Free communication weekend

Last week I received an unsigned letter from a loan company in Wes Des Moines, Iowa, that has apparently been searching in vain for a former boyfriend from my undergrad years. How they thought I could help, some four years later, about to leave the country, is unbeknown to me. How they got my name - misspelled - and my address is also fascinating to consider. What if I’d sent them a connubial document with some other man’s name on it? Do you think they would have gotten the joke? I instead called and relayed his parents’ contact information. “May I now be removed from his record as a reference? I have nothing nice to say.”

I’ve started posting more old family photos on factory takeover. It brings a lot of joy to my heart.

Owing homage to an original cloud lumiere by Andreas, I made one this week from an airplane window.

click for clouds

A salad bar is not communal dining.

My roommate watches television shows that feature dancing children with Down Syndrome, and people then call them “global messengers.” They do not, however, identify the message that these jovial children are carrying worldwide.

Here is a message of hope, via a b-boy crew at the AMC. It is a lumiere video and has no audio track, so I suggest you put on some of your own library’s best hip hop.

click for the crew (in a new window)

Despite my love for the AMC as opposed to the slew of other conferences around this globe, I found a disturbing trend this year, a lack of analysis as it relates to co-opting new media for the revolution. Technology can be an amazing tool, but more than once, I heard people (presenters or attendees, not conference organizers) say things like, “We started a revolution because of MySpace” or, “Television is a ubiquitous language.” While these things may be true, why do we believe our revolution was in spite of Rupert Murdoch, or think we should follow outdated, one-way, over-produced transmission models? More like News Corp. allowed y’all to organize using their platform, and we’re repeating bad patterns in media making and distribution because we’re stuck within language and ideological confines.

I also heard dismissals of legitimate privacy concerns and found a real lack of understanding among many working in areas of high risk. One panelist, an advocate for illegal immigrants, did not understand the risks involved with alerts about INS raids sent to mobile phones. Cell phone numbers entered willingly into a website may save lives and keep families together, but this technology may also endanger many more through security failures or service providers willing to hand over sensitive information.

I’m not trying to hate - I’m trying to be practical. And, while I love facilitating about video, it is increasingly obvious that my heart and mind are focusing on other realms of activism these days. I met with another woman who works on issues of digital colonialism, and I was particularly inspired by artivist/hacktivist Ricardo Dominguez’s presentation about the Transborder Project. As I’ve processed my discontent with the media analysis and lack thereof I encountered, I’ve decided that it might be time to start rethinking how I contextualize my message and how to move forward to new areas of education, conversation, and facilitation.

Here is a short video of conference footage. I never edit video anymore - the lumiere project killed editing for me, and I’m happy about that. I’ve never been an excellent editor, and not wanting to contribute to the massive amounts of sub-par video available online and not wanting a career as a tape digitizer, I have little incentive to get better. But I do love hanging out behind my camera, so here are some clips of what I saw this weekend in Detroit Rock City.

click for the amc 2008 (in a new window)