Promotional Film for ’1839: The Chartist Insurrection’ – by David Black and Chris Ford

1839

PROMOTIONAL FILM FOR ‘1839: THE CHARTIST INSURRECTION’ – BY DAVID BLACK AND CHRIS FORD

This film was first shown at the book launch for 1839: The Chartist Insurrection, by David Black and Chris Ford, on 18^th May 2012 at the Workers’ Educational Association, Clifton Street, London.

There is also a Foreword to the book, by John McDonnell MP.

I bought a copy of the book at the launch and finished reading it about an hour ago. It’s an accessible, well-researched and exciting book. It has a narrative style which the general reader, or those with little knowledge of Chartism, should find appealing. The many illustrations and the well-crafted covers (back and front) add to its aesthetic appeal. It is especially useful for history teachers (for GCSE and above) and A-level and undergraduate history, politics and sociology students. I will be using parts of it for my History of Childhood module and a new module I aim to develop on the History of Education. This is an important book, and deserves to be widely read — Glenn Rikowski, London, 26^th May 2012.

The promotional video, ‘1839: The Chartist Insurrection’ (which is also excellent for history teachers and students) can be viewed at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JydjP23QAVc

Music to the film was by David Black. It was produced by Go Canny Films.

 

1839:  The Chartist Insurrection
David Black and Chris Ford
Unkant Publishing

ISBN:  978-0-9568176-6-2
Published:  April 2012, 268pp

‘This book assists us greatly in understanding the potential for future challenges to the system’ — John McDonnell MP

‘In retrieving the suppressed history of the Chartist Insurrection, David Black and Chris Ford have produced a revolutionary handbook’ — Ben Watson

See Unkant Publishing:
http://www.unkant.com/2012/04/dave-black-chris-ford-1839-chartist.html

At Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/1839-Chartist-Insurrection-John-McDonnell/dp/095681767X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1335198243&sr=8-1

At Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/1839-Chartist-Insurrection-David-Black/dp/095681767X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338028348&sr=1-1

Waterstones: http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/david+black/chris+ford/john+mcdonnell/1839/9178370/  

An earlier blog on this topic can be found at: http://rikowski.wordpress.com/2012/05/05/1839-the-chartist-insurrection/

 

**END**

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

‘Cheerful Sin’ – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

‘The Lamb’ by William Blake – set to music by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw3VloKBvZc

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.com

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

 

Oppositions

Bonuses for Some

OPPOSITIONS

Oppositions: An Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Conference

28th and 29th September 2012 

University of Salford 

This conference seeks to explore ideas of opposition through the full range of disciplines in the arts, media, and social sciences. In the context of the current crisis of capitalism, there are many examples of the forms ‘opposition’ can take: the Tea Party in the United States, the rise of fascist groups, campaigns run via new technologies and social media, religious fundamentalisms, and general strikes in Greece. Though it carries radical overtones, ‘opposition’ in itself is not tied to any particular dogma, left or right. 

We invite papers that explore the value and values of opposition as a position to be adopted by individuals or groups. We welcome proposals for papers from postgraduates that engage with any aspect of opposition. 

These could include, but are by no means limited to: the ‘culture industry’ and alternative youth cultures; opposition parties within parliamentary politics; grass-roots activism; the history and future of the labour movement; hegemony; Foucauldian ‘resistance’ and its limits; radical pedagogies and the role of the University; community and class; the aesthetic value of non-mainstream or outsider art; aesthetic oppositions such as contrapuntal music or bricolage; and the formation of creole or pidgin languages. 

Papers are welcome from fields such as politics, literature, philosophy, anthropology, religions and theology, geography, sociology, history, classics, translation studies, linguistics and social linguistics, visual and screen studies, new media and communication studies, and the performing arts. Interdisciplinary papers are very welcome. Keynote speakers TBC. 

Abstracts of 250 words are invited for presentations of 20 minutes. Proposals for performances, screenings etc. are also accepted. The conference intends to publish an edited volume of the best papers presented.

