9.18.2006
9.17.2006
On the way out of the conservatory is Musick’s Story Bush. The artist wrote a 255-line narrative poem onto the leaves of a star-magnolia bush using a water-based paint pen. Musick says he’s concerned with “the poetics of unseen acts,” that is, doing small, beautiful things that are hardly noticed.
The poem started as a piece of prose. “I’m not terribly well versed in poetry but I am a much bigger fan of music and the way lyrics float,” he says. Musick called the Poetry Center for advice and it put him in touch with poet Dan Beachy-Quick. “He read through very generously and started striking lines out.” Musick rewrote the resulting poem in segments on the leaves. But that’s just the first phase. As the leaves begin to fall, Musick will gather them daily and create a new poem determined by the change of season. “I’ll probably check on it beginning the 20th of September,” he says.
9.13.2006
A CALL FOR COLORS FROM:
the blind birds
the roasted flesh
the stars' sound
beirut's sky
and from my tired eyes
...
PLEASE DO NOT POST ANY POLITICAL COMMENTS ON THIS BLOG.
THIS BLOG IS DEDICATED TO ART. AND AS SUCH, IT VOMITS ON ANYTHING CALLED POLITICS.
(please go visit mazen kerbaj's blog. he is an amazing musician from beirut, we played the same show one night last fall, his drawings and writings on this war need to be seen.)
For Immediate Release
Tuesday June 20, 2006
*WMD Found in North Dakota: Disarmament Begins*
A Roman Catholic Priest and two Veterans went to a Minuteman III silo this morning and began to disarm the nuclear weapon using hammers. Reverend Carl Kabat, OMI, Gregory Boertje-Obed, and Michael Walli entered the E-9 missile silo on the Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara Nation in North Dakota about 75 miles southwest of Minot. Using a sledgehammer and household hammers, they disabled the lock on the personnel entry hatch that provides access to the warhead and they hammered on the silo lid that covers the 300 kiloton nuclear warhead that is targeted and ready to launch. The activists painted DISARM on the face of the 110-ton hardened silo cover and the peace activists poured their blood on the missile lid.
They were detained and arrested by McLean County Sheriffs and are being held in the McLean County jail in Washburn, North Dakota. They have since been transferred to a county jail in Bismark. They are being chargesdwith destruction of government property in excess of $1000 (a felony).
Speaking from jail, Carl Kabat, OMI from St. Louis, Missouri stated, “We now prepare for the nuclear bombing of Iran with the reasoning that only weapons of mass destruction can stop weapons of mass destruction. We bombed and strafed in Iraq based on lies that the Iraqi’s possessed nuclear weapons. We have the weapons here.”
The Minuteman III missile is targeted and on alert for launch. The missile is armed with a warhead that carries 27 times the heat, blast and radiation of the bomb dropped by the U.S. on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945.
The activists say that they are following the nonviolent Jesus, that they are taught by their faith to love their enemies, and that the money used for these weapons of mass destruction is a theft from the poor and should be used for food, housing, medical care and rebuilding the infrastructure of our country.
STATEMENT
Nuclear Weapon Here Plowshares
Please pardon the fracture of the good order. When we were children we thought as children and spoke as children. But now we are adults and there comes a time when we must speak out and say that the good order is not so good, and never really was. We know that throughout history there have been innumerable war crimes. Two of the most terrible war crimes occurred on August 6th and 9th, 1945. On August 6th, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima, Japan, killing more than 100,000 people (including U.S. prisoners of war). Three days later the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki, Japan, killing more than 50,000 people. Use of these weapons of mass destruction on civilian populations were abominable crimes against humanity. The U.S. has never repented of these atrocities. On the contrary, the U.S. has deepened and expanded its commitment to nuclear weapons. The U.S. built a large nuclear-industrial complex which has caused the deaths of many workers and has resulted in killing many more people by nuclear
testing. Our country built thousands of nuclear weapons and has dispersed weapons-grade uranium to 43 nations. Each Minuteman III missile carries a bomb that is 27 times more powerful than those dropped on the Japanese people. The building of these weapons signifies that our hearts have assented to mass murder. Currently the U.S. is seeking to research a new class of smaller nuclear weapons – demonstrating its desire to find new uses for weapons of mass destruction.
