The Brazillians?

EBaita has a page apparently with the NNW's first PSA on it along with other videos all dealing with tcpdump. I'm not exactly sure if ebaita.com is a brazillian search engine or site or something or other. Anyways, it's there check it out and the other videos around it.

The Call: The N.N.W.

So, apparently one individual living in Colorado has felt "The Call." That is to participate in any way he possibly can in the Neighborhood Network Watch. It's just great to see such upstanding young citizens willing to do their part to help facillitate domestic spying programs within their own communities. Here is what he had to say below.



There you have it, the N.N.W. is gaining loyal members.

Bike Detail in NYC or Idle Hands Makes the Devils Work

So, I didn't know this but apparently in NYC this is how the NYPD rolls in regards to bikes. The Gothamist had an article about a recent police raid operation on the excessive amount of bikes in the 6th Ave between 1st & 2nd areas. You can read the details in the article, the thing that gets me though is the fact that they arrested two people who were asking questions about the seizure. The first person apparently was asking for the badge number of a plain clothes officer and the other was asking about why that first person was being arrested. The pic at the top I think has to sum up quite a bit about what I think is going on here.

Another Enzo: Death By Bus

So, another enzo is gone. Sad, sad, sad. This time by a bus according to the Daily Mail

A/S/L & Are You Lying About Your Age?

Pretty funny article on Discover Magazine today. It's an article where they let loose two chat bots to chat with each other and see what the results were. Highlights include:

J: Do you believe in God?
A: Of course I believe in God.
J: Why do you believe in God?
A: The Bible tells us to believe in God.
J: That’s circular reasoning.
A: I’m glad we have that all cleared up.

and my favorite

A: Do you experience love?
J: No. I’m 53 years old.
A: Can you explain how it feels to be 53 years old?
J: How old are you?
A: I am 9 years old.
J: Nine? I don’t believe you : ).
A: : -) I don’t have any reason to deceive you.
J: Yes, you do, you’re a woman.

All I have to say is sounds like some sex predator minor stuff going on between ALICE and Jabberwacky. So, I think this proves the fact that online everyone lies about their age even computers.

Neighborhood Network Watch: Introduction PSA

The first public service announcement from the Neighborhood Network Watch is now up. It discusses the inception, goals, and history of the group. The first results of the New York Chapter are also discussed in this first PSA. Enjoy.

The Face of the N.N.W.

Ah yes the N.N.W., the Neighborhood Network Watch. I figure I'd finally post up some pics and hopefully a video if it finishes compressing. Modeled on our friendly baddy from the Neighborhood Watch signs of yesteryear only with the added wifi connectivity. Aiming to keep our citizens "safe."

Here is the Neighborhood Network Watch's Advisory System. Similar to the Department of Homeland Security's Threat Advisory System, same colors, same beveled rects and drop shadows. The PSA has not finished compressing so I'll post and then prolly revise this post so you all can see the first NNW PSA that discusses mostly the history of the NNW and their role within the community and the fight against terror.

2nd Place for D.D.A.T.W.C.U.N. @ Carless Drive In Video Festival

I finally have reached home and started to look at my mail. I was informed that "Death, Destruction, & the Weather Coming Up Next" won 2nd place in the Abstract category at the 4th Annual Carless Drive In Video Festival. Unfortunately I was unable to attend and I have no clue why i was grouped into that category or why I was put down as being from NYU when making the film (I was at CalArts at the time). Oh well, second place is second place. I should hear from the Academy this week, so fingers crossed.

I'm Back...

I'm back, finally back. Sunny Kali-fornia. LAPD beating down immigrants in MacArthur Park. Ah the sun, the scandals, how I miss thee. Anyhow, I'm back but not without incident of course. I had the worse plane ride back home. It consisted of sitting on the tarmac for 2+ hours and a final delay of over 3 hours. I'm going to get in contact with Delta's corporate cusomter service to try and get compensation, it was obscene. Not to mention not even the inflight programming was working, not to mention the poor people who bought movies on board that were instead given Norbit to watch, not the movie they choose, gagh.

