[-empyre-] Flows and swerving and vacuoles

Tue Nov 18 13:51:30 EST 2008

On Mon, November 17, 2008 2:55 pm, Verena Conley wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Sorry I have been so silent.
> I am trying this in preparation for next week.
>
> I agree with Frederic on the flows.
> Flows are easily controlled and we need interruptors (Deuleuze's vacuoles,
> etc).

Hola Verena and all other interruptors,

I have been attempting to write a bit on a footnote on vacuoles and EDT's
FloodNet
that found at the end of book last year. "In the last  footnote of the
last chapter of Felix Guattari: An Aberrant Introduction by Gary Gonosko."

This choice to connect the out-side and in-side of the cybernetic
continuum allowed ECD as an artivist gesture to also instantiate a gesture
against the, “hegemony of communication.”  In the last  footnote of the
last chapter of Felix Guattari: An Aberrant Introduction by Gary Gonosko
points out that: “Deleuze raised this idea: 'the key thing may be to
create vacuoles of noncommunication, circuit breakers, so we can elude
control.' A kind of creativity, then, that was not linked to communication
but broke it at some point by establishing cavities through which its
messages could not pass or, to put in positive terms, passed to well...an
example of the former vacuole suggest more virulent forms of network
attacks of the sort developed by hacktivist such as the creation of
disturbances...using FloodNet software that swarms sites and saturates
lines.”  FloodNet created an extreme form informatic transparency and a
counter-communication system, that not only saturates the network with a
new form of mass embodiment, but also creates a simple flight of
gaps-as-meaning that parasitically attach themselves to the “disappeared”
and the “missing” in the databases of dominant power and makes them
visible – with the Dadaist force of the “404_file not found.”
	Brett Stalbaum,a co-founder of EDT, frames this “404_file not found”
gesture within the frame of conceptual network art (net.art) history,
“FloodNet is an example of conceptual net.art that empowers people
through  activist/artistic expression.  By the selection of  phases for
use in building the "bad" urls , for example using "human_rights" to form
the url "http://www.xxx.gb.mx/human_rights", the FloodNet is able to
upload messages to server error logs by intentionally asking for a
non-existent url. This causes the server to return messages like
“human_rights not found on this server.”   This aberrant function of
browser based technology allows the weightless dreams of cyberspace to
einforce what is absent from the infrastructure of governance and the
neoliberal drive that was solidifying a relationship between the global
market and information in Mexico under NAFTA at that time.