The U.S. is rushing down the path that leads to more death and destruction, ultimately bringing this nation and other nations to ruin. Therefore we issue a call for national repentance. We make an urgent appeal to the people of the U.S. to change course – to place our security in God and not in weapons of mass destruction.
We have chosen to start the process of transformation and disarmament by hammering on and pouring our blood on components of the Minuteman III nuclear missile system. We believe that the concrete that goes into making missile silos would be better used for building homes. We know that total disarmament of our first-strike system of nuclear weapons will require national repentance with a change in the hearts and minds of the people of the U.S. The pouring of our blood is meant to make visible the bloodshed resulting from the production, testing, and use of nuclear weapons. We believe the message in the Bible that after Cain killed his brother Abel that Abel’s blood “cried out from the ground.” We hear our sisters’ and brothers’ blood crying out from the ground. We believe that God hears these cries and grieves deeply over every person whose blood is shed. We call ourselves the “Weapon of Mass Destruction Here Plowshares” to highlight that our nation has thousands of horrific weapons of mass destruction. U.S. leaders speak about the dangers of other nations acquiring nuclear weapons, but they fail to act in accordance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty which commits the U.S. to take steps to disarm its weapons of mass destruction. We act in order to bring attention to people’s responsibility for disarming weapons of state terrorism. We can begin the process of exposing U.S. weapons of mass destruction, naming them as abominations that cause desolation, and transforming them to objects that promote life.
We dress as clowns to show that humor and laughter are key elements in the struggle to transform the structures of destruction and death. Saint Paul said that we are “fools for God’s sake,” and we say that we are “fools for God and humanity.” Clowns as court jesters were sometimes the only ones able to survive after speaking truth to authorities in power.
Is there hope for the world? Yes – if people begin to live the truth now. We believe that Jesus reveals who God is, and that God is a God of love and nonviolence, teaching us to love all people, even our enemies. Furthermore, the prophets Isaiah and Micah prophesy that there will come a time when people will learn the ways of God and
“They shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.”
By our plowshares/pruning hooks action we have tried to make visible God’s will for disarmament and peacemaking. By living this truth we hope to shorten this murderous age – closing the gap between the future hope for universal peace and our present reality of endless violence and war-making. We begin to bring hope into the present moment.
MINUTEMAN III – Fact Sheet
A Minuteman III is a first strike Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) nuclear weapon. The current U.S. ICBM force consists of 500 Minuteman III's located in three missile fields: F.E. Warren Air Force Base with 150 missiles covering the corner of Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming; Malmstrom AFB in Montana with 200 ICBMs; and Minot AFB in North Dakota with 150 missiles. These warheads can be launched from a Minuteman III missile silo within minutes and reach any destination within 35 minutes. A nuclear bomb launched from a Minuteman silo produces uncontrollable radiation, massive heat and a blast capable of vaporizing and leveling everything within a 50-mile radius. Outside the 50 square miles -- extending into hundreds of miles -- the blast, wide-spread heat, firestorms and neutron and gamma rays are intended to kill, severely wound and poison every living thing and causing long-term damage to the environment. A Minuteman warhead has the potential to destroy the genetic code of the human race. Current warheads carry 27 times more power than the U.S. nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima August 6, 1945.
The Minuteman III is currently undergoing upgrades to extend its 2020 service limit. Minuteman III is the sole ICBM deployed by the United States. Each Mark 12 or Mark 12-A warhead in a Minuteman III silo can travel more than 6,000 miles at 15,000 miles per hour.
At one point the U.S. had 1,000 land-based ICBMs at a cost to taxpayers of $7 million each. Minuteman IIIs are in transition from having 3 independently targeted warheads to carrying one.
The Minuteman missiles are dispersed in hardened silos and connected to an underground launch control center through a system of hardened cables. Launch crews, consisting of two officers, perform around-the-clock alert in the launch control center. A variety of communication systems provide the National Command Authorities with virtually instantaneous direct contact with each launch crew. Should command capability be lost between the launch control center and remote missile launch facilities, an airborne launch control center dubbed “looking glass” automatically assumes command and control of the missiles.
