is room for neither passivity nor innocence. The intellectuals commitment is measured

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in terms of risks as well as words and ideas; what he does to further the cause of liberation is what counts. The worker who goes on strike and thus risks losing his job or even his life, the student who jeopardizes his career, the militant who keeps silent under torture: each by his or her action commits us to something much more important than a vague gesture of solidarity. (9) In a situation in which the state of law is replaced by the state of facts, the intellectual, who is one more worker, functioning on a cultural front, must become increasingly radicalized to avoid denial of self and to carry out what is expected of him in our times. The impotence of all reformist concepts has already been exposed sufficiently, not only in politics but also in culture and films - and especially in the latter, whose history is that of imperialist domination - mainly Yankee. While, during the early history (or the prehistory) of the cinema, it was possible to speak of a German, an Italian, or a Swedish cinema clearly differentiated and corresponding to specific national characteristics, today such differences have disappeared. The borders were wiped out along with the expansion of US imperialism and the film model that is imposed: Hollywood movies. In our times it is hard to find a film within the field of commercial cinema, including what is known as authors cinema, in both the capitalist and socialist countries, that manages to avoid the models of Hollywood pictures. The latter have such a fast hold that monumental works such as Bondarchuks War and Peace from the USSR are also monumental examples of the submission to all propositions imposed by the US movie industry (structure, language, etc.) and, consequently, to its concepts. The placing of the cinema within US models, even in the formal aspect, in language, leads to the adoption of the ideological forms that gave rise to precisely that language and no other. Even the appropriation of models which appear to be only technical, industrial, scientific, etc., leads to a conceptual dependency, due to the fact that the cinema is an industry, but differs from other industries in that it has been created and organized in order to generate certain ideologies. The 35mm camera, 24 frames per second, arc lights, and a commercial place of exhibition for audiences were conceived not to gratuitously transmit any ideology, but to satisfy, in the first place, the cultural and surplus value needs of a specific ideology, of a specific world-view: that of US finance capital. The mechanistic takeover of a cinema conceived as a show to be exhibited in large theatres with a standard duration, hermetic structures that are born and die on the screen, satisfies, to be sure, the commercial interests of the production groups, but it also leads to the absorption of forms of the bourgeois world-view which are the continuation of 19th century art, of bourgeois art: man is accepted only as a passive and consuming object; rather than having his ability to make history recognized, he is only permitted to read history, contemplate it, listen to it, and undergo it. The cinema as a spectacle aimed at a digesting object is the highest point that can be reached by bourgeois film-making. The world, experience, and the historic process are enclosed within the frame of a painting, the stage of a theatre, and the movie screen; man is viewed as a consumer of ideology, and not as the creator of ideology. This notion is the starting point for the wonderful interplay of bourgeois philosophy and the obtaining of surplus value. The result is a cinema studied by motivational analysts, sociologists and psychologists, by the endless researchers of the dreams and frustrations of the masses, all aimed at selling movie-life, reality as it is conceived by the ruling classes. The first alternative to this type of cinema, which we could call the first cinema, arose with the so-called authors cinema, expression cinema, nouvelle vague, cinema novo, or, conventionally, the second cinema. This alternative signified a step forward inasmuch as it demanded that the film-maker be free to express himself in non-standard language and inasmuch as it was an attempt at cultural decolonization. But such attempts have already reached, or are about to reach, the outer limits of what the system permits. The second cinema film-maker has remained trapped inside the fortress as Godard put it, or is on his way to becoming trapped. The search for a market of 200,000 moviegoers in Argentina, a figure that is supposed to cover the costs of an independent local production, the proposal of developing a mechanism of industrial production parallel to that of the System but which would be distributed by the System according to its own norms, the struggle to better the laws protecting the cinema and replacing bad officials by less bad, etc., is a search lacking in viable prospects, unless you consider viable the prospect of becoming institutionalized as the youthful, angry wing of society- that is, of neocolonialized

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or capitalist society. Real alternatives differing from those offered by the System are only possible if one of two requirements is fulfilled: making films that the System cannot assimilate and which are foreign to its needs, or making films that directly and explicitly set out to fight the System. Neither of these requirements fits within the alternatives that are still offered by the second cinema, but they can be found in the revolutionary opening towards a cinema outside and against the System, in a cinema of liberation: the third cinema. One of the most effective jobs done by neocolonialism is its cutting off of intellectual sectors, especially artists, from national reality by lining them up behind universal art and models. It has been very common for intellectuals and artists to be found at the tail end of popular struggle, when they have not actually taken up positions against it. The social layers which have made the greatest contribution to the building of a national culture (understood as an impulse towards decolonization) have not been precisely the enlightened elites but rather the most exploited and uncivilized sectors. Popular organizations have very rightly distrusted the intellectual and the artist. When they have not been openly used by the bourgeoisie or imperialism, they have certainly been their indirect tools; most of them did not go beyond spouting a policy in favour of peace and democracy, fearful of anything that had a national ring to it, afraid of contaminating art with politics and the artists with the revolutionary militant. They thus tended to obscure the inner causes determining neocolonialized society and placed in the foreground the outer causes, which, while they are the condition for change, can never be the basis for change; (10) in Argentina they replaced the struggle against imperialism and the native oligarchy with the struggle of democracy against fascism, suppressing the fundamental contradiction of a neocolonialized country and replacing it with a contradiction that was a copy of the world-wide contradiction. (11) This cutting off of the intellectual and artistic sectors from the processes of national liberation - which, among other things, helps us to understand the limitations in which these processes have been unfolding today tends to disappear to the extent that artists and intellectuals are beginning to discover the impossibility of destroying the enemy without first joining in a battle for their common interests. The artist is beginning to feel the insufficiency of his nonconformism and individual rebellion. And the revolutionaryx, in turn, are discovering the vacuums that the struggle for power creates in the cultural sphere. The problems of film-making, the ideological limitations of a filmmaker in a neocolonialized country, etc., have thus far constituted objective factors in the lack of attention paid to the cinema by the peoples organizations. Newspapers and other printed matter, posters and wall propaganda, speeches and other verbal forms of information, enlightenment, and politicization are still the main means of communication between the organizations and the vanguard layers of the masses. But the new political positions of some film-makers and the subsequent appearance of films useful for liberation have permitted certain political vanguards to discover the importance of movies. This importance is to be found in the specific meaning of films as a form of communication and because of their particular characteristics, characteristics that allow them to draw audiences of different origins, many of them people who might not respond favourably to the announcement of a political speech. Films offer an effective pretext for gathering an audience, in addition to the ideological message they contain. The capacity for synthesis and the penetration of the film image, the possibilities offered by the living document, and naked reality, and the power of enlightenment of audiovisual means make the film far more effective than any other tool of communication. It is hardly necessary to point out that those films which achieve an intelligent use of the possibilities of the image, adequate dosage of concepts, language and structure that flow naturally from each theme, and counterpoints of audiovisual narration achieve effective results in the politicization and mobilization of cadres and even in work with the masses, where this is possible. The students who raised barricades on the Avenida 18 de Julio in Montevideo after the showing of La hora de los hornos (The Hour of the Furnaces), the growing demand for films such as those made by Santiago Alvarez and the Cuban documentary film movement, and the debates and meetings that take place after the underground or semipublic showings of third cinema films are the beginning of a twisting and difficult road being travelled in the consumer societies by the mass organizations (Cinegiornali liberi in Italy, Zengakuren documentaries in Japan, etc.). For the first time in Latin America,

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organizations are ready and willing to employ films for political-cultural ends: the Chilean Partido Socialista provides its cadres with revolutionary film material, while Argentine revolutionary Peronist and non-Peronist groups are taking an interest in doing likewise. Moreover, OSPAAAL (Organization of Solidarity of the People of Africa, Asia and Latin America) is participating in the production and distribution of films that contribute to the anti-imperialist struggle. The revolutionary organizations are discovering the need for cadres who, among other things, know how to handle a film camera, tape recorders, and projectors in the most effective way possible. The struggle to seize power from the enemy is the meeting ground of the political and artistic vanguards engaged in a common task which is enriching to both. Some of the circumstances that delayed the use of films as a revolutionary tool until a short time ago were lack of equipment, technical difficulties, the compulsory specialization of each phase of work, and high costs. The advances that have taken place within each specialization; the simplification of movie cameras and tape recorders; improvements in the medium itself, such as rapid film that can be shot in normal light; automatic light meters; improved audiovisual synchronization; and the spread of know-how by means of specialized magazines with large circulations and even through nonspecialized media, have helped to demystify film-making and divest it of that almost magic aura that made it seem that films were only within the reach of artists, geniuses, and the privileged. Filmmaking is increasingly within the reach of larger social layers. Chris Marker experimented in France with groups of workers whom he provided with 8mm equipment and some basic instruction in its handling. The goal was to have the worker film his way of looking at the world, just as if he were writing it. This has opened up unheard-of prospects for the cinema; above all, a new conception of film-making and the significance of art in our times. Imperialism and capitalism, whether in the consumer society or in the neocolonialized country, veil everything behind a screen of images and appearances. The image of reality is more important than reality itself. It is a world peopled with fantasies and phantoms in which what is hideous is clothed in beauty, while beauty is disguised as the hideous. On the one hand, fantasy, the imaginary bourgeois universe replete with comfort, equilibrium, sweet reason, order, efficiency, and the possibility to be someone. And, on the other, the phantoms, we the lazy, we the indolent and underdeveloped, we who cause disorder. When a neocolonialized person accepts his situation, he becomes a Gungha Din, a traitor at the service of the colonialist, an Uncle Tom, a class and racial renegade, or a fool, the easy-going servant and bumpkin; but, when he refuses to accept his situation of oppression, then he turns into a resentful savage, a cannibal. Those who lose sleep from fear of the hungry, those who comprise the System, see the revolutionary as a bandit, robber, and rapist; the first battle waged against them is thus not on a political plane, but rather in the police context of law, arrests, etc. The more exploited a man is, the more he is placed on a plane of insignificance. The more he resists, the more he is viewed as a beast. This can be seen in Africa Addio, made by the fascist Jacopetti: the African savages, killer animals, wallow in abject anarchy once they escape from white protection. Tarzan died, and in his place were born Lumumbas and Lobegulas, Nkomos, and the Madzimbamutos, and this is something that neocolonialism cannot forgive. Fantasy has been replaced by phantoms and man is turned into an extra who dies so Jacopetti can comfortably film his execution. I make the revolution; therefore I exist. This is the starting point for the disappearance of fantasy and phantom to make way for living human beings. The cinema of the revolution is at the same time one of destruction and construction: destruction of the image that neocolonialism has created of itself and of us, and construction of a throbbing, living reality which recaptures truth in any of its expressions. The restitution of things to their real place and meaning is an eminently subversive fact both in the neocolonial situation and in the consumer societies. In the former, the seeming ambiguity or pseudo-objectivity in newspapers, literature, etc., and the relative freedom of the peoples organizations to provide their own information cease to exist, giving way to overt restriction, when it is a question of television and radio, the two most important System-controlled or monopolized communications media. Last years May events in France are quite explicit on this point. In a world where the unreal rules, artistic expression is shoved along the channels of fantasy, fiction, language in code, sign language, and messages whispered between the lines. Art is cut off from the concrete facts - which, from the neocolonialist

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standpoint, are accusatory testimonies - to turn back on itself, strutting about in a world of abstractions and phantoms, where it becomes timeless and history-less.Vietnam can be mentioned, but only far from Vietnam; Latin America can be mentioned, but only far enough away from the continent to be effective, in places where it is depoliticized and where it does not lead to action. The cinema known as documentary, with all the vastness that the concept has today, from educational films to the reconstruction of a fact or a historical event, is perhaps the main basis of revolutionary film-making. Every image that documents, bears witness to, refutes or deepens the truth of a situation is something more than a film image or purely artistic fact; it becomes something which the System finds indigestible. Testimony about a national reality is also an inestimable means of dialogue and knowledge on the world plane. No internationalist form of struggle can be carried out successfully if there is not a mutual exchange of experiences among the people, if the people do not succeed in breaking out of the Balkanization on the international, continental, and national planes which imperialism is striving to maintain. There is no knowledge of a reality as long as that reality is not acted upon, as long as its transformation is not begun on all fronts of struggle. The well-known quote from Marx deserves constant repetition: it is not sufficient to interpret the world; it is now a question of transforming it. With such an attitude as his starting point, it remains to the film-maker to discover his own language, a language which will arise from a militant and transforming world-view and from the theme being dealt with. Here it may well be pointed out that certain political cadres still maintain old dogmatic positions, which ask the artist or film-maker to provide an apologetic view of reality, one which is more in line with wishful thinking than with what actually is. Such positions, which at bottom mask a lack of confidence in the possibilities of reality itself, have in certain cases led to the use of film language as a mere idealized illustration of a fact, to the desire to remove realitys deep contradictions, its dialectic richness, which is precisely the kind of depth which can give a film beauty and effectiveness. The reality of the revolutionary processes all over the world, in spite of their confused and negative aspects, possesses a dominant line, a synthesis which is so rich and stimulating that it does not need to be schematized with partial or sectarian views. Pamphlet films, didactic films, report films, essay films, witness-bearing films - any militant form of expression is valid, and it would be absurd to lay down a set of aesthetic work norms. Be receptive to all that the people have to offer, and offer them the best; or, as Che put it, respect the people by giving them quality. This is a good thing to keep in mind in view of those tendencies which are always latent in the revolutionary artist to lower the level of investigation and the language of a theme, in a kind of neopopulism, down to levels which, while they may be those upon which the masses move, do not help them to get rid of the stumbling blocks left by imperialism. The effectiveness of the best films of militant cinema show that social layers considered backward are able to capture the exact meaning of an association of images, an effect of staging, and any linguistic experimentation placed within the context of a given idea. Furthermore, revolutionary cinema is not fundamentally one which illustrates, documents, or passively establishes a situation: rather, it attempts to intervene in the situation as an element providing thrust or rectification. To put it another way, it provides discovery through transformation. The differences that exist between one and another liberation process make it impossible to lay down supposedly universal norms. A cinema which in the consumer society does not attain the level of the reality in which it moves can play a stimulating role in an underdeveloped country, just as a revolutionary cinema in the neocolonial situation will not necessarily be revolutionary if it is mechanically taken to the metropolitan country. Teaching the handling of guns can be revolutionary where there are potentially or explicitly viable leaders ready to throw themselves into the struggle to take power, but ceases to be revolutionary where the masses still lack sufficient awareness of their situation or where they have already learned to handle guns. Thus, a cinema which insists upon the denunciation of the effects of neocolonial policy is caught up in a reformist game if the consciousness of the masses has already assimilated such knowledge; then the revolutionary thing is to examine the causes, to investigate the ways of organizing and arming

