Movement
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TONY SCHULTZ |
Archive for politics
Facebook is more than just a social platform…
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BENNYROYCE ROYON |
“…it gives voice to political dissent.” The Wall Street Journal, Monday, May 5, 2008
I came across an article in the Wall Street Jounal that talked about Facebook as being more than a social platform but also a harbor for political discussions and activism. Technology truly amazes me because it bridges certain places, or people for this matter, into a network that could not possibly exist without it. For the people in Cairo, Egypt, Facebook provided a non-violent and peaceful alternative to protest certain issues that mattered to them. However, certain government officials still found a way to censor these protesters by tracking them down and arresting them. They would also flag the posts and prevent further assembly of Facebook members who voice out their opinion.
This article humbly reminded me that other parts of the world do not have the luxury of Freedom of Speech like we do here in (North) America. Just thought I’d share that Facebook is really a useful tool to facilitate social and political happenings wherever you may be in the world… whether you’re in New York, Montreal, Paris… or Cairo, Egypt.
Recent Posts by bennyroyce royon
pOpticons
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TONY SCHULTZ |
Over the past few weeks of my Dance and Technology class at Sarah Lawrence College, the students and I have been programing, dissecting and repurposing surveillance systems to develop mediated performance outlets/environments. To aid and inform our strategies in this project we have been thinking and reading about panopticism.
What is panopticism anyway? wiki wiki
Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon, a theoretical architecture imagined in the 1780’s, is illustrated above. The name literally means the “all-seeing place.” He describes it as a multi-purpose architecture whose design principles are applicable to constructing factory, school, prison, hospital or asylum. A multi-story ring of individual cells surround a central watchtower; every cell is visible from the watchtower while the watcher remains invisible.
The viewer can see everything while remaining invisible.
This panoptic prison named Presidio Modelo, built under the dictatorship of Gerardo Machado in Cuba, once held the one and only Fidel Castro. It is now a national monument.
Foucault uses the Panopticon to analyze the new ways in which power is exercised in the modern world and the role surveillance technologies play in creating a disciplined/docile body. He describes Bentham’s architecture as a kind of multi-staged performance space.
The unverifiable possibility that a subject is being observed at any time is the essential mechanism by which the machine operates. Visibility, as Meghan noted in class, makes one take responsibility for their own subjection.
He who is subjected to the field of visibility, and who knows it, assumes responsibility for the constraints of power; he makes them play simultaneously upon himself; he inscribes in himself the power relation in which he simultaneously plays both roles; he becomes the principle of his own subjection. Discipline and Punish 202
What does this have to do with performance? Everything…
Foucault describes the stacks of cells; “They are like so many small cages, so many small theaters, in which each actor is alone, perfectly individualized and constantly visible.”
In one way the panopticon is like a super-theater, a nesting of many stages.
However Foucault stresses that surveillance architectures are exactly the reverse of those of theater. He writes, “We are much less Greeks than we believe. We are neither in the amphitheatre, nor on the stage, but in the panoptic machine.” Survellence allows one to see many while theater and spectacle is based on many seeing one
Compare the structure of the Panopticon to that of the Globe Theater.
Different yet the same. Definitely involved in a complex tangle.
This assembly can be used as a dance technology. On April 28th and 29th 2007 Martha Williams directed and performed in a dance installation entitled Stacked, converting an out of business clothing store into a surveillance menagerie. Each dancer took residence in one of nine changing rooms which they themed and designed the interiors of. Camera feeds from each cell were composed and projected in the central room so that all of the dances could be seen at once.
Turning the panopticon back into a performance space constitutes a double reversal.
With this in mind, take another look at the dance-cube I prototyped last fall. In this staging the cameras are on the perimeter of the studio so that the gaze is directed from the outside in (as in theater) rather than from the inside out.
Though still, looking at this dance I am reminded of the cells of the panopticon.
“They are like so many small cages, so many small theaters, in which each actor is alone, perfectly individualized and constantly visible.”
Could we characterize the structure of the internet as panoptic? Here is a great essay that explores that question.
This very space is haunted by panoptic geometries. Have a look at the contributor list in the sidebar, look at all those little faces, “perfectly individualized” subjects you can see all at once and may click on to reveal “so many small theaters.”
The design of social networking and internet dating sites, showing all your friends faces in an array, seduces us with a kind of panoptic fantasy, being able to see many at once. This is where things become slightly more complicated. Just like the panopticon embeds tiny theaters in an array, these social technologies embed so many small panopticons in a matrix of connectivity. Each cell is now its own theater and watchtower.
All these ideas should not creep us out. Rather, they should inform our thinking about performance and visibility and the way technology provides new venues for artistic expression. It is an open problem. In my estimation projects like Martha William’s Stacked, my dance-cube, or The(Inter)Mission are all part of a project to reverse-the-panopticon. While flirting with aspects of surveillance and making the subject hyper-visible, they enhance communication rather than simply separate us into little boxes.
So next time you feel like you are under surveillance consider it an opportunity to put on a show.
Recent Posts by tony schultz
Smoke Signals
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TONY SCHULTZ |
Sunday March 29th was a beautiful day. The sun was shining and Lisa and I took a drive north out of the city. On our way back to Manhattan we passed by my favorite spot on the FDR underneath the Triborough Bridge. Black Cherokee was out in full force and his message to me was still up.
As we passed Lisa screamed out the window, “We love you Black Cherokee!” He waived back.
