Re: Biocultural Corridors

[august]

The amount of technological voodoo in web-related things makes me
hesitant to respond here.  However, here goes.  At a very quick glance,
I notice a few things.

First, the googerteller app seems like it does not intelligently
differentiate between kinds of web requests.  Innocuous cross-origin GET
requests without cookies or added query args will be treated the same as
other requests.

Additionally, it doesn't appear as if the app differentiates between IP's.
Can someone verify that the IP's in this one guy's minimal github
application are legitimately ones that collect data? The link from their
github page to the google list of IP's seems to indicate the list is too
large and will make a lot of web requests audible that are not
necessarily google related.

For example, there are many mom and pop websites without analytics or
telemetry that are hosted by google services (eg. virtual machines in
the cloud) and would show up under those IP ranges, afaict.  Other
popular services like cloudflare or whatnot might be using google
infrastructure underneath as well.  Assuming https termination, is that
not okay?

Second, the only google request I see when loading
https://map.casariolab.art/  are for the Roboto font and material design
assets:

https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Roboto:wght@500&display=swap
https://fonts.gstatic.com/s/roboto/v30/KFOlCnqEu92Fr1MmEU9fBBc4AMP6lQ.woff2

I don't see cookies or anything else being sent with these requests to
google.

You can verify this yourself if you open the developer tools in your
browser (safari, chrome, and firefox all have them now). Go to the
'network' tab and load the map application.

However, I do see something that isn't picked up by the googerteller
app. The map app is storing a google analytics cookie and sending it on
requests to https://map.casariolab.art/geoserver/wfs

You can see the cookie in the browser developer tools under
'application->cookies' (the google analytics cookies all start with _GA)
and see them being sent under the 'network' tab. Again, these are only
being sent to map.casariolab.art and not google directly.  What the app
does behind the scene with that info is hidden from me, but I imagine it
is not passing it further along to google; in which case, it is no more
damaging than standard web logs. (note: in a private tab, I no longer
see this cookie, so maybe app had analytics once but got rid of them
recently?)

An added note: Material design is google's design language
and something a LOT of folks use to make designing web applications
easier.  Using something like that means you don't have to waste time
thinking about hard issues like layout and various animated widgets, not
to mention bigger, more difficult, topics like accessibility in design.
Google's massive and well-paid team has put a lot of these thoughts into
usable design and code for you. I personally don't use it, but
understand why someone would. 

This is a cool project and it doesn't look like
https://map.casariolab.art is sending any _harmful_ data to google directly.
(Please correct me if wrong here)

Without detracting from the conversation about the mapping project
itself (I think it deserves its own above the app layer), I would love
to hear more from nettime if there is a different assessment or more
enlightened ways to think about hosting your data and applications on
the web without "feeding the beast".  Is it as easy as avoiding to use
google analytics, or does one need to consider more?  What else?  Can we
accept the usage of google's open source artifacts, of which there are
many, as a trade-off to more easily develop applications?  Is there a
way of talking about these issues that simultaneously respects the
complexity and elasticity of the technology, but doesn't trail too far
into the weeds?

-august.

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Re: Biocultural Corridors

[Geoffrey Goodell]

Indeed, it might certainly be worthwhile to extend this tool to provide a means
for people to protect themselves from their own devices and spyware.

> I guess that we tend to think of firewalling as mostly protection from
> inbound connections, but

There is an increasing academic corpus that draws attention to the idea that
the enemy is within:

https://moniotrlab.ccis.neu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/ren-imc19.pdf

In my view, the best use of a firewall is to block outbound connections.  You
can absolutely (using iptables, etc) block some of the prefixes that you
describe below.

iptables -A OUTPUT -s 142.241.0.0/16 -j DROP

Alternatively, suggest you can achieve most of what you want simply by blocking
DNS requests for the names of dodgy services.

What names should you block?  Well, you can start with lists maintained by
others:

http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.txt

https://someonewhocares.org/hosts/zero/hosts

https://pgl.yoyo.org/adservers/serverlist.php?mimetype=plaintext

You can also block other horrible names too, such as, for example:

"incoming.telemetry.mozilla.org."

