FROM A FRIEND, reporting from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institut:
Recently there was another case of serious censorships at RPI where an exhibition of the Iraqi artist-in-residency Wafaa Bilal was shut down by the school administration, the show was moved to an The Sanctuary for Independent Media and soon after that the Sanctuary was closed by the state officials for violating safety codes.
Some information here:
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/03/11/rpi
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGzb6lNLY98
Soapbox Event at Federal Hall. Samples of speeches PART 1
SOAPBOX EVENT SIMULATION
4/1/08
3/9/08
Soapbox workshop at Cooper Union
Posted here are comments by FIT students who participated in the workshop at Cooper Union on the 1st of March 2008.
2/10/08
THE SOAPBOX BLOG
With fluent and fast communication tools available in a virtual world, are we contending too easily with this - almost automated - flow of data without any conception of how it is actually impacting the world? When communicating online, we are physically separated from the bodies we are communicating with. Does the lack of physical presence limit our ability to truly understand the concerns of other people and the effects of those concerns for each person? What does it mean to no longer have physical interaction while discussing pressing topics about our real lives with physical needs and consequences? Are we better off, or worse? When, for whatever circumstance, do we need to go out to the streets, with our actual bodies to effect change and how does a blog, such as this one, help further this process? Is it possible to bridge the discourse in the virtual world with actual change in policy and law? What needs to happen in both these worlds for democracy to become a fact?
I still have not seen the effects of societal change without seeing actual bodies participating in the process in ways other than words. How can we make effective use of the available tools today, to bring about participation and change, no matter where our bodies are?
If you have a response to any of these questions please participate by contributing to our blog posts. We have multiple topics listed below, but if you can't find a topic relevant to your thoughts please post them anyways.
CASE STUDIES:
Virtual March for Climate Change
The Jena Six
What is a Caucus?
With fluent and fast communication tools available in a virtual world, are we contending too easily with this - almost automated - flow of data without any conception of how it is actually impacting the world? When communicating online, we are physically separated from the bodies we are communicating with. Does the lack of physical presence limit our ability to truly understand the concerns of other people and the effects of those concerns for each person? What does it mean to no longer have physical interaction while discussing pressing topics about our real lives with physical needs and consequences? Are we better off, or worse? When, for whatever circumstance, do we need to go out to the streets, with our actual bodies to effect change and how does a blog, such as this one, help further this process? Is it possible to bridge the discourse in the virtual world with actual change in policy and law? What needs to happen in both these worlds for democracy to become a fact?
I still have not seen the effects of societal change without seeing actual bodies participating in the process in ways other than words. How can we make effective use of the available tools today, to bring about participation and change, no matter where our bodies are?
If you have a response to any of these questions please participate by contributing to our blog posts. We have multiple topics listed below, but if you can't find a topic relevant to your thoughts please post them anyways.
CASE STUDIES:
Virtual March for Climate Change
The Jena Six
What is a Caucus?
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