Lisa and I think in very different ways about art and culture. Sometimes I don’t think she understands my fascination with Otis’s work. In that moment she did. “I am so proud of you baby!” Lisa teared up.
“Its beautiful right?”
“Yes” she answered.
After dropping off Lisa at home i made my way back uptown to see if Otis was still out. I parked my car and made my way over to his performance space. Black Cherokee was standing still with a broom in his right hand hand, a fold of cash in his left hand and an open book on his head. His mouth was taped shut with red duct tape. His nipples were covered and his pelvis was marked with a big X, using the same red tape. Behind him was a beautiful bouquet of daffodils arranged in the shell of a watermellon. As I approached I took a few pictures.
“Hey Otis. Thats me!” I said pointing to the sign.
“Are you Mr. Tony?” he said smiling. We shook hands.
“I like the way you write about me. Wanted to get in touch with you so I put up the sign.”
“What you are doing here is really important.” I told him. “We need this.”
“You get it man! I don’t know what you know and you don’t know what I know but together we have a whole lot of know.”
I recognized this as one of his poems he posted online. As the conversation continued I realized much of what Otis was saying was from his poetry. Black Cherokee is living art and this fact invades his speech. We talked to find what purpose we had together. We both agreed that we had to do something together. I want to help get Otis’s work out into the world.
Black Cherokee needs a website. I will need help doing this.
Before I left Otis gave me his CD. Its called America and it is pretty amazing. Hear some samples here on cdbaby.com. Listening to this music will make you happy and feel good. It will also give you insight into the performance work such as the use of books and the broom. He states his mission in The Children. He calls for a multimedia campaign to help empower and protect our youth, by any means necessary. “We must use video, rap music, pop sounds, every and anything all around.” My other two favorite songs are My Books I Read and I Like Where I Stay. Both have good music tracks and beautiful lyrics. I Like Where I Stay is definitely my favorite and give a window into Black Cherokee’s world.
Clearly Otis needs a few more beats to lay his tracks on and perhaps a better studio to record in, but the artistry and message are all there. I would like to ask anyone who is interested in promoting Black Cherokee through helping put together a website or with his music, doing video documentation, or through any other means, to contact me at tony [at] thewinger.com
This is important work and is an absolute joy participating in. So spread the word and help manifest this living art as a gift to the world.
Recent Posts by tony schultz
Black Cherokee
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TONY SCHULTZ Dance + Technology Expert Bronxville, NY USA BIO | POSTS |
Watch Black Cherokee’s video here.
Otis Houston is an artist and poet. He calls himself Black Cherokee and can be seen on the side of the FDR Drive South at the 125th St entrance, underneath the Triborough Bridge. His work consists of performance art and installations made of poetic signs and found objects which he carefully arranges. I have been watching his work for about 10 years which he started in 1997. Black Cherokee is the most prolific artist and performer I know. Since traffic is slow and constant in this section of the FDR Drive South I am sure millions of people have seen his work. In an almost alchemical transformation, Black Cherokee has turned a forgotten urban dead zone into a magical performance space.
In a recent installation Black Cherokee put up a big sign that read “Got Debt? Live Well, Eat Better, Spend Less“. Weeks before that he had a small sign up simply reading “Try“. These gestures brighten peoples lives. They are free and, unlike most roadside messages, invite viewers into a space of creativity rather than consumerism. These are gifts and am happy each time I receive one. I enjoy sharing these gifts with others and am glad to be giving some of his work to you.
I saw my favorite piece of his in the summer of 2003. Otis had hundreds and hundreds of books piled up in a sort of fortress. He was standing in the middle of this structure with books strapped to his body, on his head, his arms, his legs, all over. It looked like a suit of armor. He was shaking his arms and pointing violently at the traffic as it passed. His gesticulations had the same wild and authoritarian physicality as one sees in speeches made a Benito Mussolini or other such period dictator. Though I will not attempt a full exegesis of this performance clearly Otis was saying something about power and knowledge, performance and pedagogy, maybe even fascism. This image has stuck in my head ever since I have seen it.
See another account of his work here.
Otis is not crazy. He is simply disseminating his work by any means necessary. Any artist should be willing to do the same, even at risk of seeming crazy. In fact, an artist who is not pushing at the surface of sanity from time to time might not be trying hard enough. I am happy to help propagate his work, philosophy and ideas. Black Cherokee inhabits a space of political and artistic discourse far outside the academy. Thats what makes his work so wonderful. He is not trying to get rich or famous, he is simply doing the work because he knows it is important.
I used to think he did it to save his own life. Now I believe he does it to save our lives.
Thank you Otis.
Read some of Otis Houston’s poetry by visiting poetry.com and searching for poems by Otis Houston.
RED YELLOW BLACK and WHITE
Why can’t we Love each other
With all our might
Red Yellow Black and White
Why can’t we live in PEACE
And never never never Fight
Red Yellow Black and White
We need each other
Like the day need the night
Red Yellow Black and White
Is it to hard
For us to do what is right
Red yellow Black and White
We all know that it’s evil
We must fight with all our might
Red Yellow Black and White
Recent Posts by tony schultz
We got to 11
Posted by Sloan
Since some of you have expressed interest in Doug’s tshirt designs, I thought I’d let you know that we’re clearing out the current Dooker inventory… so all shirts are now 11 dollars.
That’s right, dooker t’s go to 11.
