Operation How, Now, Wow

Operation How, Now, Wow:
an international festival of dissent

Contents:
1. San Francisco, California
2. Seattle and Elsewhere
3. Los Angeles, California
4. Portland, Oregan
5. Chicago, Illinois
6. Galway, Ireland
7. Various, England
8. Amsterdam, Netherlands
9. Negev, Israel
10. d.e.s.a.r.m.e.
(includes: Mexico, España, Francia, Chile, Bolivia, Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Republica Dominicana)

1. San Francisco, California

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San Francisco --Fri -- Aaron Gach & Trevor Paglen

On Friday April 25, 2003, Aaron Gach and Trevor Paglen will conduct an intervention at the Bechtel Corporation in downtown San Francisco.

Bechtel, the largest construction company in the United States with incestuous relationships to the Republican Party, has been awarded a multibillion dollar contract to rebuild Iraq. The artists will conduct a survey among Bechtel employees about their opinions on being awarded this contract under suspicious circumstances.

After taking the 5question survey, employees will receive two gifts: a copy of the CIA Sabotage manual distributed to Nicaraguan peasants during the Reagan era, which outlines everyday tactics for disabling common
infrastructures, and a copy of a CD-ROM which can be used to install viruses on a workstation. After the survey location is shut down by Bechtel security, the artists plan to distribute the materials using several remote-control robots.

Contact:
aaron@tacticalmagic.org
trevor@paglen.com

2. Seattle and Elsewhere

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Seattle -- Saturday -- Poetics in the Streets

From: Safdie Joseph <Joseph.Safdie@LWTC.CTC.EDU

Saturday, April 26th, 12pm-2:00pm,
Seattle Art Museum, downtown site

Artists and others will gather to mourn the casualties and loss of life in
Iraq, as well as the looting and destruction of various Iraqi cultural
institutions. We also grieve the many acts of “looting” being done by the
American government.

Please dress in black funeral attire and meet under “Looting Man” (aka
Hammering Man, the Jonathon Borofsky sculpture outside the main entrance on
1st Avenue) at 12 o’clock sharp. We will proceed in silence around the
museum block for two hours.

No signs, no chants, no coffins. We are sympathetic mourners, slowly walking
together around the museum. With enough of us, we can encircle the museum/
block entirely. It is an act of grief and we are the (symbolic) missing ring
of protection.

A simple flyer explaining the action will be given to interested on-lookers.

Please, PLEASE pass the word along and feel free to print and Xerox this
e-mail.
______________________

Two hours might be a bit much! Still, the reason I’m forwarding this is to try and provoke some interest from artists and writers in other cities to
perform a similar action. Perhaps the sizable contingent of poets in New York City on this list might want to gather around the Metropolitan Museum at noon. People in L.A. might choose the L.A. county museum on Wilshire. Etc.

It would be a shame, after all the energies of mobilization provoked by the war, to simply retreat to our various hermeticisms. We need to find new ways -- poetic, artistic, and on the streets—to say “no” to this most
repellent of administrations and all its plans.

Joe Safdie

3. Los Angeles, California

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Los Angeles – Weekend – Deport Art not Arabs!!

. Deport Art Not Arabs!! [ARTiFACTs]
(www.deportart.org)

2. Deport Art Not Arabs!! is a web-based project that
works collectively/independently with various
organizations to highlight the nouveau colonization of
artifacts within the museum and how it relates with
the diaspora of Arabs and their subsequent
racism/deportation.

3. This weekend we will be helping with the
organization and planning of the MIWON march on May
1st. Which has a theme of
“ NO U..S. War, Legalization Now! and
Stop Immmigrant Bashing”
All interested peoples should stop by the offices at

153 Glendale Blvd. L.A. 2nd Floor
(Entrance is on Rockwood St. )
Tel# (213) 250-4353

4)More information can be found regarding the on-going
web project Deport Art Not Arabs!! at
www.deportart.org
It connects the recent ratified Declaration known as
the “Universal Museum”, signed by major institutions
in the US and Europe, the need of repatriation of
artifacts,and how returning artifacts to their
ethnicity would benefit the artifacts themselves and
ourselves collectively.

