The Rhizome Digest merged into the Rhizome News in November 2008. These pages serve as an archive for 6-years worth of discussions and happenings from when the Digest was simply a plain-text, weekly email.

Subject: RHIZOME DIGEST: 2.11.05
From: digest@rhizome.org (RHIZOME)
Date: Sun, 13 Feb 2005 21:53:49 -0800
Reply-to: digest@rhizome.org
Sender: owner-digest@rhizome.org
RHIZOME DIGEST: February 11, 2005

Content:

+announcement+
1. Kevin McGarry: FW: A Walk to Remember at Los Angeles Contemporary
Exhibitions
2. Reinhold Grether: transmediale awards
3. Marieke Istha: Woody Vasulka improvises

+opportunity+
4. Amy Youngs: 3D Computer Animation Tenure-Track Faculty Position
5. Kevin McGarry: CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS/PAPERS: Words, Images, and the
Framing of Social Reality
6. Christoph Cox: Call for Proposals -- Cabinet Magazine
7. Rachel Greene: Rhizome Net Art Commissions -- Call for Proposals

+work+
8. Mard Daggett: Balance Bar

+commissioned for rhizome.org+
9. Kayle Brandon: Kayle Brandon reporting on DIY / CONVERSION / OIL / SHIT /
EDUCATION

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1.

Date: 2.07.05
From: Kevin McGarry <kevin AT rhizome.org>
Subject: FW: A Walk to Remember at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions

------ Forwarded Message
From: "e-Flux" <info AT e-flux.com>
Reply-To: "e-Flux" <service AT e-flux.com>
Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2005 11:18:01 -0800
To: "kevin mcgarry" <kevin AT rhizome.org>
Subject: A Walk to Remember at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions

02/07/05 <http://www.e-flux.com>

Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions

<http://www.artleak.org>
A WALK TO REMEMBER
Organized by Jens Hoffmann


Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions
6522 Hollywood Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90028
t: 323.957.1777
f: 323.957.9025
e: info AT artleak.org
w: http://www.artleak.org

Panel Discussion with curator Jens Hoffmann and the artists: Tuesday 8
February 2005 at 7pm
Opening reception: Wednesday 9 February 2005 7 - 9 pm
Exhibition runs 9 February through 8 May 2005


A WALK TO REMEMBER
Organized by Jens Hoffmann

John Baldessari, Jennifer Bornstein, Meg Cranston, Morgan Fisher, Evan
Holloway, Paul McCarthy, Ruben Ortiz Torres, Allen Ruppersberg, and Eric
Wesley.

"For the perfect flaneur, for the passionate spectator, it is an immense joy
to set up house in the middle of the multitude, amid the ebb and flow of
movement, in the midst of the fugitive and the infinite."
- Charles Baudelaire

A Walk to Remember is an exhibition that invites a group of Los Angeles
based artists to conceive and carry out guided tours through neighborhoods
and areas of the city with which they have a particular relationship or
affinity and that deal specifically with the rich cultural history of the
city.

The exhibition relates to Walter Benjamin's concept of the flaneur as a
figure who derives pleasure from the hustle and bustle of the city streets,
who moves purposelessly among the urban crowd with the eye of an artist: a
spectator of contemporary life and urban scenes. Yet, A Walk To Remember
diverts from Benjamin's idea when it examines a specific European phenomenon
of the early 20th century: the postmodern condition of Los Angeles in which
walking is clearly a thing of the past. In addition, in giving each walk a
purpose and in trying to bring various locations and social and cultural
relations of the city to the audience the exhibition reaches beyond what
Benjamin described as an "aimless affair."

Members of the audience taking part in a walk will each be given a
disposable camera to document their individual impressions of the artists'
walks from their distinct perspectives. The cameras will be collected at the
end of a walk and the developed photographs will be presented inside the
gallery space along with maps of the city outlining the different routes.

