NEWSgrist - where spin is art

Censorship in Bordeaux

via e-flux:

Marlene Dumas, included in the exhibition,
with one of her "obscenities."
Photograph: Martin Godwin.

June 30, 2009 

"Presumed Innocents", the trial: 10 years later

Bordeaux Judge Reopens Decade-Old Child-Porn Charge
Against Curators Marie-Laure Bernadac, Henry-Claude
Cousseau, and Stéphanie Moisdon

Indicted at the end of 2006, after six years of investigations, long period during which no element was produced that could have fed the prosecution (the specialized unit for minors and the rectorship gave a favourable opinion) and after the attorney general of Bordeaux called for a not guilty decision in march 2008 the trial judge Jean-Louis Crozier has just decided to refer before the magistrate's court Marie-Laure Bernadac, Henry-Claude Cousseau, and Stéphanie Moisdon, for having, within the exhibition entitled "presumed innocent- contemporary art and childhood " organized 2000 in the CAPC contemporary museum of art in Bordeaux exposed "violent and pornographic art works "*.

With this decision—which, in an extremely unusual move, disregards the conclusions of a Parquet investigation—the entire national and international artistic and professional community, together with the cultural image of France, have come under attack and stand accused, offended.

For the first time in France, two museum directors and a curator are to be tried in a criminal court for exhibiting works of art that have already been shown throughout the world or put on view since the Bordeaux exhibition in art shows that have not elicited the least unfavorable reaction from the public. The thinking that went into preparing the incriminated exhibition, focused on a major subject of art history, was developed collectively and was shared by the relevant state oversight authorities.

This court case from an earlier century, fiercely, relentlessly prosecuted by a single judge in contempt of artistic creation and individuals' right to accede freely to all forms of art, is indicative of a dangerous obscurantist attitude. The trial will take place in Bordeaux under pressure from a local child protection association named La Mouette, in turn supported by an extremist press that has already been found guilty of libel against one of the accused.

How is it possible that what is considered viewable and acceptable everywhere else should not be so in Bordeaux? What will be put on trial in the Bordeaux magistrates' court a few months from now is the work and personal and professional conviction of three figures of the world of art and culture unanimously recognized for their commitment to that world. They have already received thousands of messages of support from all horizons.

This attempt to "criminalize" artists and other actors for their creative work, together with the cultural sites that diffuse that work, requires us to be extremely vigilant about censorship of this kind, whose perpetrators are ever ready to use noble causes such as child protection to authoritarian, liberticidal ends.

MARIE-LAURE BERNADAC, HENRY-CLAUDE COUSSEAU, STEPHANIE MOISDON

* including works by Christian Boltanski, Gary Gross, Paul McCarthy, Mike Kelley, Cindy Sherman, Nan Goldin, Robert Mapplethorpe, Elke Krystufek, Carsten Höller, Annette Messager, Ugo Rondinone…..

Closings (UES) 106

Closings (UES) 106, originally uploaded by Joy Garnett (archive).

Found Art (Soho): Unmonumental 173

Found Art (Soho): Unmonumental 173, originally uploaded by Joy Garnett (archive).

Found Art (UES): Unmonumental 172

Found Art (UES): Unmonumental 172, originally uploaded by Joy Garnett (archive).

Last Chance: Tainted Love

Great show, open today through Sunday. Don't forget to check out the installation in the alley by fierce pussy, pictured above and below.

via email:

Tainted Love, curated by Steven Lam & Virginia Solomon.  Featuring: Luis Camnitzer, Jose Luis Cortes, fierce pussy, General Idea, Gran Fury, Matt Lipps, Catherine Lord, Charles Lum, Ivan Monforte, and Wu Ingrid Tsang.