DEPORT ART NOT ARABS!!

Durham, North Carolina

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Durham/New York -- Weekend -- Peter Lasch

A--------------------------
IÕll paint the first version of my LATINO/A AMERICA project as a link between the three-day conference "The Future of Utopia" at Duke University (April 24-27) and "Operation Now, How, Wow" at 16Beaver (April 25-27): The Future of Utopia: Is Innovation Still Possible in Politics, Culture, Theory?

http://www.duke.edu/literature/schedule.htm

B---------------------------
IÕve talked to Max Becher and heÕs very excited about integrating his "Map of U.S. Interventions Project" to Operation Now, How, Wow. This project has been developed by many people over the last year, including a group of students at the University of Florida. It graphically represents the various forms of U.S. Intervention around the world in the last two centuries. It is presented as a website, a small poster, and very large poster. We hope to have small version to distribute through beaver by that date, but weÕll have at least one large version for the one of the walls at 16 Beaver.

4. Portland, Oregan

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Portland -- Saturday -- Red76 Arts Group

In conjunction with 16Beaver’s, “Operation Now, How, Wow”
Red76 arts group presents:
Free Media Zone
An U.S.C.U.T. initiative

Date:
Saturday, Apr.26
1 - 2:30pm

Location:
Portland, Oregon city bus mall
U.S.C.U.T. (United States Citizens Unafraid of Thought) will be staging their new initiative, Free Media Zone, on Portland, Oregon’s city bus mall, Saturday, April26.
The group will set up a zone that houses a small library, as well as a short
range radio station programed by U.S.C.U.T. members. The station will be
able to be tuned in anywhere within a 30 foot radius of the Free Media Zone.
Individuals are welcomed to come down and add to the library. The books are
free to take, the radio broadcast is free to listen to.
U.S.C.U.T. is an arts activist organization that, at its source, attempts to generate thought and discussion on a one to one level. The organization wishes to counteract the current notion within the United States that intellectual discourse is a danger, and that intellectualism is un-American.
This initiative is part of Red76 arts group new project, Community Jukebox. See for further details regarding U.S.C.U.T., and Community Jukebox, in the near future.
Thanks!
R76 and U.S.C.U.T.

What is Red76?
Red76 arts group was formed in February of 2000. Since it’s inception the group has curated, presented, and produced more than 30 exhibitions and events, as well as 8cd’s and an arts/culture journal entitled Dis-connect.
Red76 arts group’s goal is to provide new and challenging ideas and frameworks in which to display contemporary art and thought, as well as trying to devise means to incorporate these works and ideas into the daily lives of the general public.
Raises certain question, Robert Huges book on Film, Films on War and Peace, scripts, critical essays, interviews, books that have dealt with war and peace, questions he raises even in relation of anti-war film. And he focuses on the Second World War.

5. Chicago, Illinois

_________________________________________
Chicago -- Saskia Sassen -- Decentering Globalization

DECENTERING GLOBALIZATION
THE FIFTH ANNUAL GLOBALIZATION
CONFERENCE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
APRIL 25TH AND 26TH 2003
Opening Session
Friday, April 25 International House Assembly Hall 1414 East 59th Street, Chicago, Illinois
2:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Panelists: Michaeline A. Crichlow Associate Professor, Department of African-American World Studies Chair, The Caribbean, Diaspora and Atlantic Studies Program University of Iowa
David Harvey Distinguished Professor, The Graduate Center, CUNY
Bryan R. Roberts C.B.Smith Centennial Chair, Department of Sociology, University of Texas at Austin Director, Center for Latin American Social Policy,
Teresa Lozano Institute of Latin American Studies
Maria Sergeevna Tysiachniouk Coordinator, Environmental Sociology Group at the Center for Independent Social Research, St. Petersburg Russia Visiting Professor, Dickinson College Discussion Sessions

