3Cs weblog

Machines is the name given to a unique encounter for sharing experiences among creative activist collectives from diverse sites along the Atlantic. This workshop-reflection event took place at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona (MACBA) during February 18 and 19, 2007. As the call to this encounter reads, the given name is not arbitrary but captures a kind of common political ground among the participants:

“If there is something to be highlighted in the current protest cycle [ ], it is definitely the way in which innovation is a structural feature of the new forms of political action [ ]. In recent years there seems to have been a confirmation of the image of the machine Guattari and Deleuze used to refer to the need for open, flexible forms for political creativity, for which the molar and molecular, micro and macro dimensions of politics, could cease, as they have done at other moments, to be mutually exclusive.

To simplify, notions such as machine or political creation allow us to mark out a territory from where we can radically rethink the relation between art, communication and politics, put into practice now as overlapping or interlinked components, avoiding the classic game of addition: art ‘plus’ politics, politics ‘plus’ art, politics ‘plus’ communication. For at least a decade we have been accumulating experiences which have occurred in every corner of the planet, practices quite distinct from one another which have not and will not multiply unless we think of them as genetically involved in the global protest cycle in progress”.

As the call to the two day seminar suggests, the groups involved seemed to embody the notion of war machine in their practice. Tools, concepts, objects (such as maps, artistic interventions outside/within artistic institutions, actions) are used to concatenate various social actors and forms into a complex body of movement and action. Although sharing the use of a particular machinic object, these same actors and forms are not structured by it in any fixed sense. The “machines” used by these groups are precisely to open up/break apart the striated structurations of particular concepts used by the state or particular institutions that order behavior, action and knowledge. In the case of the first day’s groups- there is an attempt to crack open the notions of security currently deployed in modes of governance and for the second day’s groups what qualifies as public space -or even as a ‘public’- is challenged through social action. The fixity of these notions is traversed or broken up to open new possibilities for intervention and new ways of ‘being’ in common (see Gerald Rausig 2005)[1].

The two-day encounter was divided by transversal themes. Instead of limiting the sessions solely to self-referential presentations by each group, each day was organized around a series of shared issues. During the first day, a set of groups focused on how their own projects dealt with the questions of i) security, ii) policies of criminalization and control, and iii) non-regulated education to combat those. The groups of the second day discussed i) how their projects problematize the production of public space, how is it constructed, how is it subverted and intervened in? as well as ii) the relationship between struggles and institutions.

Day 1: The two groups from Buenos Aires shared a humoristic take on the question of security that has gripped the country in recent years. Subverting the media generated fear, TV Comunitaria presented “El Segurisimo”, a mock TV commercial selling personalized cages readily delivered with a cell phone call at any time in order to surround and protect you at all times from “others” –street criminals and radical militants- around. The Etcétera Collective presented the “Internacional Errorista”. Armed with cardboard Kalashnikovs, pistols and RPG’s; masked with make believe kuffiyahs, the “errosrits” assumed all stereotypes and mediatized images of terrorists during the actions against the summit of the FTAA as a way to defuse the tensions around anti-terrorist security laws. The projects from Sao Paolo - Contra Filé and Frente 3 de Fevereiro- focused on questioning different aspects of the control society, playing with mass media attention and assuming its unknown consequences. One of the projects, “La Catraca”, popularized the concept of control in everyday life through the image of a turnstyle, after stealing one of those and placing it as a public monument in a square, the media invented a verb to refer to this concept. This new word-image became popular and even appropriated by different Brazilian social movements dealing with issues of privatization and free access to public transport. The collective based in Andalucia –Hackitectura- presented a cartography of the Spain-Moroccan border, visually showing the increasing militarization, survey technologies and control mechanisms placed at the contours of the currently being produced Fortress Europe. This map also showed the different sites of resistance to that security paranoia showing the density of networking among social movements among the two sea sides.

Day 2: Thinking through the production of space issue, the North Carolina based group -3Cs Counter Cartographies Collective- focused on how the American university is usually constructed as a discrete bubble distanced from reality and thus politics as well. Trying to subvert this spatial thinking, the 3Cs put together a “DisOrientation Guide” that portrays the university as a factory, as well as a material body, part of a mapped dense network of social, ecological, racial relations within the knowledge economy. In a different venue, the art collective from Zagreb -What, How & For Whom- approached the issue by looking at the tensions of public/private space in a post-socialist country through different art works and exhibitions. For example, through a photographic montage focusing on the body as a political actor as well as exhibitions such as “Normalization” and “Alternative monuments to Tesla”, they are trying to contribute, and constitute in themselves, different notions of public space. Kuda (Novi Sad) ____________________________________________???. Finally, Ateneu Candela based in Terrasa talked about the “Oficinas de Derchos Sociales” [Offices of Social Rights] as a way to rearticulate previous struggles over urban space, looking towards the creation of a kind of alternative institution focused on emerging figures such as the precarious, migrant and cognitarian workers, as well as those suffering from ‘real state violence’ and other issues related to precarity. The goal being to reinvent a public space able to put in common the diverse subjectivities in struggle.