Send abstracts to oppositionsconference[at]gmail.com by 6 July 2012.

Oppositions: http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/46251

**END**

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

‘Stagnant’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo  

‘Cheerful Sin’ – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic

The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.com

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Memefest Festival of Socially Responsive Communication and Art 2012

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon

MEMEFEST FESTIVAL OF SOCIALLY RESPONSIVE COMMUNICATION AND ART 2012

Memefest, an international organization dedicated to promoting new, productive and relevant forms of cultural activism, together with the Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, this year introduces the Memefest/Griffith-QCA award for ‘Imaginative Critical Intervention’.

This award invites cultural activists, creatives and thinkers from the productive margins of professions, radical theorists, imaginative intellectuals and anyone who is uncomfortable with the status quo and dreams of alternative futures that are more satisfying, just, and sustainable, to submit projects for peer feedback, broader dissemination, and a chance to work collaboratively with other imaginative activists, artists, researchers and intellectuals.

Memefest FESTIVAL 2012 theme: DEBT (debt, la dette, χρέος, dolg, задолженность, долг, debito, дълг, ŝuldo, חוב, schuld, deuda, borç …)

You can’t evict an idea whose time has come! 

These words express the nature of the current global movement against the rule of money over life. They belong to the people, the 99%, who are bringing the fundamental urgent issues to the streets, into the media, into the realm of public consciousness, into the schools, universities, jobs, homes and intimate discussions and relationships. 

These words also express something else. They speak about a state of mind, a focus and a concise articulation of the problem. The idea whose time has come is mainly about three things. First: interventions that create a rupture in the order of things with the goal to redefine our fields of experience and the relationship between being, doing and saying. Second: dialogue. Third: creating new emancipatory social institutions. 

If communication and art are to play a relevant role in shaping a future worth having, we need to further redirect, reinvent and re-imagine our own understanding and the way we think, theorise and practice them both. Debt is not only an opportunity to do so, but also an urgent responsibility. 

The Friendly Competition

Participants are invited to submit works three categories: critical writing, visual communication practice and the participatory art/communication category Beyond…

This year’s theme for Visual communication practice and Critical writing is: DEBT. Participants will respond with their work to three carefully chosen texts:

I. First written text is taken from the book Debt, the first 5000 years by American social anthropologist David Greaber in which he explains the function of debt in human history, showing that the current situation is not as natural at all as it seems to be.

II. Second visual text is taken from the documentary Debtocracy by Katerina Kitidi and Aris Hatzistefanou, who together with economist Samir Amin, philosopher Alain Badiou, sociologist and geographer David Harvey and other guests research the reasons for the crisis in Greece, while also showing how Latino American Ecuador stood up to the IMF and refused to acknowledge legitimacy to their enforced slavery. 

III. Third is the song No Banker Left Behind by American slide guitar virtuoso, taken from his politically engaged and critically acclaimed album Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down (2011). 

Category Beyond…:

While a lot of subversive writing, communication and art has emerged which challenges the status quo using its own conventions, very few of these initiatives have employed a mode of communication that is not rooted in commercial culture itself.

The ‘Beyond…’ category hopes to bring out new visual and conceptual forms of communication and art which catalyse social change while engaging people as something more than mere consumers.

This category draws on the traditions of independent artistic practice in that the entries will have no brief other than to identity and radically address important issues on a deeply felt personal level. However, we expect that, unlike most ‘museum’ art, it will generate genuine participatory relations with its audience and be able to work outside institutional sites and conventions. Participatory art and communication is the core principle of what we are looking for at Beyond…

More about Beyond… here: http://www.memefest.org/en/competition/beyond_intro/

Awards: 

The international editorial and curatorial board will select the most convincing works. Among strong traditional awards, which you can see on www.memefest.org, two new awards are introduced this year.

1) The first Griffith-QCA/ Memefest Award for Critical Imaginative Critical Intervention.

Best authors of all three categories (critical writing, visual communication practice and Beyond…) will be invited toBrisbaneto take part in a special extradisciplinary workshop resulting in a public intervention in the city ofBrisbane.

