I was fortunate enough to be a speaker at the 2012 Re:publica conference amidst so many truly inspiring people. I left the conference motivated by the amazing efforts put forth by this community of bloggers, Internet activists, and researchers. There was much to explore at a conference about the future of our society and all things digital. I hope to go again next year!

I gave a talk titled: “Voices from the Revolution: a Speak2Tweet Film”

Here are some links to other talks that I attended and thought were particularly thought provoking:

Beth Kolko: Open Innovation and the contribution of non-experts
Jillian C. York: Threats to Free Expression in the Middle East and North Africa
Jacob Appelbaum, Dmytri Kleiner: Resisting the Surveillance State and its Network Effects
Olaf Boehnke, Marietje Schaake, Ehsan Norouzi, Dan Meredith: Digital Diplomacy: Reinventing Foreign Policy?

The Download

“The Download is a new program through which Rhizome shares one work per month with our membership for free download. Part curatorial platform, part incentive to budding digital art collectors, the Download highlights great new works and encourages members to display them at home-on any screen, computer, or suitable device.”

http://rhizome.org/the-download/2012/mar/

It’s in the ‘Can’,
art exhibition curated by Gulsen Bal

In articulation of the creative process and what formulates the creative strategies and the creative moment of thinking differently; the editorial team of e-flux journal #26 Ñ underlines a fundamental paradox by bringing the old question “What is art?” as it “must be left open.” And this engagement emerges with a big ending statement as “art at its best does not provide answers and solutions; it creates problems.”

At all events, this reading intends to show the problematic of the practical questions with political implications that is linked with the concept such as “becoming subjects.” To that extent, using Rancière’s term of “creating concepts”, yet following the connection between hegemony and micropolitics which accounts, in part, for his insistence on the articulation of the ‘regimes’ of art in terms of the productions of subjects, we can characterise this as a highly significant transformation in its manifold modalities.

However in the present context, it is equally important to understand “the hegemony and micropolitics are not mutually exclusive perspectives, but instead refer to one another.” This aspect touches on an almost paradoxical complication of this argument which a politics can emerge, both theoretically and practically. Also, from there, we need to return to the possibilities of ‘thinking the political’ in which what constitutes the political domain, to what and where is ‘the political subject.’

I would say these relational processes arise here to explore all modes of representation as well as all paths of production, in which the possible is engendered. This causes us to explore the uneasy relations and interdependencies of forces to propagate in the eventualities as it appears, to engage in rethinking of identifying a specific conjunction of the new outlines to whatever microscale possible. Where, then, do the ‘politics of art’ rest in this obvious paradox?

In this stance, the critical moments of a plurality of questions become countenance, where the question of the political opens up within the creative practice. This sets new kinds of creative connections while introducing an experimental dynamic in which the current relational powers to be problematised, in which “art becomes aware of the limits of its power, it is pushed toward a new political commitment by the weakening of politics itself.” This signals, for me, the possibility of a new type of politics centered in the question of what is in the ‘can’?

Participating Artists: Heba Amin, Yane Calovski, Sanja Ivekovic, Christine Schoerkhuber, Kamen Stoyanov

>>>flyer

6 – 10 February 2012
CENSORSHIP
http://www.ecla.de/fileadmin/common/Syllabi/SWWE/SWWE_2012_FinalSchedule.pdf

Despite the rise of ‘new media’ more difficult to control and restrict within borders, censorship as the practice of limiting, regulating or expunging information, images and opinion continues to be a feature of many political contexts. In addition to examining the familiar – current and historical — manifestations of censorship as a tool of repression, this year’s State of the World Week at ECLA considers the more subtle and unexpected ways in which censorship may operate in environments ostensibly open to freedom of expression, and in particular the role of technologies, cultural conflict, and institutional frameworks in determining what can be articulated and how. Our investigation leads us to consider the
meaning and reach of the term ‘censorship’ as a way of classifying practices of affecting access to written, spoken or visual forms of representation. Must it always denote a conscious and direct repressive intervention? Are there necessary forms of regulation for which it is not an appropriate term? Or should it be re-invoked to describe the effect of some of our most apparently ‘free’ exchanges and frameworks of communication? And finally, what is the relationship between censorship and the material — economic and social — mechanisms through which viewpoints and accounts of the world are transmitted?

