ASSOCIATE OR FULL PROFESSOR FILM AND MEDIA STUDIES
JOB ID: 2389
Hunter College’s Department of Film and Media Studies, which combines analytical and theoretical analysis with creative practice using an interdisciplinary approach to media, seeks applications for an Associate Professor or Professor who is a scholar and practitioner of new media. The position calls for a candidate who has an understanding of the cultural effects of new media and Internet technologies. Extensive teaching experience is essential. A PhD or MFA is required. APPLY ON LINE TO THE FOLLOWING EMAIL ADDRESS: digitalmediasearch@hunter.cuny.edu

Include letter of application with teaching/artistic/professional philosophy, curriculum vitae, list of three references or send to:
Dr. James Roman, Professor & Chair
Department of Film and Media Studies
Hunter College, CUNY
695 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10065

Jennifer DePriest and Charisse Williams two graduate students at Columbia’s Journalism program recently produced a nice little piece on Post-Studio art practices that features Douglas Paulson, Christopher Robbins and myself. The piece revolves around the necessity or desire for artists living in New York City to find alternative modes of art making, beyond the traditional studio. View the video on Vimeo

In July I wrote an entry on corporate citizens contributing to U.S. elections, Corporations Aren’t Citizens concerning the Citizens United vs. Federal Election Committee case that the Supreme Court began deliberating on on Sept. 9th… Well, it’s a done deal. The conservatives on the Supreme Court bench have ruled to corrupt democracy (even further that it generally is) by allowing the free flood of corporate spending in political campaign. This wouldn’t be so troubling if the United States had a politically informed and active population. Unfortunately the vast majority of this country’s population is easily swayed by media influence and hollow ideologues. The majority of this population does not thoroughly inform themselves or try to uncover nuances or consider challenging concepts… So those with the most money, the so called corporate citizenry will decide the vote of the general citizenry through the purchase of television, radio, web and publication ads.

One of the dissenters on the Supreme Court bench, the ever-thoughtful Justice John Paul Stevens “read a long dissent from the bench. He said the majority had committed a grave error in treating corporate speech the same as that of human beings. His decision was joined by the other three members of the court’s liberal wing.” The change that Obama seeks to bring just seems to be undermined as his presidential tenure proceeds. Read the full article from the NY Times – Justices Overturn Key Campaign Limits.

from NY Times article “City as Stage, Audience as Family”:

“I don’t believe theater can change the world. People can — through rigorously created art that can reveal to those watching what their politics are and through an interrogation of ideas that massages empathy, the place where all great politics comes from.”
Melanie Joseph

The Port-au-Prince earthquake brings to mind the 1972 Managua earthquake and in wondering about the future of Haiti, I can’t help to question if old parallels between Haiti and Nicaragua will continue or if the 21st century presents a better future. I bring up a 40 year old earthquake, because there are so many historical parallels between Haiti and Nicaragua:

both were once Banana Republics of the United States.

both were once ruled by dictatorial dynasties supported by the U.S.: Somoza Dynasty (1936-1979) <=> Duvalier family (1957-1986). It’s uncertain to whom Roosevelt was referring to when he said “He may be a son of a bitch, but he’s our son of a bitch…” whether it was Anastasio Somoza or Trujillo of the Dominican Republic, but it could have been made by later presidents about Papa Doc or Baby Doc.

Today both countries remain amongst the poorest of the Americas and both countries are susceptible to natural disasters.

In the late 1960s or very early 70s, Howard Hughes was in talks with Somoza to establish Nicaragua as a tourist destination due to its natural beauty. Had these plans come to fruition, Nicaragua today could be much like Costa Rica, but in 1972 the capital of Nicaragua, Managua was struck by a 6.5 earthquake which destroyed nearly 90% of the city and Hughes soon left the country along with his plans.

International aid arrived and Somoza became even wealthier. Rather than using the relief money to rebuild Managua, create jobs and homes for the poor, Somoza stole foreign aid and stifled industry. Today the ruins of old Managua remain in place with poor people living in them, the new Managua has been built around the ruins with little organization or long term planning. Shanty towns can be found adjacent to the old downtown and there are many sections that do not have running water or formal electricity. Nicaragua, where the streets have no name, remains amongst the poorest countries of the Americas, usually second to Haiti. The history of course is a lot more complex than the 1972 quake, none the less, the earthquake and its scars are very much present.

It’s 2010, a corrupt dictator does not rule over Haiti, however in an impoverished nation with weak civic infrastructure it’s not difficult to envision the future Port-au-Prince in today’s Managua.

September 9th the Supreme Court will begin deliberation on a decision that will allow unlimited corporate campaign spending. Imagine the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth times a $$$$$MILLIONS.

Just when it seemed that we had made progress, that change had come, that the little people could unite to raise funds and get an intelligent individual into the office of the president, along come the Supreme Court judges to squash the power of the people.

Currently in NYC, following some deal making, Bloomberg Inc. is in the midst of buying a third mayoral term. The next presidential elections will also be bought by big money.

