All Murakami, All the Times!

All Murakami, all the time. I first saw Murakami in the Superflat show at the Henry in Seattle several years ago. We got the big Murakami book and now I see there is wonderful coverage of the Murakami show in NY – including a feature in the Times Magazine. For a taste, here’s the slide show from the NYTimes, and their video of the opening.

STAND: “Homes for All” in Vancouver

Just received notice on this initiative happening citywide on Vancouver street-corners, Saturday the 23rd from 1-2pm.

I’ll be at the Northern Voice event so can’t make it to any of these corners, but here’s the info – and please pass it along.

STAND: “HOMES FOR ALL!”
8 Locations:
- Main St. & 33rd Avenue (Kia Salomons and CALM)
- Main St. & King Edward (Ned Jabobs and CALM)
- Arbutus & King Edward (Maggie Geiser and CHC)
- Broadway & McDonald (Julie Hughes and CHC)
- Broadway & Heather (Rider Cooey and CHC)
- Commercial & 1st Avenue (Dave Diewert and Streams of Justice)
- Cordova & Gore (Anne Kennedy and Social Justice Cttee. at St James Anglican Church)
- Burrard & Nelson (Bobbie Phillips and St Andrew’s-Wesley United Church Housing and Mental Health Action Group)

Please join us at any of the above locations. We have held STANDS for HOUSING at Main and 33rd Ave. since October, and we believe there can be a big impact with STANDS throughout the city.
The idea of the STAND is based on the moving example of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, mothers whose children were “disappeared”: by the military, ‘76 to ‘83. They stood every week in a city square wearing white scarves. The scarves became an international “brand” for peaceful protests.

Similarly, ours is not a rally, but a visual presence. Our initial STAND has been near Little Mountain Housing complex, awaiting ‘redevelopment’ in 2010 and with 100 homes already sitting empty. Your STAND could be within walking distance of your home. It need last for only one hour, Saturday, 1:00 to 2:00 pm. We hand out leaflets to pedestrians and cars at the red light, discussing the great and growing need for permanent social housing, not just temporary supportive housing. We urge people to join us or create their own STAND in their neighbourhoods.

POLICIES THAT CAUSE HOMELESSNESS MUST BE CHANGED

We hope you’ll join this action on February 23 and beyond.
This action is organized by CALM, Citywide Housing Coalition, and Streams of Justice

Subjectivity Creates High-Grade Information

At Northern Voice Moose Camp yesterday, I was once again impressed and amazed to see the variety of intensities that bloggers represent. It’s fascinating to see how each of them (us) has created interconnecting micro-niches of interest and meaning, mined from both direct and mediated experiences. This is exactly what I was getting at, theoretically and poetically (and years ago) in my Social Research Foundation Report, which was included in the Documentary Print book. It can be downloaded (free, of course) at this link: SRF Interim Report.

Embroidered aphorism from the SRF Report

Multimedia Early Days

I was recalling those early days at VFS Multimedia, when it was one of the first schools in North America to teach interactive media skills – in a specifically-designed building with low light and tons of machines. It was, I think, 1995 or so, and I joined the teaching staff there just after its first year of operation. David Baker’s vision established this school, and we saw many of the early visionaries pass through the doors to give talks and share their take on things. I can recall Jaron Lanier, John Perry Barlow, Bruce Sterling, Eric McLuhan, and Stelarc were there – over time. People from the local industries came to give talks and presentations and there was an artist in residence program that had included Jim Cummings, Nardwuar, and Elizabeth Fischer, and others, like New York composer Stefan Tischler. Instructors had incredible freedom to come and go, to expand and learn, to experiment and develop.

We communicated by email all the time and it was impossible to explain to people outside of the place just what exactly the whole program was all about. It was exciting and it was hot. It was a real pressure-cooker for the students who were breaking new ground, and the instructors who were keeping up with new software and opportunities at every new term. Now we take all that interactivity for granted, but then it was all new, all innovative. This whole entity shifted as the medium became more established. The school began to see the need to connect with industry, as there now was an industry fully established, and the dot com boom was in full swing. We renamed it New Media, and carried on, riding the bobsled through the crash and out the other side – no more space for the artistic side – ROI rules, give industry what they want, train for skills, phaseout.

I remember David Baker’s vision had included the Web Cafe, to be the first cyber cafe in the city (design inspired by the film Brazil.) Not like the wifi cafe setups we expect now, these cafes were the only places to get highspeed access (whatever qualified as fast for those days, that is.) But by the time the cafe opened, the moment had already passed.

Still, I remember the excitement of those early days, seeing Cyberia, the first cyber-cafe in London. I think it was 95 (or 96?). (I was still working in media distribution at that time, and we were there before going to a television market in Cannes.) This scene was considered hot hot hot. Just a hole in the wall with people in faded clothes sitting at computers, but the site of fashion shoots and other photo ops. Downstairs in the grotty basement we had a look at a chill zone private party space Greg Rosselli was setting up. Old (very old London basement) walls painted white, small bar, lounging spaces. I thought, wow, this is amazing! Outside I saw a well-groomed tall grey-haired man in an impeccable pinstripe suit going into the building. He looked like he didn’t belong to the whole scene. “Who’s that?” I asked. The reply: “The owner.” That’s when I got the picture: it’s all about business. (Oh, and theatre.)

Since then, the software and hardware have all changed and the processes are easier. It’s hard to imagine a time when life wasn’t mediated in this way. Now we have the ubiquity and connectivity that was being first forged in those days.

Another a small memory note here: those Voyager CD-ROMs.