- - - - - - - > HANS BERNHARD --> 



Date: Sat, 09 Nov 2002 12:27:49 +0100 From: v13 v13@virgilio.it
X-Accept-Language: en-us, en To: n5m4editorial@balie.nl CC: a@d-i-n-a.net,
b@d-i-n-a.net, v@d-i-n-a.net Subject: report from barcelona


dear n5m4ers this is a first report about the happenings organized by d-i-n-a
with the support of the CCCB (Center for contemporary culture of barcelona).

saludos, vanni + d-i-n-a-mates


++

d-i-n-a // CCCB 4 ENCUENTROS SOBRE CULTURE JAMMING, HACKTIVISMO, CULTURA DE LA
VIGILANCIA, CONSTRUCCION DEL PRESENTE

In the first session (October 4th-5th) Surveillance Camera Players and Ubermorgen
presented their works. About 150 persons attended the first presentation and at
least 100 the second one (see a few low-quality pics at
http://d-i-n-a.net/dina/cccb02_img/index.html , more soon at the same address).
The formula we chose for each night is the individual presentation: the invited
guest decides how to manage the space-time at her/his disposal. we decided not to
focus on a single issue, leaving also room for improvisation (as it happened in a
street action led by bill brown of Surveillance Camera Players New York - see
below). Electronic Disturbance Theater and Casseurs de Pub are scheduled for the
upcoming second session (November 9th-10th).



VIDEO + TEXTS

The proceedings of the events will be published soon on N5M4 journal (videos and
hopefully a transcription or an abstract of it). The audio stream is already
available at http://www.radiored.org/hypercut/compilaciones/Bill Brown.ram
http://www.radiored.org/hypercut/compilaciones/UBERMORGEN con Hans_extrem.ram
(thanks to Radiored - see below) As linked below, Ubermorgen's transcript is
already available, thanx to Ubermorgen's Hans_extrem!



APPROPRIATION OF THE MEDIA

What we are interested in is focusing on an attitude towards digital
communication technologies and discover that some projects developed in different
contexts, addressing apparently different issues or adopting different styles of
action do share a similar view on how contemporary (western) mediascape can be
radically reshaped. What these projects do is challenging the apparent technical,
conceptual or political limitations of current technologies (as they are being
sold to us), developing sustainable models of reproduction of ideas and tools.
With this series of happenings we want to underline that a sort of 'open source'
way of acting in the public domain is possible; and even in the cases where the
creation of a "myth" (a tale, a narrative, a hype) is being used as a tactical
tool, we find interesting to publicly reverse engineer it, not in order to weaken
it, but rather to understand how to re-use it in a different context.



LOCAL-GLOBAL

The purpose of these (nearly no budget) happenings in barcelona is contaminating
a local scene with some of the most relevant examples that succeeded in raising
local issues up to an international level. We members of d-i-n-a used to live far
from the (cultural) capital cities (and Barcelona is not necessarily one, at
least not under any point of view) and we know that an international network of
people can turn into a source of inspiration, an unexpected support, an
opportunity for traveling and so on.

A first and immediate result of these events has been the collaboration between
d-i-n-a and Radiored (http://www.radiored.org), a project by Platoniq.net
collective, in order to live stream and archive the audio files of the events.



THE STREET ACTION

The street action, lead by Bill Brown of Surveillance Camera Players, was one of
the most intense moments of the whole event. While the two presentations resulted
to be a very important moment to deliver ideas and details about the projects and
to publicly discuss them with the audience, the street action revealed something
unexpected. Performed as a simple and funny ritual with ready-made objects, the
action against video surveillance in public areas took place in George Orwell
Square, which is ironically one of the heaviest video surveilled areas in the old
centre of the city. What follows is a short account of what happened.

< We are perfectly aware that the Barrio Gotico is not Manhattan, nonetheless we
wanted to test the idea and see what might happen. What we didn't expect was that
a topic we decided not to focus on (immigration), re-emerged and got stuck on our
own bodies. During the whole performance (btw it was silent, very polite, almost
hieratical) some old men from the building in front of which we were performing
started making fun of us, talking loud, throwing lighted cigarettes over us.
That's interaction! After 15-20 minutes the police showed up, refusing to accept
the flyers we were handing them and breaking into pieces a simple 'Actores de las
camaras de vigilancia' placard (according to them it couldn't be held at a closed
rolling shutter, nor could it be put on the ground for it was like dirtying the
public soil).

At the end of the performance a man from the restaurant at the corner (the
owner?) started calling us names, trying to turn more people within the little
crowd against us. "You're not even Spanish, you don't know what it means to live
here", he kept shouting. Of course some of us are not Spanish, but some are or
live in Barcelona since a long time, but that was not enough for him. "The Spain
you have in mind fortunately does not exist!" replied one of us and even some
people from the public started discussing and almost arguing with the man, now
supported by some of his mates. "Go and wash yourself and your clothes before
talking to me" was the reply to us. The funniest thing was that the restaurant
this man works for (or that he even owns) has multi-lingual menus at the door,
and as a provocation we had been told not to stand in front those multi-lingual
menus window "because you are disturbing our job".

While that neighborhood is today a mostly turism-colonized area, some decades ago
it was one of the most relevant destinations of internal immigration. The same
shop owner that tried to argue with us might be part of the Spanish families that
in the 40s or 50s moved to the city from the country or from the South. >


A FINAL NOTE

What happened during the street action confirms that migration is definitely a
hot topic, from both the migrant's and the local communities' point of view.
During this improvised street performance the participants - people from
Surveillance Camera Players, d-i-n-a, friends, passers-by - momentarily
"embodied" this problem, even if migration may be only an external problem in
their daily life: that is to say, as EU citizens we d-i-n-a are like "business
class migrants", and usually we don't have problems with papers, (relatively) few
problems as far as job, bank account, house are concerned, etc. This
investigation + embodiment + radicalization of a situation/topic is what
'artists' do or might do, and on the contrary it is something institutions never
do (since they tend to create and reproduce a protected environment). The street
performance showed that something stranger - and definitely interesting - happens
when the roles of the artist, of the organizer and of the audience overlap and
mix.



RASHOMON REPORTS (more text material from our beloved guests)

*Surveillance Camera Players* La Plaza de George Orwell, Barcelona
http://www.notbored.org/7oct02.html

*Ubermorgen* uberNEWSAGENCY http://www.ubermorgen.com/ (the uberNEWSAGENCY window
just pops up) + http://www.ubermorgen.com/DINA_2002/