The Walks:

JOHN BALDESSARI
For John Baldessari's walk each member of the audience is asked to
photograph all intersection street signs from his studio at Bay and Main
Streets in Santa Monica to his second studio on 6th Street and Vernon Ave.
in Venice Beach. The artist will provide a map of the exact route.
Dates: 18 February 2005, 11:00am
27 March 2005, 11:00am

JENNIFER BORNSTEIN
The walk of Jennifer Bornstein is based on the artist's fascination for
Griffith Park in North Hollywood, which the artist has described as her
"studio." Bornstein will introduce the audience to the history of Griffith
Park and lead a tour through the park that will mimic the regular nature
walks one can take in the park.
Dates: 12 March 2005, 3:00 pm
3 April 2005, 3:00 pm

MEG CRANSTON
Meg Cranston will take the audience to Sherman Indian High School in
Riverside. The Sherman Indian High School is one of three remaining off
reservation Indian boarding schools in the United States. The students at
the school come from many different tribes and from all over the United
States. The school has a rich (sometimes tragic) history which Cranston will
relate to the lesser-known parts of Los Angeles' urban Indian history.
Dates: 15 April 2005, 8:00 am
16 April 2005, 8:00 am

MORGAN FISHER
Morgan Fisher's walk will connect two places in Santa Monica where he has
lived for a total of more than 20 years. Along the way, the walk takes a
digression to visit the site of a house where a friend of the artist lived,
then follows the path that he took each morning to buy a newspaper, and ends
with a visit to the former location of an art gallery that helped Fisher to
enter the Los Angeles art world. The walk illustrates the cliche that in Los
Angeles buildings are liable to disappear. The first place where the artist
lived was torn down and replaced by apartment buildings. The second place,
although still standing, will doubtless be torn down and replaced with
condominiums. The house where his friend lived is already gone.
Dates: 16 February 2005, time TBA
27 February 2005, time TBA

EVAN HOLLOWAY
The walk of Evan Holloway starts at his studio and finishes at the subway
station at 7th and Alvarado. The walk includes a great deal of information
about Los Angeles' history. Large Victorian style homes, the only evidence
of this neighborhood's once glamorous past, form a perverse backdrop to the
most degraded and sad prostitution market in LA. Pedestrians are regularly
offered opportunities to purchase fake IDs, illicit subway tokens, black
market cigarettes, and various illegal intoxicants. The walk will stop on
the way at LA's oldest deli to enjoy what is widely regarded as the finest
pastrami sandwich in the region.
Dates: 13 February 2005, 11:00 am
19 March 2005, 11:00 am

PAUL MCCARTHY
Paul McCarthy's walk proposes defining the parameters of a walk that could
then be "performed" by anyone who cares to do so. The artist is interested
in the idea of walking the same route a number of times and how one sees
things differently as they become familiar. For McCarthy 's walk the
audience will not need to come together as a group but can simply devise a
walk for themselves that they will then walk at least ten times. The start
and finish for the walk should be Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions on
Hollywood Boulevard.
Dates: On going

RUBEN ORTIZ TORRES
In Ruben Ortiz Torres walk we will visit and experience "El Pedorrero" (The
Farter) on Whittier Boulevard in the core of East Los Angeles. This muffler
shop is also a museum that holds a collection of a "million" items. Its
founder and director, Bill Al Capone Mufflers, describes it as a corporation
while also functioning as a laboratory and an architectural marvel. At "El
Pedorrero" Bill customizes cars, invents new 3D chessboards and
self-standing ice cream cones while at the same time developing his own life
philosophy.
Dates: 10 February 2005, 12:00 pm
10 March 2005, 12:00 pm

ALLEN RUPPERSBERG
Allen Ruppersberg's walk will be a personal WHATEVER BECAME OF tour looking
for glimpses of what was and still partially is. The axis of the tour will
be a visit to some of the major sites that figure in his particular history.
By looking to compare the What's Here to the What's Gone, exclaiming to each
other "Yes, that is the same!" or "No, it's lost forever," the artist hopes
the tour can find and enlarge the details of the art and the life that once
existed there.
Dates: 13 March 2005, 11:00am
2 April 2005, 11:00am

ERIC WESLEY
Eric Wesley will do a guided walk through a particular section of Griffith
Park. The walk will start at the base of the park near Los Feliz and extend
upward, to a peak in the park. It will be a midnight hike through the dark
wilderness accompanied by the telling of ghost stories based on the rumor
that the property which is now Griffith Park was donated to the city by
Griffith J. Griffith near the turn of the century as a bribe to get him off
attempted murder charges (he shot his wife in the head).
Dates: 25 February 2005, time TBA
6 March 2005, time TBA

To sign up for the walks, please call 323.957.1777 x12. As space is very
limited

------ End of Forwarded Message

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2.

