Dyndy.net: Engineering the Future of Money for Democratic Economy (2011)
Filed under e-zine | Tags: · bitcoin, democracy, economy, electronic money, internet, money, p2p
DYNDY is an effort at building a Pattern Language for Alternative and Complementary Money Systems to inform and empower grassroots communities with concepts and tools to overcome scarcity, instruments and reflections for the Exodus from proprietary money.
DYNDY was launched in November 2010 at De Balie culture centre, Amsterdam.
Publisher: dyne.org foundation, 2010-2011
Published under GNU FDL license
Begüm Özden Firat, Aylin Kuryel (eds.): Cultural Activism: Practices, Dilemmas, and Possibilities (2011)
Filed under book | Tags: · activism, art, culture jamming, media activism, politics, situationists, social movements, surv, tactical media
This volume addresses contemporary activist practices that aim to interrupt and reorient politics as well as culture. The specific tactics analyzed here are diverse, ranging from culture jamming, sousveillance, media hoaxing, adbusting, subvertising, street art, to hacktivism, billboard liberation, and urban guerilla, to name but a few. Though indebted to the artistic and political movements of the past, this form of activism brings a novel dimension to public protest with its insistence on humor, playfulness, and confusion. This book attempts to grasp both the old and new aspects of contemporary activist practices, as well as their common characteristics and internal varieties. It attempts to open up space for the acknowledgement of the ways in which contemporary capitalism affects all our lives, and for the reflection on possible modes of struggling with it. It focuses on the possibilities that different activist tactics enable, the ways in which those may be innovative or destructive, as well as on their complications and dilemmas.
The encounter between the insights of political, social and critical theory on the one hand and activist visions and struggles on the other is urgent and appealing. The essays collected here all explore such a confrontational collaboration, testing its limits and productiveness, in theory as well as in practice. In a mutually beneficial relationship, theoretical concepts are rethought through activist practices, while those activist practices are developed with the help of the insights of critical theory. This volume brings scholars and activists together in the hope of establishing a productive dialogue between the theorizations of the intricacies of our times and the subversive practices that deal with them.
Publisher Rodopi, Amsterdam/New York, NY, 2011
Thamyris/Intersecting: Place, Sex and Race series, No 21
ISBN 9042029811, 9789042029811
261 pages
publisher (incl. contents)
google books
PDF (pages 1-8 missing)
Comment (1)John Zerzan, Alice Carnes (eds.): Questioning Technology: Tool, Toy or Tyrant? (1991)
Filed under book | Tags: · artificial intelligence, communication technology, computing, critique, history of technology, marxism, silicon valley, technology
“The rich array of commentators in this anthology looks at the way technology is waven into the fabric of our lives, and asks: is this what we really want? Questioning Technology is sharp, eloquent, and provocative.
Some of the writers fully intend to shake us up. Russell Means’ essay “Fighting Words on the Future of the Earth” is an inspired case in point. Some suggest solutions: Carolyn Merchant’s “Death of Nature” advocates a restructuring of our priorities in favor of decentralization, “soft” and labor-intensive technologies, and simpler lifestyles. All the contributors face the consequences of our technology-dependency unflichingly and often wittily.
Questioning Technology is an impassioned plea for us to think before we act – and to know that we can, if we want to, ‘unplug ourselves.'”
Publisher New Society Publishers, Philadelphia, PA, Santa Cruz, CA, and Gabriola Island, BC, 1991
ISBN 0865712042, 9780865712041
222 pages
PDF (no OCR; updated on 2012-8-4)
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