Swerving between vacuoles and back,
Ricardo

> While I am reading Frederic's post, I read on top of my screen and in the
> margins some of the following:
>
> Mass Flow Cals done fast, integrated service solutions
> Fluid Flow Analysis
> FLow Hoods
> Electronic Flow Switches (liquid gases and slurries, inexepensive and in
> stock)
> etc.
> That's part of the control of flows and it's lucrative at that. And it's
> pretty good and quasi instantaneous.
> So, we have to think how to deviate, interrupt, etc.
> All best,
> Verena
>
> On Mon, Nov 17, 2008 at 5:22 PM, <fredericneyrat at free.fr> wrote:
>
>> Dear Renate,
>> (on waiting for other guests...),
>>
>> you quoted Chantal&#8232; Chawarf :"I feel the political&#8232;
>> fecundity of mucus, milk, sperm, secretions which gush out to
>> liberate&#8232; energies and give them back to the world".
>> Il me semble en definitive que le probleme principal n'est pas tant
>> celui des FLUX que celui des COUPURES et des LIENS, cuts and
>> relations. Ce qui compte n'est pas tant le flux que la liberation,
>> l'acte et le moment de liberation (ici, la liberation d''energie'),
>> soit la VARIATION, la RUPTURE par rapport à une situation antérieure.
>> En termes lucreciens, ce qui compte n'est pas tant le flux que le
>> CLINAMEN (la déclinaison, l'écart – the SWERVING, the declension), le
>> tourbillon (the SWIRL).
>>
>> Nowadays, it is become physically and politically possible to control
>> the flows, in order to prevent them from swirling and swerving. In
>> controled flows, all goes in the same direction (a sort of return to
>> the laminar flow before any difference, swerve, event and so on, in
>> the Lucretius'The Nature of Things). That's what i call 'biopolitcs of
>> the flows'. And that's why i'm wary of flows...
>>
>> In french, we says 'Il faut se mefier de l'eau qui dort' (we have to
>> be wary of sleeping water, one never knows what could happen from its
>> inside ...), and we could add: let us be wary of speed flows without
>> any swerve. As ready-made liberation.
>>
>> All my best,
>>
>> Frederic
>>
>>
>> Selon rrdominguez at ucsd.edu:
>>
>> > Hola all floods and flows,
>> >
>> > The somatic architecture of speed(s), inertia(s) and flow(s) that
>> > spill out from/and through the bunkers, containers and catastrophes
>> > would seem to me to be one of the primary trajectories for critical
>> > dromology.
>> > Which would not only to frame the "politics of the worst" but the
>> > Dis_integration(s)
>> > of that even horizon(s) - an offer the glacial condition(s) and its
>> > "liquidity paradoxes" new flows/new inertia(s) that integrate the
>> > speed of
>> > dreams, the Zapatistas like say, (where two impossible conditions
>> > create a
>> > "accident" of positivity flows/spillages that call on
>> > fem(in)ventio(s)
>> > rather than the catastrophes of static_flows and its
>> > counter-inertias via
>> > the industrial revolution(s) that now bind so much of the earth.
>> >
>> > It also echo's another important trajectory for a  critical
>> > dromology -
>> > the call to create "minor simulations" of "new earths" that impart
>> > other
>> > holo-speeds and (w)hole inertias - that are materializing a (lo)bal
>> > flood(s) of with the"...fecundity of mucus, milk, sperm, secretions
>> > which
>> > gush out to liberate energies and give them back to the world."
>> > These
>> > flows can function as the dis_cordinates for the Demos to Demoi to
>> > build
>> > the Agora(s)-of-the-other(s) (from Greek
>> > &#945;&#955;&#955;&#959;&#962;,
>> > allos, "other", and
>> > &#945;&#947;&#959;&#961;&#949;&#965;&#949;&#953;&#957;, agoreuein,
>> > "to
>> > speak in public") - this other Agora allows the (lo)bal earth(s) to
>> > speak
>> > and make as notes from the future.
>> >
>> > "In our dreams we have seen another world....And this new, true
>> > world was
>> > not a dream from the past; it was not something that came from our
>> > ancestors. It came to us from the future; it was the next step that
>> > we had
>> > to take." - subcomandante Marcos (1994)
>> >
>> > The (lo)balization movements are not anti-globalization (as
>> > inertia) but
>> > are instead seeking to invent another type of globalization,
>> > (lo)bal
>> > movements are not centered or de-centered social formations,
>> > instead they
>> > spread out across the arcs of the realities as distributed networks
>> > flow(s) that seek to link with all those who are left-out of the
>> > neoliberal globe, they are peer-to-peer networks that were and are
>> > more
>> > about the humans on the ground than about those who had or have
>> > access to
>> > the network – the networks became networks for the
>> > network-less:"The
>> > temporal fractalization of dead capital has allowed a spasm of
>> > micro-invention to emerge and flicker in the liminal-space of the
>> > Lacandona jungle; occurring somewhere between the imaginary borders
>> > of the
>> > American hologram and the real Taco Bell power of neo-liberalism's
>> > NAFTA:
>> > the Zapatistas. In the Lacandona, a jungle in delirium, floats a
>> > temporary
>> > construction of plant, flesh, and circuits that is attempting to
>> > play out
>> > a rhizomatic disturbance, an "ante-chamber" of a "revolution that
>> > will
>> > make revolution possible..." The Zapatistas are not the first
>> > postmodern
>> > revolution, but the last; they are a vanishing mediation between
>> > the
>> > breaking mirror of production (dead capital) and the shattering of
>> > the
>> > crystal of (de)materialization (virtual capital)."  The "tipping
>> > point"
>> > was now steaming and ready to shout out as a full spectrum force of