La MaMa La Galleria 
6 East 1st Street

Exhibition continues thru Sunday, June 28, 2009
Gallery Hours: Thursday – Sunday 1-6PM

Tainted Love was reviewed in The New York Times by Holland Cotter.
"This smart group exhibition, organized by Visual AIDS, which sponsors art shows that promote AIDS awareness and H.I.V.-prevention, is far more about bonds of affection than it is about fear of disease. Yet the curators, Steven Lam and Virginia Solomon, give equal time to queer art past and present, and there are surprisingly close correspondences between work done now and then, in the years when AIDS was more in the news and more central to gay identity." read more here

Directions:
La Galleria is at 6 E 1st Street, New York City, between Bowery & 2nd Avenue, (212) 505-2476
F, V to Second Avenue

Tainted Love is presented by Visual AIDS, New York’s premier non-profit organization working between art and AIDS. Visual AIDS utilizes contemporary art to promote the message that “AIDS IS NOT OVER” through exhibitions, publications and events, and collaborations with artists, museums, schools, and activist organizations. We provide support for visual artists living with HIV and maintain a visual record of their contributions.  www.visualAIDS.org

Corban Walker: New Installation @ Pace

via Pace Wildenstein site:

NEW YORK, June 17, 2009—PaceWildenstein is pleased to announce a new installation by Corban Walker at 534 West 25th Street, New York City from June 26 through July 31, 2009.  The artist’s three new glass sculptures, the result of his recent experiments with the process of casting glass in rigid forms, will be on view in the East gallery.
 
Corban Walker gained recognition for his installations, sculptures, and drawings that relate to perceptions of scale and architectural constructs. Local, cultural, and specific philosophies of scale are fundamental to how he defines and develops his work, creating new means for viewers to interact and navigate their surroundings. The new glass pieces in Walker’s installation are the culmination of his recent experimentation with the difficult process of manipulating glass forms to create rigid edges. The artist began each project with the premise of making a hollow box and used three different work processes to achieve unique ends.
 
In 2008 Walker worked with master glass fabricators in a glass factory outside of Prague in the Czech Republic that specializes in Borosilicate glass. Walker blew into a rectilinear mold to create hollow glass rectangles that he stacked together, relying on gravity to hold the delicate yet resilient units in place without the use of adhesion. In addition to a grouping of these hollow-blown stacks, Untitled (10 x 4 Miter), 2009, a stack constructed from 40 square hollow glass tubes, will be on view. Each of the 40 individual units comprising the sculpture were created at a multi-international manufacturer based in Brno, Czech Republic from a specific glass plate form designed by Walker which was cut and mitered to make the rectangular units. At 47-1/8" x 22-3/4" x 28-3/8", the stack is within the scale of the artist’s own height of 4 feet.  Untitled (Less 50º Sand) was conceived of at a residency at The Glass Museum in Tacoma, Washington in November of 2008. This 27-1/4" x 25" wall-relief is composed of 36 glass cubes cut at 50º angles and mounted on a painted black background. Walker explains:
 
The three different stacking arrangements of the pieces mark an intervention in the gallery space that is minimal and also theatrical, where the viewer becomes the fourth element in the installation. I am interested in the perception of scale and architecture; how we determine our surroundings whether in a domestic dwelling or a public environment. To me, a contradiction plays an essential part of this organization where glass objects occupy the space and yet present a visceral void in navigating the installation. I question the assessment of the rules of scale and measure that we seem to hold on to as the basis of our relationship between body and structure. This also applies to the material; glass always wants to be spherical and when enormous stress is applied to create rectilinear objects the glass becomes awkward; defying the norm.
 
From August through January 2010, Walker’s Wall 1 (2006-2007), a 3' x 12' x 10' aluminum and stainless steel sculpture, will be on view at LentSpace, a temporary park created by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council at the convergence of Canal, Varick and Grand Streets in New York City. Work by Walker can also presently be seen at The American Irish Historical Society in New York, and from August 7–16, in the group exhibition Something Else at the Kilkenny Arts Festival, Rothe House, Ireland. This fall, The Golden Bough: Corban Walker will go on view at The Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Art in Dublin (September 30, 2009–January 16, 2010).
 
