nettime The eyes of the milpa
Dear nettime, Here is a tiny step towards gathering the collective of humans and non-humans... The eyes of the milpa Families from Santa Mar?a Tlahuitoltepec, Oaxaca (Mexico) use mobile phones to create an online community memory about everything that grows in their fields.? http://ojosdelamilpa.net Los ojos de la milpa (The eyes of the milpa*) is a community memory that captures, through images and voice recordings, a moment of transition in these complex times. It all takes place somewhere in the mountains of the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca, Mexico, in a community where the elders tell stories to the youth about how maize was planted many years ago: without fertilizers or sophisticated technology. The young ones listen as they witness how maize can no longer grow without chemical fertilizers, nor survive without synthetic pesticides. This is a place where the precious pace of the passing seasons coexists with a growing pressure to produce more, to extract from the earth not only nourishment, but also more and more profit.? But there are newcomers in the milpa: in the community of Santa Mar?a Tlahuitoltepec Mixe, Oaxaca, peach trees have recently made their appearance. This is thanks to the MIAF system (Milpa Intercropped with Fruit Trees), an agroforestry management proposal developed by researchers from the Postgraduate College of Agronomy at Chapingo, Mexico. In addition to traditional crops such as maize, beans and squash, the MIAF system introduces fruit trees in the milpa to satisfy a number of needs. By forming a live barrier, they help to protect the soil from erosion caused by runoffs, a major problem in Tlahuitoltepec, where arable land is mostly found on hillsides. The trees contribute to carbon sequestration, an important strategy in the context of climate change. Finally, they also strengthen the livelihoods of farmers and their families who eat or sell the fruits, in this case peaches. However, new knowledge, skills and technologies come together with these benefits, involving a tough learning process, an increase in the amount of required labor, and the danger of a greater dependency on external inputs.? In this scenario, Los ojos de la milpa seeks to reveal the tense interweaving of the old and the new. Throughout a crop-growing cycle, families from the Juquila and Santa Ana ranches use smartphones to capture images and record sounds of whatever happens in their milpas, and to post them on this website. By doing this, they share their knowledge, their concerns, their ways of doing and their ways of thinking. They make themselves present by presenting their stories to us, by showing us how they live and work in a community which resists as it transforms. Through their own words and points of view, they leave a testimony of a crucial moment in which the urgency of finding a balance between nature and technology, between culture and productivity, can be felt. * milpa: a crop-growing system formed mainly by maize, beans, chili and squash. Best wishes, and may you have a good harvest. Eugenio. # distributed via nettime: no commercial use without permission # nettime is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org
nettime Community Memory through Appropriated Media: an Interview about Sauti ya wakulima
Hi nettimers, Marc Garrett from Furtherfield has interviewed me about Sauti ya wakulima (The voice of the farmers): a collaborative knowledge base about the effects of climate change done by rural farmers in Bagamoyo, Tanzania. The focus on the interview is related to socially engaged media art, and how can such forms of art become an agent of hope in these urgent times. Here is a very short quote, hoping that you will want to read more: In my opinion, the artists who still embrace the idea that art should only serve its own ends will become those who play the lyre while our world burns. Read it here: http://www.furtherfield.org/features/interviews/community-memory -through-appropriated-media-interview-eugenio-tisselli Best wishes, Eugenio. # distributed via nettime: no commercial use without permission # nettime is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org
nettime Update: Conflict minerals and radical impotence
Dear nettimers, A few weeks ago, I posted a note to this list, turning a q into a faq: cheap computers and conflict minerals. Briefly, the note was about asking the manufacturers of the ultra-cheap Raspberry Pi computer about their corporate stance on conflict minerals. http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.culture.internet.nettime/6662 I just wanted to update you on what has happened since then. A few people responded to the call of turning the (Q)uestion about conflict minerals into a FAQ. And, sadly, we got incredibly pathetic replies, with which the manufacturers either tried to argue that the Raspberry Pi only used very little quantities of conflict minerals, or even dismissed the issue because it's almost impossible to avoid conflict minerals, [and that's why we ignore them] Read this thread for yourself: http://www.raspberrypi.org/faqs#comment-17253 On subsequent questions, the Raspberry Pi staff started to get quite aggressive: http://www.raspberrypi.org/faqs#comment-18666 I tried to reply to this last comment, but my reply was never published. Here's what I tried to tell them: Yes, we deserve an answer. For the simple reason that we are potential buyers of the Raspberry Pi, and you are