Category: Photography

Speak like a pirate day, every day!

Congratulations to us, there’s now at least one pirate in the EU parliament!

I don’t hold representative democracy in high regard, but it’s going to be interesting to see if Christian will get anything good done; Here’s hoping the green or left block buys him off by adopting the pirate platform in exchange for his support!

The panorama above is from the voting place at the central station in Stockholm Sunday evening, and the image below is the same panorama I always do whenever I’m on Skeppsholmen and am waiting for the bloody bus.

It’s not only your mothers day.

I always miss holidays so it’s a good thing that other people keep track. Like Nate DiMe of The Memory Palace for example, who celebrated his tenth podcast by doing one about mothers day. I didn’t know the background to this holiday, and if you don’t know the story either, give it a listen and then go and read up on Ann Jarvis.

[audio:https://monocultured.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/episode-10_-international-brotherhood-of-mothers.mp3]

Pirates, pirates all around!

I’ve linked to NPR:s Planet Money before. This time they have an eye-opening story on the pirates outside the coast of Somalia: A ship belonging to a Danish company is boarded and what ensues is a straightforward business negotiation. It’s the most educational 25 minutes you’ll have this week. You’re welcome.

[audio:https://monocultured.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/planetmoneypirates.mp3]

Also, in regards to what Žižek and others have said about capitalism being the superstructure onto which democracy or tyranny is latched:

Once they get online unsupervised, do we expect Chinese Internet users, many of them young, to rush to download the latest report from Amnesty International or read up on Falun Gong on Wikipedia? Or will they opt for The Sopranos or the newest James Bond flick? Why assume that they will suddenly demand more political rights, rather than the Friends or Sex in the City lifestyles they observe on the Internet?

→ Boston Review, Texting Toward Utopia: Does the Internet spread democracy? By Evgeny Morozov.

blod och pingpong

A couple of days ago Philipp Rode from LSE (London School of Economics and Political Science) held a lecture at Chalmers on the sustainability of cities and changes we’ll be forced to make. Ana invited me to the dinner afterwards, and rather soon we were talking about what might be the driving force behind such changes.

Philipp seemed to suggest that economic incentives might be enough for private enterprise to adopt a greener stance and long term goals rather than focusing on next years dividends; I don’t buy it, but it’s a majority view and a model of change that most people prefer right now to Earth Liberation Force.

My political analysis is very traditional: It’s class war all the way, baby, and the changes for public good (eight hour workday, voting, right to trial, etc) have all come about with the implicit or explicit threat of violence or revolution. Nothing is ever given, only taken, which posits that whatever economic measures that governments would have to put in place would be met with tremendous resistance.

The objective must be to create a model for and mode of co-operation where radical ecological direct action as well as large scale economic systems can be included as viable routes. How to bring together actors in a way so progress is made in an inclusive and progressive way, one small step at the time? How can a largely uninformed and busy public ever take responsibility and charge of their societies in the long run?

Maybe alternative reality games (ARG:s) can be seen as a method for co-operation? Check out all the smart stuff that Jane McGonigals has to say; She’s is creating ARG:s and thinking about games for a living. As opposed to a traditional game, where little is at stake and there’s no ambiguity as to the puppet masters role, think of harnessing our collective intelligence in search of a solution to a particular problem. I don’t know how far you can abstract “reality” or parcel it up so that people with little knowledge could play with it, but if you could turn the tedious task of long term planning into something fun you’d actually have people who’d want to participate:

As the leading edge of research, industry, politics, social innovation and cultural production increasingly seek to harness the wisdom of the crowd and the power of the collective, it is urgent that we create engaging, firsthand experiences of collective intelligence for as wide and as general a young audience as possible. Search and analysis games are poised to become our best tool for helping as many and diverse a population as possible develop an interest and gain direct experience participating in our ever-more collective network culture.

→ Jane McGonigal, Why I love bees: A study in collective intelligence gaming. [pdf]

Remember how Internet used to be something that you thought only geeks would ever use? Or when email seemed like a fad and you never thought you’d own a cellphone? Well, if you want to be ahead of the curve you really should read what Jane has to say.

Case in point: Fold.it, a game where you muck around with protein in search for a cure for cancer. You learn the rules of the game, and then you’re doing science. For real.

End of show, summery.

The course that I’ve been teaching at Chalmers is over. The fifth year students are finishing their masters projects and there’s some running around and mild panic regarding the final exabition, but for all intents and purposes the course itself is over.

