9/14 September Blog Evaluation

Paul Thulin has read your blog up to this point/entry. Your blog is currently up to date and complete.

10:50 40 detained near carnagie melon u near cathedral of learning

confirmed students shot with rubber bullets

confirmed tear gas deployed

students being denied access to dorms

booking units at 5th and tennyson

"we need to cut them off at bouquet and we will have them encircled"-scanner

"OC deployed 5th and bouquet, taking one intocustody" 11:39pm -scanner

"they all ran inside of ridgefield towers" -scanner

228115-all arrest to be filed under -scanner

"arrest numbers have increased - seems to random- teargassing guy in pitt hoodie- great i'm being peppersprayed, guy on his face, they are arresting him, i'm withdrawing now" forbes st and oakland st-caller to indy radio

"there seems to be three towers(campus residence A B and C) residential or campus about 100 riotcops converging at 5th and bouquet" -caller to indyradio

Four arrests at University of Pittsburgh Fifth and Bouquet so far #g20 Friday September 25 2009 11:46pm

"people standing around in the restaurant district, a little excitement for the neighborhood, the cops are deploying against them as if they are in combat" -caller "nigel" to indyradio 11:48 pm

kellyowarrior RIOT POLICE ENTER TOWERS LOBBY. NO ONE ALLOWED IN OR OUT. TOWERS SURROUNDED. COPS ASKING FOR ID. #G20 (via @infernoenigma) #resistg20
less than 20 seconds ago from Twitterrific

SocialistZine RT @resistg20: the police are planning to do a sweep through 'the towers' to check for protesters in upper floors" #resistg20 #g20
less than a minute ago from TweetDeck 11:51pm

wrightwilliams #g20 police HAVE entered dorm lobby, possibly 56 arrested so far. demanding ID for all in dorms. lock up and do NOT answer door 11:52pm

razorianfly Police station in Pittsburgh got shot up. G20 is a war-zone. http://twitgoo.com/3rkht / (via @MissKEEP_IT_100) / #G20
half a minute ago from Tweetie 11:54pm

"1 block away the police deploy teargas at oakland, it would be very generous to call it a protest, form what i can tell it was just a group of people standing around trying to figure out what was going on "-caller indyradio 11:56pm

thepittnews No one is allowed to get close to Towers Lobby. A Pitt security guard said there is a sit-in inside. #g20
less than 20 seconds ago from web (pittnews is the campus paper) 11:57pm

Phlegon RT @infernoenigma: COP IN TOWERS LOBBY SAYS THIS IS NOT MARTIAL LAW, BUT 'ALMOST JUST LIKE IT.' #G20
less than 20 seconds ago from Tweetie 11:57pm

acedrew RT @Digeratii: I HAVE BEEN ATTACKED BY POLICE, I TOOK TEARGAS TO THE FACE WHILE ESCORTING AN INJURED STUDENT SHOT WITH RUBBER BULLET #G20
half a minute ago from TweetDeck 11:58pm

"NIGEL":
"they've been threatening people with dogs, which is really kind of gross in a residential area"
"they are patrolling this restaurant area with armored vehicles like you would see in northern ireland"
"its the last night of the protest, they've got the tools, the toys and they are going to use them"
5th and atwood then oakland and forbes

"protesters and students are barricaded at the litchfield towers"-from police (confirmation unclear)-indyradio

g20pghlegal corporate media confirms ~40 arrests, 9 more just reported #g20 #reportg20
less than 20 seconds ago from TweetDeck
12:07am sep 26th 2009

"they are going to deploy just because they can they have been prepaid and they are probably on hold"-Nigel indyradio 12:09am

prerecorded dispersal order is being played (generally accompanies use of LRAD) 12:10am

mikegogulski ( {police} scanner) "hammer and anvil up on tennyson ... clear the tower" #g20 #resistg20
half a minute ago from TweetDeck 12:11am

kimberlyjean83 going to "sweep and clear towers and arrest as necessary" "initiating 'hammer and anvil'" #g20 #reportg20
half a minute ago from web 12:12am

mikegogulski Corrected: (scanner) arrest reported at Bouquet and Forbes #g20 #resistg20
half a minute ago from TweetDeck 12:14am

state police want to take over from the pitt police so they can enter the dorms -indyradio 12:19am

toxictwins21 @BoringPgh Arrests are being processed at the quad. #G20 #PITT
less than 20 seconds ago from web 12:20am

