Re: <nettime> How to Cross Borders, Social or Otherwise

[kevin lahoda <up@treerunner.com>]

very romantic. Playing the nomad, walking around, begging, borrowing,  
finding things, thumbing nose at big brother, while all the while,  
really, going nowhere at all.

I seriously doubt, aside from snippets like "small," "medium" "large,"  
"yes," "thanks" and "please," that much of the crowd this work was  
*really intended for will ever be inspired in the way of, well, having  
much of anything to do with those whom it claims, seeks to "aid".

Outside of the new "museum setting,"  that "affords both protection and  
a certain impotence," the best way you can "aid those who seek change"  
is to give them an extra quarter the next time they pour you a coffee.

Is this a project in similar vein to that of the self proclaimed  
"tiger-team" hax0rs who took on the FBI's Carnivore? [1] Only this time  
not tigers, but instead, coyotes? [2] Another, I believe, great  
Rhizome/newmu sponsorship? oh please, no. Dear Mr. cyber-lobo, your  
friends and their lawyer: GET REAL. [3]

This is all so unbearably cheap and rotten. Any attempt to celebrate,  
emulate, or compare your art to the (mis)fortune of people who cross  
borders because that is what they have to do to live, or for that  
matter, people like Kurtz who get steamrolled because of another list  
of completely messed up things -- as art/curatorial stance, publicity  
stunt, petting zoo, etc. -- is so weak it should be ignored. That the  
NY Times has gone and published an article on this "caper" only points  
to the ignorance of this media outlet and those it represents.

impotent indeed.

k

[1]  
http://amsterdam.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-0206/ 
msg00088.html

[2] http://repositories.cdlib.org/lewis/wps/27a/

[3] http://wpni01.auroraquanta.com/pv/immigration?img=1002

> Source: tech.nytimes.com/2004/10/27/arts/design/27iden.html
>
> In the basement of the New Museum of Contemporary Art's temporary home
> in Chelsea, a seemingly ironic invitation appears on a black-and-white
> label next to a flat-screen computer:
>
> "The Status Project aims to aid those who seek change, for example
> moving from homelessness to a career in bank management, or from the
> legal identity of a 32-year-old American woman to a male Pakistani
> teenager."
 <...>


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