<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" ><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;"><div id="yiv387962349"><table id="yiv387962349bodyDrftID" class="yiv387962349" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td id="yiv387962349drftMsgContent" style="font:inherit;font-family:arial;font-size:10pt;"><div id="yiv387962349"><table id="yiv387962349bodyDrftID" class="yiv387962349" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td id="yiv387962349drftMsgContent" style="font:inherit;font-family:arial;font-size:10pt;"><div id="yiv387962349"><table id="yiv387962349bodyDrftID" class="yiv387962349" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td id="yiv387962349drftMsgContent" style="font:inherit;font-family:arial;font-size:10pt;">Rachel,<br><br>Thanks for the response. Sadly, I'm not sure taking a walk frees one from the strictures of neoliberalism, but it might lead to less than routine navigation of the neoliberal landscape.
<br><br>Here's a text John Cunningham and I wrote together about clandestinity, it contains a small collection of forms of cultural/literary
camouflage:<br><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://saladofpearls.blogsome.com/2010/08/06/p58/">http://saladofpearls.blogsome.com/2010/08/06/p58/</a><br><br>It could perhaps be read in combination of Nick's neat description of minor politics and non-identitarian social formations.<br><br>In relation to magic/art/technology and determination under capitalism I find this quote apposite: <br><blockquote><p>The work of art is the visible transformation of
mechanical necessitation into incompleteness of determination and so is
the manufacturing of freedom. [...] let us recall that Kant’ s ultimate charge against the
misguided art pedagogues is that they treat art as play rather than
what it is, labor. Kant remembers what many forget, that a work of art
is called work for a reason. Art is the labor of remaking the world of
mechanism as a world that need not be the realm of necessity. - Gregg Horowitz:</p></blockquote><br>a<br><br>--- On <b>Wed, 11/4/12, rachelbaker@irational.org <i><rachelbaker@irational.org></i></b> wrote:<br><blockquote style="border-left:2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255);margin-left:5px;padding-left:5px;"><br>From: rachelbaker@irational.org <rachelbaker@irational.org><br>Subject: Re: [mf2012] networked insurgents and communications guerilla<br>To: "movingforestl2012london" <list@movingforest.net><br>Date: Wednesday, 11 April, 2012, 13:08<br><br><div class="yiv387962349plainMail">MACBETH<br><br> How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags!<br> What is't you
do?<br><br>WITCHES<br><br> A deed without a name.<br><br><br>So yes, Anthony, the semantics of using 'insurgent' ('guerrilla' actually<br>isn't in the Moving Forest vocabulary as far as I'm aware) is problematic<br>and needs to be thought through.<br><br>But is it possible to use 'insurgent' in a poetic or theatrical context<br>without invoking actual paramilitary histories such as the RAF, or to<br>gesture towards symbolic radical chic? I.e to re-imagine an 'insurgent'<br>as someone who goes for a pedagogic walk along an underground river route<br>temporarily suspended from the strictures of social relations as imposed<br>by neo-liberalism?<br><br>If not, then can we think of alternative nomenclatures for the actors who<br>are interpreting the role of the soldiers who lay siege on Macbeth's<br>castle? Shu lea might be able to expand on her original vision of a<br>forest that moves, but i recall that the metaphor was one which
lent<br>itself to 'transmission'. To me, in this motif that we are<br>staging/replaying, the key characteristic is one of 'camouflage' , but<br>also of movement and mobilisation.<br><br><br>> The problems of taking on the insurgent or guerilla tag is the problem of<br>> the grin without the cat - where is the social movement of which the MF<br>> insurgents would be the vanguard?<br>Yes, where is it? where is any opposition to the neo-liberal project be<br>found these days...;<br><br>Specifically, do you object to the Olympics and its counter-movements as<br>a context for Moving Forest London 2012, the cat for which the MF grins<br>(or grimaces)?<br><br>Or is the whole premise of reinterpreting the Tragedy of Macbeth against<br>the Tragedy of the Olympics just misplaced?<br><br>>The guerilla insurgent is<br>> thoroughly absorbed into the state, it is the model on which it prepares<br>> it's cities and its security systems (see IBM
post).<br>Indeed and Trenton's boat race stunt will no doubt serve to only tighten<br>security around all waterways during the Olympics.<br>It is these and other self-fulfilling prophecies that witches need to be<br>aware of and summon other kinds of magic - theatrical, pedagogical,<br>festival...or deeds without names..<br><br><br>> The above is maybe more a knee jerk reaction to the use of the terms<br>> guerilla or insurgent and not an attack on Moving Forest's general<br>> trajectory. Rather it is my hope that critique encourages some movement in<br>> less predictable directions. Rachel's proposed reading group is an<br>> excellent one. The invocation of magic speaks to the unpredictible,<br>> non-instrumental, not yet possible social relations which both guerilla<br>> and state forms would act to police. Turning away from the double bind of<br>> vanguardist revolution or liberal law-abiding reform there are a host