Hargoosh RT@jose602 Hey, all! @DaveyD is live-tweeting the #G20 protest madness in Pittsburgh. Cops are storming student dorms! #tcot #p2 #tjcot
less than 20 seconds ago from web 12:23am

mikegogulski (scanner) Command police officer congratulating cops on all their good work tonight and during #g20 #resistg20 #acab #anarchy
less than a minute ago from TweetDeck12:25am

notyourbroom "I'd like to express my professional regards to everyone tonight, they did an excellent job down here" #g20 #oakland #pittsburgh
less than a minute ago from web 12:25am

8 arrests at forbes and bouquet -police scanner 12:27am

CORRECTION
notyourbroom "We're drawing a crowd at Fourth and Bouquet ... gonna have 8 arrests" #g20 #oakland #pittsburgh
less than 20 seconds ago from web 12:28 am

228147 arrest label -24:00hrs
drawing a large crowd most of which are professionals, professional what "not college students" -police scanner

228142 arrest label- start time is 12:12 -police scanner

crowd is getting rowdy. are there any cops left in oakland?-police scanner

awrsaystara People are chanting "Let him go" on fifth ave near tower c #g20
less than 20 seconds ago from TweetDeck 12:32 am

request for support at forbes and oakland ave to disperse crowd, smoke deployed-police scanner 12:33am (police dogs heard)

229 what number?

812 1294 -police personal number ?

228139 arrest number, start time ?

crowd dispersing at forbes and oakland ave 12:34am
code three have them come code one
-5 previous from police scanner

teargas launched at 5th/bouquet #reportg20 #resistg20 Saturday September 26 2009 12:32am report on-help map this from pittsburgh indymedia twitterstream RT

Hargoosh RT@tonywhite412 Scanner... "Losing all my prisoners at Fifth and Bouquet! ... [disperse] ... We've launched teargas!" #g20 #oakland #tcot
less than a minute ago from web 12:37 am

1901 murray ave john able two individuals in black with radio placing traffic cones in st. - police scanner 12:39am (10 able, may be filming a movie)

SelfOwnership RT @thepittnews Student Life director Kenyon Bonner and Dean of Students Kathy Humphrey have been in the William Pitt Uni since 8 am #g20
less than 20 seconds ago from web 12:40am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rj7hye9d5PQ
video from earlier tonight on pitt campus dorms police brutality

resistg20 RT @toxictwins21: @vsoe RT: @mrdaveyd Just saw student get a rifle pointed at him... As cops told him to leave.. #g20 #resistg20
half a minute ago from TweetDeck 12:44am

emokidsloveme RT @bradleyjp: RT @Digeratii: POLICE STILL FIRING ON STUDENTS ON FIFTH AVENUE #g20
less than 20 seconds ago from TweetDeck 12:53

oxictwins21 @mikegogulski RT @infernoenigma: Major police activity, gassing students on Fifth Ave right now. #g20 #resistg20 #reportg20
half a minute ago from web 12:54 am

thepittnews Police are not letting people approach Towers from the Oakland Avenue side of Fifth Avenue. #g20
less than 20 seconds ago from web 12:55 am

drgoddess Cops are at fifth n bigelow and fifth n S. Bouquet. Just got out of police jam. On Forbes, all is normal for students, like 2 campuses. #g20
half a minute ago from UberTwitter 12:55am

4 arrests at forbes and atwood, will bring them down to 5th and atwood -[police scanner 12:56 am

