6A - Monday, October 28, 2013
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
fiA - Monday, October 28, 2013 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom
Art is Open Source
talks web freedom
0
Iaconesi and
Persico combine
arts activism
By GIANCARLO BUONOMO
For the Daily
In even a brief look at the web-
site for SalvatoreIaconesi and Ori-
ana Persico's project Art is Open
Source (AOS), the word "activism"
immediately comes to mind. Click
here, and discover how Iaconesi
and Persico, both native Italians,
created a smartphone app that
directed protesters to safety dur-
ing the 2011 Occupy movement
protests in .Rome. Click there,
and meet AngelF, a digital baby
whose right to unlimited informa-
tion was broughtbeforethe United
Nations. Everything feels straight
out of "The Matrix," without the
kung-fu sequences.
So, are Iaconesi and Persico the
Neo and Trinity of the art world?
The Daily sat down with the art-
ists after they gave a lecture for the
Penny W. Stamps Distinguished
Speaker Series.
"In all of our art, in general, we
really tend to be non-judgmental,"
Iaconesi said. "Obviously we have
an opinion, but our interest is not
to expose this opinion. Our inter-
est is to expose mechanisms,-how
things work."
In a world that has increasingly
become a complex technological
network, AOS tears off the com-
forting blanket of advertising and
instant gratification to educate
everyone on how technology influ-
ences our lives, or in some cases,
becomes ourlives.
"It's like water infrastructure,"
Iaconesi said. "When you turn on
the water in the sink, you don't
think that you are producing pol-
lution from the pipes."
"So," he continued, "technology
has basically disappeared, and it
has become a part of our common
life, a utility." -
Technology is an ubiquitous
utility of modern life, no doubt.
So ubiquitous in fact that it raises
some interesting, and possibly
uncomfortable, questions. For
example, can someone have a
"real" identity and a digital one?
AOS claims that that there isn't
much of a separation.
"Digital technologies have
made the idea of identity liquid,"
Iaconesi said.
Added Persico: "The possibility
to express 'multividuality' is enor-
mous now."
However, this fluidityis notlim-
ited to the "real" world versus the
digital world. According to AOS,
"multividuality" is present in the
"real" world allthe time. The mod-
ern "multividual" can be one per-
son with their boss, another with
a friend, another with a professor
and it's all a result of rules.
"Imagine how you live your life
everyday," Iaconesi said. "Depend-
ing onwhere you are, in what con-
text you are, different sets of rules
apply."
In its lecture, AOS used shop-
ping malls as an example of this
scenario. A shopping mall has
many rules and restrictions about
whatshoppers can buy, where they
can eat, how late they can stay, etc.
However, because a shoppingrmall
is designed to look like a public
space, it gives shoppers an illusion
of freedom. This example illus-
trates a less obvious, but possibly
more dangerous one.
"This is a very similar situation
to what happens online," Iaco-
nesi said. "Facebook, Twitter are
designed as public spaces; they are
made to look, as much as possible,
like public spaces, but they really
are not, like the shopping center,
and this has incredible limits on
your freedom of expression.
"What our problem is is that
(Facebook) is a social infrastruc-
ture that is privately owned."
For AOS, the private ownership
of what has essentially become a
country with over a billion resi-
dents is troubling, because this
"United States of Facebook" is a
country without a bill of rights or
due process.
"Facebook, when you subscribe
to the terms of service, actually
tells you that it is free to change,
at any time, without consent, the
terms of service," Iaconesi said.
"It's very dangerous," he con-
tinued, "because it's a thing that
changes, that affects your privacy,
but there's no social process con-
nected to it. Facebook can change
in ways that go way beyond my
basic rights."
With statements like these, it's
hard, yetagain, not to label Iacone-
si and Persico as activists. But, once
again, they insist that they just give
people, like students atthe Univer-
sity, the necessary information to
make their own choices regarding
social media.
"The very first beginning of
everything is giving the possibil-
ity to visualize all of these mecha-
nisms that are going on," Persico
said. "Then we will see. It's not our
job to judge."
Evenifpeople know all of these
scary truths about technology,
from Facebook's privacy viola-
tions to the horrible workingcon-
ditions in iPhone factories, they
probably remain plugged into
social media. Iaconesi and Persico
are perfect examples - even after
years of research and lecturing,
they still use Facebook, Twitter,
email and smartphones to educate
others.
"We live in contradictions,"
Persico said.
Something is rotten in the state of California.
