R E - R E A D E R - Biro Beograd

Migrating Reality 1
Mindaugas Gapsevicius
Emigration, immigration and fears of them is a tension between global economics and dreams
of local culture, a dream to live at the same time in own culture and surrounding. L.Donskis
In the nature we observe the process of climate changes, animal - birds, beasts, fishes - migration.
Throughout history we have many examples of the mixing and remixing of cultures
- people are migrating because of diseases, lack of food, cultural expansion, wars or economical
reasons. The unification of Europe opens the borders for free movement of labour
and to move from one continent to another just takes some hours. 2
In the technological age we have a different sort of migration. Trying to store cultural heritage,
we preserve buildings or digitize analog products. Finally we move files from one file
system or place to another. Mixing and remixing existing products especially in literature
and music became one of the most interesting phenomenon in contemporary art. Music
transforms into visual arts and vice versa.
Talking about migrating reality, the first thing coming to mind is the essay “The Temporary
Autonomous Zone“ written by Hakim Bey. It describes the socio-political tactic of creating
temporary spaces that elude formal structures of control. Taking a metaphor of pirate enclaves,
Hakim Bey draws a parallel to the communities around the virtual spaces. Even if the
idea is still alive, in the globalized world it becomes less powerful. The rapid development
of technologies allow power structures to control communities even in the decentralized
internet. 3 Nevertheless they appear again and again in the virtual as well as in the physical
world. Integrating into the existing structures these new communities shape new tasks and
ideas bridging (or migrating) themselves between other similar communities.
Such a reality does not necessary have anything to do with uncontrolled enclaves or dreams
left in the past as L.Donskis, a philosopher and sociologist states. It rather leads towards the
curiosity common for all human beings. Migration enables exchange of ideas, finally it is a
power of economics and culture.
1 Migrating Reality is a project about emigration, immigration and migration in general, planned for 2008 in Berlin.
Most participants are artists living in Lithuania and Germany. The series of events will concentrate on panel
discussions not excluding visual presentations and performances. Painting and photography, music and theater
will remix into the final internet radio and TV stream.
2 According to unofficial informations, during the last 15 years around 300 000 citizens have left Lithuania. That
is nearly 10% in total. On a website of the Nordic Council of Ministers Office in Lithuania (http://www.norden.
lt) a questionare results that inhabitants of the Baltic States will face huge migration and aging problems in the
future. Local media (Daily newspapers Lietuvos Rytas, online magazine Balsas.lt) have own chapters to introduce
and analyze the life of emigrants.
3 The FBI for example uses the internet packet sniffer Carnivore to monitor all of a target user’s internet traffic. The
most widely cited American Management Association (AMA) survey of “Workplace Monitoring & Surveillance”,
found in 2001 that “More than three-quarters of major U.S. firms record and review employee communications
and activities on the job, including their phone calls, e-mail, Internet connections, and computer files.”
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