2) Authors of best works in the category: critical writing will be invited to publish their work in the academic peer reviewed journal Zoontechnica http://zoontechnica.com.

Deadline for your submissions is May 30th.

Participation is free of charge and there is no age limit or any other restriction. Your work can be submitted online.

See more about our Awards here: www.memefest.org/en/competition/awards_2012/

More information on the whole Friendly competition: http://www.memefest.org/en/competition/intro/

More information on the Festival of Socially responsive communication and Art: www.memefest.org

Contact Patricia Laboca: memefest@memefest.org

 

**END**

 

‘I believe in the afterlife.

It starts tomorrow,

When I go to work’

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Human Herbs’ at: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic (recording) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h7tUq0HjIk (live)

 

‘Maximum levels of boredom

Disguised as maximum fun’

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic (recording) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLjxeHvvhJQ (live, at the Belle View pub,Bangor, northWales)  

 

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

‘Stagnant’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo  

‘Cheerful Sin’ – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

‘The Lamb’ by William Blake – set to music by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw3VloKBvZc

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic

The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.com

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Online Publications at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski

Glenn Rikowski’s MySpace Blog: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski/blog

Theory, Action and Impact of Social Protest: An Interdisciplinary Conference

Protest

THEORY, ACTION AND IMPACT OF SOCIAL PROTEST: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY CONFERENCE

Call for Papers: Theory, Action and Impact of Social Protest: An Interdisciplinary Conference

University of Kent – Canterbury, UK, October 13-14th, 2012 
(Abstracts due by JUNE 15, 2012) 
For updates visit: http://taispconference.wordpress.com   

We are pleased to invite you to the 1st interdisciplinary social movements conference, sponsored by University of Kent’s Centre for the Study of Social and Political Movements, the School of Psychology, the ESRC South East DTC Advanced Training at SSPSSR, the Conflict Analysis Research Centre in the School of Politics & IR and the Kent Graduate School’s Postgraduate Experience Award.

Recently, social movements such as the Occupy movement, the Arab Spring and the Spanish Indignados have made headlines and grabbed the attention of power-holders and citizens. Historically, social movements have contributed to social, political and economic change. We wish to explore these elements at this conference with an interdisciplinary approach.

The conference will be held on the university campus on OCTOBER 13th-14th, 2012 with a Keynote Address by PROF. CHRISTOPHER ROOTES and PROF. DOMINIC ABRAMS of the University of Kent.

The aim is to explore the study of social movements with a variety of academic lenses and attempt to develop collaboration between disciplines on the study. We seek contributions for a broad range of disciplines and a mixture of disciplines including sociology, law, psychology, politics, economics, cultural studies, history, geography, philosophy, literature, and film studies. We hope to use this conference as a forum to bridge some of the gaps between the different disciplines and their work in the field of social movements.

We seek contributions from all scholars including postgraduate students. Proposals will be selected on their merit and in consideration of their academic discipline, with a preference to integrate a wide variety of fields.

We are open to themes such as:
- past and present collective actions
- social and political theory
- motivation, mobilization, or outcomes
- methodology
- macro- and micro-processes
- art in and from protest
- legal or economic implications and considerations
- other related topics

CALL FOR PAPERS

To offer a paper, please submit a short [300-500 words] proposal to: 
Eugene Nulman
School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research (SSPSSR)
Cornwallis North East
University of Kent
Canterbury
Kent CT2 7NF
EMAIL: e.nulman@kent.ac.uk

There is a registration fee of £10 for participants and attendees. Registration for post-graduate participants is free thanks to contributions made by the School of Psychology.

CONFERENCE PAPERS

Those giving papers are asked to supply them in advance. If selected, your paper will appear in the first edition of the online Journal for the Study of Social and Political Movements. Papers should be between 3,000 to 6,000 words in length.