My first year of grad school is done and it has been good overall. A lot of work but then I've also produced a lot of work and learned a lot of things. I kind of judge time by school years and not by years. So, this year has been good, actually pretty darn good. My film from last year has been getting screened here and there and is nominated for a Student Academy Award which is totally crazy. I have some largish projects I am verry interested in working on. I've had a chance to do a lot of reading. Been able to take a more active role in politics and talk more about it. Rather happy.

First to get a bit of biz out of the way. If you want to come to the Student Academy Awards Award Ceremony, you can request tickets, they're free but you do have to request them. It's only snail mail as well, no online ordering. The award ceremony is June 9th. You can find out more information at oscars.org. To RSVP for tickets you can print out the form from Oscars RSVP Tickets.

I never got a chance to post pictures from the Philadelphia Film Festival. So, here's two pics of me outside of the International House where it screened.

Here's a pic from the making of "I Will Make More Bolts of Linen." It's the final two pages of writing that I did to make it.

Here comes another pic but wait for it, here's some explanation. So, when I was doing some voice over for the Network Neighborhood Watch PSA which I will post hopefully soon, I had to check out a mic. Not a bad mic, a Røde. However, they forgot to give me the shockmount for it. This is the sort of mic you definitely cannot hold in your hand so I was like crap. I decided to bust a McGuyver and make one out of a Pringles can and some painters tape. Worker perfectly. Here it is.

And of course for something completely different.

This blog entry was posted on location with the men and women of postal enforcement.

I Will Make More Bolts of Linen

I'm finally done with this semester, it was a particularly grueling one. One of the fruits of my labor, "I Will Make More Bolts of Linen" is a live action/machinima short made for my Massively Multi-User class. It references John Baldessari's piece "I Will Not Make Anymore Boring Art" from 1971. Taking a look at and pointing at some of the banal aspects of playing WoW and the blind consumptive nature of MMORPG and WoW game play. People in class seemed to like it and actually wanted it to be longer. I may make a recut of it or remake parts of it to make it longer, they wanted a second page turn.

The semester is done and now I'm prepping to move back home. Just secured storage for some of my stuff. Going through the process of sorting and cleaning. Currently doing backups that's why I'm up so bloody late. I will speak more about the final projects and end of the semester later, when I have a large amount of time to write also when I can think clearer, I can tell you though it went well. A lil peeved that I didn't get into the department show, however I'm not sure my piece matched the theme of this semester's show, ITP as a Funhouse. My piece dealt with national security, the manufacturing of information and facts, and all around deception, haha. Indicative of the political climate at ITP? Indeed.

Death, Destruction, & the Weather Coming Up Next to Contend for Student Academy in Nationals

I just got word that my film "Death, Destruction, & the Weather Coming Up Next" is going to be going to the Student Academy Nationals. It ended up being the only film of the four contending in my category to move on to the nationals. So, D.D.A.T.W.C.U.N. will be coming to Los Angeles again with the potential for a Student Academy, which also includes a little bit of cash. I'm pretty shocked, I didn't think I would end up being the only qualifier from my category, I figure they'd move two forward but nope. So, I guess on June 9th we'll find out what happens. I will post the details about the June 9th screening when I receive the information. Wooohooo! Now back to work to finish a final before tomorrow morning, agh.

"Death, Destruction, & The Weather Coming Up Next" Going To Student Academy Awards Regionals!

I just got an email today from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, informing me that my film that I finished last year, "Death, Destruction, & the Weather Coming Up Next," has made it to the regional finals for the Student Academy Awards. 175 films were submitted and 16 were choosen to move on to the regionals in the 4 categories. The whole list is at the bottom. So, from here a maximum of three finalists are choosen to proceed to the nationals in Los Angeles.

The Regional Finalists will be screened on Monday, April 23, 6p.m. at the Northwest Film Center/Portland Art Museum's Whitsell Auditorium. I was pretty shocked to hear this news as well as excited. So, I guess we'll see what happens.


