( (( ((( Spectropolis 2004 ))) )) ) Panels

Panels will be held in conjunction with Spectropolis.

Hot Enough? Art, Activism, and Wireless Technology during the RNC
September 27, 7:00 pm, Lang Center at The New School, 55 West 13th Street

This panel examines how artists employ wireless technology to reach unprecedented masses, increase collaboration, redefine and politicize the urban environment and achieve unparalleled levels of immediacy. The 2004 Republican National Convention (RNC) in New York City gave rise to a wave of artistic projects employing wireless technology to make specific political statements. The RNC provided a common focus and purpose to diverse and divergent initiatives which, participate in this discussion that assesses their effectiveness and efficiency.

Participants: Yury Gitman (Magicbike), Natalie Jeremijenko (The Bureau of Inverse Technology), Joshua Kinberg (Bikes Against Bush), neuroTransmitter, and others.

This event is ticketed. Admission is $8.

Organized by the Vera List Center for Art and Politics at the New School in conjunction with Spectropolis. Co-sponsored by the Design and Technology Department, Parsons School of Design, and the Department of Film and Media Studies, The New School.

Victory of the Commons: The Case for a Public Airwaves Movement
September 29, 7:00 pm, Multi-Purpose Room at Pace University, 3 Spruce Street

This panel will evaluate the case for a widespread social movement advocating open spectrum policies led by community wireless groups. Panelists will present the successes and failures of earlier media and technology movements including media reform, low-power FM, public access television, and open source software. In the past year, two million people filed FCC comments to oppose a change in the media ownership rules that would have increased the market share of corporate broadcasters. Similarly, large hardware manufacturers and corporations have begun using open source software, which was developed through the collaborative efforts of a huge number of volunteer programmers. Currently, we are in the midst of another social movement that threatens to disrupt the status quo. Local wireless groups have begun to offer free Internet access to their communities using WiFi, thereby creating an alternative to commercial services. Present obstacles to the development of a widespread social movement advocating open spectrum policies will also be discussed.

Participants: Chris Anderson - Indymedia New York, Dharma Dailey - Prometheus Radio, Anthony Townsend - NYCwireless, Michael Scott Jones - Manhattan Neighborhood Network.
Moderator: Laura Forlano - Columbia University

This event is ticketed. Admission is $5; free for Pace students. To order tickets or for box office hours, visit http://www.pace.edu/culture. Both Pace University's Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts and the Multi Purpose Room can be found by entering on Spruce Street between Park Row and Gold Street, just east of City Hall Park.

Downtown Dialogue with Spectropolis Artists
October 4, 7:00 PM, The Schimmel Center at Pace University, 3 Spruce Street

How do new media and information technologies continue to influence the form, processes, experience and ideas of urban life? Mobile phones, the internet, Personal Digital Assistants, Geographical Information Systems, Global Positioning Systems, and Virtual Reality are only some of the technologies that continue to effect the ways we navigate through, understand, and act upon the city. And, in combination with existing media (newspapers, TV, telephones, video, photography, and face-to-face communication), these are the tools that are giving rise to new forms of electronic culture within the urban landscape. In this panel, Spectropolis artists Jeremy Wood, Elizabeth Goodman, Trebor Scholz, and Julian Bleecker discuss these trends through a discussion of their individual projects.

Participants: Julian Bleecker, Jeremy Wood, Elizabeth Goodman, and Trebor Scholz
Moderator: Anthony Townsend - NYU, NYCwireless