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for the change. That is, imperialism can sponsor films that fight illiteracy, and such pictures will only be inscribed within the contemporary need of imperialist policy, but, in contrast, the making of such films in Cuba after the triumph of the Revolution was clearly revolutionary. Although their starting point was just the fact of teaching, reading and writing, they had a goal which was radically different from that of imperialism: the training of people for liberation, not for subjection. The model of the perfect work of art, the fully rounded film structured according to the metrics imposed by bourgeois culture, its theoreticians and critics, has served to inhibit the film-maker in the dependent countries, especially when he has attempted to erect similar models in a reality which offered him neither the culture, the techniques, nor the most primary elements for success. The culture of the metropolis kept the age-old secrets that had given life to its models; the transposition of the latter to the neocolonial reality was always a mechanism of alienation, since is was not possible for the artist of the dependent country to absorb, in a few years, the secrets of a culture and society elaborated through the centuries in completely different historical circumstances. The attempt in the sphere of filmmaking to match the pictures of the ruling countries generally ends in failure, given the existence of two disparate historical realities. And such unsuccessful attempts lead to feelings of frustration and inferiority. Both these feelings arise in the first place from the fear of taking risks along completely new roads which are almost a total denial of their cinema. A fear of recognizing the particularities and limitations of dependency in order to discover the possibilities inherent in that situation by finding ways of overcoming it which would of necessity be original. The existence of a revolutionary cinema is inconceivable without the constant and methodical exercise of practice, search, and experimentation. It even means committing the new film-maker to take chances on the unknown, to leap into space at times, exposing himself to failure as does the guerrilla who travels along paths that he himself opens up with machete blows. The possibility of discovering and inventing film forms and structures that serve a more profound vision of our reality resides in the ability to place oneself on the outside limits of the familiar, to make ones way amid constant dangers. Our time is one of hypothesis rather than of thesis, a time of works in progress - unfinished, unordered, violent works made with the camera in one hand and a rock in the other. Such works cannot be assessed according to the traditional theoretical and critical canons. The ideas for our film theory and criticism will come to life through inhibition-removing practice and experimentation. Knowledge begins with practice. After acquiring theoretical knowledge through practice, it is necessary to return to practice. (12) Once he has embarked upon this practice, the revolutionary filmmaker will have to overcome countless obstacles; he will experience the loneliness of those who aspire to the praise of the Systems promotion media only to find that those media are closed to him. As Godard would say, he will cease to be a bicycle champion to become an anonymous bicycle rider,Vietnamese-style, submerged in a cruel and prolonged war. But he will also discover that there is a receptive audience that looks upon his work as something of its own existence, and that is ready to defend him in a way that it would never do with any world bicycle champion. In this long war, with the camera as our rifle, we do in fact move into a guerrilla activity. This is why the work of a filmguerrilla group is governed by strict disciplinary norms as to both work methods and security. A revolutionary film group is in the same situation as a guerrilla unit: it cannot grow strong without military structures and command concepts. The group exists as a network of complementary responsibilities, as the sum and synthesis of abilities, inasmuch as it operates harmonically with a leadership that centralizes planning work and maintains its continuity. Experience shows that it is not easy to maintain the cohesion of a group when it is bombarded by the System and its chain of accomplices frequently disguised as progressives, when there are no immediate and spectacular outer incentives and the members must undergo the discomforts and tensions of work that is done underground and distributed clandestinely. Many abandon their responsibilities because they underestimate them or because they measure them with values appropriate to System cinema and not underground cinema. The birth of internal conflicts is a reality present in any group, whether or not it possesses ideological maturity. The lack of awareness of such an inner conflict on the psychological or personality plane, etc., the lack of maturity in dealing with problems of relationships, at times leads to ill feeling and rivalries that in turn cause real clashes going beyond ideological or objective differences. All of this means that a basic condition is an awareness of the problems of interpersonal relationships, leadership and areas of competence. What is needed is to speak clearly, mark off work areas,

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assign responsibilities and take on the job as a rigorous militancy. Guerrilla film-making proletarianizes the film worker and breaks down the intellectual aristocracy that the bourgeoisie grants to its followers. In a word, it democratizes. The film-makers tie with reality makes him more a part of his people. Vanguard layers and even masses participate collectively in the work when they realize that it is the continuity of their daily struggle. La hora de los hornos shows how a film can be made in hostile circumstances when it has the support and collaboration of militants and cadres from the people. The revolutionary film-maker acts with a radically new vision of the role of the producer, team-work, tools, details, etc. Above all, he supplies himself at all levels in order to produce his films, he equips himself at all levels, he learns how to handle the manifold techniques of his craft. His most valuable possessions are the tools of his trade, which form part and parcel of his need to communicate. The camera is the inexhaustible expropriator of image-weapons; the projector, a gun that can shoot 24 frames per second. Each member of the group should be familiar, at least in a general way, with the equipment being used: he must be prepared to replace another in any of the phases of production. The myth of irreplaceable technicians must be exploded. The whole group must grant great importance to the minor details of the production and the security measures needed to protect it. A lack of foresight which in conventional film-making would go unnoticed can render virtually useless weeks or months of work. And a failure in guerrilla cinema, just as in the guerrilla struggle itself, can mean the loss of a work or a complete change of plans. In a guerrilla struggle the concept of failure is present a thousand times over, and victory a myth that only a revolutionary can dream.(13) Every member of the group must have an ability to take care of details, discipline, speed, and, above all, the willingness to overcome the weaknesses of comfort, old habits, and the whole climate of pseudonormality behind which the warfare of everyday life is hidden. Each film is a different operation, a different job requiring variation in methods in order to confuse or refrain from alerting the enemy, especially since the processing laboratories are still in his hands. The success of the work depends to a great extent on the groups ability to remain silent, on its permanent wariness, a condition that is difficult to achieve in a situation in which apparently nothing is happening and the film-maker has been accustomed to telling all and sundry about everything that hes doing because the bourgeoisie has trained him precisely on such a basis of prestige and promotion. The watchwords constant vigilance, constant wariness, constant mobility have profound validity for guerrilla cinema.You have to give the appearance of working on various projects, split up the material, put it together, take it apart, confuse, neutralize, and throw off the track. All of this is necessary as long as the group doesnt have its own processing equipment, no matter how rudimentary, and there remain certain possibilities in the traditional laboratories. Group-level co-operation between different countries can serve to assure the completion of a film or the execution of certain phases of work that may not be possible in the country of origin. To this should be added the need for a filing centre for materials to be used by the different groups and the perspective of coordination, on a continent-wide or even worldwide scale, of the continuity of work in each country: periodic regional or international gatherings to exchange experience, contributions, joint planning of work, etc. At least in the earliest stages the revolutionary film-maker and the work groups will be the sole producers of their films. They must bear the responsibility of finding ways to facilitate the continuity of work. Guerrilla cinema still doesnt have enough experience to set down standards in this area; what experience there is has shown, above all, the ability to make use of the concrete situation of each country. But, regardless of what these situations may be, the preparation of a film cannot be undertaken without a parallel study of its future audience and, consequently, a plan to recover the financial investment. Here, once again, the need arises for closer ties between political and artistic vanguards, since this also serves for the joint study of forms of production, exhibition, and continuity.

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A guerrilla film can be aimed only at the distribution mechanisms provided by the revolutionary organizations, including those invented or discovered by the film-maker themselves. Production, distribution, and economic possibilities for survival must form part of a single strategy. The solution of the problems faced in each of these areas will encourage other people to join in the work of guerrilla film-making, which will enlarge its ranks and thus make it less vulnerable. The distribution of guerrilla films in Latin America is still in swaddling clothes while System reprisals are already a legalized fact. Suffice it to note in Argentina the raids that have occurred during some showings and the recent film suppression law of a clearly fascist character; in Brazil the ever-increasing restrictions placed upon the most militant comrades of Cinema Novo; and in Venezuela the banning of La hora de los hornos; over almost all the continent censorship prevents any possibility of public distribution. Without revolutionary films and a public that asks for them, any attempt to open up new ways of distribution would be doomed to failure. But both of these already exist in Latin America. The appearance of the films opened up a road which in some countries, such as Argentina, occurs through showings in apartments and houses to audiences of never more than 25 people; in other countries, such as Chile, films are shown in parishes, universities, or cultural centres (of which there are fewer every day); and, in the case of Uruguay, showings were given in Montevideos biggest movie theatre to an audience of 2,500 people, who filled the theatre and made every showing an impassioned anti-imperialist event. But the prospects on the continental plane indicate that the possibility for the continuity of a revolutionary cinema rests upon the strengthening of rigorously underground base structures. Practice implies mistakes and failures.(14) Some comrades will let themselves be carried away by the success and impunity with which they present the first showings and will tend to relax security measures, while others will go in the opposite direction of excessive precautions or fearfulness, to such an extent that distribution remains circumscribed, limited to a few groups of friends. Only concrete experience in each country will demonstrate which are the best methods there, which do not always lend themselves to application in other situations. In some places it will be possible to build infrastructures connected to political, student, worker, and other organizations, while in others it will be more suitable to sell prints to organizations which will take charge of obtaining the funds necessary to pay for each print (the cost of the print plus a small margin). This method, wherever possible, would appear to be the most viable, because it permits the decentralisation of distribution; makes possible a more profound political use of the film; and permits the recovery, through the sale of more prints, of the funds invested in the production. It is true that in many countries the organizations still are not fully aware of the importance of this work, or, if they are, may lack the means to undertake it. In such cases other methods can be used: the delivery of prints to encourage distribution and a box-office cut to the organizers of each showing, etc. The ideal goal to be achieved would be producing and distributing guerrilla films with funds obtained from expropriations from the bourgeoisie - that is, the bourgeoisie would be financing guerrilla cinema with a bit of the surplus value that it gets from the people. But, as long as the goal is no more than a middle- or long-range aspiration, the alternatives open to revolutionary cinema to recover production and distribution costs are to some extent similar to those obtained for conventional cinema: every spectator should pay the same amount as he pays to see System cinema. Financing, subsidizing, equipping, and supporting revolutionary cinema are political responsibiities for revolutionary organizations and militants. A film can be made, but if its distribution does not allow for the recovery of the costs, it will be difficult or impossible to make a second film. The 16mm film circuits in Europe (20,000 exhibition centres in Sweden, 30,000 in France, etc.) are not the best example for the neo-colonialized countries, but they are nevertheless a complementary source for fund raising, especially in a situation in which such circuits can play an important role in publicizing the struggles in the Third World, increasingly related as they are to those unfolding in the metropolitan countries. A film on the Venezuelan guerrillas will say more to a European public than twenty explanatory pamphlets, and the same is true for us with a film on the May events in France or the Berkeley, USA, student struggle.

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A Guerrilla Films International? And why not? Isnt it true that a kind of new International is arising through the Third World

struggles; through OSPAAAL(15) and the revolutionary vanguards of the consumer societies? A guerrilla cinema, at this stage still within the reach of limited layers of the population, is, nevertheless, the only cinema of the masses possible today, since it is the only one involved with the interests, aspirations, and prospects of the vast majority of the people. Every important film produced by a revolutionary cinema will be, explicitly, or not, a national event of the masses. This cinema of the masses, which is prevented from reaching beyond the sectors representing the masses, provokes with each showing, as in a revolutionary military incursion, a liberated space, a decolonized territory. The showing can be turned into a kind of political event, which, according to Fanon, could be a liturgical act, a privileged occasion for human beings to hear and be heard. Militant cinema must be able to extract the infinity of new possibilities that open up for it from the conditions of proscription imposed by the System. The attempt to overcome neocolonial oppression calls for the invention of forms of communication; it opens up the possibility. Before and during the making of La hora de los hornos we tried out various methods for the distribution of revolutionary cinema - the little that we had made up to then. Each showing for militants, middlelevel cadres, activists, workers, and university students became - without our having set ourselves this aim beforehand - a kind of enlarged cell meeting of which the films were a part but not the most important factor. We thus discovered a new facet of cinema: the participation of people who, until then, were considered spectators. At times, security reasons obliged us to try to dissolve the group of participants as soon as the showing was over, and we realised that the distribution of that kind of film had little meaning if it was not complemented by the participation of the comrades, if a debate was not opened on the themes suggested by the films. We also discovered that every comrade who attended such showings did so with full awareness that he was infringing the Systems laws and exposing his personal security to eventual repression. This person was no longer a spectator; on the contrary, from the moment he decided to attend the showing, from the moment he lined himself up on this side by taking risks and contributing his living experience to the meeting, he became an actor, a more important protagonist than those who appeared in the films. Such a person was seeking other committed people like himself, while he, in turn, became committed to them. The spectator made way for the actor, who sought himself in others. Outside this space which the films momentarily helped to liberate, there was nothing but solitude, noncommunication, distrust, and fear; within the freed space the situation turned everyone into accomplices of the act that was unfolding. The debates arose spontaneously. As we gained inexperience, we incorporated into the showing various elements (a mise en scene) to reinforce the themes of the films, the climate of the showing, the disinhibiting of the participants, and the dialogue: recorded music or poems, sculpture and paintings, posters, a programme director who chaired the debate and presented the film and the comrades who were speaking, a glass of wine, a few mates,(16) etc. We realized that we had at hand three very valuable factors: 1) The participant comrade, the man-actor-accomplice who responded to the summons; 2) The free space where that man expressed his concerns and ideas, became politicized, and started to free himself; and 3) The film, important only as a detonator or pretext. We concluded from these data that a film could be much more effective if it were fully aware of these factors and took on the task of subordinating its own form, structure, language, and propositions to that act and to those actors-to put it another way, if it sought its own liberation in its subordination to and insertion in others, the principal protagonists of life. With the correct utilisation of the time that that group of actorpersonages offered us with their diverse histories, the use of the space offered by certain comrades, and of the films themselves, it was necessary to try to transform time, energy, and work into freedom-giving energy. In this way the idea began to grow of structuring what we decided to call the film act, the