The Minuteman III system is undergoing upgrades to: replace an aging guidance system; increase payloads; remanufacture the solid-fuel rocket motors; replace standby power system; repair launch facilities; improve communication; enhance accuracy; and improve survivability in a nuclear war.
In January 2002 Nuclear Posture Review, issued by the Bush administration, threatens the use of nuclear weapons to “deter” any attack by chemical or biological as well as nuclear weapons by any non-nuclear state or entity within or sponsored by “the axis of evil.” We now prepare for nuclear bombing of Iran with the reasoning that only weapons of mass destruction can stop weapons of mass destruction.
By any standard of proof, the threat or use of the Minuteman III constitutes crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity or genocide.
Tuesday June 20, 2006
*WMD Found in North Dakota: Disarmament Begins*
A Roman Catholic Priest and two Veterans went to a Minuteman III silo this morning and began to disarm the nuclear weapon using hammers. Reverend Carl Kabat, OMI, Gregory Boertje-Obed, and Michael Walli entered the E-9 missile silo on the Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara Nation in North Dakota about 75 miles southwest of Minot. Using a sledgehammer and household hammers, they disabled the lock on the personnel entry hatch that provides access to the warhead and they hammered on the silo lid that covers the 300 kiloton nuclear warhead that is targeted and ready to launch. The activists painted DISARM on the face of the 110-ton hardened silo cover and the peace activists poured their blood on the missile lid.
They were detained and arrested by McLean County Sheriffs and are being held in the McLean County jail in Washburn, North Dakota. They have since been transferred to a county jail in Bismark. They are being chargesdwith destruction of government property in excess of $1000 (a felony).
Speaking from jail, Carl Kabat, OMI from St. Louis, Missouri stated, “We now prepare for the nuclear bombing of Iran with the reasoning that only weapons of mass destruction can stop weapons of mass destruction. We bombed and strafed in Iraq based on lies that the Iraqi’s possessed nuclear weapons. We have the weapons here.”
The Minuteman III missile is targeted and on alert for launch. The missile is armed with a warhead that carries 27 times the heat, blast and radiation of the bomb dropped by the U.S. on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945.
The activists say that they are following the nonviolent Jesus, that they are taught by their faith to love their enemies, and that the money used for these weapons of mass destruction is a theft from the poor and should be used for food, housing, medical care and rebuilding the infrastructure of our country.
STATEMENT
Nuclear Weapon Here Plowshares
Please pardon the fracture of the good order. When we were children we thought as children and spoke as children. But now we are adults and there comes a time when we must speak out and say that the good order is not so good, and never really was. We know that throughout history there have been innumerable war crimes. Two of the most terrible war crimes occurred on August 6th and 9th, 1945. On August 6th, 1945, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima, Japan, killing more than 100,000 people (including U.S. prisoners of war). Three days later the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki, Japan, killing more than 50,000 people. Use of these weapons of mass destruction on civilian populations were abominable crimes against humanity. The U.S. has never repented of these atrocities. On the contrary, the U.S. has deepened and expanded its commitment to nuclear weapons. The U.S. built a large nuclear-industrial complex which has caused the deaths of many workers and has resulted in killing many more people by nuclear
testing. Our country built thousands of nuclear weapons and has dispersed weapons-grade uranium to 43 nations. Each Minuteman III missile carries a bomb that is 27 times more powerful than those dropped on the Japanese people. The building of these weapons signifies that our hearts have assented to mass murder. Currently the U.S. is seeking to research a new class of smaller nuclear weapons – demonstrating its desire to find new uses for weapons of mass destruction.
The U.S. is rushing down the path that leads to more death and destruction, ultimately bringing this nation and other nations to ruin. Therefore we issue a call for national repentance. We make an urgent appeal to the people of the U.S. to change course – to place our security in God and not in weapons of mass destruction.
