<nettime-ann> Conference / Towards a New Visualization of Secrecy? / 24 March / Stedelijk Museum CS Amsterdam

["Tina Clausmeyer" <tina.clausmeyer@googlemail.com>]

.
_________ 
International Conference

Towards a New Visualization of Secrecy? 
Representations of Secrecy within Contemporary Terrorism and Counterterrorism  
Saturday 24 March 2007, 10:00 – 20:00 
Stedelijk Museum CS Amsterdam 
www.secrecyconference.net 
 
Featuring Tariq Ali, Albert Benschop, Kathalijne Buitenweg MEP, David
Campbell Jordan Crandall, James Der Derian, Meta Haven, Brian Holmes,
Buro Jansen & Janssen, Nicholas Mirzoeff, Naeem Mohaiemen and
Trevor Paglen 

The conference is jointly organized by Tina Clausmeyer and the Jan van
Eyck Academie Maastricht and in cooperation with the Stedelijk Museum
CS Amsterdam. 

__________ 
Introduction

Secret Networks of Terror vs. Secret Networks Against Terror 
The conference explores theoretically as well as visually the emergence
of new phenomena of secrecy within transnational terrorist and
counterterrorist networks. Since 9/11 and in the aftermath of the wars
in Afghanistan and Iraq worldwide clandestine operations have
increasingly been undertaken by terrorist and counterterrorist
networks. Conflicts are on the whole no longer fought in public, but
rather in concealment. In the present 'state of exception', the 'war on
terrorism' has been waged in a symbolic realm consisting of global
'cobwebs' of names, actions and locations. This conference addresses
the question as to whether the increasing awareness of hitherto
invisible contemporary terrorist and counterterrorist actions has
produced a new 'visualization' of secrecy. Intending to offer a
cross-disciplinary and experimental platform to negotiate new and
critical positions this conference will question the extent to which
both antagonists use secrecy as a strategy in an asymmetrical global
warfare. The conference participants, coming from diverse backgrounds
such as academia, human rights activism, new media, visual arts, and
politics, will debate on the strategic and visual aspects of these new
forms of secrecy.  
 
New Forms of Secrecy within Transnational Terrorism 
The Internet has become the virtual database and training camp through
which Al Qaeda as umbrella organization keeps its message alive,
holding a powerful grip while remaining in secrecy. As quasi 'open
universities' of violence and spectacle, the dynamic cell structure of
the multi- and transnational terrorist alliances, affiliations of
semi-independent cells and loosely interconnected jihadi groups have
presented themselves as invisible and 'spaceless' enemies. Concealed
spaces of terror are dispersed in cyberspace through chat rooms, online
broadcasts, virtual handbooks on training and combat methods as well as
in homes, sleeper cells, or training camps. As the most powerful tool
of terrorism and global jihad (by visualizing atrocities and concealing
logistical, financial and communication structures), the Internet has
been used by Al Qaeda and other jihadi networks to conduct a
sophisticated form of psychological warfare, that serves to gather
information, to train, to fundraise, to propagate ideology, to recruit
and network, to plan and coordinate terrorist acts worldwide.  

New Forms of Secrecy within Counterterrorism  
Guantánamo, more than an American prison camp in Cuba, is an icon of
lawlessness that has functioned as a kind of synecdoche standing in for
the other known and unknown (secret) 'rendition' programmes all over
the world. Recent investigations by the European Parliament's Temporary
Committee on the alleged use of European countries by the CIA for the
transport and illegal detention of prisoners confirmed that several
governmental organizations as well as individuals attempting to
counteract terrorism simply wish to remain unseen. As a multifaceted
image of today's 'state of exception', they embrace a wide-reaching
system of 'black sites' or so-called ghost prisons ('ghost planes',
'ghost ships', etc.) in which numerous persons have been illegally
detained and secretly transported to third countries, where they have
suffered human rights abuses including torture.  

