"Stop staring comrades. The spectacle is everywhere." This anonymous intervention, scrawled in black permanent marker and hung from a chain link fence at the entrance to the Spencer Museum of Art, marked the beginning of a collaborative exhibition led by Beijing-based artist Chen Shaoxiong. The result of a month-long residency in March 2012, Prepared: Strategies for Activists is a dynamic multi-media installation that delves into the complexities of contemporary social activism, drawing on the perspectives of a diverse cast of contributors, including scholars, students, artists, and activists.

Več: http://www.spencerart.ku.edu/exhibitions/protest-training-camp.shtml

Dolg/debt je letošnja tema Memefestovega prijateljskega, a ostro kritično zašiljenega tekmovanja. Tokom dolge zgodovine menjav in denarja ima zadnje desetletje dolg najdaljše lovke in je vse kaj drugega kot nedolžna posledica dobronamernh oblik posojila. Fenomen današnjih dolgov posameznikov in držav uresničuje pradavne opozorila na uničujoče posledice, duhovne in siceršnje, ki so vezane na dejavnosti (in ozadno miselnost) starih posojilnic, zastavljalnic ter drugih oblik oderuštva, v neoliberalni družbi pa na marmornate banke in druge finančne institucije.

Čas za prijavo se izteka - končni rok je 20. maj - pohitite s svojimi videnji!

Iz Memefestovega razpisa:

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 reimagine 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.

Millions are enslaved through debt, and indebted life has become naturalised. Debt has become the primary mechanism that takes power from the people and gives it on to the hands of the 1%. But debt is rarely questioned. Its moral obligation is culturally embedded. It is shaming and therefore unspeakable. Its power lies in its violent normalcy.

Taking a step back and look at the global Occupy movement from a distance it is clear that we need to learn more. We need to create strategies for understanding and ways of learning that go beyond the institutional, cultural and pragmatic boundaries of professions and fields of knowledge. This process is already happening with great intensity around the world. We have been contributing to this processes for many years and this year we are going even stronger.

Do respond to our call in the Memefest 2012 Friendly Competition. This years theme is DEBT. See here for the outlines: www.memefest.org/en/competition/intro/

Sofijini so vse bolj aktivni tudi na blogu Oglaševanje na tehnici.

Njihov zadnji prispevek razkriva genezo in vseprisotnost fenomena načrtovanega zapisa omejenga roka in pokvarljivosti izdelkov, ki gre z roko v roki z ideologijo zaukazane rasti. Tekst sicer govori predvsem o tehničnih izdelkih, a vpis zastarelosti deluje enako precizno in premišljeno tudi pri izdelkih, ki se ne morejo "pokvariti" - pa smo zanje vseeno prepričani, da ne delujejo več in jih s kompulzivno samocenzuro lastnoročno zavržemo - govorim na primer o modi.

Več: http://tehtnica.wordpress.com/2012/05/06/zamolcana-zgodba-o-nacrtnem-zastaranju/