_katiely very bad that police are not showing ID, purposely covering armband badge IDs on sleeves COVERING UP POLICE BRUTALITY #g20
less than 20 seconds ago from web 12:57am

thepittnews At least three people are sitting on ground w/ hands clasped behind their backs near School of Public Health. Police standing near. #g20 12:59 am

228151 arrest number, the four arrest at 12:56 am - 12:59 am

spikenlilli Just returned from driving the perimeter of blocked Pitt campus. I saw approx 200 students scattered about but not protesting. #g20
less than a minute ago from Seesmic 1:00 am

joaquinuy RT @anarchists@ZMatrix @kellyowarrior REPEAT, I WAS ATTACKED BY THE PITTSBURGH POLICE FOR TAKING PHOTOS, AND TEARGASSED #resistg20 #g20
less than 20 seconds ago from Echofon 1:01am

Police Having a Hay Day in Oakfield
Forbes was blocked off by hundreds of riot cops while surroundingcontingents of cops moved in on the other areas of the campus to corralpeople in. Police brutality has been witnessed -- folks being thrown tothe ground and shot with rubber bullets, media being pepper sprayed andgassed. There have been 48 confirmed arrests with more reports stillcoming in. Protesters and students alike are being held in the dormtowers unable to leave in fear of being arrested, other students cannotcross 5th Avenue to get to their residences without being thrown to theground. Legal folks out on the street want more legal observers andmedia to get out there to document police brutality, please come if youcan! Be careful and stay safe!

posted by Skadi Sat 9/26/2009 12:59 am (pittsburgh.indymedia.org- http://indypgh.org/g20/#)

wolfdancer5 RT @ThePittNews: Pitt Police Chief Tim Delaney estimates more than 100 arrests in Oakland 2nite, most of which 4 failure 2 disperse #g20
less than 20 seconds ago from TweetDeck 1:03 am

spikenlilli RT @Liebchen36x Got gassed and shot at. Home now. Eyes still burning. I shouldn't have come down to use the computers... #g20
half a minute ago from Seesmic 1:04 am

anarchisms Businesses windows reported smashed on Carson....scanner #g20
half a minute ago from HootSuite 1:09 am

thepittnews The three people seen sitting near school of Public Health have flex cuffs on. About 30 people are watching nearby from Towers patio. #g20 1:10 am

kimberlyjean83 wow, foxnews (lol) is reporting pittsburgh protests as "violent" and terrorizing the city #reportg20 #resistg20 #g20 no mention of cop abuse
half a minute ago from web 1:12 am

PITTSBURGH POLICE LAUGHING, TAKING GROUP PHOTO WITH ARRESTED, BEATEN STUDENT. I HAVE VIDEO.
about 1 hour ago from Tweetie 1:16am

I'm back in my dorm room, which is filled with tear gas from a crack in the window. Getting videos and photos off of my camera.
about 1 hour ago from Tweetie
1:17am




(information obtained from indyradio, twitter and live police scanner)

thursday idea blog #4

the weapons/devices/mechanisms of repression

Some things already seen and yet to be used in pittsburgh during this latest round of protest and repression

LRAD (long range acoustic device)
generally mounted on a vehicle these devices produce a sharp loud noise that can lead to permanent hearing loss if you are too close

extendable and fixed batons
made of steel in the extendable version, wood and other plastic coated metal materials

CS/CN gas
also known as tear gas. this is a weapon developed for chemical warfare regularly used on protesters in the united states. It may surprise some to learn that for the military to use this same weapon it requires a direct order signed from the president to deploy. the long term effects of this weapon are unknown any medical studies are unavailable to the public as it is a weapon not a medically approved substance.

