Richard Mosses The Enclave: A Pink Congo-Documentary
Vimeo Direktpink, via Petapixel
Seit drei Jahren hat Richard Mosse den Kongo, die dortigen Konflikte und das allgegenwärtige Militär auf Kodak Aerochrome Infrarotfilm fotografiert, über die genauso fantastische wie surreale Bilderserie habe ich schon ein paar mal gebloggt. Jetzt hat er zur Biennale in Venedig eine halbstündige Doku in der gleichen Technik raus, gedreht auf „a discontinued military surveillance film, which registers an invisible spectrum of infrared light“: The Enclave. Zeitgleich erscheint ein (weiterer) Bildband zur Fotoserie/Doku unter dem gleichen Titel. Einzigartige und absolut großartige Arbeit.
Throughout 2012, Richard Mosse and his collaborators Trevor Tweeten and Ben Frost travelled in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, infiltrating armed rebel groups in a war zone plagued by frequent ambushes, massacres and systematic sexual violence. The resulting installation, The Enclave, is the culmination of Mosse’s attempt to rethink war photography. It is a search for more adequate strategies to represent a forgotten African tragedy in which, according to the International Rescue Committee, at least 5.4 million people have died of war-related causes in eastern Congo since 1998.
A long-standing power vacuum in eastern Congo has resulted in a horrifying cycle of violence, a Hobbesian ‘state of war’, so brutal and complex that it resists communication, and goes unseen in the global consciousness. Mosse brings a discontinued military surveillance film to this situation, representing an intangible conflict with a medium that registers an invisible spectrum of infrared light, and was originally designed for camouflage detection. The resulting imagery, shot on 16mm infrared film by cinematographer Trevor Tweeten, renders the jungle war zone in a disorienting psychedelic palette. Ben Frost’s ambient audio composition, comprised entirely of recordings gathered in the field in eastern DRC, hovers bleakly over the unfolding tragedy.
Amazon-Partnerlinks:
Richard Mosse: The Enclave
Infra: Photographs by Richard Mosse
Vorher auf Nerdcore:
Richard Mosses Fotografie brennender Flugzeuge
Richard Mosses Flugzeugwrackfotografie
Fotografie von Saddams Palästen
Richard Mosses Pink Congo Photography
Richard Mosses Pink Congo Photography 2011
March Of The Gods – Botswana Metalheads
Drei Filmemacher aus Griechenland drehen grade eine Doku über die Metalszene in Botswana: March Of The Gods – Botswana Metalheads . Darin erzählen sie die Story der Band Wrust, die größte Metalband dort, und die wurde zu einem Gig auf dem italienischen SoloMacello in Milano eingeladen. Der Film ist bisher eigenfinanziert, für die Reise der Band nach Italien suchen sie nun aber Unterstützung über Indiegogo. Schönes Projekt, ich werde da mal ‘nen Sechziger für DVD und Print reinschmeissen, halte ich für sehr unterstützenswert.
[March of the Gods: Botswana Metalheads] aims to bring to light an emerging musical subculture blending the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, African tradition and Biker and Cowboy fashion and an unexpected point of view on Africa, a continent which is often misconceived.
We recently managed to get the band an invitation to play at SoloMacello, an independent heavy metal festival in Milan, Italy, on the 26th of June. Wrust will have the exciting opportunity to be the first metal band from Botswana to play in a major European festival along with international acts (this year the main act is going to be Red Fang). The live concert of the band in Italy is going to be an important part of the documentary and closing scene of the film.
This project has been so far self-funded with our personal savings, that have covered the travel expenses of the crew to Botswana and additional technical gear to our existing equipment. This campaign aims to cover the travel expenses of the band to Italy, which are estimated to be around 1,000 euros per head (for the 4 members of the band) for a return flight from Gaborone to Milan. Accommodation will be provided to the band by the organisers of the festival.
Indiegogo: March of the Gods – Botswana Metalheads Documentary
Doku-Trailer: Punk in Africa
Youtube Direktafrica, via Open Culture
Schöner Trailer zu „Punk in Africa“, der die Wurzeln der Mucke in der Rebellion der weißen Kids gegen die Rassenpolitik ihrer Eltern ausmacht, die sich mit den Schwarzen zusammentaten und drei Akkorde runterspielten. Der Film befindet sich seit letztem Jahr im Festivalzirkus, Screenings findet man auf der Facebook-Seite. Ob und wann der bei uns zu sehen sein wird, kann ich nicht sagen. Leider.
Three chords, three countries, one revolution…PUNK IN AFRICA is the story of the multi-racial punk movement within the recent political and social upheavals experienced in three Southern African countries: South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. In these societies, the punk subculture represented a genuinely radical political impulse, playing out against a backdrop of intense political struggle, economic hardship and even civil war.
