According to the New York Times (December 23, 2007), “tumblelog” is “a website or blog that is collection of brief links to, quotes from, or comments about things a person has encountered while web browsing. It is a sort of digital commonplace book.” Actually I thought that was what most blogs were–almost an annotated my […]
Malian Wanderings
Two friends just returned from Mali and another artist-acquaintance, Janet Goldner, just left for Mali. Since the last post was rather gloomy, I will move into the solstice with thoughts of Janet sharing art with Malians again. I first met Janet in 1990 in New York City at the Women’s Caucus for Art (WCA). I […]
Robot Warriors in Human Terrain
While I think the use of robots to clear minefields is a good idea–and the more the better; let’s get rid of all those land mines–this new development of placing robot warriors in Iraq is truly hair-raising. Supposedly they are “guided” by a human being studying images from the robot’s cameras; this person could be […]
Take Back the Tech
Take Back the Tech is a campaign that started November 25 and ends December 10, which also happens to be Jane Addams Day. This is an effort to ask how to use information technologies to help prevent violence against women. But they also challenge ways that abusers use information technology–to track a woman, to harass […]
The Revolution Will Not Be Funded
Andrea Smith, an organizer of INCITE! Women of Color against Violence, did a post-doc at UIUC a couple of years ago. Someone introduced her as a scholar-activist and she began by discounting that label. She said, we don’t say florist-activist or dentist-activist, why do we say scholar-activist? What about scholarship necessitates adding the noun activist […]
The Inspired Disturbance of All Status Quos
One issue that came up several times during the Political Equator 2 tour was the tiresome question, “Why is this art?” I think Roberta Smith nailed a definition of art in her November 16, 2007, review of Lawrence Weiner ‘s show at the Whitney (“The Well-Shaped Phrase as Art,” New York Times , p. B33): […]
The Political Equator 2
Champaign, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Diego, Tijuana, and then back again. I was really tired when I got home. The idea of this event was truly fascinating: “an exploration of the intersection between sociopolitical and natural domains, foregrounding the notion of collective territory, but also a territory of collaboration that transgresses hemispheric boundaries. At the […]
Teddy, Tacos and Talk
One man after another, talking and talking. The tacos were fantastic and Teddy Cruz must be thirty times more tired than I am. What energy and passion that man puts out, bilingually and all over the map. At the start of our journey from LA, Teddy noted our tendency to “hide beneath weird complexity.” It […]
Indigeneity as a Category of Critical Analysis
Elizabeth Cook-Lynn was in Champaign in early November 2007 to speak in the series, “Indigeneity as a Category of Critical Analysis.” She was also promoting her latest book, New Indians Old Wars. She started out reading her tribute to Vine Deloria, Jr., called “November 19, 2005.” Deloria died two years ago tomorrow; Cook Lynn noted […]
Social Justice Activism and Technology
Prompted by an email from Karen Medina, I have been thinking about ways that people younger than I (today I turned 55) use mobile technology for social justice organizing. One activist older than I noted that young people don’t seem to come to monthly meetings anymore. Probably older people don’t either.) I know I am […]