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film action, one of the forms which we believe assumes great importance in affirming the line of a third cinema. A cinema whose first experiment is to be found, perhaps on a rather shaky level, in the second and third parts of La hora de los hornos (Acto para la liberacion; above all, starting with La resistencia and Violencia y liberacion). Comrades [we said at the start of Acto para la liberacion], this is not just a film showing, nor is it a show; rather, it is, above all A MEETING - an act of anti-imperialist unity; this is a place only for those who feel identified with this struggle, because here there is no room for spectators or for accomplices of the enemy; here there is room only for the authors and protagonists of the process which the film attempts to bear witness to and to deepen. The film is the pretext for dialogue, for the seeking and finding of wills. It is a report that we place before you for your consideration, to be debated after the showing. The conclusions [we said at another point in the second part] at which you may arrive as the real authors and protagonists of this history are important. The experiences and conclusions that we have assembled have a relative worth; they are of use to the extent that they are useful to you, who are the present and future of liberation. But most important of all is the action that may arise from these conclusions, the unity on the basis of the facts. This is why the film stops here; it opens out to you so that you can continue it.] The film act means an open-ended film; it is essentially a way of learning. The first step in the process of knowledge is the first contact with the things of the outside world, the stage of sensations [in a film the living fresco of image and sound]. The second step is the synthesizing of the data provided by the sensations; their ordering and elaboration; the stage of concepts, judgements, opinions, and deductions [in the film the announcer, the reportings, the didactics, or the narrator who leads the projection act]. And then comes the third stage, that of knowledge. The active role of knowledge is expressed not only in the active leap from sensory to rational knowledge, but, and what is even more important, in the leap from rational knowledge to revolutionary practice . . . The practice of the transformation of the world ... This, in general terms, is the dialectical materialist theory of the unity of knowledge and action(17) [in the projection of the film act, the participation of the comrades, the action proposals that arise, and the actions themselves that will take place later]. Moreover, each projection of a film act presupposes a different setting, since the space where it takes place, the materials that go to make it up (actors-participants), and the historic time in which it takes place are never the same. This means that the result of each projection act will depend on those who organize it, on those who participate in it, and on the time and place; the possibility of introducing variations, additions, and changes is unlimited. The screening of a film act will always express in one way or another the historical situation in which it takes place; its perspectives are not exhausted in the struggle for power but will instead continue after the taking of power to strengthen the revolution. The man of the third cinema, be it guerrilla cinema or a film act, with the infinite categories that they contain (film letter, film poem, film essay, film pamphlet, film report, etc.), above all counters the film industry of a cinema of characters with one of themes, that of individuals with that of masses, that of the author with that of the operative group, one of neocolonial misinformation with one of information, one of escape with one that recaptures the truth, that of passivity with that of aggressions. To an institutionalized cinema, it counterposes a guerrilla cinema; to movies as shows, it opposes a film act or action; to a cinema of destruction, one that is both destructive and constructive; to a cinema made for the old kind of human being, for them, it opposes a cinema fit for a new kind of human being,for what each one of us has the possibility of becoming. The decolonization of the film-maker and of films will be simultaneous acts to the extent that each contributes to collective decolonization. The battle begins without, against the enemy who attacks us, but also within, against the ideas and models of the enemy to be found inside each one of us. Destruction and construction. Decolonizing action rescues with its practice the purest and most vital impulses. It opposes to the colonialization of minds the revolution of consciousness. The world is scrutinized, unravelled, rediscovered. People are witness to a constant astonishment, a kind of second birth. They recover their early simplicity, their capacity for adventure; their lethargic capacity for indignation comes to life.

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Freeing a forbidden truth means setting free the possibility of indignation and subversion. Our truth, that of the new man who builds himself by getting rid of all the defects that still weigh him down, is a bomb of inexhaustible power and, at the same time, the only real possibility of life. Within this attempt, the revolutionary film-maker ventures with his subversive observation, sensibility, imagination, and realization. The great themes - the history of the country, love and unlove between combatants, the efforts of a people who are awakening - all this is reborn before the lens of the decolonized camera. The film-maker feels for the first time. He discovers that, within the System, nothing fits, while outside of and against the System, everything fits, because everything remains to be done. What appeared yesterday as a preposterous adventure, as we said at the beginning, is posed today as an inescapable need and possibility. Thus far, we have offered ideas and working propositions, which are the sketch of a hypothesis arising from our personal experience and which will have achieved something positive even if they do no more than serve to open a heated dialogue on the new revolutionary film prospects. The vacuums existing in the artistic and scientific fronts of the revolution are sufficiently well known so that the adversary will not try to appropriate them, while we are still unable to do so. Why films and not some other form of artistic communication? If we choose films as the centre of our propositions and debate, it is because that is our work front and because the birth of a third cinema means, at least for us, the most important revolutionary artistic event of our times. (translation from Cineaste revised by Julianne Burton and Editor) 27 Notes (1) The Hour of the Furnaces Neocolonialism and Violence (2) Juan Jose Hernandez Arregui, Imperialism and Culture (3) Rene Zavaleta Mercado, Bolivia: Growth of the National Concept f (4) The Hour of the Furnaces, ibid. (5) ibid (6) Observe the new custom of some groups of the upper bourgeoisie from Rome and Paris who spend their weekends travelling to Saigon to get a close-up view of the Vietcong offensive. (7) Irwin Silber, USA: The Alienation of Culture, Tricontinental 10. (8) The organization Vanguard Artists of Argentina. (9) The Hour of the Furnaces, ibid. (10) Mao Tse-tung, On Practice (11) Rodolfo Puigross, The Proletariat and National Revolution (12) Mao Tng, op. Cit. (13) Che Guevara, Guerrilla Warfare (14) The raiding of a Buenos Aires union and the arrest of dozens of persons resulting from a bad choice of projection site and the large number of people invited. (15) The Organization for the Solidarity of African, Asian and Latin American Peoples, based in Cuba. (16) A traditional Argentine herb tea, hierba mate. (17) Mao Tse-tung, op. cit.

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Bell Hooks
from Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics
published by South End Press 1990

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Charlie Brown, Meet Hanthala

Naji Al Ali, the Middle Easts most famous political cartoonist, died on August 29, 1987, five weeks after being shot on the streets of London just outside of his office at the Al Qabas newspaper. His murder was never solved but it is generally agreed, that Al Ali, who had received many death threats in his lifetime, was assassinated for the political content of his work. Fifteen years after the death of his creator, the graffitied image of the little boy, Hanthala (also transliterated as Handala), continues to blossom on the besieged walls of the occupied territories. Naji Al Ali was born in 1938 in the Palestinian village of Al Shajarah, in the Galilee near Nazareth. In 1948 his family was exiled to the Ein Al Helwe Refugee Camp in Southern Lebanon. Here Al Ali became politically engaged with the Palestinian struggle and began to develop his skills as an artist and cartoonist. His first canvases were the jail cell walls that surrounded him during various periods of incarceration and the zinc walls of the precarious structures of the refugee camp. Eventually he worked for the largest independent daily in the Middle East, Al-Qabas in Kuwait and for Al Safir in Lebanon. His cartoon was published daily in Cairo, Beiruit, Kuwait, Tunis, Abu Dhabi, London and Paris in newspapers across the political spectrum. Al Alis cartoons skewered Arab governments, the PLO, Israeli and U.S. policy as well as the general international apathy towards the Palestinians plight. For this he suffered censorship and multiple detentions. It was in Kuwait that Hanthala was born. When asked about this caricature, Al Ali explained Hanthala was born ten years old and he will always be ten years old. At that age, I left my homeland, and when he returns, Hanthala will still be ten and then he will start growing up. The rules of nature do not apply to himI drew him as a child who is not beautiful; his hair is the hair of the hedgehog who uses his thorns as a weapon. Hanthala is not a fat and happy, relaxed or pampered child. He is barefooted like the refugee camp childrenAt first he was a Palestinian child, but his consciousness developed to have a national and then a global and human horizon. Susan Greene, a Bay Area public artist and clinical psychologist, first learned about Hanthala when she traveled to Palestine in 1989 during the first intifada. She was there as part of the Break The Silence Mural Project, a group of Jewish Women artists who came to collaborate on murals with Palestinian artists. She was intrigued by the image of Hanthala who, as Palestinians explained to her, continued to be a symbol of resistance and the Palestinians desire to return to their homeland. The mural project brought Hanthala back to San Francisco and up until June of last year, he could be seen, in his usual stance, his back toward the viewer, hands crossed resolutely behind him, on a mural they painted at 21rst and Mission Street. The mural was intermittently vandalized over the years, but after the beginning of the second intifada, the attacks became more virulent. Afraid for his life and his livelihood, the storeowner who hosted the mural decided to board it up until peace returns. Not long after, Greene decided to launch the Handala Project/ Portal to Palestine, a website which invites visitors to download the Handala graphic and become part of the story, by popularizing his image and linking to activist websites. Hanthalas perserverence on the walls of the occupied territories and his more recent appearance in cyberspace would probably not surprise Naji Al Ali who once said he is witness to a generation that did not die and he will not leave life ever, he is eternal. Hanthala, who I created, will not end after my end. I hope that this not an exaggeration when I say that I will continue to live with Hanthala, even after I die. To learn more about Naji Al Ali and Hanthala visit: http://www.handala.org http://www.virtualave.net http://araflora.com/naji.htm http://oneworld.org/index Martha Wallner is a media activist and a member of Jewish Voice for Peace.

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Origin of the Peace Symbol

downloaded from www.docspopuli.org

A history of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) logo

One of the most widely known symbols in the world, in Britain subsequently invented by various groups within CND and for specific occasions with a cross below as a womens symbol, it is recognised as standing for nuclear disarmament and with a daffodil or a thistle incorporated by in particular as the logo of the Campaign for CND Cymru and Scottish CND, with little legs Nuclear Disarmament (CND). In the United for a sponsored walk etc. Whether Gerald States and much of the rest of the world it Holtom would have approved of some of the is known more broadly as the peace symbol. more light-hearted versions is open to doubt. It was designed in 1958 by Gerald Holtom, a The symbol almost at once crossed the professional designer and artist and a graduate Atlantic. Bayard Rustin, a close associate of of the Royal College of Arts. He showed his Martin Luther King had come over from the US preliminary sketches to a small group of people in the Peace News office in North London and in order to take part in that first Aldermaston to the Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear March. He took the symbol back to the War, one of several smaller organisations that United States where it was used on civil rights came together to set up CND. The Direct marches. Later it appeared on anti-Vietnam Action Committee had already planned what War demonstrations and was even seen daubed in protest on their helmets by American GIs. Simpler to draw was to be the first major anti-nuclear march, from London to Aldermaston, where British nuclear weapons were and still than the Picasso peace dove, it became known, first in the US are manufactured. It was on that march, over the 1958 Easter and then round the world as the peace symbol. It appeared weekend that the symbol first appeared in public. Five hundred on the walls of Prague when the Soviet tanks invaded in 1968, cardboard lollipops on sticks were produced. Half were black on the Berlin Wall, in Sarajevo and Belgrade, on the graves of on white and half white on green. Just as the churchs liturgical the victims of military dictators from the Greek Colonels to colours change over Easter, so the colours were to change, the Argentinian junta, and most recently in East Timor. There from Winter to Spring, from Death to Life. Black and white have been claims that the symbol has older, occult or antiwould be displayed on Good Friday and Saturday, green and Christian associations. In South Africa, under the apartheid white on Easter Sunday and Monday. The first badges were made regime, there was an official attempt to ban it. Various far-right by Eric Austin of Kensington CND using white clay with the and fundamentalist American groups have also spread the idea symbol painted black. Again there was a conscious symbolism. of Satanic associations or condemned it as a Communist sign. They were distributed with a note explaining that in However the origins and the ideas behind the symbol have been the event of a nuclear war, these fired pottery badges would be clearly described, both in letters and in interviews, by Gerald among the few human artifacts to survive the nuclear inferno. Holtom and his original, first sketches are now on display as These early ceramic badges can still be found and one, lent by part of the Commonweal Collection in Bradford. CND, was included in the Imperial War Museums 1999/2000 Although specifically designed for the anti-nuclear exhibition From the Bomb to the Beatles. What does it mean? movement it has quite deliberately never been copyrighted. Gerald Holtom, a conscientious objector who had No one has to pay or to seek permission before they use it. A worked on a farm in Norfolk during the Second World War, symbol of freedom, it is free for all. This of course sometimes explained that the symbol incorporated the semaphore letters leads to its use, or misuse, in circumstances that CND and the N(uclear) and D(isarmament). He later wrote to Hugh Brock, peace movement find distasteful. It is also often exploited for editor of Peace News, explaining the genesis of his idea in commercial, advertising or generally fashion purposes. We cant greater, more personal depth: stop this happening and have no intention of copyrighting it. I was in despair. Deep despair. I drew myself: the All we can do is to ask commercial users if they would like to representative of an individual in despair, with hands palm make a donation. Any money received is used for CNDs peace outstretched outwards and downwards in the manner of Goyas education and information work. peasant before the firing squad. I formalised the drawing into a line and put a circle round it. Eric Austin added his own interpretation of the design: the gesture of despair had long been associated with the death of Man and the circle with the unborn child. Gerald Holtom had originally considered using the Christian cross symbol within a circle as the motif for the march but various priests he had approached with the suggestion were not happy at the idea of using the cross on a protest march. Later, ironically, Christian CND were to use the symbol with the central stroke extended upwards to form the upright of a cross. This adaptation of the design was only one of many (material from the CND/Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament website)

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Po p ul a r C o mmu n ic atio n in Hondura s

By Laura Wiens published in ZSPACE
Thursday, February 09, 2006 downloaded from Chicago Indymedia This work is in the public domain. Cramped inside a small concrete studio, a gaggle of teenagers stand around the mixing board and prepare for the broadcast. One boy rewinds a fresh interview with a local elder, another fiddles with the sound levels while a third reads community notices and greetings into the microphone, selecting among the dozens that have been dropped off at the station over the course of the day. Out of the doors of nearby houses comes the sound of the broadcast; it mingles with the politics of the street. Here in Concepcin, Honduras, community radio does in fact make waves.