We have chosen to start the process of transformation and disarmament by hammering on and pouring our blood on components of the Minuteman III nuclear missile system. We believe that the concrete that goes into making missile silos would be better used for building homes. We know that total disarmament of our first-strike system of nuclear weapons will require national repentance with a change in the hearts and minds of the people of the U.S. The pouring of our blood is meant to make visible the bloodshed resulting from the production, testing, and use of nuclear weapons. We believe the message in the Bible that after Cain killed his brother Abel that Abel’s blood “cried out from the ground.” We hear our sisters’ and brothers’ blood crying out from the ground. We believe that God hears these cries and grieves deeply over every person whose blood is shed. We call ourselves the “Weapon of Mass Destruction Here Plowshares” to highlight that our nation has thousands of horrific weapons of mass destruction. U.S. leaders speak about the dangers of other nations acquiring nuclear weapons, but they fail to act in accordance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty which commits the U.S. to take steps to disarm its weapons of mass destruction. We act in order to bring attention to people’s responsibility for disarming weapons of state terrorism. We can begin the process of exposing U.S. weapons of mass destruction, naming them as abominations that cause desolation, and transforming them to objects that promote life.
We dress as clowns to show that humor and laughter are key elements in the struggle to transform the structures of destruction and death. Saint Paul said that we are “fools for God’s sake,” and we say that we are “fools for God and humanity.” Clowns as court jesters were sometimes the only ones able to survive after speaking truth to authorities in power.
Is there hope for the world? Yes – if people begin to live the truth now. We believe that Jesus reveals who God is, and that God is a God of love and nonviolence, teaching us to love all people, even our enemies. Furthermore, the prophets Isaiah and Micah prophesy that there will come a time when people will learn the ways of God and
“They shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.”
By our plowshares/pruning hooks action we have tried to make visible God’s will for disarmament and peacemaking. By living this truth we hope to shorten this murderous age – closing the gap between the future hope for universal peace and our present reality of endless violence and war-making. We begin to bring hope into the present moment.
MINUTEMAN III – Fact Sheet
A Minuteman III is a first strike Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) nuclear weapon. The current U.S. ICBM force consists of 500 Minuteman III's located in three missile fields: F.E. Warren Air Force Base with 150 missiles covering the corner of Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming; Malmstrom AFB in Montana with 200 ICBMs; and Minot AFB in North Dakota with 150 missiles. These warheads can be launched from a Minuteman III missile silo within minutes and reach any destination within 35 minutes. A nuclear bomb launched from a Minuteman silo produces uncontrollable radiation, massive heat and a blast capable of vaporizing and leveling everything within a 50-mile radius. Outside the 50 square miles -- extending into hundreds of miles -- the blast, wide-spread heat, firestorms and neutron and gamma rays are intended to kill, severely wound and poison every living thing and causing long-term damage to the environment. A Minuteman warhead has the potential to destroy the genetic code of the human race. Current warheads carry 27 times more power than the U.S. nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima August 6, 1945.
The Minuteman III is currently undergoing upgrades to extend its 2020 service limit. Minuteman III is the sole ICBM deployed by the United States. Each Mark 12 or Mark 12-A warhead in a Minuteman III silo can travel more than 6,000 miles at 15,000 miles per hour.
At one point the U.S. had 1,000 land-based ICBMs at a cost to taxpayers of $7 million each. Minuteman IIIs are in transition from having 3 independently targeted warheads to carrying one.
The Minuteman missiles are dispersed in hardened silos and connected to an underground launch control center through a system of hardened cables. Launch crews, consisting of two officers, perform around-the-clock alert in the launch control center. A variety of communication systems provide the National Command Authorities with virtually instantaneous direct contact with each launch crew. Should command capability be lost between the launch control center and remote missile launch facilities, an airborne launch control center dubbed “looking glass” automatically assumes command and control of the missiles.
The Minuteman III system is undergoing upgrades to: replace an aging guidance system; increase payloads; remanufacture the solid-fuel rocket motors; replace standby power system; repair launch facilities; improve communication; enhance accuracy; and improve survivability in a nuclear war.
In January 2002 Nuclear Posture Review, issued by the Bush administration, threatens the use of nuclear weapons to “deter” any attack by chemical or biological as well as nuclear weapons by any non-nuclear state or entity within or sponsored by “the axis of evil.” We now prepare for nuclear bombing of Iran with the reasoning that only weapons of mass destruction can stop weapons of mass destruction.
