Dictionary of War | At least, when we create concepts, we are doing something

Ashwatthama

Raqs Media Collective - October 13th 2006, 17:30 - 18:00

Ashwatthama is a character in the Mahabharata, cursed to live forever, as a kind of wandering warrior.

Asymmetric Warfare

Raul Zelik - October 13th 2006, 18:00 - 18:30

At first the notion of »asymmetrical war« is a description of a more or less obvious phenomenon: since 1945 there are less and less wars between states and more and more conflicts between regular forces on the one side and irregular formations on the other side. The state-to-state war - predominant in the time after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 - was characterized by two similar kinds of army: a symmetrical disposition.

Attitudes

Egdar Schmitz - October 13th 2006, 18:30 - 19:00

Aufräumen

Diedrich Diederichsen - October 13th 2006, 19:00 - 19:30

(1) the image of people cleaning up their houses and streets, and what's left of it after they been attacked, bombed etc.
(2) the myth of Trümmerfrauen cleaning up the rubble in post-war Germany, when, at the same time, the trope auf cleaning up was strong as a right wing trope of law and order, and even war
(3) the antagonism of negentropic cleaning up and entropic war.

Ausnahme

Michael Hirsch - October 13th 2006, 19:30 - 20:00

»Sovereign is he who decides on the exception.« This is Carl Schmitt’s famous definition of the problem of sovereign state power. It is the definition of the threat of sovereign state power in two meanings of the word: the »normal situation« is threatened by chaotic, an-archic troubles; and it is threatened by a sovereign state who re-establishes the normal order by stepping outside of the rule of law. (..:) Giorgio Agamben has, with regard to the imperialistic world politics of the USA (and with regard to Italy under Berlusconi) strengthened Schmitt’s thesis and has formulated with Walter Benjamin: »The state of exception we are living in is the rule.«

Conditional Surrender to the City of Gardens

The Errorists - October 13th 2006, 20:00 - 20:30

An experiment in teleology via a syntax octopus of popsongs. DNA is a syntax, which names an ideal fruiting endstate: a productive human, a reproductive frog, etc. This name for the future-state elaborates in response to experience-towards structural realization at full-resolution/reality. Human Rights and DNA are names for that set of infrastructure economies-the organs comprising a body- that allow the individual cells to experience at the next absolute scale of economy. This in contrast to the thoroughly discredited micro-incrementalist reactionary future-gaming of war and market masters. Oh the poor old market, the poor old web- precious self-elaborating logics- in desperate need of colleague economies. In need of the Multiple Transnational Infrastructure Economies which will use the extracted refined and recombined modernist materialism to form the infrastructure trellis that can support the elaboration outwards, of the next absolute scale of economy: The World Organ Economies, The Global City of the Gardens.

Déracinement

Christine Frisinghelli - October 13th 2006, 20:30 - 21:00

Der Begriff der "Entwurzelung" orientiert sich an dem von Pierre Bourdieu gewählten Begriff "Déracinement / Uprooting", der gleichzeitig den Titel eines von ihm in Zusammenarbeit mit Abdelmalek Sayad 1964 veröffentlichten Buches bildet. Gegenstand dieser Studie sind die tiefgreifenden gesellschaftlichen Auswirkungen der französischen Kolonialpolitik (seit 1830) und des Unabhängigkeitskrieges (1954-1962) auf die algerische Bevölkerung. Vor allem die Umsiedlung großer Bevölkerungsgruppen insbesondere im ländlichen Raum in die Centres de regroupement, von der über 2 Millionen Algerier (ein Viertel der Gesamtbevölkerung) betroffen waren, ist eine der brutalsten Vorgänge dieser Art der Geschichte und wurde von Bourdieu/Sayad in ihrer Studie exemplarisch analysiert.