Corban Walker (b. 1967, Dublin, Ireland) graduated with honors from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, with a degree in Fine Art Sculpture, in 1992. His first solo show was held in 1994 and since then, he has mounted numerous solo exhibitions and realized eight public commissions worldwide. Walker first exhibited at PaceWildenstein’s Greene Street gallery in the fall of 2000 and his work was included in the gallery’s Logical Conclusions exhibition (2004) alongside works by key artists from the 20th century who use objective systems to explore the complex and chaotic realms of the subjective. His 2007 exhibition at the 25th Street gallery, Corban Walker: Grid Stack, presented the artist’s foray into aluminum, steel, and industrial materials alongside his architecturally striking glass works. Corban Walker has lived and worked in New York since 2004.

Decoding Shane Hope

Molecula Simianus En Balloonus Animalia Meet Nanotubular Lepidoptera, 2009


Shane Hope's solo show opens at Winkleman Gallery tomorrow, Fri, June 26, 2009:

Shane Hope
Your Mom Is Open Source

June 26 – August 1, 2009
Opening: Friday, June 26, 6-8 PM

637 West 27th Street
New York, NY 10001
T: 212.643.3152
Summer Gallery Hours: Tue - Fri, 11-6 PM

more images and info @ Winkleman Gallery

Article via Rhizome.org:

Futurespeak:
Shane Hope's Keywords Defined

By Brian Droitcour on Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 at 10:00 am.

Image: Shane Hope, Copylution, 2009

Shane Hope’s sprawling prints can’t be processed with one or two looks. They are built on thousands of tiny details, rather than around a single focal point, and as the eye travels across the picture field, it sees lines and pieces accumulating in recognizable bodies and then collapsing into chaos, or maybe an order that can’t be discerned by the naked eye. Hope calls them Molecular Modeling prints, or “Mol Mods,” and they are informed by his belief that “the molecule is the brushstroke of the future”—that nanotechnology, the manipulation of matter on a molecular scale, will transform industry sometime soon. For now, Hope’s tools are coding languages Python and Perl. Because of the Mol Mods’ size he can only work on one screen-sized swath at a time, and because of their complexity, that is all that can be rendered even on Hope’s homemade desktop, which he proudly calls "faster than any factory-built Mac on the planet.”

“Your Mom Is Open Source,” an exhibition of Hope’s work at Winkelman Gallery that opens Friday, features Mol Mods as well as the series “Compile-A-Child,” imagined school assignments by artificial kids (only the latter are reproduced here, because the Mol Mods lose too much when shrunk to bloggable dimensions). Hope’s art is a visual analogy to hard science fiction, a genre where authors base their narratives on projected technologies rather than transposing contemporary dramas to a fantasized, futuristic stage. For viewers poorly versed in hard sci-fi, the conceptual platform of Hope’s work can be opaque; the announcement for “Your Mom Is Open Source” concludes with a mystifying list of keywords, both of his own coinage and borrowed from the fields of his interest. Hope agreed to discuss some of them here.

Image: Shane Hope, mehums are going, 2009

Singularitarianism
In an analogy to the breakdown of modern physics near a gravitational singularity, Vernor Vinge defined the Singularity as a theoretical future point which takes place during a period of accelerating change sometime after the creation of a superintelligence, an artificial brain more intelligent and creative than the human mind. Hard sci-fi authors, as well as professional forecasters, realized some two decades ago that nobody could realistically write about anything occurring past this Singularity. Far-flinging extrapolations could be flung no further. Simply put, they realized that we were inching toward inventing the next inventors and couldn't presume to imagine their imaginings. Futurological films and other envisionings became sort of mostly doomed to deploy dystopic dramatic drivel—a.k.a. disasterbation—because it's plainly more possible, however implausible, to picture a future having fallen into decay than having been sustainably built. An exponentially divergent Posthuman technocracy couldn't necessarily be pictured as a trompe-l'œil, for it was as likely that everything would be powderized into fuzzy storms of computational matter as it was that advanced augmentations would invisibly piggy-back upon what looked no different from the current everyday reality.

