neonascent

Well, you may notice that you are no longer at Much Mojo. The blog will still be reachable through all the old avenues, and now www.neonascent.com .org and .net all point to this too. Muchmojo is a little silly, and neonascent is a domain name appropriate for both online art portfolio, IT consulting, and the promised online gallery.

Hope you enjoy it. It’s about time for more regular posts!

Quickly, here are two articles that seem to foreshadow the future of “anti-terrorist”* government activity.

• Data mining (with public online user data): Finding subversives through their Amazon profiles. Showing how easy it is to effectively use data mining without any sophisticated technology or restricted database access. Governments have shifted their perception of risk to a model of biopower, where all citizens exist within a matrix of potential as “terrorists”. England’s attempt at, and America and Australia’s successful implimentation of Control Orders - allowing detention and “control” of “persons of interest” without the need for a crime having been commited - rely on an Foucaultian surveilance on a massive scale. Seeing what it is possible to achieve using publicly available information, one must realise the full extent and power of a system that intergrates databases of extremely sensitive personal information.

  However, with regards to the effectiveness of this surveilance on stopping terrorism, it must also be noted that we are the authors of our own trail of information. With some knowledge of the nature of information systems, we can choose to influence or confound the data-mining process. The most likely people to do this will be resourceful and sophisticated subversive groups; the London bombers all had completely clean histories. Aside: Of course for control of political subversion, and in conjunction with the anti-sedition law of Australia, this sort of thing is quite useful at finding and charging incisively critical individuals.

• fMRI used for lie detection. In the near future the security institutions of the world will be using fMRI.

* I don’t think that it would be unfair to make “anti-terrorist” synonymous with “invasive, totalitarian”, although I’m sure there is a huge slice of the world that is still coerced by such rhetorical discourse.

For those of you outside of Australia*, the prime minister John Howard is in the process of bringing in has just brought in an anti-sedition law that will effectively cripple any semblance of free speech. This move will effectively bring Australia into the ideological neighbourhood of other countries with active sedition laws: North Korea, China, Cuba, Syria, Zimbabwe, Malaysia, Singapore. Together with a substantial segment relating to “control orders” (inspired by the UK’s new anti-terror laws regarding the control of “persons of interest”) the anti-sedition decree will create an easy mechanism for prosecution and incarceration on persons who have comitted no crime! Bob Brown, leader of the Australian Green party gravely observes:

We are in a new period of McCarthyism and we need to know that, and understand it, and worry that this time it won’t be turned around, that citizens, using a law like this, will be brought before courts for political reasons, not security reasons. >> Link

(more…)

There is a fantastic short story over at monochrom based on H.P.Lovecraft’s The Call of Cthulhu and inspired by Goatse. Here is a snip:

The many data networks, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.

…It makes me gleefully happy. Monochrom describes itself as a art-technology-philosophy group, and though I haven’t yet given it the time it seems to deserve, a cursory look at their site suggests it’s totally rockin’. My kind of people, especially since I am a self-styled art-technology-philosophy person myself!

>> Link

Friday was a big day for applications!
Was involved in two proposals for exhibitions at Kudos gallery, as well as an application for GAS (Grants, Awards and Sponsorship) for an online emergent art gallery. Please keep your fingers crossed for all three!

Details of the exhibitions are as follows:

• “Material Satisfaction” - A showcase exhibition for the whole 2nd year Sculpture, Performance, and Installation group. I’ve uploaded both the Conceptual proposal (Adobe PDF) and the Artists’ statements (Adobe PDF). Some may be interested to check out my statement for an idea of the conceptual side of things. I have also included annotation on a few of the artist’s statements.
• Biopolitics Exhibition - This focusses on the intersection of nature and technology, whether taken literally or in terms of Foucault’s understanding of techniques of biopolitical control. Should be exciting, and promisses to be very interesting!

Friends!
Most splendid news; “reflect” will be featuring in another exhibition at Kudos gallery from Tuesday 31st May till around Saturday. Here is information about exhibition:

• NUTS.org.au article
• COFA Students Association article

Hopefully the artwork will look as good as before, though it was made for the ol’ gallery, so it might be harder to get it as smick. Here’s hoping it will totally rock sox.

It is your sworn duty to visit eithr the artwork or the webpage You have the chance to get at least one perspective on the exhibition. If you are not in the country then the website is the perfect way to check out the Aussie art scene

Will be up for the opening, which will be Tuesday 6-8pm… That’s 9am-11am UK time, 8am-10am GMT.

Artwork can be accessed here:

• reflect.cofa.unsw.edu.au

(at the moment the IP is http://203.26.8.148/ which hopefully will remain the same throughout )

But will probably only be up Tuesday morning onwards. Try!
Edit: It is up now
Edit: The exhibition is now over - the artwork’s web presence is no longer available.

Well finally there is a new website up and atom. Subscribe and be joyous. Let love and magnaminity flow into your heart.