This kind of encounter –besides debates over within/without institutions- provides a temporary space for mutual infection where the different projects create resonances with each other, coming back to the distinct locations with eagerness to hack, assemble and reinvent new strategies in diverse territories. According to some of the participants, these encounters are not to be understood as an end in itself, but rather as part of a process of exchanging tools, strengthening networks and multiplying parallel projects for social struggles everywhere. [the above part of this post will be published at transform ]

One thing that curiously came to the fore across both days was the use several groups were making of cartography. Though maybe this grabbed our attention since we’re part of a cartographic collective (he he). Out of the eight or so presentations and the different groups represented, at least three or four were using or discussing the use of cartography as a tool in strengthening or opening struggles over spaces. Either as a way to demystify or challenge particular notions of a space (such as the Border or the University) or to suggest new uses for spaces (signaling empty houses in a gentrifying neighborhood for occupation/squatting…). Cartography became a way to present and distribute analyses in a non-textual format with the goal of broadening the audience as well as a way of moving beyond the singular performance or graphic representation of a situation into a piece that could travel on its own carrying many messages in its framework.

Some details on the cartography question:

Hacktiectura and the Malaguenos

Through this encounter we were able to meet some of the folks involved in the Hackitectura project face to face. This was a real treat since we’ve been mulling over their work (both personally and collectively with 3Cs) for quite some time, and they’d been an inspiration for much of what we’ve been doing recently…

Just a few notes of some of the things they said either in conversation or in the presentation which could be relevant:

-The choice of mapping due to its non-textual form of communication, which for them allowed the conveying of more concepts and more complex ones in less space than a text and without the same thickness of having to “read through” something. We learned how much the “Cartografia del Estrecho” the Map of the Straits of Gibraltar has been circulating in Spain. At least among social movements it has become something rather referential.

They also explained the Otra Malaga project (which we haven’t jumped into as much yet though we recently received the first copy- one going to 3Cs soon too we hope). The Malaga Social Forum was to occur soon, and with this excuse they began a participatory action research project that in some sense surveyed the different struggles across the province. They would meet with activists involved in different fights (primarily ecological, precarious labor and migrant rights) hold conversations, interviews, snowball to other contacts, produce video- photos etc. in order to produce a dense sort of “Situation Report” on what are the issues facing the province, who are the collectives facing them and what strategies they are using–; more importantly what sorts of overlap are there-or might there be between different struggles (either in proximity or other connections as in a particular corporation, what have you…). For the final results a map of the “Other Malaga” was produced that drew attention to the situation of and interconnections between migratory flows, new labor conditions, and the macro-tourist development going on in the area (lots of new golf courses for example)- in addition there was a DVD and a small book that traced the results of the work- all released to coincide with and intervene in the Malaga Social Forum.

What we realized after speaking with them a bit more is that these mapping and research projects (i.e. the straits and otra Malaga) were not just random interventions but part of a years-long effort to articulate social movement efforts across Andalucia- especially those dealing with questions of precarity and global resistance. The result for the moment seems to be quite a tight network of groups and individuals that are increasingly able to take on larger/more complex projects and mobilize more people. There’s even a sort of joke we heard called the “Malagueno school of organizing” with its own sorts of strategies, focus on efficiency and other such things. Curious how the mapping efforts may have played a rol in tying parts of that network together.

The Brasilians:

We had quite a long conversation with a member of the Frente 3 de Fevereiro on the uses of mapping which is a direction their collective is moving towards. This group had done different sorts of stuff- very interesting interventions-, including working indirectly with the fear generated around the PCC (the group that in the past year turned super violent in Sao Paolo but has its origins as an anti-capitalist prisoners’ movement) and an intervention that created a new vocabulary word that sort of translates as “turnstile-ization” as in the placement of instruments that define who can access something or not- additionally creating a set of imagery with actual turnstyles that have been usede frequently by media, academics, and social movments in Brasil in the past two years (especially the student movement and the Passe Livre movement [free transport for school kids]) which has included bringing turnstyles to marches and burning them. Anyway, that’s some background on them. We hope to exchange notes with them about the conversation and mapping in general- and they were very excited about some of 3C’s stuff- (I think they were flipping the idea of inviting someone over to Brasil or at least asking form materials!!!….Caipirinha anyone!?)