There’s been little coverage on Citizens United vs. Federal Election Committee. Here’s the opening sentence from a Slate article by R. Hansen:
“If Republicans were wondering how their 2012 presidential candidate is going to compete against President Obama’s $600 million fundraising juggernaut, the Supreme Court seems poised to provide an answer: unlimited corporate spending supporting the Republican candidate, or attacking Obama.”

From NY Times Editorial:
“If Citizens United prevails, it would create an enormous loophole in the law and allow corporate money to flood into partisan politics in ways it has not in many decades. It also would seriously erode the disclosure rules for campaign contributions.”

The word must get out, pressure to the Supreme Court during this decision might be the only way to maintain some semblance of democracy!

Sitting at the window of the Washington Commons in Prospect Heights / Crown Heights a few weeks ago, I couldn’t help but notice an undercover cop heading out wearing a Che Guevara t-shirt.  Generally, it would only be an amused observation, but I happen to be re-visting Barthes and reading Catherine Belsey’s Poststructuralism, A Very Short Introduction, so I just had to take a picture to capture the moment.

As Belsey puts it “Postmodernism celebrates the capability of the signifier itself to create new forms and new rules.”

“Dancing Machines: An Interview with Natalie Bookchin,” by Carolyn Kane (May 27th, 2009) presents a thoughtful perspective on private performance for public consumption. The interview revolves around Bookchin’s latest installation consisting of edited YouTube footage of people dancing in their homes.  As Bookchin puts it:

…the YouTube dance, with its emphasis on the individual, the home, and individuated and internalized production, embodies key characteristics of our economic situation of post-Fordism. If Fordism once described a social and economic system that focused on large-scale factory production, post-Fordism describes a shift away from the masses of workers in the same space, to smaller scale production by workers scattered around the world. These workers are linked by technology rather than an assembly line, and there are more temporary or contract workers, often working from home, producing more specialized, less standardized goods.

Ideas that Jeff Crouse and Stephanie Rothenberg’s virtual sweatshop piece “Double Happiness Jeans”.  An installation and performative work that has real people using their Second Life avatars making jeans for gallery visitors.

The following is a concise article on the current worsening situation in Nicaragua:
Feb 19th 2009 | MANAGUA, From The Economist print edition

Daniel Ortega’s slide to autocracy

LATER this year Daniel Ortega will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the revolution that toppled the notorious American-backed dictatorship of the Somoza family and brought his left-wing Sandinista movement to power. Though Mr Ortega is once again president, as he was in the 1980s, in other ways Nicaraguan politics have changed radically. Most of his fellow revolutionary
leaders have left the Sandinista Party and are now in opposition. And Mr. Ortega is well on the way to establishing an autocracy, albeit a bankrupt one, in cahoots with former somocistas.

The latest step came last month when the Sandinista-controlled Supreme Court quashed a 20-year sentence for embezzlement against Arnoldo Alemán, a former president (and once an official in the Somoza dictatorship). Several years ago Mr Alemán forged an unacknowledged alliance of convenience with Mr. Ortega, which Nicaraguans call “the pact”. This wavered when Mr Ortega ignored the opposition’s complaints that a pliant electoral authority allowed the Sandinistas to steal municipal elections in November, which independent observers were banned from scrutinising. But hours after Mr Alemán’s absolution his Liberal Constitutional Party ended a filibuster in the National Assembly and voted to let the Sandinistas run the legislature’s affairs.

The next step, opponents fear, will be to get the assembly to vote for a constitutional reform that would allow Mr Ortega, like his friend Hugo Chávez in Venezuela (see article), to stand for re-election. Or it might involve adopting a semi-parliamentary system in which Mr Alemán would run for president but Mr Ortega would cling to power as prime minister.

The result of November’s municipal elections, in which the Sandinistas claimed to have won Managua, the capital, have still not been published. That has not stopped Mr Ortega from holding a floodlit ceremony to acclaim the new mayors. But if Nicaraguans have had to swallow the results, foreigners have not. The United States and the European Union have suspended much of their aid (some $200m between them) pending an electoral review. Since there is no sign of that, “There is a real risk that the [aid] programme will be withdrawn,” a European spokesman says.

Until recently Mr Ortega could scoff at these threats, since he enjoyed the largesse of Mr Chávez. But the fall in the oil price means that this is drying up. Nicaragua is one of the poorest countries in the Americas. The budget, already cut by 4% compared with last year, is “unsustainable”, according to Bayardo Arce, a Sandinista leader. Capital is fleeing and remittances are falling. Mr Ortega is looking to Russia for support.  (Nicaragua is the only country other than Russia to grant diplomatic recognition to South Ossetia, an enclave carved out of Georgia.)

Already unpopular, Mr Ortega seems to have miscalculated in alienating aid donors. Since the municipal election he has deployed gangs of uniformed thugs to break up opposition protests. So far they are armed only with staves, stones and homemade mortars. His regime is starting to resemble the dictatorship he once helped to overthrow. One of the original Sandinista leaders now in opposition says he feels obliged to meet contacts in secret, “as we used to do under Somoza”.

Pearl Friedberg
LAC Program Associate

Illustration by Claudio Munoz