[-empyre-] The Power of Nightmares

Tue Mar 30 04:25:50 EST 2010

Hi Simon -

Sadly, this is not news to many professors in the States, especially  
since 9/11 and especially to those on the faculty of Research 1  
Universities.  It has proven to be the basis of critical issues for  
several I know and they have struggled ( actually suffered  ) for the  
past decade or so.  Some have left the academy for this very reason  
and others remain - each as their conscience sees fit.

Best,

Chris

On Mar 28, 2010, at 5:35 AM, Simon Biggs wrote:

> Hi all
>
> Please see the thread from the Ambit list below. It is incredibly  
> disturbing. This government official hasn’t a clue how artists think  
> and operate – and yet they are apparently the Deputy Director of  
> Culture for the Scottish government! It is like having Dick Cheney  
> running Amnesty! It is so unbelievable it crossed my mind it is a  
> hoax but this person is indeed who they say they are and seems to be  
> seeking to co-opt artists into a morally bankrupt war of aggression  
> founded on an arrogant imperial foreign policy enforced domestically  
> through a corrupt and corrupting home security apparatus. In the  
> best of times artists are obliged to rip up the rule book and turn  
> over the furniture but in this context we are obliged to do more.  
> How does the artist act responsibly in this context and contest such  
> insidious actions? What artistic interventions might now be  
> appropriate?
>
> The second section of the thread presents a text documenting how  
> anthropologists previously responded to attempts by the authorities  
> to similarly co-opt their discipline. The url it points to offers  
> more detailed documentation and background. Whilst I agree entirely  
> with their logic and conclusions I wonder whether the actions they  
> proposed to take in response had any effect. The fact that their  
> deliberations and actions pre-date the Scottish Executive email  
> below by a good period of time shows that they made no difference.  
> What would?
>
> Best
>
> Simon
>
>
> Simon Biggs
>
> simon at littlepig.org.uk  Skype: simonbiggsuk  http://www.littlepig.org.uk/
>
> ------ Forwarded Message
> From: Variant <variantmag at btinternet.com>
> Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2010 15:39:20 +0000
> To: <ambit at lists.a-r-c.org.uk>
> Subject: [Ambit] The Power of Nightmares
>
> Militarisation of 'creativity' in Scotland : moral and ethical  
> dilemmas concerning the integrity of creative practitioners
>
> "how creativity can help in the study of terrorism and forensic  
> science and in how the outcome or story from that is told"
>
> ...Firstly, let me introduce myself: I'm Wendy Wilkinson and I head  
> up the Culture Division in the Scottish Government. As well as all  
> things culture, my remit also includes the creative industries...
>
> However, I'm emailing about a quite separate matter. And it may  
> appear rather bizarre, but bear with me. I'd like to invite you to  
> an informal meeting I'm arranging on 8 April, at my office in  
> Victoria Quay, Edinburgh. And it's to brainstorm/discuss how  
> creativity can help in the study of terrorism and forensic science  
> and in how the outcome or story from that is told. This stems from  
> work that Brian Lang, former principal of St Andrews University, is  
> doing to arrange a conference joining up the centre for study of  
> terrorism at St Andrews university, with the forensic science centre  
> at Strathclyde university and the centre for terrorism at the   
> University of Central Oklahoma. Brian and I are both keen to explore  
> how creativity can contribute and we recognised the first step would  
> be to consult our own creative talent here in Scotland. hence my  
> invite. I am planning to invite a couple of people from the computer  
> gaming industry and perhaps a writer or artistic director, so a  
> small group and it would be attended by Brian and the President of  
> the University of Central Oklahoma who is over here for a visit then.
>
> I do hope that you can attend and would be grateful if you could let  
> me know what time you may be available on the 8th.
>
> kind regards
>
> Wendy Wilkinson
> Deputy Director: Culture
> Scottish Government
> Victoria Quay
> Edinburgh EH6 6QQ
>
>
>
>
>
> Anthropologists' Resistance to Militarisation
>
> The project [‘Combating Terrorism by Countering Radicalisation’]  
> “provoked a furious response from academics”, mainly  
> anthropologists, “who claimed it was tantamount to asking  
> researchers to act as spies for British intelligence” (Baty 2006).  