Transhumanism
A Transhumanist actively trend-spots technological trajectories with special emphasis upon feasible applications toward radical yet relatively safe human enhancements. A Transhuman proper accelerates artificial selection by early-adopting resultant enhancements, thereby willfully functioning as bio/non-bio sub-species set on transitioning into a Posthuman. A Posthuman is post, that is to say no longer strictly human... i.e. Homo evolutis. A vitally important take-away assumption of all this: Clearly, we go from growing ourselves to building ourselves.

Image: Shane Hope, To be Imortel, 2009

Nanofacture
Nanofacture, aka Molecular Manufacturing / Assembly, is atomic-scaled precise fabrication of, well, ultimately just about anything. Rapid dissemination of this capability could catapult our kind into post-scarcity, i.e. by printing printers. Basically, by developing nanofacturing, we teeter toward twisting objects (and life) into existence at ever smaller scales. The precision placement of atoms is poised to become the new pen, conflating or at the very least problematizing pictorial representation and objecthood.

Compile-A-Child
If you know where/how to look, you'll discover that some of the more awe-inspiring contemporary hard-sci-fi speculations regarding superintelligences involve not so much disasterbatory apocalypses nor runaway self-replicating molecular machines, but rather accounts of augmented children. Additionally, AI field experts now posit that the first artificial general intelligences will aptly be raised in online virtual worlds. And of course, there's Marvin Minsky's answer to whether AIs will inherit the earth: "Yes, but they will be our children." True, we routinely will all to our descendants. The more important latent point here to consider is that we ought to take great care in birthing/building these mind-children. AIs will arise in any case. The good news is that, in the wake of this understood eventuality, plenty of investigations now underway aim to proactively explore issues of machine morality in order to precautionarily engineer friendly AIs.

Image: Shane Hope, Substrate Colocation, 2009

Transubstrational
Not certain I've coined the term “transubstrational,” but I use it to concisely communicate the likelihood of living/thinking/existing in or across substrates. By substrate, I mean the material within or upon which our default, for now human, general intelligence system operates, i.e. biology. As we technologically augment ourselves, we'll ontologically wiggle our way out of the current default substrate of biology and into/across novel material structures. Most are warily familiar with the concept of uploading, that is, the transfer of a personality from the biological human brain to a suitable synthetic computing device in order to allow easier upgrading of intelligence, self-modification, and backup of the self. To counteract the reactionary yet somewhat justifiable concern over what could be considered an essentialization of our ridiculously complex human personalities, some amend that uploading will be gradual, almost unnoticeable, proceeding update by update, right up until we upgrade. Personally, I prefer to explain it in this willful way: We will think our way across.

Neda Soltan's family 'forced out of home' by Iranian authorities

via The Guardian, first spotted on Nico Pitney's Iran Elections Live-Blogging (Huff Po):

Neda Soltan's family 'forced out of home' by Iranian authorities

Parents of young woman shot dead near protests are banned from mourning and funeral is cancelled, neighbours say

• A correspondent in Tehran
• guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 24 June 2009 18.00 BST
• Article history

The home of Neda Agha Soltan

The Iranian authorities have ordered the family of Neda Agha Soltan out of their Tehran home after shocking images of her death were circulated around the world.

Neighbours said that her family no longer lives in the four-floor apartment building on Meshkini Street, in eastern Tehran, having been forced to move since she was killed. The police did not hand the body back to her family, her funeral was cancelled, she was buried without letting her family know and the government banned mourning ceremonies at mosques, the neighbours said.