Sons' puts Shakespeare
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VISIT THE DAILY ARTS BLOG, THE FILTER.
www.michigandaily.com/blogs/the+filter
By CHLOE GILKE classic
Daily Arts Writer in tat
loaded
mething about FX's "Sons and ca
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7 Pedro's eye
10 Golf great
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cheese
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16 Slargy prefix
meaning "ultra"
17 Computer storage
medium
19 When repeated,
island near Tahiti
20 Male sibs
21 Kadettautomaker
22 Apple music
players
23 Vintner's prefix
24Quick-on-the-
uptake type, in
slang
26 Athenian
walkway
28 Otherwise
29 Persian rulers
31 Irene otFame"
33 Used-ppencls
37 Carton-
cashioning unit
49 Latin being
41 Latin loveword
42 Muslim pilgrim's
destinaton
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lawman Wyatt
45 Mischievous trick
46 Showy authority
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51 Facebook notes,
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56 Vivacity
57 Fitzgerald of jazz
58 Tense pre-
deadline period...
or when to eat the
ends of 17-, 24-.
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"Hamlet," dressed up inclined to care about them.
toos and leather and That being said, when a shot
with plenty of violence is fired on the show (which hap-
ble content. Jax Teller pens in almost every episode),
es the role of the new the bullet hurts. Character
of Denmark. Though at deaths on "Sons" are particular-
e seems a generic Eng- ly excruciating because many of
etty boy with a bad fake the motorcycle club members
an accent, Jax's char- are genuinely good people.
becomes more dynamic Even the bad guys are sympa-
seasons progress. Jax thetic, and their deaths are usu-
antithesis of the fabled . ally handled onscreen with the
tihero" - his good mor- same respect that a beloved club
never questioned. He is member might get.
han just the Vice Presi- The violence on the show can
f his motorcycle gang: sometimes be a bit intense (I
devoted father, husband frequently cover my eyes and
otector of his kingdom of have to watch from between
ing, California. Despite the cracks of my fingers),
ubles, there is no doubt but it's all motivated. "Sons"
x is our protagonist and depicts a world of violence and
murder, and the show doesn't
coddle its viewers. We see what
SAMCRO lives. When a tattoo
A drama is burned from a character's
back, the camera doesn't stray
sere even the from the action and we must
sit through 10-plus seconds
of burning flesh, and grit our
teeth, still drawn to the screen
hearts. because the show is that darn
good. (And this isn't even near
the grossest or most horrifying
act of brutality that happens
it makes the show so on the show. If you're a Tar-
though, is how it han- antino buff or into gratuitous
s more morally ambigu- violence, there's something in
characters. Clay, the almost every episode just for
us of "Sons," appears to you.)
iff and unstoppable, but But "Sons" is more than cru-
hritic hands threaten his elty and guns. It packs an emo-
the club. He knows that tional punch. Jax's doctor beau
n as his joints fail, he is Tara has a particularly heart-
ant. The club he helped wrenching storyline in Season
Id would pass into Jax's 4, and Opie's turn in Season 5
istically idealistic hands. is still one of the most tragic
ima Teller is Gertrude- stories I've seen on television.
Lady Macbeth: She is With Shakespearean prowess,
ig, manipulative and this pathos is interwoven with
ling. Katey Sagal com- the brute force of the club.
every scene she is in "Grand Theft Auto" this ain't -
y voters, take note), and every shot has a consequence,
e Gemma's tough exte- and every bomb has a fallout.
he plays her emotional Characters must deal with the
with surprising vulner- repercussions of their violence,
Gemma's frustration and the resulting relationship
er relegation to the role conflicts are always played out
i's "old lady" dutiful wife with style.
es a refreshing bit of fem- The six seasons that "Sons"
in a show so concerned has produced thus far are a
*s angry men. real treat to watch, and the sev-
if you like well devel- enth and final season (to air in
minor characters, "Sons" fall 2014) is sure to be killer. If
nitely the show for you. you're not watching "Sons" yet,
h the show takes its time it's easy to find online: Previ-
elop characters like SAM- ous seasons are available on
lub members Juice and Netflix, and practically beg to
the payoff is well worth be watched in the slower weeks
ait. Even villains-of-the- following Midterm Madness.
get plenty of screentime, You can even call it study-
eir pasts and motivations ing!"Sons" is practically Shake-
lored speare, after all.
h s0 First seen on - A version of this article
you originally appeared on the Daily
more --the filter Arts blog, The Filter, on Oct. 25.
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