Mace/Pepper spray (OC)
oil based, and spread by contact with water. creates intense burning where ever it makes contact with the uncovered body. inhalation can lead to serious injury if compounded with asthma or other respiratory issues. If not removed within hours of contact burns up to 2nd degree can develop on the effected areas of the body.
International Association of Chiefs of Police suggested at least 113 pepper spray related fatalities had occurred in the United States

Hand cuffs
metal, standard police equipment

Quick Cuffs
nylon or other plastic material, do not have double lock device. in regular handcuffs a double lock is employed to prevent the further tightening of applied cuffs. there is a higher risk of nerve damage and soft tissue damage

less lethal munitions
rubber bullets, "bean bag" baton rounds, wooden dowel rounds, wax rounds. plastic electroshock delivering rounds


the following is from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Less-lethal_weapon#Safety.2C_effects.2C_and_legal_status

Safety, effects, and legal status
In the United States of America, the University of Texas-Austin Institute for Advanced Technology (IAT) conducts basic research to advance electrodynamics and hypervelocity physics related to electromagnetic weapons.[9] Generally considered 'non-lethal weapons', electromagnetic weaponry do however pose health threats to humans. In fact, "non-lethal weapons can sometimes be deadly."[10]
Department of Defense policy explicitly states that non-lethal weapons "shall not be required to have a zero probability of producing fatalities or permanent injuries."[11] Although a Human Effects Advisory Panel was established in 1998 to provide independent assessment on human effects, data, and models for the use of 'non-lethal weapons' on the general population,[12] the TECOM Technology Symposium in 1997 concluded on non-lethal weapons, “Determining the target effects on personnel is the greatest challenge to the testing community,” primarily because "the potential of injury and death severely limits human tests." However, "directed energy weapons that target the central nervous system and cause neurophysiological disorders may violate the Certain Conventional Weapons Convention of 1980. And weapons that go beyond non-lethal intentions and cause “superfluous injury or unnecessary suffering” could violate the Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions of 1977."[13]
Some common bio-effects of electromagnetic or non-lethal weapons include affects to the human central nervous system resulting in physical pain, difficulty breathing, vertigo, nausea, disorientation, or other systemic discomfort. Interference with breathing poses the most significant, potentially lethal results. Light and repetitive visual signals can induce epileptic seizures (called the Bucha effect). Vection and motion sickness can also occur.
Project Pandora, conducted by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, WRAIR, included externally induced auditory input from pulsed microwave audiograms of words or oral sounds which create the effect of hearing voices that are not a part of the recipients own thought processes. Microwave pulses can also affect the epidermis (skin) and dermis, the thick sensitive layer of skin and connective tissue beneath the epidermis that contains blood, lymph vessels, sweat glands, and nerve endings, generating a burn from as far as 700 yards.[14]

Thursday Idea Blog #3

All of these thoughts about coercion, state power, police action and the presence of police in a community are all of great importance to me as today was the first day of the the group of 20 meetings in Pittsburgh. already on the pittsburg indymedia website there are reports of dozens of riot cops hanging out near the university campuses. the next few days are sure to be full of reports of police brutality.

already the reports are ominous

RT @someclevername: police choppers spotlighting friendship park/wooded areas in hollow behind bloomfield. what is this, blade runner #g20 Wednesday September 23 2009 12:31am

RT @G20IMC: G-6 Billion March Rerouted by Police http://bit.ly/Z5DwK #g20 #pghg20 Tuesday September 22 2009 11:58pm

i'll be watching closely as i've decided to sit this summit out. I'm sure that there will be plenty of numbers to make work from.

Meeting with Jeff #2

I found this meeting much more helpful than the last. It appears i need to be looking more into what other objects can be used to form a larger visual vocabulary for the communication of my ideas and the larger concept in the long term development of the project. I'm also considering how the end format of the work might be useful in determining how to go about constructing the visual body that will define it.

as far as the latter is concerned i need to be thinking about how the format of the final product can be appropriate to the concept and delivering the information to the audience i am creating it for. I am looking heavily toward silkscreening or another form of diy printing as a possible large part of the final formats. I feel that it is appropriate to the material and follows a long tradition of the diy print and printing press in the history of political action and education.

Another suggestion that we covered was how to find appropriate numbers for the amount of photographs i will create. currently my interest is in the numbers dynamics of how police mass actions and national special security events function. How many people get caught up and arrested in mass arrests what kind of people they are. how many protesters vs how many cops. as was the case at the rnc last year, was the national guard called out and how many military members were assigned to intervene.