> James Fairhead, who works for the ESRC’s Strategic Research Board  
> and on its International Committee, declared it is appalling that  
> these proposals were not discussed in any of these committees  
> (quoted in Houtman 2006). Opposition to the project grew  
> significantly after the plans were published in the Times Higher  
> Educational Supplement. As a result, it was withdrawn before its  
> closing date on November 8th 2006.
> http://www.sussex.ac.uk/anthropology/documents/marrades.doc
>
>
> The eleven originators of the Pledge are deeply concerned that the  
> "war on terror" threatens to militarize anthropology in a way that  
> undermines the integrity of the discipline and returns anthropology  
> to its sad roots as a tool of colonial occupation, oppression, and  
> violence.  We felt compelled to draft the Pledge to say that there  
> are certain kinds of work—for example, covert work, work  
> contributing to the harm and death of other human beings, work that  
> breaches trust with our research participants, and work that calls  
> other anthropologists into suspicion—that anthropologists should not  
> undertake.  In many ways we are restating the position that Franz  
> Boas famously articulated in 1919.  We encourage you to sign the  
> Pledge as a way to support this position on ethical work in the  
> discipline and as a way to make a statement to government and  
> military officials, the social science and other scientific  
> communities, and the broader public that that anthropologists will  
> not participate in such work or support wars of occupation.
> http://sites.google.com/site/concernedanthropologists/faq
>
> "A soldier whose business is murder as a fine art, a diplomat whose  
> calling is based on deception and secretiveness, a politician whose  
> very life consists in compromises with his conscience, a business  
> man whose aim is personal profit within the limits allowed by a  
> lenient law -- such may be excused if they set patriotic deception  
> above common everyday decency and perform services as spies. They  
> merely accept the code of morality to which modern society still  
> conforms. Not so the scientist. The very essence of his life is the  
> service of truth. We all know scientists who in private life do not  
> come up to the standard of truthfulness, but who, nevertheless,  
> would not consciously falsify the results of their researches. It is  
> bad enough if we have to put up with these, because they reveal a  
> lack of strength of character that is liable to distort the results  
> of their work. A person, however, who uses science as a cover for  
> political spying, who demeans himself to pose before a foreign  
> government as an investigator and asks for assistance in his alleged  
> researches in order to carry on, under this cloak, his political  
> machinations, prostitutes science in an unpardonable way and  
> forfeits the right to be classed as a scientist." (Franz Boas, in a  
> letter to The Nation, 1919)
>
> Workshop of Military Anthropology in the UK
> We find other, smaller-scale examples of universities and their  
> academics seeking to cash in on “terror research” by offering their  
> knowledge as a source of “protection.” One example involves the  
> “Culture in Conflict Symposium” at the Defence Academy of the United  
> Kingdom, on 16 – 17 June 2010 <http://www.cranfield.ac.uk/cds/symposia/cic10.jsp 
> >. It includes a Workshop on “Spatial Sociocultural Knowledge” (read  
> human terrain) and followed by a one-day Military Anthropology  
> Workshop. There is no clearer expression of the way academics have  
> become comfortable players in the pyramid scheme of war corporatism  
> than when they call themselves “military anthropologists.”
> http://zeroanthropology.net/
>
> Protests against British research council: "Recruits anthropologists  
> for spying on muslims"
> A few weeks ago the Association of Social Anthropologists of the UK  
> and Commonwealth (ASA) passed a resolution that criticized a huge  
> British research program that recruits anthropologists for “anti- 
> terror” spying activities, and anthropologist Susan Wright (Danish  
> University of Education) called for global coordination on this issue.
> http://www.antropologi.info/blog/anthropology/2007/protests_against_british_research_counci
> _______________________________________________
> a m b i t : networking media arts in scotland
> post: ambit at a-r-c.org.uk
> archive: www.a-r-c.org.uk/ambit
>
> ------ End of Forwarded Message
>
> Edinburgh College of Art (eca) is a charity registered in Scotland,  
> number SC009201
>
>
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