Bonus points for pointing this name at a web server that runs locally and
returns the response that Microsoft Windows expects:

"www.msftconnecttest.com."

Happy hacking --

Geoff

On Tue, 23 Aug 2022 at 01:27:33PM +0100, mp wrote:
> 
> cool, thx!
> 
> Disclaimer: I did not write this code, I merely downloaded, typed 'cmake .'
> and 'make' and then ran it.
> 
> It is discussed here (on evil Twatter):
> https://twitter.com/bert_hu_bert/status/1561466204602220544
> 
> It is a simple, indicative tool, but it is a sort of proof of concept and
> wake up tool that potentially could be expanded with blacklisting those
> outbound connections of the apps/cookies/whatever they call home and
> elsewhere.
> 
> I guess that we tend to think of firewalling as mostly protection from
> inbound connections, but
> 
> ...
> ..
> .
> 
> On 23/08/2022 12:08, Geoffrey Goodell wrote:
> > Hi mp,
> > 
> > This is a great idea.  I hypothesise that:
> > 
> > (1) People have no idea how much data they are sending to online services;
> > 
> > (2) People have no idea how often their various devices (not only PCs and
> > smartphones but also 'internet of things' devices) send data, even when the
> > user is not actively using them; and
> > 
> > (3) People have no idea how often routine activities such as web browsing to
> > ostensibly unrelated sites, email checking, and so on result in telemetry 
> > being
> > sent.
> > 
> > And of course, people might not realise that their physical movements and 
> > the
> > cadence of their activities over time are part of the accumulated data set.
> > 
> > I'm surprised that the Google prefixes are hard-coded.  Suggest using the
> > updated prefixes from the global routing table instead.
> > 
> > https://thyme.apnic.net/ipv4/ap/2022/08/23/
> > 
> > (replace with whatever date is today)
> > 
> > Download and unpack the five files in this directory.
> > 
> > Inside you will find a file 'data-used-autnums'.  You can search this file 
> > for
> > the names of autonomous systems (networks), or 'ASes', that together 
> > comprise
> > the Internet.
> > 
> > You can search this list, e.g.:
> > 
> > $ grep " GOOGLE" data-used-autnums
> > 
> > Let's not single-out Google.  Indeed you can look for other possible 
> > offenders
> > too, e.g.:
> > 
> > $ grep " MICROSOFT" data-used-autnums
> > 
> > The first column of the results are the AS numbers.  There is another file,
> > 'data-raw-table', which maps the numbers to prefixes.  You can use this 
> > file to
> > identify all of the prefixes you want to examine.
> > 
> > $ grep -w 15169 data-raw-table
> > 
> > I hope this helps.
> > 
> > Happy hacking,
> > 
> > Geoff
> > 
> > On Tue, 23 Aug 2022 at 10:18:12AM +0100, mp wrote:
> > > 
> > > Great, thanks.
> > > 
> > > Though, just for reference, this:
> > > 
> > > sudo tcpdump -n -l dst net 192.0.2.1/32 $(for a in $(cat 
> > > goog-prefixes.txt);
> > > do echo or dst net $a; done)  |  ./teller
> > > 
> > > from here:
> > > 
> > > https://github.com/berthubert/googerteller
> > > 
> > > .. makes the map noisy: https://map.casariolab.art
> > > 
> > > Ear opening tool.

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Re: Biocultural Corridors

[Brian Holmes]

Ah, brilliant, I get it. I will check it out myself with the tool.

Yeah, we have done what we can to make the map open source, but to do
activism with people who aren't hackers you have to use the usual suspects:
youtube, facebook... Obviously all this stuff is tracked. I am not so
worried about the possible police surveillance of activism in this case,
because we are doing fully public things, trying to change laws and
encourage people to alter their behaviors and forms of relation to the
environment. But behavior is shaped by social media tracking and, on a
structural level, it's part of the overall trap.

