[Nettime-nl] Towards a New Visualization of Secrecy? / International Conference / 24 March 2007 / Stedelijk Museum CS Amsterdam

[tina clausmeyer <tina.clausmeyer@gmx.net>]

_________ 
International Conference

Towards a New Visualization of Secrecy?
Representations of Secrecy within Contemporary Terrorism and
Counterterrorism  
Saturday 24 March 2007, 10:00 ­ 20:00
Stedelijk Museum CS Amsterdam
www.secrecyconference.net
 
Featuring Tariq Ali, Albert Benschop, Kathalijne Buitenweg MEP, David
Campbell Jordan Crandall, James Der Derian, Meta Haven, Brian Holmes, Buro
Jansen & Janssen, Nicholas Mirzoeff, Naeem Mohaiemen and Trevor Paglen

The conference is jointly organized by Tina Clausmeyer and the Jan van Eyck
Academie Maastricht and in cooperation with the Stedelijk Museum CS
Amsterdam. 

__________ 
Introduction

Secret Networks of Terror vs. Secret Networks Against Terror
The conference explores theoretically as well as visually the emergence of
new phenomena of secrecy within transnational terrorist and counterterrorist
networks. Since 9/11 and in the aftermath of the wars in Afghanistan and
Iraq worldwide clandestine operations have increasingly been undertaken by
terrorist and counterterrorist networks. Conflicts are on the whole no
longer fought in public, but rather in concealment. In the present ?state of
exception¹, the ?war on terrorism¹ has been waged in a symbolic realm
consisting of global ?cobwebs¹ of names, actions and locations. This
conference addresses the question as to whether the increasing awareness of
hitherto invisible contemporary terrorist and counterterrorist actions has
produced a new ?visualization¹ of secrecy. Intending to offer a
cross-disciplinary and experimental platform to negotiate new and critical
positions this conference will question the extent to which both antagonists
use secrecy as a strategy in an asymmetrical global warfare. The conference
participants, coming from diverse backgrounds such as academia, human rights
activism, new media, visual arts, and politics, will debate on the strategic
and visual aspects of these new forms of secrecy.
 
New Forms of Secrecy within Transnational Terrorism
The Internet has become the virtual database and training camp through which
Al Qaeda as umbrella organization keeps its message alive, holding a
powerful grip while remaining in secrecy. As quasi ?open universities¹ of
violence and spectacle, the dynamic cell structure of the multi- and
transnational terrorist alliances, affiliations of semi-independent cells
and loosely interconnected jihadi groups have presented themselves as
invisible and ?spaceless¹ enemies. Concealed spaces of terror are dispersed
in cyberspace through chat rooms, online broadcasts, virtual handbooks on
training and combat methods as well as in homes, sleeper cells, or training
camps. As the most powerful tool of terrorism and global jihad (by
visualizing atrocities and concealing logistical, financial and
communication structures), the Internet has been used by Al Qaeda and other
jihadi networks to conduct a sophisticated form of psychological warfare,
that serves to gather information, to train, to fundraise, to propagate
ideology, to recruit and network, to plan and coordinate terrorist acts
worldwide.  

New Forms of Secrecy within Counterterrorism
Guantánamo, more than an American prison camp in Cuba, is an icon of
lawlessness that has functioned as a kind of synecdoche standing in for the
other known and unknown (secret) ?rendition¹ programmes all over the world.
Recent investigations by the European Parliament¹s Temporary Committee on
the alleged use of European countries by the CIA for the transport and
illegal detention of prisoners confirmed that several governmental
organizations as well as individuals attempting to counteract terrorism
simply wish to remain unseen. As a multifaceted image of today¹s ?state of
exception¹, they embrace a wide-reaching system of ?black sites¹ or
so-called ghost prisons (?ghost planes¹, ?ghost ships¹, etc.) in which
numerous persons have been illegally detained and secretly transported to
third countries, where they have suffered human rights abuses including
torture.  