34th ANNUAL STUDENT ACADEMY AWARDS REGION 1 FINALISTS

A L T E R N A T I V E
DEATH, DESTRUCTION, & THE WEATHER COMING UP NEXT Emery C. Martin/California Institute of the Arts
THE GRANDE FINALE John Suits/California Institute of the Arts
LOUD SOLITUDE AND ALSO I SAID I WOULD NEVER LEAVE YOU Orly Shuber/University of Southern California
POSTMARKS Lisa Franek/San Diego State University

A N I M A T I O N
AFRICA PARTING Robyn Alice Yannoukos/University of California at Los Angeles
AQUALIBRAE Chanya Hetayothin/University of California at Los Angeles
CAMP BEAN, ALL THINGS WOODSEY Michelle Banta Tessier/University of California at Los Angeles
DOPPELGANGER Ki-Peum Lee/California Institute of the Arts
ICARUS AND THE TREE HERDER Ian Worrel/California Institute of the Arts
SUNDAY PARTY Sirirat Thawilvejakul/University of Southern California

D O C U M E N T A R Y
CROSS YOUR EYES KEEP THEM WIDE Ben Wu/Stanford University
LEFT IN BAGHDAD Peter Jordan, John Kane/Stanford University
LONG HAUL Erin Hudson/Stanford University

N A R R A T I V E
DEACON'S MONDAYS Destin Cretton, Lowell Frank/San Diego State University
HOUSE OF THE OLIVE TREES Thouly Dosios/University of California at Los Angeles
SVEN STROMSON BLUE Joseph Campanale/Chapman University

About Bloody Time...

Hello peoples out there! I'm back, finally. It's been forever. I've been so insanely busy. I got back after vacation, got sick, which lingered up until this past weekend. I began training for a position at TekServe, which I got. Final project proposals had to get written up, along with one midterm had to get finished. So, I now have a moment to breathe and update a lil. I have pictures I still need to post and such, that will come later, possibly not this week mind you though.

So, what am I bloody doing for final projects? Well, I'm doing work regarding the hoods from the March 17th anti-war march, mostly anaylsis of the event. I am writing a program that will be used to manufacture a quasi factual "terror index" and "terror related data" percentage by capturing network traffic and then annaylzing the packets contents against my own list of keywords, in order to generate profiles of wireless networks. It's going to be under the guise of an extension of Homeland Security, known as the Neighborhood Network Watch, a play off of Neighborhood watch groups. I will also hopefully be creating a machinama short within WoW for another class that tosses in John Baldessari, as a character as well as references to his work. It will mainly explore the conceptual/post modernistic aspects of game play especially MMORPGs.

I guess, that is all for now since I need to get to sleep. But I will return soon!

Protest, Interviews, & Censorship by the Los Angeles Times

On Saturday, March 17th, 2007, I participated in an Anti-War Protest in Los Angeles on the anniversary of the begining of the current Iraq War. I went with Audrey, (check her blog entry for more details on the protest) other students from Cal Arts and UCLA, and the L.A. Chapter of Artists Against the War. Audrey, had sewn black hood liken to the hoods worn by detainees. These were worn by 10 of us, including Audrey and myself.

At the begining of the march, I was approached by a LA Times staff writer who asked if he could ask me some questions. He requested I remove my hood so I could speak to him, I obliged him. He first asked of course why the hoods. He asked where I was from and if I was a student and was surprised that I was here all the way from New York. The question of why I was out here protesting came up, during the course of answering the question I mentioned the military history of my family. This seemed to interest him a great deal and spent much time going over it with me.

During the rest of the march there was a group of us wearing the hoods that walked together for the most part and were of much interest to the press who were continually photographing us throughout the march.

Upon reaching the end, Audrey and Myself went and stood among the mock coffins placed in the street by Veterens Against the War. A strong symbolic image and also iconic that resulted in a continuous flow of attention from the press. Some of these images can be seen here about midway down the page on LA Indie Media.

That evening Audrey and myself checked the Los Angeles Times website for any article about the protest. We did find one about the protest which included a full 3 paragraphs about me with two quotes. The article was for the most part pro anti-war. The screenshots of the original article are below.







