We took our students to FACT Liverpool to see the How much of this is fiction exhibition, where !Mediengruppe Bitnik has been exhibiting Delivery for Mr. Assange (2013).

Julian Assange has been living at the Ecuadorian embassy in London since June 2012. In early 2013, !Mediengruppe Bitnik sent a parcel to the WikiLeaks founder, in a work entitled Delivery for Mr. Assange. The parcel contained a camera which broadcast its entire journey through the postal system live on the
Internet. Delivery for Mr Assange is presented here in three parts, including an X-Ray of the original package sent to the Embassy during the mail-art performance, and a text written by Daniel Ryser in 2014, which captures the extraordinary delivery and the uproar that followed on the Internet.
The largest element is Assange’s Room: a striking, sculptural 1:1 reproduction of Assange’s office at the embassy. The room is meticulously constructed entirely from memory (photography is not allowed in embassy rooms) after several visits made by the artists to the office. The disparity between Assange’s
lack of freedom is emphasised by the visitors freedom to walk in and out of the uncannily normal space. The physical restrictions placed on a seeker of political asylum stand in stark contrast to the reach offered by Wikileaks, and the Internet, as a platform designed for free speech.

Accompanying the installation is digital work Skylift (VO.2) by Adam Harvey, a geolocation spoofing device that virtually relocates visitors to Assange’s residence at the Ecuadorian Embassy.

How much of this is fiction.is a touring exhibition, programme of events, and media campaign exploring the art and activist movement, Tactical Media, which emerged in the late 90s. Specifically, the project investigates the ways in which one of the key legacies of Tactical Media (namely, the politically inspired
media hoax) exploits the boundary between fiction and reality. How much of this is fiction. examines the role, and social purpose, of the artist as Trickster.

This exhibition looks at the legacy of the initial projects, moments and acts within Tactical Media’s ‘history’, as well as how these approaches have altered in today’s era of mass self-mediation through the widespread availability of social media and other decentralised communication platforms. It also presents new works by contemporary artists who are working within the areas of politically engaged (media disseminated) art, using approaches which resonate with the ethos of Tactical Media, shifting public perception and awareness of issues through artistic experimentation and a call to the imagination.

Following our friend Pablo de Soto’s advise we visited IRA on our JPN tour. Irregular Rhythm Asylum is an infoshop that opened in 2004. Keeping anarchism, art, and activism as its main themes, it carries publications, zines and goods related to social movements, culture of resistance and the DIY scene as well as serves as a space for people directly involved in these both in Japan and abroad to gather. IRA also sometimes hosts events like exhibitions, film screenings, workshops, and parties. In addition, a sewing circle called NU☆MAN meets here every Tuesday evening and the A3BC woodblock print collective meets every Thursday evening.

Pablo researched into Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Chthulucene, staying with the trouble at Fukushima when he visited JPN. Pablo writes: In the space-time of environmental devastation announced by the Anthropocene, nuclear catastrophe is a type of “fuzzy boundaries trouble” that challenges our capacity for understanding. We know from Günther Anders that it operates in the supraliminary sphere, so large that it cannot be seen or imagined, which causes cognitive paralysis. By Ulrich Beck that produces an anthropological shock, the transformation of the consciousness of the subjects in relation to the experience of insecurity and uncertainty in the face of an invisible threat. By Svetlana Alexeivich that is characterized by vagueness and indefinition, which produces a war without enemies. And by Olga Kuchinskaya that generates a politics of invisibility regarding public knowledge of its consequences for life.

As Chernobyl before, the Fukushima disaster has reached the maximum level in the scale of accidents, when several nuclear reactors melted down 200 kilometers from the most populous metropolitan area of the planet. The dangerous radionuclides, once enclosed between concrete and steel walls, began to blend intimately with the biosphere. Before this mutant ecology, the artists have responded from the first moments. Through photography, guerrilla art, dance, video art or fiction narrative, this artistic response to the nuclear crisis has faced a double invisibility: the one of ionizing radiation and the institutional invisibility – the affirmation of the authorities that the problem “is under control”.

