Re: <nettime> Riot as Performance Art

["michael gurstein" <gurstein@gmail.com>]

Patrick,
 
A couple of futher points...
 
As several of the commentators on your most interesting blogpost noted, I
don't think the "riot" had very much to do with the game/loss/Canucks... My
guess is that it would have happened in much the same way had the Canucks
won although the age demographic might have shifted slightly with more older
folks going into the streets (and then rapidly retreating...
 
Also, the set pieces with the police--them attacking and folks
running/resisting/fighting was most certainly "spectacle". However, the role
of cameras and their links into broader FB/SMS/Youtube distribution-- the
posing, the self-posing, the staging and so on and so on was I think, a very
significant (new) element broadening out the notion of the spectacle -- this
wasn't just about the gaze it was equally about the self-regard involved in
taking a totally exposed (to the world) picture of yourself with a cell
phone in front of a burning police car (the half page size picture on the
Vancouver section of the nationa newspaper -- the Globe and Mail). It is
"spectacle" but I think a good deal more.
 
Best,
 
Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: Patrick [mailto:patrick@teamsandwich.ca] 
Sent: Thursday, June 16, 2011 2:09 PM
To: michael gurstein
Cc: Nettime-L
Subject: Re: <nettime> Riot as Performance Art


Riot as spectacle ...

Spectacular Vancouver conquers itself





#  distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime>  is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@kein.org