[-empyre-] creative interventions in the borderlands

[naxsmash]

Lotu5,  please tell more about the clown project at the TJ/SD border!   
I remember your group performing when I was attending the Political  
Equator conference last November, and we walked along the footpaths  
and spiralling staircase into the border crossing in and out of Mexico/ 
US at San isidro.
What was it like when you were working with people not 'us' meaning  
the conference participants-- being too much the obvious observer / 
participant I couldn't really abstract our presences from  your clown  
actions, i mean we the artists and wirters there were special  
audience-- what about times when this wasnt the case, and in
other locations.?

I particularly responate to this insight of yours about pleasure in  
the resistance-- about the desiring part and the pleasuring part- the  
play part.  It always seems like such a temptation to get so serious  
and announce the death of something, like the image, or theatre, or  
street performance, or public space, you know what i mean--
when in fact everything keeps bursting out of its own seams, it seems  
rather-- that profusion and confusion and even delight in this is the  
order (if you'll pardon the oxymoron) of the day.

christina
On Jun 1, 2008, at 2:32 PM, lotu5 wrote:

> Ah damn, its june 1st, so I guess this month's awesome topic is  
> over. It looks like you all had a lively discussion. I was hoping to  
> have the time during this month to join the discussion, but thesis  
> writing took all of my attention. Sorry for the very late  
> intervention!
>
> If I had had time, I would've written something about the projects  
> I've been working on, namely Sharing is Sexy [ http://sharingissexy.org 
>  ] , which is a queer open source porn laboratory, which I see as a  
> creative form of biopolitical resistance to control over bodies  
> through the free proliferation of images of new genders and  
> sexualities and through community building online and offline.
>
> If I had more time, I would've also written about the Boredom Patrol  
> of the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army [ http://circasd.org  
> and http://youtube.com/lotu5 ] , which I was a part of, and our use  
> of imagination and the figure of the clown as a way to disrupt and  
> subvert the plane of conflict created by the network of anti- 
> immigrant forces around the San Diego / Tijuana border, including  
> paramilitaries like the Minutemen, but also ICE, police, etc.
>
> The basis for these projects has been, in my opinion, to find a way  
> to use desire and pleasure as a basis for political struggle, to  
> find methods of resistance which fulfill our desires instead of  
> always draining our energies.
>
> One of the main forms of "intervention" that these projects use is  
> online public space, on YouTube or in porn, as a way of interjecting  
> some disturbance into the massive flows of media already occurring  
> there, trying to go to where people's attention already is focused.  
> Although the Boredom Patrol's intervention also occurs in physical  
> spaces where the Minutemen are.
>
> Both of these projects have also been presented in various artistic  
> contexts, at universities, in galleries and in artistic publications  
> and events.
>
> I have great respect for many of the groups and people who've posted  
> this month, and I hope to be able to revisit the discussion in the  
> near future.
>
> If you have any questions, or ties to the discussion, I'm happy to  
> respond!
>
> thanks,
>
>  lotu5
>
>
> -- 
>
> gpg:  0x5B77079C // encrypted email preferred
> gaim/skype: djlotu5 // off the record messaging preferred
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
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naxsmash
naxsmash at mac.com


christina mcphee

http://christinamcphee.net
http://naxsmash.net