Saturday, April 26 Judd Hall, 5835 S. Kimbark, First Floor Morning Panels,
10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
**Decentering Citizenship: Jennifer Johnson, Kamal Sadiq, Lorraine Mora Discussant: Brian Roberts
**Geographies of Subjectivity: Rami Nashashibi, Anne Bartlett, Heather Hindman
Discussant: David Harvey Afternoon Panels,
1:00-3:00 **Transnational Networks: Sarah Busse, Evalyn Tennant Discussant: Maria Sergeevna Tysiachniouk
**Social Movements: Within, without and against the state Rachel Harvey, Joshua Kaplan Discussant: Michaeline Crichlow
Concluding Discussion, 3:15-4:15 p.m.

6. Galway, Ireland

_________________________________________
Galway – Thursday -- Culture and Conflict Group

panel: taking sides—Galway Arts Centre—irland

The Other Side of Resistance: Collaboration

The State Department of the U.S. recently commissioned essays by 15
prominent American authors on what it means to be an American writer.
Published as a book by the Office of International Information
Programs of the State Department, the purpose of the collection of
essays is to promote American values abroad. Due to an
anti-propaganda law, it is illegal for the State Department to
distribute the book in the U.S. but it is being distributed
throughout the world through US embassies.

On December 16, 2002 Susan Stamberg did a report on NPR radio about
the book of essays. In the report she interviews Bharati Mukherjee
and Charles Johnson, two of the writers in the book. She questions
them about why they had agree to take part in what some might call
propaganda.

As part of their presentation at the panel discussion titled “Taking
Sides: Partisanship, Neutrality and the Role of the Artist in
Conflict Situations” at the Galway Arts Center, The Culture &
Conflict Group will play a recording of the program by Susan Stamberg.

The essays can be read online at the State Department web site
designed for foreign audiences at

__________________________________________
culture and conflict group -- exhibition Settlement

The Culture & Conflict Group would like to link their exhibition Settlement to the events that will be taking place around the weekend of April 25, 26, & 27. The exhibition will be at the Galway Arts Centre in Galway, Ireland at that time. The exhibition is being presented as part of a Literary Festival that is organized on the theme of Exile.

Settlement brings together the work of eleven artists from Palestine, Ireland and the U.S. (most of whom reside in the United States). Including photography, drawing, sculpture, installation and video, the exhibition will explore the impact and effects of military occupation, faltering attempts at settlement, and the importance of history and memory in both regions, drawing comparisons and parallels where necessary. This project acknowledges that artists are not ‘neutral’ beings divorced from social and political realities, but often hold partisan viewpoints which are articulated through numerous and complex strategies.

Artists included in the exhibition are Ayreen Anastas, John Buckley, Shane Cullen, Meir Gal, Emily Jacir, Cynthia Large,
Conor McGrady, Sheila Mangan, Kevin Noble, Frankie Quinn and Jackie Salloum.

John Buckley, Shane Cullen, Conor McGrady, Sheila Mangan, and Kevin Noble will also be taking part in the festival in a panel discussion titled “Taking Sides: Partisanship, Neutrality and the Role of the Artist in Conflict Situations” that will take place on Thursday April 24 at the Galway Arts Centre

7. Various, England

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London – Fri/Sat -- Ange Taggart

1. WIN - LOSE at REACTOR

8-10pm 25 April 2003 Nottingham UK

YOU ARE A WINNER. ENTER NOW - performance / installation /audience
encapsulation with Jon Burgerman and Ange Taggart

Free but you need to book

2. BBC2
Saturday 26 April 2003
7.05-8.05pm (GMT+1) Spend, Spend, Spend
Happiness? A provocative three part series that examines the prominent role that affluence plays in our lives. Why, after fifty years of the 'consumer society', is Britain no happier?

