Dear all, a bit more than two weeks and we will all meet in beautiful Brisbane!
We will have enough time to collaboratively reflect on the many issues of DEBT at the workshop. However as announced we will collaboratively investigate some sources that will be of help for our work before the actual meeting.
Here are three documentaries, necessary to watch, as they relate directly to our work and we need to establish some more common ground before we begin.
Debtocracy and Catastroika are both Greek documentaries. Debtocracy (part of which we have used in this years friendly competition outlines) shows DEBT in relation to nation states, changing societies, economic warfare and also provides examples of refusal and alternatives. Catastroika shows the underlying pattern of DEBT- the destruction of public sphere, space, and public ownership. It makes clear that we are in the process of the biggest robbery of human history fuelled by DEBT.
The third documentary titled THE NET (Das Netz) shows an alternative Cybernetic history. The ultra rationalized discourse of cybernetics has not only played a profound influence on modern science and our psyche but it is also highly entangled with avant- garde artistic culture and Utopian aspirations of the Internet.
DEBT is only partly enforced by humans. Yes, it is humans who take the billions and billions of profits and it is humans who loose everything they have along this way. But it is machines, algorithms, cybernetic systems, networked technologies that automatically push forward a system that has run out of control.
Have a look at them and make connections. Start thinking about DEBT in/and Brisbane. Have a look at the research that has been done so far here: http://www.memefest.org/en/gallery/works2012/
Your pre workshop thoughts on all this are very welcome – use the comment space of this blog post bellow.
Read more about the workshop concept here: http://tinyurl.com/9a9x8qf
Read more about the Memefest/Queensland College of Art Award for Imaginative Critical Intervention here: http://tinyurl.com/8od38yk
We are very excited to see you all soon and work with you! Workshop will take place from November 15th to November 25th. We will start on November 15th at 10am. We will be based at the Queensland College of Art. A concrete schedule of the workshop will be sent to all participants via email in the next ten days.
Let us know if there is anything else you need to know.
Soon.
Best, Oliver
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Here is a link to Debtland, a documentary about DEBT in Australia:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCKzSNZ6TP4&feature=relmfu
this is part one, but you will be able to see all five parts on Youtube.
I've been looking at resistant local currency systems including LETS (local exchange trading schemes). Check out "Explorations in heterotopia: Local Exchange Trading Schemes (LETS) and the micropolitics of money and livelihood" or others by Peter North. You will have to have access to databases.