MungBeing: The Mind

Forward -- Caribou

First off, I'd like to welcome you to another issue of MungBeing - now with taglines^and#174;!

Once again, it is my sincere pleasure to have the opportunity to assist in presenting some brilliant work by some brilliant people. I am consistently pleased and excited to read the contributions that we receive here at the MungBeing Production Facility. An exploration of the mind. Thinking about thinking. What an appropriate theme; what a topical ointment.

As you will recall, this issue is the second part of our discussion regarding the Mind/Body dichotomy (the Body was discussed in issue six). It is also the stepsister of the Big Ideas issue. Holy cow, even the issues are starting to tie together thematically! MungBeing - the Monte Carlo Method Magazine^and#174;.

So it seems entirely logical that this issue would feature an interview with visionary New York artist Alex Grey. What better way to explore the mind than to talk to someone who has one, and that's just what MungBeing newcomer Catling has done.

I'd better stop there otherwise I'll end up listing every piece of work that appears on the almost ONE HUNDRED pages of this issue! MungBeing Magazine - Damn Near a Hundred Pages^and#174;!

So I will wish you well in your journey through this spectacular issue. Take your time and pack a lunch; it's an intriguing adventure from here on out.

I'll meet you on the other side,
Mark Givens
Editor-in-Chief,
MungBeing Magazine

MungBeing Magazine - the best kept secret on the internet^and#174;.

Forward -- Puzzle

The mind. I could write a whole book about my mind. A whole encyclopaedia, in fact. My mind has ventured into many a strange territory, at times intentional, at times in ways beyond my control. To what do I owe my sometimes glorious, other times maddening, brain, the thoughts it produces, the moods it conjures on these days, in my thirty-third year? Genes and memes, sure; psycho-cultural moulding, yes. But specifically throw in early childhood eye operations, delusory states of high fever and several concussions; epilepsy developed in adolescence; manic-depression and related disorders in young adulthood and you have only the rumblings of a grade-A scrambled brain. "Genius"-level intelligence quotient testing as a child: un-nurtured, squandered, spent. Low self-esteem due to feeling (and being treated as) an outsider while growing up: being beaten upon by peers, a social pariah as a young teen. Alcohol blackout sessions in my young adulthood followed by heavy psychedelic experimentation followed by psychiatric drugs of the anti-depressant, mood-stabilizing, anti-anxiolytic and anti-psychotic varieties. Controlled hallucinatory states, out of control delusory states. Yoga and meditation, self-directed acts of will, sex magick practices. The act of artistic creation. These are all among the many pieces that make up the composite chart of my mind, a space I will never fully understand.

Forward -- Counterpoint

Go ahead. Really. I don't mind.

Announcements -- Schiphorst Avantgarde Festival

The origin of this very informal festival was a private event in 1996 which Jean-Hervand#233; Peron, founding member of the original Krautrock band Faust, and his partner Carina Varain had organized for friends, neighbours and colleagues.

The informal character is still there. The food is better and less expensive than at other either commercial or idealistic events. There is no strict division between artists and visitors who meet and talk shop until late into the night or over breakfast. You can borrow bikes to cycle to the next village for small errands. And those who camp on the grounds or sleep in one of the dormitories will enjoy the comfort of a caring almost private accomodation.

The festival has its own extraordinary charm because of this mixture of ambience and art. The emphasis is clearly on music but there will also be installations, stage-acting and new musical versions to films. The programme offers a mix of a well guided cultural event and spontaneous and unpredictable happenings. World famous artists meet newcomers or unknown Faust acquaintances and every evening there will be sessions with musicians whose names will be drawn.

The Schiphorst Avantgarde Festival happens September 1st to 3rd, 2006. Check the low-rate flights to Luebeck (Ryan Air is only 15 km/ 8 miles from Schiphorst!) or to Hamburg (German Wings or BAW) and JOIN THE AVANTGARDE!

A message from Jean-Hervand#233; Peron:

One aspect of the festival that is not properly stressed is the quality of the AUDIENCE! Artists dedicated to the experimental art are very often confronted with a noisy, impatient, innattentive or drunken crowd.... filigran changes, subtle nuances are often drowned under ruthless loud private chats in the front rows.... well this is NOT the case at the Schiphorst Avantgarde Festival: you will hear nothing but the sounds created by the artists themselves, no matter how loud or how soft ... you will see people moving, dancing to the music or reacting to the performance but in a "respectful" way. It is most inspiring and encouraging for the performers.
I am sure that they go deeper, further into their art because they are catalysed by the concentration of the listeners .... oh yes. I love the audience at my festival. I love them for their joyful disciplined enthusiasm.
Another aspect of this intimate festival is the familiarity of the event: you will find yourself sitting round the fire next to Zappi or Moebius or Dax, you will be chatting at the bar with the STPO guys. There is no backstage here in Schiphorst. The merchandising room is not a place of "business" but rather a forum for hot discussions and beautiful encounters between the artists and their appreciators.
The last remark: here you will have no right to expect anything! Let me explain: all artists have accumulated during their years of performing a certain "image" so that the audience has a sort of "expectation" when they appear on stage. Well, here at the Schiphorst Avantgarde Festival, I have clearly informed the artists to feel free to realize whatever project or idea they had in mind, be this totally different from their usual repertoire. If Asmus Tietchens chooses to cook an omelette on stage, that will be just fine! All this is possible because of the mutual trust and respect between audience and artists.

Chris Cuttler was saying last year to Charles Hayward " ....this was three days of utopia... ".

Announcements -- Duotrope Digest

MungBeing is now listed in the Duotrope Digest. We highly recommend it, as it is one of the most innovative, interactive tools available on the web for writers. It features a user-friendly, highly searchable database of hundreds of publications, displaying vital information such as submission requirements, deadlines and pay scales.
No scribe should be without a resource this valuable.

