Guest Speaker for FILM 136C - Visual Culture and Technology: History of New Media
Karl Baumann - Occupy Media: Streaming, Jamming, and Hacking
Date: Wednesday, February 15
Time: 4:30-5:15PM
Location: Communications 150 (Studio C)
Free and Open to interested faculty and students
Mobile media has completely changes our relationship to space, both in terms of how we navigate the world and how we conceptualize reality (and past concepts of virtual reality)/ Karl points to the concept of "augmented revolution" (see http://www.salon.com/2011/11/06/the_21st_centurys_augmented_revolution/) in this regard. Karl will also offer a ten minute exercise.
Karl Baumann is a graduate of the DANM M.F.A. Program in the Arts Division of the University of California, Santa Cruz. He is an experimental documentary filmmaker, lifelong student, educator, and digital artist. He currently lives in Oakland, participating in local politcal actions while teaching media literacy at an after-school program in East Palo Alto.
Karl specializes in media theory and cultural analysis that examines perception and memory within global systems of power. His most recent work explores new immersive and mobile modes of cinema to utilize interactive interfaces and the pleasures of urban space for understanding history. His research analyzes emerging media netorks by looking at both complex socio-politial genealogies as well as personal experiences and desires. In addition to his locative media thesis project, Karl has produced three feature documentaries as well as multiple short abstract and non-fiction video works, both within the US and internationally. Website: karlbaumann.com
At the request of the instructor, Karl has provided a list of recommended readings that might help orient students that are unfamiliar with current actions or protests and art in general. Most of them are not academic articles per se, but at this point in the movement it still seems fairly early to have clear, insightful, and theoretically frame writings just yet:
Do it Yourself GeoPolitics!
http://brianholmes.wordpress.com/2007/04/27/do-it-yourself-geopolitics/
A must read for anyone interested in understanding role of art in protests over the last decade or so.
Guardian - Democracy Breaking Out
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/nov/15/occupy-anarchism-gift-democracy
Quick read for contemplating the role of Occupy introducing radical politcs into the mainstream.
Occupy: Future of News Media
http://emilybellwether.wordpress.com/2011/11/04/occupy-wall-street-what-it-tells-us-about-the-future-of-news/
Quick read on the transformations away from single events and hierarchial communication in Occupy.
How I Got off my Computer and into the Streets
http://www.theawl.com/2011/10/the-livestream-ended-how-i-got-off-my-computer-and-into-the-streets-at-occupy-oakland
Personal and indentifiable account of shedding one's cynicism after actually participating in Occupy General Assembly (could just read the beginning and end few paragraphs).