[Nettime-bold] Sorry to interrupt the war but...

["Lachlan Brown" <lachlan@london.com>]

Nettimers.

It took seven years, but I managed it in the end. I cracked global capital's self-representation. 

I thought I would share part of an email I sent late on the 10th September 2001 to David Morley, Angela McRobbie and Christine Geraghty, senior members of the Department of Media and Communications <the ministry of fear> at Goldsmiths College, University of London.

I expect they read my message as the news of the assault by persons unknown on the American Market and Military timed to the minute 28th anniversary of the Chilean coup of 73, began to come in. This might help explain why I received four separate messages from Angie asking me not to send her any more messages.

In the email I claim reponsibilty for the 'cracking of global capital's self-representation'.

The email is dated 11 september 03.35 gmt. (10 sept. 2001 10.35pm est)


Lachlan 

difference engine 94-01 - 
'affinities across and in spite of the process of globalization'


-----Original Message-----
From: "Lachlan Brown" <lachlan@london.com>
Sent: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 03:35:22 +0000
To: d.morley@gold.ac.uk,a.mcrobbie@gold.ac.uk,c.geraghty@gold.ac.uk
Subject: Global Capital cracked

Dear Dave, Angela + Christine,

I have 'cracked' global capital's self-representation.

   I am quite busy at present setting up Canada・s only alternative media server and independent electronic publishing provision having recently completed my thesis, but I thought I should write to you to advise you of a remarkable development in the history of British Cultural Studies. Through hard work I have managed to tease out a blatant representation in the advertising field from global corporate capital, in this case IBM, that class matters and that it matters to global corporate capital an awful lot.

   An image of my face is being used in an advertising and marketing campaign for IBM's Blue Velocity e-business services. The campaign is called Blue Velocity IN (as in "entrepreneurs want IN", "venture capital wants IN", etc) and it features, among the usual white corporate representations of Calvin Klein clad models in minimalist but efficient environments, representations of blacks, elderly women, precisely the people global capital excludes, in ．start up・ and ．training・ contexts. Only one 'type' is expressly excluded in the campaign, ．the Hacker・ and my face is used to represent this figure with the accompanying text: ：Hackers can・t get IN；

Of course I am not．a Hacker・, (I believe one has to be a computer programmer to be a hacker) I am a cultural studies researcher and an editor/publisher. However I must say that one outcome of my research and publishing engagement in the new media is that global corporate capital・s self-representation and mediation concerning class has been ．cracked'.

   The image is taken from a photograph of me around 1996 and has been digitally enhanced to age. The photograph is either a Goldsmiths College ID card photo, or a passport photograph I handed in to an event at the ICA in 1995 as part of a project there. The digital aging produces a hideous effect and I am pleased to say that, perhaps because I have been involved in deeply engaging political questions at many levels, and been involved ceaselessly in teasing out reaction and response from many different fields in digital culture, I have aged rather better than the running dog lackeys of global capital might suppose. 

The cracking of global capital・s self-representation is an outcome of my research for PhD into the cultural implications of Internet from 1994 2001 which traced the meanings of technology among several producer and consumer constituents of Internet from 1994 to 2001 in the fields of aesthetics, policy and the law. There is an assumption that British Cultural Studies was slow in the field, but of course British cultural studies was online and active before most Net artists and most online journals.

The use of the image is actionable, it would be great to have a little help identifying the marketing company as well as a suitable barrister in London to handle the action. The ad would also make a great cover for my book Digital Cultures: locations, networks, contexts. 

Perhaps you've seen the ad in London? I believe it is a global campaign running in dozens of countries. I recently spent an enjoyable time at Toronto Airport outside international arrivals gauging reactions from people from many different countries. They were in the main favourable. Benjamin wins out over Adorno, globally, except in times of crisis, war etc. when Adorno wins hands down.

One is, I assume, supposed to ．socially die・ through political engagement? On the contrary, I am well, healthy and I must say have aged rather better than global corporate capital might like.  This, doubtlessly is because one sleeps better at night than those who are involved in the 'middle-management of meaning.'

    I have a critique of IBMs Blue Velocity products and services as well as those of Spring.com (Europe・s largest IT recruitment agency) in my PhD, 

I note Mute recently devoted an issue (July 2001) to my 1994 paper 'Love is the Law: the passion of revolt' (in Public 10 - an obscure Canadian interdisciplinary arts journal) on Wynstanley and the Levellers as an allegory for the coming digital revolution.

What can I say? Global corporate capital's self-representation is 'cracked'. I therefore have the conclusion to my PhD.


Lachlan




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