The next day, I returned to New York and upon landing Audrey notified me that the article had been completely edited and the article that went to print was the revised version. The new article looked to marginalize the protest by saying it lacked large turnout, that it included celebrities and musicians, and all in all was a "kind of a freak show." You can see the revised article here Thousands protest in Hollywood.

So, it seems that the article was completely revamped likely by the parental corporate structure that now exercises oversite over its operation. In recent this has caused resignations by editors. Apparently I am worthy of being censored by the "parental units" of the Los Angeles Times.

"Death, Destruction, & the Weather Coming Up Next" Coming to Philly Fest

I finally have the date and it is confirmed. My film "Death, Destruction, & the Weather Coming Up Next" will be screened on April 14th, at 4:30 PM, in the "Visions of Persistence" program at the Philedelphia Film Festival. So, if you will be in town or want to go see it, you can buy tickets starting on March 19th.

The 4th Domain, LA, & Post-Symposium Life...

My paper due on Friday found me up til 9am and then getting up 3 hours later to pack, get ready for class, eat, and get to school. I had to present on an essay from the Critical Art Ensemble about basically what they call the "fourth domain" that is essentially transgenic hybrids and the fear of them that has been instilled by culture. It talked about the need for the mitigation of this fear by those who are looking to exploit it for profit, imperialism, due to the fact that they have run out of actual land to exploit in the world, sans-maoist countries and islamic countries. They spoke on the methods that are currently being used to break down enough of this fear in order to move into the domain, even though it uses fairly contradictory/bipolar lines of reasoning and therefore offers an exploitable whole for which the activist maybe able to prevent this by pointing this contradictory nature out. I, noticed in their examples of fear of hybrids and the 4th over the course of history, they left out one seminal example, Genesis 6:4, in the Bible, which speaks of the fallen angels that impregnated the "daughters of men" and in turn brought forth a race of giants and also was a contributing factor to the human race being wiped out in the great flood. The thing is they bring up the fact that current companies and ways to mitigate fear have used Christianity as examples for the fourth domain bringing about miracles and blah, yes they don't directly cite the Bible, which I think would have strengthened their examples of fear (I included this in my paper). We also discussed Baudrillard's "The Spirit of Terrorism." I actually was much more engage in this book than the C.A.E. article. Baudrillard talks about terrorism being a natural resitant force to globalism, that is potentially part of the system, however has evolved in regards to the disequilibrium of the Good/Evil balance that it has attacked globalism in such a way with 9/11 that there is no possible response, and with the attack it has shifted its war into the symbolic realm and hence cannot be combatted with conventional war. There's a slew of other things, however, these are some of the main things.

In the end my paper ended up being more on Baudrillard and using the C.A.E.'s fourth domain to account for the climate of fear that terrorism has brought, both it's usages for terrorists and the state's control apparatuses. I also, found that countries like China that now have hybridized economies and Venezuela with a hybridized government now maybe considered of the 4th Domain of the non-biological order. There was also the equating of God declaring war on himself analogy that Baudrillard brings up to a sort of formation of "Globalanity" (Globalism as Religion in relation to Christianity) by means of having its equivalent of the rebellion of Lucifer with the attack of 9/11 and hence needed 9/11 in order to elevate itself as a tested god, since it is already a quasi-omnipotent force in todays current world. Terrorism has become Globalism's Devil. When I presented it was funny I just started just going and went for like 15 minutes straight and no one like interrupted or had anything to say at all they were all just listening, it was all very eery, like I had total control of the room. The teacher finally jumped in to back up to look directly at the text (oh ya mind you I was in class eating this big roast beef sandwhich and a quart of OJ to drink). When we discussed Baudrillard I was all over that. It was a real good class and got me real fired up. Then it was off to JFK to head to LA to run sound for the CalArts Feminist Symposium.