Date: 2.11.05
From: Reinhold Grether <Reinhold.Grether AT netzwissenschaft.de>
Subject: transmediale awards

[have not seen the press release on rhizome. the project links are taken
from <net art links> <http://www.netzwissenschaft.de/kuenst.htm> ]

press release
http://www.transmediale.de/page/whatis/detail/detail.0.releases.43.html

"The jury decided to split the prize, worth 8.000 Euro, between
Camille Utterback [us], Thomas Koener [de] and 5voltcore (Emanuel Andel
& Christian Guetzer) [at]."

Camille Utterback: Untitled 5
http://www.camilleutterback.com/untitled5.html

Thomas Koener: Suburbs of the Void
http://www.koener.de/bdv.html

5voltcore: Shockbot Corejulio
http://www.5voltcore.com/index.html?/content/roboter.html

press release
http://www.transmediale.de/page/whatis/detail/detail.0.releases.43.html

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Rhizome is now offering organizational subscriptions, memberships
purchased at the institutional level. These subscriptions allow
participants of an institution to access Rhizome's services without
having to purchase individual memberships. (Rhizome is also offering
subsidized memberships to qualifying institutions in poor or excluded
communities.) Please visit http://rhizome.org/info/org.php for more
information or contact Kevin McGarry at Kevin AT Rhizome.org or Rachel Greene
at Rachel AT Rhizome.org.

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3.

Date: 2.11.05
From: Marieke Istha <istha AT montevideo.nl>
Subject: Woody Vasulka improvises

Woody Vasulka improvises
Lecture about the history of VJ-Culture
February 15, 2005

De lecture will be broadcasted LIVE on: www.montevideo.nl

Woody Vasulka will speak about the historical context of VJ-ing culture from
the 70s up to now: from illustrated music in the video-synthesizer era to
present movements. In addition to some artistic examples from Steina and
him, Woody will also present actual artists which can be seen in the
context.

Start 20.30 h.
Entrance 3,50 / 2,50
Reservations info AT montevideo.nl T 020 6237101

www.vasulka.org

Netherlands Media Art Institute
Montevideo/Time Based Arts
Keizersgracht 264
1016 EV Amsterdam
The Netherlands
T +31 20 6237101
F +31 20 6244423
info AT montevideo.nl
www.montevideo.nl

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Rhizome Member-curated Exhibits

http://rhizome.org/art/member-curated/

View online exhibits Rhizome members have curated from works in the ArtBase,
or learn how to create your own exhibit.

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4.

Date: 2.06.05
From: Amy Youngs <youngs.6 AT osu.edu>
Subject: 3D Computer Animation Tenure-Track Faculty Position

Applications are invited for the position of Assistant Professor in 3D
Computer Graphics Animation at The Ohio State University. We seek to find an
innovative professional committed to being part of a creative and engaging
collaborative team of artists, designers, scientists, faculty and students.
This is a joint appointment with the Advanced Computing Center for the Arts
and Design and an appropriate department within the College of the Arts.
Candidate will be expected to build on the strengths at ACCAD and interface
with multidisciplinary programs within the arts and sciences. The position
begins September 2005.

Responsibilities: Position requires teaching on both undergraduate and
graduate level. Teaching at the graduate level is in the interdisciplinary,
collaborative environment of the Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and
Design (ACCAD) using state of the art resources. Duties also include the
development of new curriculum, advising and committee work. Faculty are
expected to have active creative careers in their own right.

Position Requirements: Applicants must hold a graduate degree in an art or
design field, or in a related technical field. University-level teaching
experience and a strong record of creative and/or scholarly activities is
desired. Advanced training and substantial professional experience in one or
more of the following areas is required: animation, three dimensional
modeling, rigging, surfacing, visual effects, digital lighting, motion
capture, digital storytelling.

