Our two main speakers, PJ Lilley and Andréa Schmidt, have been “connected” activists for close to ten years. Drawing on their experiences of working with agitational net projects and direct action based organizations, they will discuss the distinctive ways in which both old and new technologies have been used by recent movements for social justice in order to facilitate the creation of counter-networks of resistance. Now, the State is seeking integrated police databases, and “smart” identification cards. What does it mean to daily oppose this systematic dehumanization, to take up DIY as direct action against all borders and oppressive institutions?
The use of tactical media technologies, driven by a DIY ethic, instantiates some of the movements’ most valuable ideals and visions. This sometimes however leaves them vulnerable to surveillance and repression by the police and military institutions. How do activists communicate, and how should we react, in a time when state repression of social movements in North America is impossible to ignore? If we are the living links between open source software and community organizations, how can we increase the participatory and liberating potential in our designs? Can popular education participate in building the counter-power we will need to confront injustice?
In the role of techno-critic, Valérie d. Walker is coming to reveal three things we need to know about MAC OS X and two things that “big blue” would prefer we didn’t! She will be giving a taste of the upcoming workshops about switching from OS 9 to OS X that she will be teaching at the beginning of 2004, as well as touching on the subject of freeware to stay in the evening’s spirit of DIY.
_PJ Lilley
Active in the creation of TAO Communications in Toronto back in the mid-90’s, PJ Lilley is also a long-time member of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, and part of the recently formed new NEFAC collective in Toronto (North Eastern Federation of Anarcho-Communists). Living in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Ontario, she works to defend tenant’s and worker’s rights, as well as in popular education to build autonomy and solidarity in struggle.
_Andréa Schmidt
Andréa Schmidt lives and works in Montréal, where she edits and administers www.nologo.org, a website published by Naomi Klein. The site attempts to offer readers ways of connecting with each other and of getting involved in struggles and movements for social justice. Andréa is a member of CLAC logement and a facilitator with Montréal’s Direct Action Workshop. She as helped organize a number of local campaigns and regional mobilizations, including the Take the Capital! Mobilization Against the G8 and the No One Is Illegal Campaign (Montreal). Andréa has also given numerous workshops on capitalist globalization, anarchist theory and organizing, and direct action.
_Valérie d. Walker
Valérie d. Walker has a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California at Berkeley and over 20 years of experience on the Internet and in software design. She was the first QuickTime Virtual Reality resident at OBORO, has an active textile art practice and teaches workshops on technology. This is Val ‘Techie’ Gal’s 6th year as co-Host and Producer of The XX Files, a radio show that looks at technology with a female eye on Wednesdays at 11:30am on CKUT, 90.3 FM and archived online at www.ckut.ca.
STUDIO XX – 338, Terrasse Saint-Denis, Montréal (Québec)
Information: Caroline Martel, Programming Coordinator – programmation@studioxx.org