-- Tijuana Bibles Project

MungBeing editor jody franklin and artist Danielle Hagel are curating the Tijuana Bibles Project. Contemporary artists are invited to submit their own Tijuana Bible tracts for publication and exhibition as part of this series.

-- The Kingdom of Loathing

AN ADVENTURER IS YOU

For hilarious yet surprisingly complex browser-based old-school adventure gaming, MungBeing recommends Kingdom of Loathing. Whether life as an Accordion Thief or as a Seal Clubber is more your speed, sign in, beat up some knob goblins, and kick back with a tomato daiquiri and a bowl of rat appendix chow mein. Don't forget to say hi to Ben Muggin, Starchicles, and destroying angel while you're there!

-- Congratulations to Desperation Squad

A HUGE MungBeing Congratulations to Desperation Squad on their incredible "America's Got Talent" performance! They made it to the semi-finals of the smash NBC hit and played the song "Band" to a national television audience. The judges (Brandy, David Hasselhoff and Piers Morgan) and host Regis Philbin had strong reactions to the energetic performance and made their feelings quite clear. But what do they know! We at MungBeing couldn't be proudlier!
And a huge shout out to Brandy for bringing the Squad some well-deserved attention.

Thanks, Brandy! Congrats, Desperation Squad!

-- Michael Dickinson and the Turkish Prison Saga

Michael Dickinson, a Stuckist artist in Turkey and a frequent contributor to MungBeing, may be jailed for displaying art depicting Turkey's Prime Minister receiving a blue ribbon from George W. Bush in a piece entitled "Best in Show". Mr. Dickinson has faced censorship of his work before but this is the first time that he faces a possible jail sentence. We at MungBeing throw our support fully behind an artist's right of free expression. The Turkish courts, however, may not agree.

You can read his account of these events at Counterpunch. There's also an article in the Times. And, of course, there's an excellent in-depth interview with Michael Dickinson in the new issue of MungBeing!

And, in a bit of "We'll throw you in jail if it's the last thing we do!" silliness, a recent case of "mistaken identity" almost succeeded in putting him behind bars.

-- Play Money

The new novel by Julian Dibbell is out! It's called Play Money and it's getting some much deserved attention. It's about virtual economies and Julian's adventures as an Ultima Online loot dealer, making real money buying and selling virtual goods.
There was recently an ingame book signing and discussion with Julian in Second Life, the transcript of which is here.

I would particularly like to direct your attention to these two passages:

Page 217
"...I wanted the online face of Play Money, Inc. to radiate style. So I contacted an old high-school friend whom I knew to be both a graphic genius and a demon Web-site coder and, for the sum of $100 and 1 percent of future sales receipts, engaged his services in constructing a fully automated, stand-alone Play Money storefront from the ground up."
Page 259
..."It helped some that I now had an actual, almost-functioning virtual loot storefront to call my own. The design of the Play Money supply store was nearly complete, and it was lovely: elegant and minimalist, and tricked out with a custom-coded back-end interface that inspired me to play around for hours adjusting item prices and stock quantities. The pretext was that I needed to iron out all the kinks and go live before I left town, but the truth was that my Web-designer friend had made me, basically, the coolest lemonade stand a kid could want, and I probably would have been delighted just to spend the remainder of my days in South Bend twiddling its buttons and pull-down menus.
But I didn't of course. For there was money to be made."

That old high-school friend/graphic genius/demon coder? That would be me.

-- Lotusland Remodernist Collective

On the hazy, lazy West Coast of British Columbia a band of artists are gathering together to spread the word of Remodernism, and to promote their own works in the spirit of this growing international art movement. More information can be found here.

"Spirituality is the journey of the soul on earth. Its first principle is a declaration of intent to face the truth. Truth is what it is, regardless of what we want it to be. Being a spiritual artist means addressing unflinchingly our projections, good and bad, the attractive and the grotesque, our strengths as well as our delusions, in order to know ourselves and thereby our true relationship with others and our connection to the divine." - Charles Thomson and Billy Childish, "Remodernism: Toward A New Spirituality In Art"

-- Jody and Danielle are gettin' hitched!

Let's take a moment, shall we, to give a hearty MungBeing Hoo-ray for editor jody franklin and the wonderful Danielle Hagel who have announced the impending union of their souls!

Congratulations, you two!

-- Acid Totems Zine

MungBeing editor jody franklin is making his entire Acid Totems collection of illustrations available in a limited edition, numbered and signed zine format.

-- The Trouble With Igor

The new graphic novel "The Trouble With Igor" by Christopher P. Reilly and Gus Fink is now available for purchase. You can get it from Amazon or directly from Slave Labor Graphics.
Gus mentioned it, warned us about it, in our interview back in issue five. Now we're talking to Chris[t] about it.
This superb pantomime tale is a breakthrough in hunchback literature and comes highly recommended by the Recommending Department of MungBeing Magazine.
Nice work, fellas!

(That's literature about hunchbacks, by the way.)

Externalizations of the human brain vs. the reality of the physical interior

"Externalizations of the human brain vs. the reality of the physical interior" by Patrick Turk, collage, 2005

Interview with Alex Grey

My adventures with Alex Grey began when a dear friend of mine dared me to go to Brazil for Alex Grey's Visionary Art And Ayahuasca workshop in February 2004. That email went something like, "Catling, how would you like to rob a bank, go AWOL from Seattle and trip in Brazil with Alex Grey?" My reply was heartfelt: "You asshole! What are you trying to do to me?" I decided then and there that improbable or no, I was going to Brazil to explore ayahuasca and visionary art with Alex Grey, and the world could just catch up to me. Having set my intentions so clearly and powerfully, it all fell into place. In the weeks that followed, I managed to raise the money to call his bluff. No-one was more surprised or delighted than my friend.

