GLAM Camp

Leah Buechley's LED Clothing

My favorite project of the summer has been my internship at Denver Open Media. I am an outreach intern there. Denver Open Media is the public access station in Denver. They have a participatory model that goes beyond typical public access stations. My particular focus has been on planning this event called GLAM Camp, Girls Learning About Multimedia camp. This project was a perfect fit for me, allowing me to inspire girls, work with multimedia, and meet other inspirational women in Denver. The result of the camp will be a documentary on women and technology that the girls will make and will are on DOM channel 57 August 15, 2008. (I will also upload the documentary on my blog…it has a few more edits before it will be up.)

Today was day two of the camp and I left with warm fuzzies all over. The group of eight girls got to help film the presentations of Leah Buechley and Sharee Dieringer and then interview the women for the documentary. The girls were engaged in all aspects of production, from camera work to coming up with the interview questions. When the girls were listening to the presentations they would get excited and curious. I hope they leave the camp inspired to think of their own dreams.

Leah’s work with technology and textile arts reaches far beyond the typical notions of what technology is and how one can work with it. Her interactive fabric pieces combine lights and sound with textile arts and fashion, pushing both areas outside of their comfort zone. I have never seen anything like what Leah had presented. She is an artists and a programmer. Her creations are playful, interactive and completely innovative. I felt personally inspired to expand my own creativity and experiment with her led lights and sounds in fabric.

What I really loved about Leah was her genuine passion for what she did. She has overcome the gender barrier and re-conceptualized what one can do with technology. Instead of feeling confined to the male dominated programming, she paved her own path. Instead of making robots she wanted to make beautiful fashions. She described her experience of being the only girl in classes or one of a few in a computer programming masters program. She overcame her initial insecurities of feeling less experienced with technology, to carving her own niche in the industry.

Sheree works in Graphic Design, specifically through civic pixel. She focuses on making logos and designs for non-profits. Her work is elegant and varied for each client. Sheree loves her job and really encouraged the girls not to settle for less than their dreams. She had designed everything from logos and book covers to websites. Working with the latest design software, technology has become her medium of expression. One project that was really amazing was a personal project about the layers of self and identity. She was able to fuse her personal life with design. The girls loved learning that they can utilize their creativity and love of technology and turn it into a satisfying job.

GLAM Camp also provides a space for girls to question the ways that mainstream society values women. We did an activity where we looked at pictures of six women known for their academic and athletic accomplishments. While the girls knew some of the womens’ names or a little bit about them they were not as recognizable as the women on our second slide. On the other slide we featured women, like Paris Hilton who are known for looks and wealth. Most of the girls groaned when they saw pictures of these women, sick of their plastic looks and tabloid shenanigans. Then we talked about women role models in our lives. Many of the girls looked up to their mothers. In many ways this activity enforced the broader goal of the camp to help girls actualize their own potential using their intelligence and creativity.

Media Spectacle

For a long time i have criticized the mainstream media for not accurately reporting on social movements, or not reporting on them at all. While charity receives praise from media, direct action by activists is often ignored. When was the last time Food Not Bombs or Derailer got a spot on the local news for all they do to benefit Denver? But in the last week or so, after being in the media spotlight as apart of an anarchist organization, i have been thinking the media are not only at fault.

Debord once wrote about how our society has evolved to the point where spectacle is the product. We live in a media saturated world, where getting on the news or blog posts must be one tactic in social movements. Debord defines spectacle as a series of social relations. It the extraordinary juxtaposition of two things that can result in an image layered with meanings. Spectacle is the games we play, constructing images predicated on your preexisting knowledge of social relations. I was the subject of such an image. As the bandanna clad anarchist asking for the reallocation of money spent on weapons to funding health care, education and low-income housing. We knew our plea would never be met, but we hoped the image and speech would help others understand our point.

Success in this case is hard to define. Our group is more well known after the article. Yet not all were fans, in fact i think most missed the point. We expected as much. Comment threads often mocked and critiqued us as anarchists (although, not with depth or intellect) . The shallow understanding of our action and the preconceived notions of anarchy limited the capacity of our own spectacle to make a difference. If spectacle relies on one’s understanding of social relations, then what happens when people misunderstand those relationships? It isn’t simply the media’s fault for poor reporting (I actually think the RMN did a good job) but poor understanding of the readers. Or perhaps the people who make comments like, “Aren’t Anarchy and organizing an oxymoron?” just have never been challenged to look beyond their own paradigm.

Is it the responsibility of the media to make people aware of the neo-liberal economic bias that drives corporate media? Or would that be too self-destructive? Are the masses so indoctrinated by hierarchy that they fail to the see the moments of anarchy in their own lives? We all live in a world that is complex. Some parts are highly structured bureaucracies, while other moments are free from such confines. Like moments with friends and loved ones, where all voices are valued equally and decisions collective. While I want to continue challenging perceptions of reality and pushing others to look beyond what they know, I am skeptical that mere spectacle can achieve this. After all, it is the spectacle of DNC that we are fighting against. Media savvy actions are one tactic within a larger strategy of direct action. Perhaps the mainstream media won’t report on skill shares or guerrilla gardening, but that is why we should just have our own media.