# The Lost Drone Army by Tim Maly (Quiet Babylon)

The Lost Drone Army is a short story told by Tim Maly on his blog Quiet Babylon that dramatizes the existence of a mutineer group of drones that threatens to strike back its former masters.

MERAUX, La. – A swarm of drones, known as the “Lost Army,” appear to have established themselves in the New Orleans area, the defence commissioner said. The autonomous force has been operating without human control for nearly a decade.

Three units were spotted by junkyard workers, about 10 miles from where the reconnaissance units were discovered in November, commissioner Baako Arceneaux said Wednesday.

Though the exact nature of the drones remains unconfirmed, goggle imagery provided by the workers matches the profile of constructor-type units.

This most recent sighting was close enough to last year’s location that the drones could have been part of the main swarm. But they might also have been blown ashore by hurricane Quinton or Stephanie, said Arceneaux in a news release.

“Although the full extent of the so-called Lost Army’s presence isn’t known, we have to assume that at least a portion is established in the area and people should be careful when travelling outside, hunting recreationally, or otherwise behaving in what could be perceived as an aggressive manner,” Arceneaux said.

Since the Michoacán incident, the Louisiana Department of Civil Defence has been upgrading surveillance stations along a north-south line through the state and at several key navigational choke-points to monitor for signs of the drones. Critics charge that the process has taken too long and that warnings are coming too late.

“This is just part of a larger failure on the part of the powers-that-be to properly fund national sanctity,” said Corporal J. F. Ruck, Minutemen spokesman, “They’re telling us to just sit back and let the drones fly on by, more of the extensive record of do-nothing politics by the government. We don’t even know where they are.”

More security news
Louisiana Ambassador calls for funding assistance to deal with drone menace
Chinese government denies reports of Afghan uprising
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Built and deployed to police the Columbian jungle during the height of anti-drug paranoia, contact with the nearly completely autonomous collective was lost 9 years ago. The incident and subsequent massacre of a small unit of Panamanian security forces led to the immediate banning of high-autonomy drone units. The ban has ironically made the errant drones nearly impossible to contain.

“The problem is that our guys just aren’t as fast as these things,” said General Hussein, speaking from the Pentagon, “They do one thing really well and that is high speed 720 degree combat. You can’t expect a human operator to match that capability.”

After two disastrous attempts to retrieve or destroy the drones in South America, a containment policy was declared. However, jurisdictional issues have plagued the joint task force and as much as 50% of the army carrying up to 70% of the remaining ordinance remains unaccounted for. Despite efforts, they have been steadily migrating northward.

According to Lockheed Martin analysts, the drones appear to be in a patrol mode. Since the massacre at the alleged cartel fields in Michoacán, few violent incidents have been reported.

The drones carry a mixture of bio-explosive and conventional ordinance. Experts recommend that anyone confronted with drones disarm and seek cover immediately. People with weapons, home-based laboratories or certain kinds of farms are advised to take special caution. More information is available on the DoCD website.

# Re-Bound-Ary by Joon K. Choi

,Re-Bound-Ary is a student work from the Fine Arts Department of Pratt Institute by Joon K. Choi. Her beautiful and poetic work deals with the ambiguity of architecture gigantism, both fascinating and frightening. The pictures of the buildings plays with their endlessness and their state of construction when they looks like ruins before even having lived (a bit like Bangkok gigantic buildings which have never been fully achieved and are now urban ruins).

Here is the text she wrote about her work:

Joon K Choi have been involved with architectural images and a wide range of materials. In her art, building and clothing images repeat.
Joon likes to contrast two opposite feelings about architecture: fear and gratification. “When I see a skyscraper, I have both feelings at the same time”, she said. This probably is natural because a modern building is a metaphor of economic growth as well as its shadow. Though a skyscraper is regarded as a result of economic success, the success always involves a darker facet.
Based on this feeling, building images always pose to her an existential question; where are we from and where will we go. In history, humans have constructed many buildings for practical or religious reasons. These numerous buildings sometimes disappeared or even have been rebuilt. Even though skyscrapers stand securely and gloriously, it is hard to say that they will exist forever. It seems that all building are in a state of construction or decay and imply the insecure existence of human beings. That is why she likes to think of buildings as being insecurely in the present, between the past and the future.