So, the CalArts Symposium, seems to have been a smashing sucess. Back, in the LA Times, today, or rather yesterday, with a fairly long article, however, there is one mis-quote, argh. Anyhow, from the mixer's perspective things didn't start off terribly auspicious. No sound check for the first panel = reflections + speakers now speaking into the mic + speaking too softly = phasing + feedback + hum = havoc for me. We limped through it, not without my own pain. Catherine Lord who was one the first panel was awesome, I so want to read some of her writings now. The second panel was a vast improvement, with a 4 minute sound check which resulted it in nearly flawless presentation, save for one ghost feedback that came from nowheres (ghost in the system). Emily Roydson had some awesome glasses and good stuff to say, Faith Wilding had a lot of good stuff to say as well. Third panel no problems at all sound wise. It seemed to bring a lot of recurrent themes and issues to a head. It was on the personal as political, which of course you know I'd be interested in since I love politics. Martha Rosler was good even though she tried to sell tees at one point and so was Dorit. Especially liked her mention of a class that she had taught about conducting a class in courtrooms and then having the students actually carry out art projects within the space of a court room setting as audience members. I've spent my amount of time in the court room and never had thought about that.

Post-symposium involved lots of relaxing, such as sitting in a chair stationary for hours with Audrey out in Santa Monica, that was so nice. The weather has been great, gosh, sun, warmth, I haven't seen it in ages, I got to get a lot of it while out with Audrey wandering around the city. Oh, one funny thing, we went into a New Balance store and this guy was like do you need any help and I was like ahh, naw just looking but he saw my shoes, my sunburst tiger's and was like are those, such and such's? I was like ya. he was like I've never seen them in that color ever. It was funny cause it was like he was beholding something sacred, so funny. Had some Lenninade, Audrey had a hand roll, all from Famima, we officially love that place.

Today, went down to L.A. to see the WACK! show at the Geffen. It was good, but it felt like I was walking in a maze, the layout was like agh. There also wasn't much context for a lot of the work, or enough. Audrey was off doing a radio interview for a public radio show with a few other grad students so I wandered the show on my own. Felt like I was in an Escher painting. Mary Kelly, so mathmatical and scientific, not to mention abstract. Saw "Art Education" a short animation about Art History, that was good. Saw some of Martha Rosler's early photo-collage/montages. The layout for them was horrible in regards to their placement in the show, they were all stuffed together and some I couldn't even see cause they were too high. Me and Audrey got some Sushi after, so good. Kicked it at my place for a bit and then headed to el gato rojo for the Martha Rosler lecture. It was good, I got to see a lot of her work, I haven't seen a whole lot of her stuff. Rather interesting that a lot of the subject matters and ideas about things overlap with my work a lot even though I didn't know this at all really. She, even had a minefield in relation to the current Iraq War which was totally like what the heck? However, one thing I don't care for is the kind of rough asthetic, I'm very much a person of very high production, however it takes much longer to create. I asked a question that kind of had her searching for answer and pushed her a little bit off balance, but I'm glad she talked about about what I had asked, if only to reaffirm what I thought she might think. All in all, rather good lecture and good day. Gosh, I can't get over the weather though it's sooo bloody nice! Well I'm off now. Have pictures soon.

Death of Baudrillard and a Place We Can Go...

Baudrillard died today (for those of you who don't know, french post-modernist theorists, very interesting political work, highly recommend) at the age of 77. But, all is not gloomy, because we can always go to Cheers, I mean Jihad?

"Sometimes you want to go, where everybody knows your name. And they're always glad you came. You wanna be where you can, troubles are the same. You want to be where everyone knows your name."

Planet of the Arabs

I came across this piece by Jackie Salloum. It's pretty amazing. I think it speaks for itself so I'll just say that it's a great critique of Hollywood and the West in general. Check out her site, the toys are amazing, "Caterrorpillar."

Snowman Sent to the Camps & Other Stories...

IMG_0419.jpg, originally uploaded by lt_zanders.