Its intangible vapor materializes in very physical ways: in community assemblies, in protest marches and in petitions to local government representatives. For a pueblo that has in the last twenty years been battered by United States military troops and flooded with refugees from the neighboring civil war in El Salvador, this is the first tentative step towards reclaiming what is rightfully theirs. COMPPA considers it essential that indigenous people define their own politics from the roots up. To develop sustainable and ethical political movements, locals should catalyze their own development, they should have access to clear and unbiased information, and they should participate in the process of self-representation within community and mass media. So when COMPPA began planning this years Encuentro, it turned to COPINH to identify a member community with a burgeoning political consciousness, one that had the interest and capacity to host a several-day conference. Concepcin. To complement the Encuentro, a community radio station would be simultaneously launched, and members of Concepcin and its surrounding pueblos would be trained as broadcasters and journalists. COMPPA would swallow the costs of the radio equipment (including a 300 watt FM transmitter, antenna, mixing board and recording devices), and the costs of transportation and food for all of the participants, deriving funding from non-governmental international solidarity organizations. From this careful process, Radio Guarajambala was born. As a fledgling station, it is equipped with some of

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the used technology of a nearby COPINH community station, La Voz Lenca. Within the system promoted by COMPPA, radio equipment passes between the organizations like hand-me-downs through large families; as they grow, the older stations receive upgraded toolsa bigger mixing board, or a higher-watt transmitterand the younger stations take charge of the remains. Not only does this strengthen the fraternal ties between the community radio stations, it creates a bank of shared technical knowledge between them. For COMPPA, it`s crucial that the organizations all work with similar equipment so that they can provide technical support to one another when the inevitable problems arise. Radio Guarajambala comes with only the fiat that it not be used to support commercial interests or become a tool for party politics. To learn its purpose, one needs to look no farther than the mural boldly painted on the cabins outside wall; it depicts a man and a woman draped in traditional indigenous attire, standing beside a husk of corn in a microphone stand. Below them, in thick black cursive, reads the text, Coshechando la voz del pueblo (Harvesting the voice of the people). But the books will show that the resistance began long before the gathering in Concepcin, Honduras. Among those present were representatives from La Alianza por La Vida y La Paz of Guatemala, the CPRSierra (Population of Communities in Resistance from the Highlands) of Guatemala, UCIZONI (Union of Indigenous and Campesino Communities from the Tehuantepec Isthmus) in Mexico, OFRANEH (the Black Fraternal Organization of Honduras), and Accion Universitaria of El Salvador. Many of these organizations have decades-long histories of struggle and bitter memories of repression. COPINH, for example, is the resident resistance movement in Concepcin, Honduras and the surrounding area, and it has been active since 1993, with a robust membership of more than 28,000 families. Its efforts have successfully opened health centers and schools in indigenous Lenca regions, reclaimed land titles for Lenca communities, and expelled natural resource privitization projects, though it has come at a heavy cost. For COPINH as with other organizations, there are many accounts of companions imprisoned and assassinated, of months taking refuge in neighbor`s homes and in unforgiving mountainsthese are only a few of the hidden back-stories that lend a powerful gravity to their work. The arduous journey to the Encuentro was not only a historical one. For some members of COPINH from bordering communities, it was a hardy 8 hour trek under a tropical sun to get to the Concepcin schoolhouse where the Encuentro was held. For the young CPRs from the Quich Mountains in Guatemala, it was a full day-long hike just to get to the nearest town, from which they could hitch a ride to Guatemala City and join a caravan of Mexicans and other Guatemalans to Concepcin. In total, nearly three bleary days on the road. But out from the foggy night of November 9th,

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the first buses finally began to rumble down from the mountains, and after a rousing welcome by Concepcins ranchero band, some much-needed rest. Over the next six evenings the participants would share the tin roof of a primary school, sleeping until a chorus of roosters signaled the dawn. A group activity and discussion would consecrate the day, often on the topics of water and privitization and water and dams, about which most organizations had a lot to share. Other mornings were devoted to cultural activitiesa treasure hunt, a local Lenca ritual at a nearby waterfallthat gave the visitors from afar a deeper appreciation of the community of which they were temporarily a part. The focus of the Encuentro was the talleres (workshops), which were held daily and worked to develop particular communication skills. There were nine talleres in all, appropriate for a wide range of interests and experiences in popular communication, from Introduction to the Press (on international and local laws regarding the rights of the press) toMural Painting and Theatre of the Oppressed, to Introduction to Electronics, Digital Audio Editing and Digital Video Editing. Most participants could choose only one topic to focus on for the duration of the Encuentro, but each organization dispersed their members among different talleres in order to take advantage of the diversity. To maintain a common current between the experiences of all the participants, the facilitators of each taller integrated the main themes of the Encuentro (the privitization of water, water and dams, and popular communications) into their discussions and subsequent productions. Throughout the afternoon, participants could be seen ambling around the school and cobblestone streets with video cameras and audio recorders; for many, it was the first media production of their lives. In the evenings, the citizens of one country would each in turn be responsible for entertaining the crowd. A Concepcin farmer would draw a guitar from his back and serenade everyone with a folk song, two young Mexican teenagers would coyly perform a Oaxacan courtship dance, or the Guatemalans would put on a makeshift play about their struggles which always ended with the transnationals cowering in fear. But nothing would compare to the tremulous voices of the CPRs-three young women with dark braids and vibrant woven dresses-- singing the CPR resistance hymn:

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Campesinos pobres, vamos ir alla Porque los soldados ya se acercan ya La montana hermana nos protegera vigilancia dice la verdad Somos CPRs, queremos decir Que los militares se vayan de aqui Son 500 anos de marginacion Ya no callaremos ante la opresin Vamos todos juntos para conseguir Una nueva vida en nuestro pais Por los que murieron y los que vendran Sabemos porque vamos a luchar Sabemos porque vamos a luchar. Poor farmers, let us leave here Because the soldiers are already surrounding us The sister mountain will protect us Our vigilance tells us the truth We are CPRs and we want to tell The military to leave here It has been 500 years of marginalization We will not be silent under this oppression Lets all go together to find A new life in our country For the ones who have died, and the ones who will come, We know why were going to fight We know why were going to fight. Nuestra

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For the grand culmination of the Encuentro, all the residents of Concepcin were invited to a presentation of the work that had been generated in the talleres. It was a stunning example of how much can be produced in a very short period of time: colorful posters detailing the rights and responsibilities of popular communicators, a full-length three-part radionovela, numerous short audio and video documentaries. A political-satire play was treated to a standing ovation, though orchestrated in only one day of rehearsal. That night, the schoolhouse was full to bursting, with children crouching in the corners to listen. It was exhilarating, it was stirring; from the crowd surged cries of Zapata vive vive, la lucha sigue sigue!, Viva Lempira! and Si las mujeres no estn, la democracia no va! How far was this event from any conference of grey-suited reporters in a Chicago hotel drinking coffee, how much more did it emblematize the ideals of media and popular communication. Nor was it the first encuentro of its kind; amidst the hubbub of activity before the 2003 WTO protest in Cancun, COMPPA brought together Latin American, European and US resistance organizations to share experiences, to hold informal talleres over media, and to organize ways of documenting the protest. In 2004, the first Encuentro of Popular Communicators in MesoAmerica was held in the Petn, Guatemala; in those 10 days, the responsibility of organizing and selecting an ideal site for a community radio station was taken on by the APVP. Little by little, Encuentros such as these are tightening networks between grassroots resistance efforts in MesoAmerica. As globalization forces its one-size-fits-all policy into the smallest, most-impoverished nooks of the world, the battles waged in resistance look increasingly similar across national lines. In this way, a goal that would seem paradoxicalto unify autonomous resistance movementsbegins to make a great deal of sense. These organizations are widening the space outside of traditional politics for popular participation, and sharing the means of doing so; their unique cultures and resources have been staked on political and economic roulette wheels, and they cant afford to wait for the dealer to win again. Everyday the broadcast comes through more clearly. The message is in Mixe, in Lenca, in Quich; the message is both the language and its content. Here, the antenna of the radio station is one that has been tuned to listen, listen deeply, and only then does it begin to speak.

- Photos courtesy of COMPPA - For more information consult www.comppa.org or contact COMPPA directly to find out how to support or get involved with grassroots popular media initiatives in MesoAmerica at comppa@mediosindependientes.org.

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These posters made by Refugio Sols, depict women's central role in community radios throughout Mesoamerica. One shows the participation of a Garifuna popular communicator hosting a radio show in community radio station Faluma Bimetu-Sweet Coconut, in the coast of Honduras. The other from Radio Orquidea, a campesino community radio station located in the Guadalupe Carney village in the Aguan valley in Honduras. This property that was recovered after the US military abandoned a massive military base used to stage counterinsurgency operations in the contra war against Nicaragua during the 1980's.

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The internet and social movements in North Africa

Ramy Raoof Egyptian Blog for Human Rights ebfhr .blogspot .com

Creating free space

Many taboos and red lines are imposed on offline spaces like newspapers and TV channels in several states in North Africa, as well as many limits on freedom of expression and the right to assembly . It is not easy to establish a newspaper in Libya or a human rights organisation in Algeria or to call for a march in Bahrain . Cyberspace is almost the only free space for many groups and individuals to practise not only their right to freedom of expression and speech but also to practise their right to assembly and to form associations and groups with common interests . Since 2004, Egyptian netizens and bloggers have been able to utilise online platforms for different causes effectively . Many taboos were broken by online spaces, empowering offline media to address several topics that they considered red line . These topics included torture in police stations, sexual harassment issues, religious minorities, violations committed by Mubarak supporters, etc . Human rights NGOs, bloggers and journalists played complementary roles at that time and still do confronting violations and providing immediate help to victims and those in need . Journalists used to share information and pass multimedia recordings of torture to bloggers so that they could post them online when their editors refused to publish details of the cases in newspapers . This fear was due to local laws or the response from security authorities or even that a publication would lose advertisements . During the revolution, the Egyptian cyberspace erupted in extremely rich content, which took different forms text, videos and pictures . Two main things affected the content in cyberspace: the first was what happened on the ground and the second was the accessibility of communications platforms . From 14 January to 24 January 2011, netizens kept sending invitations to demonstrate on 25 January National Police Day in Egypt against corruption, unemployment and torture . In order to motivate participation, netizens posted human rights reports and statements on the status of

human rights in the country online, as well as video clips of different torture cases, and pictures and footage from previous peaceful assemblies . Practical information was also provided, such as legal and medical tips for participants taking part in peaceful assemblies, tactics for using online platforms and mobile phones to organise, the locations and timings of demonstrations on 25 January, and hotline numbers for immediate legal and medical help from human rights NGOs . From 25 January to 6 February 2011 Egyptians experienced a series of crackdowns on communications platforms . Activists mobile lines and hotline numbers were shut down and social media websites (including Twitter, Facebook and Bambuser) and newspaper websites were blocked, while landlines did not work in some areas in Cairo . Later, when communications were restored, netizens gradually posted what had happened when communications were shut down, including content showing violations and violence committed against peaceful demonstrators . The timeline of the communications shutdown by the Egyptian authorities is shown in Figure 1 .1 Before the internet was totally blocked, some activists were able to post information, videos and pictures from demonstrations and to cover what was happening offline . This was very important: besides offering concrete evidence to the world of the clampdown, it proved the government was just spreading rumours and false information of the security situation . There had been, until now, a big gap between what individuals posted and circulated online and what the state-run media broadcasted and published . At times this gap was extreme . For example, when netizens and activists posted pictures online of hundreds of thousands of demonstrators in Tahrir Square, the state media was showing a picture of an almost empty square which it called live footage! Although some downplay the role that the internet played in the revolution, during the uprising online platforms were the only space where Egyptians could share what they really faced and went through . Of course, many taboos are broken in offline spaces, but still even now online platforms are in some cases the only space where Egyptians can address topics that offline platforms cannot . These include human rights violations committed by
1 Online version of the diagram: flic .kr/p/9RNhpz

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FIGURE 1.

Timeline of the communications shutdown in Egypt during the revolution

Twitter .com blocked Activist lines shut down

Bambuser .com blocked 02:00pm

Network coverage shut down in Tahrir Square

BlackBerry services shut down 07:00pm Internet shut down - except one internet service provider Facebook .com blocked Short message services shut down 10:00pm

Last internet service provider shut down

Internet service restored 12:30pm

People shut down Mubarak 06:30pm

Mobile phone calls shut down for one day Landlines shut down in some areas Al Jazeera Cairo bureau shut down

State media campaign against protesters

Short message services restored 12:35am

25 |

26

27

| 28 | January

29

30

31

01

02

03

| 04 | February

05

06

11

military officers and other topics related to the army . These online spaces continue to put pressure on the authorities to address issues in the offline world . Nevertheless, it is important not to magnify the role of the internet during the revolutions and uprisings; the Egyptian revolution is not a Facebook revolution or Web 2 .0 revolution or similar meaningless terms . But online platforms were the media arm for Egyptians during the revolution, a space for Egyptians to share their experiences and thoughts and to show the truth of what happened .

pictures and videos of what was happening on the ground . Offline platforms did not pick up on what happened in Tunisia in the beginning and even when coverage took place it was limited . In Libya, Tunisia and Syria, where there is excessive control on offline media platforms, the internet was the place where individuals could share what was happening .

Media tent in Tahrir Square

One of the first media tents set up in January in Tahrir Square was organised by a group of friends (including bloggers, human rights defenders, political activists) using their personal laptops, cameras, memory sticks, hard disks, cables and other devices that might be needed . We also put up a sign4 that said Point to upload pictures and videos . The main thing we did was gather all kinds of multimedia from demonstrators in Tahrir Square, then made the content available online . For me, doing this was very important because I believed that making those pictures and videos public would help everyone to really understand what was happening on the ground . It would allow them to follow the situation and be able to assess it, as well as have an overview of what happened
4 flic .kr/p/9eEabY

Circumventing repressive regimes

Online spaces are frequently utilised to expose human rights violations that governments try hard to keep unknown . Videos published online showing particular violations taking place create a strong wave of resistance over time in different online and offline platforms like the videos exposing police corruption in Morocco2 and torture in police stations and violence in Egypt .3 During the revolution in Tunisia, the Tunisian cyberspace in general and blogosphere in particular was almost the only source of information,
2 3 Video from July 2007: youtu .be/K6FCsv8RhsM and October 2008: youtu .be/4XpMmyUVdLo Video from November 2006: youtu .be/HMeXkZX9_E8 and youtu . be/YVxeyq__KD4

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in different cities in Egypt, given that those people who had pictures or videos were not only from Cairo . Providing the content5 also helped to prove that the government at that time was just spreading lies and rumours and manufacturing fake images of the protests . The content that we uploaded proved that violations were taking place, whether a video showing police shooting at peaceful demonstrators, or a picture showing a sniper pointing his gun at someone .

This is just what we knew after Egyptians stormed SSI headquarters, discovering the documentation . Even without the use of such programmes, netizens might face trial due to content posted online . This happened to human rights activist Nabeel Rajab, director of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights . Rajab was criminally charged in April 2011 for publishing images on his personal account on Twitter .6

Challenges facing online communities

There are several challenges facing online communities and activists . These frequently relate to the violation of an individuals privacy and legal threats that any netizen could face based on their online activity . These threats have become more intense due to international companies providing technical surveillance and monitoring systems to governments around the world . These companies simply develop programmes that enable governments and security agencies in the ruling regimes to violate anyones privacy, monitor anyones activity and impose censorship . Consequently, they are helping governments to fabricate cases against political activists and human rights defenders on charges like destabilising order, defaming state leaders, spreading rumours to overthrow the regime and many other charges that regimes set to minimise the work of civil societies and activists towards securing human rights . For example, in 2009 and maybe even earlier a European-based company with its headquarters in the United Kingdom called Gamma Group International offered the State Security Intelligence (SSI) in Egypt security software . SSI units describe this software in their internal communications in August 2009 as a high-level security system that has capabilities not provided in other systems . Its most prominent capabilities include hacking into personal Skype accounts, hacking email accounts associated with Hotmail, Yahoo and Gmail, and allowing the complete control of targeted computers . In December 2010 the SSI reported that the software can record audio and video chats, record activity taking place around hacked computers with cameras and make copies of their content .

Twitter and Facebook usage in North Africa

The Dubai School of Government issued a report in May 2011 on social media in the Arab region; the statistics on Twitter and Facebook usage in North Africa are presented in Table 1 .7 From the numbers in the table, it is clear that the percentage of Twitter and Facebook users is not high compared to the population sizes . Consequently, online content does not have a high, direct impact on offline communities . Instead it can be said to influence offline activist platforms, which in turn may influence offline communities .