Down in the Amazon rainforest I met Alex and adopted him as heart family. He was an amazing guide and support during the places we explored those weeks. The ayahuasca experiences that we shared opened my mind to a world of infinite human potential, to my own creative and healing ability and to the spirit of the Earth and the realms beyond. It catalyzed a realization within that through art we can create a reality we want to live in and share it others, that artistic expression can act as a force of healing and positive change for the world.

Alex, a visionary artist living in New York City, is powerfully motivated by love. Originally an atheist, a combination of LSD and meeting his future wife, Allyson, triggered a mystical rebirth that transformed his life and his art. Since that awakening he has worked continually to express humanity's spiritual potential in artwork that shows how the aetheric body interfaces with the physical, how there's a web of light that connects us all to divinity. Allyson also received divine transmission in that shared LSD trip as she saw a vision of a net that underlies all physical reality and is woven of love. The form this takes in her art is exploration of sacred language and symbols.

What is so strikingly powerful about Alex is that to view his art is truly to know him. This is not some arrogant self-proclaimed guru spouting wisdom from on high. This is a gentle man, a loving human devoted to his family, a deeply silly man who has never allowed his success to tarnish his inherently delightful, ridiculous spirit, or to create a vast divide between him and his audience.

I've stayed close to the Greys over the years, visiting when I can. In 2004 I spent a month in New York City helping them open their Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, an evolving space that fuses temple with art gallery and serves as a gathering place for many young artists and spiritual seekers in the New York City area. I recently spoke with Alex about the CoSM, art and spirituality.

Catling: It has been beautiful to watch your Chapel of Sacred Mirrors project evolve over the years and become what it is today. I realize that the current incarnation of the CoSM is not the final version. What do you feel will be the next phase of this project? Can you talk a bit about your vision for the continued evolution of the Chapel, both the space that holds it and the community that surrounds it?

Alex Grey: When Allyson and I first envisioned a Chapel of Sacred Mirrors in 1985, we did not conceive of the community that would grow there. Birthing the Chapel is a metaphor for manifesting one's most unreasonable and noble dreams. We have been so transformed by the process that we hardly recognize ourselves from what we were before. It is our vision that the Chapel have a future that endures beyond our generation. The Chapel of Sacred Mirrors has come to represent a new kind of spirituality that embraces the primary religious experience, direct contact with the Divine through any means.

link

C: As we enter the Chapel of the Sacred Mirrors we are met with the words, "Surrender to Love." It's clear that love has played a huge role in your artwork; love is a current that runs through everything you create. Can you speak a little bit about that, about the role that love plays for you in life and art?

AG: Love is the energetic core of reality. Art is an expression of love, a way to share your love of life and inspire others. Falling in love with Allyson was the path leading to the creation of the Sacred Mirrors and all of my work.

C: Your partnership with Allyson is amazing, it's beautiful to see your shared vision, how you sustain one another. Can you speak a bit about how this dynamic supports your work, about how being together has led you both to where you are today?

AG: Everyone wants to love and be loved. Seeing your life partner as the source of your own life provides a powerful force for personal transformation and empowers common goals.

C: As you've gained recognition and popularity as an artist, what challenges has that created for you, personally and as part of a family? How do you balance the demands of being a public figure with getting enough time to yourself, and with Allyson and Zena? How has achieving recognition affected your art?

AG: I painted a lot more when no one was knocking at the door. I have many new responsibilities. Thank Goddess I still have Allyson and Zena. Balancing being a public persona and time for art and family is something I'm very much still learning.

C: Being a family man, do you see the structure of family staying stable in future generations? What about tribalism and the breakdown of the nuclear family?

AG: People have many choices now. Different kinds of families are acceptable. Allyson and I enjoy monogamy and transformative family values. Each member of the family should fulfill their greatest potential, pulling for each other, seeing that everybody has a role and a calling. Because we love each other we strive to be better people.

C: I know that entheogen use has played a big part in your path as a human being and an artist. Can you please speak of a few moments that were turning points, times of entheogen use that really stand out, that really shifted your vision?

AG: My first psychedelic experience was a turning point, literally, which introduced me to the existence of the Divine. Before that I was an atheist and an existentialist. Subsequent journeys have altered my artwork and focus entirely. These stories have been told in my books and lectureslink. Entheogen use can be dangerous for some people. You have to be judicious and have a sense of whether you are stable enough mentally to get value from it. If you decide to use entheogens it is important to be with a loving partner or trusted friends in safe surroundings.

C: A theme that flows through your art is contact with messengers, angelic entities; with auras, chakras and energetic connections within and without. How much of that do you experience in day to day life? What forms does it take?

AG: My inner life is filled with imagery and symbolism. Visions of one depth or another occur on a daily basis. This is my connection with creative spirit. I also see devils and demons in my inner life and have relations with all the forces both joyful and transgressive. At the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors our outer life is filled with relationships and interactions with people we love. That is the manifestation of our spiritual life. Making the art is also the outer manifestation of this inner world.

C: Do you have any regular spiritual practice, such as yoga, meditation? How do you feel it has changed you, helped you, over the years?

AG: Art is my spiritual practice. After an initiation into psychedelic mystical experiences, spiritual content became the focus of my work and led me to create the Chapel as a new context in which to view art, focusing less on commodity and suggesting that art can be a portal to higher states. Over my lifetime I have explored a number of spiritual practices, all of which have been helpful. Buddhist meditation has been extremely valuable.

C: Finding our way to God, by whatever name we call the Divine, is a very personal journey. What is your view as the role of the guru or teacher in finding a spiritual path?

AG: It's important to have a mentor or spiritual friend, which is the meaning of the word "guru." Ultimately, it is important for each of us to transit our highest teacher so we respond to the inner guru. Your guru is a reflection of your own higher possibility or inner mastery.