This snowman is being held at an unknown location. He has not been formerly charged with any crimes against the United States or it's allies. Free Mr. Snow before the C.I.A. melt him. So, does this feel like an elevated construction of imminent danger and martyrdom? Sounds like it to me. We recently had a guest speaker here at I.T.P. names Hasan Elahi. He's an artist who was detained by the F.B.I. while reentering the country via Detroit's Airport. Elahi now ongoing project is basically tracking every aspect of his location and what he does and makes this information freely available to the public. He also informs "his F.B.I. agent" of all his travel plans and reasons for travel directly via email or phone. He says he does this to one, flood the system with amounts of information that may seem useful in tracking him but in turn just create a bottleneck within the system and therefore using surveillance to attack them who surveill him. Essentially a D.o.S. attack or Denial of Service. However his reasons for doing this are merely pertinent to himself to "keep himself out of Guantanamo." However, this work is essentially filled with many holes. First off, if the government had any intent on sending him to a place such as Guantanamo he would have ended up there with no questions asked and evidence and documentation at that point serves no purpose since it is utterly disregarded. Therefore his documentation is ineffectual, null, and void. His reasons therefore are also null and void and instead are large constructs to manufacture a heightened sense of danger and in turn transform himself into a martyr or sorts. He does not attempt to reach a broader audience or help any of the disenfranchised or future disenfranchised with his project and knowledge and instead it is a merely an endeavor of a narcissistic self serving nature. He also has imprisoned himself with in the ideal model created for the state to control its citizens, the Panopticon. Elahi seems to be a mere prime rate example and convert of the Panopticon where he himself has begun to police his own activities and the state itself no longer has to pay him no mind since he has become an extension thereof.

Sorry, all to start off with something so heavy. Much of what I have been learning and thinking about has been extremely weighty. Been reading a lot of Baudrillard, specifically “Simulacra and Simulations” and his book “The Spirit of Terrorism.” I have become very engrossed in both regardless of the fact they can be at times be very abstract and obtuse in nature at times. I have to do a presentation this coming week along with a paper on this book and another writing by the Critical Art Ensemble, all which pertain to the ideas of fear and terrorism.

I’ve also been thinking a lot about post-colonialism, neo-colonialism, simulations of power, power itself, economics, and subversion. This has very much applied to some of the films I watched this week but specifically “In the Year of the Pig” which all of you should go out and watch. It’s great and it’s about the Vietnam War.

I also have been applying this to creating my own sort of fiction for a midterm project for my class talking about massively multiplayer games. I’m doing a project roughly called “Crate & Barrel.” No I’m not selling overly priced kitchenware in games. I am basically going to be making a talking crate and barrel with a FPS aesthetic that will talk to each other and possibly players. They will discuss their role with in the FPS as they have been commodified by the game designers to be architecture to obstruct and complicate the game space as well as sacrifices to the players, hence become a sort of game designer initiated genocide with the player as the one who pulls the trigger. They will also talk about how they have been essentially relocated from their homelands and placed within the FPS game space. Since they’re going to be now located with Second Life, they will be a sort of refugee. It all makes me laugh.

I just sort of finished a short for my experimental documentary class. It’s very strobey and after-imagey. However, it’s something I started on last summer with very complicated editing that had to be deconstructed in order to finish the piece, which were a pain and a half. Why do I have to construct such complicated things?

This past week we had a visiting artist come to one of my classes. Very cool person. She graduated from the M.I.T. media lab. Basically she brought in what she’s currently working on and has worked on in the past, cell phone and WiFi jammers. It was awesome. They’re basically small enough to fit in a pack of cigs and have an effective radius of about 20-30 feet or so. Only one application can I think of the Apple Store on a weekend. Take that MySpace children, email surfers, and the most evil of all the EasyPay! May the attack be readied, haha.

I’ve been playing a lot of og Advanced Wars on my DS. Gosh that game is addicting and I love it. Strategy games are so fulfilling. Also, in gaming news my warlock in WoW now has some festive Chinese New Year’s clothing. It’s pretty tight; I’ll post pictures of me in it.

But yes, this post has become probably one of the longest I’ve ever written and alas it is time to go and do more homework. Sorry for the lack of posts lately but like I said I make no claims to keep this thing up regularly even though I sort of have. See you all laters.

Decryption My Own Encrypted Editing

IMG_0440.jpg, originally uploaded by lt_zanders.

So, this is my means to attempt to deconstruct this ridiculous editing idea I started working on over the summer. However, like an idiot I forgot how I was constructing it. Therefore, to try and complete it I had to retrace and try and decrypt my technique and method. I shoulda just finished it in the summer when I started it. Oi!