Hot Enough? Art, Activism and Wireless Technology During the Republican National Convention

Hot Enough? Art, Activism and Wireless Technology During the Republican
National Convention
Mon., Sept. 27, 7:00 p.m. $8
The Republican National Convention in late August will give rise to a wave
of artistic projects employing wireless technology to make specific
political statements. Unexpectedly, the RNC thus provides a common focus and
purpose to diverse and divergent initiatives and, in hindsight, enables us
to assess their efficiency. Wireless technology is one of the most exciting
new developments for political activism. Relatively inexpensive, accessible,
and packing tremendous punch with at times just one individual at its
origin, it can be used as a tool of protest or opinion-making–the flip side
of the near-pervasive electronic surveillance under which we now live. This
panel examines how artists employ wireless technology to reach unprecedented
masses, to recast the concept of "collaboration," to redefine and politicize
the urban environment, and to achieve unparalleled levels of immediacy.
Participants include: Yury Gitman (The Magic Bike ); Natalie Jeremijenko,
The Bureau of Inverse Technology, and onetrees.org ( clean air?, antiterror
line, sparrow line ); Joshua Kinberg (Bikes Against Bush ); neuroTransmitter
and others to be announced. Organized by the Vera List Center for Art and
Politics, on occasion of Spectropolis: Mobile Media, Art, and the City, a
wireless event organized by NYCwireless, Downtown Alliance, and the Lower
Manhattan Cultural Council. Co-sponsored by the Design and Technology
Department, Parsons School of Design, and the Department of Communication,
The New School.