Thanks again, I am totally interested in this kind of feedback. Anyone who
wants to use the code (and improve it!) is welcome.

best, BH

On Tue, Aug 23, 2022 at 7:32 AM mp  wrote:

>
>
> On 23/08/2022 13:15, Brian Holmes wrote:
> > When you say it makes the map "noisy"
>
> Simply that with all other apps closed and no noise from the
> google-teller, when I then open the map and click around, the beeping
> begins...
>
> Those are likely local issuesas as well as the map framework/design and,
> for instance, Youtube embed.
>
> We all know it, we are under attack, and this little simple tool puts
> sound to it.
>
> Your map paints pictures of biocultural corridors, this tool sets
> googleinvasion to the ugly sounds it deserves...
>
>
> ...
> ..
> .
>
>
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The Propagandists' Playbook

[Allan Siegel]

Hello,

This is an extremely informative podcast with lots of good research 
material.The Propagandists' Playbook. Thanks to Techpolicy Press


https://techpolicypress.captivate.fm/listen 46 minutes

When most people think about the problem of mis- and disinformation, 
they think first of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. 
But how might the affordances of search engines, when used by 
ideologically motivated individuals, contribute to an unhealthy 
information ecosystem? Dr. Francesca Tripodi has a new book out on the 
subject, /The Propagandists’ Playbook: How Conservative Elites 
Manipulate Search and Threaten Democracy/ 
/, 
/which I had the chance to discuss with her this week.


best

allan


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Re: Biocultural Corridors

[mp]

On 23/08/2022 13:15, Brian Holmes wrote:

When you say it makes the map "noisy"


Simply that with all other apps closed and no noise from the 
google-teller, when I then open the map and click around, the beeping 
begins...


Those are likely local issuesas as well as the map framework/design and, 
for instance, Youtube embed.


We all know it, we are under attack, and this little simple tool puts 
sound to it.


Your map paints pictures of biocultural corridors, this tool sets 
googleinvasion to the ugly sounds it deserves...



...
..
.

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Re: Biocultural Corridors

[mp]

cool, thx!

Disclaimer: I did not write this code, I merely downloaded, typed 'cmake 
.' and 'make' and then ran it.


It is discussed here (on evil Twatter): 
https://twitter.com/bert_hu_bert/status/1561466204602220544


It is a simple, indicative tool, but it is a sort of proof of concept 
and wake up tool that potentially could be expanded with blacklisting 
those outbound connections of the apps/cookies/whatever they call home 
and elsewhere.


I guess that we tend to think of firewalling as mostly protection from 
inbound connections, but


...
..
.

On 23/08/2022 12:08, Geoffrey Goodell wrote:

Hi mp,

This is a great idea.  I hypothesise that:

(1) People have no idea how much data they are sending to online services;

(2) People have no idea how often their various devices (not only PCs and
smartphones but also 'internet of things' devices) send data, even when the
user is not actively using them; and

(3) People have no idea how often routine activities such as web browsing to
ostensibly unrelated sites, email checking, and so on result in telemetry being
sent.

And of course, people might not realise that their physical movements and the
cadence of their activities over time are part of the accumulated data set.

I'm surprised that the Google prefixes are hard-coded.  Suggest using the
updated prefixes from the global routing table instead.

https://thyme.apnic.net/ipv4/ap/2022/08/23/

(replace with whatever date is today)

Download and unpack the five files in this directory.

Inside you will find a file 'data-used-autnums'.  You can search this file for
the names of autonomous systems (networks), or 'ASes', that together comprise
the Internet.

You can search this list, e.g.:

$ grep " GOOGLE" data-used-autnums

Let's not single-out Google.  Indeed you can look for other possible offenders
too, e.g.:

$ grep " MICROSOFT" data-used-autnums

The first column of the results are the AS numbers.  There is another file,
'data-raw-table', which maps the numbers to prefixes.  You can use this file to
identify all of the prefixes you want to examine.

$ grep -w 15169 data-raw-table

I hope this helps.

Happy hacking,

Geoff

On Tue, 23 Aug 2022 at 10:18:12AM +0100, mp wrote:


Great, thanks.