C: Which teachers have inspired you, spiritually and artistically, on your journey? Who has played a big role for you in helping you bring forth your vision?

link

AG: My wife Allyson is my greatest teacher and inspiration for my art. Ken Wilber has been a profound spiritual friend. Namkai Norbu is a Tibetan Buddhist that introduced Dzogchen to the West. He has been one of my most important teachers. I look for wisdom in many spiritual leaders -- the Dalai Lama, particularly. Ammachi is a wonderfully wise spiritual leader.

C: What are your views on spiritual traditions in the new millennium, how they are evolving as we evolve?

AG: There is a lot of decay and fundamentalism in the major world religions today. Religion sometimes has a frightening face of intolerance.

On the positive side, consider the Santo Daime religion, which is a synchratic fusion of psychedelic sacrament and Christian faith. This kind of hybrid spiritual path is encouraging. Ken Wilber and the Integral Institute have been considering the nature of integrative spirituality, a non-mythic spirituality compatible with the Occam's Razor of science, carving away the unnecessary baggage of religion and attempting to determine what that is.

C: The Burning Man art theme for this year is Hope and Fear for the Future: Dystopia and Utopia. I know that you are planning to bring the CoSM to the Playa this year. What hopes and fears do you have for the future, and how does the CoSM fit into them?

AG: Buddhism cautions against attachment to both hope and fear. Hope is an unconscious longing on which the heart thrives. Hoping doesn't always lead to striving. Fear is simply non-productive but is always present. Our greatest hope is that there might be a collective awakening that would inspire humanity to mature quickly and find creative solutions to save and sustain what is left of the web of life. CoSM is a sacred space that can inspire people to take on big problems.

C: Your art truly inspires a huge number of people. I have heard genuine outpourings from many people who have connected to your art, who have felt some soul hunger in themselves nourished by it. (Myself included), many are artists and/or visionaries in our own right, struggling to bring forth our own light, our own messages to the world. To we artists who are struggling right now, what words of comfort and advice do you have for us?

AG: Keep going. Never give up. Your life is a labyrinth, not a maze. Dedicate your work to something higher than yourself.

For more information, see http://www.alexgrey.com or visit him at his Chapel of Sacred Mirrors in New York City.

From The Brain

"From The Brain" by Ian Pyper, ink on A4 paper, 2005

The Totem Triptych Project

In the previous issue of MungBeing we invited writers to submit poetic ruminations on four selected works from surrealist painter Don Swartzentruber's Totem Triptychs collection. Out of all the works submitted, we chose five pieces as the highest quality literary interpretations of the works exhibited in MungBeing.

Please Stand In Line - Buzzsaw
Carnal Casino - Donna Piazza and Cyndi Yuska
Egocentric - John M. Velez
Normal - AJ Rollo

Their writings will have the unique distinction of accompanying Mr. Swartzentruber's works on display in art galleries around the world. On behalf of Mr. Swartzentruber, we congratulate them on delivering us such thoughtful meditations. Thank you to all contest participants.

Ocoto

"Ocoto" by Gus Fink, 2006

The God Module

"In 1997, neuroscientists from the University of California at San Diego bravely proclaimed that they had found an area of the human brain that may be hardwired to hear the voice of heaven. They called this area the God Module and said it was dedicated to the machinery of religion."

Where God Lives, Malcom Morse, M.D.

And so God lives in the body after all, he is
more than spirit, he is gray matter, dwells
in that cave of the skull, resting
in us like the pearl in the oyster;
he is the mouse crawling between our feet,
so small in the envelope of skin,
next to the regions of libido and memory,
locked like a poppy seed in pastry.
What a fluke after prolonged silence
to know God is blooming with blood,
he is the rolling curl of the seahorse tail,
purple-streaked and stemmed and budded.
There is no word for enigma now since the sweetmeat
of the holy is in self, in the neurons and
electrons; he's been crouching there all along.
Better to probe God than Mars or the trace of universes
inside universes; better to stimulate him, pull
him up from his nap like an infant...
what visions may appear, what syllables
may bend our ears. He is all
smooth muscle and synapse, echo
of stability and chaos, conjugal
and irreconcilable match
between Eros and Thantos--
force of love and death simultaneously.
And he can be cut out as well
like a damaged liver or the gut's
entrails in that precise hemisphere
where he lies, he can be modified, expiated;
and so, if he is expiated, if the entire
astronomy and chemistry of him is gone,
what then? Would we still have
desire, wonder; would we wake up
with longing, feel hope as light as an angelfish
waving among the rage
of rays; would we flinch in darkness,
acquiesce to the notion of death's
finality; and what if the god spot
was spit out,
are we so dependent on him
that we are thin and tenuous without?

Art Work

"part five" by Luke Ramsey, ink and collage, 2005

Fog

As I cut like a jet
through approachable clouds,
tips of trees pinch the crisp truth of life.
Spider webs stay fast to the leaves,
catching dreams and pieces of light.

Falling particles fill
every void between space,
as if melting unknown fear,
they meander through my brain
and lead me to wonder.

Crickets grab my attention,
but I can't be privy to their conversation.
The crush of tires on pavement is my kin.

Street lights mock the moon
orbiting the trees with shiny webs
who hold the answers I seek,
but they won't speak.

Paintings

"Mary Star of the Sea" by Kim Richardson, oil and beeswax on plywood, 2005

Outspoken

Stuckist collage artist Michael Dickinson has a long history of successful controversy. Now, for the first time, controversy has crossed the line to a direct assault on his freedom and his literal freedoms, as the government of his adopted home of Turkey has taken exception to his portrayal of Prime Minister Erdogan as a dog. I interviewed Michael via email to learn more about his art and his legal woes, hoping all the while to find out what the Turkish authorities have against dogs.

link
DSG: It seems that one of your basic human rights is under attack right now, as though certain people don't think or realize that you're human. Can you give us a quick rundown of your current legal shenanigans?

