Amphetamine
Hans-Christian Dany - July 22nd 2006, 14:30 - 15:00Hans-Christian Dany explains the functionality of Amphetamine and its use in the 20ties and then draws a connection to the military usage of the drug regarding particularly its role in friendly fire actions. He refers to a paradox in reference to the rapid technical diversification within the military and the constant use of the same drug like Amphetamin over a long period of time. He is holding his lecture in german.
Camouflage
Stefan Römer - July 22nd 2006, 15:00 - 15:30The concept of »Camouflage« in its traditional military sense has been classified always as national representation. To camouflage Stefan Römer adds another military concept: showing the flag - which got another connotation during Football Worldchampionship 2006 in the privatized and corporated public spaces. As opposed these methods might be in their intention, they seem to serve the same system of representation as the same cultural practices. Speaking about piracy, both methods appear in a single constellation. Could this open up new spaces of action for non representative practices? Stefan Römer is holding his lecture in german.
Camp
Manuel Herz - July 22nd 2006, 15:30 - 16:00Manuel Herz, an architect based in Cologne, analyzes the concept of »Camp« rather in an abstract way but in a specific location, in Chad. One of the poorest countries in the world, pumping oil since several years without any positive effects on the income of the local population, became one of the most important areas for refugees from different countries. Manuel Herz is talking in english, below you'll find the paper of his lecture in german.
Defeat
Nora Sternfeld - July 22nd 2006, 16:30 - 17:00At 12 o'clock on April 8, 2005, in the Ostarrichi-Park in front of the Landesgericht (the regional court), a temporary monument to the defeat was unveiled that triggered a debate on the process of denazification and made an issue of the fact that this process was still unfinished today. The eight-sided object was conceived as a monumental plinth and it measured 2 meters in height and had a circumference of 11 meters. Nora Sternfeld presents her concept in german but below you could read the english translation.
Desertion
Avery Gordon - July 22nd 2006, 17:00 - 17:30Absent without permission, it's not only soldiers who desert, or should consider it. What does it mean to be a deserter or to practice desertion? Not furtively, but as an outlaw, a fugitive? Some brief thoughts on disobedience, desertion and other promising conduits to abolishing the disposition to war.
Disziplin
Ulrich Broeckling - July 22nd 2006, 17:30 - 18:00Disciplining in order to fight is "hot" - it mobilizes, transgresses and fuels the passions. Disciplining in order to effectively use force is "cold" - it controls, regularizes, and curbs the affects. The mix ratio is changing and the history of military disciplining can be described as a change between rather "hot" and rather "cold" epochs. Ulrich Bröckling is talking in german but below you could read his lecture in english translation.
Kriegserklärung
Andcompany&Co - July 22nd 2006, 16:00 - 16:30andcompany & Co. Feat. Alexander Karschnia, Nicola Nord, Sascha Sulimma & Co.
In their lecture performance KRIEGSERKLÄRUNG they will explain and declare war at the same time, talking in stolen words, quotes borrowed from John L. Austin until Vladimir I. Lenin. For supplementary reading please check out the text "Die Kriegserklärung " by Karl Marx
Liberation
Ivan Kucina - July 22nd 2006, 18:30 - 19:00Every war needs a positive notion - one could be: »Liberation«. Ivan Kucina, architect and lecturer based in Belgrad, speaks about two workshops with his students, questioning the diverse meanings of »liberation« and shows a short documentary.
Mobilization
Akram Zaatari - July 23rd 2006, 12:00 - 12:30The artist Akram Zaatari defines Mobilization as a kind of eternal propaganda. He is reading a text he wrote some weeks ago describing how found footage and the process of collecting documents became crucial for his work and finally shows his latest video, a work about mobilization.
National Anthem
Julieta Aranda - July 23rd 2006, 12:30 - 13:00How does nationalism relates to the context of art production? Which countries are showing up regularly within the circle of international art exhibition - and which won't and why?
Peace-for-War
Brian Holmes - July 23rd 2006, 13:00 - 13:30The concept I'm going to present draws directly from the work of Shimshon Bichler and Jonathan Nitzan. It describes the economic phases of "depth" and "breadth," and correlates them with the first- and second-order cybernetics of control. It attempts to situate the functions of cultural-communicational labor within these economic phases. It questions those autonomists who thought it would be possible to transform a broadly expansionary phase of capitalism, like that of the nineties, into a qualitatively different society. It’s not a polemic, but seeks to open up a field of strategic debate. It doesn't assert a future, but observes the unfolding of the present into the depths of violence, which has robbed resistance movements of their potential, again. The concept is Peace-for-War.