>> > (lo)bal movement(s) who were flung into the 21st century by
>> > avant-garde of
>> > the indigenous future(s).
>> >
>> > My very best in dream flows,
>> > Ricardo
>> >
>> > On Tue, November 11, 2008 7:10 pm, Renate Ferro wrote:
>> > > To Ricardo and Frederic and all other empyreans,
>> > >
>> > > I wanted to pick up on the conceptual thread of  FLOW that ran
>> > though
>> > > both of your recent responses.
>> > > First, Ricardo you mention the work "FLOODNET" created by Brett
>> > Stalbaum
>> > > and Carmin Karasic that literally flooded error messages that
>> > performed
>> > > networked social actions (and in your words) spilled out into the
>> > world.
>> > >
>> > > And speaking of environmental global flow you both  mention the
>> > polar ice
>> > > caps as ecological catastrophe spilling out into global flow and
>> > function.
>> > >
>> > > Frederic you mention Virilio's concept of inertia presenting both
>> > fear and
>> > > desire...
>> > > And if I'm understanding my rudimentary translating skills "since
>> > the
>> > > industrial revolution inertia has had a bad reputation, one that
>> > has never
>> > > ceased to de-valorize the solid and the static to the benefit of
>> > the
>> > > dynamic..." or the "fluid"
>> > >
>> > > Realizing that Virilio was not a fan of cyborg feminism, I wonder
>> > what he
>> > > would say to his French Feminist counterparts who also often
>> > wrote of
>> > > fluid, dynamic written interventions?  I remember the writing of
>> > Chantal
>> > > Chawarf who wrote referencing the disruption of male patriarchy
>> > via
>> > > women's writing (in her essay ""Linguistic Flesh") "I feel the
>> > political
>> > > fecundity of mucus, milk, sperm, secretions which gush out to
>> > liberate
>> > > energies and give them back to the world.   Feminine Language
>> > must, by its
>> > > very nature work on life passionately scientifically, poetically,
>> > > politically in order to make it invulnerable. "
>> > >
>> > > Verena Conley will be joining the discussion at the end of the
>> > month who I
>> > > know has written about Virilio and feminism but I'm wondering
>> > what either
>> > > of you or anyone  else lurking on empyre imagined what Virilio's
>> > response
>> > > might be?
>> > >
>> > > In the flow in Ithaca, NY,  Renate Ferro
>> > >
>> > >
>> > >
>> > > Renate Ferro
>> > > Visiting Assistant Professor
>> > > Fine Arts, Inter-media
>> > > Cornell University, Tjaden Hall
>> > > Ithaca, NY  14853
>> > >
>> > > Website:  http://www.renateferro.net
>> > > Email:   <rtf9 at cornell.edu>
>> > >
>> > > Co-moderator of _empyre soft skinned space
>> > > http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>> > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empyre
>> > >
>> > > Art Editor, diacritics
>> > > http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/dia/
>> > >
>> > >
>> > >
>> > > _______________________________________________
>> > > empyre forum
>> > > empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
>> > > http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>> > >
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > Ricardo Dominguez
>> > Assistant Professor
>> > Hellman Fellow
>> >
>> > Visual Arts Department, UCSD
>> > http://visarts.ucsd.edu/
>> > Principal Investigator, CALIT2
>> > http://calit2.net
>> > Co-Chair gallery at calit2
>> > http://gallery.calit2.net
>> > CRCA Researcher
>> > http://crca.ucsd.edu/
>> > Ethnic Studies Affiliate
>> > http://www.ethnicstudies.ucsd.edu/
>> >
>> > Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics,
>> > Board Member
>> > http://hemi.nyu.edu
>> >
>> > University of California, San Diego,
>> > 9500 Gilman Drive Drive,
>> > La Jolla, CA 92093-0436
>> > Phone: (619) 322-7571
>> > e-mail: rrdominguez at ucsd.edu
>> >
>> > Project sites:
>> > site: http://gallery.calit2.net
>> > site: http://pitmm.net
>> > site: http://bang.calit2.net
>> > site: http://www.thing.net/~rdom <http://www.thing.net/%7Erdom>
>> > blog:http://post.thing.net/blog/rdom
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > empyre forum
>> > empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
>> > http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>> >
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> empyre forum
>> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
>> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Verena Andermatt Conley
>
> Department of Comparative Literature and Romance Languages
> and Literature
> Dana Palmer 202
> Harvard University
> Cambridge, MA 02138 USA
> tel: 617-495-2274; 617-496-6090
> fax: 617-496-4682
>
> http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~rll/
>
> Kirkland House
> 85 Dunster Street
> Cambridge, MA 02138 USA
> tel: 617-495-2272
> fax: 617-496-4620
>
> http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~kirkland/
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> http://www.subtle.net/empyre

-- 
Ricardo Dominguez
Assistant Professor
Hellman Fellow

Visual Arts Department, UCSD
http://visarts.ucsd.edu/
Principal Investigator, CALIT2
http://calit2.net
Co-Chair gallery at calit2
http://gallery.calit2.net
CRCA Researcher
http://crca.ucsd.edu/
Ethnic Studies Affiliate
http://www.ethnicstudies.ucsd.edu/

Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics,
Board Member
http://hemi.nyu.edu

University of California, San Diego,
9500 Gilman Drive Drive,
La Jolla, CA 92093-0436
Phone: (619) 322-7571
e-mail: rrdominguez at ucsd.edu

Project sites:
site: http://gallery.calit2.net
site: http://pitmm.net
site: http://bang.calit2.net
site: http://www.thing.net/~rdom
blog:http://post.thing.net/blog/rdom