Meet neighbors, artists, and local specialists interested in:
* bioart
* personal ecosystems
* waste-to-food processes
* D-I-Y biology
* urban farming
* and crowdsourcing solutions to environmental problems

Just be ready to pee into a jar.

Bio-artists Britta Riley and Rebecca Bray create personal, super-local, at-home solutions to big environmental and health issues. Their urine to fertilizer kits let you recycle the excess nutrients your body creates when you eat and drink. You can pee in the kit and then perform a biochemical reaction that transforms the nutrients in your urine into an immediately usable fertilizer to feed your own plants. They invite you to join them for a special opportunity to turn your pee into fertilizer and take it home for your houseplants, and to join in a discussion with artists and friends interested in these same issues. Riley and Bray work as consultants to science museums and are graduates of ITP at NYU. Their work has recently been featured at Eyebeam, in the Venice Bienale, in ArtNews and on the Discovery Channel.

Participants are encouraged to bring clean glass jars.
http://www.submersibledesign.com/drinkpee/

If you can’t attend, we will live stream this event at http://www.mogulus.com/notanalternative.

Date: 17 December 2008 @ 7.30 PM - 10.30 PM (Facebook Event Page)
Location: The Change You Want To See
Address: 84 Havemeyer Street, Storefront, Brooklyn, NY

Over the past two years, Web 2.0 technologies have matured and so have the methods activist use to employ them. In 2008, activists from around the world used Web 2.0 to take command of the digital airwaves pioneering new forms of political mobilization. From Student’s for a Free Tibet’s live streamed protests in Beijing, to RNC protesters coordinating actions and monitoring police movements on Twitter to mass digital mobilizations for humanitarian relief and election protection, Web 2.0 is no longer just for social networking and fundraising.

This Wednesday, practitioners involved in the above campaigns will present case studies and highlight how they leveraged these tools to have broader reach and greater effectiveness. We’ll also delve into issues governing internal organization and communication among political actors, including: transparency vs. security; command and control vs. autonomous affinity groups, and the power of organizing without organizations vs. the tyranny of structurelessness.

This report back and skills share is intended to leave you with concrete ideas for how these models and tools could impact your work.

ABOUT THE PRESENTERS
Nathan Freitas is an entrepreneur and activist, with longtime love for all things mobile, miniaturized, virtual and open-source. His experience runs the gamut from founding a successful venture-funded for-profit business and speaking at JavaOne and Amazon developer events, to locking himself down to foreign consulates and managing satellite links for live streaming of protest video from very remote places. If Nathan were a cloud tag, these would be his tags: cloud computing, android, java, videoblogging, mogulus, wordpress as CMS, tibet, china, human rights, free speech, free thought, encryption, privacy, creative commons, ratatat, sufjan stephens.
http://nathan.freitas.net

Deanna Zandt is a media technologist and consultant to key progressive media organizations including AlterNet and the Hightower Lowdown, and hosts TechGrrl Tips on GRITtv with Laura Flanders. She works with groups to create and implement effective web strategies toward organizational goals of civic engagement and empowerment, and uses her background in linguistics, advertising, telecommunications and finance to complement her technical expertise. Deanna also works with New York-based independent artists such as John S. Hall/King Missile, Surf Reality and the Art Stars to promote radical performances in downtown Manhattan, and is a member of the Brooklyn-based Not An Alternative political art collective.
http://www.deannazandt.com

Nancy Scola is a Brooklyn-based writer, blogger, and editor whose work focuses on the intersection of technology and politics, both broadly defined. She serves as the associate editor of techPresident and Personal Democracy Forum, and has worked in the past on Capitol Hill, in presidential politics, and in progressive radio.
http://www.nancyscola.com

Thursday, December 4, 8pm, free
at The Change You Want To See Gallery

Since its humble beginnings in 1994, subMedia has grown from a small group of determined filmmakers into a grassroots network of socially and politically engaged artists and individuals. subMedia scrutinizes popular culture and media through the production of film, performance art, video, music and zines.

Equal parts performance and protest, an attitude of art following action defines subMedia’s productions. From the regularly released and highly produced video blog “It’s the End of the World as We Know It”, to the collaborative documentary “Ground Noise and Static”, their work injects a radical analysis into the culture in a most entertaining way.

Please join subMedia founder, director and producer Franklin Lopez (aka The Stimulator) as he steps out from behind the talking boxes to tour us through a video montage of his latest works, mixing culture jamming, news, radical commentary, music and action.

