Video recordings

Electronic Soldier

Electronic Soldier[Stefan Kaufmann], Friday, 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.


Déracinement

Déracinement[Christine Frisinghelli], Friday, 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.


Conditional Surrender to the City of Gardens

Conditional Surrender to the City of Gardens[The Errorists], Friday, 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.


World War

World War[Klaus Viehmann], Sunday, July 23rd 2006, 19:00 - 19:30

Everyone knows that World War II was a global war. However, knowledge of its development and impact on Western Europe is rather limited. At least in the last two centuries knowledge of war crimes has increased. The purpose of today’s lecture is to draw a rough outline of the neglected aspects of this war and to raise some interest in the exploits and suffering of the people who were affected by fascism, “Herrenmenschentum” and aggression, and fought against it. The lecture is hold in german, below you could read the english translation.


United Nations

United Nations[Ariane Müller], Sunday, July 23rd 2006, 18:30 - 19:00

Rio, Peking, Kairo, Istanbul, Genf, Kyoto, Habitat, Houairou, Konventionen, Protokolle, Deklarationen. Ariane Müller transfers excessive demands, over fatigue and prescribed terminology in a repetitive rhythm of the german language. We're still working on an appropriate translation.


Translation

Translation[Tom Keenan], Sunday, July 23rd 2006, 17:00 - 18:30

What sort of language is war, if it is one? What would "total" conflict be? When does escalation become impossible? When the violence is not exercised to force others into a conversation, or to change the terms of a debate, but in order to end a debate, to remove the other party in a debate once and for all, when debate itself -- or politics, or language -- is itself the target of the violence .... is that the limit? Is that the moment when things actually can't get any worse?


Transition

Transition[Erzen Shkololli], Sunday, July 23rd 2006, 16:30 - 17:00

Presentation of a works will reflect the dramatic transformation of the region, connected in particular with decay of the local totalitarian regimes during the 1990's. By representing various forms of ethnic, religious or political predestination and manipulation symbolizing the contrast social situation in his homeland.


Theatres of Possession Operation Systems

Theatres of Possession Operation Systems[Konrad Becker], Sunday, July 23rd 2006, 16:00 - 16:30

In times of global wars, financial wars, the classic battlefield, the »Theatre of Operation« is not longer visible. Konrad Becker focuses on perception and the human nervous system and instead of defining and giving answers he poses questions: 100 questions for the Dictionary of war.


Resistance

Resistance[Ingrid Strobl], Sunday, July 23rd 2006, 15:30 - 16:00

Relativizing the Absolute "Resistance" is among those terms that although seemingly clear-cut, are in reality difficult to define. What is resistance? Who defines what it is? What conditions have to be met so that who identifies or recognizes what to be resistance? And which and whose interests stand behind the label?


Redundancy

Redundancy[Marko Peljhan], Sunday, July 23rd 2006, 15:00 - 15:30

»Redundancy« is a crucial element for building network systems - so failure does not mean the end of the system; it's about functioning beyond the failure. But the artist Marko Peljhan is not only interested in the technical terms of the concept but also in its political meaning and impact.


Prisoner of War

Prisoner of War[Naeem Mohaiemen], Sunday, July 23rd 2006, 14:30 - 15:00

It is almost banal to start by talking about the ongoing Iraq apocalypse. After thousands of lives, and many multiples more of ink and video have been spilt, what more remains to be said about this manifestation of permanent war? Those who marched in anti-war rallies can now feel some schadenfreude at the unraveling of the entire project for a New Century. But at what a terrible price we earned the right to say "we told you so". Even after all the interventionist fantasies have shattered, there is no post-war peace dividend. The madness of the Neocon project only replaced by the equally insane Islamist project of the Mahdi Army, and the ethnic cleansing and forced partition dreams of the Shiite and Sunni death squads.


Pop

Pop[Georg Seeßlen & Markus Metz], Sunday, July 23rd 2006, 14:00 - 14:30

There is no war without pop, and there is no pop without war.
Georg Seeßlen and Markus Metz perform their lecture in german, commenting and analyzing multiple film extracts. In the »preface« below you'll find their crucial questions and thesis written in english.


Police War

Police War[Katja Diefenbach], Sunday, July 23rd 2006, 13:30 - 14:00

We are currently entering a hegemonic war regime dominated by strategies of preventive intervention and crisis management, and therefore subject to the logic of the police. Elements of private enterprise war, of low-intensity warfare, of counter insurgency, of biopolitical administration, and of the police state of emergency are combined and legitimated as humanitarian mission, civilian-military cooperation, or just war. This war regime follows a calculation of control and security.


Peace-for-War

Peace-for-War[Brian Holmes], Sunday, July 23rd 2006, 13:00 - 13:30

The concept I'm going to present draws directly from the work of Shimshon Bichler and Jonathan Nitzan. It describes the economic phases of "depth" and "breadth," and correlates them with the first- and second-order cybernetics of control. It attempts to situate the functions of cultural-communicational labor within these economic phases. It questions those autonomists who thought it would be possible to transform a broadly expansionary phase of capitalism, like that of the nineties, into a qualitatively different society. It’s not a polemic, but seeks to open up a field of strategic debate. It doesn't assert a future, but observes the unfolding of the present into the depths of violence, which has robbed resistance movements of their potential, again. The concept is Peace-for-War.