It’s tempting to attempt a summery of things that were experienced and lessons learned, but I refrain from doing one giant monster post on the subject and instead maybe shower you with the golden sparks of detail.

For example: Architect Carl-Johan can be seen below, pointing in the general direction of something visionary and awesome. He joined me and Ana two weeks ago in doing the final critique of the projects. He’s brother of the artist formely known as Andreas-in-Gothenburg, with whom he shares laughter and a mischievous wink.

Required reading: Consumer-mediated reality.

Signs do, however, point clearly to Apple steering away from consumer as creator of data and toward consumer as data itself. I no longer create the data I sync, the data is me and it syncs on its own.

→ @Lonelysandwich, Adam Lisagor: Why me?

[…] and I will turn to her and say, Honey, uh, honey, there is a certain feeling but I cannot name it and cannot cite a precedent-type feeling, but trust me, dearest, wow, do I ever feel it for you, right now. And what will that be like, that stupid standing there, just a man and a woman and the wind, and nobody knowing what nobody is meaning?

→ The New Yorker: JON by George Saunders.

Certainly the psychologists who have prescribed so much Prozac that it now shows up in the piss of penguins, saw what they did as necessary. And the doctors who enable the profitable blackmail practiced by the medical industries see it all as part of the most technologically advanced medical system in the world. And the teacher, who sees no problem with 20% of her fourth graders being on Ritalin, in the name of “appropriate behavior,” is happy to have control of her classroom. None of these feel like dupes or pawns of a corporate state. It seems like just the way things are.

→ Joe Bageant, Escape from the zombie food court. [Via metafilter.com]

RP: I thought the whole theft / not theft debate was settled?

Crossposted from Metafilter on the subject of todays court ruling against The Pirate Bay in the lower court. Let’s see how it all will play out. In the mean time, I tried to formulate a few thoughts – They’re mostly rehashings of what has been said again and again by people a lot smarter and visionary than I, but what the hell is a blog good for if not self publishing? Check out the mefi thread for the discussion.

Copyright infringement is a violation of someone elses monopoly on exploiting whatever it is that falls under “intellectual property” and isn’t covered by patents or similar legal devices.

If I download an unathorised copy of a book you’ve written, it doesn’t follow that I’m causing detriment to you. Of course that could be construed as a cop-out — “Oh, I wouldn’t have bought that anyway” — but it’s a valid argument. Also, I could maybe even profit from it, (one of the charges levelled against tbp) but this does not automatically constitute detriment to you, unfair thought it might seem. (Big corps fucking over small time artists is a familiar theme)

I might enjoy your book, but that is a weak argument since it’s about moral right more than financial or other damage to you or your ability to make a living as an author. It’s saying “only if you pay me are you allowed to enjoy my work” which seems reasonable but is about your feelings and convictions more than detriment caused.

There are technical aspect to consider in this as well; If I use Bittorrent and seed as much as I leech, I might aid someone else to your detriment (Oh I don’t know. It’s an unedited copy and it’ll garner you a negative review. Or that other person is someone who otherwise would have bought the book. Whatever.) which of course has a bearing on your argument. (Difficult to measure though.)

But you need to differentiate between purely moral arguments which are founded on your thoughts of authorship — originality, uniqueness and the “creators” right to his/her own “work” — and more practical and pragmatic convictions and policies (A majority of our population believes musicians should be able to make a living off of music) and the implementation thereof.

Regardless on what side you come down on, the very way the Internet works forces the issue of copyright infringement to come head to head with other interests. It’s not fair, but in this case I don’t see how you can imbue technology with morals or a material model of scarcity.

Every decision that has been made lately (In Sweden as elsewere) regarding laws online, have eroded the notions of right to privacy in favour of political and financial gain. As much as I like having such a plethora of music, books and film to choose from, I’d rather have my privacy.

But until the fear and shortsightedness is beaten out of people by one fifteen year old with time on her hands after another, let’s put the same broken record on once again, shall we?

To whomever. According to Artur

Let’s hear it for Artur Poças, the latest participant of To Whomever and one of the students at the course I’m teaching with Ana Betancour. Who could ever guess that there’d be so different takes on what this project was about? Thanks for the contribution, and email me your address – sending stuff by post has a nice haptic feel to it.

My name is Mathew Price. I came to Europe very early in my life and now I’m living in this small boring town where nothing attracts me more than my own room or the beautiful fingertips of my girlfriend, Therese.