MD: At present I have not yet been officially charged. My letter of confession has been officially added to the dossier case against Erkan Kara, charged with 'insulting the Prime Minister of Turkey'. This was as a result of my displaying a picture at a 'peace tent' organized by Kara's anti-war organization BAK. His court hearing is September 12th. With the introduction of my testimonial claiming full responsibility for displaying the picture, it is expected that the charge against him will be dropped and brought against me instead.

DSG: I think that's both a horrible and a hilarious charge. Can a public figure -- let alone a politician -- have any dignity? If so, how could it be worth more than the rights and the literal freedom of someone else?

It sounds like free speech issues are coming to a head in Turkey right now, with the trial of Perihan Magden and the imprisonment of Mehmet Tarhan, both for nothing more than speaking their, and with pressure in the other direction in regards to EU membership. Hopefully this case will be part of the pendulum swinging toward that right.

Meanwhile, in places like the US and the UK -- pretty much any country with English as an official language, come to think of it -- this right is increasingly under attack. And these are the same countries that are often so vocal in condemning other countries for repression!

MD: The other day I came upon a quotation by Emma Goldman that struck me as very real:

'Politics is the reflex of the business and industrial world, the mottos of which are: "To take is more blessed than to give"; "buy cheap and sell dear"; "one soiled hand washes the other." Politicians care more about economics than about people.

DSG: You left the UK for Turkey in 1986, largely for political reasons. How do you think Thatcher's Britain compares to Erdogan's Turkey right now? Is there any comparison there?

MD: In the early eighties I had several exhibitions of my collages in London venues featuring Mrs. Thatcher in various unflattering guises, including that of Ridley Scott's 'Alien' without any problem. Now here in Turkey, the first time I exhibit a collage portraying Prime Minister Erdogan merely as a dog there's all hell to pay. Maggie knew it was better to ignore such jibes, and go on with her job of filling the coffers of her corporation backers, rather than drawing attention to the rampant corruption that exists in the Houses of Parliament.

DSG:I think that touches on a major difference between politics in "first world" countries and elsewhere, in that the process of control in more outwardly chaotic places tends to focus on image in a way that usually backfires. The intentions are the same, but the methods aren't as polished.

I had a similar -- but much less dramatic -- experience in 1999-2000, when I left the US for Central Europe, and ended up settling in Budapest for a while. After a while I realized that just because the political landscape there seemed confused and non-threatening on the surface didn't really mean it was any better. There was nothing sinister about Orban's Hungary, but it was wrapped up in most of what I hated about Clinton's America. Different president, different prime minister, same ribbon on the same dog's body. At least fewer people were dying because of it.

Getting back to your collages, I love the combination of playfulness and seriousness that always comes across in them. One of the marks of good satire is that it provokes responses of "that's hilarious," "that's true," and maybe even "that's absurd" all at once.

MD: I have the same reaction to my collages myself. They tend to make themselves. I have a room filled with pictures torn from old magazines piled and jumbled on floor, desk and bookshelves. I try to put it in order sometimes, but generally it remains chaos.

I'm sometimes inspired by a story in the news, or rage, but often it's just: "I feel like making a collage. I wonder what it will be?"

As I survey and sift and dig, images fall together, accepted or abandoned. A discard leads to a link with another. Sometimes I feel as though I am under the control of another power. The words 'inspiration' and 'genius' are both mystic. 'Inspire' means help from a spirit; and 'genius' is connection with a djinn or genie. Whatever -- I just do what I do, cutting out my 'masters' and 'betters' and playing with them -- trying them out in different roles and scenarios, each one in different ways 'absurd', 'true' and 'hilarious', but one must finally be chosen through a process of experimentation and elimination, assembled and glued down. Tragedy often outweighs hilarity.

I generally like the last picture I've done best, but each one is a kind of catharsis for me.

DSG: You're always coming back to global politics and religion -- together or separately -- in both your collage work and your writing. I don't think there's any denying what big topics these are, or how much they affect everyone in the world. Nonetheless, it's territory that many people aren't really led to by their creativity. How do you think you ended up there?

MD: I was raised as a church-going Catholic and remained one more or less until aged 29 I went and worked for a short time at the Institute for Sick and Dying Destitutes in Calcutta, run by Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity. I left when I realized that I could no longer believe in the kind of Jesus the Church promotes.

Back in England I was introduced to the idea of Communist Anarchism, and that seemed to make more sense to me as an ideal way for the world to be - in fact, 'the kingdom of heaven' that Jesus was preaching. Thatcher and Reagan were in power at the time, both grotesques, and easy to ridicule in the collages I began making for the first time then, having shows in leftish cafes and bars. I started squatting in Brixton and became involved with the Anarchist bookshop in Railton Road. Was arrested many times during peaceful protest actions, falsely charged with 'breach of the peace' (screaming during the minute's silence to remember the dead of the Great Wars in Trafalgar Square), 'assaulting an officer' (said he broke a tooth when he fell down trying to handcuff me (dressed as a vicar) during a demonstration outside the Bank of England); 'riotous, violent and indecent behaviour in a church of God' - Ecclesiastical law - (arrested inside St. Paul's Cathedral after having delivered an impromptu speech from the pulpit about the reason for the 'Stop the City' demonstration going on outside); 'graffiti' (for writing 'This church says No to Apartheid!' on the sign of St. Martin's in Trafalgar Square), so I see what you mean about the religion and politics being strongly linked in my life.

The last time I was arrested was in the Houses of Parliament. I threw three stink bombs from the Visitors' Gallery while the Commons were discussing America's bombing of Libya, using planes from their British air bases. I wasn't charged for that. It would have raised too much of a stink if I'd been given the chance to explain why I did it in court. However, I was told that I was henceforth banned from entering the Parliament building again. "The next time I enter will be as President!" I cockily replied.

My life being a rut of arrests and poverty, I jumped at the chance of a job offered teaching English in Istanbul in the mid-eighties, and I've been here ever since, in a kind of slumber politically or even artistically, (apart from the publication of my miracle-free version of the gospels - "The Lost Testament of Judas Iscariot" by Brandon Books, Ireland, in 1994), until, really, I suppose 9/11/01, and all that has followed since - the invasion of Afghanistan, Iraq, and now Iran?