Interviews with Rev Billy, Fanclub and Adbusters.

_______________________________
London – Web – c.cred / O. Stahl

that which cuts, it cuts across and unfolds
[c.cred]
What we set out to do is to construct a cartographical archive of London – gradually, as a process initiated during the four days of the festival – based on an engagement with the concept and rhetoric of terrorism and the mode in which it operates, within a specific locality as well as on a global scale – that is, through an event, a cut, or the threat or likelihood of an event or cut taking place, then spreading outwards in its effects, unfolding in paranoia, paralysis, social neurosis, micro-fascisms; laying bare and intensifying the sense of social and political conflict from which the very possibility of the event or cut itself originates. Basically, then, it will be an engagement with terrorism as something essentially productive; productive of a certain sense of politics, sociality, territory, environment, subjectivity and so forth, all of which can perhaps be mapped out as a kind of cartography that takes into account both the proto-fascist rhetoric of the ‘war against terrorism’ and the ‘axis of evil’, notions of citizenship, security and paranoia, and a more affirmative ethical stance that in the face of this conflict and the adjoining sense of social paralysis, never ceases to be a viable option.
This cartography will be staged within two frames/structures set up during the festival: firstly, a working environment, as the collection of material, drawings, projection pieces, series of photographs and videos; secondly, a monument environment, as a set of structures and a series of posters put up in public places around London.

http://www.ccred.org/cuts.htm

The working process will be documented on a continuous basis through the days of the festival and made available on the net () as a series of cartographies, an archive and a set of photographs/graphics.
ola / [c.cred]

_______________________________
London – Sat. + -- The Vacuum Cleaner

presents 3 London based interventions

PRAYERS TO PRODUCTS
1pm Saturday 26 April 2003 Brent Cross Shopping Mall - North London

Shopping is the new religion. Hallelujah, praise the product, sisters and brothers, Hallelujah.

The Vacuum Cleaner and a group of Sunday shopping worshippers will spread themselves through Brent Cross mall. With arms open to the sky and eyes fixed on to logos, performers will shout out their prayers to products, worship to brand loyalty and fellowship to the cathedral of consumption.

The Vacuum Cleaner is seeking people who wish to join us in our act of worship. There will be a briefing and rehearsal beforehand, this event is open to everyone.
For more details contact -
To see images of our last prayer meeting go to
<>

CLEANING THE SQUARE MILE
10am - 5pm Thursday 1st May 2003 City of London

Capitalism is dirty business. The Vacuum Cleaner has extended his spring cleaning.

In a futile attempt to rid the City of London’s financial district of its capitalism, The Vacuum Cleaner will be vacuuming up all the dirt he can find. Armed with a vacuum cleaner and fluorescent jackets, with ‘Cleaning
Up After Capitalism’ printed across the back, cleaning will last from 10am until the end of the working day.

You are invited to join him in this action, there are three spare ‘Cleaning Up After Capitalism’ jackets, you must book a period to join in cleaning, confidence helps make this more pleasurable. You will need your own cleaning equipment.
Contact James to book a place and meeting point

For images of recent vacuuming go to

WHIRL-MART RITUAL RESISTANCE
1pm Sunday 4th May 2003, South London Asda Store

Join London’s Whirl-Mart group as they head south of the river. Armed with silent energy, empty trolleys and t-shirts with logos, Whirl-Mart will be gently invading an Asda (Wal-Mart) with its consumption awareness ritual
creating a train of non shopping. This event is open to all and has often been described as pleasurable meditative experience
Contact for meeting point and time
For images of recent whirls go to the Whirl-Mart HQ

If you would like to help if a different manner, with documentation, fake shopping etc, you will be very welcome. contact -

These performances are part of the UK Stop Shopping Tour 03 a temporary travelling intervention featuring performance artists and anti-shoppers who question and interrupt the usual patterns of consumption. Often they perform in contested public space or right in the heart of corporate chain stores, where the “shopping experience” is most ritualised.

hope to hear from you soon

james leadbitter

__________________________________________
London – Friday -- Jo Pickering

12 Downend Court
Bibury Close
London
SE15 6AQ
U.K.
+44 (0)2 077081079
mob: 0794 1896175
agenti@postmark.net

2. I will be posting A0 photocopies to various billboards around
different sites
in south London, particularly close to supermarkets.