PUNK IN AFRICA traces this until-now untold story from its roots in the underground rock music of early 1970s Johannesburg, the first multi-racial punk bands formed in the wake of the Soweto Uprising and the militant anti-apartheid hardcore and post-punk bands of the 1980s to the rise of celebratory African-inspired ska bands which sprang up from Cape Town to Maputo in the democratic era of the 1990s. Today, an emerging generation of bands continue to draw on this legacy to confront the political challenges of contemporary Zimbabwe and the uncertain identity issues of the Afrikaans minority in South Africa.
Vorher auf Nerdcore:
Heavy Metal in Botswana
Inside an african MP3-Market
Billy Monks Nightclubbing-Photography from Cape Town, 1967
Botswanas Cowboy Metalheads
Zimbabwe may make BitCoins official national currency:
Ist mir eigentlich noch zu gerüchtig für’s Blog und ich finde auch keine weitere Quelle, aber ich klebe mir den Link schonmal als Vierzeiler hier rein: Zimbabwe makes history. BitCoins now official national currency: „This may signal adoption by several other Africa nations throughout central and south Africa.“
Pinky and The Brain-School in Nigeria
Die beste Schule der Welt steht in Nigeria und ist eine sehr wahrscheinlich inoffizielle Pinky & The Brain-Schule, inklusive Pinky & The Brain-Hymne:
We are the children of Pinky and the Brain, Children growing in wisdom, age and grace.
We lift our voices to thank God; the giver of life.
Shout it out, far and wide,
Pinky and the Brain first among equal,
Pinky and the Brain, the flag bearer, for others to follow.
Welcome to Pink and the Brain Private School, Dutse FCT – Abuja (via Cartoon Brew)
Heavy Metal in Botswana
Daniele Tamagni (hier auf Facebook) hat mit seinem Metal in Botswana-Shot grade einen World Photography Award gewonnen und außerdem hat er ‘ne unglaublich unbrauchbare Website. Jedenfalls liebe ich diesen Shot, der ist Teil einer kommenden Ausstellung namens „Afrometal“, ich schätze also mal, da kommt noch mehr.
Edith, Hellrider, and Dadmonster pose for a photograph. In Botswana, heavy metal music has landed. Metal groups are now performing in nightclubs, concerts, festivals. The ranks of their fans have expanded dramatically. These fans wear black leather pants and jackets, studded belts, boots and cowboy hats. On their t-shirts stand out skulls, obscenities, historical covers of hard-rock groups popular in the seventies and eighties, such as Iron Maiden, Metallica, and AC/DC. They have created their own style, inspired by classic metal symbolism, but also borrowing heavily from the iconography of western films and the traditional rural world of Botswana. Their nicknames, Gunsmoke, Rockfather, Carrott Warmachine, Hellrider, Hardcore, Dignified Queen, may appear subversive and disturbing as their clothing, but they are peaceful and gentle. “We like to get dressed,, drink meet friends and feel free , this music is so powerful . We are lucky to live in a country tolerant and open” argues one of the leaders. A precious rarity for Africa.
Pirate Game Hacks from Nairobi
Joe Keiser verbringt grade ein Jahr in Nairobi und hat dort eine Reihe von Games für die PS2 gekauft, eins grandioser als das andere. GTA Kirk Douglas! GTA scheint ohnehin das meistgehackte Game dort zu sein, bei GTA Saw steuert man Jigsaw durch San Andreas und in GTA Dubai läuft arabische Musik aus’m virtuellen Autoradio. In den Comments bestätigt er übrigens nochmal ausdrücklich, dass die Games echt sind. Ich hätte die gerne. Alle.
[The Diamond Plaza in Nairobi] is a beautiful, terrible place, perhaps my favorite in the city. Oh, and they sell games here, the sort of games you would expect in a place where only some of the rooms have a floor. Which is to say they are delirious hacks of old, pirated PlayStation 2 standards, from all over the world, with cover art that is uniformly amazing. […]
Full disclosure: this article exists so I can tell you all about Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas: Kirk Douglas. Just look at it! It’s exquisite. The game itself is as grand as the cover. It is San Andreas, with the load screens replaced by EXTREME closeups of Kirk Douglas—and occasionally his son Michael Douglas, because hey, close enough, right? In the game, the main character appears to be a rough approximation of Kirk Douglas. Oh, and all the missions have been removed, so there’s nothing to do. Why would someone make this? Is there some shadow demographic of Grand Theft Auto/Kirk Douglas fans that is going completely unserved? No? Then let us create one, you and I, and give this labor of love the respect it deserves.