It's strange, though. On the morning of that very day I had finally gotten round to picking up the scissors again after so many years, and created a collage picture. I liked it and planned more, thinking mostly of pleasant images. And then in the afternoon I watched the second plane strike the second tower live on TV.

Since then my images have mostly all been 'political', but I have a 'romantic' side too. Attached is the picture I made on that 9/11 day, prior to the attack that has influenced all our lives ever since.
link
DSG: More specifically, what is it about the Catholic version of Jesus that troubled you?

MD: No, I cannot stand the Catholic Jesus, the Son of God who was born of a virgin, walked on water, cured lepers with a touch and raised himself from the dead. The one whose crucified idol they worship in their churches and cathedrals.

I go for the miracle-free human anti-hypocrite love revolutionary Jesus, spreading the word of the imminent Kingdom of God, where the meek shall inherit the earth, and where they which hunger and thirst for righteousness shall be filled. Unfortunately, after his death the plot went a little awry, especially when Europe adopted Christianity as the State Religion and started charging round the world murdering, conquering and robbing in the name of the man of peace. His words, despite all the evil done in his name, remain good advice for honest living, especially the 'Sermon on the Mount' found in the gospel of Matthew. Read it and you will discover that none of our so-called 'Christian' regents, popes, presidents, prime ministers and priests follow this advice of their 'lord', nor ever have. Unfortunately, they too are all servants of Mammon, paid to persuade us to accept our miserable lot. If we really want to build the righteous Kingdom of God on earth then Mammon's gotta go.

Religion-wise, I'm a deist.

DSG: I've always liked deism. What troubles me about religion is not the belief in a god or gods -- I can easily understand that, even though I don't share it -- but the idea that this belief determines how everything else is or should be. If I grant for the sake of argument that Jehovah exists, what does that really have to do with which foods I can eat or who I can have sex with? The Big Bang theory of creation might not be very fulfilling to most people, but at least it isn't used to control them. Deism just might succeed on both fronts.

MD: Deism is spiritual mystical magic, it's the life force within every thing, it accepts the Big Bang (God farted); it's all religions rolled into one with the rubbish squeezed out. God is 'Good' and that determines that things should be good - for all. At the moment they're not, and they're not getting any better. But they shall. Because there's a day coming when the world is going to change in the wink of an eye.

By the way, atheists needn't worry about all this talk of 'God'. God means 'good', and the foundation of the law will be the golden rule: 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.' In other words: 'Live and let live.'

I remember as a child another saying how it made him dizzy to look up at the sky and try to understand that it went on forever, and I knew how he felt. And this tiny speck that we live on in eternity and infinity - what's up? Why the people fighting? Where we come from? Where we go? What's all this happening in between right now? I don't like it. I can see a much better way.

Imagine. John Lennon. Yeah, we all know the song (the hackneyed dirge) - but have we stopped imagining? "It's too late," says the jaded pessimist, "and anyway, what's the solution?"

For me, it would be a world without money. A moneyless world. A world where everything is free. Start imagining - Now.

Great idea, you say - 'Utopia' - impossible. But I say unto you - Not. For we are not far from the kingdom of Gott. That is, if you agree that the abolition of money would be a good idea.

And if you do, you'll naturally join the worldwide strike for a moneyless world in 2012. When? 2012. Imagine. London. Olympic Games. The runner, bearing the Olympic torch has arrived. He lights the Olympic flame, and -- BINGO! -- the strike begins. Internationally. All around the globe. Workers withholding work until the new just and righteous moneyless world is established. Where the only law is 'Do good.'

DSG: Scary, by the way, to think what would happen to you these days for throwing stink bombs at the Commons!

MD: As for my throwing stink bombs in the House of Commons as a protest against the British sanctioned American bombing of Libya back in 86, nowadays I believe it would be impossible because they have a high perspex screen surrounding the Visitors Gallery to protect the politicians on the floor below. The policeman who ushered me out of the gallery on that day after I'd lobbed the bombs understood why I'd done it when he answered his own question. "Why did you throw the stink bombs? Don't tell me. To raise a stink?" - BOOM BOOM!!!

Yeah, nowadays they'd probably send me to Gitmo.

DSG: Is there anyone in Turkey that people can contact to express their opinions on your upcoming case?

MD: FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION is a group in Turkey that has shown support in my case. You can see other cases of a similar nature on their website and they can be contacted at reeX@superonline.com

DSG: Thanks, Michael. I hope you'll keep us all updated on the case, and that everything works out in the only way that makes any sense to me, with you out on the streets of Istanbul, free to annoy and ridicule any politician you (dis)like.

Characters

"Hee Who" by Albert Schweitzer, 24x24, Mixed Media , 2002

The Currency of Privacy

The Information Revolution

The industrial revolution dominated the economic landscape of the twentieth century. As industrialization expanded, bringing factories and manufacturing jobs to our cities and towns, it displaced the agricultural economy. Land was more profitable with a factory and parking lot sitting on it, so the farms were pushed to the periphery, geographically and economically.

More recently, the process has been repeated with the information revolution. As labor costs have risen, manufacturing has moved offshore, while higher value informational work, including engineering, design, operations, advertising, sales, and accounting functions have remained behind. Office buildings full of paper pushers have slowly displaced the factories.

Now, with the information economy maturing, workers push less paper and more electrons. The cost of working with information has fallen so dramatically that anyone who can afford a computer can gain access to global information markets, and even reach through to traditional economic activities that have been outsourced. But very few of us profit from the information economy, perhaps for the simple reason that we just don't see where the value is placed.