For updates visit: http://taispconference.wordpress.com

 

**END**

 

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

‘Stagnant’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo  

‘Cheerful Sin’ – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic

Department of Omnishambles

Karl Marx in Film

DEPARTMENT OF OMNISHAMBLES

FACULTY OF THE INHUMANITIES / DEPTARTMENT OF OMNISHAMBLES /

Many think the Department of Omnishambles is a recent phenomenon in Higher Education, arising from radical cuts to university budgets, rampant managerialism, and the effective redesignation of teaching academics as full-time administrators.

This is in fact not the case.

ABOUT OMNISHAMBLES

Please feel free to post your own contributions to the Department of Omnishambles at the Faculty of the Inhumanities, or you can try to reach the administrator directly at JohannesDeSilentio@mail.com; although he or she may not, in fact, exist. 

Department of Omnishambles is at: http://departmentofomnishambles.tumblr.com/

This is brilliant! A must-read for academics and others interested in knowledge stuff! – Glenn Rikowski

**END**

‘I believe in the afterlife.

It starts tomorrow,

When I go to work’

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Human Herbs’ at: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic (recording) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h7tUq0HjIk (live)

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

‘Stagnant’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo  

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic

The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Interface (Volume Four Issue One, May 2012): The Season of Revolution

Recession

INTERFACE (VOLUME FOUR ISSUE ONE, MAY 2012): THE SEASON OF REVOLUTION

Interface, Volume Four Issue One (May 2012): The season of revolution: the Arab Spring and European mobilizations … is now out (free and open access as always)

Issue editors: Magid Shihade, Cristina Flesher Fominaya, Laurence Cox
http://www.interfacejournal.net/current/

Volume Four, Issue One of Interface, a peer-reviewed e-journal produced and refereed by social movement practitioners and engaged movement researchers, is now out, on the special theme “The season of revolution: the Arab Spring” with a special section ‘A new wave of European mobilizations?’

Interface is open-access (free), global and multilingual. Our overall aim is to “learn from each other’s struggles”: to develop a dialogue between practitioners and researchers, but also between different social movements, intellectual traditions and national or regional contexts. Like all issues of Interface, this issue is free and open-access.
 
This issue of Interface includes 403 pages and 31 pieces in English, Catalan and Spanish, by authors writing from / about Australia, Canada, Catalunya, Dubai, Egypt, India, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Palestine, Poland, Senegal, South Africa, Spain, Swaziland, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, the UAE, the UK and the US among other countries.

Articles in this issue include:

-  Magid Shihade, Cristina Flesher Fominaya and Laurence Cox, The season of revolution: the Arab Spring and European mobilizations 

 

The Arab Spring:

-  Austin Mackell, Weaving revolution: harassment by the Egyptian regime (action note) and Weaving revolution: speaking with Kamal El-Fayoumi (interview)

-  Samir Amin, The Arab revolutions: a year after

-  Vijay Prashad, Dream history of the global South

-  Jeremy Salt, Containing the ‘Arab Spring’

-  Azadeh Shahshahani and Corinna Mullin, The legacy of US intervention and the Tunisian revolution: promises and challenges one year on

-  Andrea Teti and Gennaro Gervasio, After Mubarak, before transition: the challenges for Egypt’s democratic opposition (interview and event analysis)

-  Bassam Haddad, Syria, the Arab uprisings, and the political economy of authoritarian resilience           

-  Steven Salaita, Corporate American media coverage of Arab revolutions: the contradictory messages of modernity

-  Ahmed Kanna, A politics of non-recognition? Biopolitics of Arab Gulf worker protests in the year of uprisings

-  Aditya Nigam, The Arab upsurge and the ‘viral’ revolutions of our times

-  Cassie Findlay,Witness and trace: January 25 graffiti and public art as archive (practice note)

 

Special section: a new wave of European mobilizations?

