[-empyre-] Wired sustainability. Welcome Tom Shevory,
Patty Zimmerman and Stephanie Rothenberg
info at pan-o-matic.com
info at pan-o-matic.com
Wed Apr 9 12:11:21 EST 2008
Thanks Patty and Tom for inviting me to FLEFF and Tim and Renate for
the invitation to be part of this week's discussion on Wired
Sustainability. In recent projects I have been addressing both the
social and environmental consequences incurred by the global game
industry. I'll give a brief overview with urls for further info and
then pose some questions piqued by last weeks discussion on the list
and from my experience at FLEFF.
"School of Perpetual Training" (http://www.pan-o-matic.com/blog/?
page_id=2) is an ironic instructional training program that exposes
precarious employment and unjust labor conditions of migrant and low
wage workers in outsourced game manufacturing and distribution.
Designed as a game, the training program recontextualizes classic
Atari games such as Dig Dug and Space Invaders to "train" players for
jobs in coltan mining, printed circuit board assembly, box build and
global shipping. The game interface uses motion tracking requiring
full body motion to play – physical labor for virtual gain.
"Invisible Threads - Virtual Sweatshop" (http://www.pan-o-matic.com/
blog/?page_id=72) is a mixed reality performance installation created
with Eyebeam Fellow Jeff Crouse. The project explores the growing
intersection between outsourced labor, emerging virtual economies and
real life commodities through the creation of a designer jeans
sweatshop in the online, 3-dimensional world of Second Life.
Simulating a real life manufacturing facility that includes hiring
Second Life “workers” to produce real world jeans sold for profit,
the project provides an insider’s view into current modes of global,
telematic production. We will be performing Invisible Threads next
Tuesday, April 15th at Eyebeam in NYC (quicktime video http://blip.tv/
file/779038).
"Usernomics 1.0" (http://www.pan-o-matic.com/blog/?page_id=69) is a
hacktivist workshop employing models of waste reclamation, recycling
and reuse. The workshop begins with discussion about the consequences
of the computer industry (electronic waste), and a discussion about
how to repurpose and reuse discarded keyboards, household goods and
toys. Participants learn how to hack the keyboards (obtained thru a
local recycler) in order to create one-of-a-kind external game
controllers. At the conclusion of the workshop participants use their
controllers to collaboratively play a game about ewaste.
Getting back to recent discussion on the list, I felt Britta raised
an important issue about how to maintain interest and investment with
regards to both the viewer and producer on these critical issues that
continue beyond the scope of the event/gallery/profit margin. I feel
access is critical - making the issue conceptually accessible and
providing accessible resources for maintaining the dialogue and
taking action. For me, DrinkPee's success is how it engages the
viewer on a visceral level and makes a direct, fairly simple
correlation between our bodies and the environment. I also find the
workshop model to be instrumental in its ability to demystify and
empower – deconstruct and interrupt the meta narrative of the
consumerist cycle and provide alternatives. The issue of using a
combination of media/resources and approaches is also critical and
was raised after a FLEFF lecture about the efficacy of serious games.
I think game-based models can be used as an effective tool to engage
and inform but need to be combined with other resources, whether a
film, web site, etc. Partnering with existing political organizations
already mobilizing is also key. Look forward to hearing more thoughts
around this discussion....
cheers,
Stephanie
On Apr 7, 2008, at 11:25 PM, Renate Ferro wrote:
> We want to thank Britta Riley and Rebecca Bray for introducing us to
> their work at Eyebeam and for being hosts for last weeks
> discussion. I'm
> sure we will be hearing from them online as month progresses. If
> any of
> you are in New York City we are hoping you will visit Eyebeam in
> Chelsea
> to see Britta and Rebecca's project as well as the entire exhibit
> FEEDBACK. Later this month Amanda McDonald Crowley from Eyebeam
> will be
> our guest.
>
> A very warm welcome to Tom Shevory, Patty Zimmerman, and Stephanie
> Rothenberg for being this week's guests for our -empyre-
> discussion on
> "Wired Sustainability". Tim and I enjoyed meeting Patty, Tom and
> Stephanie at a party on Saturday night celebrating a week of events
> scheduled for the Finger Lakes Film Festival. We are looking
> forward to
> their discussions about the festival and their own creative work.
>
> Below are biographies for Tom, Patty and Stephanie so that you can
> get to
> know them a little better. Looking forward to talking to all of you
> online! Renate and Tim
>
> Thomas Shevory is co-director of the Finger Lakes Environmental Film
> Festival (http://www.ithaca.edu/fleff) at Ithaca College with Patricia
> Zimmermann. Shevory is also professor and chair of politics at Ithaca
> College. He is the author of five books, including Body/Politics:
> Studies
> in Production, Reproduction, and Reconstruction; Notorious HIV: The
> Media
> Spectacle of Nushawn Williams; and Toxic Burn: The Grassroots Struggle
> against the WTI Incinerator. He has published
> numerous scholarly articles on law, public policy, popular music and
> popular culture, with a focus on health and the environment.
>
> Patricia R. Zimmermann is co-director of the Finger Lakes
> Environmental
> Film Festival (http://www.ithaca.edu/fleff) at Ithaca College with Tom
> Shevory. She is also professor of cinema, photography and media
> arts in
> the Roy H. Park School of Communications. She is the author of Reel
> Families: A Social History of
> Amateur Film and States of Emergency: Documentaries, Wars,
> Democracies, as
> well as coeditor of The Flaherty: Forty Years in the Cause of
> Independent
> Cinema and Mining the Home Movie: Excavations in Histories and
> Memories.
> She has published numerous scholarly articles and journalism on
> cinema,
> digital media, and film/video history and theory, with a focus on
> documentary, amateur film, and new media interfaces.
>
> Stephanie Rothenberg (Women Direct new media artist in residence for
> Fingerlakes Film Festival) is a new media artist working at the
> intersection of art and technology. Her
> interdisciplinary practice merges performance, installation, and
> networked
> media to create solicitous interactions that question the
> boundaries and
> social constructs of manufactured desires. She has lectured and
> exhibited
> in the United States and internationally at venues such as the 2008
> Sundance Film Festival, Park City, Utah; Hallwalls Media Art Center,
> Buffalo, New York; 2007 ConFlux Festival, New York City;
> Interaccess Media
> Arts Centre, Toronto; 2006 Chicago Underground Film Festival; Radiator
> Festival New Technology Art, Nottingham, England; 2004 Inter-
> Society for
> the Electronic Arts, Helsinki; Knitting Factory, New York City; and
> the
> Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing. Her recent awards include the
> 2007
> Eyebeam Atelier artist in residence in New York City, SUNY Buffalo
> 2020
> Scholars Award, and a free103point9 artist in residence. She is
> currently
> assistant professor of visual studies at SUNY Buffalo, where she
> teaches
> courses in the communication design and emerging practices
> concentrations.
>
>
>
>
>
> Renate Ferro
> Cornell University
> Visiting Assistant Professor
> Fine Arts
> Tjaden Hall
> Ithaca, NY 14853
> rtf9 at cornell.edu
> Home Page: <http://www.renateferro.net>
>
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://mail.cofa.unsw.edu.au/pipermail/empyre/attachments/20080408/0abbae8c/attachment.html
More information about the empyre
mailing list