The economy we remain most familiar with continues to be based on stuff -- physical goods that our senses are well-equipped to perceive. Stuff is all around us, in our stores, at our workplaces, and in our closets and basements. We have all grown up learning to estimate the worth of real things and have strong opinions on what stuff is quality and what is junk.

This is simply not true when it comes to information.

The Economics of Information

I recently purchased a paperback copy of Accelerando, a science fiction novel written by Charles Stross. The story contained several unusual perspectives on the subject of intellectual property, including open source. On a hunch, I checked the accelerando.org website and discovered I could download the book, in its entirety, for free, which I did. And although I had just paid $9.99 for the physical copy, I was somewhat surprised to find that I did not feel cheated in any way. I realized the money was well worth the convenience of paperback format, which afforded me the freedom to read away from my computer. In other words, I attached a monetary value to the medium, not to the message.

With physical goods, the value of an item or service increases if supply cannot meet demand. But because digital information can be duplicated for almost no cost, it is almost never scarce. This abundance results in rock bottom prices; so low, in fact, that many people refuse to pay anything for online information. The sheer volume of digital information also makes the data virtually useless unless there is some way of panning gold from the dirt. That's where Google stepped into the picture. If information is the raw ore of the digital landscape, Google is the equivalent of US Steel.

Spawned from a 1996 graduate research project and incorporated in 1998, Google is the undisputed current champion of Internet search. The company mines and refines raw data and, like other refinery operations, makes a phenomenal amount of money in the process. At the time of writing, the company is valued at roughly of $115 billion dollars -- enough to purchase GM, Ford, and Boeing and still have $20 billion or so in change. Few companies have grown so big so fast, but the expansion seems far from over: quarterly revenue growth still exceeds 70%, while earnings growth hovers at staggering 110% year over year.

The heart of Google is their patented PageRank algorithm which taps into the architecture of the web itself, allowing Google the ability to sort and organize huge amounts of data to determine what information is relevant and useful. The system works amazingly well.

When people search with Google, the company "sees" what they are looking for. When searches relate to products or services, Google is the first to know. They were the first to appreciate the value of this position, and to profit from it by auctioning off keywords and phrases that will cause ads to be displayed. They also take a commission each time a searcher clicks on one of the advertising links. Searchers pay a small cost by sharing their search query and viewing relevant but unobtrusive ads. Meanwhile, retailers are happy because they can present targeted ads to customers who are primed to receive data. Everybody wins, but especially Google, since their business is information itself.

What's most impressive about Google as a company is their ability to think big. Part of Google's business plan is to collect and organize all the information in existence. Why do anything less? Large volumes of information are available to them for free on the web, and what isn't free can be bought. They aren't short of cash. They can even afford to digitize offline information, such as old books and manuscripts. While there are significant dollar costs in doing this, they reason that the more information they have available, the more people will use their search engine, which will earn them more money in the long run.

Yet despite the company's success, their work has only just begun. Eric Schmidt, Google's CEO, recently speculated that the task of digitizing everything would take about 300 years. Meanwhile, Google's search engine, as good as it is, remains far from perfect. A typical query can return tens of millions of results, meaning that noise - in the form of an overabundance of information - is being reintroduced. There's still a lot more value that can be extracted from the data.

So if you think you missed the opportunity to get rich in the information economy, think again.

For a start, you could create a better search engine, but recognize that Google sets a very high bar. You'd have to begin, as it did, by downloading and processing most of the Internet, and follow this by doing a significantly better job of processing it, just to win over searchers. Microsoft is giving this a renewed try, and spending upwards of two billion dollars in the process.

You could become a specialized data refiner, collecting and processing information that has not yet been digitized or requires expert knowledge to be converted into a useful form. Do a good enough job and, eventually, Google will come knocking on your door to buy you out. This strategy worked well for Keyhole, a company that specialized in satellite imaging, and now forms the foundation for Google Maps.

Or you could look at the landscape from a different angle and ask: "If information isn't scarce (and, thus, isn't valuable) then what is?" The answer is, of course, data that was never meant to be available to the general public in the first place.

Private information has become the hot new currency of the information age.

The Economics of Privacy

Private information is any data that might be considered sensitive by an individual or group, including personal, medical, political, economic, genetic, or military data. (Note that the information must exist for it to be deemed private, otherwise it's just unknown.) Because the information is secret, it's like "anti-information", detectable mainly by conspicuous absence. Private information is annihilated if it reaches the public consciousness, and the energy released by this can be substantial.

Private information can be very valuable. Its worth is variable but includes real dollar costs, like the amount of money that must be spent to keep the information under wraps (a figure which rises as information becomes easier to transmit), and the potential price if released, such as the cost of a messy divorce, or of losing one's job. The worth of private data also includes non-monetary components, such as the value ascribed to not being interrupted at dinnertime by a telephone salesperson, or the value of one's status within a social community.

The phone companies were among the first companies to understand the economic value of privacy. They charged extra fees to keep our names, numbers, and addresses out of their published lists -- a source of revenue that, to me, sounds suspiciously like blackmail. Thankfully, most companies chose a different approach, deciding instead to offer incentives. They realized we would share considerable amounts of private data in exchange for the mere chance of winning a small prize. In an information economy, this is like trading land for beads.

Credit card companies also enjoyed an early view into the private lives of their customers through the window of their spending habits. Cardholders traded privacy for convenience and consumer protection, and as real-time processing became possible, if the patterns of spending were inconsistent with previous use, credit card companies gained the ability to detect and reduce fraud. However, credit card companies were slow to recognize the value contained in some of the data streams afforded to them by retail computerization.

It took another company, The Loyalty Group, to unlock this value. They wanted to ask consumers for what amounted to a digital copy of the sales receipt, but figured people wouldn't want to just hand it over. So they offered to pay for this information with flight points. The AirMiles program proved wildly successful. Launched in 1991, it now reaches into 70% of Canadian households, allowing the spending patterns, both cash and credit, of 15 million citizens to be modeled at high resolution. What would have amounted to gross invasion of privacy had it been done in secret was accomplished by merely holding out the carrot of an occasional free trip. For consumers, at least the rewards were assured.