A New Visualization of Secrecy?
The conference aims at pinpointing the rising global ?states of secrecy¹ as
well as the multifaceted, twisted meanings they engender. A veil of secrecy
has always surrounded the shadowy world of intelligence agencies and their
opponents, the terrorist alliances. However, in our present day, their
transnational nature, infrastructure, and methods of operation, including
the virtual realm, have undergone a definite metamorphosis. Secrecy has
taken on new dimensions on both sides as revealed persons, locations, and
actions (such as the Hofstad Network, Azzam.com, Osama bin Laden, Khalid
Sheikh Mohammed, Guantánamo Bay Camp, Bagram Airbase, USS Bataan, Aero
Contractors, Khaled El-Masri, Murat Kurnaz, etc.) provide incontestable
evidence. At the same time these clandestine operations, locations and
networks have become a matter of public interest. As a result, new phenomena
of secrecy have been made visible for a larger audience and a new
?visualization¹ of secrecy emerged: The secret became public.
 
__________ 
Programme  
 
10:00 
Registration 
11:00 
Welcome 
Jelle Bouwhuis / Curator, Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam
Hanneke Grootenboer / Advising Researcher Theory, Jan van Eyck Academie
11:15 
Introduction 
Tina Clausmeyer / Initiator, Jan van Eyck Academie
 
Global Wars in Secrecy: Terrorism vs. Counterterrorism
Introduced and moderated by David Campbell / Professor of Cultural and
Political Geography, Department of Geography, Durham University
Keynote 
11:30 
Tariq Ali / Novelist, Historian and Editor of New Left Review
Panel 
12:00 
Kathalijne Buitenweg MEP / Member of the Temporary Committee on the alleged
use of European countries by the CIA for the transportation and illegal
detention of prisoners
Albert Benschop / Cyberterrorism Expert, University of Amsterdam
James Der Derian / Watson Institute Professor (Research) of International
Studies  
Buro Jansen & Janssen / Independent Journalistic Collective
Tariq Ali / Novelist, Historian and Editor of New Left Review
 
13:30 Lunch break / Artist projection
When An Interpreter Could Not Be Found by Visible Collective/Mohaiemen, Roy
(2005-2006)  
 
Artists¹ Positions and Visual Strategies after 9/11
Introduced and moderated by Brian Holmes / Art Critic, Cultural Theorist and
Activist  
14:30 
Trevor Paglen / Artist, Writer and Experimental Geographer
Black Worlds: Landscapes of Secrecy and Epistemic Limits
15:00 
Naeem Mohaiemen / Artist and Founder of Visible Collective
Invisible Man & Glamor-Horror Media Cycle
15:30  
Break  
15:50 
Meta Haven: Design Research / Vinca Kruk & Daniel van der Velden
The Design of Evil 
16:20 
Jordan Crandall / Media Artist and Theorist, Initiator of UNDER FIRE
Disappearing Acts 
 
Concluding remarks 
17:00 
Nicholas Mirzoeff / Professor of Art and Art Professions, Director of the
Visual Culture Programme, New York University
Open Secrets: The Police, Visual Culture and the Image War
18:00 
Reception  
20:00 
End 

__________ 
Practical Information
 
Admission 
Day ticket: 7,50 EUR  (1,50 EUR is transferred to Amnesty International)
All tickets can be picked up and paid for at the 11th floor of the Stedelijk
Museum CS from 10 a.m. onwards. Please note that the language of
communication is English.

Registration 
Advance booking is recommended. Please register via email before 23 March
at: registration@secrecyconference.net
 
Contact and registration by telephone
Anne Vangronsveld 
E anne.vangronsveld (at) janvaneyck.nl
T +31 43 350 3784 

Conceptual inquiries
Tina Clausmeyer, concept and organization
E tina.clausmeyer (at) gmx.net
 
Location 
Stedelijk Museum CS on 11
Oosterdokskade 5 
1011 AD Amsterdam 
The Netherlands 

How to get there 
The Stedelijk Museum CS is only a three minutes¹ walk from Amsterdam Central
Station. For a route description please check at: www.stedelijk.nl or
www.bereikbaar.amsterdam.nl. For more information on Amsterdam please visit:
www.iamsterdam.nl (English site).
 
Further information
www.secrecyconference.net
www.janvaneyck.nl 
www.stedelijk.nl 
 


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