Taking as a theoretical framework the interdisciplinary discussion of the Anthropocene and its critical epistemologies, such Jason Moore’s Capitalocene and Donna Haraway’s Chthulucene, we investigate how artists are staying with the trouble in Fukushima. Recalibrating our sensory systems to adjust them to the contradiction and volatility of industrial advances, we explore the ability of art to construct an ontology complementary to hegemonic technoscience, one that allows us a more in-depth understanding of what nature and we humans has become in the Anthropocene.

Since first writing this report the Minesweeper has been destroyed by a terrible fire on 5th Jan 11pm. Despite quick response from the London Fire Service and attendance of a dozen fire engines, it was all over by 5am – toast. Adjacent boats were also effected as was the mechanics workshop in the Brookmash estate. YT visited on Friday and stood on the river wall there with some Minesweeper Collective members looking over the side into the abyss of charred timbers and blackened soup of belongings, chairs, books, some vinyl records and somewhat strangely, bags of charcoal untouched by the fire.

For those living and working aboard the Minesweeper, keeping warm during winter months presents the greatest hardship. Wood burners are kept alight 24/7 that require continual feeding. A store of suitable timber has to be collected throughout autumn and kept dry for use. Neighbours in in Brookmash yard supply the off-cuts from their furniture production. (as well as supply power the broadband wireless uplink)

The collective recently purchased a new AC generator after many months fundraising and having experienced breakdown of previous secondhand units, however bad luck has again struck, an oil leak forces it’s return for repair, leaving them without power again. A new wind turbine is ready for installation, to provide the top up charge their battery array needs if it to remain in good condition to supply 12v for lighting and laptop charging. The print working areas of the minesweeper already have bright LED worklights fitted, with more needed throughout, as well as external motion triggered perimeter and safety lighting.

An energy audit was carried out on the boat late summer as part of the Creeknet pilot, which revealed just how much energy the print curing and screen cleaning processes demand, too much of a shortfall for any solar or wind turbine system to close. Gaining a better understanding about how off-grid power systems need to be configured and managed has been difficult, though progress is being made. We recently visited other boats on the creek and noted how their installed systems reliably store and distribute available power as needed, so will return for their support if the need arises.

Over a year ago, YT attended Transmediale media arts festival in Berlin to meet up with old friends living in the city and introduce them to members of the Mazi project attending for the first time. One of the first panels Global Ports still resonates as we edge forward with Creeknet pilot in Deptford. Much like in Port of Hamburg, the PLA (Port of London Authority) conforms a hydrachy of power, governing access to the waterways of the city, monitoring shipping and controlling all but the the weather and tides.

For those who are dependent on the Thames and it’s tributaries for transport,  trade and residence, there are very few resources available to guide use and track changing conditions.  It’s the knowledge of the boating community and their interpretation of PLA bylaws that hold sway here. Resistance, skulks the waters edge, using forgotten inlets, overgrown steps and derelict locks, to retain river access and uphold liberties. Mooring rights and tidal rituals, ebb and flow along the river wall, entangled in mooring chains, revealed as the river bed is drained by tides.

The Thames river wall all the way into Deptford Creek is part of the UK coastline, it’s beaches are monitored and rubbish cleared. Material on the shore clusters much where it was dropped into the water so great collections of red brick, clay pipes, animal bones, oyster shells and drift wood colour the shorelines in alignment to forgotten industry. Warehouses and wharves are fast being replaced by multi-story condos, only a very few remain out of the grasp of developers such as the abandoned squatted restaurant on Odessa Street up river in Rotherhithe, where recent Minesweeper fundraiser was such a success.

The burning of the Minsweeper and subsequent loss of mooring access at Brookmarsh Yard in Greenwich, point to an inevitability that will end occupation of these reaches by  the many barges and boats currently resident. Lengthy negotiations and legal actions by boaters to retain land access and not often ended well. Current proposals for redevelopment at 2 Creekside could well be followed by overturning of long established moorings at No4. Meanwhile, redevelopment of No3 and No1 form breaking wave of transformation that may well consume all undeveloped land and property up to Deptford Church Street.