"Transmediale 10 - Ushahidi And Wolfram|Alpha"

This years media art and politics festival was titled "Futurity Now". This refers to the concept of atemporality presented by speakers such as Bruce Sterling or Alexander Rose. They somehow refuse chronology and propose concurrence as the new world view, struggling to get rid of the ghosts of postmodernity. Main claim was that we do not live in a multi-cultural but in a multi-temporal society.

More interesting to me was the panel discussing the "Ideologies and Futures of the Internet", with the keynote from Conrad Wolfram (Wolfram|Alpha) and interesting presentations from Joy Tang and Juliana Rotich about the use of mobile technology in Africa.

The final panel, "Liquid Democracies", went even further than the first one and explained how network cultures show that there is no longer an outside world, that we live in an age of aspatiality and atemporality - but with a lot of neofeudalism going on within the net. The next talk opposed this, describing the collecitve as control authority using social media to generate micropublics.

The most promising project presented is the F/OSS based crowdsourcing site Ushahidi. It is a platform that allows anyone to gather distributed data via sms, email or web and visualize it on a timeline. This is especially helpful for crisis response and in my opinion quite promising as a counterweight to the lies that come to the world public via the filters of embedded journalism.

[November, 9] "Excecutioner Hilde Benjamin - The Red Guillotine"

Death sentences were still common in the former GDR. Responsible for various deaths is Hilde Benjamin who also ran by the nickname "Bloody Hilde" among the people of Eastern Germany.
For over 35 years she was a member of the ZK, the central committee of the SED. As judge at the Supreme Court, she presided over a series of show trials against political undesirables. She received several awards for her deeds, in 1962 the Fatherland Order of Merit (Vaterländischer Verdienstorden), in 1977 and 1987 the Order of Karl Marx, in 1979 the title of Meritorious Jurist of the GDR (Verdiente Juristin der DDR) and in 1982 the Star of Friendship of Nations.

Hilde Benjamin resigned in 1967 and tought law and history of the judicary in Potsdam until she died in East Berlin in April 1989.

She never had to take responsibility for her crimes.

[Googlage] "Westerwelle Says"

Ladies and oh-so-gentle men.. we have a new government and I cannot spare you todays truths.

Here is another one of my long lost in the void and almost (almost...) forgotten Googlages. Enjoy the show with our new Foreign Affairs Minister.

Westerwelle says the Free Democrats are now keeping all options open.

Westerwelle says that he will not sign the coalition agreement without significant tax cuts.

Westerwelle says free markets can kickstart the economy.

Westerwelle says he is willing to extend the talks.

Westerwelle says he will sign no coalition agreement without it.

Westerwelle says its time to turn the page on a new chapter in relations between Germany and the Grand Duchy.

Westerwelle says he is willing to extend the talks to introduce drastic reforms.

Westerwelle says his party is willing to be the junior partner in a coalition government with the Christian Democrats.

Westerwelle says tax reforms are the way to go.

Westerwelle says the Free Democrats are now keeping all options open.

"Remember, Remember..."

... the fifth of November."

It's Guy Fawkes Night again and I am wondering how many people know the original story behind all the bonfires and how many just got a glimpse of it from the V comics.
Apparently history needs not only to be written to be remebered, but also to be nicely re-written (as in those fantastic comic books) to remain within cultural memory. The process of actively reproducing stories seems to be as important as getting them told by someone else - which links us back to older oral cultures who depended on telling and re-telling stories as well.

As of now, I am not telling you more about Guy Fawkes, I am going to watch the movie tonight.

I leave you with this:

"Autumn on Suomenlinna"

"[NYC 1920s]: Edward Hopper, Automat, 1927"

Edward Hopper, Automat, 1927
Ursprünglich hochgeladen von Gatochy

Working on 1920s America these days - focussing on NYC. First impression.