ABOUT FRANKLIN LOPEZ
Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico and based in Vancouver, Canada, Lopez has been media jamming since he started subMedia in 1994. His CrimethInc inspired films have been screened worldwide and translated into several languages. His post-Katrina music video ‘George Bush Don’t Like Black People’ has been downloaded over one million times and counting. Lopez’s work has been featured and/or written about in The New York Times, Wired, Contour, BET, Current TV, Free Speech TV, the Georgia Straight and Creative Loafing to name a few. More recently he worked as TV producer for Amy Goodman’s “Democracy Now!” He produces a VLOG called “It’s the End of the World as We Know it and I Feel Fine” and released issue #2 of subMedia’s Zine “Molotov!” You can view Lopez’s work at http://subMedia.TV.


ABOUT “GROUND NOISE & STATIC”
A video report on the protests that occurred in connection with the Democrat and Republican National Conventions, Ground Noise & Static is a manifesto. We went to Denver and St. Paul to take the pulse of the movement. Corporate media would cover the platitudes and posturing of the politicians, we were interested in something else, a story hidden in plain sight, captured in the now-classic street chant, “This is what democracy looks like.”

Ground Noise & Static is a joint effort of Franklin López of subMedia.TV and PepperSpray Productions. It is the direct result of a wonderful collaboration with many indymedia-style activists and journalists who all pitched in for the common good and success of their various efforts to tell their “Unconventional” stories.

http://subMedia.tv
http://peppersprayproductions.org/

November 12, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
writers@nytimes-se.com
917-202-5479
718-208-0684

“SPECIAL” NEW YORK TIMES BLANKETS CITIES WITH MESSAGE OF HOPE AND CHANGE
Thousands of volunteers behind elaborate operation

* PDF: http://www.nytimes-se.com/pdf
* Ongoing video releases: http://www.nytimes-se.com/video

* The New York Times responds: http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/12/pranksters-spoof-the-times/

Hundreds of independent writers, artists, and activists are claiming credit for an elaborate project, 6 months in the making, in which 1.2 million copies of a “special edition” of the New York Times were distributed in cities across the U.S. by thousands of volunteers.

The papers, dated July 4th of next year, were headlined with long-awaited news: “IRAQ WAR ENDS”. The edition, which bears the same look and feel as the real deal, includes stories describing what the future could hold: national health care, the abolition of corporate lobbying, a maximum wage for CEOs, etc. There was also a spoof site, at http://www.nytimes-se.com/.

“Is this true? I wish it were true!” said one reader. “It can be true, if we demand it.”

“We wanted to experience what it would look like, and feel like, to read headlines we really want to read. It’s about what’s possible, if we think big and act collectively,” said Steve Lambert, one of the project’s organizers and an editor of the paper.

“This election was a massive referendum on change. There’s a lot of hope in the air, but there’s a lot of uncertainty too. It’s up to all of us now to make these headlines come true,” said Beka Economopoulos, one of the project’s organizers.

“It doesn’t stop here. We gave Obama a mandate, but he’ll need mandate after mandate after mandate to do what we elected him to do. He’ll need a lot of support, and yes, a lot of pressure,” said Andy Bichlbaum, another project organizer and editor of the paper.

The people behind the project are involved in a diverse range of groups, including The Yes Men, the Anti-Advertising Agency, CODEPINK, United for Peace and Justice, Not An Alternative, May First/People Link, Improv Everywhere, Evil Twin, and Cultures of Resistance.

In response to the spoof, the New York Times said only, “We are looking into it.” Alex S. Jones, former Times reporter who is an authority on the history of the paper, says: “I would say if you’ve got one, hold on to it. It will probably be a collector’s item.”

-30-

There are books which are imbued with an anachronistic aura from their very release. Books whose untimely publication makes you wonder whether their moment has irrevocably gone by or is perhaps still yet to come.

Such is the case with Gerald Raunig’s Art and Revolution: Transversal Activism in the Long Twentieth Century, a dense reflection on the concatenation of European artistic and revolutionary practices of the last two centuries. A potential theoretical tool for the Seattle movement, the book hit the bookstores when the movement was clearly ebbing, and resurgent fundamentalisms, nationalisms and widespread anti-immigration feelings were reshaping the political climate in a conservative fashion. The paradox is that if there was a ‘right time’ for a book such as Raunig’s, this ideal window of opportunity was no longer than the three months dividing the Genoa anti-G8 protests of July 2001 from September 11, that is, before the global state of war seized the stage from the Seattle movement. To be sure, (what is left of) the movement of movements continues to produce its own analytical tools. But what seems to be missing in the current phase is a political and imaginary space in which those movements can articulate theory and practice in their dialectical unity.