# Archigram Archival Project is ON

The Archigram Archival Project that we were all waiting for is eventually online on the University of Westminster's website. If you want to see David Greene's thesis project (a mosque), Peter Cook's drawings for Graz's Kunsthaus or Michael Webb's erotic collage for the suitaloon, only one direction matters !

# Two videos by Rob Carter

Here are two videos from the talented English (Brooklyn based) artist Rob Carter. The first one Metropolis is a decoupage/collage of the growth of a crazy globalized city (don't miss the spider like behavior of the highways) whereas the other Stone on Stone introduces an hybridization of Modernism (Couvent de la Tourette) with Gothic. One would regret Gothic eventually fully replaces Modernism but the moment of symbiosis is very successful and interesting in my opinion...
The technique used by Carter is also very interesting in the hybridization of hand made and digital processes of animation and succeeds to bring a poetic -and almost grotesque- aspect to his films.

Metropolis by Rob Carter - Last 3 minutes from Rob Carter on Vimeo.

Stone on Stone [CLIP] from Rob Carter on Vimeo.

# The vision of Western Culture in The Coming Insurrection

I realize I never wrote an article per say about The Coming Insurrection (I only posted the video of Glenn Beck achieving a diatribe against it without having read it...). Instead, I will regularly publish some excerpts from it either from the first part, which is a very sharp satire of our current society or from the second part which is a organizational manifesto.
It is probably not by chance that the book has been published in France and in the U.S. by what are probably the best publishers, La Fabrique and the MIT Press.
You can find the two full texts (French and English) online but the format of the book and its straight forwardness really make you want to buy a bunch of them and distribute them around you...

"Today the West is the GI who dashes into Fallujah on an M1 Abrams tank, listening to heavy metal at top volume. It’s the tourist lost on the Mongolian plains, mocked by all, who clutches his credit card as his only lifeline. It’s the CEO who swears by the game Go. It’s the young girlchchases who chases happiness in clothes, guys, and moisturizing creams. It’s the Swiss human rights activist who travels to the four corners of the earth to show solidarity with all the world’s rebels – provided they’ve been defeated. It’s the Spaniard who couldn’t care less about political freedom once he’s been granted sexual freedom. It’s the art lover who wants us to be awestruck before the “modern genius” of a century of artists, from surrealism to Viennese actionism, all competing to see who could best spit in the face of civilization. It’s the cyberneticist who’s found a realistic theory of consciousness in Buddhism and the quantum physicist who’s hoping that dabbling in Hindu metaphysics will inspire new scientific discoveries.

The West is a civilization that has survived all the prophecies of its collapse with a singular stratagem. Just as the bourgeoisie had to deny itself as a class in order to permit the bourgeoisification of society as a whole, from the worker to the baron; just as capital had to sacrifice itself as a wage relation in order to impose itself as a social relation – becoming cultural capital and health capital in addition to finance capital; just as Christianity had to sacrifice itself as a religion in order to survive as an affective structure – as a vague injunction to humility, compassion, and weakness; so the West has sacrificed itself as a particular civilization in order to impose itself as a universal culture. The operation can be summarized like this: an entity in its death throws sacrifices itself as a content in order to survive as a form."

The Invisible Committee. The Coming Insurrection. MIT Press. 2009

original text:

"L’Occident, aujourd’hui, c’est un GI qui fonce sur Falloudja à bord d’un char Abraham M1 en écoutant du hard rock à plein tube. C’est un touriste perdu au milieu des plaines de la Mongolie, moqué de tous et qui serre sa Carte Bleue comme son unique planche de salut. C’est un manager qui ne jure que par le jeu de go. C’est une jeune fille qui cherche son bonheur parmi les fringues, les mecs et les crèmes hydratantes. C’est un militant suisse des droits de l’homme qui se rend aux quatre coins de la planète, solidaire de toutes les révoltes pourvu qu’elles soient défaites. C’est un Espagnol qui se fout pas mal de la liberté politique depuis qu’on lui a garanti la liberté sexuelle. C’est un amateur d’art qui offre à l’admiration médusée, et comme dernière expression de génie moderne, un siècle d’artistes qui, du surréalisme à l’actionisme viennois, rivalisent du crachat le mieux ajusté à la face de la civilisation. C’est enfin un cybernéticien qui a trouvé dans le bouddhisme une théorie réaliste de la conscience et un physicien des particules qui est allé chercher dans la métaphysique hindouiste l’inspiration de ses dernières trouvailles.
L’Occident, c’est cette civilisation qui a survécu à toutes les prophéties sur son effondrement par un singulier stratagème. Comme la bourgeoisie a dû se nier en tant que classe pour permettre l’embourgeoisement de la société, de l’ouvrier au baron. Comme le capital a dû se sacrifier en tant que rapport salarial pour s’imposer comme rapport social, devenant ainsi capital culturel et capital santé autant que capital financier. Comme le christianisme a dû se sacrifier en tant que religion pour se survivre comme structure affective, comme injonction diffuse à l’humilité, à la compassion et à l’impuissance, l’Occident s’est sacrifié en tant que civilisation particulière pour s’imposer comme culture universelle. L’opération se résume ainsi: une entité à l’agonie se sacrifie comme contenu pour se survivre en tant que forme."