Conclusion
Each space used to share information and knowledge has its own key players, target groups, and positive and negative points . There are differences, not gaps, between the press and radio stations . There are also differences between online and offline tools and communities, and these differences are normal the gap should not be the main concern . Individuals and groups use online tools to complement their offline work in mobilising people for events, and online tools are used to provide coverage of and document what is happening offline . The relationship between both online and offline communities can be complementary . Crossposting is the main way that online communities help spread information and create a wave or buzz on particular incidents . Bloggers from Syria, Bahrain, Morocco and other states played an important role by crossposting the content coming out of Tunisia and Egypt . This pushed offline media to use online content in their work, enabling more people to become aware of what was happening and helping the content reach more and more communities . The internet is a free space that enables individuals and groups to practice their rights in a different way when they have no space offline . Online tools
6 7 www .anhri .net/en/?p=2412 www .dsg .ae/NEWSANDEVENTS/UpcomingEvents/ ASMROverview2 .aspx

Content available online through torrent links: is .gd/bAFmHg and is .gd/SaZJVZ and pictures available at: flic .kr/s/aHsjtogRvz

40 / Global Information Society Watch

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TABLE 1.

Twitter and Facebook users in North Africa

Country Algeria Egypt Libya Morocco Sudan Tunisia Population 35,953,989 85,950,300 6,670,928 32,770,852 44,103,535 10,476,355 Twitter users (average between 1 Jan and 30 Mar) 13,235 131,204 63,919 17,384 9,459 35,746 Facebook users (4 May) 1,947,900 6,586,260 71,840 3,203,440 443,623 2,356,520

help social movements to better communicate, share their ideas and achieve impact and improvements . Building movements and improving human rights and political situations can only be done offline with the mobilisation of people, using all available tools, including the internet . I joined the street demonstrations in Egypt on 28 January . Before that, together with my colleagues, I was providing legal and medical assistance as well as documenting violations . In the beginning, for me, the day was just another demonstration that might continue for several days and end up in a brutal clampdown by the police .

On 2 February I realised it was a revolution, and people would not leave the streets until Mubarak was brought down . During the revolutionary events, and on a daily basis, it was clear that we went through a wide range of feelings . You get angry, upset, aggressive, afraid, feel courage and fear and suddenly happiness and hope . The most important thing that made me feel comfortable and believe that anything is possible was that I was not alone in the streets . Many people were around helping, showing support and solidarity . This would not be possible on the internet alone . n

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Occupy the Media: The Role of Independent Media at Occupy Wall Street
Martin Lucas
A brief browsing of the internet offerings under the search terms Occupy Wall Street video offers some of the following titles: Original Full Version One Marine versus 30 Cops by BklynJHandy, 1,316,386 views. Anonymous WARNING to NYPD on Behalf of Occupy Wall Street by rengadegamin, 13,166 views. I am not Moving by Bigsteelguy4, 630,437 views. Occupy Wall Street Protest Now On Every Continent Except Antarctica! MOXNews.com, 14,629 views NYPD Gone Wild - Attacking Protesters With Motor Bikes by TheBrutalityTube , 20,738 views And the titles proliferate: Occupy Wall Street Continues, Occupy Wall Street Grows, Occupy Wall Street Gets More Organized, Occupy Wall Street -- Is It The Revolution?, Occupy Wall Street Funded by George Soros? And of course, from a major news outlet: Occupy Wall Street Meets Champagne Drinkers courtesy of ABCnews.go. Many of the videos (20,000 in October, up to 95,000 in December) on Youtube, Vimeo and other outlets recall the earliest days of cinema, a recapitulation of the anecdotal focus on the every day of film before audiovisual storytelling fell under the ideological mandate of commercial narrative: Man crosses street and is arrested. A Day in the Life of a Protester, NYPD Arrest Child? Much like the hundreds who gathered in parks, plazas, and lots around the country, these videos are the visible tip of a much larger iceberg of media now calving on the internet. More or less surprisingly, the stylistics of OWS media tends to the conservative. If you do a content analysis, these OWS film are a bland blend of faces and crowd shots mixed with cops and sprinkled with a heavy dose of violence the very stuff of political documentary. They are light on polemics. The bulk of OWS videos don't look particularly radical in terms of form or overt content. Basically there are two main types. Many are very short and raw, often a single shot, or a series of images from a single event, filmed with an iPhone, or a point-and-shoot. But another group of films are crafted works. Although made very quickly by documentary standards, they are beautifully shot for handheld street footage, and elegantly paced. Yet their aim is not to impress you with their competency. For me, what they offer is more like the ethos of competence and 'ecological' thinking that the OWS occupiers offer. Like the demonstrators who have set up their own cleanup teams, cooks, librarians, and medical services, these media makers give a sense of competently serving the movement. As a long-time media activist, one thing that seems important to me is to situate these works historically. Looking at them, these short films seem intriguingly comparable to the Film and Photo League films of the 1930's and to the Newsreel films of the 60s. These are work made not by outside observers but makers who place themselves inside the struggle. Like those activist films from other eras these are as much as anything about the creation of a shared subject. Works whose goal is less to convince you that they are right it is perhaps (and filmmakers will say more) to characterize a movement that you already part of. These are films that give you a sense of how long it's been, how vicious the restrictions, imprecations and distopian possibilities offered to us as citizens over the last thirty years are. How just holding a space open seems like a breath of fresh air, and yet how radical it has become to do so. There is a key difference between OWS's 'message' and older radical media. In the 1930s the people at the point of

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political action, of revolution were 'the masses' and the masses speak to the idea of leaders. This movement has point people around issues, but struggles hard to remain leaderless. One clue is the way that the videos of the celebrities which you will not see tonight, are a funny side-bar. But those celebrities are merely putting themselves into the conversation, Have you been down there yet? One thing you will find surprisingly little of is economic analysis. These are not Inside Job with it's poking at the specific ins and outs of Wall Street wheelerdealers. Rather these films are about the construction of a new polis. They are more about method than content. They are the virtual reality of the real virtuality that makes this movement. An ethos of inclusion. The Occupy Movement makes a strong effort to retain difference as it creates unity. This is one useful lens with which to view these videos. The French philosopher Alain Badiou talks about the multiplicity that comes into consciousness rather than the unity that notions of progressive politics often espouse. Although big on representation in the cultural sense, this is a movement very unhappy with representative forms of democratic government. One concept that I find helpful is the notion of the Empty Signifier as used by Ernesto Leclau in works such as On Populist Reason; this is the idea that in populist movements, terms (think 'justice' or 'liberty') appear, but any meaning they may have is up in the air. In the first couple of months there was quite a lot of discussion of lack of demands in the OWS movement. This bears thinking about as one looks at OWS media. My sense is that they suggest a new field of action, or that a new way of constructing meaning, as being more important right now, a strategic focus. Here are people the films suggest, literally 'making sense' or manufacturing, not so much meaning, but the space for it to unfurl. As Noelle McAffee the philosopher and author of Democracy and the Political Unconscious notes, the public sphere isn't a big crystal ball that is just sitting there waiting to see if a crowd shows up. It is more like an inflatable balloon, a space that only grows where there is discourse of democratic politics to fill it and withers without debate. VIRTUAL SPACES IN REAL PLACES All free men could attend the assemblies, which were usually the main social event of the year and drew large crowds of farmers and their families, parties involved in legal disputes, traders, craftsmen, storytellers and travellers. Those attending the assembly dwelt in temporary camps (bir) during the session. The first parliament in 933 was the 'Althing' or General assembly. According to Wikipedia : In one video, Nobody Can Predict the Moment of Revolution by Martyna Starosta and Iva Radevojevic, a young man says, I don't know how to achieve collective liberation... we're here... we're holding space. This was echoed in an intriguing way The whole situation illustrates just how far we have allowed the ancient civic ideal of public space to drift from an arena of public expression and public assembly (Speakers Corner in Hyde Park, say) to a commercial sop (the foyer of the Time Warner Center). Mark Kimmelman in the mainstream media by the New York Times architecture critic: And there are many places, plazas, squares... Schenectedy, London Stock Exchange, Santiago de Chile, Madrid, Rome, sydney, tokyo, filling Syntagma Square, Tahrir Square and of course, Liberty Plaza, each in the heart of a city, relocalizing a space of political action blown into meaninglessness via the effects of globalization.

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What does it mean to occupy in our globalized world. While there is a meaning of take over, of filling space in a world where so much of the territory lies in 'cyberspace', in these videos the local is actually kind of a meta-local, promising a kind of planetary solidarity. You can create a local occupy movement, that will follow a model, but will be full of its own particularity. Note the difference with the Teaparty Movement, which even with inchoate demands, speaks back to an idea of a central authority (and representational democratic politics.) With the Occupy movement it is not so much 'we the people' as 'we are people' a statement that avoids the creation of a unified subject. Utopian it may be but these are the terms laid out here. It is worth noting that while there is an 'official' OWS media team, the videos are made independently, sometimes hosted on the OWS site and sometimes not. The main media directly created by OWS is the livestream, a stream which, in informational terms, is sometimes a trickle, and sometimes a mighty wave. Here again, it is perhaps more its presence, a kind of candle in the darkness of an illiberal moment, one where government seem capable of offering only budget cuts and austerity for the victims of the Wall Street crash, and where the forces of reaction are given all the encouragement. The Occupied Space is a space filled with people literally talking each other's words as well as listening. It has its own magic. What that means in political terms, and what kind of media might be in the future of this movement, is an ongoing discussion, a discussion not so much observing and deciding that the truth claims of these films is valid or not, but in participation the world they may or may not open a door to. OWS is a movement that doesn't want sympathy so much as participation. It is a movement, that reflected in its own video coverage, is less about issues and content than it is about experience, process and method. As Marisa Holmes, OWS media committee member says in the above mentioned video, It's a model of a new society; it's not a protest in the sense of being against something. How can we evaluate these claims? Let us watch and learn.

i In his seminal work, Being and Event (1988), Badiou advances such a project, drawing on developments in mathematics and its axiomatic treatment of infinity to establish a way for philosophy to think pure multiplicity, avoiding Levinasian recourse to a mystical infinite (Other) as well as Deleuzian recourse to an empirical, pragmatic multiplicity. According to Badiou, Cantors transfinite set theory woke him from his Sartrean slumber and provided what he calls an event of truth that opened up and broke from the stagnant situation of modern ontology. Seized by this truth, Badiou examines the efficacy of axioms established in set theory in Being and Event, arguing for a mathematical conception of infinity over all metaphysical or ethical conceptions in ontological inquiry. For Badiou, ontology is mathematics, and mathematics as pure presentation (or the presentation of presentation, and hence of nothing) allows us to think inconsistent multiplicity, a pure multiple without recourse to the Onewithout-oneness. With this establishment, Badiou sees a way to save the subject (and philosophy) from passivity toward and slavery to the Other on the one hand, and the violent totalizing imperialism of the cogito and Being on the other. ii http://students.washington.edu/schenold/badiou/ii New York, Columbia University Press, 2008

Martin Lucas teaches at Hunter College, CUNY and was an active Paper Tiger in the early years.

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What are your desires, wishes for the future in the realm of media and communications practice?
I want 1. to develop an aesthetic of activist film/doucmentary which, unlike our tradition film asethetics that often consider what is seen and heard on screen only, will take into account what happened before, during, and after the film was made. 2. people can make use of the Internet for social change. As a globe we need to learn how to cooperate on life-sustaining solutions to our very real problems. And we are! But I want to see more. And I want to see media not only help people learn about the world, but to learn to become more engaged and self-aware individuals, so that our consciousness can develop as it needs to to address the current global demands. My primary concern, on a personal level, is how to fund projects. The radical media model never seemed to take into consideration the very real needs people have to make a living. I think in the early 80s living was cheap, and free time was easier to find. How can organizations like Paper Tiger really help people develop in their careers? This question is a bit overwhelming... in a good way! I wrote an article exploring some of what Ive written here at: http://www. independent-magazine.org/magazine/2010/03/doc_funds_and_form More funding for public and non-commercial media. Greater resources for school and community organizations to critically education and inform us all. Leadership at all levels that see the need and value for public and noncommercial media as critical to our life as a society. too big a question. i guess here is a real narrow slice of an answer. i think the idea and practice of democracy is facing a very serious and poorly understood challenge from science and technology. as human knowledge deepens and society becomes more complex, more of the decisions about our live will be made by experts and less of them will be made by democratic institutions. whatever small back current of democratic control of science and technology will need radical media that can help citizens be informed enough to assert some accountability of the institutions of science and technology.

What is your name?

What are you concerned about in media and communications today?

Jimmy Choi Kam Chuen

Self-censorship and the increasing restriction on press freedom in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong

Randi Cecchine New York

I am primarily concerned about the global financial and environmental crisis, and all the impacts this is having. I am concerned in America that our politics have become so driven by divisive strategies, and that the Democrats still havent figured out how to stand up to Republicans. And that in this context, we are wasting precious time to re-build a system that has proven itself to be unsustainable. Re-building the system will take a kind of dialog weve never had before, one where we all admit that the future is unknown, and will need us to engage in new thinking.

To me, media is at its best when it represents the amazing developments that people are making, and to shine a light on problems and explore solutions. I am concerned that a lack of funding for documentaries, and a reliance on crowd-source-funding creates more situations of what is easiest called preaching to the converted.

Felicia Sullivan Boston, Mass

Fragmentation of our public sphere. Lack of support for non-commercial media. Proliferation of commercial media. Lack of skill of individual to critically assess the media they consumer.

pete tridish

Where are you now Pete? Philly & beyond.

im concerned about corporate ownership, so i build community radio stations.

i worry about privacy and net neutrality on the web- not sure what to do about either of those issues yet, but trying to become better informed.

What is your name?

What are you concerned about in media and communications today?

What are your desires, wishes for the future in the realm of media and communications practice?
My desires have more to do with international co-operation with my stay in a country like Colombia unconstitutional. And they have a lot to do with subject specialists to increase my ability to transform a few things that I do not like instead of just criticizing a number wrong things, doing nothing about it.

DIANA CAROLINA BERMUDEZ S.

Colombia ?

I worry about self-censorship of the media in my country, like the official performance. I am also concerned limited journalistic professional performance and low public awareness is perceived even from college campuses. The ease with which academic critique any social situation and how little is done about the lack of power cooperatives, etc..

Mary Feaster New York City

Its always surprising (and depressing) to me that for all the access to information we have how ill-informed most Americans are and their apparent pride in being that way.

At this point to me its about people. Media is a tool and the tools are all here - how we use it wont really change until we change how we deal with each other. Can it change? I am cautiously optimistic. For more academics and researchers to focus on the history and theory of radical media. For radical media groups to work on establishing better distribution practices. Creating engaging aesthetics for radical media.

Chris Rob Pembroke Pines, FL

Media monopoly. Utilizing radical media practices for organization building and activist practices.

jesikah maria ross

Davis, CA

My concerns include - the corporatization and increasing consolidation of commercial media - the tragic new state policies that work against PEG access/community media and the potential obliteration of community access stations via loss of franchise fees - the continued threat to net netrality - the lack of broadband for rural communities - the lack of media literacy education in our schools

My hope is to help create stronger bridges among various media movements-public media, community media, citizen journalism to mutually fortify them and also to discover ways to demonstrate their respective value so they are well funded and supported.