For the complete article, as published in Mute Magazine, click here: http://www.metamute.org/en/content/art_and_or_revolution

Video by Not An Alternative

Not An Alternative partners this year with Paper Tiger TV, Deep Dish TV and video artist Emery Martin for the NY Art Book Fair October 23-26th.

About:
Printed Matter, Inc. presents The NY Art Book Fair, New York City’s annual fair devoted to contemporary art books, art catalogues, artists’ books, art periodicals, and zines. Over 140 international exhibitors, from major distributors and antiquarian dealers to independent publishers and artists, will participate in the third annual Fair, taking place this year at Phillips de Pury & Company at 450 West 15th Street at 10th Avenue. A ticketed Benefit Preview will take place on Thursday, October 23, 6-9 PM. Admission to the fair and events is FREE.

Join web developers, designers, and activists this Friday, October 24th for a Jam Session to build out a groundbreaking new project called Twitter Vote Report. Inspired by a blog post by new media consultants Allison Fine and Nancy Scola, volunteers across the country are moving quickly to build a decentralized election monitoring system that will allow voters to use text messages to report incidents of voter suppression, long lines, broken machines, and other disruptions on election day. The Twitter Vote Report site will aggregate the reporting data, represent it in real-time on a dynamic web map, and notify voters, election monitoring groups, and the media, facilitating rapid response by poll workers and activists.

We’re partnering with the Election Protection Coalition, Rock the Vote, League of Young Voters, NPR, and a host of other groups to make this happen. You can help! Here’s how: 1. Stop by The Change You Want To See from 11am to 6pm on Friday to work with the lead development team, or 2. Host your own jam session and list it on the VoteReport wiki, or 3. Join us from the comfort of your home via IRC freenode channel #VoteReport.

More info below!

Vote Report Project Uses Twitter to Monitor US Elections Programmers, Designers, and Activists Team Up at Nationwide Parties Friday to Build System for Real-Time Reporting of Voter Suppression Incidents

WHAT: Volunteer programmers, designers and activists across the country will coordinate in online chat rooms and at real-world coding parties on Friday to build Twitter Vote Report, a groundbreaking web election monitoring system to fight voter suppression and disruption efforts. Anyone with a Twitter.com account will be able to use their cell phones or computers to send a message notifying voters, election monitors, and the media of problems around the country. A web map will display incidents in real-time.

There are three ways to participate on Friday: 1. Join us at the coding jam session headquarters at The Change You Want To See Gallery in Brooklyn, NY, 2. Host your own coding jam session, 3. Join us in IRC freenode channel #VoteReport.

WHEN: Friday, November 24th, 11am – 6pm EST.

WHERE: Headquartered at “Brooklyn Coworking” in The Change You Want To See Gallery, 84 Havemeyer St, Brooklyn NY 11211.

Additional locations across the country listed here: http://wiki.votereport.us/Votereport%20Jam%20Session

BACKGROUND INFO: On election day millions of Americans will go to over 200,000 distinct voting locations and using different systems and machinery to vote. Some voters will have a terrific experiences, and others will experience the same problems we have been hearing about for years - long lines, broken machines, inaccurate voting rolls, and some that we haven’t heard about before. Using Twitter.com and 1-866-Our-Vote Hotline, voters will have a new way to share these experiences with one another and ensure that the media and watchdog groups are aware of any problems.

From questions like “where do I vote” or “how do I make sure that my rights are being upheld,” Twitter Voter Report augments these efforts by providing a new way for voters to send text messages (aka tweets) via cellphones or computers which will be aggregated and mapped so that everyone can see the Nation’s voting problems in real-time.

A Nationwide web map will display pins identifying every zip code where Americans are waiting over 30 minutes to vote or indicating those election districts where the voting machines are not working. Collectively we will inform each other when the lines are too long and ensure that media and watchdog groups know when and where problems exist.