"We just know that they [the family] were forced to leave their flat," a neighbour said. The Guardian was unable to contact the family directly to confirm if they had been forced to leave.

The government is also accusing protesters of killing Soltan, describing her as a martyr of the Basij militia. Javan, a pro-government newspaper, has gone so far as to blame the recently expelled BBC correspondent, Jon Leyne, of hiring "thugs" to shoot her so he could make a documentary film.

Soltan was shot dead on Saturday evening near the scene of clashes between pro-government militias and demonstrators, turning her into a symbol of the Iranian protest movement. Barack Obama spoke of the "searing image" of Soltan's dying moments at his press conference yesterday.

Amid scenes of grief in the Soltan household with her father and mother screaming, neighbours not only from their building but from others in the area streamed out to protest at her death. But the police moved in quickly to quell any public displays of grief. They arrived as soon as they found out that a friend of Soltan had come to the family flat.

In accordance with Persian tradition, the family had put up a mourning announcement and attached a black banner to the building.

But the police took them down, refusing to allow the family to show any signs of mourning. The next day they were ordered to move out. Since then, neighbours have received suspicious calls warning them not to discuss her death with anyone and not to make any protest.

A tearful middle-aged woman who was an immediate neighbour said her family had not slept for days because of the oppressive presence of the Basij militia, out in force in the area harassing people since Soltan's death.

The area in front of Soltan's house was empty today. There was no sign of black cloths, banners or mourning. Secret police patrolled the street.

"We are trembling," one neighbour said. "We are still afraid. We haven't had a peaceful time in the last days, let alone her family. Nobody was allowed to console her family, they were alone, they were under arrest and their daughter was just killed. I can't imagine how painful it was for them. Her friends came to console her family but the police didn't let them in and forced them to disperse and arrested some of them. Neda's family were not even given a quite moment to grieve."

Another man said many would have turned up to show their sympathy had it not been for the police.

"In Iran, when someone dies, neighbours visit the family and will not let them stay alone for weeks but Neda's family was forced to be alone, otherwise the whole of Iran would gather here," he said. "The government is terrible, they are even accusing pro-Mousavi people of killing Neda and have just written in their websites that Neda is a Basiji (government militia) martyr. That's ridiculous – if that's true why don't they let her family hold any funeral or ceremonies? Since the election, you are not able to trust one word from the government." A shopkeeper said he had often met Soltan, who used to come to his store.

"She was a kind, innocent girl. She treated me well and I appreciated her behaviour. I was surprised when I found out that she was killed by the riot police. I knew she was a student as she mentioned that she was going to university. She always had a nice peaceful smile and now she has been sacrificed for the government's vote-rigging in the presidential election."

Closings (Soho) 6

Closings (Soho) 6, originally uploaded by Joy Garnett (archive).

Found Art (Soho): Unmonumental 171

Found Art (Soho): Unmonumental 171, originally uploaded by Joy Garnett (archive).

Found Art (Soho): Unmonumental 170

Found Art (Soho): Unmonumental 170, originally uploaded by Joy Garnett (archive).

CULTURAL POLITICS 5:2 now out; ARTISTS' WEBSITE launched

Sarah Trigg
Aman Setu, 2008, acrylic on panel, 35 × 40 inches.

I am pleased to announce the publication of CULTURAL POLITICS Volume 5, Issue 2, July 2009, which is a General Issue. The new and much improved Cultural Politics’ Artists’ website is now up, and is exclusively dedicated to presenting the projects of artist contributors. This issue presents recent work by Brooklyn-based artist Sarah Trigg.

Please distribute widely.