3. Over night on Saturday 25/04/03

4. Anyone wishing to help, find out about poster content or see
documentation afterward should contact via email.

_______________________________
Burnely UK– Sunday -- Basement Jaxx, Tim Westwood, ...

Burnely UK 27 April 2003

Top acts like Basement Jaxx , Tim Westwood and the Heartless Crew and coming
to Burnley to show support for the 'Don't Vote Nazi' campaign and to speak
out against the BNP! (british national party)

The day will also be a mass leafleting day. Don't Vote Nazi leaflets will be
distributed in every ward the BNP is standing in.

To get involved or for more information call the ANL office 020 7924 0333.

http:// www.anl.org.uk

http://www.lmhr.org.uk

8. Amsterdam, Netherlands

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Amsterdam -- Sat./Sun -- Anatomic @ waag

1.

\An' a * tom" ic\
http://anatomic.waag.org

Anatomic, the open studio for connected performances
is setting up weekly meetings and joining forces to
support similar initiatives most likely in the most
unlikely places around the world with the dedication
to create new environments in which collaborative and
experimental art can blossom.

2.

23+1

23 hours media purification from the propoganda war +
1 hour of silence for the shame about it.

Media and their overuse for propaganda porposes lead
us to disconnection with meanings and feelings.
Overload is like darkness and distance is like
bulletproof insulated proximity.

>From Amsterdam, starting at 11.00 Amsterdam time, we
will participate in a 23 hour cleansing process for
the transformation of media. Each of us will represent
his/her own "stand", using their own media,
performance, software systems. Media will be gathered
from all available sources. Multiple channels of input
will be open during the event to collaboration,
discussion, exchange of material and open
transformation of it. Our transformation will be
guided by collective attempt to understand what is
happening now, and how to transform that into a
personal and new message.

During this 23 hours, we will extend our
transformation process to other artists connecting
from New York and Paris.

When darkness falls, our works will be seeded around
the city, distributed as propaganda in public space.
After the cycle is completed, we will end with one
hour of silence.

3.

We will broadcast our output for 23 hours. Broadcast
channels and a schedule will be made available through
the Anatomic site.

http://anatomic.waag.org

please reply to ij@9nerds.com

9. Negev, Israel

_______________________________
Negev (Wadi El Na’am) -- Bustan's Coalition (via Tal Adler)

Tal Adler sends his collaborative action from Negev, Israel
The link to the action:

The text:

Building the Medwed Medical Clinic in Wadi El Na’am

Israel has not found a solution for its indigenous Bedouin citizens, some 110,000 of whom are living in the Negev.

Some 65,000 people are not officially “recognized” by the government, and subsequently do not appear on any map of Israel.

Unrecognized villages are void of the most rudimentary public infrastructure such as health services, electricity, access roads, sewage, access roads, welfare, educational facilities, or adequate provision of water.

In many cases, these marginalized villagers are living next to municipal dumpsites, military zones, polluting factories, or in the case of Wadi El Na’am, a toxic waste incinerator.

There are no access roads in unrecognized villages.
Who?
Bustan's coalition of NGO’s invites people of all traditions: activists, appropriate technology engineers, green builders, musicians, artists, environmental lawyers, organic farmers, alternative practitioners, peace educators, and writers.

