Re: <eyebeam><blast> localization

[zonezero <zonezero@mail.internet.com.mx>]

on 2/6/98 6:16 PM Brian Holmes wrote:

>How can the Internet be used to strengthen and expand
>politically oriented cultural collaborations, with their necessary
>inscription in located and embodied day-to-day existence? Can localized

>artistic and political practices have a different kind of life on the
>net, and if so, how? That's what I aim to find out from this forum, and

>all my questions and interventions will have that aim behind them.


Politically oriented cultural collaborations ? important words, as well
as vague. After all what constitutes a politically oriented cultural
collaboration?  Here in Mexico City we have to deal with corruption in a
way that many probably do not even understand when they live in Paris or
San Francisco. Yes there can be an intellectual understanding, but can
it go beyond that?

Yes, I believe it can, if we observe the solidarity from those very same
people living in Paris and San Francisco that many times will force the
authorities in Mexico to pay attention to issues they would prefer to
ignore. So  even though the solidarity is offered without full
"understanding" of all the nuances and the implications  on the
political process as a whole, the implications are very important, the
results are many times beyond any initial calculations.

The significance of "public opinion" is starting to play in significant
ways. When such "public opinion" has the potential to alter public
policy, both within and outside the sphere of action of the event in
process, we have to acknowledge that a new form of "art " is being
created. ( understanding art, not only as something that hangs on the
wall, or sits on a pedestal).

The Zapatistas in the Chiapas struggle, would have been overrun with
great ease by the government, if as in the past they ( the government)
were the only ones that had control of the "opinion forming" media.
Through the internet, there finally was a potential for creating an end
run around the government campaign against the Zapatistas, and in doing
so, recast the public perception of what was going on in Chiapas.

Just last week, the "Zapatistas" attacked the home page of the Mexican
Treasury Department. In protest for what is going on in Chiapas. A page
of Zapatista literature would come up every time someone requested the
home page of the Treasury Department.  Such political collaborations,
are surely going to make themselves ever more present during the years
to come.  As artists learn how to do such work.

We at ZoneZero ( http://zonezero.com) are about to launch a very
interesting project, with the work of a writer (Ruben Martinez) and
photographer ( Joe Rodriguez) called the " New Americans".  The intial
trip that they prepared for ZoneZero was to  follow the footsteps of
Mexican Indians of Purepecha origin from Mexico, as they migrated for
work to the US, with all the ensuing ramifications of the Mexicanisation
of Americans and the reverse, Americanisation of Mexicans.

 This work will be continued and taken live later on in the year ( see
schedule at ZoneZero), with the intention to accompany these two
authors, as they visit new and different areas of the US, and to
participate in chat rooms with both of them as they travel.  We hope to
have a number of Universities and Schools signed up to participate in
these conversations.  Probably this might constitute a fine example of
what Brian Holmes asks of us:

>How can the Internet be used to strengthen and expand
>politically oriented cultural collaborations

I am keenly aware, that all of this is just testing the waters, and that
we are all exploring different scenarios. Feel free to inquire about
participating, and about questions that will obviously remain after this
ever brief account of what we are doing.

on 2/6/98 8:20 AM Brian Holmes wrote:

>Everyone, even those like myself who
>were born in hyper-standardized California suburbs, has access to a
>tremendously rich human history, and of that history, infinite
>modernities can be made. You just have to put out the effort, and above

>all, form associations with people over time. Of course one can also
>consciously choose to be 'the agent' of the global homogenization
>process 'for the rest of a society'...

The key to this wonderful paragraph, lies with

1- "...you have to put out the effort"

2- " above all, form associations with people..."

I couldn't agree more with such considerations.

Best regards
Pedro Meyer




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