-  Eduardo Romanos Fraile,‘Esta revolución es muy copyleft’. Entrevista a Stéphane M. Grueso a propósito del 15M

-  Marianne Maeckelbergh, Horizontal democracy now: from alterglobalization to occupation

-  Fabià Díaz-Cortés i Gemma Ubasart-González, 15M: Trajectòries mobilitzadores iespecificitats territorials. El cas català

-  Puneet Dhaliwal, Public squares and resistance: the politics of space in the Indignados movement

-  Donatella della Porta, Mobilizing against the crisis, mobilizing for ‘another democracy’: comparing two global waves of protest (event analysis)

-  Joan Subirats, Algunas ideas sobre política y políticas en el cambio de época: Retos asociados a la nueva sociedad y a los movimientos sociales emergentes (event analysis)

 

Other articles:

-  Marina Adler, Collective identity formation and collective action framing in a Mexican ‘movement of movements’

-  Nancy Baez and Andreas Hernandez, Participatory budgeting in the city: challenging NYC’s development paradigm from the grassroots (practice note)

-  Magdalena Prusinowska, Piotr Kowzan, Małgorzata Zielińska, Struggling to unite: the rise and fall of one university movement in Poland 

-  Jim Gladwin and Rose Hollins, The Water Pressure Group: lessons learned (action note)

This issue’s REVIEWS include the following titles:

-  Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan, Why civil resistance works: the strategic logic of nonviolent action. Reviewed by Brian Martin

-  Firoze Manji and Sokari Ekine (eds), Africa awakening: the emerging revolutions. Reviewed by Karen Ferreira-Meyers

-  Amory Starr, Luis Fernandez and Christian Scholl, Shutting down the streets: political violence and social control in the global era. Reviewed by Deborah Eade

-  Rebecca Kolins Givan, Kenneth Roberts and Sarah Soule (eds). The diffusion of social movements: actors, mechanisms, and political effects. Reviewed by Cecelia Walsh-Russo

-  Florian Heβdörfer, Andrea Pabst and Peter Ullrich (eds), Prevent and tame: protest under (self) control. Reviewed by Lucinda Thompson

-  Observatorio Metropolitano, Crisis y revolución en Europa: people of Europe rise up!Reviewed by Michael Byrne

-  Mariel Mikaila Arthur Lemonik, Student activism and curricular change in higher education. Reviewed by Christine Neejer

-  Rebecca MacKinnon, Consent of the networked: the worldwide struggle for internet freedom. Reviewed by Piotr Konieczny

 

A call for papers for volume 5 issue 1 of Interface is now open, on the theme of “Struggles, strategies and analysis of anticolonial and postcolonial social movements” (submissions deadline November 1 2012). We can review and publish articles in Afrikaans, Arabic, Catalan, Croatian, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Maltese, Norwegian, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish and Zulu. The website has the full CFP and details on how to submit articles for this issue at http://www.interfacejournal.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Interface-4-1-CFP-vol-5-no-1.pdf

  
The next issue of Interface (November 2012) will be under the title ‘For the global emancipation of labour: new movements and struggles around work, workers and precarity’.     

Interface is always open to new collaborators. More details can be found on our website: http://interfacejournal.net  
 
Please forward this to anyone you think may be interested

**END**

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

‘Stagnant’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo  

‘Cheerful Sin’ – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.com

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Protest Against Profit in Education

Education Crisis

PROTEST AGAINST PROFIT IN EDUCATION

Wednesday 16th May the Academies Show will be held inOlympia. It will be a privatisation jamboree with for-profit providers touting their wares.

As Michael Gove forces increasing numbers of schools to become academies, the edu-businesses are queuing up to cash in. Every day businesses looking to profit from education are emailing academies show attendees advertising their services.

The Anti Academies Alliance wants to ask these people some questions. That’s why will protesting at the conference. Join us.