Electronic Soldier

Stefan Kaufmann - October 13th 2006, 21:00 - 21:30

Der neue Soldat – meist als electronic soldier bezeichnet – trägt die Insignien des Informationszeitalters: in seinem Rucksack befindet sich ein wearable computer; sein Helm ist mit einem heads-up display, integriertem Ohrhörer und Mikrophon bestückt; Funkgerät und Antenne schließen ihn permanent an ein ge-fechtsfeldumfassendes W-LAN an; die Waffe lässt sich mit zahlreichen optotroni-schen Komponenten, wie Nachtsichtgerät und Videokamera, ausrüsten; GPS und andere features ergänzen die Rüstung. Und in der Tat lässt sich der electronic soldier als eine Figur an der Front der Informationsgesellschaft begreifen.

Heroes

Thomas Draschan - October 13th 2006, 21:30 - 22:00

Hostis Humani Generis

Lawrence Liang - October 14th 2006, 14:00 - 14:30

Abstract wars demand abstract enemies, and the Hostis Humani Generis (or the enemy against all mankind) is a title that has been bestowed on a host of figures; starting with the pirate and now the terrorist, I seek to understand the links between property, piracy and terrorism and propose that the concept of Hostis Humani Generis helps us understand the idea of war as a continuation of property by other means.

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Komplizenschaft

Gesa Ziemer - October 14th 2006, 14:30 - 15:00

Komplizenschaft wird als kühles Plädoyer für einen kritischen Lebensentwurf, der sich als Alltagspraxis versteht und weniger das Feld der Kunst tangiert, vorgeschlagen. Komplizenschaft steht für eine mikrogemeinschaftliches Arbeits- und Lebensform und ist ein Beispiel für die Kraft des Schwachen. Anhand von 18 Regeln begründe ich, dass Komplizen nicht nur Mitdenker, sondern vor allem Mittäter sind. Komplizen sind keine Strategen, sondern Taktiker, die es vermögen mit den Ereignissen zu spielen und günstige Gelegenheiten zu ergreifen. Eng miteinander verflochten schreiten sie zur Tat. Sei diese Tat legal oder illegal – genau diese Doppelstruktur macht ihre Faszination und Schlagkraft aus. Weil sie eigene Gesetze kreieren, die sie mehr binden als das geltende Recht, lancieren sie alternative Ordnungen, die Machtstrukturen transparent machen und temporär verändern.

Kriegsgefangenenlager

Andreas Hiepko - October 14th 2006, 15:00 - 15:30

Negotiation

Sergej Goran Pristaš & Ivana Ivkovic - October 14th 2006, 15:30 - 16:00

In a format of an (in)operative interview we will try to negotiate in a polarized field between Jan-Luc Godard's movie "Here or Elsewhere" and Ivana Sajko's play "Ribcage" which we once used to root our thematization of war. Silence and waiting and questions and oblivion are the keywords of our small performance machine.

PartisanInnen (Kärntner)

Tina Leisch - October 14th 2006, 16:00 - 16:30

Power Points

DeeDee Halleck - October 14th 2006, 16:30 - 17:00

This presentation starts with a look at Crystal City, Virginia and K Street in the District of Colombia -- places in the Washington area where war is brokered and then moves to the beneficiaries of the K street deals -- places like the Blackwater Headquarters and the General Dynamics submarine company in Connecticut.

Pro-vocation

Azra Aksamija - October 14th 2006, 17:00 - 17:30

Provocation is a means of visualizing a religious identity in a secular context. As a hybrid of the notions of vocation, "a divine call to God’s service," and provocation, "a means of arousing or stirring to action", provocation can be understood a means of asserting a believer's democratic rights to practice his or her religion fearlessly.

Relatively calm again

Mansur Jacoubi - October 13th 2006, 17:00 - 17:30

I open this evening, having just arrived from Lebanon, which had just undergone a one-month dreadful war and is now undergoing a difficult post-war situation, or rather one might say a period of "being in-between wars." Since my task here is one of introduction, I will use this opportunity to give a brief and perhaps scattered narration of this war as a witness. To witness war is to feel the inexplicable sound of bombs, to fear death, to be in solidarity with others. To feel hate, anger, and negotiate violence. It is also to witness it in ways not unlike others: through TV and computer screens, reminding us of that saying, "wars now happen only on TV".