the manufacturers. If you don't believe we deserve a reply, why did you open a FAQ page? And no, we are not 'bugging' you. We are simply asking legitimate questions. In the case of bigger manufacturers of electronic devices (such as Apple), there are, correspondingly, bigger organizations asking these same questions. See, for example, Enough project's company rankings: http://www.raisehopeforcongo.org/content/conflict-minerals-company-rankings; A small company shouldn't be free from scrutiny from its (potential) consumers. No matter how big or small, we should demand clear corporate responsibilities from the companies that manufacture our devices. Simply stating that a device is being built on the principles of ... want(ing) to break the paradigm where without spending hundreds of pounds on a PC, families can’t use the internet. We want owning a truly personal computer to be normal for children., such as the Raspberry Pi (http://www.raspberrypi.org/about), doesn't justify a careless attitude towards conflict minerals. The we can't do anything about it narrative simply feeds the average consumer's feeling of radical impotence, in a time when we are becoming increasingly empowered to *actually* change things and make a difference. And when this story comes from a manufacturer, well... it's simply saddening. We used to evaluate our electronic devices on criteria such as price, computational power or interface design. Some of the more politically-inclined users prefer devices that support open source operating systems rather proprietary ones. But, given the state of the world, we should also consider ecological and social impacts of a company's practices as important criteria. The makers of Raspberry Pi are aggressively ignoring the issue of conflict minerals and, by the tone of their replies, they are not even willing to make a corporate responsibility statement. Bear that in mind before you consider buying their products. Thank you for reading. Eugenio. # distributed via nettime: no commercial use without permission # nettime is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org
nettime turning a q into a faq: cheap computers and conflict minerals
nettime people: powerful computers are getting?unbelievably?cheap and small: it's a fact we witness everyday. many of you may have heard about the raspberry pi: a $25 credit-card sized computer that plugs into a tv and a keyboard. it uses an arm processor and comes with a gnu/linux os.?http://www.raspberrypi.org according to the manufacturers, the idea behind this ultra-cheap computer is to make it available for kids everywhere in the world. while i don't doubt their good intentions, i believe the time has come to ask questions about the material nature of our devices, no matter how big, small, cheap or expensive they are. as many of you also know, computers are getting cheaper and more powerful partly because of certain minerals, such as tantalum or tungsten, which make the miniaturization of circuits possible. but these two minerals, together with others, are considered to be conflictive, because of many reasons. the best known case is coltan (a metallic ore from which tantalum is extracted) mined in eastern congo under brutal conditions, both for communities and the environment. if this issue sounds new to you, a good place to get more information is the web oage of the enough project:?http://www.enoughproject.org/conflict_areas/eastern_congo?... but conflicts are not limited neither to the eastern congo or coltan alone. gold, which is used in various electronic circuits because of its conductivity, malleability and resistance to corrosion. in tanzania, the world's third largest producer of gold, multiple violations to human rights and damages to the local environment have been documented because of careless mining:?http://www.pambazuka.org/images/articles/450/ERROR%20FREE%20NORTH%20MARA%20REPORT%20-%20FINAL.pdf there is, without question, a link between our small, cheap computers and the brutal damage we are doing to poor, voiceless communities and the environment. so, i tried to do some basic research about the raspberry pi. it uses a broadcom bcm2835 soc (system-on-a-chip)... according to a company engagement report made by the ethical bank triodos in 2011 (http://www.triodos.com/downloads/research/company-engagement-report-2011.pdf), broadcom corp. was uneligible for partnership because of their negative performance regarding conflict minerals. broadcom doesn't seem to have much to say about that on their corporate responsibility page: http://www.broadcom.com/global_citizenship/social_responsibility/ ... this research was the fruit of an afternoon's googling, so i can't make any claims about it. so i figured i should ask the makers of the raspberry pi directly. on march 14, is asked the following question on their faq page: how do you ensure that the suppliers you are working with (arm, broadcom and others) are ethically responsible? more concretely, how do you know they are not using conflict minerals to manufacture the components you buy from them? the raspberry pi is a great initiative, and it would be shame to learn that the technology involved is not 100% ethically responsible. http://www.raspberrypi.org/faqs#comment-16298? i didn't get a reply, even if the people who manage the webpage are actively replying to most of the questions. i believe my question is respectful and valid, and that it deserves an answer. if you also believe that asking about the materials used to make our cheap devices is important, i invite you to turn the q into a faq. ask the question, using your own words of course, on their faq page. insist until we all get a satisfactory reply. it's not about attacking the raspberry pi or any other company: it's about raising awareness about what's happening at the other end of technology. we can no longer afford to turn a blind eye to what's going on out there. it's not a time for being (only) enthusiastic: it's a time for asking questions. thank you for reading so far. best wishes, eugenio. # distributed via nettime: no commercial use without permission # nettime is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org
