Re: [-empyre-] in solidarity--an open call to our subscriber list
--empyre- soft-skinned space-- Dear Tony, Great to hear from you on these issues. This one portion of your email in relation to the voter turnout thought would be interesting to consider in light of our topic Social Media/Social Justice. You wrote: We recently passed through a mid-term election where the Obama administration seemed to be (mis)recognized as a prime symptom / cause of the U.S. polity and economy's problems rather than attempting their solution in some limited fashion (and against fierce and consistent obstruction from the GOP, by the way). Portions of Democratic support in the electorate stayed home, hence the loss of the Senate.. Why does the electorate stay home? I wonder what would have happened to the election if the Ferguson case had occurred before the election. Statistics now cite that only 36.4 per cent age of eligible voters actually went to the polls this past November. Only 21 percent of young voters between the ages of 18 to 24 went out to vote. I recently heard a report that questioned the outdated voting methods of our election process. Shouldn't it be possible to digitize the voting process? To vote via email, or social media, or phone, or text or whatever? The New York Legislature and the Board of Elections was the very last state to update voting machines to electronic ones in 2010 despite the fact that since 1985 officials had been suggesting that the old lever machines were outdated. Our own state assemblywoman, Barbara Lifton, spent hours working with researchers and investigating the the fairest and most just machines to replace the antiquated machines. Tim and I spend quite a bit of time organizing and volunteering to get out the vote in the Town of Caroline in upstate New York. We have an extraordinarily high voter turn out but we call each family to remind them to vote, we offer rides to the polls, we send out get out the vote information the week before the election, and we poll watch the night of the election calling every voter that has not voted before 6pm. Yes that takes close to twenty to thirty volunteers in a national election and a few less in off elections. I just read that some municipalities in Canada actually have instituted online voting. The country of Estonia also has national pins that they have instituted to confirm online identities in the voting process. How easy it would be if everything was networked digitally online. Some sources say that close to 95 per cent of Americans have access online. How much could be saved in improving the efficiency of the system. Just a thought after reflecting about the frustration of low voter turnout but high energy in the streets over the past few weeks. How and will this energy translate to the next election will be something to watch and hope for. Back in Ithaca, Renate -- Renate Ferro Visiting Assistant Professor of Art, (contracted since 2004) Cornell University Department of Art, Tjaden Hall Office: 306 Ithaca, NY 14853 Email: rfe...@cornell.edu URL: http://www.renateferro.net http://www.privatesecretspubliclies.net Lab: http://www.tinkerfactory.net Managing Co-moderator of -empyre- soft skinned space http://empyre.library.cornell.edu/ ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
Re: [-empyre-] in solidarity--an open call to our subscriber list
--empyre- soft-skinned space--Dear Renate and Tim, Thanks for the open call on this topic. Meant to respond last night. We definitely seem to be in a strange zone of multi-layered disconnects at the present dis-juncture. (In addition, I feel that somehow we've entered a late 1980s - early 1990s time warp where the issues of race and urban policing intersect - again). Is this the hangover from the alleged post-racial, a return of the repressed, or the distillation of years of spiraling inequality? We recently passed through a mid-term election where the Obama administration seemed to be (mis)recognized as a prime symptom / cause of the U.S. polity and economy's problems rather than attempting their solution in some limited fashion (and against fierce and consistent obstruction from the GOP, by the way). Portions of Democratic support in the electorate stayed home, hence the loss of the Senate. Still, this cannot completely explain the cluelessness of the e-mail you cite. The lack of a concrete, palpable response from Obama Co. to the recent, ongoing epidemic of attacks by police on Black subjects (and the inability of two recent grand juries to read the possibility of criminal police liability in taking black lives) are truly lamentable. Certainly the administration should know that good news about the general economy may not even register for the less advantaged in this society and that recent positive effects on the economy are still direly and unequally distributed. (A lot of the wage rates for these new jobs are likely inadequate.) I wonder if there's a connection between the unwillingness of those who profit most from so-called economic improvements to recognize their recent gains (which allows them to continue to attack Obama on other ideological grounds), and the inability of the administration to speak / respond productively to the concerns of the less privileged in this Ferguson, Staten Island, Cleveland... catastrophe. Welcome to a contemporary conundrum. In solidarity, Tony Tony Cokes Professor, Director of Undergraduate Studies Dept. of Modern Culture and Media Brown University 155 George Street, Box 1957 (Rm. 205) Providence, RI 02912-1957 ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
Re: [-empyre-] in solidarity--an open call to our subscriber list
--empyre- soft-skinned space-- Dear Renate and Tim, I am very touched by your post showing that -empyre is concerned with the world with the art and the activist and tan we, as thinkers, writers, performers, can not be sitting in our ivory towers analyzing the world and not being a part of it. In solidarity Ana On Fri, Dec 5, 2014 at 3:13 PM, Renate Ferro r...@cornell.edu wrote: --empyre- soft-skinned space-- Hello to our -empyre-subscriber list. Tim Murray and myself are eagerly anticipating our discussion on the list serve this month. We have decided to do a bit of an impromptu discussion inspired by the recent events in Ferguson and New York City over the past week though realizing that other social and political events and movements such as in Iguala, Mexico and Hong Kong may provide an important opportunity for all of us to devote a month in solidarity. Tim and I have just arrived in New York City. We are right now just a few blocks from Time Square and Rockefeller Center where thousands marched last night. Our monthly discussion Social Media/ Social Justice will feature a few guests over the next three weeks but we are hoping that all of you will feel free to post about this issue. We are reaching out to all of our global subscribers and not just those in the western hemisphere. We are hoping that our subscribers will consider and respond to the moment but also critically look at the relationship between social media in the broad sense and political movements. Our Introductory post will follow this. In solidarity. Renate Ferro and Tim Murray from New York City -- Renate Ferro Visiting Assistant Professor of Art, (contracted since 2004) Cornell University Department of Art, Tjaden Hall Office: 306 Ithaca, NY 14853 Email: rfe...@cornell.edu URL: http://www.renateferro.net http://www.privatesecretspubliclies.net Lab: http://www.tinkerfactory.net Managing Co-moderator of -empyre- soft skinned space http://empyre.library.cornell.edu/ ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://empyre.library.cornell.edu -- http://www.twitter.com/caravia15860606060 http://www.scoop.it/t/art-and-activism/ http://www.scoop.it/t/food-history-and-trivia http://www.scoop.it/t/urbanism-3-0 cell Sweden +4670-3213370 cell Uruguay +598-99470758 When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you will always long to return. — Leonardo da Vinci ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
