MOSCOW — Yesterday, members of the Russian artist collective VOINA were arrested without charges by Russian police posing as German television journalists. Natalia Sokol and her two-year old son were detained overnight at a Moscow police station and later released. The same night, plainclothes agents tried to break into VOINA member Leonid Nikolayev’s apartment and […]
Continue readingAuthor: Michael Lithgow
Art Threat: Occupy Montreal & Toronto — Videos from the Media-Coop – More videos of the growing movement North of the 49th
And here are some artfully assembled videos from ‘occupy’ movements in Canada. Enjoy these, too. More media, testimony, photos and coverage can be found at the Media Coop.
Continue readingArt Threat: Happy Birthday Nietzche & Foucault!
There’s only a little to say about this – Michel Foucault was born October 15, 1926, and by weird coincidence, Friedrich Nietzsche was born on the same day 82 years earlier- October 15, 1844. Big thinkers in the canon of Dead White Men. So what, you might be asking — and what does that have […]
Continue readingArt Threat: Evolution of the hipster – Hilarious short pokes fun at cultural conformity
I just came across this, and it is too hilarious to pass up. The engimatic ‘Glove and Boot’ puppeteers have produced a short poke at the evolution of the hipster. Enjoy.
Continue readingArt Threat: Gazawood: Filmakers under siege – Making films that capture the ‘soul’ of Gaza
Tarzan and Arab are Gaza artists who wanted to make films about their home. But they lacked resources, so instead they started making film posters for films that they wanted to make, films they thought would capture the “soul” of Gaza and its people. The posters were dramatic, enticing, provocative; but the films didn’t actually […]
Continue readingArt Threat: China massively expands CCTV surveillance – Surveillance camera theater companies around the world "cheer" new audiences
In what will generally be condemned by everyone as a creepy dystopian move, the Chinese government has massively expanded its video surveillance network into supermarkets, schoolrooms, university classrooms, malls – and, in a special post-modern twist, into theaters and cinemas. Over 5 million cameras have been installed throughout the country, and the Chinese government’s video […]
Continue readingArt Threat: A new generation of threats to online freedom – Report by ONI details 3rd generation strategies for online interference
Worried about how the Internet is being transformed from a creative playground into a structure for dominance and control? You should be, at least that’s the warning from the OpenNet Initative in their latest publication, Access Controlled: The Shaping of Power, Rights, and Rule in Cyberspace (2010, The MIT Press). The Internet remains one of […]
Continue readingArt Threat: The art of ‘pakour’ in Gaza – Overcoming obstacles in Kan Younis refugee camp
‘Pakour’, or FreeRunning, is the acrobatic art of running through cities and overcoming obstacles on the fly — or like a fly, because sometimes it seems like traceurs (slang for those who practice pakour) can defy gravity. It is thrilling to watch, and no doubt even more thrilling to do. I just discovered this great […]
Continue readingArt Threat: The art of ‘pakour’ in Gaza – Overcoming obstacles in Kan Younis refugee camp
‘Pakour’, or FreeRunning, is the acrobatic art of running through cities and overcoming obstacles on the fly — or like a fly, because sometimes it seems like traceurs (slang for those who practice pakour) can defy gravity. It is thrilling to watch, and no doubt even more thrilling to do. I just discovered this great […]
Continue readingArt Threat: On the cusp of a visual revolution – RSA Announces short film competition $6,000 in prizes
RSA is inviting artists to transform remarkable ideas into visual media — and offering over $6,000 CDN in prizes. Here’s the challenge: to create visual films for three fascinating and inspiring short lectures. The visual style is entirely up to the artist — animation, photography, dramatic acting, stop motion, sock puppets, special effects, marionettes — […]
Continue readingArt Threat: Mapping queer Toronto – The art of social cartography
A new mapping project by Julia Hoecke,Fran Schechter and Susan G. Cole (at Now Magazine) has compiled a fascinating collection of cultural, political, and social spots relevant to the LBGT present and past in the Toronto area. Maps can transform and, in their own way, create knowledge — new juxtapositions, new proximities, new inclusions and […]
Continue readingArt Threat: The (wonderful) rise of marching bands as a form of protest – New documentary from the National Radio Project
The fine folks from Making Contact (a program at the National Radio Project) present Marching for Change: Street Bands in the US, a new documentary about the musical funsters who make protests danceable. Social justice marching bands have emerged in recent decades as essential contributors to North American protest movements filling streets of unrest with […]
Continue readingArt Threat: 11th Annual Signal + Noise Media Art Festival – June 23 – 27 in Vancouver
VIVO in Vancouver presents the 11th annual Signal + Noise Media Art Festival. From the press release: The 11th annual Signal + Noise Media Art Festival presents a collision of revolutionary Armenian Kino Cinema, remixes of ex-Yugoslav and CBC Television Broadcast ID Music, travelogues from an arctic sea voyage, and science fictional rediscovery of diminishing […]
Continue readingArt Threat: Myth-busting the Internet: The truth about throttling, congestion and usage-based billing – New report offers scathing critique of Canadian telecoms industry
A new report challenges claims made by Canada’s largest telecommunication companies in recent disputes over Internet billing and governance. Casting An Open Net: A Leading-Edge Approach to Canada’s Digital Future, offers an at times scathing critique of telecom positions on Internet congestion, BiTorrent use, billing strategies and throttling and backs its criticisms with topnotch research […]
Continue readingArt Threat: Radio Without Boundaries: Breaking free of format and formula – Interview with Public Radio Remix founder Roman Mars
Public Radio Remix is an experimental sound stream hosted by the Public Radio Exchange to showcase pieces from the PRX archive and to develop new approaches to radio.
Continue readingArt Threat: Radio Without Boundaries: Crowd-sourcing history with personal memories – The Place and Memory Project (interview with Shea Shackelford)
Imagine a ghostly landscape conjured with the voices of people telling stories about their lives. Memories have their places. But they also animate our recollections of who we were in the past.
Continue readingArt Threat: Radio Without Boundaries: Tapping into the treasures of fictional ‘truths’ – An interview with Jonathan Goldstein
Jonathan Goldstein’s work on CBC’s Wiretap is something of an under-appreciated gem of Canadian public broadcasting.
Continue readingArt Threat: Remembering the Komagata Maru incident – Memorial walk and panel discussions to remember tragic history
The W2 Media Cafe (Vancouver) is hosting a day of remembering for the ill-fated Komagata Maru, a ship carrying 376 refugees from British India that arrived in Vancouver on May 23, 1914. After two months, the Komagata Maru was sent back to India where many of the survivors were arrested, beaten and 20 were shot […]
Continue readingArt Threat: Two-day art festival for the homeless in Vancouver – ATSA event in the Downtown East Side
A Montreal artist collective is taking their public art to the streets of Vancouver’s Downtown East Side. Billed as “The Pigeon’s Club”, an art festival for the homeless, the event will offer two days of revelry and amenities for Vancouver’s down and out, homeless and street involved. The festival which runs May 20-21, is being […]
Continue readingArt Threat: UC Berkeley offers subsidized new media workshop – Multimedia reporting and convergence for journalists
The Knight Digital Media Center at UC Berkeley is hosting an all expenses paid new media workshop for journalists, freelancers and educators. The Workshop runs from July 17 -22 and offers intensive training for all aspects of multimedia news production; from basic storyboarding to hands-on instruction with hardware and software for production of multimedia stories. […]
Continue reading