Application requirements: Candidates should show a body of work related to
computer animation and indicate a strong research direction. Applications
should include 1) a letter of application that addresses applicant's
position qualifications 2) a current resume 3) a separate statement
discussing the applicant's creative work and approach to teaching 4) 10
examples and descriptions of applicant's work 5) 10 examples and
descriptions of student works 6) names, postal and email addresses, and
telephone numbers of three professional references, 7) a self-addressed,
stamped envelope. Copies of transcripts will be requested of finalists.

Send materials to:
Computer Animation Faculty Search
ACCAD - The Ohio State University
1224 Kinnear Road
Columbus, OH 43214

Application review begins January 10, 2005 and will continue until filled.
[Still open]

To build a diverse workforce Ohio State encourages applications from
minorities, veterans, women and individuals with disabilities. EEO/AA
employer.

http://accad.osu.edu/main/positions.htm

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5.

Date: 2.07.05
From: Kevin McGarry <kevin AT rhizome.org>
Subject: CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS/PAPERS: Words, Images, and the Framing of
Social Reality

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS/PAPERS:

Words, Images, and the Framing of Social Reality
Monday, April 18th, 2005
65 5th Avenue, New York , New York

A spring interdisciplinary conference hosted by The New School Graduate
Faculty Department of Liberal Studies is seeking paper presentations,
videos, visual art, and/or performance pieces that confront the topic of
³Words, Images, and the Framing of Social Reality.²

Words and images are the conceptual tools used to ³frame² our understanding
of social reality. Oftentimes, these words and images unify
our understandings of a concept to be classified as ³truth". Nevertheless,
there are also instances when this ³truth² is not objective, but merely a
veiled fantasy incapable of fully describing the complexity of the situation
it attempts to define. Thus, simulated and psuedo-concrete
imagery such as extreme religiosity, political propaganda, mass media,
nationalism, etc. are perhaps only manageable, yet illusory attempts of
filling this conceptual void. Are we then slaves to the fantasy and
seduction of words and images, or, subjects vying to redefine them? This
interdisciplinary (and hopefully multi-media) conference will explore the
relationship and tension between imagery, metaphor, and rhetoric in
creating, maintaining, and framing social reality(s).

Please submit paper abstracts or presentation proposals to
hsiaoc01 AT newschool.edu or AllaN562 AT newschool.edu by February 25th 2005.
Some possible topics could be (but are, of course, not limited to*)
Image and Sexuality
Racism and War: Debasing the Other
Terrorist as Auteur
Pop Culture as Social Control
Spin Cycle: The Framing of Politics
Art as resistance
Coding War: just vs. unjust violence
Willful Amnesia: Choosing to ignore and/or forget

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6.

Date: 2.08.05
From: Christoph Cox <ccox AT hampshire.edu>
Subject: Call for Proposals -- Cabinet Magazine

Cabinet magazine is initiating a new series of CD/DVDs.

This new series will focus on artist projects, documentary projects, and
presentations of unusual ideas or histories. While "musical" work will be
considered, the editors are particularly interested in conceptual projects.

Media can be audio, video, text, or image in any combination.

Send proposals and any other communication to:
<brian AT immaterial.net> and <ccox AT hampshire.edu>

Christoph Cox and Brian Conley
Editors-at-large/CD Editors
Cabinet Magazine
http://www.cabinetmagazine.org

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7.

Date: 2.09.05
From: Rachel Greene <rachel AT rhizome.org>
Subject: Rhizome Net Art Commissions -- Call for Proposals

RHIZOME.ORG NET ART COMMISSIONS

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

+ Deadline for proposals: March 23, 2005 +
Rhizome.org is pleased to announce that with support from Greenwall
Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual
Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts, between eight and ten new net
art projects (works of art that are made to be experienced online) will be
commissioned in 2005.

The fee for each commission will range from $1,500 ­ $3,500.