We started talking about the possibilities and limits of 2-D mapping and how to move beyond it. In particular how to produce a map that would function from the viewpoint of someone walking around- as opposed to the bird’s eye view maps normally take. We chatted briefly about GIS programs that can take the geo-referenced material and with a graphics program (or maybe a CAD program?) translate some of the info into a virtual 3-D model- sort of a virtual tour. But quickly we moved onto some other issues- one thing they’ve been discussing is a concept called the “corpo-vibrator” or something like that- we’ll check again soon. Apparently (if we’re not getting things confused between the castillian and the Portuguese) this is a concept written about by Suely Rolnick- a brasilian psychologist that worked with Guattari- and it refers to the body and how its is impacted by certain sorts of feelings or emotions linked to an action or space- not so much a memory or a though tout reaction as an almost visceral one. So the notion was sort of how to produce maps that could provoke emotions/gut reactions- something to that extent, and not only the sorts of cool analysis and discussions we usually have around a table with a map on it. Ideally combining this corp-vibrator map with one of these non-2D itinerant’s perspective maps.

We shared the idea (Liz, Tim,…any news here) about the 1-1 map that we had discussed in 3C’s and the story of the short story by Borges and how Baudrillard uses it. Would this be similar to a tourist map that then has referents to the map in the street (as in little “ i ” signs that signify information or icons that represent sites of interest)? Could we create a logo on a map that could then be used as a logo in the street?

He then briefly presented an idea they were playing around with (roughly similar to a strategy mentioned around the Wicked Burrito discussion a year or two ago) which was a strategy to fight rampant gentrification in Sao Paulo. To survey social movements, squatters, NGOs etc. about vacant buildings, and create a sort of logo/graffiti that symbolized “vacant building. Creating a map of these buildings, that between all the different actos, would end up being quite an impressive number of buildings that used this logo.

Then starting to tag buildings with this logo in the street- such that you could use both the map and the tags to discover these places. This could serve as a tool for what he was telling us are some of the massive Sem Teito (Homeless) movements in the city that could use the map and compiled info as a tool to denounce urban speculation or directly to squat vacant buildings

Anyway those are some of the notes on mapping, political uses of cartography and research from the discussions and presentations there in Barcelona- just to add to the short sum up of the conference there. We learned a lot, we hope y’all like it too.

PS. More details on the two Argentinian collectives as well:

TV Comunitaria- Buenos Aires started off by presenting their intervention into the personal security craze that is throttling Argentina. An intense fear is being inculcated in many parts of the Argentine population through the salience given to news of rising street crime (perceived or real) and the danger of certain types of protesters as well. The message seems to be that one should fear the “street” as a space, that one is only safe if one looks after themselves and takes measures. Faced with this TV Comunitaria produced “El Segurisimo”, a mock TV commercial which attempts to face people with the ridiculous conclusions of this security craze: in this case personalized cages that can be purchased in order to surround and protect you at all times from “others” around. If need by the cages can be readily delivered with a call from your cell phone so you can instantly isolate yourself form the street and potential threats that –of course- are everywhere.

The Etcétera collective, from Buenos Aires, presented the “Internacional Errorista”. Just prior to the latest Summit of the Americas (FOOTNOTE where the Free Trade Area of the Americas is discussed by government and corporate interest from throughout the continent) in Fall 2005 which was set to take place in Mar del Plata Argentina, a series of anti-terrorist legislations were passed in Argentina. The legislation was vague enough that many activist or militant practices could be considered “terrorist” and the legislation appeared as a means for the government to take advantage of the climate of the “Global War on Terror” in order to crimilanize some elements of social movement in the country (especially some sectors of the unemployed workers movement). In addition the media filled Argentine press with stoire and rumore of thousand of body bags being shipped to Argentina in case there was a “terrorist attack” during the summit. The Errorist International responded to the craze. Armed with cardboard Kalashnikovs, pistols and RPG’s; masked with make believe kuffiyahs and defining their movement as one of “errorism”, the Errorists took over avenues in Buenos Aires (looking strangely like a commando from the PFLP), marched against the FTAA, and infiltrated a beach in Mar del Plata that was within the security zone, thus looking as if a group of terrorists was launching an amphibious assault! All stereotypes and mediatized images of terrorists were fully assumed by the “errosrits” as way to defuse the tensions and fear around anti-terrorist security and to shove the debate about new security measures into public light.