9am Wednesday 16th May
Olympia Two
West Hall – Upper Level, Blythe Rd (off Hammersmith Rd) London W14 8UX

Click here to download the protest flyer

Protest against profit in education

Original source, the Anti Academies Alliance: http://antiacademies.org.uk/2012/03/protest-keep-the-fat-cats-out-of-our-schools/

AAA: http://antiacademies.org.uk

**END**

‘Stagnant’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo  

‘Cheerful Sin’ – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.com

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski

Glenn Rikowski’s MySpace Blog: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski/blog

Registration for Situationist Ethics Conference

Situationism

REGISTRATION FOR SITUATIONIST ETHICS CONFERENCE

Registration is now open for Situationist Aesthetics: The SI, Now at the University of Sussex on Friday 8th June. 

Keynote: McKenzie Wark (The New School, NY), author of The Beach Beneath the Street: The Everyday Life and Glorious Times of the Situationist International (2011), Gamer Theory (2006) and Hacker Manifesto (2004).

The programme and registration information are available at http://www.situationist-aesthetics.blogspot.co.uk/

—

Is it oxymoronic, heretical or just plain wrong to talk about Situationist aesthetics? The Situationist International (SI) condemned attempts to discuss its work in terms of aesthetics, but perhaps it is now time to brush the SI against the grain.

When it first announced its programme, the SI insisted that ‘There is no such thing as Situationism’. A few years later, before expelling its members deemed to be too invested in artistic production, the SI declared that in an age of spectacle any work of art produced by a Situationist must necessarily be ‘antisituationist’. The SI’s tactical intransigence regarding the political value of the aesthetic, and its refusal of the possibility of a specifically Situationist aesthetic, threw up problems that remained unresolved by the time of the SI’s dissolution. Since 1972, particularly in Anglophone contexts, Situationist practices have penetrated an array of cultural spheres, and much cultural production which the SI would have dismissed as spectacular has claimed some Situationist influence.

The SI located itself within but against culture. This symposium asks whether such a position is tenable, and what possibility might there be for Situationist aesthetics after all. Do cultural phenomena such as punk, or the current psychogeography industry, for example, work as or against Situationist aesthetics? Is it possible to identify art works and/or practices indebted to the SI that do not recuperate its politics but fortify and develop them?

**END**

 

‘I believe in the afterlife.

It starts tomorrow,

When I go to work’

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Human Herbs’ at: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic (recording) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h7tUq0HjIk (live)

 

‘Maximum levels of boredom

Disguised as maximum fun’

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic (recording) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLjxeHvvhJQ (live, at the Belle View pub, Bangor, north Wales)  

 

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

‘Stagnant’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo  

‘Cheerful Sin’ – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

‘The Lamb’ by William Blake – set to music by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw3VloKBvZc

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski

Glenn Rikowski’s MySpace Blog: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski/blog

Antipode Foundation Scholar-Activist Project Awards

ANTIPODE FOUNDATION SCHOLAR-ACTIVIST PROJECT AWARDS

The Foundation expects to allocate each successful application up to £10,000 (or equivalent) to support collaborations between academics, non-academics and activists (from NGOs, think tanks, social movements, or community grassroots organisations, for example) which further radical analyses of geographical issues and engender the development of a new and better society. The Awards are aimed at promoting programmes of action-research, participation and engagement, cooperation and co-enquiry, and more publicly-focused forms of geographical investigation.

See http://antipodefoundation.org/scholar-activist-project-awards/ for more.

Antipode Foundation Regional Workshop Awards

The Foundation expects to allocate each successful application up to £10,000 (or equivalent) to fund events (including conferences, workshops, seminar series, summer schools and action research meetings) which further radical analyses of geographical issues and engender the development of a new and better society.

See: http://antipodefoundation.org/regional-workshop-awards/ for more.

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Applications for this first round of awards must be in by 30 June 2012. Forms are available from and should be returned to Andy Kent (antipode@live.co.uk), who is more than happy to answer any questions you might have.