Le Comite Invisible. L'insurrection qui vient. La Fabrique 2009

# Fake NYPD brownstone

The day before yesterday, a friend of mine send me this article describing a fake brownstone in Brooklyn used by the New York Police Department to access secretly to the subway yet the article was not giving any precision about the location nor giving pictures. Things never come alone and yesterday I followed the link posted by Michael Chen for Crisis Fronts that were giving the address (58 Joralemon Street) and supplying a series of pictures that gradually show you the detail of the potemkine brownstone.
This example of institutional decoy recalls to some extent what I called "frozen paradigms" used by James Wines in some of his buildings. We can probably think of this technique of camouflage as a potential strategy of resistance in cities that mainly cares about facades...

thanks Martin.

# Maharishi Tower by Carlos Teixeira

Maharishi Tower is a beautiful narrative project by Carlos Teixeira who drew an hindu skyscraper in Sao Paulo (!) after Murilo Rubiao's short story entitled O Edifício (1965). The story depicts the construction of the biggest and tallest city in the world. Foundations takes five years to achieve and then the building seem never to end and host little by little the entire city of Sao Paulo. I really recommend to click on the pictures below in order to read this fantastic text.

# Sociable Weavers' nests

Sociable Weavers are birds living in the Botswana desert (which is the site of Catherine Ingraham current seminar at Pratt) and they have the ability to build up amazing sophisticated nests on a given support. Not only those nests propose an interesting system of temperature regulation but they even host other species of birds that thus live in symbiosis with the weavers.

thanks Aurana !

# Drawings and models by Yuri Avvakumov

Sepulchral Skyscraper (with M.Belov) 1983

Yuri Avvakumov's drawings and models are wonderful in both their creativity and their very strong expression. During the last thirty years he developed a crude and fairly violent architectural language that both questions architecture's political and institutional role.

Avvakumov is part of what has been called the "paper architects" just like the amazing Brodsky & Utkin (see previous post)

Bridge Over the Wall (with J.Kuzin) 1987



Red Tower(with J.Kuzin & S.Podyomshchikov) 1988

Aerobridge 2001

Stair-ladder barricade 1989

Tribune for Sportsman-Parliamentarian 1991

Tribune for a Leninist 1988

Worker & Farmer International 1990

# In Israel, the army makes the law

In a country at war, the army has the ability to make the law thanks to the state of exception (read previous article) by purposing every measures for the sake of "national security". The hyper power gathered by a minority make this people interested in the continuous status of war. That is how the State of Israel, since its creation is paradoxically a state of exception that even extract itself from the International Laws (read previous post about the Geneva Convention).

In this regard, Tzahal just pass a decry that can potentially deports almost every Palestinian AND Foreigner living in the West Bank. Not only Israel still support the illegal Zionist settlements in the West Bank but they now want to potentially define almost any Palestinian as an infiltrator. This measure reinforce the control of the Israeli Army in the West Bank and the humiliation for Palestinians to be considered as illegal and evictable on their own land. The decry also concerns foreigners and states that those who will take part to Palestinian demonstration will be considered as infiltrator. This part of the decry very clearly shows that what Tzahal calls an infiltrator is simply somebody who do not support its actions...