I tray and address these via staying informed and getting involved in various campaigns.

Nathalie Magnan

Paris, France

i teaching in part along those lines, & im certainly part of actions, ponctualy, precisely, when i see fit and needed.

for me right now the question is : how come the arab revolutions went in part through private social networks facebook.... howcome i get my news in france of occupy wall street from facebook ??? thats not healthy. There is here an interesting alternative SeenThis : seenthis.net/ but its the not all of my friends are on it problem. The real issue is about profiling, and how we are getting int a world that is more and more locked and controled.

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What are your desires, wishes for the future in the realm of media and communications practice?
i wish we could get together a community news channel locally. globally, there should be the widest distribution of media makers and producers possible more research and analysis rhather than the repetition of slogans - leave them for demos - experimentalism into breaking the barrier btw viewer and maker I wish we did not need to counteract mainstream culture as part of our existence, I think everybody would be more free and creative and there would be more justice. People should be in control of what they see/hear/participate. It still shocks me (after years of understanding) how much we are under constant corporate control.

What is your name?

What are you concerned about in media and communications today?

Sarah Lewison you know where i am! Carbondale, IL

trying to get my students to understand how privatization of media outlets, channels and bandwidths is relevant to their futures. most worried about how there actually wont be any channels that the people who are most disengaged will come upon

maria juliana byck

New York City

I am creating public events to explore how best to use new digital media to challenge corporate medias role in maintaining the power structures of our social, political and economic systems. To use as a springboard for creating a design prototype for a new radical media and to find inventive ways to use digital platforms to compile information/ideas into an accessible format that builds on the ideals of non-hierarchical-participatory culture, critical analysis, activism and innovative aesthetics. Combining the skills and knowledge of people working in design, video production, journalism, digital media programming, social networking, media studies and traditional arts around these fundamental themes opens up the potential for something truly revolutionary to develop.

Luhuna Carvalho

you know where to reach me

Portugal

media being a one sided conversation, media always trying to simplify complex things in order of making them understandable to people - just who is this lowest commom denominator that activist call peoplemedia being a one sided conversation, media always trying to simplify complex things in order of making them understandable to people - just who is this lowest commom denominator that activist call people

Patricia Gonzlez Ramrez

Brooklyn, NY

My concerns are on the privacy settings on all social media and personal online communications. The corporate control of our identities, our profiles and th3 whole systems of interactions we live by based on these protocols.

What is your name?

What are you concerned about in media and communications today?

What are your desires, wishes for the future in the realm of media and communications practice?

Nadia Mohamed

New York City

I am concerned about the lack of media literacy. I am concerned about the state of independent media-- the lack of financial stability many independent media makers/institutions face. I am concerned about the proliferation of the mass media that constantly misrepresents or edits out the histories of the most marginalized people while promoting values like individualism, materialism, sexism, racism etc. I am simultaneously concerned and encouraged by the role of the internet in social and political life. I am concerned about the continued threat of big media mergers, its potential threat to the freedom of the internet.

I want to see more people making critical media, that includes their experiences and understanding of the world. I want to see media that reflects values like mutual aid and assistance, self determination, the DIY spirit instead of media that perpetuates individualism, greed, competition, domination and materialism.

I try to address these concerns by educating myself and creating media that delves into some of these issues. My wish is that those involved in making media for social change understand the importance of collaborating with non-media folks in producing activist media programming, community-based digital stories or citizen journalism pieces. We as socially-conscious and experienced storytellers have a lot to learn from listening to others and developing leadership at the community level so we must be intentional about stepping back so others may step forward.

Carlos Pareja New York City

A big part of my work these days involves media policy reform. Since leaving Paper Tiger and my job in public access TV as the education manager with BCAT, I have been working as the training and policy director for Peoples Production House. At PPH, we are the regional anchor for the Media Action Grassroots Network (MAGNet) and within this capacity we are involved in numerous media justice campaigns including consumer protections for cell phones, establishing network neutrality rules to maintain an open Internet and reclassifying broadband as a Title II telecommunications service.

Pennee Bender New York City

Finding the balance between thoughtful in-depth explorations of issues and engagements with social activism and the new emphasis on short social media formats.

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What are your desires, wishes for the future in the realm of media and communications practice?
To allow more space for new and interesting media projects that dont look like mainstream/corporate media. This is what I love about Paper Tiger TV. It is a collaborative and artistic, and completely different from what is on TV, It is also lots of fun to make. It alows for others to be trained on the spot without the need to go to expensive film schools to learn the craft of storytelling. This sort of collaborative media making I would love to see more of. That the political economy of media comes to be understood as a social justice issue. That there is a renewed movement to (re)create a public arts policy which funds the production and distribution of public non-profit of media art in the US. As part of this, a movement to require media corporations to return a percentage of their huge profits to the public to finance non-profit media production and education. Publicly funded moving image repertory theaters in every town, where people can come together in person to watch beautiful and thought provoking media art. open access, free airwaves, media in the hands of the people The rise of people power to offset undue corporate influence on our media policy. This leads to many threats, including the erosion of public access television.

What is your name?

What are you concerned about in media and communications today?

Louis Massiah Philadelphia, PA

Media overload, which can make it harder to search for and fine progressive media. I am also concerned that ordinary citizens have relinquished control and use of public television.

Denise Gaberman

NSW, Australia

I want stories of people-young and old and communities to be represented the way they want themselves to be represented. I often work on collaborative media projects with young people and community organizations to set up access and media skills training so they can represent their stories and not allow others to misrepresent their ideas and visions.

Jeffrey Skoller Berkeley, CA

See questions 2 & 3

jennifer whitburn

Brooklyn, NY

I am concerned about access to alternative media for all and dedicated to providing spaces for community dialogue.

Lauren-Glenn Davitian Burlington, VT

Influence Peddling via Campaign Financing This makes it much harder for sensible media policies to be advanced in practice and law.

I am also concerned that the internet issues are gaining more attention than the preservation of the public space that we currently control, i.e. public access to cable TV.

Migration of Cable TV to IP, which will provide an argument for dispensing with public access TV and the Cable Communications Act public service requirements.

What is your name?

What are you concerned about in media and communications today?

What are your desires, wishes for the future in the realm of media and communications practice?
We are at a cross roads when it comes to ownership of our communications infrastructure. Despite massive money pouring into the Googles and Facebooks of the world, we are in a great position to counter this money with organizing. In 1999 the Indymedia movement turned the Internet on its head, introducing the concept of easy publishing by anyone. That approach has been taken by the corporate media and turned into a profit making business. Whats the next thing? How can we turn the Internet on its head again?

Jamie McClelland

New York City

My biggest concern is that as a movement we are relying to heavily on corporate Internet infrastructure (like this google spreadsheet) and proprietary software (like Final Cut Pro). PTTV was created out of a sharp critique of the corporate media and a strong call that we have to create our own media. And that is exactly what Paper Tiger did. Now, we have the means to produce our own television and the means to distribute it. However, we are still choosing to rely on corporate web sites for the distribution. We need to re-ignite a movement for independence in the digital age and we desperately need leadership from Paper Tiger TV.

Simin Minou Farkhondeh

New York City

I have many concerns in this area, because I see that people this country are in a slumber and dont see what is happening in their name, as the US engages in war after war. I often ask myself how implicated people where in the WWII German context, people here are implicated. The media plays a big role in keeping people inactive.

I wish that the mainstream media would not be underwritten by corporate money. I wish that there was more true independent journalism available and that media literacy existed starting in elementary school as I think it does in Canada. More progressive regulation in favor of the public in the area of our communications media via the FCC would be helpful. I wish there was more funding in place for independent work in film, and in the arts and for the news.

I find myself engaged in discussion about what is lacking from the mainstream media all the time. It could be when teaching alternatives to mainstream cinema such as Third Cinema or Iranian Film, when teaching, ways of critical thinking or when lecturing about art practices on the margins. it is crucial to challenge students notion of what media could be.

Kathleen Hulser

New York City

Bankruptcy of Fox News Death of Roger Ailes, Bill OReilly, Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Rupert Murdoch & sons, daughter, Glenn Beck, Huckabee, et al. Failure of all Cable companies -- Time Warner, Comcast, etc. Mass unmasking of evil puppeteers of the media -- lets see who is pulling the levers and inventing the coverage Law against Department of Defense Communications Department

The film/video and arts production I have been involved in were attempts to bring forth unheard voices and to engage in discussions absent from the center. Concentration of ownership. Extreme, open right wing agitation at every level Infusion of advertising into program content everywhere. Citizens United, secret bankrolling of psychotic theocratic candidates. Successful, subversion of court system through money, abuse of political process ------Constant analysis of brand-washing Media critique of part of daily life, cocktail conversation, teaching, child-rearing My public prayer and mantra is: Things are not what they seem, and dont believe what they are selling you

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What are your desires, wishes for the future in the realm of media and communications practice?
That movements take seriously their own media production and DIY Internet media as well as working with indepenedent media to get their voices out...that organizations think as strategically about their Comm and Media as they do their overall programs and fundraising. Yay Smart meme, yay low-power-fm, yay youtube.....

What is your name?

What are you concerned about in media and communications today?

Adriene Jenik

Phoenix, AZ

Dissipation of audiences, control over mediated communication by governments/private sector, electronic privacy issues, loss of sense of public ability to congregate/organize and USE public space as a unintended result of increased social networking online.

Jesse Drew Davis, CA

Take over of media by extreme right. Promotion of idea of media as being liberal.

Lisa Rudman Oakland, CA

The corp consolidation of media. The unsustainability of so manyof our precious radical media outlets

Statement of Subcomandante Marcos to the Freeing the Media Teach-In organized by the Learning Alliance, Paper Tiger TV, and FAIR in Cooperation with the Media & Democracy Congress
January 31 & February 1 1997
We're in the mountains of Southeast Mexico in the Lacandon Jungle of Chiapas and we want to use this medium with the help of the National Commission for Democracy in Mexico, to send a greeting to the Free the Media Conference that is taking place in New York, where there are brothers and sisters of independent communication media from the US and Canada. At the Intercontinental Encounter for Humanity and Against Neoliberalism we said: A global decomposition is taking place, we call it the Fourth World War- neoliberalism: the global economic process to eliminate that multitude of people who are not useful to the powerful-- the groups called "minorities" in the mathematics of power, but who happen to be the majority population in the world. We find ourselves in a world system of globalization willing to sacrifice millions of human beings. The giant communication media: the great monsters of the television industry, the communication satellites, magazines, and newspapers seem determined to present a virtual world, created in the image of what the globalization process requires. In this sense, the world of contemporary news is a world that exists for the VIP's-- the very important people. Their everyday lives are what is important: if they get married, if they divorce, if they eat, what clothes they wear, or what if they clothes they take off-- these major movie stars and big politicians. But common people only appear for a moment-- when they kill someone, or when they die. For the communication giants and the neoliberal powers, the others, the excluded, only exist when they are dead, or when they are in jail or court. This can't go on. Sooner or later this virtual world clashes with the real world. And that is actually happening: this clash produces results of rebellion and war throughout the entire world, or what is left of the world to even have war. We have a choice: we can have a cynical attitude in the face of the media, to say that nothing can be done about the dollar power that creates itself in images, words, digital communication, and computer systems that invades not just with an invasion of power, but with a way of seeing that world, of how they think the world should look. We could say, well, "that's the way it is" and do nothing. Or we can simply assume incredulity: we can say that any communication by the media monopolies is a total lie. We can ignore it and go about our lives. But there is a third option that is neither conformity, nor skepticism, nor distrust: that is to construct a different way-- to show the world what is really happening-- to have a critical world view and to become interested in the truth of what happens to the people who inhabit every corner of this world. The work of independent media is to tell the history of social struggle in the world, and here in North America-the US, Canada and Mexico, independent media has, on occasion, been able to open spaces even within the mass media monopolies: to force them to acknowledge news of other social movements. The problem is not only to know what is occurring in the world, but to understand it and to derive lessons from it-- just as if we were studying history-- a history not of the past, but a history of what is happening at any given moment in whatever part of the world. This is the way to learn who we are, what it is we want, who we can be and what we can do or not do.

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Two or three things that I know about the streaming media. Tetsuo Kogawa - 2000
downloaded from: http://anarchy.translocal.jp/non-japanese/index.html
In May 1998, at the third annual conference of RealNetworks, Mitch Kapor stressed on the "emotional bandwidth" in his keynote speech. He might have reluctantly argued this concept to the "poor" condition of streaming media at that time. Because the live streaming connection often has problems of congestion and interruption. But I would like to insist his concept more idiosyncratically than what he thought by it. As far as the congestion and interruption of live streaming concern, they still happen even in the ADL and relatively faster connections today. So You should long for future innovation of optical fiber cable or something like that. But I myself, as an artist like such problems. I will not use the internet live streaming for a substitution of live radio or television. Given the radio and television, I will not expect of the streaming a similar function of radio and television. If the streaming is a different medium, artist should find totally different way of expression in it. I think weak point of newborn medium will reverse itself into a positive function. I have been involved in a very micro radio/television for a long time. We have been using a very low-power transmitter that usually can cover only one kilo-meter radius. This, however, created many interesting examples of expression and postures both in the "sender" and the audience. Since the power is very low, both the "sender" and the audience must try to intentionally send/receive the airwaves. To do so in itself (for instance to beam the antenna to the most appropriate direction) became a performance art piece. The satellite technology is global while the internet is *translocal* in the sense that is local and global at the same time.You can have options whether you use it global or local. Even if you use it local, it cannot help being global. Thus you should insist in being local. "Sender"-"medium"-"receiver", the popular concepts of communication have become obsolete as late as the Internet has started. The medium is not a "tube". As Humberto R. Maturana and Francisco J.Varela wrote, there is no "transmitted information" in communication. Communication is a "structural coupling" and resonance in the "emotional bandwidth". At lease for media art, resonance proceeds "correct" messages. Let's hand over the message to the military and business communication that simplify the viability and potential of communication. Whenever I mention this topics, I remember the impressive story "Here the voice of the Algeria" by Franz Fanon (in Sociology of a Revolution). He talks about a paradox of "insufficient" circumstance of radio technology.The listener had to understand the voice of the radio passing through terrible noises. "Cet voix, Fanon writes, souvent absent, physiquement inaudible, que chacun sent monter en lui, fondIe sur une perception intrieure qui est celle de la Patrie, se matrialse de faon non rcusable." Every technology has its artistic viability at the early stage. The further stage is the process of institutionalization. The streaming medium gets closer to conventional media such as radio and television. The experimental stage will go to an end. It will soon have no place for us. The "insufficient" aspects of the streaming technology gives a chance to use it creatively. Art and business look for a different 'telos'. You don't care of the insufficiency of the streaming media.Today is the best for streaming experiments. Sooner or later, the streaming will be integrated into a general technology of "broadband". Every artist of streaming, therefore, should look for another way of use from the way that the business world now aggressively proceeding. To be sloppy in technology and to be tolerant of the insufficiency are different. At media festivals and conferences, there is a division of labor between planner and technician. Artist of electronics must finish this. Electronics is the technology after the modern technology that enjoyed this division. In this technology, artist could recover such a wholistic work as in da Vinci. Learn at least how to connect computer, peripherals and the circuits, how to install softwares and how to use them. Painter who has no brushes is absurd. Take hold of screw drivers and solder irons. They are the postmodern counterpart of the brushes spatulas of the premodern and modern arts. Originally for Reader of Net.Congestion Festival (Ed. Geert Lovink, October 2000, Amsterdam)

