Lt. Zanders: 2007-02-25

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.