A really, really great blog (posted by "anonymous")

As an anonymous member of the public, I am happy to take this opportunity to post on "This is Not the Internet."  What an exciting chance to express my thought in an open manner!  And with the gmail user account (thisisnottheinternet@gmail.com), password (endcensorship) and answer to security question ("what should we end?" "Censorship"), open to the public, I can't see any reason why everyone shouldn't write on here!

In my first post, I'd like to direct readers to a certain blog, http://dontfeellikewriting.blogspot.com/.  I hear the writer had a lot of trouble with the School of the Art Institute monitoring her posts.  And, look!  She writes about it on the blog!  Lately, she writes mostly about Norwegians.

I also learned about a thrilling performance next Saturday, July 9 that I am sure to attend.  Here is the flier I stumbled upon:

Pussyshopped!

Photoshopping labia to comply with "obscenity"//softcore porn laws in Australia. Censorship & the vulva.

Anndell

THIS THINGS I BELIEVE

(If you're wondering why the link you clicked leads to a video posted on a blog rather than YouTube, see my post "Attempts to Promote Anti-Censorship Project through YouTube Video Ironically Censored")

"Quiet Zones" in New York's Central Park

Here's another one, also from the Times about musicians who are not being allowed to play in Central Park's newly established "Quiet Zones." Full text of the article here: PLAY IT LOUD & excerpt below.

"Several musicians who work in the 840-acre park and do not use electronic sound systems said parks enforcement officers had recently ordered them to cease playing or leave certain areas, including Bethesda Fountain, Strawberry Fields and the Boathouse. John Boyd, a singer, said he had refused and received six summonses.

On Sunday afternoon, the civil liberties lawyer Norman Siegel and Geoffrey Croft, the founder of NYC Park Advocates, a nonpartisan group that supports city parks, joined some of those musicians in a passageway next to Bethesda Fountain.

Mr. Siegel called the establishment and expansion of the Quiet Zones 'antithetical to the principles, values and spirit of the First Amendment.' "

Anndell

Internet In A Suitcase, Dismantling Censorship Abroad

I'm not sure what I think about this -- but find it fascinating. I mean what are the ethics of this sort of thing. Does it even matter?

From the NYTs article: 

"US Underwrites Internet Detour Around Censors"

By JAMES GLANZ and JOHN MARKOFF

"The Obama administration is leading a global effort to deploy “shadow” Internet and mobile phone systems that dissidents can use to undermine repressive governments that seek to silence them by censoring or shutting down telecommunications networks.

The effort includes secretive projects to create independent cellphone networks inside foreign countries, as well as one operation out of a spy novel in a fifth-floor shop on L Street in Washington, where a group of young entrepreneurs who look as if they could be in a garage band are fitting deceptively innocent-looking hardware into a prototype “Internet in a suitcase.”

Financed with a $2 million State Department grant, the suitcase could be secreted across a border and quickly set up to allow wireless communication over a wide area with a link to the global Internet."

Anndell

Jimmy Kimmel's [Bleep] YOU to the FCC

Check out Jimmy Kimmel's 'Unnecessary Censorship' a weekly jab at the FCC - constructed using timely video clip compilations and (tastefully) subversive bleeps.

The FCC (F is for FARCE) in their own words:

The Federal Communications Commission regulates interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite and cable in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories. It was established by the Communications Act of 1934 and operates as an independent U.S. government agency overseen by Congress. The commission is committed to being a responsive, efficient and effective agency capable of facing the technological and economic opportunities of the new millennium . . . FTW 

And look, they have a blog too: BLEEP

Anndell 

Attempts to Promote Anti-Censorship Project through YouTube Video Ironically Censored

Well, this has become all too real...

I send out proposals with my clever link to a 30 second, limited use Simpsons clip, it gets removed by YouTube's software (not a huge deal) I file a fair use dispute, because it's pretty obvious, video goes back up (no surprise, it's a 30 second, limited use, clip), and Fox Broadcasting eventually looks over the case and files a counter-suit against me.  Fuck.  And, I would file back, but now it's pointless, because the invites for This Things I Believe went you two days ago.  And, I would post this 30 second, limited use video elsewhere, but, really, what's the fucking point?  Anyway, here's the video I spent 2 days making on Windows Movie Maker, but now looks like total shit when uploaded here - Signed, Abra

Where is Ai Weiwei?

 

Image Cred: FO-TO-GRA-FE.BLOGSPOT.COM

Copyright © 2011 by Aaron Martin-Colby

Ai Weiwei is an artist of international stature. Ai began blogging and tweeting about his life in China in 2006. "He is a leading figure on the international art scene, a regular in museums and biennials, but in China he is a manifold and controversial presence: artist, architect, curator, social critic, justice-seeker. . . Ai Weiwei's Blog documents Ai's passion, his genius, his hubris, his righteous anger, and his vision for China."  [CRED] 

What fascinates me most about him is his embrace of social media. Ai believes that social media outlets (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Blogs, etc.) are powerful tools to be leveraged by Chinese youth in order to demand social change and the most basic of freedoms, that of expression. His emphasis on youth and their ability to do so, is not at all new  (think Mao and the Red Guards) but for Ai, the Revolution is not that of the party, but the Jasmine Revolution.

//The Great Fire Wall of China//The Great Fire Sale of these United States//

In the United States we take the internet for granted, detest it even. We question its sinister side – its "big brother" capacity to track its users unknowingly. We are skeptical and paranoid (and perhaps justly so) of the sale of our personal data, compiled by websites/applications, to third parties. It strikes me as an interesting paradox. 

On June 1, 2009 Ai's blog was shut down. And on April 3, 2011 Ai was arrested as he attempted to leave Beijing for Hong Kong. 

What is it that stirs the individual to test the bounds of artistic expression within society? What is it that leads the artist to commit acts that might lead to censure, oppression, imprisonment at the hands of governmental institutions? For Ai it appears to be a question of the most elemental of freedoms – the freedom of speech. 


Images of Ai Weiwei and his work:

 Tiananmen Square, 2009, 20th Anniversary of Tiananmen Square Protests.

 Zodiac Heads & Nudes, 2011.

Birds Nest, Beijing National Stadium, Summer Olympics, 2008. 

Ai was commissioned as the artistic consultant for its design, in collaboration with Swiss firm Herzog & de Meuron. 

Han Dynasty Urn with Coca-Cola Logo, 1994.

10" by 11" by 11"

Forever Bicycles, Installation, 2009. Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan.

Anndell

DRINK ME

//PROJECT// LIQUID FAST// & Self-censorship

I've never been able to control my desire to eat. [Well, my desire to do/or have anything really.]  I love food. Love DECADENCE. The kind of meal that makes you feel like you've joined the ranks of the GLITTERATI for just having sat down.

On July 9th, I am going to allow you to savor a slice of this life style with me, as I consume an entire multi-tiered cake, silver platter & all, for 30 minutes. But in order to heighten the extremity of this experience I will go without . . . for as long as I can!

Anndell