Addressing Skype Issues 

(lost calls, poor reception, etc.)

Hi, this message is for anybody who will join any of the Skype group calls. If you won't or can't join the calls, you can safely ignore this message.

We've been experiencing a bit of dropped calls the last few weeks. Amber, as call host, is checking a few things out with her computer's set up. In addition, anyone who participates in the calls (or is planning to) can take a look at your own connection by doing the steps outlined below. Taking 5-10 minutes might really help improve the technical quality of the calls, allow more time for sharing our ideas and insights on the readings, and avoid the frustration brought about by frequently interrupted conversations.

A couple of things EACH of us should check on that could be adding to the issue (and, ahem; I'll admit right now, I was guilty of not using the latest version of Skype.)  

NOTE: Steps 2 and 3 should be checked BEFORE the next call. Depending on one's skills, equipment, and connection you may want to do this a couple of days before the call, in case you run into any glitches or want to do a test call with one or two other people. (i'm happy to help with that if anyone needs a second or third person for a test call this week. 908-433-0052 to contact me).

The links in the steps below jump directly to skype's relevant pages.

1. We should be OK on bandwidth, since we are only using audio, not video. (talk about the impact of technology on the distributed person!)
2. EACH caller should ensure their computer meets the system requirements for running Skype on their OS.
   
3. EACH caller should ensure they are using the latest version of SKYPE for their OS.
   
• Click here for help on how to tell what version you ARE using.
• Click here to find out what the latest available version is for your OS.
4. DURING the Skype conference call, it is important that EACH caller close all browsers or other applications that use the internet, especially any that play music or videos. (games, Pandora, iTunes, etc.)
5. Two things that may help with clarity of the call if anyone's having trouble hearing each other:
• If you are currently using your computer's integrated microphone, you might want to consider getting  a headset (a gaming or computer headset so you can talk, not just earbuds or headphones)
• Especially if you are not using a headset or separate microphone/speaker setup, you should put Skype on mute except when you are making a comment to the group. This can greatly cut down on background noise as well as distortion and 'cut out'.

Let's see if everybody takes these measures, if we might not have fewer dropped calls.

A Promise of Happiness?

The Rat Race

Technology of Enchantment and Enchantment of Technology essay

Here is a bit of supplemental material that may be of interest to Art and Agency campers.

• This is a link to Gell's 1992 essay, The Technology of Enchantment and the Enchantment of Technology This essay is one of a few mentioned as precursors of A&A (the other 2 not available free online, but if anyone has access to the Journal of Material Culture perhaps you could do us a solid with Traps as Artworks and Artworks as Traps.)

• Alfred Gell (1945-1997) by Alan Macfarlane  (An almost encyclopedic obituary  published in the Proceedings of the British Academy, vol.120, 2003, pp.123-147) The last 5 or 6 pages in particular may shed some light on our reading.  

•  The Making of the Modern World - ebooks by Alan Macfarlane. These are unrelated to Alfred Gell, per se, but are works in pdf format made freely available by the author on the origins and nature of the modern world. YMMV.

 I've come across a few essays that review/critique A&A and will post any that seem short, sweet or particularly persuasive in the weeks to come.
 

two potentials for this summer

Jane Bennett: Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things

Graham Harman: Prince of Networks: Bruno Latour and Metaphysics   (this one may stretch the parameters of ATSC, but it may be of interest to us as a group or individually anyway)


Missing you!  Looking forward to camp, if only to ease me back into the post-graduate school (!) world. 

link to New Yorker Article

Koch brothers war against Obama


interesting in view of our discussion tonight.......

Back to Bucky

This is really late, but I just got around to our round-up of things we liked about Bucky, even if he is nuts:

1) It's not technology that saves us, it's the implementation of technology. The goal is "livery."
2) There is abundance. It is generous but finite. Abundance vs. limited resources and grasping for power.
3) We each create our own "omnihood." Omni is a big concept from the book; a sort of variation of act locally but try and affect the major systems and learn how they interact and how systems need plurality and dissension (part of his omni-vision is very naive).
4) Have a master plan.
5) Don't accept the words of experts; test things for yourself. Rely on direct experience/
6) Don't forget to do.
7) Don't forget the process (and documenting the process) is as important as the work.

Nef

When Merely Discussing Raises Hackles

I read this today in one of my many email alerts, and it reminded me of Zizek's discussion of torture (page 50): below we have an open discussion AND a law about the limits of extra-judicial killing!

EXTRAJUDICIAL TARGETING OF AMERICANS CHALLENGED

Two civil liberties organizations said they will file a legal challenge against the government's suspected targeting for assassination of an American supporter of Al Qaeda, arguing that under the U.S. Constitution no citizen can be "deprived of life... without due process of law."

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights first filed suit against the Treasury Department, which said they needed a "license" in order to act on behalf of Anwar al-Awlaki, who has been designated as a terrorist. After the lawsuit was filed yesterday, the Treasury Department said the license to proceed would be granted.

Meanwhile, Rep. Dennis Kucinich and several House colleagues introduced legislation last week "to prohibit the extrajudicial killing of United States citizens."

"No United States citizen, regardless of location, can be 'deprived of life, liberty, property, without due process of law', as stated in Article XIV of the Constitution," their bill said.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said yesterday that the targeting of al-Awlaki was not done entirely without process. "There's a process in place that I'm not at liberty to discuss," he said.

"If... we think that direct action [against terrorists] will involve killing an American, we get specific permission to do that," then-DNI Dennis C. Blair told a House Intelligence Committee hearing (pdf) on February 3, 2010.

But the Kucinich bill said that "No one, including the President, may instruct a person acting within the scope of employment with the United States Government or an agent acting on behalf of the United States Government to engage in, or conspire to engage in, the extrajudicial killing of a United States citizen."