Internet art often exists on the intersecting boundaries of video, lecture, graphic design, publicity, slide-show and game. The medium lends itself to short video clips, but those can then be limitlessly annotated and explained with links. Political or otherwise didactic art benefits especially from this panoply of moving media. The result is not just interesting art but also slightly more populist art, art that people might use as part of an argument at a dinner party.
Here’s an especially successful example: a 2003 video by the Japanese artist Isao Hashimoto, a guy preoccupied with nuclear weaponry and war (he’s now in his 50s and so grew up with the Japanese recovery from that). It’s a map of the world with an animation that shows all the nuclear explosions around the world from 1945 to 1998. The calendar, a date at the top right, slowly advances; one month elapses per second. There is a beep at every new year. The explosions are shown as quick flashes, in the exact location where they happened. Flags at the edges of the map keep a score for each country’s nuclear tests (they are all, with the exception of the two in Japan, tests). Each country’s tests are represented by a different colour flash, but also by a different musical tone. It takes around 13 minutes for the 53 represented years to elapse.
bellvisuals | March 24, 2008: Buffy Sainte-Marie performed for Veterans for Peace and Iraq Veterans against the war in front of the Capital and Native American Museum in Washington DC on the five year anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.
Peace demonstrators who have been camping outside the British parliament since May are facing forced eviction on Friday. A court ruled they are damaging the famous square outside the building, but the activists have no intention of leaving. Nadim Baba reports from London.
corbettreport June 29, 2010 (10 minutes): Paul Craig Roberts, former Assistant Treasury Secretary and Wall Street Journal comments on the recent US sanctions on Iran and the likelihood of a strike on Iran by the US and/or Israel.
AlJazeeraEnglish, June 24, 2010 (22 minutes): What kind of Afghanistan does the Taliban want and is their vision for the nation one that is sustainable?
In a bold new offensive, US and NATO forces are turning to Afghan militias for help. More feared than the Taliban, and wearing the weapons and impunity of the US army – have they created a monster?
American conscientious objector Josh Stieber describes his transformation from believing in “the faith of George Bush” to conscientious objector and antiwar activist.
talkingsticktv—May 06, 2010 — Talk by Professor Lawrence Wittner author of “Confronting the Bomb: A Short History of the World Nuclear Disarmament Movement” recorded April 3, 2010 in Seattle.
Two soldiers who were in the same company as the culprits featured in the infamous Wikileaks “Collateral Murder” video, which showed troops in Apache helicopters slaughtering Reuters cameramen and children while laughing about it, have apologized for the massacre while stating that the footage only begins to depict the suffering inflicted upon innocent Iraqis as a consequence of the occupation.
The Wikileaks video provoked an international firestorm earlier this month after it showed U.S. troops slaughtering over a dozen innocent people, including two Reuters employees and the father of two children who were trapped in a rescue vehicle that also came under fire.
Veterans publish “Letter of Reconciliation” to Iraqis injured in helicopter attack
Two former soldiers from the Army unit responsible for the July 2007 attack (documented by Wikileaks) in which U.S. forces wounded two Iraqi children and killed over a dozen people, including the father of those children and two Reuters employees, have published “an open letter of reconciliation and responsibility to the Iraqi people.” Here is what they wrote:
AN OPEN LETTER OF RECONCILIATION & RESPONSIBILITY TO THE IRAQI PEOPLE
From Current and Former Members of the U.S. Military
Peace be with you.
To all of those who were injured or lost loved ones during the July 2007 Baghdad shootings depicted in the “Collateral Murder” Wikileaks video:
We write to you, your family, and your community with awareness that our words and actions can never restore your losses.
We are both soldiers who occupied your neighborhood for 14 months. Ethan McCord pulled your daughter and son from the van, and when doing so, saw the faces of his own children back home. Josh Stieber was in the same company but was not there that day, though he contributed to the your pain, and the pain of your community on many other occasions.
There is no bringing back all that was lost. What we seek is to learn from our mistakes and do everything we can to tell others of our experiences and how the people of the United States need to realize we have done and are doing to you and the people of your country. We humbly ask you what we can do to begin to repair the damage we caused.
We have been speaking to whoever will listen, telling them that what was shown in the Wikileaks video only begins to depict the suffering we have created. From our own experiences, and the experiences of other veterans we have talked to, we know that the acts depicted in this video are everyday occurrences of this war: this is the nature of how U.S.-led wars are carried out in this region.
We acknowledge our part in the deaths and injuries of your loved ones as we tell Americans what we were trained to do and what we carried out in the name of “god and country”. The soldier in the video said that your husband shouldn’t have brought your children to battle, but we are acknowledging our responsibility for bringing the battle to your neighborhood, and to your family. We did unto you what we would not want done to us.
More and more Americans are taking responsibility for what was done in our name. Though we have acted with cold hearts far too many times, we have not forgotten our actions towards you. Our heavy hearts still hold hope that we can restore inside our country the acknowledgment of your humanity, that we were taught to deny.
Our government may ignore you, concerned more with its public image. It has also ignored many veterans who have returned physically injured or mentally troubled by what they saw and did in your country. But the time is long overdue that we say that the value of our nation’s leaders no longer represent us. Our secretary of defense may say the U.S. won’t lose its reputation over this, but we stand and say that our reputation’s importance pales in comparison to our common humanity.
We have asked our fellow veterans and service-members, as well as civilians both in the United States and abroad, to sign in support of this letter, and to offer their names as a testimony to our common humanity, to distance ourselves from the destructive policies of our nation’s leaders, and to extend our hands to you.
With such pain, friendship might be too much to ask. Please accept our apology, our sorrow, our care, and our dedication to change from the inside out. We are doing what we can to speak out against the wars and military policies responsible for what happened to you and your loved ones. Our hearts are open to hearing how we can take any steps to support you through the pain that we have caused.
Solemnly and Sincerely,
Josh Stieber, former specialist, U.S. Army
Ethan McCord, former specialist, U.S. Army
During the Japanese occupation of Korea in World War Two, tens of thousands of Koreans were sent to Japanese cities to work in munitions factories.
For the unlucky people of Hapcheon, the destination was the city of Hiroshima one of two Japanese cities struck by US atomic bombs in August 1945.
Today the Korean survivors from the bombing struggle with the trauma of that day, and they are now demanding compensation from the Japanese government.