Antipode Foundation: http://antipodefoundation.org/

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‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic

On Giant Hammers and the Poetics of Protest

Hammer

ON GIANT HAMMERS AND THE POETICS OF PROTEST

The El Martillo Project
Eclectic Electric Collective

In 2010 an inconspicuous looking suitcase was sent from Berlin to Mexico City containing a 39-foot tall inflatable silver hammer. Thus began El Martillo’s odyssey to protest the United Nations Climate Conference in Cancún. El Martillo’s short, but glorious life, climaxed when protesters from Marea Creciente (Rising Tide) stormed the conference complex fences, gigantic hammer above their heads. In full view of the press Mexican police tore the inflatable to pieces. Within an hour global the media corporations declared El Martillo a symbol of the climate changes protests as its image travelled across the world.

The El Martillo Project documents the whole process from its conception and construction to the media flurry it sparked off. Included are numerous full color images and documentation of the project; texts and analysis by David Graeber, Alex Dunst, and Cristian Guerrero; an interview with John Jordan from the Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination; and a fold out technical manual and plan for creating giant inflatable hammers.

Initially inspired by the quote “Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it,” The El Martillo Project aims to inspire creative action and joyful disobedience.

Bio: Eclectic Electric is a German art collective operating at the borders of art and activism.
Eclectic Electric Collective: http://www.eclectic-electric-collective.blogspot.com
Video Trailer for the El Martillo action: http://vimeo.com/32073199

PDF available freely online (http://www.minorcompositions.info/?p=357)

Released by Minor Compositions, Wivenhoe / Brooklyn/ Port Watson
Minor Compositions is a series of interventions & provocations drawing from autonomous politics, avant-garde aesthetics, and the revolutions of everyday life.

Minor Compositions is an imprint of Autonomedia
http://www.minorcompositions.info  |minorcompositions@gmail.com

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‘I believe in the afterlife.

It starts tomorrow,

When I go to work’

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon, ‘Human Herbs’ at: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic (recording) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h7tUq0HjIk (live)

 

‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

‘Cheerful Sin’ – a song by Victor Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8

 

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski

Strike: ‘Greenwich Libraries Staff to Strike over GLL Takeover’

Ruth Rikowski

STRIKE: ‘GREENWICH LIBRARIES STAFF TO STRIKE OVER GLL TAKEOVER’

“Unite union staff working at Greenwich Council’s libraries are to strike for five days in protest at the council’s decision to hand over the running of its libraries to GLL (Greenwich Leisure Ltd).

The switch to GLL management is due to take place from Monday 30 April but union representatives fear cuts to workers’ pay and conditions, and are also angry about the lack of consultation over the move.

Strikes will take place on Friday 27th April, Saturday 28th April, Mondy 30th April, Tuesday 1st May, and Friday 11th May.”

For some of the background to this, see Ruth Rikowski’s blog at:  http://ruthrikowskiim.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/diana-edmonds-head-of-libraries.html

As Ruth Rikowski notes:

“The predictions I outlined in my Globalistion book, ‘Globalisation, Information and Libraries’ (Chandos Publishing: Oxford, 2005) are coming to pass (though later than I originally figured) – libraries gradually being taken out of state control, firstly being run by trusts, charities and voluntary organisations, which paves the way for eventual and total privatisation.

How long will it take before the ‘penny finally drops’? And how much will we have lost in the process and how much poorer will we be, before the ‘penny finally drops’?”

For more information and comments about it all, see: http://853blog.com/2012/04/25/greenwich-libraries-takeover-gll-boss-speaks-out/#comments

Ruth Rikowski (2005) Globalisation, Information and Libraries: The Implications of the World Trade Organisation’s GATS and TRIPS Agreements (Chandos Series for Information Professionals), Oxford: Chandos Publishing

At Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Globalisation-Information-Libraries-Organisations-Professionals/dp/1843340844/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335603744&sr=1-3

 

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‘Human Herbs’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-vyMtfDAs

‘Stagnant’ – a new remix and new video by Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo  

Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic

The Ockress: http://www.theockress.com

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com 

Speeches from the Left Forum 2012

Socialism and Hope

SPEECHES FROM THE LEFT FORUM 2012

Occupy the System: Confronting Global Capitalism

Pace University, March 16-18 2012

This is a fantastic collection of speeches from this year’s Left Forum. It constitutes a tremendous resource for socialists and progressive thinkers world-wide. Congratulations and thanks to Free Speech TV, MMN (who filmed the event) and Deepdish TV for the production of these videos — Glenn Rikowski