The Pirate Hacks of Africa – Shopping for Knockoff Games in Nairobi (via Jason Kottke)
Africa For Norway
Youtube Direktafrica, via MeFi
Sehr, sehr tolle Kampagne von Radi-Aid gegen die stereotype Sicht auf den afrikanischen Kontinent: “Africa should not just be something that people either give to, or give up on. The truth is that there are many positive developments in African countries, and we want these to become known. We need to change the simplistic explanations of problems in Africa.”
1. Fundraising should not be based on exploiting stereotypes.
2. We want better information about what is going on in the world, in schools, in TV and media.
3. Media: Show respect.
4. Aid must be based on real needs, not “good” intentions.
African Kids hack their OLPC-Machines
Nicholas Negropontes One Laptop per Child-Projekt läuft jetzt seit 5 oder 6 Jahren und experimentiert seit neuestem mit dem „Format“: Die haben Kisten mit Tablets in äthiopische Dörfer gestellt, ohne Anleitung, nur ‘ne Kiste voller Hardware. Fünf Monate später haben die Kids die Maschinen gehackt und in einem Jahr programmieren sie einen Kick Ass Egoshooter. Faith in Humanity: Restored. Grandiose Story wie aus einem techno-utopistischen SciFi-Roman, nur in Real Life mit einem phänomenalen Ergebnis. Bravo!
OLPC is trying to figure out a way to teach kids to learn, which is what this experiment is all about. Rather than give out laptops (they’re actually Motorola Zoom tablets plus solar chargers running custom software) to kids in schools with teachers, the OLPC Project decided to try something completely different: it delivered some boxes of tablets to two villages in Ethiopia, taped shut, with no instructions whatsoever. Just like, “hey kids, here’s this box, you can open it if you want, see ya!”
Just to give you a sense of what these villages in Ethiopia are like, the kids (and most of the adults) there have never seen a word. No books, no newspapers, no street signs, no labels on packaged foods or goods. Nothing. And these villages aren’t unique in that respect; there are many of them in Africa where the literacy rate is close to zero. So you might think that if you’re going to give out fancy tablet computers, it would be helpful to have someone along to show these people how to use them, right?
But that’s not what OLPC did. They just left the boxes there, sealed up, containing one tablet for every kid in each of the villages (nearly a thousand tablets in total), pre-loaded with a custom English-language operating system and SD cards with tracking software on them to record how the tablets were used. Here’s how it went down, as related by OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte at MIT Technology Review’s EmTech conference last week:
“We left the boxes in the village. Closed. Taped shut. No instruction, no human being. I thought, the kids will play with the boxes! Within four minutes, one kid not only opened the box, but found the on/off switch. He’d never seen an on/off switch. He powered it up. Within five days, they were using 47 apps per child per day. Within two weeks, they were singing ABC songs [in English] in the village. And within five months, they had hacked Android. Some idiot in our organization or in the Media Lab had disabled the camera! And they figured out it had a camera, and they hacked Android.”
Ethiopian kids hack OLPCs in 5 months with zero instruction (via Killscreen)
[update] Dan Klorix hat auf Facebook ein PDF mit Specs der gehackten Tablets gepostet.
A Mobile Phone for 60 Rats
Fängste in Südafrika 60 Ratten, kriegste vom Sponsor ein Handy geschenkt. Easy.
As it was in medieval Hamelin, so it is today in the South African township of Alexandra: wherever you go, you are never far from a rat. In an attempt to fight back, city officials have distributed cages and the mobile phone company 8ta has sponsored the volunteer ratcatchers. Resident Joseph Mothapo says he has won two phones and plans to get one for each member of his family. ‘It’s easy,’ he told South Africa’s Mail & Guardian newspaper, wielding a large cage containing rats. ‘You put your leftover food inside and the rats climb in, getting caught as the trap door closes.’
Official Mandela Banknotes
Vimeo Direktmandela, via Quipsologies
Südafrika bekommt offizielle Mandela-Geldscheine, das Design kommt vom Am I Collective aus Kapstadt: „TVC to introduce the new South African bank notes. The concept is moments of Nelson Mandela’s life etched onto paper. Each etch represent a key moment in Madiba’s life. The illustrations was done to interpret these scenes based on the new bank notes.“
Science Fiction from Africa
Kurzer, toller Podcast der BBC über Science Fiction aus Afrika moderiert von Lauren Beukes, deren Buch „Zoo City“ ich grade lese (Review kommt, fantastisches Buch!) und mit Autor Jonathan Dotse und Neill Blomkamp (District 9).
Beukes hears from film-makers Neill Blomkamp (South Africa – director of the international hit District 9), Wanuri Kahiu (Kenya), blogger Jonathan Dotse (Ghana), writer Nnedi Okorafor (Nigeria/USA) and others on how their particular experiences have influenced their work.