Rhizome.org is an online platform for the global new media art community. We
are committed to supporting the creation, presentation, discussion and
preservation of art that engages new technologies in significant ways. We
emphasize innovation and inclusiveness in all of our programs and
activities.

Artists are invited to submit proposals for new works of internet art. There
is no required theme, but these works must be made to be experienced online,
thus viewers/participants/players should be able to access the projects
online, whether through a web browser, software, or some other use of
internet technologies.

When evaluating proposals, the jury will consider artistic merit, technical
feasibility, and technical accessibility.
Although we will provide some technical assistance with final integration
into the Rhizome.org web site, artists are expected to develop projects
independently and without significant technical assistance from Rhizome.org.

+ How to Submit a Proposal +
The jury will only consider proposals from members of Rhizome.org. To sign
up for Rhizome membership, please visit:
http://www.rhizome.org/preferences/user.rhiz?action=1&new=user

There are two parts to proposal submission:

1. You must create a proposal in the form of a web site that includes the
following key elements:

+ Project description (500 words maximum) that discusses your project¹s core
concept, how you will realize your project and your project¹s feasibility.
If you plan to work with assistants, consultants or collaborators, their
roles and (if possible) names should be included.

+ You are encouraged, but not required, to include a production timeline and
a project budget, which should include your own fee. If you have other
funding sources for your project, please indicate this in your budget.

+ Your resume or Curriculum Vitae. For collaborative groups, provide either
a collective CV or the CV¹s of all participants.

+ Up to 5 work samples. Note: More is not necessarily better. You should
include only work samples relevant to your proposal. If your proposal has
nothing to do with photography, don¹t include images from your photography
portfolio. Please provide contextualizing
information (title, date, medium, perhaps a brief description) to help the
jury understand what they are looking at. The work sample can take any form,
as long as it is accessible via the web.

When designing your web-based proposal, please note that the jury will have
limited time for evaluations, so try to make your site clear and concise.

When your web-based proposal is complete, you are ready for Part Two of the
proposal process:

2. Submit your proposal for a Rhizome.org Net Art Commission via an online
form at http://rhizome.org/commissions/submit/.

We do not accept proposals via email, snail mail or other means. Proposals
will be accepted until 5:00pm EST (that¹s New York time) on Friday, March
15, 2005. The form at http://rhizome.org/commissions/submit/ requires the
following information:

+ Name of artist or collaborative group
+ Email address
+ Place of residence (city, state/province, country)
+ Title of the project (this can be tentative)
+ Brief description of project (50 words maximum)
+ URL of web-based proposal


+ Jury +
Proposals will be reviewed by a jury consisting of Rachel Greene, Executive
Director of Rhizome.org and author of Internet Art (Thames and Hudson,
2004); Francis Hwang, Director of Technology at Rhizome.org; artist Eduardo
Kac, Professor and Chair, Art and Technology Department at the School of the
Art Institute of Chicago; Sydney-based artist, writer and curator Melinda
Rackham, also of the ­empyre- forum; and the head of Tate Digital
Programmes, and Net Art curator at Tate Online, Jemima Rellie.

Rhizome.org members will also participate in the evaluation and awarding
process through secure web-based forms. In this phase of evaluation,
Rhizome.org members will be directed to the submitted web-based proposals.
While this more open jurying process does mean that proposals could possibly
be discussed publicly, there have been no reported conflicts or abuses of
information reported.

+ Winners +
Winners will be contacted on or after May 1, 2005. Each winner will be asked
to sign an agreement with Rhizome.org governing the terms of the commission.
Commissioned projects will be listed on the main Rhizome Commission page and
included in the Rhizome ArtBase.

Winners will be announced on or before May 1, 2005. Commissioned projects
must be completed by December 1, 2005.

+ Questions +
If you have any questions about the Rhizome.org Net Art Commissions, please
contact Francis Hwang at francis AT rhizome.org or 212.219.1222 X202.

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8.

Date: 2.07.05
From: Mark Daggett <mark AT markdaggett.com>
Subject: Balance Bar

The "Balance Bar" is a easy to use browser extension programmed to allow any
user to editorialize any web page anywhere on the Internet. Once you have an
account (which is free) you can use the "Balance Bar" to literally insert
your comments/article/rant directly onto whatever web page you would like to
expound on. The "Balance Bar" was developed because of the increasing need
to "balance" the one-sided and isolated world view that much of our media
sources produce.