Guest Speakers:
Roger Berkowitz, Martin Krasnik, Miklos Haraszti, Christiane Wilke, Karen Gover, Jutta Lietsch, Karsten Voigt, Eldad Beck, Evgeny Morozov, Heba Amin

Gulsen Bal – visual culture theorist and curator. She is the Director, Head of Development of Projects and Programmes at Open Space – Zentrum fur Kunstprojekte in Vienna. Bal curated, published articles, participated in talks and held workshops in various places and venues in the U.K. as well as in Europe and Turkey.
BridA / Jurij Pavlica, Sendi Mango, Tom Kersevan – was created in 1996, when its members were studying at the Venice Academy of fine arts. Since then the BridA has developed a series of top-level artistic projects at an international level.

Participating Artists:

Heba Amin, Burak Arıkan, Miriam Bajtala, John Bell, Neno Belchev, Jorge Catoni, Andrea Dojmi, Lorenzo Bona, Karin Felbermayr, Alexander Gross, Marina Gržinić, Aina Šmid, Zvonka Simčič, Haciktectura.net, Wei-Ming Ho, Barbara Holub, Paul Rajakovics, Reese Inman, Sanela Jahić, Gavin Jocius, Sheridan Kelley, Kensuke Koike, monochrom, Alban Muja, Joseph Nechvatal, Alan Phelan, Irena Pivka, Brane Zorman/radioCona, Arjan Pregl, Christine Schörkhuber, Santiago Sierra, Owen Smith, Abby Stiers, Christian Streinz, Sissua Tarka aka Verina Gfader, Justin Taylor, Maciej Toporowicz, Arjan Vanmeenen

I HAD A HECKLER.

I had a heckler, and perhaps in my tired state it didn’t phase me as much as it could have, or perhaps it had something to do with the fact that my heckler would have preferred to see a tourism video, either way he livened the discussion. Bless him for being so emotionally disturbed by my footage, as he felt this was not the time nor place to show “negative” visuals of the country he loves so much. Nor did he think I had an “authentic” voice as on several occasions he and his friends questioned my identity (which is ironic given the topic that dominated a panel discussion I was part of just hours before).

“I AM ALSO FROM EGYPT, AND ALSO HATED MUBARAK, AND ALSO LOVE THE REVOLUTION.”

We are from Egypt, he said, and we hate Mubarak, and we love the Revolution! Where? Where do you come from? Where are these buildings? We have skyscrapers in Egypt!

His sentiment was clear, he felt I was somehow hijacking the revolution. He disliked my film and, I never thought I would say this but, I am so glad he did! While perhaps he misunderstood my intentions, he had a very strong reaction to the footage. And at the end of the day, any artist would wish for that.

photos by NidoPhotography.com

To contribute to the project:
http://www.hebaamin.com/speak2Tweet.html

Also, please join our Facebook group to help spread the word:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Voices-from-the-Revolution/150658441691544?sk=wall

Projection Performance by Heba Amin and Marc Fantini
http://www.meinschoeneweide.de/index.php?option=com_content&​view=article&id=143&Itemid=344

Photos courtesy of Kareem Hammam

I was successfully intimidated that day, but at the same time I couldn’t pass up the window of time of what my friends described as a photographer’s haven. Egyptians have always had a paranoia towards picture taking, especially if you aren’t photographing the standard touristy “beauty” shots. It isn’t the easiest thing to take pictures in public space, and I’ve been stopped many times before. But for the first time, I went downtown and took pics without any problems as people assumed I was documenting something revolution related. That, and the fact that there was no police presence helped matters.

I ended up with these photos that reveal a complete fantasy, with European looking figures and European looking buildings and am writing up a piece about the body politic in the context of Cairo’s urban infrastructure, especially in the context of the revolution and that day, in particular.

These quick animations with their raw drawing style, primitive animation techniques, and quirky sounds explore instances of the city. The figures resemble something familiar, something man-made, yet with strange combinations that give them an otherworldly appearance. They emerge in post-industrial landscapes and reveal a sort of futuristic fantasy that addresses correlations between memory and machines.

Drawings: Heba Amin
Sound: Marc Fantini