Though, just for reference, this:

sudo tcpdump -n -l dst net 192.0.2.1/32 $(for a in $(cat goog-prefixes.txt);
do echo or dst net $a; done)  |  ./teller

from here:

https://github.com/berthubert/googerteller

.. makes the map noisy: https://map.casariolab.art

Ear opening tool.

On 19/08/2022 03:02, Brian Holmes wrote:

At night on the Parana, the stars still shine. The boatman cuts the motor;
we drift silently under the light of a full moon. This is the end of a four
thousand kilometer-long river, it's the "Delta front." The low islands to
the east extend fingers of land into the Rio del Plata estuary, and those
forested fingers grow about 70 meters longer every year, catching the last
of the sediments carried from the Andes and the Brazilian jungle. To the
southwest, the lights of Buenos Aires glitter on the horizon. Someday in
the future - quite soon, in geological time - the Delta front will reach
the city. Every month it's six meters closer. The mutability of this
territory makes my head spin. The stars, the moon, the lights, the islands
and the uncanny mirror of the river all come together like a wheel spinning
weightlessly in infinite space, or maybe it's a whirlpool, a cosmic gyre. A
homegrown joint makes its way from hand to hand, through the calm of a
winter night that is windless by good luck, and warm by devastating climate
change. The journey is well underway.

With Alejandro Meitin of Casa Rio we're making tactical media in the
wetlands, along a meandering path that leads from Punta Lara, south of
Buenos Aires, all the way north through the Pampa and the arid reaches of
the Grand Chaco to Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay. I wrote the paragraph
above a week ago; now we're at the halfway point. Our aim is to reach out
to riverside communities and build ecological awareness, while also helping
to accelerate the process of information-sharing among a network of
ecological NGOs called "Humedales sin fronteras" or Wetlands Without
Borders, whose member organizations are located in Argentina, Paraguay,
Bolivia and Brazil. My contribution as an artist-cartographer is an online
map and multimedia platform that can display text, scientific information,
photography, video, audio and social networks (it's FLOSS, built by Majk
Shkurti to my specs, see info below). The color scheme and iconography of
the map has been designed by Dani Lorenzo of Casa Rio, and most of the
videos you'll find inside were done by Andres Irigoyen. Lots of others are
involved, it would be long to list every one of them. As for Alejandro
Meitin, he's an artist, lawyer, environmental activist and
jack-of-all-trades who's been doing this kind of thing for thirty years,
first with the artists' group Ala Plastica, and now with the br

Re: Biocultural Corridors

[Brian Holmes]

This is some great information, totally worthy of nettime, thanks very
much. I am going to look into it.

When you say it makes the map "noisy" do you mean leaky, or that it
consumes bandwidth, or introduces some arbitrary signal, or?...
And can I just get rid of it without screwing up anything else? If you can
tell me how, would be great. I move around in the code all the time, but
I'm not a coder...

Anyway, thanks, Brian



On Tue, Aug 23, 2022 at 6:10 AM Geoffrey Goodell  wrote:

> Hi mp,
>
> This is a great idea.  I hypothesise that:
>
> (1) People have no idea how much data they are sending to online services;
>
> (2) People have no idea how often their various devices (not only PCs and
> smartphones but also 'internet of things' devices) send data, even when the
> user is not actively using them; and
>
> (3) People have no idea how often routine activities such as web browsing
> to
> ostensibly unrelated sites, email checking, and so on result in telemetry
> being
> sent.
>
> And of course, people might not realise that their physical movements and
> the
> cadence of their activities over time are part of the accumulated data set.
>
> I'm surprised that the Google prefixes are hard-coded.  Suggest using the
> updated prefixes from the global routing table instead.
>
> https://thyme.apnic.net/ipv4/ap/2022/08/23/
>
> (replace with whatever date is today)
>
> Download and unpack the five files in this directory.
>
> Inside you will find a file 'data-used-autnums'.  You can search this file
> for
> the names of autonomous systems (networks), or 'ASes', that together
> comprise
> the Internet.
>
> You can search this list, e.g.:
>
> $ grep " GOOGLE" data-used-autnums
>
> Let's not single-out Google.  Indeed you can look for other possible
> offenders
> too, e.g.:
>
> $ grep " MICROSOFT" data-used-autnums
>
> The first column of the results are the AS numbers.  There is another file,
> 'data-raw-table', which maps the numbers to prefixes.  You can use this
> file to
> identify all of the prefixes you want to examine.
>
> $ grep -w 15169 data-raw-table
>
> I hope this helps.
>
> Happy hacking,
>
> Geoff
>
> On Tue, 23 Aug 2022 at 10:18:12AM +0100, mp wrote:
> >
> > Great, thanks.
> >
> > Though, just for reference, this:
> >
> > sudo tcpdump -n -l dst net 192.0.2.1/32 $(for a in $(cat
> goog-prefixes.txt);
> > do echo or dst net $a; done)  |  ./teller
> >
> > from here:
> >
> > https://github.com/berthubert/googerteller
> >
> > .. makes the map noisy: https://map.casariolab.art
> >
> > Ear opening tool.
> >
> > On 19/08/2022 03:02, Brian Holmes wrote:
> > > At night on the Parana, the stars still shine. The boatman cuts the
> motor;
> > > we drift silently under the light of a full moon. This is the end of a
> four
> > > thousand kilometer-long river, it's the "Delta front." The low islands
> to
> > > the east extend fingers of land into the Rio del Plata estuary, and
> those
> > > forested fingers grow about 70 meters longer every year, catching the
> last
> > > of the sediments carried from the Andes and the Brazilian jungle. To
> the
> > > southwest, the lights of Buenos Aires glitter on the horizon. Someday
> in
> > > the future - quite soon, in geological time - the Delta front will
> reach
> > > the city. Every month it's six meters closer. The mutability of this
> > > territory makes my head spin. The stars, the moon, the lights, the
> islands
> > > and the uncanny mirror of the river all come together like a wheel
> spinning
> > > weightlessly in infinite space, or maybe it's a whirlpool, a cosmic
> gyre. A
> > > homegrown joint makes its way from hand to hand, through the calm of a
> > > winter night that is windless by good luck, and warm by devastating
> climate
> > > change. The journey is well underway.
> > >
> > > With Alejandro Meitin of Casa Rio we're making tactical media in the
> > > wetlands, along a meandering path that leads from Punta Lara, south of
> > > Buenos Aires, all the way north through the Pampa and the arid reaches
> of
> > > the Grand Chaco to Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay. I wrote the
> paragraph
> > > above a week ago; now we're at the halfway point. Our aim is to reach
> out
> > > to riverside communities and build ecological awareness, while also
> helping
> > > to accelerate the process of information-sharing among a network of
> > > ecological NGOs called "Humedales sin fronteras" or Wetlands Without
> > > Borders, whose member organizations are located in Argentina, Paraguay,
> > > Bolivia and Brazil. My contribution as an artist-cartographer is an
> online
> > > map and multimedia platform that can display text, scientific
> information,
> > > photography, video, audio and social networks (it's FLOSS, built by
> Majk
> > > Shkurti to my specs, see info below). The color scheme and iconography
> of
> > > the map has been designed by Dani Lorenzo of Casa Rio, and most of the
> > > videos you'll find inside were done by Andres Irigoyen. Lots of others
> are
> > > i

Re: Biocultural Corridors

[Geoffrey Goodell]

Hi mp,

This is a great idea.  I hypothesise that:

(1) People have no idea how much data they are sending to online services;

(2) People have no idea how often their various devices (not only PCs and
smartphones but also 'internet of things' devices) send data, even when the
user is not actively using them; and

(3) People have no idea how often routine activities such as web browsing to
ostensibly unrelated sites, email checking, and so on result in telemetry being
sent.

And of course, people might not realise that their physical movements and the
cadence of their activities over time are part of the accumulated data set.

I'm surprised that the Google prefixes are hard-coded.  Suggest using the
updated prefixes from the global routing table instead.

https://thyme.apnic.net/ipv4/ap/2022/08/23/

(replace with whatever date is today)

Download and unpack the five files in this directory.

Inside you will find a file 'data-used-autnums'.  You can search this file for
the names of autonomous systems (networks), or 'ASes', that together comprise
the Internet.