of<br>> less self-defeating positions, actions, tactics and debates which could,<br>> and I hope will, be explored in the movement of the moving forest<br>Yes, i hope so too - i think although the multiple entry points into<br>Moving Forest is confusing, it is also the strength of the project. I<br>would like to think that each Moving Forest Act could produce discursive,<br>collaborative groups that can find different routes through the forests.<br>Hecate's Prophecies reading group is an attempt to find a collective<br>dramaturgy for Act 0 'Omen'<br><br>Act 1 'Remorse' has all kinds of resonances to the idea of past actions<br>that cannot be undone, histories of misadventures and misdeeds - any<br>artists working with archives out there?<br><br>It would be good to hear from people involved in other Acts.<br><br>Rachel<br><br><br><br>> --- On Mon, 9/4/12, <a rel="nofollow">rachelbaker@irational.org</a> <<a
rel="nofollow">rachelbaker@irational.org</a>><br>> wrote:<br>><br>> From: <a rel="nofollow">rachelbaker@irational.org</a> <<a rel="nofollow">rachelbaker@irational.org</a>><br>> Subject: Re: [mf2012] networked insurgents and communications guerilla<br>> To: "movingforestl2012london" <<a rel="nofollow">list@movingforest.net</a>><br>> Date: Monday, 9 April, 2012, 20:55<br>><br>> “And you all know security, Is mortals' chiefest enemy”.<br>> Hecate, Macbeth<br>><br>> So the problem with the MF narrative of a 'networked insurgency' is
of<br>> course that it is predicated on, and therefore anticipates, the kind of<br>> smart-city network technology that IBM and the Olympic machinists would<br>> want foisted upon us in their over-securitised cybernetic nightmare. The<br>> school of thought that says revert, infect, hack or parasite the<br>> technology is one i have sympathy with - create conditions for The Glitch<br>> - but mostly as a theatrical proposition.<br>><br>> 1. If we created a non-rational Moving Forest map that was layered with<br>> geo-fictions, obscuring the surveillance friendly panoptical tendencies of<br>> all electronical mapping devices, then that might be more interesting.<br>> Camouflage. Anyone interested to design such a map?<br>><br>> 2. Also, the 'insurgent' suggests a binary oppositional narrative of good<br>> vs evil - however, MF recognises that our wost enemies are usually<br>> ourselves as Macbeth proves.
MF is an associative artwork of dissonant<br>> dissensus, insurgents can be at odds with each other as they move towards<br>> the Castle. As long as there is movement.<br>><br>> 3. Also, networks don't always have to be predicated on the electronic.<br>> To uncover/read city infrastructure we can use material that is close to<br>> us and everyday, to make relationships and associations through simple<br>> actions, for example London's reading groups and walking groups such as<br>> the Wetherspoons Underground SykoGeosofy Club which meets on occasion to<br>> follow the various routes of London's many underground rivers. Over the<br>> years river infrastructure has been built on, replaced in parts by the<br>> London Underground. In turn a further layer of infrastructural formatting<br>> is laid congruently with the railtrack in the copper cabling used for high<br>> speed telecommunications. Copper was one of the 7
metals that alchemists<br>> used (gold, silver, mercury, copper, lead, iron & tin). Before its highly<br>> conductive properties were discovered in electromagnetism it was used to<br>> craft mirrors and was associated with love and attraction. The spikes in<br>> copper trading prices have resulted in a spate of copper theft around<br>> London including the Barbara Hepworth sculpture 'Two Forms (Divided<br>> Circle)'<br>><br>> 4. So base metal can be transformed into 'gold'. These small associations<br>> of associative drifts are what will shape the Moving Forest in July and<br>> beyond. To this end I propose 'Hecate's Prophecies' Reading Group and<br>> invite all the witches on the list to attend. The intention is to explore<br>> the idea of the self-fulfilling prophecy, a key Macbethian theme and also<br>> the core principle of cybernetic systems. The reading list is currently:-<br>> - The witches
soliloquies in Macbeth<br>> - Caliban and The Witch by Silvia Federici<br>> - Witch Cult in Western Europe by Margaret Murray<br>> - On Seduction by Baudrillard<br>> - A General Theory of Magic by Marcel Mauss<br>> - Zeroes + Ones : Digital Women and the New Technoculture by Sadie Plant<br>><br>> Any more suggestions welcome, and any satellite groups encouraged.<br>> The first meeting is being prepared for Friday 13th April at the Autonomy<br>> Club at Freedom bookshop, Angel Alley, Whitechapel.<br>> \<br>><br>> rachel<br>><br>><br>> _______________________________________________<br>> List mailing list<br>> <a rel="nofollow">List@movingforest.net</a><br>> <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://lists.movingforest.net/mailman/listinfo/list">http://lists.movingforest.net/mailman/listinfo/list</a><br>>
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