Joy Garnett

Arts Editor, Cultural Politics

Cultural Politics’ Artists’ website: http://culturalpolitics.org

Official website

Subscribe to the journal

+++

Cultural Politics

Volume 5, Issue 2

July 2009

 

The Haunted Nomos: Activist-Artists and the (Im)possible Politics of Memory in Transitional Argentina

Vikki Bell and Mario D Paolantonio on the role that contemporary visual art and activist-artists have played in transitional Argentina

 

The Fantasy of the Elite Force Aviator: On Dolls and Desire

Neal Curtis explores the relationship between mimesis and fantasy and the changing face of the military-industrial complex

 

Activism, Acceleration, and the Humanist Aporia: Indymedia Intensified in the Age of Neoliberalism

Ingrid Hoofd considers the humanist aporia at work in the Indymedia project and the techno-acceleration of neoliberalism’s speed-elitism

 

Daily Markings on the Face of the Earth

Brooklyn based US artist Sarah Trigg discusses and presents her most recent series of paintings: satellite photographs, missiles, politics, and nonlinear history revealed as the land, sea, and airscapes of a truly paranoid humanity   

 

Organizing Networks: Notes on Collaborative Constitution, Translation, and the Work of Organization

Soenke Zehle and Ned Rossiter consider the return of political ontology, the critique of representation, and the antagonistic conception of the political

 

Book Review

The Cultural Politics of Once Were Warriors

Jo Smith on Emiel Martens’ Once Were Warriors and the ‘war of interpretation’ surrounding Maori writer Alan Duff’s novel and the film adaptation of the book by Lee Tamahori.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

About Cultural Politics

“Cultural Politics is a welcome and innovative addition.  In an academic universe already well populated with journals, it is carving out its own unique place—broad and a bit quirky.  It likes to leap between the theoretical and the concrete, so that it is never boring and often filled with illuminating glimpses into the intellectual and cultural worlds.” Lawrence Grossberg, University of North Carolina, USA.

 

Edited by

John Armitage, Northumbria University, UK 
Ryan Bishop, National University of Singapore, Singapore 
Douglas Kellner, University of California, Los Angeles, USA

 

Cultural Politics is an international, refereed journal that explores the global character and effects of contemporary culture and politics. It analyzes how cultural identities, agencies and actors, political issues and conflicts, and global media are linked, characterized, examined and resolved. In doing so, the journal explores precisely what is cultural about politics and what is political about culture. It investigates the marginalized and outer regions of this complex and interdisciplinary subject area.

Each issue publishes artwork by selected artists reflecting contemporary cultural and political issues.

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Joy Episalla, 'scarf dissolves' @ SENZA FRONTIERE Film Festival

Joy Episalla: scarf dissolves (still).

scarf dissolves,  by Joy Episalla, video loop on 4 monitors.
This work raises questions about how individuals overlap and merge — transforming time, gender and the body through gestures of touch, memory and their relationship to nature.

lo scialle si dissolve, video loop  di Joy Episalla.
Quest’opera mette in evidenza come gli individui si sovrappongono e confluiscono - trasformando tempo, genere e corpo attraverso gesti, ricordi e rapporto con la natura.

JULY 1, 2, 3  2009
Time, each day: h 16.00 — h 21.30
opening: Wednesday July 1: h 16.00 — h 21.30

CASA DEL
CINEMA
Largo Marcello Mastroianni 1
www.casa del cinema.it
Tel: 06 808 8854

Schedule & Programming

Official Site

SENZA FRONTIERE mostra films capaci di scoprire quanto abbiamo in comune noi esseri umani.  Il cinema ha l'opportunità di raccontare storie, che  dissolvono le barriere sia fisiche che mentali.     

SENZA FRONTIERE shows films that embrace a common humanity among people. Filmmakers expose powerful stories, which transcend mental and physical borders.

Mamma Don't Take My Kodachrome Away

Photo via flickr: lreed7649. View more photos tagged with “kodachrome” and also in the Kodachrome group pool.

originally spotted at flickr blog.

via A Thousand Words (Kodak), June 22, 2009:

A Tribute to KODACHROME: A Photography Icon
They say all good things in life come to an end. Today we announced that Kodak will retire KODACHROME Film, concluding its 74-year run.