You can search this list, e.g.:

$ grep " GOOGLE" data-used-autnums

Let's not single-out Google.  Indeed you can look for other possible offenders
too, e.g.:

$ grep " MICROSOFT" data-used-autnums

The first column of the results are the AS numbers.  There is another file,
'data-raw-table', which maps the numbers to prefixes.  You can use this file to
identify all of the prefixes you want to examine.

$ grep -w 15169 data-raw-table

I hope this helps.

Happy hacking,

Geoff

On Tue, 23 Aug 2022 at 10:18:12AM +0100, mp wrote:
> 
> Great, thanks.
> 
> Though, just for reference, this:
> 
> sudo tcpdump -n -l dst net 192.0.2.1/32 $(for a in $(cat goog-prefixes.txt);
> do echo or dst net $a; done)  |  ./teller
> 
> from here:
> 
> https://github.com/berthubert/googerteller
> 
> .. makes the map noisy: https://map.casariolab.art
> 
> Ear opening tool.
> 
> On 19/08/2022 03:02, Brian Holmes wrote:
> > At night on the Parana, the stars still shine. The boatman cuts the motor;
> > we drift silently under the light of a full moon. This is the end of a four
> > thousand kilometer-long river, it's the "Delta front." The low islands to
> > the east extend fingers of land into the Rio del Plata estuary, and those
> > forested fingers grow about 70 meters longer every year, catching the last
> > of the sediments carried from the Andes and the Brazilian jungle. To the
> > southwest, the lights of Buenos Aires glitter on the horizon. Someday in
> > the future - quite soon, in geological time - the Delta front will reach
> > the city. Every month it's six meters closer. The mutability of this
> > territory makes my head spin. The stars, the moon, the lights, the islands
> > and the uncanny mirror of the river all come together like a wheel spinning
> > weightlessly in infinite space, or maybe it's a whirlpool, a cosmic gyre. A
> > homegrown joint makes its way from hand to hand, through the calm of a
> > winter night that is windless by good luck, and warm by devastating climate
> > change. The journey is well underway.
> > 
> > With Alejandro Meitin of Casa Rio we're making tactical media in the
> > wetlands, along a meandering path that leads from Punta Lara, south of
> > Buenos Aires, all the way north through the Pampa and the arid reaches of
> > the Grand Chaco to Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay. I wrote the paragraph
> > above a week ago; now we're at the halfway point. Our aim is to reach out
> > to riverside communities and build ecological awareness, while also helping
> > to accelerate the process of information-sharing among a network of
> > ecological NGOs called "Humedales sin fronteras" or Wetlands Without
> > Borders, whose member organizations are located in Argentina, Paraguay,
> > Bolivia and Brazil. My contribution as an artist-cartographer is an online
> > map and multimedia platform that can display text, scientific information,
> > photography, video, audio and social networks (it's FLOSS, built by Majk
> > Shkurti to my specs, see info below). The color scheme and iconography of
> > the map has been designed by Dani Lorenzo of Casa Rio, and most of the
> > videos you'll find inside were done by Andres Irigoyen. Lots of others are
> > involved, it would be long to list every one of them. As for Alejandro
> > Meitin, he's an artist, lawyer, environmental activist and
> > jack-of-all-trades who's been doing this kind of thing for thirty years,
> > first with the artists' group Ala Plastica, and now with the broader
> > community-based constellation of Casa Rio. We've taken similar journeys
> > before, stretching back to 2014 when Critical Art Ensemble generously
> > invited me to come along to Argentina for a roving seminar organized by Ala
> > Plastica under the name "Watersheds as Laboratories of Governance." In 2019
> > we brought an exhibition called "The Earth Will Not Abide" from Chicago to
> > the riverport city of Rosario, and Casa Rio 

Re: Biocultural Corridors

[mp]

Great, thanks.

Though, just for reference, this:

sudo tcpdump -n -l dst net 192.0.2.1/32 $(for a in $(cat 
goog-prefixes.txt); do echo or dst net $a; done)  |  ./teller


from here:

https://github.com/berthubert/googerteller

.. makes the map noisy: https://map.casariolab.art

Ear opening tool.

