[HacktionLab] CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS PREEMPTING DISSENT: OPEN SOURCING SECRECY

[Hamish]

Well some of you *might* not get this on other lists.

H
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Apologies for Cross-posting

CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS

PREEMPTING DISSENT: OPEN SOURCING SECRECY

An Open Source Documentary Film Project
Call for Videos, Testimonials, Photographs, and other Audio Visual Materials

This project examines new forms of social control including the
proliferation of Tasers and the rise of "no-fly" and watch-lists.  We are
seeking contributions to this project in the form of video, still images,
and testimonials. This content will be made available for others to mix and
remix into their own documentaries.

HOW TO CONTRIBUTE:

We are seeking video content from those of you who have experienced and/or
captured on video new forms of surveillance and social control.  Have you
been Tasered by police, security guards, or other citizens?  Did you
witness someone being Tasered and record it on video?  Has your name been
placed on a "no-fly" list - or similar exclusionary watch-list? If so, we
invite you to submit your video footage, personal video testimonials, audio
testimonials, photographs, news footage, cell phone videos, mash-ups, and
any other audio-visual medium which will convey your story.

To participate in this project, please go to
http://www.opensourcecinema.org/project/preempting-dissent


BACKGROUND:

Greg Elmer of Ryerson University and Andy Opel of Florida State University
are working with Open Source Cinema, to create a collaborative, open-source
documentary film based on Elmer and Opel's book, Preempting Dissent.  Using
the Open Source Cinema platform - a collaborative website which serves as a
repository for user-generated content - the audience will be encouraged to
submit their own media as well as to remix media uploaded by the filmmakers
and other users.  By publishing a "road map" of production, this project
will encourage participation through all stages of production.   The
project will produce a feature length documentary, as well as enable a
non-linear open source cinematic database that will evolve over time
through the collaborative contributions of users. The documentary, the
producer's video clips, and user-generated contributions will all be
available for remixing.


PREEMPTING DISSENT:

This project is based on the 2008 book Preempting Dissent that critically
examines new forms of surveillance and social control. This new logic
encourages the suppression of public dissent and mobilizes both "fear" of
the unknown and "faith" in government leadership. Elmer and Opel show that
this new logic stretches well beyond the realm of airport security and
international relations into everyday police techniques, including the use
of Tasers, the deployment of "stealth" crowd control, the zoning of
protestors and the suppression of public dissent. Drawing on social
theories and media analyses, this book reveals the underlying"logic of
preemption"whereby threats must be eliminated before they materialize. By
addressing the implications of this new logic, Elmer and Opel lay the
groundwork for more effective resistance.



AUTHORS:

Greg Elmer is Bell Globemedia Research Chair and Director of the Infoscape
research lab, Ryerson University, Toronto. He also teaches in the graduate
programme in Communication and Culture, York & Ryerson Universities and the
School of Radio, TV Arts. Andy Opel is an Associate Professor in the
Department of Communication at Florida State University, where he teaches
documentary video production and critical media studies.


Greg Elmer, PhD
Bell Globemedia Research Chair, Ryerson University
Director, Infoscape Research Lab, www.infoscapelab.ca
Columnist, The Hill Times, www.hilltimes.com

Address:
Room 309, Rogers Communications Centre
Ryerson University
350 Victoria Street, Toronto, Ontario
Canada      M5B 2K3

416-979-5282