The Balance Bar can be downloaded here: http://www.collcoll.com/balancebar/

The current version of the tool bar is developed for the PC and Internet
Explorer only. I am working on an extension for the firefox/mozilla browser
but that is several months away. The source is available for anyone who'd
like to help out.

Best Regards,
Mark Daggett

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9.

Date: 2.11.05
From: Kayle Brandon <kayle AT irational.org>
Subject: Kayle Brandon reporting on DIY / CONVERSION / OIL / SHIT /
EDUCATION


Kayle Brandon reporting on DIY / CONVERSION / OIL / SHIT / EDUCATION
at DIY_Culture 2005 January 21st-23rd: Birmingham UK
http://irational.org/kayle/DIY_culture/DIY_culture_images.html

Lots of people I know love abit of DIY, weather its putting up a shelf or
making their own teeth.

DIY_Culture 2005 was organised by Steve Crozier and Simon Griffiths,
offering a programme of how-to-and-why in DIY domestic infrastructure,
encompassing a broad range of issues from Linux computing to shit
composting.

"The intention was to create an atmosphere of practical hobbyism combined
with theoretical apocalyptic preparations. DIY could be seen as the
hidden side of resistance in a confrontational and obvious manner, and
acting as if ourselves and the environment around us is independent of any
power structures. Ignoring through existing rather than resisting in the
traditional sense.

There was also a breakdown between workshops, participants and audience,
which was interesting and is one area that should be pushed as far as
possible. Otherwise this becomes another commodified area of
entertainment for people to attend and consume."
Steve Crozier

http://stuffit.org/diy/



CONVERSION

Many of the workshops in DIY_Culture were about converting from one
process to another, replacing defunct damaging systems with processes and
approaches that clearly represent attempts at more sustainable symbiotic
relations.

The alchemy of conversion can be a radical learning experience. Changing
and trying things out on ourselves and surrounding, enables us to
analyse and reconsider the total effect a process is having on a
situation.

http://www.onlineconversion.com/



OIL

The diesel engine was originally designed to run on peanut oil. So the
conversion process is more about revisiting the inventors intention rather
than rethinking it.

Conversion of the engine is relatively easy depending on the vehicle type.
The action liberates the user from crude oil agents. We may endlessly
dispute the oil companies ethics and protest the detrimental effect of
using such a fuel, but until we stop buying, stop using we are aiding and
abetting.

The user and instigator for the change detaches from auto pilot. Relations
to vehicle, supply and politic all shift. Maintaining and committing to
the new situation requires a level of responsibility that most may find
undesirable. The decision to go against the norm tends to place the user
in a minority position, access to materials, information, and support may
be in shorter supply.

During DIY_culture Hannah got her diesel engine converted, it took Ian
all-day. After a day of mechanical manhandling the van was ready for
test drive.

Kayle Brandon: What's changed since the conversion?

Hannah Searnley: My exhaust smells like pakoras, which is great, nice to
be different. Hopefully, my particulate output is less. In a
well-functioning car running on new veg oil (rather than filtered used veg
oil) the particulates are considerably less, which is cool because they
are a big problem, especially in towns, for people's breathing. And of
course the emissions are much cleaner and don't include greenhouse gases.
So I guess I can feel better driving about now. I have to start the van on
diesel and get the engine up to a certain temperature to ensure that the
veg oil is thin enough to pass through the engine without clogging the
pump up. This can take about 15 mins, so I'm starting to think that if I'm
not doing a long enough journey to be able to turn over to veg, then maybe
i should be walking or cycling it. It's not illegal to run your car on
veg, but you have to make sure that you are up to date with paying the
fuel tax. Apparently, it's very rare that you will be pulled over, but
it's best to have a receipt for oil with the taxed pre-paid in your
glovebox.

www.vegburner.co.uk
www.bio-power.co.uk



SHIT

Will maintaining my own shit make me a better person, more whole, more
pure more real, more able to deal with my own death ?

