Re: <nettime> "Speak Out with Snowden, Assange and Manning"

[Andreas Broeckmann <ab@mikro.in-berlin.de>]

hey geert,

i quite like the project as a piece of public art that invite people to 
participate and identify with an attitude of braveness. i don't see the 
celebration of particular personalities, certainly not heroism. the fact 
that the figures are all standing on chairs suggests that they have all 
been made, by circumstances and by their own decisions, to appear bigger 
than they actually are; and the empty chair suggests that it does not 
take much to stand in that row, that it is possible to join their ranks 
if you choose to stand up against, for instance, unjust state secrecy 
and the regimes of surveillance. (and remember, a hero or heroine need 
not be a saint...)

public communication, and the way in which we understand our own role in 
society, is often relayed by such exemplary figures; the narrative 
structure works even when everybody knows that these people are not 
exceptional in themselves, it's just that they chose to do something 
specific which many others in similar circumstances could also have done.

of course, this is not a very differentiated and critical piece, and no 
result of adornian negative dialectics; if it was, it would most 
probably not be in front of the UN building, and we would most probably 
not know about it.

what it ultimately means is up to the people who get on that chair, and 
who circulate the photographs, or repeat the story about it - like 
yourself, like myself. for me, it is a strong way of asking: what is it 
that someone is doing in the world, and does he/she take a stand, and 
stick his/her head out? of course, it is easy to step on the chair and 
have your picture taken; but with that picture comes a responsibility, 
or at least a claim, which one may then be asked to live up to.

so, as a popular piece of making people ask themselves an engaging 
question, i like it.

greetings,
-a


Am 14.09.15 um 20:16 schrieb Geert Lovink:

> (tactical (media) arts or celebrity propaganda? letâs discuss
> this. as you all know, I have been critical of the personality cult of
> julian assange (coordinated by himself) and was happy to see that
> snowden and manning and the (missing) barrett brown had other
> approaches. this art work is not working with these differences and
> instead glorifies the heroes in a usual way. or not? geert)
>
> http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Speak-Out-With-Snowden-Assange-and-Manning-Outside-UN-20150914-0009.html
>
> Speak Out with Snowden, Assange and Manning Outside the UN


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