[-empyre-] The Power of Nightmares
Adrian Bowyer
A.Bowyer at bath.ac.uk
Wed Mar 31 21:17:45 EST 2010
I would have thought that one obvious action to take would be to
organize a mass attendance at this 8 April meeting to make the
collective view extremely loudly heard (if one can hear a view...).
Best wishes
Adrian
Dr Adrian Bowyer
http://people.bath.ac.uk/ensab
http://reprap.org
Simon Biggs wrote:
> Hi Christiane
>
> It’s not news in academia here either. As in the States academia has
> been split since 9/11 and people have had to make difficult decisions as
> a result. However, it is news in the arts.
>
> This isn’t about government agencies seeking to co-opt academics working
> in the physical or social sciences (corrupt as that is) but trying to
> draw independent artists in as well. Within the Scottish context this is
> particularly sensitive. They have just abolished the independent
> Scottish Arts Council and replaced it with a quango made up of
> government appointees and industrialists called Creative Scotland. A key
> person behind that is the person responsible for this email requesting
> artists to contribute to anti-terror (I read that as illegal war of
> aggression) activities. The implication is that artists who choose to be
> involved will receive government largesse.
>
> Corrupt?
>
> Best
>
> Simon
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From: *Christiane Robbins <cpr at mindspring.com>
> *Date: *Mon, 29 Mar 2010 10:25:50 -0700
> *To: *Simon Biggs <s.biggs at eca.ac.uk>, soft_skinned_space
> <empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
> *Subject: *Re: [-empyre-] The Power of Nightmares
>
> 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/ <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
> <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
> <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
> <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 <http://www.a-r-c.org.uk/ambit>
>
> ------ End of Forwarded Message
>
>
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