[LINK] Theory of Web Enhanced Protest

[Tom Worthington]

Professor McKenzie Wark, New School for Social Research in New York 
City, will speak on the implications of the Occupy Wall Street movement 
in "From thought as an occupation to some thoughts on the occupation" at 
the University of Sydney 6pm, 18 October 2011: 
http://blog.tomw.net.au/2011/10/theory-of-web-enhanced-protest.html

He will also speak at the University of Canberra, 11am 19 October 2011 
(Room 2B02): 
http://www.canberra.edu.au/university/maps/buildings-directory/building-2

The USyd description of the talk is appended. It seems to me that while 
governments in western democracies have welcomed Internet assisted 
protests in other parts of the world, it is unlikely they would welcome 
the same tactics being used locally. Some weeks ago I was listening to 
Vint Cerf and others discussing human rights on the Internet at the 
United Nations Internet Governance Forum. A UK representative claimed 
that recent riots in the UK were just criminal activity, not 
"political". Perhaps it is time for governments to provide genuine input 
to the political process on-line, rather than just focus groups.

---
 From thought as an occupation to some thoughts on the occupation
Professor McKenzie Wark, New School for Social Research in New York City

Co-presented with the Department of Gender and Cultural Studies at the 
University of Sydney

     Twenty years ago McKenzie Wark coined the term 'weird global media 
event' to describe the then-recent events in Tiananmen Square. While 
hardly on the same scale, the Occupy Wall Street movement shares with it 
certain characteristics as an event. In this presentation, Wark sums up 
the trajectory of his research on media, culture and politics, with 
particular reference to his new book The Beach Beneath the Street 
(Verso). The book offers a timely reminder of the relevance in the 
twenty-first century of the Situationist International. The last of the 
great aesthetico-political avant gardes, their work foreshadows in many 
respects the rise of the Occupy Wall St movement, which spread from New 
York to over sixty American cities, and is itself an echo of the 
politics of space that took place in Egypt and Tunisia earlier this year.

     McKenzie Wark is Professor of Liberal Studies at the New School for 
Social Research in New York City. He is the author of Virtual Geography 
(1994),A Hacker Manifesto (2004), Gamer Theory (2007) and various other 
things.
---

-- 
Tom Worthington FACS CP HLM, TomW Communications Pty Ltd. t: 0419496150
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617, Australia  http://www.tomw.net.au
Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards 
Legislation

Adjunct Senior Lecturer, Research School of Computer Science,
Australian National University http://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/COMP7310/