For more information: Twitter Vote Report Wiki – http://wiki.votereport.us Friday Jam Session info – http://wiki.votereport.us/Votereport%20Jam%20Session

Partners: 866-OUR-VOTE (The Election Protection Coalition) Common Cause Credo Mobile Demos League of Young Voters Mobilize.org National Public Radio Network Redux Not An Alternative Open Resource Group Rock the Vote techPresident/Personal Democracy Forum Voter Suppression Wiki Women Donors Network

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Saturday, October 11, 12pm – 3pm
Cat Mazza, founder of the MicroRevolt collective of craftivistsm, will give an artist talk. A knitting workshop follows, participants are invited to bring works in progress, or contribute to the completion of Mazza’s latest project Stitch for Senate, in which knit helmet liners will be sent to Senators on election week 2008.

Sunday, October 12, 12pm – 3pm
Artist Ricardo Miranda Zuniga will discuss his latest work VOTEMOS.US ¡Mexico Decide!. Votemos.us is an online Spanish language portal that enables non-citizens to participate in the upcoming U.S. elections. On Sunday, it enters the physical world, as participants are invited to join Ricardo on the inaugural tour of the Votemos.us interactive voting cart.

“HOMECOMING” IRAQ WAR ZOMBIE MOVIE
Just when things looked like they couldn’t get any worse for President Bush, here come the zombies. In an election year, dead veterans of the current conflict crawl out of their graves and stagger single-mindedly to voting booths. They arrive courtesy of Joe Dante’s Homecoming. One part satire of soulless Beltway insiders, one part gut-crunching horror flick, Homecoming kicks off when the flag-draped coffins of soldiers killed in Iraq burst open and the reanimated corpses of dead veterans hit the streets, searching for polling places where they can pull the lever for “anyone who will end this evil war.” More than soldiers, the zombies represent all the disenfranchised, including those whose votes weren’t counted in both recent elections.

59min, Directed by Joe Dante (Gremlins, The Howling).
http://www.cinema-scope.com/cs25/int_peranson_dante.htm

CAT MAZZA: “STITCH FOR SENATE”
ARTIST TALK AND KNITTING WORKSHOP
Stitch for Senate is an initiative of knit hobbyists making helmet liners for every United States Senator. Building on the tradition of wartime knitting, a practice dating back to the American Revolution, Stitch for Senate revives this cultural trend by engaging with public officials about the war in Iraq. The Stitch for Senate website compiles testimonies from contributing knitters, that express everything from charity, allegiance, patriotism, resistance, and radicalism; using the tradition of political organizing within knitting circles as a space for storytelling, discussion, exchange and protest. Hobbyists knit in solidarity to persuade elected officials to support the troops by bringing them home. All the senators will receive their own helmet liner the week of the 2008 election, after being displayed in the seating chart of the US Senate at gallery venue. Once they are received, senators can opt to send helmets to a soldier.
http://www.stitchforsenate.us/

Cat Mazza (b. 1977 Washington DC) is an artist whose work combines traditional craft with digital media to explore the relationships between textiles, technology and labor. Recent exhibits include Hackers and Haute Couture Heretics at Garanti Gallery (Istanbul, Turkey) the Radical Lace and Subversive Knitting exhibit at the Museum of Arts and Design (New York City) and Miniartextil at Arte & Arte (Como, Italy). Mazza is a 2007 Re:New Media Arts Fellow in New Media and a 2008 Creative Capital grantee.
http://www.microrevolt.org/

RICARDO MIRANDA ZUNIGA: VOTEMOS.US ¡MEXICO DECIDE!
ARTIST TALK AND NEIGHBORHOOD PERFORMANCE
VOTEMOS.US ¡México Decide! is a Spanish language portal to the 2008 US presidential elections that proposes that Mexico get a vote in the US elections. Between Mexico and the United States exists a constant circulation of people, product and capital. Within the U.S. lives an active Mexican population that in 2000 represented 4% of the US labor force. If Mexico could elect the next U.S. president who would it be? Users can register, vote, and give their opinion on the U.S. elections.

On Sunday, October 12th, VOTEMOS.US will enter the physical world in the form of a voting cart by which participants may take the voice of either McCain or Obama as they make public a hypothetical vote for the 2008 U.S. Presidential Elections. The cart will feature hand-crafted wooden busts of McCain and Obama, each accompanied with a microphone for public use.
http://www.votemos.us

Ricardo Miranda Zúñiga approaches art as a social practice to establish dialogue in public spaces. As a child of immigrant parents and brought up in Nicaragua and San Francisco, Zúñiga’s awareness of inequality and discrimination was established at an early age. Themes such as immigration, discrimination, and the effects of globalization extend from highly subjective experiences and observations into works that tactfully engage others through populist metaphors while maintaining critical perspectives.
http://www.ambriente.com