National Anthem

National Anthem[Julieta Aranda], Sunday, July 23rd 2006, 12:30 - 13:00
How does nationalism relates to the context of art production? Which countries are showing up regularly within the circle of international art exhibition - and which won't and why?


Mobilization

Mobilization[Akram Zaatari], Sunday, July 23rd 2006, 12:00 - 12:30

The artist Akram Zaatari defines Mobilization as a kind of eternal propaganda. He is reading a text he wrote some weeks ago describing how found footage and the process of collecting documents became crucial for his work and finally shows his latest video, a work about mobilization.


Liberation

Liberation[Ivan Kucina], Saturday, July 22nd 2006, 18:30 - 19:00

Every war needs a positive notion - one could be: »Liberation«. Ivan Kucina, architect and lecturer based in Belgrad, speaks about two workshops with his students, questioning the diverse meanings of »liberation« and shows a short documentary.


/join #beirut

/join #beirut[Mansur Jacoubi], Saturday, July 22nd 2006, 18:00 - 18:30

We set up a chat module that should allow the participants of the Dictionary in Munich as well as a group of people at the very moment gathering in Beirut to communicate. In order to "Join #Beirut" please click here:

http://dictionaryofwar.org/en-dict/chatbox


Discipline

Discipline[Ulrich Broeckling], Saturday, July 22nd 2006, 17:30 - 18:00

Disciplining in order to fight is "hot" - it mobilizes, transgresses and fuels the passions. Disciplining in order to effectively use force is "cold" - it controls, regularizes, and curbs the affects. The mix ratio is changing and the history of military disciplining can be described as a change between rather "hot" and rather "cold" epochs. Ulrich Bröckling is talking in german but below you could read his lecture in english translation.


Desertion

Desertion[Avery Gordon], Saturday, July 22nd 2006, 17:00 - 17:30

Absent without permission, it's not only soldiers who desert, or should consider it. What does it mean to be a deserter or to practice desertion? Not furtively, but as an outlaw, a fugitive? Some brief thoughts on disobedience, desertion and other promising conduits to abolishing the disposition to war.


Defeat, for the

Defeat, for the[Nora Sternfeld], Saturday, July 22nd 2006, 16:30 - 17:00

At 12 o'clock on April 8, 2005, in the Ostarrichi-Park in front of the Landesgericht (the regional court), a temporary monument to the defeat was unveiled that triggered a debate on the process of denazification and made an issue of the fact that this process was still unfinished today. The eight-sided object was conceived as a monumental plinth and it measured 2 meters in height and had a circumference of 11 meters. Nora Sternfeld presents her concept in german but below you could read the english translation.


Declaration of War

Declaration of War[Andcompany&Co], Saturday, July 22nd 2006, 16:00 - 16:30

andcompany & Co. Feat. Alexander Karschnia, Nicola Nord, Sascha Sulimma & Co.
In their lecture performance KRIEGSERKLÄRUNG they will explain and declare war at the same time, talking in stolen words, quotes borrowed from John L. Austin until Vladimir I. Lenin. For supplementary reading please check out the text "Die Kriegserklärung " by Karl Marx http://www.mlwerke.de/me/me10/me10_168.htm


Camp

Camp[Manuel Herz], Saturday, July 22nd 2006, 15:30 - 16:00

Manuel Herz, an architect based in Cologne, analyzes the concept of »Camp« rather in an abstract way but in a specific location, in Chad. One of the poorest countries in the world, pumping oil since several years without any positive effects on the income of the local population, became one of the most important areas for refugees from different countries. Manuel Herz is talking in english, below you'll find the paper of his lecture in german.


Camouflage

Camouflage[Stefan Römer], Saturday, July 22nd 2006, 15:00 - 15:30

The concept of »Camouflage« in its traditional military sense has been classified always as national representation. To camouflage Stefan Römer adds another military concept: showing the flag - whicht got another connotation during Football Worldchampionship 2006 in the privatized and corporated public spaces. As opposed these methods might be in their intention, they seem to serve the same system of representation as the same cultural practices. Speaking about piracy, both methods appear in a single constellation. Could this open up new spaces of action for non representative practices? Stefan Römer is holding his lecture in german.


Amphetamine

Amphetamine[Hans-Christian Dany], Saturday, July 22nd 2006, 14:30 - 15:00
Hans-Christian Dany explains the functionality of Amphetamine and its use in the 20ties and then draws a connection to the military usage of the drug regarding particularly its role in friendly fire actions. He refers to a paradox in reference to the rapid technical diversification within the military and the constant use of the same drug like Amphetamin over a long period of time. He is holding his lecture in german.