The dominant waste disposal system is a shit to filth process; the
compost toilet is a shit to fertiliser process.

Social constructs of perceived civil society keep us from engaging with
natural symbiotic relations. The popular misconception of shit as 'waste'
instead of 'resource' necessitates replacement of a high functioning
bio-dynamic system with a waste control and management process.

Kayle Brandon: has the experience effected ways you view your own body ?

Graham Burnett: Not really, but i think it has made it more tangible for me
the
awareness of how we have broken the cycles of nature, IE that we flush
perfectly good quality fertiliser out to sea, thus creating a problem
rather than using a solution. I knew this on an intellectual level, but
our compost bog project has made that realisation more 'solid' if you
like...

KB: Can a city dweller do it?

GB: I don't see why not as long as you have a reasonable sized
garden, probably not very practical if you live in a block of flats or
something. We need more sensible broad scale sewage solutions in cities
rather than flushing shit out to sea. It could be returned to the land via
larger scale composting projects.

http://www.weblife.org/humanure/default.html
http://www.gb0063551.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/bog/compostbog.htm



EDUCATION

Ultimately DIY culture is about self governed learning. Autonomous,
education via independent study and research. Experimenting, playing and
producing to enrich daily life and challenge the status quo.

"DIY_Culture 2005" is one example of events, projects and situations set
up by groups and individuals with DIY ethics.

"The human mind is inquisitive, enquiring; it is stimulated by the
process of learning new skills and knowledge. There is really nothing all
that special in feeling empowered enough to teach ourselves some new skill
or piece of knowledge. This is what the mind does, how it functions.
Unfortunately in much of western society, this is often not the case. A
direct correlation can perhaps be discerned between this situation and the
manner in which learning comes to be institutionalised under the banner of
education.

If we perceive of our society of mass production and consumption in terms
of a system, we can note that in order for such a system to be
predictable, manageable and therefore efficient, the units that it depends
upon need, in themselves, to be regular, calculable and predictable. The
production of such units is the service that institutionalised education
or school provides for modern society. It achieves this by nurturing an
environment of low-level anxiety and fear. The use of continual
examinations, competitive grading systems, divisions according to age,
separation from the adult world and any meaningful responsibilities, and
an enforced elongation of the period of childhood, all serve to foster an
immaturity of thought and emotion that extends well into adulthood.
Schools, in this manner, are able to produce, for industrialised society,
people, or workers, who have been leveled off, deliberately stunted in
their growth as human beings, denied the opportunity to learn to think and
feel for themselves. In other words a regular, calculable and predictable
workforce, fit for the requirements of industrialised mass production and
consumption.

In this sense educating both yourself and your children through means
other than school is perhaps one of the most radical acts possible. "
Simon Griffiths

The University of Openess (UO) is a self-institution for independent
research, collaboration and learning. Lottie Child is a UO producer and
user, working specifically in the faculty of Physical Education.

Kayle Brandon: I've been considering going into further education would you
recommend UO?

Lottie Child: I think it depends what kind of people you've got access to,
the way I'm approaching my MA (master of arts) at the UO is to use it as a
contact to people I want to talk to, and as a framework for the research
that I'm doing... If you you want to carry on developing your work, you can
conceptualise an MA at UO in anyway you want.

KB: Does UO have tutors available that I could access?

LC: No it doesn't, its got a mailing list and a Wiki, the Wiki is edited
anonymously and the people on the mailing list are hard to know who they
are. You can use those places to put info share info ask questions that
kind of thing. Its not difficult to get in involved and figure out who
everybody is and find it if anyone has anything to offer you. The way I do
it is by creating links with people I come across as I research and work.

KB: How does UO work exactly?

LC: I don't know, how it works, I suppose via the mailing list, Wiki,
there's people. I don't know all the people involved, and I don't know what
all the people involved in it think it is. Whatever your collective
imaginations come up with that's what it is. It works in lots of different
ways.

LC: the great thing about the Wiki is that its an ever expanding thing,
that is practically unknowable; it grows because people us it.

http://twenteenthcentury.com/uo/index.php/

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