The KURO Satellites
Fatima Lasay

Out of the academe
Two years ago, I left teaching at university to focus on my research and art. During this period I pursued the articulation of a theory of aesthetic equilibrium. Currently, I call this theory diwà.

Diwà has been defined in academic circles as a body of internal rules governing the systematic ordering of ideas that the Filipino, whether on a national, tribal or personal level, employs for a conscious meaningful purpose. In aesthetic equilibrium, I propose a re-conceptualization of diwà as a self-determined system of balance in our experience of contradictions. In my re-conceptualization, diwà is based on the principles of buhay (life) and bisà (inherited life force) with knowledge, language and body as its parameters. Thus, diwà enables a reframing of firmly held notions of these parameters, consequently providing the basis for a critical analysis of media, technology and the creative practices.

Out of the Internet
Within diwà, it became possible for me to see the roots of frustration and immobility not only in the academic system but also on specific Internet-based models of ‘cooperation.’ For example, some two months ago, I received an e-mail announcement about an ‘e-art event’ seeking ‘intervention’ against Israel’s war on Hezbollah through a ‘unique free style webjam.’ I was shocked: how do such ‘events’ that receive funding from private institutions actually direct flows of knowledge and capital and to whose advantage? I wonder what kind of knowledge is generated by ‘Global WebJams’ of the burning of Beirut by VJs and DJs based in the Netherlands, and what kind of ethical use of the ‘power of new media’ is the call to ‘shout out for our friends in Lebanon and elsewhere to contact us if they want to join, share, participate in and contribute with their recent experiences and productions’? If in the global electronic network, our brains are outside our skulls (as Marshall McLuhan described it), then we are horribly vulnerable to global exploitation. These, what are now called ‘participation’, ‘collaboration’ and ‘new media activism’, are in fact pseudo-games of non-participation: how exactly do these ‘events’ relate to diwà: life and life force and the equilibrium of knowledge, language and body?

Out of diwà
Out of these frustrations, and within the empowerment of diwà, I embarked on the KURO* Satellites. KURO are regular satellite gatherings for informal presentation, demo, discussion, and debate, especially for and by people involved in theory and practice of electronic and digital media. KURO satellites basically deal with science and technology issues affecting the creative community and the larger socio-culture sphere. The first KURO satellite will be an ‘open-source clinic’. Succeeding KURO satellites deal with intellectual property rights and the logics of expansion in art and technologies (how “high-techs” marginalize artists).

*Kuro is Filipino for reflection, opinion, and meditation.

(Photo by Jing Garcia/ http://autoceremony.blogspot.com)

The programming and structure of the KURO satellites are based on the parameters of diwà:

1. Knowledge. The dialectical programming of KURO: whereby the satellites are composed of presenters and interlocutors. Experience-based positions are valued. Practical, theoretical and "hard" questions are encouraged. Choice of language is respected. Curiosity is celebrated, knowing that not all questions can be answered, that there may be more questions than answers at KURO satellites. KURO is not only a gathering of people but a gathering and growing of minds.

2. Language. The emphasis on documentation, open access and sustained contacts: whereby KURO satellites also involve transcribers and bloggers to make precise records of and commentaries on all the satellites. Documentation is intended to be accessible to all on-line, with translations made where necessary, and materials structured for easy referencing, sharing and commenting. Sustained programming means KURO satellites tackle inter-related issues, acknowledging that there are issues that cannot be resolved, and thus all unresolved issues are to be addressed continuously through sustained on-line communications between satellites, and discussed in future satellite meetings.

3. Body. Small steps towards empowerment: whereby KURO satellites are maintained small, low-cost, community-based, focused on issues, seeking to balance practical issues and more abstract concerns as both very valid elements of sustaining life in our communities.

Perhaps after two or three KURO satellites, it would be possible to ask: whether KURO has been mildly successful? What are the failures and difficulties? Why? What are the future directions? And consequently to ask: is it possible to work outside the existing framework/grammar of contemporary art institutions, and to instead strive to imagine and build completely new equilibriums? Is it possible to not participate in the dynamics of (global) competition and markets?

To learn more about KURO Satellites: http://kuro.korakora.org/

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