[-empyre-] citizens and conflict in flux

Sat Feb 12 00:45:43 EST 2011

Hi Shuruq,

One clear difference is that facebook
members who have a relation to the Middle East or are from the Middle East,
welcomed the Egyptian uprising very positively. You see supportive phrases
going around facebook, such as “power to the people”, “down with dictatorship”,
“We are all with you” and of course lots of posts of personal videos from
Egyptian artists and concern for the people in Tahrir Square. Those who are not
directly related to the Middle East are not necessarily negatively inclined
towards the uprising, but much of the dialogue seems connected to a concern of
the takeover by the Muslim Brotherhood.

Of course there are discussions of this
sort in Arab countries as well, but the concern does not seem to stem from the
same place. If we look at facebook alone, the general concern in the Arab world
is for truly establishing democracy in Egypt and bettering Egyptian life and a
general euphoria of the possibility of it spreading to the rest of the Arab
world. In a stricter western context (and I am speaking in general terms here)
the concern is for how such a takeover of a radical regime could affect foreign
policy in the region and beyond and not necessarily how it would affect the
Egyptian people. 

I am not sure why this division is there,
maybe it is due to news sources. Western governments, as very much illustrated
in the case of Saudi Arabia, do not really care what kind of Arab government
they support, as long as it is open to western influence and acts in line with
Western interests including relationship with Israel, access to resources (oil
in Saudi Arabia for example) and markets (US products sold at low import
tariffs).  Also, an openness to cooperate on intelligence, Qatar, Jordan
and Egypt are big CIA centers. 

Throughout the current turmoil in Egypt
several commentators appeared less than jolly about the ongoing popular
uprising warning us instead that the result of this revolution could quite
possibly be a takeover of the reign by the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) who would
inevitably establish an Islamist Shari’ a based political regime akin to that
in Iran.

This argument only reinforces the
convenient rationale that dictators throughout the Arab world have used for
decades to legitimize their hold on power through undemocratic means. These commentators
are only repeating Mubarak’s mantra to the rest of the world– It’s either me, a
secular pro-western dictator, or an Islamist political system that won’t
be to your liking.

Fear of a Muslim Brotherhood take over
also ignores the role that the Egyptian regime itself had played over decades
to ensure that the only visible voice of opposition in Egypt was that of the
Islamists. This includes the wide oppression of all opposition parties which
meant that in many cases that the mosque became the only safe space in which
opposition voices can congregate protected, to some extent, by couching their
opinions in religious terms such as their religious role to fight corruption.
It also includes more deliberate actions by the regime which in many cases granted
some political space for the Muslim Brotherhood that it did not extend to other
opposition voices, allowing the MB to emerge as the only organized opposition
party.

Finally,
this argument ignores the role that Egyptian dictators have played in “Islamizing”
political discourse in the country. Bereft of a counter-ideology that would
legitimize their rule, both Sadat and Mubarak exerted much effort to extract
some legitimacy from Islam by building thousands of mosques around the country,
placating and funding various Muslim NGOs while banning others and in general
increasing the religious tone of their communications to the public. Sadat went
as far as declaring himself to be Egypt’s first “Muslim” president.

The Arab world, particularly Egypt, have
over the centuries experienced a myriad of opposing political ideologies
including liberal democracy.

Assuming
that the removal of a dictator will always lead to an Islamist political system
ignores the true causes of the rise of political Islam and simplifies the Arab
world to a bunch of Islamist zealots, incapable of progressive liberal
mobilization, and that must, therefore, always be corked in by a pro-western
dictator lest the Islamist genie would escape.   
Larissa

Date: Thu, 10 Feb 2011 08:08:54 +0200
From: harbsh at gmail.com
To: empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
Subject: Re: [-empyre-] citizens and conflict in flux

Hi Larissa,I am curious how were the reactions different?bestsshuruq

On Thu, Feb 10, 2011 at 2:52 AM, larissa sansour <lsansour at hotmail.com> wrote:

Undermining the homogeneity of news coverage is certainly a big incentive for media based work. It is, of course, easier for an artist to film and record a reality on the ground to expose it in sharp contrast to what is being reported ,than, say, paint a picture. Finding ways to address this topic is always problematic. I am always tempted to expose the discrepancy between reality on the ground to news footage in a stark direct and literal manner, but somehow always end up having a more quirky approach to it. In my work, I tend to present these alternative takes by accentuating everything that is completely missing in news coverage, such as actual Palestinian towns rather than the non-descript wilderness-like spaces Palestininas usually get depicted in or ordinary people in contrast to, say, the select number of vaguely disturbing militant personas that news cameras tend to love so much.
In relation to recent events in Egypt, it is interesting to note the polarisation of concerns and perspectives on something like Facebook. It was surprising to see curators, artists and others from or related to the Middle East in their practice engage with the recent events in Egypt very differently from my colleagues whose main practice unfolds exclusively in a Western context, even though both groups are following the news from the region incessantly. 

Larissa

Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2011 09:21:01 -0800
From: isakberbic at yahoo.com
To: empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au

Subject: Re: [-empyre-] citizens and conflict in flux

In respect to Tim's assessment that one of the benefits of "overlapping platforms and networks of new media" is the availability of multitudes of distinct perspectives which in turn undermine homogeneity: I agree that this is a most significant aspect that is also the driving force behind much contemporary new media art today, including my own practice. It is what facilitates an awareness and criticality of the complexities in media coverage and contemporary representation as we navigate through the
 mass. 

What was compelling about the Balkan wars in the 1990's is that they were one of the first wars mediated LIVE; in the sense that information on conflict and war was available through mass media right from the street to television sets across the world - instantly. This is in context of technological developments, satellite up-links, internet and digital information, portable equipment and rapid output, the rise in popularity and commercialization of news channels. In the case of Bosnia, the presence of the UN and
 other foreign organizations made available an unprecedented flow of images. Where the only true media blockade was happening in Serbia in fact. The Serbian general population did not have access to what the world was watching their military engage in. Perhaps, to the contrary is the 2008/2009, 21 day bombing of Gaza where the cameras are confined to the exterior, and the media is coming mostly from authorized and controlled sources, thus limiting “the world’s” access to the site of the event. In the case of Egypt (which is now proving to be a failed attempt of asserting control on coverage) social media and web based tools such as video over IP played a major role in media dissemination. Then, it is certain that governments and militaries can no longer work behind the veil of information control. Even if information is fractured, unorganized, unedited, contradictory; a multitudes of singularities; it is still permeating and allowing us an insight into the particular.

Isak Berbic

From: Timothy Murray <tcm1 at cornell.edu>
To: soft_skinned_space <empyre at gamera.cofa.unsw.edu.au>

Cc: 
Sent: Monday, February 7, 2011 7:04 PM
Subject: [-empyre-] citizens and conflict in flux

 > Dear Larissa and Isak,

Given the limited news reporting coming out of the Middle East in the past couple of weeks, and that most of what we in the US can access via the television derives from CNN/ABC through the lens of a only a handful of reporters and camera views, I'm hoping the list will weigh in on your accounts of the power shifts of conflict and how they manifest themselves (or not!)  in the visual sound bites of the media.

One of the benefits of the
 overlapping platforms and networks of new media, as I understand them, has been the ability to make evident, through media overlaps, simultaneous texting and tweeting, not to mention video and cinematic grabs and recyclings, the "conflicting" images and accounts that disturb and undermine the homogenous news coverage flooding the televisual airwaves whenever, it seems, the Middle East is concerned (although why limit news homogeneity to the Middle East).

Of tremendous importance is how frequently the complex interfaces of new media art and installation make manifest the very deep sense of 'conflict' and 'citizenry in flux', of which Larissa speaks so forcefully and which Isak notes becomes washed out by the homogeneity of commodified news footage.

It would be fantastic to hear more about how particular pieces you've created or admired address these dynamics of conflict and flux and perhaps how you understand their temporal and political
 relation to current events in the Middle East.

Perhaps other members of -empyre- would be interested in weighing in here as well.

Looking forward to the dialogue.

Best,

Tim

-- Timothy Murray

Director, Society for the Humanities
http://www.arts.cornell.edu/sochum/
Curator, The Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art, Cornell Library
http://goldsen.library.cornell.edu

Professor of Comparative Literature and English
A. D. White House
27 East Avenue
Cornell University
Ithaca, New York 14853
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