It was a difficult decision, given its rich history. At the end of the day, photographers have told us and showed us they've moved on to newer other Kodak films and/or digital. KODACHROME Film currently represents a fraction of one percent of our film sales. We at Kodak want to celebrate with you the rich history of this storied film. Feel free to share with us your fondest memories of Kodachrome.

[read on...]

Iran: What You Need to Know, NYU, Tuesday June 23

Iran: What You Need to Know
A Teach-In

Host: NYU Kevorkian Center & AMEJA & The Make Agency

Date: Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Time: 6:30pm - 9:30pm
Location: Cantor Film Center ; Street: 36 E. 8th Street [MAP]

Email: IranTeachIn@hotmail.com

The recent events in Iran have left many of us with questions. Why are there demonstrations and violence in the streets of Iran? How are the events there relevant to us here? What is our role here in the US and how can we support the people of Iran in this time of turmoil?

A EVENING TEACH-IN IS TAKING PLACE for journalists, students, academics, and any one interested in gaining a better understanding of the incredible images and stories emerging from Iran over the past week. We will have eyewitness accounts from people who have just returned from Iran and reports from journalists who have been covering Iran for the past few years.


SPEAKERS:

Arang Keshavarzian is Associate Professor in the Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at New York University. He has just returned from Iran, where he spent the last three weeks following the election campaign and its immediate aftermath and he will give an eyewitness account of the events there.

Golnoush Niknejad is the editor and founder of Tehran Bureau (www.tehranbureau.com), an online magazine launched this year. Tehran Bureau carried out extensive coverage of the recent Presidential elections and now continues to overcome the Iranian government filters and has become one of the main news sources from within Iran.

Kouross Esmaeli is an Iranian-American independent journalist and filmmaker working with Big Noise Film collective. He has been reporting from Iran for the past four years for Aljazeera English, Press TV and Current TV. He is also a member of Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association.

Sponsored by the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies at New York University & the Arab and Middle Eastern Journalist Association & The Make Agency.

Moby: 'Disband The RIAA'; Lawyer & Harvard Prof To File Class Action Lawsuit Against The RIAA

via techdirt:

Moby Says 'Disband The RIAA' For Winning $1.92 Million From Jammie Thomas
from the representing-the-artists?!? dept

As a whole bunch of you have sent in, the musician Moby has put up a blog post where he suggests the RIAA should be disbanded for its $1.92 million win over Jammie Thomas. While (unfortunately) he gets a few of the facts wrong (they didn't sue her for $2 million, but it's what the jury chose -- though it is accurate that the RIAA has clearly suggested it has no problem with the statutory rates for infringement in the past), his overall point is sound. It's ridiculous that the RIAA thinks this is the proper strategy:

argh. what utter nonsense. this is how the record companies want to protect themselves? suing suburban moms for listening to music? charging $80,000 per song?

punishing people for listening to music is exactly the wrong way to protect the music business. maybe the record companies have adopted the 'it's better to be feared than respected' approach to dealing with music fans. i don't know, but 'it's better to be feared than respected' doesn't seem like such a sustainable business model when it comes to consumer choice. how about a new model of 'it's better to be loved for helping artists make good records and giving consumers great records at reasonable prices'?

i'm so sorry that any music fan anywhere is ever made to feel bad for making the effort to listen to music.

the riaa needs to be disbanded.

This isn't new territory for Moby. Way back in 2003, he got angry after finding out that some of his songs were being used by the RIAA to sue people, and stated: "I'm tempted to go onto Kazaa and download some of my own music, just to see if the RIAA would sue me for having mp3's of my own songs on my hard-drive."

Still, we're seeing more and more artists react poorly to the RIAA, who still claims to represent them. Why is it that our politicians still buy that clearly incorrect story?