I think the photographs i brought went over well. We discussed how to go about cropping them to really draw attention toward the mechanism of authority and away from the individuals.

test shots

POSTER BOY AND WHAT

POSTER BOY


flicker stream here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26296445@N05/

I find it truly hard to go about finding artists who work visually (let alone photographers) who work with the same interests and ideas in mind as i employ in my work. Often it is the work of performance artists, new media and sculpture artists that I relate most directly to. What i feel interested in about this artist is his very basic use of existing mass imagery at the site of its active communication. In changing advertisements where they are found the artist takes his analysis and turns it to practice at the point of delivery.

In the Fear //Anxiety // Trauma i went about delivering an analysis using the visual language of capitalist advertising. High gloss, poster sized photographs similar to that of advertising lacking ad copy. While i"m still not sure where i'll go next i still find it useful to use the visual language of capitalist advertising. How would we have reacted if the photos from abu grahib were high res and studio lit?

Thursday Idea Blog #2 An exploration of the idea of photography as a use of force:

An exploration of the idea of photography as a use of force:

In activist literature and in modern Anarchist analysis there is an idea that power can be categorized into three modes.

The first: Power Over
When power is experienced or used in the form of coercive force. Power gained by oppressive social and economic conditions, and systematic violence impressed upon one group by another.

The second: Power With
When power is experienced or used in the form of collective action against unjust conditions or systems experienced in whole, part or symbolically by members of the collective. A common idea that is directly related to this kind of power is solidarity.
Solidarity can be defined as:
noun, plural -ties.
Union or fellowship arising from common responsibilities and interests, as between members of a group or between classes, peoples, etc.: to promote solidarity among union members.
Community of feelings, purposes, etc.
Community of responsibilities and interests.

(Definition from dictionary.com)

The Third: Power Under
When power is experienced or used in the form of actively or passively giving up the power of an individual or group to another group or system.

I would like to attempt to examine the use of photographs and the practice of photography through this lens in order to tease out the ways in which we experience and employ photography as an act power or use of force.

Some quick examples that may lead to an understanding of how this analysis might play out.

Power Over:
In the Early 1900’s the Roma populations of Eastern Europe were rounded up and confined to specific geographic locations outside of cites and their populations documented. Some of the first uses of photography in the criminal justice system can be found to have been employed during this time. The mugshot has become a common element in the visual language of criminal justice. The first recorded use of the photograph in the form of a mugshot and mugshot book was during this period. Roma populations were photographed and the images held with the local authorities or police forces in a process of criminalizing whole groups of people without charging every individual. As such the entire population through the means of the photograph were shaded with suspicion and subject to social systems of domination by local authorities.

Power With:
The photograph as an act of solidarity has been evidenced by the tradition of modern war photography. Whether intentionally or not the photographs of the Vietnam War and atrocities committed therein added a visual texture to the news or massacre and destruction at the hands of western powers. There is a strong tradition of leftist photojournalists taking their craft to conflicts in support of conflicts in support of social movements. One notable photographer who acted in solidarity with embattled social groups is Robert Capa as he documenting the Marxist and Anarchist forces during the Spanish Civil War.

Power Under:
Power Over could be seen as being experienced by the average American citizen through the means of advertising and mainstream media. The effects can be seen in the links between body image issues and the depiction of women and men in advertising. In politics and the creation of culture the process can be seen as giving up the power to create culture and define political issues by interacting with these arenas as passive consumers rather than image makers and producers.

MONDAY ARTIST// WAFAA BILAL

Wafaa Bilal
(from the wiki)

"Bilal's family is from Najaf, Iraq. He dreamed of becoming an artist but was prohibited from studying art in a university in Iraq, because of the alleged disloyalty of a member of his family; he studied geography instead. He continued to work on art and was arrested as a dissident for his art critical of Saddam Hussein. He refused to volunteer to participate in the invasion of Kuwait, and began organizing opposition groups. He fled Iraq in 1991 and lived in a refugee camp in Saudi Arabia for two years, teaching art to children.
In 1992 he came to the United States to study art at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, from which he graduated with a BFA in 1999. He later moved to Chicago, where he earned an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2003, and became an adjunct assistant professor the following year. In addition to his art he has given lectures about Saddam Hussein's regime and was interviewed by the History Channel."