William Tabb – Opening Plenary, with an Introduction by Stanley Aronovitz: http://www.leftforum.org/content/william-tabb-left-forum-opening-plenary

Nnimmo Bassey, Friends of the Earth – Opening Plenary, with Stanley Aronowitz as Moderator: http://www.leftforum.org/content/nnimmo-bassey-left-forum-opening-plenary

RoseAnn DeMoro – Opening Plenary, with Stanley Aronowitz as Moderator: http://www.leftforum.org/content/roseann-demoro-left-forum-opening-plenary-0 

Marina Sitrin, the Occupy Movement, student, teacher and militant – Opening Plenary, with Stanley Aronowitz: http://www.leftforum.org/content/marina-sitrin-left-forum-opening-plenary

William Strickland – Opening Plenary, Moderated by Stanley Aronowitz: http://www.leftforum.org/content/william-strickland-left-forum-opening-plenary

Michael Moore, film-maker – Interview, Moderated by Richard D. Wolf: http://www.leftforum.org/content/michael-moore-left-forum-2012

Elaine Bernard – Closing Plenary, Moderated by Frances Fox Piven: http://www.leftforum.org/content/elaine-bernard-left-forum-closing-plenary-0

Arun Gupta – Occupy Wall Street journalist, Closing Plenary, Moderated by Frances Fox Piven: http://www.leftforum.org/content/arun-gupta-left-forum-closing-plenary

Christopher Hedges – Closing Plenary, Moderated by Frances Fox Piven: http://www.leftforum.org/content/christopher-hedges-left-forum-closing-plenary

John Holloway – Author of Crack Capitalism, Open Marxist, Closing Plenary, Moderated by Frances Fox Piven: http://www.leftforum.org/content/john-holloway-left-forum-closing-plenary

Esteban Nembhard – Hip-Hop, Politics and Protest (mp4 download): http://www.leftforum.org/content/esteban-nembhard-hip-hop-politics-and-protest

Nyaka Niilampti – Hip-Hop, Politics and Protest (mp4 download): http://www.leftforum.org/content/nyaka-niilampti-hip-hop-politics-and-protest

M1 – Hip-Hop, Politics and Protest (mp4 download): http://www.leftforum.org/content/m1-hip-hop-politics-and-protest

Steven A. Smith – Hip-Hop, Politics and Protest (mp4 download): http://www.leftforum.org/content/steven-smith-hip-hop-politics-and-protest

UMI – Hip-Hop, Politics and Protest (mp4 download): http://www.leftforum.org/content/umi-hip-hop-politics-and-protest

WILL VILL – Hip-Hop, Politics and Protest (mp4 download): http://www.leftforum.org/content/will-vill-hip-hop-politics-and-protest

Wally Shawn – Lunchtime Event, ‘Why I Call Myself a Socialist’, Moderated by Dao X. Tran: http://www.leftforum.org/content/sunday-lunchtime-event-wally-shawn

At the Forum – Michael Moore, Closing Segment: http://www.leftforum.org/content/michael-moore-closing-segment

On the Street – the march: http://www.leftforum.org/content/left-forum-2012-march-liberty-square-0

At Liberty Square – http://www.leftforum.org/content/liberty-square-0

Left Forum
leftforum.org 

Find Left Forum on: Facebook | Twitter | YouTube

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Posted here by Glenn Rikowski

The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk

MySpace Profile: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski

Rikowski Point: http://rikowskipoint.blogspot.com

Volumizer: http://glennrikowski.blogspot.com

Online Publications at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski

Glenn Rikowski on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/glenn.rikowski

Glenn Rikowski’s MySpace Blog: http://www.myspace.com/glennrikowski/blog

Cold Hands & Quarter Moon: http://www.myspace.com/coldhandsmusic