[ISEA2008] Artists Talk: Milena Szafir & Mariana Kadlec – Post-Panoptic Era: Liquid Rethorics in Mobile Networks

Artists Statement

This project was basically a live (and on demand) webtv channel broadcasting from streets to the World Wide Web; in other words, anyone had the chance to be ‘youtubed’ besides learning how to make their own webtv channels in the current context of freedom and domination that we’re living in (network and liquid-modern societies) whereas we must to take an activist position reffering to the mobile technologie’s popularization and the rising of different argues about “public” and “digital” television in Brazil.

Originally conceived in 2005, this ‘technoconceptual’ work in progress (the first brazilian mobile webtv live broadcast) has been in the streets since june 2006. It aimed at stimulating freedom of expression and the rights of communication, using cellphones (mobile technology to data transmission) for collective free and independent purposes.

The project also disseminates the notion of D.I.Y., through workshops and lectures (at some major Brazilian Universities, Locative Media Events and for teenagers in Sao Paulo Suburbs), in our current ‘liquid’ context, of fluxes, accelerations, surveillance, spectacle and consumption; talking “about ‘new media’ for a critical mass”, and trying to make participants understand that every cellphone or pocket-pc can be a powerful weapon, like worldwide broadcasting station, i.e. everyone is able to learn how to use this infrastructure to change realities.

Yes!, mobile media and online networks “can allow for many-to-many communication providing opportunities for political” and cultural collective activism i.e. these technologies can change the power from a small number of media owners to entire ex-audiences: “MANIFEST YOURSELF [artist is everybody]”.

(work-presentation, paper/artist’s presentation, about “MANIFEST YOURSELF [you’re being ‘youtubed’ in real time: artist is everybody] – mobile webtv live broadcast” – manifesto21.com.br)

  • Milena Szafir, School of Communications and Arts, University of São Paulo, Brazil
  • Mariana Kadlec, multim media artist, Brazil