nettime On the e-i-ization of everything (including cows)
http://www.sautiyawakulima.net/research/2012/02/the-e-i-ization-of-everything/?? Eugenio Tisselli. The ???e-i-ization??? of everything (including cows) Posted on 29/02/2012 Excerpt: e-agriculture, e-learning, e-banking (sometimes also m-banking) on one hand??? and on the other, iPhones, iPads, iCows. We are living in times where adding the e- or i prefix to anything turns it into something new and exciting. In the first case, e- stands for electronic, implying that the service in question has grown out of its analog phase, and entered a digital one. The i prefix may seem a bit less obvious, but it???s really what it seems: i as in I, myself. I searched the Internet for the meaning of the i in iPhones, and this is what I found: As announced for the very first iMac that came out in 98???, the ???i??? stood for ???Internet, Individual, Instruct, Inform, and Inspire. And also: The original imac, released in 1998, was marketed around the concept that it was the easiest computer to connect to the internet. in ???98, the internet was still something that most people didn???t use regularly, and so the idea of a computer that was ???internet ready??? was hip and new. The i stood for internet, but it also stood for ???I??? as in ???me???. The imac was designed to make the personal computer feel more personal, and make the user feel like the computer was working for them, not against them. So, if there was ever any doubt about how the cult of the individual goes hand in hand with digital gadgets, especially those designed and marketed by Apple, let it be forever vanquished. And while urban citizens throughout the world will hardly find this problematic, we might begin to find some dissonance when the i-products are applied to the improvement of rural livelihoods, as in e-agriculture. Countless studies show that small-scale, subsistence and rural farmers rely on their communities as key elements to their practices: the social sphere is inseparable from what they do in the field. Just to provide an example: in his book, Zapotec Science, Roberto J Gonz??lez studies the traditional idea of mantenimiento among the Mixe people in Oaxaca, southern Mexico: literally translated as maintenance, it is a broad concept that deals with farming, the preparation and consumption of food, and the family???s sustenance. It implies a particular vision of time: to farm the land, but without exploiting it, so that it can feed us today and tomorrow as well. But, quite significantly, Zapotec people also understand the relationships within their communities as something to be maintained through a practice of reciprocity in which farming and food has a central role to play, and thus apply the same concept to their social sphere. There is also an appization of everything, leading many to think that everything can be resolved, or at least improved, using a mobile application. This can be seen as a reductio ad appsurdum of the e-i paradigm, and in fact reveals the worryingly reductionist worldview held by techno-determinists.?? Read the rest here: http://www.sautiyawakulima.net/research/2012/02/the-e-i-ization-of-everything/ # distributed via nettime: no commercial use without permission # nettime is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org
Re: nettime [Fwd] A Spit in the Ocean
Hi Jaromil, all, Jaromil, thank you for sharing Hellekin's note. I can relate to her withdrawal, but only at a deeper level (technologically speaking) You know better than me what the open source movement has done to empower connected communities in the past years. But I think that, with hardware, we have pretty much hit a wall. I'm not talking about having cheap or free hardware (or even open source hardware), but conflict-free devices. Even if I can't live without a connected device, right now I just don't see myself fighting for nettiquette and freedom, or against commodification and marketization, within a medium whose material existence implies the thrashing of natural environments and people's livelihoods. As you may know, there is quite a scramble right now to see who can manufacture and sell the cheapest computer in the market. But where does that cheapness come from? Illegal Tantalum mines in Eastern Congo, or the black markets that derive from them? Slave labor in Asian assembly plants? I don't mean to disqualify the current fight for the Internet... but the kernel is poisoned, if you know what I mean. I believe that something has to be done to bring all responsible entities and corporations to trial, before we can continue seeing our digital tools as means for empowerment. So, as Hellekin, I have also chosen to withdraw: in my case, I have stopped creating works of e-Literature, something I did for the past ten