… I am always amazed when my super-friend José Ramón Alcalá tells me about his projects. This is his last one: LÚMEN EX 2010, Digital Art Awards. If you are a great geek who loves the digital art, check it out!

Commited to the creation and dissemination of Contemporary Culture, the University of Extremadura, Spain, through the Vice-Chancellor of University Extension, and considering the interest in promoting young artists between national and international development of new artistic languages, announces the first edition of LÚMEN_EX 2010, Digital Art Awards.

Since 1992, the University of Extremadura has announced Artistic Creation Awards, through which, has led to the formation of an Art Collection in order to provide the university community and the general public direct acces to the understanding, study and enjoyment of new languages and artistic vanguards.

Being sensitive to the evolution of these languages and techniques and trying to cooperate actively in the construction of the new digital culture, still emerging, the UEx, through the Vice-Chancellor of University Extension, is now entering a new section of its art collection, which previous updates, to promote and convene these first international Digital Art Awards, LÚMEN_EX 2010, directed by José Ramón Alcalá and selected by a prestigious jury.

www.lumenex.net

Special thanks to Virginia Paniagua.

mmmm…empieza el otoño…ya va siendo hora de que me actualice.

www.netclub.caixagalicia.es

From :: opendemocracy.net

“Demolition and eviction has several decades of history in China. In the past, ordinary people longed for demolition and eviction (because they were moved to better homes), but now, ordinary people fear demolition and eviction, they hate it, and even use death and suicide to oppose it. This hatred, this opposition to demolition and eviction has really only appeared in the last few years.”

– Tenants Rights advocate Xu Yonghai in his “Open letter to President Hu Jintao and the General Committee”, Human Rights Watch.

To launch all the pictures from Sean Gallagher, click on the image below:

On every street corner in Beijing there is some form of demolition or construction taking place. The city’s historic layout, which dates back six hundred years to the time of the Ming Dynasty, typically consists of small, narrow alleyways that run in a maze-like fashion around the centre of the city. These alleyways, or hutongs, are highly revered as a direct link to China’s much venerated past. However, they are also regarded as a source of shame – representing a backward way of living that Beijing does not want the world to see when all eyes are on it in for the 2008 summer Olympics.

China is in the midst of spectacular change, which some have labelled the “Second Industrial Revolution“. Under the rule of Mao Tse-tung, during the Cultural Revolution, very little construction took place throughout the country. Now, as China steamrollers its way to modernity, it is as if a lid has been lifted off a pot of constructive energy that has been simmering for nearly half a century. The destruction of hutongs has been taking place for a number of years, but since Beijing was awarded the Olympics, the rate at which they are now being cleared has increased exponentially.

For thousands of Beijing’s residents, this “urban makeover” is coming at an incredible cost. According to UNESCO, in the past three years a third of the 62km squared area that makes up the central part of the old city has now been destroyed. This has displaced close to 580,000 people – one and a half times the total population of Washington D.C.

As a result of China’s basic – or lack of – individual property rights protection, all property is state-owned, and therefore individuals have limited say over housing issues. This has subsequently allowed for the continued abuse by contractors to demolish and clear hutongsvirtually unopposed. Residents can appeal to local law enforcement agencies, but the perceived ingrained corruption and weak judicial system results in protests that invariably fall on deaf ears. The recent dismissal of Liu Zhihua, the official responsible for Olympics-related urban planning, on corruption charges may have a positive impact.

The overwhelming feeling amongst many locals is one of reluctance that they cannot do anything about what is happening to them. However, continued frustration by some local residents escalated in 2003 when a spate of suicide attempts, aimed at highlighting thehutong clearance plight, erupted around the city. In September of that year, hutong resident Wang Baoguang, burnt himself to death whilst being forcibly evicted. In a second case, Ye Guoqiang attempted suicide by jumping of a bridge to oppose destruction of his hutong that was making way for developments for the 2008 Olympics.

The true impact of these events may only be fully seen after 2008, when the construction dust has settled slightly over a post-Olympics Beijing. What is clear now is that a fundamental way of life that has existed for hundreds of years is being destroyed. It is a bittersweet irony that the very ‘Chinese flavour’ the Communist Party want to project to the outside world in 2008 and beyond, is swiftly disappearing.

LINKS:

• Images Hutong Destruction
• Hutong Wikipedia 
• Restoring History in China
• Urban Heritage Preservation.pdf 
• Hutong Beijing History Graphic
• Summary of demolition

Lo pude meter todo en un A4!! Y me sobró sitio para apuntar la comida-cena-comida-cena-com… que pedí.

Hasta ahora Juanjo, Rez y Yo estábamos trabajando en casa. Nada más levantarnos, en la siguiente habitación nos estaban esperando los ordenatas y los meils mañaneros con café. Por una parte estaba guay eso de currar en casa, tienes todo a mano y cualquier cosa que se te ocurra la puedes hacer al momento. Pero tb es verdad que al estar en casa y entre que recoges por aquí, haces la comida por alllí y entra gente todo el rato pues te relajas más y se pasan los días como churros siempre con la misma ropa de estar por casa y sin salir a la calle porque no te hace falta. Pero se acabaron los días en pijama y el miedo a las luces de la calle! Porque ahora…aha…tenemos el estudio en la 5ºAvenida de Barcelona, Vía Laietana 15 [para quien se quiera pasar] un sitio pro [verdad] compartiendo con RitaClip una productora de videoclips con la que hacemos trabajos de Postpo. Así que estamos rodeados de gente maja, luz y bobinas [o reels, que es más moderno]. Y todo esto venía porque…¿qué hemos hecho con la habitación en CanFreak en la que estaba el estudio? Pues nos la hemos hecho ’salita de estar agustito’, y como está pegada a nuestra habitación, nos hemos hecho un mini apartamento en casa. Y se está de lujo, jarl. Para muestra un botón. Esta semana es el Sónar, así que hay habitación de after e invitados ;]