The precursor to datacide is the magazine titled Alien Underground, which appeared with two issues in 1994/95. In the first issue of Alien Underground, there is a manifesto-like text signed “praxis nov. 1994” titled “Nothing Essential Happens in the Absence of Noise”. It describes “Techno” as a subversive agent that shook up cultural production, whether corporate or independent. “The industry then got the fear (…) because the principle of its organisation > the top to bottom one way transmission > got short circuited, & there was no transmitter or receiver, only a mixer & rooms full of people + noise. (…) a zone populated by savages seeking forbidden pleasures in a wasteland (…) uncontrollable and incomprehensible for teacher, cops, parents, the industry & media.” The backlash was not long to follow: “Formula were created & market research employed, documentaries were made, and laws drafted. It all needed to be brought back into the world of the spectacle, made safe for mass consumption; faces appeared, and like in a demonstration of power, talentless DJ’s were made superstars.” What we saw as raw and subversive was “streamlined for mass-brainwashing & pacification” in the form of “Nazi-Trance and Audio-Valium”. Still there was optimism: “But techno is always mutating, (…) always moving into different directions, & the time is now that transformations are under way that will lead to new places, eruptions, excess… In a situation where most of the supposedly underground parties are playing the same shit as everywhere else, where sponsorship deals + big money have moved in, a new resistance is emerging slowly>>>”.

This was also the moment when TechNET appeared. [Read more →]

Subject: BB7: The case of VOINA – artist anarchist nationalist group from Russia
Sender: polaris@strike2012.com
Recipient: GALLERY X, BOOKSHOP XX, CULTURAL INSTITUTION XXX
Date: 06.04.2012 13:47

Dear friend,

I am Mr. Oleg Vorotnikov (Vor), the head of the file department of VOINA here in Moscow, Russia. In my department I happened to discover a sum of (11,000,000;00 EUR – Eleven million Euros) in an account that belongs to me personally. The money has been received for Co-Curating Berlin Biennale 7 (please see more information on this issue and a public statement here on BB7 website).

It is therefore upon this discovery that I have now decided to make this business proposal to you and release this money. [Read more →]

INSTITUTE FOR HUMAN ACTIVITIES (sic) and its “Gentrification Program”

Eight hundred kilometers upstream from Kinshasa, on the river Congo, the Institute for Human Activities mobilizes the modalities of art production and launches a five-year Gentrification Program. The opening seminar of this program takes place in a specially created bamboo settlement in Congo and investigates the gap in criticality that arises in the transfer from the zone of artistic production to the zone of reception. At the same time, it is the kick-off of the actual process of gentrification. http://www.berlinbiennale.de/blog/en/projects/a-gentrification-program-by-institute-for-human-activities-23006

The proposition for the “Gentrification Program” features this imagery:

Any thinking and feeling person would be insulted by such imagery. Another “provocative artwork”? [Read more →]

What is POLARIS INTERNATIONAL Limited?
POLARIS INTERNATIONAL Limited is a transnational Real Estate Advisory Agency dedicated to merging the gaps between Art, Business & The Government in the year 2012.
Real Estate & Culture
We combine economic pursuits with the cultural sector, and provide consultations in both Cultural Policy and Real Estate Investments. At the same time, Culture provides the ultimate weapon to preserve society as it is, but this is only possible through a constant artistic renovation executed by the Creative Class. [Read more →]

REVIEW: Jeff Mills at Cable, London, 26.08.2012

‘In the creation of this concept all sectors were represented by rhythmatic formations’ – Millsart, Humana (AX-12).
‘Slower tempos are just kind of connected to the idea of thinking more about what the music is trying to say’ – Jeff Mills.

During this eagerly awaited 4 hour set, Jeff Mills didn’t play any Underground Resistance or Purpose Maker tunes. Anyone thinking that during such a long set – by conventional club standards – a wide variety of styles and genres might be featured, had it all wrong.
And yet…

I experienced this set as some of the most forward thinking techno music (futuristic sound) I’ve heard frequency-wise. In what it conveyed, JM’s sound continues to remain underground – beneath the radar of controlling forces – and resistant – challenging pre-formed conceptions in order to prepare a more harmonious world (so that we might leave?). [Read more →]