(I post this because i feel the entry was too detailed and interesting in it detail to paraphrase)

The above video was put together by the hudson mohawk independent media center.

Better known perhaps for his piece titled "Domestic Tension" from may 2007 in which he invited the public through and online interface to "shoot an Iraqi". The idea came after the death of his brother by shrapnel, at the time he had read of a soldier stationed in colorado that was using a computer interface to shoot missiles in iraq.

I find that project to be of special interest as it offers a fragmented experience to both the artist and public participants. the public takes part in the mediated experience of shooting a genuine iraqi through an interface similar to that of a first person shooter video game. the artist was able to experience the fragmented experienced of being shot at and constantly being under the threat of attack.

Perhaps this project offers a case study of what i've been referring to as a fragmented experience. Everyday realities are reconstructed and introduced through a controlled and fabricated situation. the artist was shot not with a real gun but with a paintball gun, not real bullets but paintballs. On the flip side the public participates through a set interaction of "shooting" an iraqi. Once again not truly taking a gun and shooting the artist but shooting the artist with a paintball gun through the mediated experience of the internet interface. On both sides the participants take part in only a fraction of the represented real life situation. through these actions the brutal reality of the real experience of warfare, as well as the underlying reality of the rhetoric of war is exposed. the documentation of that experience moves the temporary nature of the constructed situation to the permanent record of human suffering and has the potential to expose the connection of the simulated experience to the reality by way of the revealed suffering.

video of Wafaa Bilal discussing the project



the day by day video account of the project can be found here

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=8E2DB23DB7246D69&search_query=paintball+project

Thursday Idea Blog

From the Momentary to the Permanent
(or the coercive use of force in the moment as a stand in for the constant use of force in the everyday)

Throughout of our lives we live under the threat of coercive force. As a basic building block of the relation of the individual to the larger system of capitalism the threat of starvation (a threat of physical violence) for the most part guarantees the participation of the individual in the path of submission to hierarchy and the system of wage labor. From this basic building block, the use of coercive force takes many forms most visibly in the role of the police. As the only public institution with the sanctioned ability to use coercive physical force (violence), police action is the most recognizable form of order maintained through force.
Several project ideas i've been kicking around include a conceptual mass arrest of my fellow students in which the temporary use of coercive force as experienced through the application of handcuffs becomes a permanent representation of that use of force through the record of the photograph. In the process of serialization, the photographs of many students in handcuffs becomes a record of a conceptual mass arrest. Another project takes cues from both street art and my experiences in alternative processes. In this exploration I would use source photographs of riot police gleaned form the upcoming G20 meeting in Pittsburgh on the 23 and 24 of September to recreate life size replicas of the police formations in the form of cardboard cutouts in and around the campus and richmond metro area. The temporary installation of the police into the local environment becomes a permanent record of a physical occupation of space through the photograph. As a body of work the photographs together would become a record of how the police representations change the use of physical and in this case public space to both students and members of the general public.
obviously these need to be fleshed out a bit more than they have been but i feel like they both offer opportunities to further explore the ideas i've been presenting.

Meeting with Jeff

First Individual Meeting

I seems that i already have some ideas that i'm working with and plenty of research to go with them. What i need to do a lot more of i s finding specifically photographers who have worked with the ideas i have in mind. I feel like I really do have an understanding about how to use one visual language, say that of pop culture, to go about making another point entirely. I do not believe that making political statements needs to be limited to the classical language of propaganda. In my work i prefer to create open ended situations and questions as an end point on my work. hopefully the experience of my work goes on to live in the mind of my viewer in whatever form or reaction they have as it relates to their specific experience. The classical function of propaganda does not allow for an open end, only for the statement being made.