By any standard of proof, the threat or use of the Minuteman III constitutes crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity or genocide.
9.05.2006
The New Media Backpedal
posted Aug 07, 2006 by Nato Thompson
The fact that radical actions flourished under Clinton but not under Bush is highly bizarre (if not somewhat amazing at the same time). Surely, one must consider the radical political landscape in the United States at this time and attempt to gain a handle on how best to organize radical political action.
Political action is an open-ended concept that for the sake of this discussion, we will break down into two particular modes. There are the classically produced leftist grassroots political actions that work in terms of lobbying, social organizing, banners, street protest, and muckraking journalisms. On the other hand, there are the more, how do you say, theoretical politics. That is to say, the politics of meaning that encompass our everyday experience, often informed by postmodern books, that don't particularly make it onto the front page of the New York Times nor Democracy Now for that matter. Public space, the politics of work, the disciplinary society, the commodification of counter culture, the spectacle, Agamben's camp, ambiguity as a form of meaning production and on and on. These are subjects often written about in lefty art magazines (such as Rhizome) but magically dropped in the left magazines like the Nation, Z Magazine, even Clamor.
There is clearly a divide in these two worlds. It is probably not a new one for many of us as it haunts new media in particular. To clarify the gap a little more: there is a form of political resistance that approach politics in what appears to be a straightforward didactic manner. The framework of analysis runs in conjunction with the tradition of street protest in the United States, Democracy Now is often playing on the radio, there is a mystical tally on the newest heinous action in Congress, lobby groups, the prison industry, and utility is often the guide post for political action. And then there are those that are at times somewhat more aloof. They can discuss the character of resistance available in taking a short cut home, they can discuss the Panopticon and the level of systemic biopower available in the military welfare state, they can critique the manner in which contemporary radical politics buy into the spectacle of counter culture, and utility is often considered a complicated riddle not easily solved. Now, you might chuckle or be angered by such a flagrant forced dichotomy and I realize there is movement between these two approaches. But surely the reader understands this divide. Yet, the ability to bridge the gap vacillates dramatically depending on the political temperature of the times.
I would go out on a limb and say that during the second Clinton administration, art and politics were allowed to be a bit more theoretic. Questions of the commodification of counter culture, movements toward extending public space and the like were embraced and merged into a growing political movement that used the anti-globalization movement as its spine. Theoretical analysis and pragmatic political gestures merged haphazardly into an evolving platform of political process.
Life under Bush is quite different. The disappearance of a coordinated political movement has produced a painful lacuna in the political art scene. The theoretically minded politics of public space, ambiguity and visual culture have in large part retreated toward the academic sub sphere in lieu of a political movement to connect with. Would it be erroneous to place art and technology directly along this path? The radical action leftist magazines have moved back toward embracing a pragmatic politics that utilize typical forms of political resistance (eg. Move.On.org).
Without a pragmatic grassroots political movement to connect the dots of political action, aesthetic micro-resistances (such as most art and technology gambits) ultimately add up to gestures of aesthetic and identity posturing interpretable primarily through the lens of new media social capital. This is not to say the need for this form of politics has dried up, but that it lacks a necessary cohesive political community that brings the utilitarian, the ambiguous and the desirous into a unified sphere.
In the face of this, what is to be done? New movements emerge (such as the growth of the immigration movement) and an infrastructure of meaning (magazines, spaces, organizations, collectives, radio shows) needs to be produced to close the gap. An infrastructure must be produced that manages the tensions between the theoretical needs of ambiguity and skepticism with the pragmatics of didacticism and action. Without considering the manner in which our efforts work toward this end, new media efficacy runs parallel with the naivetÇ and convenient posturing that is the current landscape of identity under spectacle. These are perilous times and the most risky and beneficial thing we can do, is to build bridges. We must reconnect the dots and apply questions of spectacle, ambiguous new media interventions, and theory driven actions on the same platform as the pragmatic politics of grassroots politics. We must work toward getting back on the streets and challenging power head on. Without an accompanying pragmatic approach, new media drifts backward toward gadgetry, conventions, listservs, and geeky obscurity.
posted Aug 07, 2006 by Nato Thompson
The fact that radical actions flourished under Clinton but not under Bush is highly bizarre (if not somewhat amazing at the same time). Surely, one must consider the radical political landscape in the United States at this time and attempt to gain a handle on how best to organize radical political action.