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WACC

A resource from the World Association for Christian Communication

The No-Nonsense guide to Communication Rights

What are communication rights? How do they relate to human rights? How do they differ from freedom of expression? Communication is recognised as an essential human need and, therefore, as a basic human right. Without it, no individual or community can exist, or prosper. Communication enables meanings to be exchanged, propels people to act and makes them who and what they are. Communication strengthens human dignity and validates human equality. By recognising, implementing and protecting communication rights, we are recognising, implementing and protecting all other human rights.

apart after the US and the UK pulled out of UNESCO, clouding discussion in UN bodies ever since. At the same time, NGOs and activists from the 1980s onwards became increasingly active in a variety of communication issues, from community media, to language rights, to copyright, to Internet provision and free and open source software. In the 1990s, these began to coalesce into umbrella groups tackling several issues. The idea of communication rights began to take shape, this time from the ground up. A right to communicate and communication rights are closely related, but not identical, in their history and usage. The former is more associated with the New World Information and Communication

is The right to communicate of to be understood as the right every

ommunication rights strengthen the capacity of people and communities to use communication and media to pursue their goals in the economic, political, social and cultural spheres. They support key human rights that collectively enhance peoples capacity to communicate in their own general interest and for the common good. Communication rights go beyond mere freedom of opinion and expression, to include areas such as democratic media governance, participation in ones own culture, linguistic rights, rights to enjoy the fruits of human creativity, to education, privacy, peaceful assembly, and self-determination. These are questions of inclusion and exclusion, of quality and accessibility. In short, they are questions of human dignity.

individual or community to have its stories and views heard. This means that full implementation of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, including the right of equitable access to the media and the means of communication, is central to its realisation.

Article 19, London, February 2003

Background

The first broad-based debate on media and communication globally, limited mainly to governments, ran for a decade from the mid-1970s. Governments of the South, by then a majority in the UN, began voicing demands in UNESCO concerning media concentration, the flow of news, and cultural imperialism. The MacBride Report in 1981 articulated most comprehensively a right to communicate. The debate was compromised, however, by the Cold War, and fell

Order (NWICO) debate, and points to the need for a formal legal acknowledgment of such a right, as an overall framework for more effective implementation. It also makes intuitive sense as a basic human right. The latter emphasises the fact that an array of international rights underpinning communication already exists, but many are too often ignored and require active mobilisation and assertion. The use of the term communication rights, in the plural form, implicitly points towards existing human rights that relate to communication, and away from promoting a new formal right to communicate (in the singular) in international law. The emphasis subtly shifts towards realising existing communication rights on the ground.

Why not just freedom of expression?

Freedom of expression is a basic human right. But the idea behind communication rights contends that such

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ommunication rights must respond to the needs of people at different levels of society who have experienced specific communication deficits in their lives. Without this vital mediation there is a danger of ignoring people who have experienced communication deficits at a local level, but whose concerns have not been acknowledged as a legitimate aspect of communication rights. Concentration of media ownership is a critical issue, but to landless labourers in Brazil or India, the right to information is far more important precisely because without it their very survival is threatened. Access to information can make a qualitative difference to their lives. How do we evolve an understanding of communication rights that recognises peoples varied experiences of communication deficiencies?

sage and ensure it is widely heard. An initial approximation of the goal of communication rights is: To secure conditions for the generation of a creative and respectful cycle of interaction among individuals and groups in society which in practice endorses the right of all to have their ideas expressed, heard, listened to, considered and responded to equally. By breaking down barriers, putting in place enabling mechanisms and enhancing self-determination, communication rights build an environment in which people are better equipped to receive messages, to understand and respond to them, and to communicate critically, competently and creatively. They nurture an environment of tolerance and mutual respect in the context of communication. Communication rights do not seek to impose an absolute obligation to listen and respond. Rather, they build an environment in which interaction and communication are more likely to occur freely and to mutual benefit.

freedom can be achieved only through securing a broader set of flanking rights. For freedom of expression to rise above the dominance of powerful voices, the hugely varying levels of access to power and to the means of communication in society, especially mass media, must be addressed. Communication rights demand that the conditions needed for a positive cycle of communication are, in practice, created. This cycle involves a process not only of seeking, receiving and imparting, but of listening and being heard, understanding, learning, creating and responding. Although we cannot oblige others to listen or to respond, communication rights would optimise the environment for this. Communication rights thus include a right to participate in ones own culture and language, to enjoy the benefits of science, to education, to participation in governance, to privacy, to peaceful assembly, to the protection of ones reputation, and more. In this context, freedom of expression, in the form of laws to prevent direct government interference and to defend free speech, can do little to prevent the domination of the loudest voices, i.e. those who can most strongly influence the means of communication within society, whether they are the government, newspaper proprietors and media corporations, or powerful interest groups. A poor person seeking to highlight injustice in their lives and a powerful media mogul each have, before the law, precisely the same protection for their right to freely express their views. In practice, however, the former lacks a means to have her/his voice heard, while the latter can powerfully amplify her/his mes-

For communication rights, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts in several ways. Without communication rights, freedom of expression can privilege the powerful. With them, it can achieve its full potential. Communication rights have implications for social and collective rights, beyond those of the individual, since they assert the right of cultural and ethnic groups, of language communities and others. Support for diversity is also integral to communication rights, through the high value attached to mutual respect and tolerance. Communication rights cannot be construed as simply about communication between equal individuals. They already imply social structures that differentially constrain and enable the capacity of different groups to communicate. They thus point to changes to, and the governance of, inequitable social structures and dynamics. The legal constitution of rights is not in itself enough. Far from it, even when legally binding, mechanisms are needed to make it possible to establish non-compliance. Redress must be available, and sanctions must be enforceable. Communication rights established in international law have none of these. Most governments have tried to incorporate international laws in national law. Yet they are often undermined by exceptions, and weakened by qualifications. Some governments fail to enforce even their own laws. A set of global dynamics gives communication rights special relevance today: Mass media are now dominated by a few global corporations. This significantly biases content towards profit generation and reduces diversity of sources and

Why are communication rights relevant today?

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Sign language is being generally recognised by society and people no longer look curiously at people signing in public. But sign languages are still discriminated against in that they are not given equal recognition with spoken languages. Using sign language is not guaranteed in public education, nor is sign language interpretation guaranteed in employment examinations for government or civil-service employees or even in court trials. This clearly infringes deaf peoples communication rights. (Photo: Arvind Jain) content. Mass media play a growing role in identity formation and cultural processes, but these are shifting towards an unsustainable individualist and consumerist ethos. The ongoing extension of copyright duration and stiffer enforcement in the digital area, is impeding communication and use of knowledge, and the public domain is shrinking. Access to ICTs, and their use to tackle poverty and exclusion, has almost ground to a halt under neo-liberal policies. Under the pretext of a war on terrorism, civil rights in the digital environment are being severally eroded. These trends emerge alongside ongoing discrimination against minority language groups, traditional denial of freedom of expression by governments, and numerous other curtailments of communication rights. Direct government control and manipulation of media, long regarded as the major threat to freedom of expression, is in significant decline in all regions of the world. Governments worldwide are relinquishing the crude instruments of direct censorship and statecontrolled media. The mushrooming of alternatives to government media and of the Internet has rendered it almost (but only almost) impossible to exert direct control. Though much remains to be done, freedom of expression has thus received a major and welcome boost. The trouble is that increased freedom of expression is not generating a corresponding flowering in media diversity, including diversity of content and plurality of sources. While the sheer volume of media outlets and channels has increased, evidence suggests that following an initial opening in hitherto repressed countries the diversity of views represented, and of the sources and formats of these views, is very narrow Genuine public service media, where it exists, is under threat; and where it does not, is perceived by governments as an expensive and possibly less compliant option than commercial media. Community media in their many forms (citizens media, autonomous media, civil society media etc.) are struggling hard, but still receive minimal recognition or active support, and progress is slow. The net effect is a corporate, consumerist and northern bias in global mass media, inadequate local media in most poor countries, and little or no media directly focusing on and arising from peoples needs and interests. A case can also be made that these apparently diverse issues must be tackled together, as an ensemble. First, the root causes, the driving forces, of many of these are interlinked. Behind most is the global agenda of unregulated capitalism with its tendency to monopoly, private ownership and consumerism. Wielding enormous political and economic clout, its logic is forcefully impressed upon every barrier it encounters, whether resistance to the destruction of the public sphere, efforts to protect cultural diversity, or a desire to deploy the fruits of human creativity for the greater social good. The need to maximise profits, and to create the ideal conditions for this, endeavours to sweep aside such obstacles and transform the world in its own market-driven image. Second, there are many linkages and interdependencies between the industrial sectors driving the process, and their dynamics are intertwined. Global media corporations are central actors almost everywhere, often incestuously entwined, and the line between them and telecoms companies and ISPs has long been blurred. These in turn are closely associated with a small number of powerful governments. Such interconnectedness means that, on the one hand, it is almost impossible to deal with each domain in isolation; but, on the other, a campaign can gain leverage in one domain by working on another.

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Third, many of these issues fall under the sphere of influence of the WTO, especially under TRIPS and GATS. This is no coincidence, since corporate and government interests long ago identified the WTO (then the GATT) as the most amenable, controllable and powerful of the global governance organisations. Suitably armed, it could ride roughshod over the UN agencies, human rights and development instruments. All suggest that tackling any of these issues in isolation would be ineffectual. The main actors, interests and strategies are too interdependent for them to permit any one area to submit to change. Indeed, their success in pushing their agenda globally has relied heavily on acting collectively, and on shared, often arms-length, agendas a good lesson for the opposition to learn. The advantage of communication rights is that it can embrace such diversity within a single conceptual framework, which in turn strengthens the potential for broad-based concerted opposition and the development of comprehensive alternatives.

Need for public communication

The first pillar supporting communication rights relates to the need for spaces and resources for the public, that is everyone, to engage in transparent, informed and sustained democratic debate. It is vital that the worlds political structures prioritise the creation of such spaces and provision of such resources. At the same time, there are political and economic forces opposed to this, whose power base and privileged positions would be threatened. Access to knowledge of public interest, its aggregation, processing and manipulation in relation to matters of public concern, and its dissemination and circulation within society are central. Concern has long been expressed about the growing concentration of ownership of media, a global trend brought about by corporate pressure to prevent or eliminate limits on media ownership, a trend that seriously threatens media diversity. There is strong evidence of formal and informal links between the political sphere and private media. Even so, community and locally owned media, mainly radio but including participative video and independent film, manage to exist everywhere, engaging with the interests of the local communities. They do so, however, largely in the absence of specific support, and often in the face of strong tacit or explicit opposition. Community media are one of the bright spots in otherwise difficult landscapes for media that genuinely pursue the public interest.

n Rwanda during the years leading up to the genocide of 1994, the Hutu-led government of Rwanda initiated hate media against Tutsis. Kangura newspaper published its notorious Ten Hutu Commandments, urging mistreatment of and discrimination against Tutsis. It also identified and denounced individuals as enemies, accomplices and traitors secretly working for the dissident Rwanda Patriotic Front. The worst and most notorious of the hate media proved to be the independent radio station Radio-Tlvision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM) with its extremist agenda. RTLMs language was aimed at destroying Tutsi identity in order to rewrite the countrys social and cultural history. After the genocide WACC supported projects that used community and traditional media to rebuild Rwandan society and to work towards reconciliation.

Communicating knowledge to restore equality and improve creativity

The second pillar supporting communication rights looks at the communication and exchange of knowledge more broadly, and not just of that knowledge essential to public debate and democratic interaction.

The goal is to create a regime where creative ideas and knowledge are encouraged, that can be communicated as widely and freely as possible for education, enlightenment, practical application, entertainment and other uses. Furthermore, a distributed and decentralised structure of production and communication of knowledge is desirable, geographically and among different groups and communities. Inherent dynamics pull in different directions here, too. An example is in the area of copyright. The original role of copyright was to strike a balance between, on the one hand, granting monopoly control over the communication of knowledge for a limited period, thereby creating an incentive for further creativity, and on the other, releasing it into the public domain for use by, and benefit of, all. However, knowledge products have become a massive industry, and copyright is now in practice largely controlled by private corporations, and so the underlying dynamic has changed. Today, controlling demand for, and production and communication of these knowledge products is critical to maximising profits and extracting them into private hands. The current tension is between those who want to return to the original rationale behind copyright and build a new regime that both encourages innovation and creativity, and maximises the use of knowledge; and those corporate and government interests that seek to maximise profits to industry. Meanwhile, huge sections of the population lack

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Indian women monitoring the media as part of efforts to promote gender equality in and through the mass media. Monitoring is important because it bridges the gap between activists and media professionals. It creates a link between the media and their audience which has the potential to lead to more equitable and diverse media systems. (Photo: WACC GMMP).

workshop held in Tecn Umn, on the border of Guatemala and Mexico, brought together journalists, radio producers, activists, religious and lay people, and experts on migration policy. They discussed the ambiguity of frontiers, the politics of hierarchies in the Americas, the use of post-9/11 security language to penalise migrants and the crucial role played by journalists in telling migrants stories. Participants learned of media that support migrants rights Radio Progreso (Honduras), Radio Santa Clara (Costa Rica), and the mainstream newspaper La Prensa (El Salvador) which carries daily items on migrant questions. Key resources produced by this WACC-supported event were a compilation of addresses of refuges on the migrant trail from Central America to the USA and a style-guide for journalists who cover migrant issues.

means to gain access to information and to use it effectively, even were it in principle in the public domain. Affordable universal access to conventional and ICT-based networks is an important goal in this respect, in forms that are built from the bottom-up, based on real needs.

Protecting dignity and security

The third pillar is about ensuring that civil rights associated with communication of all kinds are secured, and the need to protect the dignity and security of people in relation to the communication process. In includes the right to defend ones reputation against attacks by the media, one of a few areas in which the exercise of civil rights necessarily limits media freedom. It also includes a right to know what happens to information you provide, or is gathered about you. Led by the US and UK, the growth in the global security agenda, and all that entails, has begun seriously to undermine established and previously enforced rights in this area, and has given governments all over the world a welcome pretext by which they can control information flows and communication to their own ends. This is especially so in cyberspace, where the ground rules are still being established. Thus, important here are the right to privacy in communication and freedom from surveillance.