A New Visualization of Secrecy? 
The conference aims at pinpointing the rising global 'states of
secrecy' as well as the multifaceted, twisted meanings they engender. A
veil of secrecy has always surrounded the shadowy world of intelligence
agencies and their opponents, the terrorist alliances. However, in our
present day, their transnational nature, infrastructure, and methods of
operation, including the virtual realm, have undergone a definite
metamorphosis. Secrecy has taken on new dimensions on both sides as
revealed persons, locations, and actions (such as the Hofstad Network,
Azzam.com, Osama bin Laden, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Guantánamo Bay
Camp, Bagram Airbase, USS Bataan, Aero Contractors, Khaled El-Masri,
Murat Kurnaz, etc.) provide incontestable evidence. At the same time
these clandestine operations, locations and networks have become a
matter of public interest. As a result, new phenomena of secrecy have
been made visible for a larger audience and a new 'visualization' of
secrecy emerged: The secret became public.  
 
__________ 
Programme  
 
10:00 
Registration 
11:00 
Welcome 
Jelle Bouwhuis / Curator, Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam 
Hanneke Grootenboer / Advising Researcher Theory, Jan van Eyck Academie  
11:15 
Introduction 
Tina Clausmeyer / Initiator, Jan van Eyck Academie 
 
Global Wars in Secrecy: Terrorism vs. Counterterrorism  
Introduced and moderated by David Campbell / Professor of Cultural and
Political Geography, Department of Geography, Durham University 
Keynote 
11:30 
Tariq Ali / Novelist, Historian and Editor of New Left Review 
Panel 
12:00 
Kathalijne Buitenweg MEP / Member of the Temporary Committee on the
alleged use of European countries by the CIA for the transportation and
illegal detention of prisoners 
Albert Benschop / Cyberterrorism Expert, University of Amsterdam 
James Der Derian / Watson Institute Professor (Research) of International Studies  
Buro Jansen & Janssen / Independent Journalistic Collective 
Tariq Ali / Novelist, Historian and Editor of New Left Review 
 
13:30 Lunch break / Artist projection 
When An Interpreter Could Not Be Found by Visible Collective/Mohaiemen, Roy (2005-2006)  
 
Artists' Positions and Visual Strategies after 9/11 
Introduced and moderated by Brian Holmes / Art Critic, Cultural Theorist and Activist  
14:30 
Trevor Paglen / Artist, Writer and Experimental Geographer  
Black Worlds: Landscapes of Secrecy and Epistemic Limits 
15:00 
Naeem Mohaiemen / Artist and Founder of Visible Collective 
Invisible Man & Glamor-Horror Media Cycle 
15:30  
Break  
15:50 
Meta Haven: Design Research / Vinca Kruk & Daniel van der Velden 
The Design of Evil 
16:20 
Jordan Crandall / Media Artist and Theorist, Initiator of UNDER FIRE 
Disappearing Acts 
 
Concluding remarks 
17:00 
Nicholas Mirzoeff / Professor of Art and Art Professions, Director of the Visual Culture Programme, New York University 
Open Secrets: The Police, Visual Culture and the Image War 
18:00 
Reception  
20:00 
End 

__________ 
Practical Information 
 
Admission 
Day ticket: 7,50 EUR  (1,50 EUR is transferred to Amnesty International) 
All tickets can be picked up and paid for at the 11th floor of the
Stedelijk Museum CS from 10 a.m. onwards. Please note that the language
of communication is English.  

Registration 
Advance booking is recommended. Please register via email before 23 March at: registration@secrecyconference.net 
 
Contact and registration by telephone 
Anne Vangronsveld 
E anne.vangronsveld@janvaneyck.nl 
T +31 43 350 3784 

Conceptual inquiries 
Tina Clausmeyer, concept and organization 
E tina.clausmeyer@gmx.net 
 
Location 
Stedelijk Museum CS on 11  
Oosterdokskade 5 
1011 AD Amsterdam 
The Netherlands 

How to get there 
The Stedelijk Museum CS is only a three minutes' walk from Amsterdam
Central Station. For a route description please check at:
www.stedelijk.nl or www.bereikbaar.amsterdam.nl. For more information
on Amsterdam please visit: www.iamsterdam.nl (English site). 
 
Further information 
www.secrecyconference.net 
www.janvaneyck.nl 
www.stedelijk.nl 





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