Police War
Katja Diefenbach - July 23rd 2006, 13:30 - 14:00We are currently entering a hegemonic war regime dominated by strategies of preventive intervention and crisis management, and therefore subject to the logic of the police. Elements of private enterprise war, of low-intensity warfare, of counter insurgency, of biopolitical administration, and of the police state of emergency are combined and legitimated as humanitarian mission, civilian-military cooperation, or just war. This war regime follows a calculation of control and security.
Pop
Georg Seeßlen - July 23rd 2006, 14:00 - 14:30There is no war without pop, and there is no pop without war.
Georg Seeßlen and Markus Metz perform their lecture in german, commenting and analyzing multiple film extracts. In the »preface« below you'll find their crucial questions and thesis written in english.
Prisoner of War
Naeem Mohaiemen - July 23rd 2006, 14:30 - 15:00It is almost banal to start by talking about the ongoing Iraq apocalypse. After thousands of lives, and many multiples more of ink and video have been spilt, what more remains to be said about this manifestation of permanent war? Those who marched in anti-war rallies can now feel some schadenfreude at the unraveling of the entire project for a New Century. But at what a terrible price we earned the right to say "we told you so". Even after all the interventionist fantasies have shattered, there is no post-war peace dividend. The madness of the Neocon project only replaced by the equally insane Islamist project of the Mahdi Army, and the ethnic cleansing and forced partition dreams of the Shiite and Sunni death squads.
Redundancy
Marko Peljhan - July 23rd 2006, 15:00 - 15:30»Redundancy« is a crucial element for building network systems - so failure does not mean the end of the system; it's about functioning beyond the failure. But the artist Marko Peljhan is not only interested in the technical terms of the concept but also in its political meaning and impact.
Resistance
Ingrid Strobl - July 23rd 2006, 15:30 - 16:00Relativizing the Absolute "Resistance" is among those terms that although seemingly clear-cut, are in reality difficult to define. What is resistance? Who defines what it is? What conditions have to be met so that who identifies or recognizes what to be resistance? And which and whose interests stand behind the label?
Thanato politics
Eyal Weizman - July 22nd 2006, 14:00 - 14:30»Initially the task of that talk is to frame the relationship between the previous event and this one and to see how concepts could be developed. However, the kind of events and situations that we are experiencing and consuming right now would obviously make it little bit more specific. But, I think, in general that the war that is happing right now in Gaza and Lebanon is exactly a moment where events such as the Dictionary of War are made relevant..«
TOP OS - Theaters of Possession Operation Systems
Konrad Becker - July 23rd 2006, 16:00 - 16:30In times of global wars, financial wars, the classic battlefield, the »Theatre of Operation« is not longer visible. Konrad Becker focuses on perception and the human nervous system and instead of defining and giving answers he poses questions: 100 questions for the Dictionary of war.
Transition
Erzen Shkololli - July 23rd, 2006, 16:30 - 17:00Presentation of a works will reflect the dramatic transformation of the region, connected in particular with decay of the local totalitarian regimes during the 1990's. By representing various forms of ethnic, religious or political predestination and manipulation symbolizing the contrast social situation in his homeland.
Translation
Tom Keenan - July 23rd, 2006, 17:00 - 18:30What sort of language is war, if it is one? What would "total" conflict be? When does escalation become impossible? When the violence is not exercised to force others into a conversation, or to change the terms of a debate, but in order to end a debate, to remove the other party in a debate once and for all, when debate itself -- or politics, or language -- is itself the target of the violence .... is that the limit? Is that the moment when things actually can't get any worse?
United Nations
Ariane Müller - July 23rd 2006, 18:30 - 19:00Rio, Peking, Kairo, Istanbul, Genf, Kyoto, Habitat, Houairou, Konventionen, Protokolle, Deklarationen. Ariane Müller transfers excessive demands, over fatigue and prescribed terminology in a repetitive rhythm of the german language. We're still working on an appropriate translation.
World War
Klaus Viehmann - July 23rd 2006, 19:00 - 19:30Everyone knows that World War II was a global war. However, knowledge of its development and impact on Western Europe is rather limited. At least in the last two centuries knowledge of war crimes has increased. The purpose of today’s lecture is to draw a rough outline of the neglected aspects of this war and to raise some interest in the exploits and suffering of the people who were affected by fascism, “Herrenmenschentum” and aggression, and fought against it. The lecture is hold in german, below you could read the english translation.