Here is the Reuters' article:

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The Israeli military is introducing orders that human rights activists said on Sunday could make almost any Palestinian liable for expulsion from the occupied West Bank.
In a statement, the army played down any notion of mass deportation, saying the orders simply amended existing Israeli regulations to assure military "judicial oversight" in the extradition of anyone "residing illegally" in the West Bank.
The orders, which go into effect on Tuesday, were posted on an army website and allow for the deportation, in some cases in less than 72 hours, of an "infiltrator" -- defined as someone who does not hold an Israeli permit to reside in the West Bank.
Existing regulations had defined "infiltrator" as someone who had stayed illegally in Israel after having passed through countries it considers its enemy.
Ten Israeli rights groups condemned the orders, saying in a statement that the vast majority of Palestinians in the West Bank, territory Israel occupied in a 1967 war, have never been required to hold an Israeli-issued residency permit.
"The military will be able to prosecute and deport any Palestinian defined as an infiltrator in stark contradiction to the Geneva Convention," the statement said.
Offenders could face a jail sentence of up to seven years.
The groups said they feared the broad wording of the orders could enable the military to expel tens of thousands of Palestinians, mainly people born in the Gaza Strip and their West Bank-born children.
Palestinians say some 25,000 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip live in the West Bank. The Gaza Strip is politically and geographically cut off from the West Bank. It is ruled by Hamas Islamists who do not recognise Israel.
Foreigners, including international activists who join Palestinians demonstrating against Israel in the West Bank, could also fall under the "infiltrator" category.
"These military orders belong in an apartheid state," Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said in a statement.
"Extensive in scope, they make it infinitely easier for Israel to imprison and expel Palestinians from the West Bank," he said.
The orders provide for an appeals process in which adults served notice of deportation can take their case within eight days to a panel of military judges. But some notices can be executed in less than 72 hours.

(Writing by Jeffrey Heller and Joseph Nasr, Additional reporting by Tom Perry in Ramallah, Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

you can also read the French article in Liberation

# City of the Future by Cedric Price

the addition of continuous mobility to industrial plants previously considered static

City of the Future is a series of drawings Cedric Price accomplished in 1965 as a summary of the vision of architecture he has been developing with earlier projects like the Fun Palace in 1961. This city is both technophiles and hyper-infrastructural as an architectural manifesto for the 60's and Price followers (Archigram, Japanese metabolists, Yona Friedman, Paul Maymont etc.)

the ability to be aware from both above and below, of the mass of support, shelter and concealment that the city offers

An increasing discontinuity of artificial services as the whole becomes more responsive to both the user and natural conditioning
the height- airspace

and the depth- subterranean and submarine, will increase primarily for global and regional energy transfer & communications

Recognition of the familiar - coloured by alteration of scale & relevance

Air and water will become major structural elements - sheltering, supporting & positioning

Increasing visual acuity amongst citizens combine with miniaturization and task acceleration of electronics should establish a new metropolitan awareness of both speed and interval

The environmental and operational advantages of the coast line -both natural and man made- is likely to encourage future urban development in coastal zones.

The potential of phased movement of goods, shelter and equipment by means of mechanical & magnetic suspension

Existing buildings in new roles - the buried social archeological relic...
... and the recognizable shell prepared for new uses.

The traditional legal and physical union between home/house and the land on which it stands will fragment enabling new variants of ownership & siting.

# Rendering Speculations organized by Tobias Klein and Ricardo de Ostos

On May 7th, Tobias Klein (see previous post) and Ricardo de Ostos are organizing a symposium at the AA about digital representation of architecture with architects such as Lebbeus Woods or Marjan Colletti but also graphic artists Andrew Jones and Julian Oliver.

Rendering Speculations

Date: 07.05.2010

A Symposium coordinated by Ricardo de Ostos (AA INTER 3/ NaJa-DeOstos) and Tobias Klein (AA First year Studio/ Horhizon)

Rendering Speculations is a day-long AA event in which seven invited guests, from a variety of different fields including architecture, conceptual art, video gaming and interface design, will discuss the topic of speculative visualisation and virtual design. Highlighting a variety of disciplines and approaches, the event seeks to locate architecture as a magnifying lens through which digital visions and speculations are imagined.

Speakers include:

Nigel Coates – architect, founder of NATO and head of department at the Royal College of Art, whose work pursues a narrative-driven architecture

Marjan Colletti – an architect and teacher at the Bartlett UCL, who explores digital architecture and representation

Andrew Jones – digital painter and ‘techno-mystic visual pioneer of digital art’

Julian Oliver – New Zealand born artist who works with augmented reality and interface design

Lebbeus Woods – American architect and educator whose work envisions experimental constructs and the question of the individual in society

Plus other guests to be confirmed