Day one

My twin brother came to live with me. He left our parents house, I did the same some years ago and, apparently, the reason is the same, he became a vegetarian and our father told him: “if you want to eat plants, go to live in the garden, there are plenty of them”.

After so many years, his voice still echoes inside my head.

The good thing is that I found a job for my brother at the school, is going to teach with me, starting tomorrow.

One week later

First day at work, my brother fucked my girlfriend in our dirty bathroom at school. She thought he was me (eight years together and she doesn’t know I don’t wear silk underwear). He didn’t think at all. I broke up with both.

After all

Today I received the news by mail. She’s pregnant. Therese. For many years we tried an absurd amount of times to conceive a human being. Never succeeded. The fucker comes from the other side of the world and, with just one shot, guess what?

Twins

Jonas and the stars.

Jonas, the most charming man who ever rode a fixie, visited with us the past couple of days. We spend a couple of days sightseeing Gothenburg and a couple of nights sightseeing bars. As it turns out I don’t really know this city as well as I ought to considering the six years I’ve done here. It’s odd what you find out when you’re a tourist in your own city. For example: It is very difficult to find a totally dark place where you can observe the stars, even if you go out of the city.

As a kid I remember staring up at the night sky, feeling both awe at the vastness of the universe and an aching sense of unfairness that I might not get to go out into space and travel between stars. The books I’d read and the movies I’d seen had made the sensation of space exploration so vivid in my mind that I could almost sense the hum of engines under my feet and taste the stale, reconditioned air.

The sense of loss was not about privilege lost; It wasn’t parents or class or education that was holding me back, but rather our limited technological development, and as such this acts as a great equaliser: We have but to look up to recognise the inconsequence of our own wishes – or least some of them – and there’s something liberating about it. It might remind us of the limits of human experience, but just as death is malleable, these limits are material and not absolute.

The emotion I experience looking at the stars is sadness at not getting to go, but also a brazen defiance, a reassurance: If only I could live long enough, it would have been me.

Guarding Enrico Pallazzo with my bare fists.

Given that I’m both handsome and easily amused, I was handed guard duty at the housewarming party for Hey, it’s Enrico Pallazzo on Saturday. As if by total coincidence that day marked the end of my one month sobriety; It goes without saying that beer improves the quality of life when you’re standing in freezing weather, trying to be friendly to people. What also helps is having a faux earpiece in one ear, and making an occasional pretense at receiving info from inside the party. Not many dared to call me on it, and those who did thought it was fun.

It was interesting to note the ten metre walk of dignity that people felt compelled to put on as soon as I was spotted. The avoidance of eye contact, the miniscule nod of the head so as to indicate friendliness, or alternatively the 1000 yard stare past me so that sheer determination would see them through. Gods know we’ve all been there, and I’m happy to say that a minimal amount of power was abused by me.

Carding 19-year olds was a bit odd, but even they seemed cheerful. I guess it’s because they’ve just barely reached legal age and still revel in being able to show a legit ID and not their older brothers bus pass. Because the housewarming was semi-private, the cost of getting in varied depending on who knew whom and what mood that person was in; The cover charge jumped from “voluntary” to 100 then down to 20, 50 and settled on 40-ish. The age-limit yo-yoed as did the rules of “this drunk or less to get in.” In the end only one guy was turned away; His indignant snarl diminished by his more convincing inability to speak in full sentences.

Hey, it’s Enrico Pallazzo is an ensemble of folks who got bored working for advertising agencies and started up something that nestles between advertisement and art. Adart? Regardless of their ambition, the space they are renting is beyond awesome. It’s beawesome.

Anna and Jan have commandeered a tiled room – imagine a large shower at a mental asylum, refurbished with a wooden floor – and there’s a big pillared hall which can be used for workshops, exhibitions or (like the other day) for parties. A grand space is an excellent catalyst for action; It’s going to be fun to see what comes off it.

“Earth Hour” was celebrated by turning off all the lights for half an hour, issuing glowsticks and lighting candles. Any doubt as to the symbolism of the event was dispelled by the unabated techno. Imagine that you’re Earth and one of the kids kicking you in the face has decided not to wear steel tipped shoes out of consideration for your well-being, but is still aiming for the teeth. Even so, there was an accoustic guitar, which I guess counts as a token of caring and a concession to uplugged entertainment.