The coalition includes Bustan, Rabbis for Human Rights (RHR <> ), the Association of Forty, The Israeli Coalition Against Housing Demolitions (ICAHD <> ), Association of Forty, Shatil, Regional Council of Unrecognized Villages, Mossawa, Forum for Coexistence, Albaadia, the Galilee Society, Builders Without Borders, eco-builders from Kibbutz Lotan, and Samar.

What?
Join us in Israel, to train and be trained by indigenous Bedouin and local Israelis in alternative building techniques. During a 6-day work camp, volunteers and the community of Wadi El Na’am will build a solar-powered, straw-bale medical <> clinic. Art and music workshops will be held for children and families. Lectures about unrecognized villages, sustainability, and Bedouin culture will combine modern information with ancient wisdom.

It is not possible to secure a permit for the construction of this clinic, as the entire village is unrecognized by Israel. There is a chance this medical clinic will be demolished. This initiative is designed to assist the authorities by providing medical infrastructure and services to Israeli citizens.

Where?
Wadi El Na’am village, is an unrecognized village <> next to Israel’s toxic waste incinerator <> in the Northern Negev. It is home to 4,000 citizens in need of medical services.

When?
Come to the Holy Land of Israel/Palestine for Pesach and Easter. The Medwed Work Week is Friday April 18th—25th, 2003.

We will be gathering on Friday, a holy day to the three Abrahamic faiths — during Pesach, on Good Friday, and Salat al-Juma’ah for introductions, music, food, and an opening ceremony. Work will commence on Sunday from 8AM to 12PM, and from 2PM-5PM for five work-days. Kosher food will be available throughout the week.

How?
Mobilize build, plant, paint, and chant with villagers and activists. Please bring money to cover the cost of your program activities, your accommodations in the village, guides, translators, reading materials, and two meals daily.

9. d.e.s.a.r.m.e.

(Mexico, España, Francia, Chile, Bolivia, Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Republica Dominicana)

__________________________________________
Mexico, España, Francia, Chile, Bolivia, Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Republica Dominicana
From D.E.S.A.R.M.E.

http://desarme.perfopuerto.org

(Mexico, España, Francia, Chile, Bolivia, Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Republica Dominicana)
But in an exceptional moment of humankind achievements, in techno/scientific
areas, a fatalistic vision moves away, tragically, the perspective of
cultural transformation of a civilization making itself brutal quickly.

Hour by hour.

D.e.s.a.r.m.e (Disarm) it is a poetic gesture; from its trusting look, to the signs
that arise in the world, in favor of a social construction, infinitely different to this.
Not wanting to be accomplices of human sacrifices.” Daniel Acosta, Argentina

“Desarme/Disarm”, a proposal from the art practice, to propitiate a reflection about the war, the violence, the gun culture and the systems of national security, in this century. Artists of diverse countries of the world will be summoned simultaneously on April 25-27 2003 to carry out different artistic proposals, in very diverse contexts, in this reflection day on the meaning of a war in this era of human evolution.

The proposal of “Desarme/Disarm” consists of"

To summon the realization of events or artistic acts internationally between April 25 to 27,
with performance art as its core discipline, but without excluding other artistic manifestations.
To publish the acts carried out all over the world, not only inside the art circuit.
To encourage other future initiatives. “Desarme/Disarm” will gather all material,
from the initial proposals to their practical materialization, keeping the documentation at
the website

http://desarme.perfopuerto.org

To add your proposal please write to , indicating:
1) country
2) artist or coordinator responsible for the activity
3) description of the artistic activity to develop, indicating preferably - Place - Date - Artists included in the proposal - Artistic disciplines included - Other information
4) Indicate if the activity will include critics or other intellectuals in lectures or other similar activities. Please send the transcription of texts if such is the case.
5) The documentation of the activity, after their realization, should be sent in digital pictures as JPG or GIF file (640x480), of preference in compressed format as a ZIP file.
6) Artist or coordinator’s data, e-mail, postal address, etc.

Project Coordinators: Daniel Acosta (Argentina) and Alexander Del Re (Chile)