years. Some months ago, I published a note, Why I have stopped creating e-Lit, which basically says: As of today, I have decided to temporarily stop creating new works of e-Lit. I feel that the issues involved in creating artworks with computers are too important to be ignored. So I call for a truly trans-disciplinary, cross-sector research on electronic literature: one that also involves a profound understanding of its environmental and economic effects. One that doesn't ignore the social and cultural contexts which are being effectively destroyed for the sake of our technology. I am thinking specifically about Africa, and many other places around the world in which land is being grabbed and exploited, and where societies are being condemned to suffer so that we, the lucky ones, can remain connected. Is it a mere coincidence that e-Lit is not being produced or studied in those places? I don't think so. My intention was not to draw attention upon myself: whatever I do or stop doing is of little importance. But what I wanted to do was to bring my community's attention to the practical lack of discussion and interrogation about ethics hardware from within the field of Digital Humanities (I'm framing e-Literature within the broader scope of Digital Humanities: please excuse me if any of you find this inappropriate) My note was originally addressed to the e-Literature community, and was published at Netartery (http://netartery.vispo.com/?p=1211) ... it's also available on my Facebook profile as a note. If you wish to read my note on either site, make sure to read the comments as well... (yes, I've received some harsh criticism. And I still mean what I said) I'm also sharing my note in nettime (see below) Best wishes, Eugenio. --- Why I have stopped creating e-Lit (originally posted on Facebook on 25/11/2011) It all started quite innocently. On January 2011, I traveled to Tanzania with the purpose of working with a group subsistence farmers, and engage them in the creation a collaborative, online knowledge base of their practices, needs and innovations. My intention was to propose this knowledge base as an interface for cross-sector communication between farmers and agricultural researchers. I developed an architecture which follows a functional and aesthetic program that seeks to include both forms of knowledge, wanting to interweave the audiovisual narratives of the farmers (oral tradition and observation) together with the text-based analyses of scientists. ? I was motivated to create this project upon reading the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science, Technology for Development (IAASTD) Report, a 600-page document published by an international team of agricultural scientists in 2009. One of the innumerable contributions of this report is the acknowledgment that scientific knowledge, by itself, is not able to provide solutions to the incredibly complex challenges that agriculture is facing around the world. As the predominant knowledge system, science has failed to stop poverty and hunger. It has failed to link these problems to other non-scientific fields, such as the global markets and political instability. It has also neglected other forms of knowledge, such as the one that farmers have passed on from generation to generation across centuries. By becoming the dominant knowledge system and by resisting to engage in true interdisciplinary, cross-sector research, most scientists have effectively
nettime lost + remixed, a reality hack featuring ...
... wikileaks, the wikileaks truck, lost, and the governments of . the us and spain. with soundtrack by m.i.a warning: spoilers and . potentially illegal stuff. http://motorhueso.net/lost_remixed/? and the fight goes on. # distributed via nettime: no commercial use without permission # nettime is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org
Re: nettime Are Mobiles a Capitalist Plot to Keep the Poor Poor?
Michael, Your question is not only provocative, but also quite interesting. And I am not sure if it can be answered with a firm no, as you do in your blog post.There are many different types of development projects that integrate mobile technologies into their core practices, and not all of them are very thoughtfully designed. I am seriously researching this field, with a special focus on projects applied to agriculture. I am collecting some case studies in my blog: http://sautiyawakulima.net/research I believe that a well-designed ICT project for development must consider multiple factors, some of which are: - What kind of positive impact will the project have? How can it be evaluated? - Does it involve multiple stakeholders? (for example: farmers, extension officers, IT people, researchers... ) - Is it goal driven or open ended? - Which are the filters for access and participation? - Is it cost-effective? - Does it allow for a multi-directional mode of communication? (as opposed to a unidirectional, expert-driven system) - Is it sustainable? Financially, environmentally, culturally... I invite you to add more. We can't deny the great possibilities that mobile technologies open for development, but I believe that establishing a set of good practices so that new projects can be designed in responsible, sustainable and culturally sensible ways is becoming an urgent issue. Best wishes, Eugenio. # distributed via nettime: no commercial use without permission # nettime is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nett...@kein.org