On 19/08/2022 03:02, Brian Holmes wrote:

At night on the Parana, the stars still shine. The boatman cuts the motor;
we drift silently under the light of a full moon. This is the end of a four
thousand kilometer-long river, it's the "Delta front." The low islands to
the east extend fingers of land into the Rio del Plata estuary, and those
forested fingers grow about 70 meters longer every year, catching the last
of the sediments carried from the Andes and the Brazilian jungle. To the
southwest, the lights of Buenos Aires glitter on the horizon. Someday in
the future - quite soon, in geological time - the Delta front will reach
the city. Every month it's six meters closer. The mutability of this
territory makes my head spin. The stars, the moon, the lights, the islands
and the uncanny mirror of the river all come together like a wheel spinning
weightlessly in infinite space, or maybe it's a whirlpool, a cosmic gyre. A
homegrown joint makes its way from hand to hand, through the calm of a
winter night that is windless by good luck, and warm by devastating climate
change. The journey is well underway.

With Alejandro Meitin of Casa Rio we're making tactical media in the
wetlands, along a meandering path that leads from Punta Lara, south of
Buenos Aires, all the way north through the Pampa and the arid reaches of
the Grand Chaco to Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay. I wrote the paragraph
above a week ago; now we're at the halfway point. Our aim is to reach out
to riverside communities and build ecological awareness, while also helping
to accelerate the process of information-sharing among a network of
ecological NGOs called "Humedales sin fronteras" or Wetlands Without
Borders, whose member organizations are located in Argentina, Paraguay,
Bolivia and Brazil. My contribution as an artist-cartographer is an online
map and multimedia platform that can display text, scientific information,
photography, video, audio and social networks (it's FLOSS, built by Majk
Shkurti to my specs, see info below). The color scheme and iconography of
the map has been designed by Dani Lorenzo of Casa Rio, and most of the
videos you'll find inside were done by Andres Irigoyen. Lots of others are
involved, it would be long to list every one of them. As for Alejandro
Meitin, he's an artist, lawyer, environmental activist and
jack-of-all-trades who's been doing this kind of thing for thirty years,
first with the artists' group Ala Plastica, and now with the broader
community-based constellation of Casa Rio. We've taken similar journeys
before, stretching back to 2014 when Critical Art Ensemble generously
invited me to come along to Argentina for a roving seminar organized by Ala
Plastica under the name "Watersheds as Laboratories of Governance." In 2019
we brought an exhibition called "The Earth Will Not Abide" from Chicago to
the riverport city of Rosario, and Casa Rio published quite a beautiful
book with that material. Now we're in full-on activist mode, meeting
network members all along the river, pushing for a Wetlands Law in
Argentina, for a halt to dredging, sand extraction and dam-building, and
for the development, from below, of what we are calling "Biocultural
Corridors."

The notion of bioculturalism is grasped intuitively by all the people we
meet: It refers to the changes in orientation and behavior that arise when
human beings begin to see and feel themselves as participants in a web of
ecological relations, such that "an injury to one is an injury to all" -
whether it's insect, plant, animal or homo sapiens. The corridor part is
somewhat trickier. Many are aware of biological corridors, which are
designed by conservation specialists as safe passageways between small
islands of habitat which, on their own, are insufficient to sustain bird
and animal populations that range widely across the changing seasons.
Biocultural corridors, however, are not planned or instituted by experts.
They arise in areas where groups of people who might be engaged in
agroecological farming, traditional crafts such as willow weaving,
small-scale fishing, land defence and indigenous lifeways all come together
in mutual recognition and support, building the consciousness of what might
someday become truly sustainable productive practices. Like the
Bioregionalists of North America in the 1970s, we are inviting communities
to use our map in order to draw and describe the components of their own
biocultural corridors, which someday, we hope, will extend all the way up
and down the great uninterrupted fluvial corridor reaching from the
headwaters of the Brazilian and Bolivian Pantanal down to the Rio del Plata
estuary. For once, we're not necessarily k