Political action is an open-ended concept that for the sake of this discussion, we will break down into two particular modes. There are the classically produced leftist grassroots political actions that work in terms of lobbying, social organizing, banners, street protest, and muckraking journalisms. On the other hand, there are the more, how do you say, theoretical politics. That is to say, the politics of meaning that encompass our everyday experience, often informed by postmodern books, that don't particularly make it onto the front page of the New York Times nor Democracy Now for that matter. Public space, the politics of work, the disciplinary society, the commodification of counter culture, the spectacle, Agamben's camp, ambiguity as a form of meaning production and on and on. These are subjects often written about in lefty art magazines (such as Rhizome) but magically dropped in the left magazines like the Nation, Z Magazine, even Clamor.
There is clearly a divide in these two worlds. It is probably not a new one for many of us as it haunts new media in particular. To clarify the gap a little more: there is a form of political resistance that approach politics in what appears to be a straightforward didactic manner. The framework of analysis runs in conjunction with the tradition of street protest in the United States, Democracy Now is often playing on the radio, there is a mystical tally on the newest heinous action in Congress, lobby groups, the prison industry, and utility is often the guide post for political action. And then there are those that are at times somewhat more aloof. They can discuss the character of resistance available in taking a short cut home, they can discuss the Panopticon and the level of systemic biopower available in the military welfare state, they can critique the manner in which contemporary radical politics buy into the spectacle of counter culture, and utility is often considered a complicated riddle not easily solved. Now, you might chuckle or be angered by such a flagrant forced dichotomy and I realize there is movement between these two approaches. But surely the reader understands this divide. Yet, the ability to bridge the gap vacillates dramatically depending on the political temperature of the times.
I would go out on a limb and say that during the second Clinton administration, art and politics were allowed to be a bit more theoretic. Questions of the commodification of counter culture, movements toward extending public space and the like were embraced and merged into a growing political movement that used the anti-globalization movement as its spine. Theoretical analysis and pragmatic political gestures merged haphazardly into an evolving platform of political process.
Life under Bush is quite different. The disappearance of a coordinated political movement has produced a painful lacuna in the political art scene. The theoretically minded politics of public space, ambiguity and visual culture have in large part retreated toward the academic sub sphere in lieu of a political movement to connect with. Would it be erroneous to place art and technology directly along this path? The radical action leftist magazines have moved back toward embracing a pragmatic politics that utilize typical forms of political resistance (eg. Move.On.org).
Without a pragmatic grassroots political movement to connect the dots of political action, aesthetic micro-resistances (such as most art and technology gambits) ultimately add up to gestures of aesthetic and identity posturing interpretable primarily through the lens of new media social capital. This is not to say the need for this form of politics has dried up, but that it lacks a necessary cohesive political community that brings the utilitarian, the ambiguous and the desirous into a unified sphere.
In the face of this, what is to be done? New movements emerge (such as the growth of the immigration movement) and an infrastructure of meaning (magazines, spaces, organizations, collectives, radio shows) needs to be produced to close the gap. An infrastructure must be produced that manages the tensions between the theoretical needs of ambiguity and skepticism with the pragmatics of didacticism and action. Without considering the manner in which our efforts work toward this end, new media efficacy runs parallel with the naivetÇ and convenient posturing that is the current landscape of identity under spectacle. These are perilous times and the most risky and beneficial thing we can do, is to build bridges. We must reconnect the dots and apply questions of spectacle, ambiguous new media interventions, and theory driven actions on the same platform as the pragmatic politics of grassroots politics. We must work toward getting back on the streets and challenging power head on. Without an accompanying pragmatic approach, new media drifts backward toward gadgetry, conventions, listservs, and geeky obscurity.