31 Comments | Leave a Comment..

via Pulse2:

Lawyer and Harvard Professor Combine Forces To File Class Action Lawsuit Against The RIAA

Amit Chowdhry | Friday June 12, 2009

There are currently two high profile RIAA lawsuits taking place.  One of them involves a Harvard professor and the other involves Jammie Thomas-Rasset.  Now the lawyers in both cases are forming a partnership to file a class-action lawsuit against the RIAA to get back the $100 million that they claim the recording industry stole.

Kiwi Camara represents Jammie Thomas-Rasset in a lawsuit that the RIAA filed against her.  There is a retrial taking place in Minnesota next week.  Harvard Law professor Charles Nesson is representing Boston student Joel Tenenbaum in an RIAA trial as well.  Kiwi and Charles are the ones getting together to file the $100 million class action lawsuit against the RIAA.

Camara did an interview with Ars Technica earlier this week and revealed two pieces of evidence that will help his case.  MediaSentry was hired by the RIAA to track down the IP address of those who share files.  Camara is arguing that MediaSentry is not licensed as a private investigator in Minnesota.  This makes them running an illegal “pen register” and their evidence should be barred.

Another approach that Camara is considering is making the RIAA prove that they own the copyrights in question.  If the RIAA or MediaSentry cannot prove any of the above scenarios, then the cases will fall apart for them.  Camara’s approach is quite unorthodox.

Camara said that the RIAA basically committed a “technical screw-up” when it came to claiming the proper copyright ownership.  The RIAA lawyers provided courts with “true and correct” copies of the evidence, but they were not “certified copies” required by federal rules of evidence.

The RIAA asked the judge to take judicial notice for these claims, but the judge refused.  The recording industry will now have a limited amount of time to file for the certified copies.  Camara already has rebuttals in mind just in case the RIAA is able to get all of the certified copies necessary for the case.

More news on the trial as it develops.  Kudos to Ars Technica for their thorough coverage of this case.

[via Ars Technica]

Related Posts:

• June 19, 2009 -- Jammie Thomas Found Liable For Copyright Infringement With $1.92 Million Penalty
• May 17, 2009 -- Jammie Thomas’ Lawyer Wants Off Of The RIAA Case

Venice: That Sinking Feeling

[Image: Mike Bouchet's Watershed being towed through Venice towards the Arsenale basin, against a backdrop of Italian palazzi].

via BLDG BLOG:

Note: This is a guest post by Nicola Twilley.

Watershed Down

Monday, June 08, 2009 • 13 comment(s)

The 2009 Venice Biennale opened this week with an unexpected and quite beautiful piece of performance art. Artist Mike Bouchet had built a one-to-one scale replica of a typical American surburban home that he planned to install on floating pontoons in the Venice Arsenale basin. He called the project Watershed.

David [sic! = Daniel] Birnbaum, the Biennale's curator, told camera crews filming the installation that he thought the project "sounded a bit megalomaniac," but the sight of the oversized house, clad in beige vinyl, flimsily bobbing up and down against a backdrop of palazzi and piazzi as it was towed through Venice's canals, was breathtaking. It was an architectural icon of the American Dream revealed in all its formulaic absurdity.

Amazingly, then, one of the pontoons capsized, and the entire house sank to the bottom of the canal—an unintentional yet utterly perfect coda to the house's own built-in commentary. Now, a fake generic American suburban home will add its ruins to the underwater archaeology of Venice.

[Image: Mike Bouchet's Watershed goes down].

A two-minute video of the house's journey, and eventual fate, can be seen in full on YouTube.

(Originally spotted on Flavorwire).

Closings (Soho) 132

Closings (Soho) 132, originally uploaded by Joy Garnett (archive).

Found Art (Chelsea): Unmonumental 169

Found Art (Chelsea): Unmonumental 169, originally uploaded by Joy Garnett (archive).

Found Art (Chelsea): Unmonumental 168

Found Art (Chelsea): Unmonumental 168, originally uploaded by Joy Garnett (archive).