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Cultural diversity in communication

The fourth pillar covers another key function, that of enabling the communication of diverse cultures, cultural forms and identities at the individual and social levels. Communication is central to the production, practice and reproduction of culture and identity. Goals include encouraging diversity of cultural forms and cultural authenticity based on real human experiences, and on respecting, preserving and renewing existing cultures. It is also impossible to divorce culture from human goals of peace, global equity, and sustainability, and from human rights, especially where local culture can be at the expense of human rights. The modalities and forms by which culture is communicated and disseminated are central to the outcome. A major concern here is the process of cultural homogenisation caused by the commodification of communicated (or mass media-driven) culture, and an emerging dominance of for-profit culture produced in a few global and regional centres. This has serious knock-on effects for both individual and collective identity formation, fragmenting some cultural forms and encouraging an unsustainable consumerist ethic, both individually and collectively. Linguistic segmentation of the world based on the dominance of English in politics, culture and the econ-

n 1997 the government of the Pacific island nation of Niue was persuaded to sell its .nu Internet domain name to a USbased company interested in the profit potential of .nu, since in many parts of the world it carries the connotation of brand new. Niue thus lost control of its national domain name. It was soon discovered that .nu was being used to sell and promote materials that reflected badly on the nation and its culture and that a private entity controlled the major information portal to Niue. In response WACCs Pacific Region initiated a campaign to mobilise public opinion and to support petitions from heads of village councils, churches and other groups. The domain name was later successfully returned to Niue.

n Nepal, the Asmita Womens Publishing House and Media and Resource Centre a long-term partner of WACC ensures that womens voices are puclicly heard through its weekly radio programme Shakti, meaning power. Broadcast on Radio Sagarmatha FM, South Asias first independent community radio station, programmes address a wide range of gender issues from marital rape to the role of women in peace and reconciliation. High illiteracy rates in Nepal mean that, for the majority of people, radio is the only means of obtaining information. Promoting womens communication rights contributes to their ability to exercise and claim other rights. Without the empowerment of voices that are listened to, women remain second-class citizens.

omy is a further cause for concern, since it is often accompanied by the elimination of other languages and the effective exclusion of many people from public discourse. In many countries minority cultures are also seriously discriminated against in terms of recognition and communication.
Compiled by Philip Lee, with contributions by Anna Turley and Pradip Thomas. Acknowledgement Much of this resource is summarised from material to be found in Assessing Communication Rights: A Handbook issued by the CRIS Campaign (September 2005). The Handbook was produced as part of the CRAFT project (Communication Rights Assessment Framework and Toolkit) of the CRIS Campaign, written by Sen Siochr, with contributions from the Research Teams and Coordinating Group, and funded by the Ford Foundation. See http://www.crisinfo.org/content/view/full/1000

ACC promotes communication for social change. It believes that communication is a basic human right that defines peoples common humanity, strengthens cultures, enables participation, creates community, and challenges tyranny and oppression. WACCs key concerns are media diversity, equal and affordable access to communication and knowledge, media and gender justice, and the relationship between communication and power. It tackles these through advocacy, education, training, and the creation and sharing of knowledge. WACCs worldwide membership works with faith-based and secular partners at grassroots, regional and global levels, giving preference to the needs of the poor, marginalised and dispossessed. Being WACC means taking sides. Visit: www.wacc.org.uk

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Occupy Museums to protest the anti-democratic policies of Lincoln Center and Bloomberg on the last performance of Satyagraha Thursday December 1, 2011.
It is no doubt timely that Philip Glass' opera 'Satyagraha'--which depicts Gandhi's early struggle against colonial oppression in South Africa--should be revived by the Metropolitan Opera in 2011, a year which has seen popular revolutions in North Africa, mass uprisings in Europe, and the emergence of Occupy Wall Street protests in the United States. Yet we see a glaring contradiction in Satyagraha being performed in the Lincoln Center where in recent weeks protestors from Occupy Wall Street have been arrested and forcibly removed for exercising their First Amendment rights to peaceful public assembly. Its also a striking irony that Bloomberg L.P is one of the Lincoln Centers leading corporate sponsors. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has stifled free speech, free press, and freedom of assembly in an aggressive campaign against Occupy Wall Street protestors in New York City that has influenced a crackdown on the protests nationally. The juxtaposition is stark: while Bloomberg funds the representation of Gandhi's pioneering tactics of nonviolent civil disobedience in the Metropolitan Opera House, he simultaneously orders a paramilitary-style raid of the peaceful public occupation of Liberty Park, blacking out the media, while protestors are beaten, teargassed, and violently arrested. Satyagraha is a Sanskrit word meaning "truth-force," and we at Occupy Wall Street, by exercising tactics of nonviolent direct action inspired by those championed by Gandhi, have insisted that the truth be told: Our commons have been stolen from us to profit the wealthiest 1%. We have lost homes, jobs, affordable education, natural resources, and access to public space. Our culture has been co-opted by a corporate elite. Many suffer so a few may thrive. Previously, Occupy Museums and other OWS groups came to Lincoln Center to protest the "generous philanthropy" of David H. Koch, the funder of the Tea Party and of anti-global warming research, who uses philanthropic contributions to the former New York State Theater to whitewash his misanthropic reputation and write off his taxes. We will return again to Lincoln Center, where 'Satyagraha' has inspired us to once again challenge the ruthless nexus of power and wealth and reclaim our public space and common dignity. We would like to announce two actions: A General Assembly at 10:30 PM at Lincoln Center. Join us in an open conversation about the effects of increased privatization and corporatization of all aspects of society, and the use of nonviolent civil disobedience around the world to reclaim the commons. * Composer Philip Glass will join the General Assembly and Mic Check a statement. If permission is not granted to protest on Lincoln Center plaza by Thursday evening, some members of Occupy Wall Street will enact a hunger strike. They will not end this strike until their demands are met, starting with the demand that the private managing agent of Lincoln Center and appropriate New York City government agencies guarantee the freedom of speech on the city-owned plazas and walkways of Lincoln Center. Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Museums stand in solidarity with these hunger strikers and offer support for this courageous form of protest. The symbolic opening of this space for protest stands for the spaces all over the city and country that we vow to liberate from the control of the 1% for the full use of the public.

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Dnde est el Pato? Where is the Duck?

+ 40:CALL FOR CULTURAL RESISTANCE is a project developed by QUACK2012 with the aim to disseminate the message and the spirit of the iconic guerilla book How to Read Donald Duck: Imperialist Ideology in the Disney Comic (Dorfman & Mattelart), published in 1971 in Chile. The call is for electronic art, graphic design (posters, logos, comic strips, stencils), collective action (performance, happenings, flash mobs, etc...) and video (short and animated clips). The pieces selected will be part of a virtual and physical-site exhibit, interactive and urban installations, video screenings, and a web-conference that will be launched on May 1rst, 2012. Deadline: March 16, 2012 +40 Convocatoria para la Resitencia Cultural es un projecto desarrollado con el objetivo de difundir el mensaje y el espirti del libro comic guerrillero Como leer a Donald Duck: Ideologa Imperialista en el Comic de Disney (Dorfman & Mattelart), publicado en Chile en 1971. La convocatoria es para arte electrnico, diseo grfico (afiches, logos, tiras de comic, estencil), acciones colectivas (performances, happening, etc..) y video (corto y animaciones) Las piezas selecionadas sern parte de una exhibicin fsica y virtual, installaciones urbanas e interactivas, muestra de video y una conferencia online que ser el Primero de Mayo, 2002. Curators/Curadores Miguel Rojas Sotelo / Raul Moarquech Ferrera-Balanquet / Rodrigo Dorfman Visit/Visite http://www.melloweb.com/QUACK201

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Allied Media Projects Principles

(To lear n more about AMP go to: www.alliedmedia.org)
We are making an honest attempt to solve the most significant problems of our day. We are building a network of people and organizations that are developing long-term solutions based on the immediate confrontation of our most pressing problems. Wherever there is a problem, there are already people acting on the problem in some fashion. Understanding those actions is the starting point for developing effective strategies to resolve the problem, so we focus on the solutions, not the problems. We emphasize our own power and legitimacy. We presume our power, not our powerlessness. We spend more time building than attacking. We focus on strategies rather than issues. The strongest solutions happen through the process, not in a moment at the end of the process. The most effective strategies for us are the ones that work in situations of scarce resources and intersecting systems of oppression because those solutions tend to be the most holistic and sustainable. Place is important. For the AMC, Detroit is important as a source of innovative, collaborative, low-resource solutions. Detroit gives the conference a sense of place, just as each of the conference participants bring their own sense of place with them to the conference. We encourage people to engage with their whole selves, not just with one part of their identity. We begin by listening.

downloaded from: http://www.journalofaestheticsandprotest.org/5/articles/Diaz/Diaz.htm Without the loudspeaker, we would never have conquered Germany Adolph Hitler, Manual of German Radio, 1938

Listening Manifesto: Examining the Role of Poetry and Sound

Karla Diaz
Listening Sitting in a cardiac intensive-care unit, amidst a pool of wires and monitors, small blinking lights, oxygen masks and white sheets, from deep inside his ribcage I hear his heartbeat slow and in pain. This is the only part of him I recognize. After fighting a twelve-year battle with heavy meth and alcohol use, beaten by drug dealers, everything is bruised skin. I open my mouth to speak, but nothing comes out. I am speechless. My brothers drug overdose makes me uncomfortable, because it makes me ask, What happens when language fails to affect in the same way as sound? Although I can think of other situations where the opposite has been true, and language in the form of poetry has impacted me more than any sound, I am enthralled by this. I want to scream, grunt, and cry. Here I am, a poet, my brother dying, and I cant express myself in words. What if poetry and sound could meet together, wouldnt one enhance the other? I have lost something inside me. I dont know what.

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Trying to find what I have lost, I have begun by listening. To my iPod, to my cellphone ring, to skateboarders going up and down a ramp, to American Idol, to the noise in schoolyards and playgrounds, to slang words and rap videos, video games and shopping malls, to the do-it-yourself YouTube generation and MySpace-friendly global participants. I listen to all the sounds of the generation that my brother is a part of. In this world, there exists noise, music, and imagination, but there is no room for poetry. I mean poetry found in the ordinary, in the common, in the interaction between people; poetry of the spiritual, of the personal, of the ritualistic and ceremonial acts of young people. When I speak of poetry I dont mean classical poets like Shakespeare or even non-traditional poets like spoken-word poets. I mean poetry in terms of storytelling. Every poem is a story condensed. The Listeners If there is a place where poetry and sound meet it is in listening. The first task of the poet is to listen. I compare this task to that of a DJ. A good DJ listens to multiple things at once. He listens to two songs at the same time, while he is manipulating their ranges, speeds, and the variations on the mixer. He listens, waiting for the right moment to make the transition from one song to another, letting the music flow. At the same time, a good DJ is listening to the audience to know whether they are enjoying the music. The poet is like a DJ. The poet listens to people tell multiple storiesthe way they tell them and the words and sounds they use. Then, the poet finds the right place, the right moment when he transitions the listener from one idea to another. The transition must be smooth, so that even the paradox flows. When the poet reads the poem he should read with meaning, articulation, imitation. In other words, the poet is using sound to create a story. Storytelling and sound-making are performative arts. When one tells a story, there is always a relationship between the storyteller and the listener. In poetry, the relationship is the same in coexistence with sound. In a class I taught recently, I asked students to record sounds happening in a mall and to listen how those sounds might tell a story. I introduced them to the basic poetic elements of repetition, rhyme, paradox, and metaphor. Students came back with their findings after two hours recording. One students soundtrack stood out; she recorded the sounds of hangers, the sounds of shoes against the floor, the sounds of the elevator, and the sounds of the cash registers. The student had been interested in these sounds because she remembered her mother working in a clothing store when she was little. There was poetry in the sound of the hangersfor her, it meant her mom would be off work soon. Listening Stations Public spaces are the best places to listen. There are so many different sounds. A month ago, I visited a non-profit soul food restaurant called Natures Best in South Central Los Angeles. The restaurant was established by a retired lawyer and poet named Jacinto. Surrounded in his neighborhood by people who couldnt afford to pay full price for food, Jacinto made his restaurant a place where one can pay what one can, no matter how much one eats. Inside the restaurant there is a waiting room equipped with chairs and tables where customers can play chess. There is a sound system, always on, just in case one feels inspired to recite a poem, share a message, or simply sing. There are drums and a guitar if customers feel like playing. While one waits, Jacinto and his wife are cooking. After the meal, Jacinto comes by and recites a couple of his poems: Let me tell you, let me tell you, he begins. A place like Natures Best is a good example of a democratic space, a listening station. It is a model of resistance and alternative thinking, providing a space where different people can interact and where poetry and music are accessible to anybody. The spoken and unspoken A friend once told me that there are three ways to die: the first is physical death, the second a spiritual death, when no one remembers you, and the third is when no one mentions your name. The spoken never dies. I have lost in the process of writing this essay a confidence in words, my heartmy brotherbut I have also gained insight. What happens when poetry fails? We create listening spaces in our mind, in our bodies, pocket holes where sound allows us to learn, allows us to understand and take action. There is a crisis in our nation that has affected our ability to listen. Living in a visual culture, we are often quick to judge, make war, and ignore the poetry surrounding us. If we are to live in a democracy that establishes the freedom of soundthat is, the freedom to speak and hear what we wantthen we, as citizens, should learn to be listeners, poets, and storytellers. We should in our work and in our speaking listening stations with which we can hear individual choices and the will of the collective. We must listen in order to respond and take action.

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Poor People of the World... Unite! An Invitation to "Cry of the Poor" Friday

Without regard to political orientations or party affiliations

- To all those who have lost their possessions in this country

- To the residents of graveyards and slums

- To those whose most basic rights to a dignified life have been denied.

- To those who make sleep their dinner and live their days broken and humiliated

- To every father who cannot look his son in the eye because he cannot provide for him sufficiently

- To all the unemployed who waste years of their life without hope

- To the sick who cannot obtain treatmentenough untold sufferings

- To all the honorable people troubled by the pains of this nation, the suffering of the poor, and the despondency of the homeless

We call upon you to gather in Tahrir Square on Cry of the Poor Friday, 18 November 2011

Simply so that our numbers may be known, our face be known, so that we can cry out and let our voice be heard.

Poverty and pain know no religion and no nationality. This is the call we will sound from Tahrir Square on 18 November 2011 for all the worlds poor to hear: unite, demand your rights, dream of your better tomorrow. Rights are not given, they are seized through struggle.

To show solidarity with the poor, invite your friends by publicizing this event on the internet.

Poor People of the World, Unite! (A Movement)

Acquired 10 October 2011

Translated by Rachel Antonsen

Translation reviewed by Emily Drumsta

Downloaded from www.tahrirdocuments.org

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