[-empyre-] laws, outlaws & golden pirates

[marc garrett]

Hi Shu Lea & all,

This reminds me of how familiar I have become with the 'Kingdom of 
Piracy <KOP> publication itself through the years. I possess the (2003) 
hard copy version, a CD ROM & booklet, containing the Dyne:bolic 
software. Excellent stuff - Perhaps there needs to be a contemporary 
version now, infiltrating via forms of pirate/viral software; as bots 
spanning across networks and connecting through P2P collectives, where 
selected agents can initiate various projects according to common goals 
agreed upon by its team. Naked on Pluto have recently began to explore 
the use of bots on their word-press site - 
http://pluto.kuri.mu/2011/07/06/bots-as-wordpress-editors/

In respect of gestural acts of art - I really like the idea of creating 
bots and drones which can be asked to enact specific roles and tasks to 
enter into the virtual or physical world, sharing alternative ideas, 
experiences, and critically related, information with others. Like bots 
on a psycho-geographical adventure tuned into a world of unsuspecting 
minds (inhabitants), running at various speeds according to their chosen 
destinations, introducing ideas of agency in contrast to traditional 
forms of culturalized hegemony - a bit like pirate bots showing others 
different ways of being as they invade places where they should not 
(officially) be in the first place.

I think that hacking through the vista, the general interface of 
accepted social networks is 'one', very necessary form of creative 
activism. And of course, there are networked aware artworks, trying to 
not only to crack through the interface of our networked culture on the 
Internet alone, but also in physical environments. For instance we have 
Heath Bunting, whom we can consider as a kind of (cheeky) pirate in his 
own way; especially if we consider 'BorderXing' 
(http://www.tate.org.uk/intermediaart/borderxing.shtm) "Asylum-seeking 
and political migrations are some of the most significant issues of our 
time. Heath Bunting's BorderXing Guide website primarily consists of 
documentation of walks that traverse national boundaries, without 
interruption from customs, immigration, or border police. The work 
comments on the way in which movement between borders is restricted by 
governments and associated bureaucracies."

But, then there is also the question of how we collectively create 
actual alternative situations that empower us beyond playing around with 
the given structures? Of course there are good examples of socially 
active groups who have exploited technology in creative ways in order to 
highlight to the world, critical issues effecting people's struggles, 
such as Refugees International, who in 1996 used satellite images to 
find and assist the plight of 1 million individuals - Lisa Parks on 
Satellite Secrets: Between Spying and Dreaming 
http://we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2008/03/zemos98-lisa-parks-on.php

I suppose, if we reflect upon piracy and its playful forms, and try not 
to get lost in the original and historical context(s) of what such 
behaviours really were, in its raw sense, of killing, robbing, pillaging 
etc - we are left with a kind of romantic version of it.

Are we merely claiming 'real' situations of piracy and replacing their 
murky human-based, activities of brute violence with a more polite, 
educated appropriation of it? If so, should we be offering something 
equally as significant in respect of living up to 'feral' intensities of 
these past shenanigans?

wishing you well.

marc
www.furtherfield.org

> following the thread -
>
>>>>> let's start again from the beginning, how do you think that your 
>>>>> work drives innovation? how can we reclaim creativity through 
>>>>> piracy? isn't that we are just artists not free to express ourself 
>>>>> because of copyright?
>
>>>>> back to the strategies, maybe we should think about a Union of 
>>>>> Pirates, which mutually can help singular cases, i mean for 
>>>>> pirates who may get sued, the union may provide money backup for 
>>>>> legal costs and a crew of lawyers, and why not, an insurance, if 
>>>>> each pirate pay a little fee of subscription for being covered and 
>>>>> being part of the union, i'm sure the money will be enough to face 
>>>>> this difficult time. and in the meanwhile a class action can 
>>>>> stress for innovative legislation change for reclaiming rights of 
>>>>> fair use for digital content.
>
> i dont know if this is the right occasion to distinguish artistic 
> endeavour and the common practiced
> piracy act which indeed has become an industry parallel to the online 
> digital content devlopment.
>
> As an artist, i also dont know if i can be the flag waving union 
> member of the Pirate Union.
> For the curatorial texts  of [kop] in 2002, we stated, "Kingdom of 
> Piracy <KOP> is conceived as an online, open work space which explores 
> piracy as the net's  ultimate art form. "
> we could easily get into the discussion of art form, art genre here, 
> and maybe get into
> how our work (of this specific genre) can be marketed or simply 
> unsellable in the current art scene... (well, guess someone is still 
> naming the price.)
>
> Lawsuits are really applicable when they do bring in money or fame (or 
> notority), arent they?
>
> As artists deriving concept/content from the 'wealth' of the net, do 
> we/do you set out to trip the troubled water?  or do you accidentally 
> fall into the crack and stumbled? Maybe the question, then, is not "we 
> are just artists not free to express ourself because of copyright', 
> but what considered to be, then, the 'limit' (boundary) how far can 
> you go without getting yourself procecuted? or to choose prosecution 
> and make a martyr or a hero of yourself. What is the balanced act on 
> this thin rope?  My pirate republic work was not realized mainly 
> caused of the opposition from my kop partner, how i could 
> threat/damage public participants of willing confession of 3 strikes. 
> In my current work UKI viral game, we aim to infect a city,
> targeting on googlemap. The game is conceived to mobilze the public, 
> the infection, however,
>  is gestural.
>
> A gestural act as an art form? face2facebook elegantly realized such 
> an act. for me, then, the question is strategy for engaging the 
> public. When facebookers make objection that you
> steal their faces, you also bring up most serious issues of our social 
> network generation.
> Yes, we are now 'willingly' participating in the corporate piracy 
> scheme, contributing to a wealth which could be of any minute deemed 
> 'data trash' in the net's black hole that sucks in all data.
>
> what do you think?
>
> over
> sl
>
>
>
>
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