Increased computerization has made it easier for companies to collected detailed electronic records, no matter what product or service they sell. Permission to collect this data is now solicited from the customer as a condition buried deep within the terms of service or end user license agreements. Many customers are not even aware of the potential scope of the surveillance taking place. For example, digital television may deliver a clearer signal to a TV, but it also sends a detailed picture of the viewer's habits back to the provider. Internet service providers and employers routinely log every web site their clients or staff access, porn sites and all. And cell phone providers track every incoming or outgoing call - allowing them to build social interaction maps that would make network scientist Albert-Landaacute;szlandoacute; Barabandaacute;si drool. The calls can easily be scanned for phrases or keywords and stored for later review. Also, by using signal triangulation or, with newer handsets, GPS data, mobile phone operators can determine the precise location of any handset turned on, even if they aren't being used for calls. While they must share this data by law with emergency services and enforcement agencies, they are free to sell the data to others parties. Watch for "unlisted my location" to be among the new premium services offered by your provider.

Governments, though, remain the 600 pound gorillas of the data collection game, particularly the US government. The scope of their information gathering activities has only expanded since 9-11. The 2001 Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism act (USAPATRIOT act), and similar laws passed by other countries, has added data streams that would have been illegal to collect and interconnect a decade earlier, information that continues to be integrated with their existing storehouses of confidential data. And if the information cannot be legally demanded, it can usually be purchased. Combined, this data permits an unprecedented level of electronic profiling of everyday citizens, despite the fact that such profiling cannot be conclusively shown to produce the intended effect, namely increase the safety and security of these citizens.

Meanwhile, companies are quickly learning how they, too, can share data amongst themselves more effectively. With companies, at least people know how the data is likely to be used.

To Be or Not to Be Private

Scott McNealy, the Chairman of Sun Microsystems, commenting on issues of electronic privacy, once said: "You already have zero privacy -- get over it."

He was right. Information collection in a digital world is virtually automatic. Every packet transmitted or received can be logged and traced, and the means to do this will almost certainly become part of the architecture of the Internet itself. While there will always be technical ways to obfuscate data transmission, most of us simply won't bother. It takes work to buck the system, and no one likes to do extra work. Besides, most of us have already traded away what little private information we had that was valuable. At least there's some privacy that comes from the anonymity of being within a herd, right?

Well, yes and no. Yes, you can blog about your clubbing drug experiences or spring break sexual adventures or belief that aliens run the government, and chances are good that SWAT teams won't kick the door down. Widespread sharing of personal information could even increase societal tolerance for such behaviors or ideas over time, deeming them unworthy of investigation or enforcement. But what if this isn't the case, and the powers that be decide to crack down instead? Because nothing you put online (or any of the other digital crumbs you leave behind in life) will ever disappear, you could easily be singled out for intense scrutiny at any time, even decades later. Beyond law enforcement, your digital personality could present a problem should you want to work for a conservative company, run for higher office, or host a children's show on PBS.

As a society, we still expect our leaders, particularly in government and the law, and to a lesser extent in industry and academia, to be model citizens, disregarding the fact that model citizens simply don't exist. We have sex. We get drunk. We cheat a little on our taxes. We disregard minor laws, like speed limits. We do and say stupid things. Under a microscope, it's not hard to find flaws in us, which goes a long way to explaining why our leaders have become caricatures, their public images so heavily processed as to remove any vestigial trace of real humanity. We know these veneers are a lie, but we accept them anyway, even demand them. And we attack like animals if the mask drops, if only for a moment.

At some point, we're going to have to be a little more honest and accepting of our human nature, or we're going to have a terribly rough go in the digital age. With newer technologies like Microsoft's MyLifeBits just around the corner, which aims to create an electronic record of an individual's life from start to finish, hiding from our past may become almost impossible. Even our genetic past, as development of machines capable of sequencing the 3 billion bases of our DNA code for $1000 or less, in line with what companies will pay to acquire new customers, advances rapidly.

Linking genetic data to the medical and social datasets currently in existence will open up data mining avenues never before imagined. The combination could potentially flag us for various products or services even before we are born -- a marketer's wet dream -- or, just as easily, label us as a potential societal risk to be watched closely, lest we fulfill our electronically predetermined destiny of schizophrenic sociopath. This goes far beyond the relatively simplistic racial profiling done by the Nazis, or even the more creative dystopian visions offered in books and films like Brave New World, 1984, or Gattaca.

But legal and technological imbalances tend to equilibriate in time. Perhaps, soon, someone will create an anonybot service that floods the web with corrupted information, making accurate digital profiles impossible. Or Google, having indexed everything centuries earlier than initially calculated, will launch a service (in Beta, of course) that masks data, creating a digital memory block, for a price that someone will be happy to pay. Or maybe we'll all have access to prepackaged personalities, ready-made digital identities for travel, work, or play that will provide us the same anonymity offered to companies that hide behind complex networks of shell corporations.

Today, it is hard to shake free from the idea that opening up our lives will accomplish anything other than invite more abuse, from identity theft to discrimination to, possibly, imprisonment. But, realistically, as computers become a bigger part of our everyday life, we may have little choice in the matter. There are few avenues to prevent our lives from being recorded, except perhaps to opt out of modern society. Yet real good can come from giving up private information -- from safer cities to better advertising to truly effective cures for diseases. But trusting those who collect and share this data today will depend on what they intend to do with this information tomorrow. Overall, our privacy concerns won't amount to much if we can retain our freedom and keep our civil rights while enjoying the conveniences and benefits of sharing information that was once ours exclusively. These are big ifs to accomplish, but they are not impossible targets.

Comics -- The Workings of my Mind, 6am

"The Workings of my Mind, 6am" by Suzanne Baumann, 2006