Science fiction often explores the interaction between people and technology. In Africa that theme plays out in surprising ways, from making an appointment with a traditional healer over email, to women in remote villages collecting water while chatting on their mobiles. It’s this mix of magic and technology, challenge and innovation that shapes the science fiction coming out of the continent.
Leaving behind the traditional visions of a high-tech Tokyo, futuristic LA or dystopian New York, and challenging clichéd views of the entire African continent, this is a science fiction being told by the people who live there.
No Copyright-Podcast featuring Nollywood
Superinteressanter und mit 20 Minuten angenehm komprimierter Beitrag vom Deutschlandradio Kultur über (No) Copyright und die nigerianische Filmindustrie:
“Wir sind weder Kulturpessimisten noch -optimisten. Unsere Triebfeder ist blanker Realismus“ – schreiben der niederländische Politikwissenschaftler Joost Smiers und Marieke van Schijndel in ihrem Buch „No Copyright“. Und kommen zu dem Schluss: Ja, ein Leben ohne Urheberrecht ist denkbar. Und ja: Es kann durchaus auch kommerziell funktionieren. In diesem radikalen Ansatz sehen die Autoren den Grundstein für eine „gesamtgesellschaftliche Veränderungsstrategie“, ein Umkrempeln der Marktverhältnisse: Weg von den alles beherrschenden Konzerngiganten, hin zu mehr Künstlern, mehr Kreativität, mehr Kultur.
Utopie oder gangbarer, womöglich sogar notwendiger Weg? Darüber sprechen wir mit der Politikwissenschaftlerin Jeanette Hofmann vom Institut für Internet und Gesellschaft an der Humboldt-Universität Berlin.
Danach werfen wir einen Blick nach Nigeria: “Nollywood” hat inzwischen einen höheren Filmoutput als Hollywood. Die extrem billige Massenproduktion von Kulturgütern ist nicht zuletzt eine Folge des nicht vorhandenen – bzw nicht durchgesetzten – Urheberrechts in dem afrikanischen Land.
No Copyright – Eine Gesellschaft ohne Urheberrecht ist denkbar – ist sie auch sinnvoll? (MP3, via Netzpolitik)
Vorher auf Nerdcore:
Pieter Hugos Nollywood-Fotografie
Nollywood Babylon: Doku über die nigerianische Filmindustrie
Inside an african MP3-Market
Chris Kirkley hat einen kurzen, großartigen Blogpost über Filesharing auf einem MP3-Markt in Mauretanien, einem Wüstenstaat im Nordwesten Afrikas. Der Markt bildet den “Kern” eines Schwarzmarktes, auf dem Handys und SIM-Karten und MP3-Player gehandelt werden. So ungefähr stelle ich mir übrigens Filesharing der Zukunft auch bei uns vor, nachdem das Online-Sharing aus dem Mainstream verdrängt wurde.
The market itself is a labyrinthine of stalls, glass display cases filled with “fake” Nokia/Samsung cellphones, sporting two or three SIM cards, cameras, mp3 players, and speakers. Deeper into the market, past the fancier shops, the stalls are simpler. In concrete boxes plastered with glossy hip hop posters and homemade montages, young men lounge behind computers, blasting music from pairs of speakers directed outwards, in an arms race of sonic amplitude. This is Nouakchott’s mp3 market.
This is no amateur operation. Every computer trails a variety inputs: USB multipliers, memory card receivers, and microSD adapters. A virus scan is initiated on each new connection. Each PC is running some version of a copy utility to facilitate the process. The price is a standard 40 ougiya per song, about $0.14; like every market, discounts are available for bulk purchases. The music on the computers is dictated by the owners. Hassaniya music is most often carried by young Maurs, Senegalese Mbalax and folk by Pulaar and Wolof kids. While I’m searching for Hausa film music, I’m directed to the sole Hausa man in the market, a vendor from Niamey. I sit with the vendors, scrolling through the songs on VLC, selecting with a nod or a pass, the files copied to a folder, tallied, and transferred to my USB.
down and out in the mp3 market, das Posting wurde mittlerweile von 3Bute als Webcomic umgesetzt, allerdings können die Zeichnungen dort nur wenig, leider. (via Afro Cyberpunk)
Hippos eat People
Angekommen im Sanbona Wildlife Reserve bekommt man wie in jedem Hotel Erfrischungshandtücher. Normalerweise riechen die nach nix oder nach Zitrusfrüchten oder nach Kräutern. In Sanbona riechen sie nach Kuchen oder Keksen, weshalb ich sie Cookie Towels nenne. Man bekommt sie nach jeder Safari und bei Ankunft und sie sind nur eins der vielen Details, die ich an Sanbona liebe.
