On the road to Burning Man in a Toyota Prius with Rak Razam and radical cyber anthropologist Jenny Ryan (aka Tuna Bananas), research assistant to media pundit Howard Rhinegold (The Virtual Community and Smart Mobs). Jenny discusses cyber literacy, smart mobs and virtual communities with experiential journalist Rak Razam... How do we use technology to form communities and conduct virtual everyday social interactions? Does social networking keep the drones sedate and make us good workers? Or does Super-poking and quiz sharing provide a social glue for online communities? Where does the drift towards hive mind collectivism in the human matrix being able to laterally recognize itself – an ambient awareness – lead us? What role does the ego play in blogging and lifestreaming? And as social tribes grow, does it increase our pool of knowledge and ability to draw upon the wisdom of the collective? Or is it all an Orwellian marketing wet dream? The intent behind technology makes all the difference... *warning* some scratchy wind muffles about 20 minutes in... the perils of experiential podcasting...

25: Virtual Networks and Social Media

In A Perfect World

For more information see: www.jennyryan.net/

Find more podcasts by Rak Razam here.

Martin Martini - Monkey & Sardine from Jim Batt on Vimeo.

 A stop-motion animated music video for the single from We're All Just Monkeys, the second album from Martin Martini & The Bone Palace Orchestra.

To read more about the making of this animation, head over to:

jimbatt.com/martin-martini-monkey-sardine.html

To hear more of the music:

myspace.com/martinmartiniandthebonepalaceorchestra

THE TRANSITION DECADE is a 10 year social and structural transition that enables the restoration of a safe climate.This is a short film which outlines the 'Transition' movements vision, and how it can be achieved in Australia. 

An illuminating interview into the world's first edible art...

In conversation with Mark McCloud, acid blotter art historian and 60s archivist in his home in the Mission district of San Francisco, August, 2009. In which experiential podcaster Rak Razam learns from the master about the colorful and mind-expanding history of blotter art, from the early acid chemist oufits like the "Ghost" and the underground crews that ran the business of enlightenment.

Discover who first put artwork on blotter and how the process of dipping the chemical on artwork was evolved. Acid was originally dipped on string, sugar cubes–even underwear, in the case of Michael Hollingshead (who wrote the book The Man Who Turned On the World) before blotter paper was hit on as a mode of transportation. And then the artform really took off, originally with the chemists themselves choosing the art that would grace the minds of a generation of trippers. But how does the art influence the trip? Did trips like the "Gorbies" with Mikail Gorbachov heads help tumble the Berlin Wall? Why did the infamous Mickey Mouse Sorceror's Apprentice tabs terrify the Disney corp? Like the host in the Catholic mass, is blotter art a holy artform?

Listen to the podcast here.

This talk was transcribed and printed in part in Juxtapose magazine online.

Dropbear's quirky VJ mashup for Bouncing Stones by Spoonbill, one of the standout tracks on the from 2008's Gourmet Scavenger compilation released by Omelette Records.

Find more from these artists here:

http:/dropbear.tv

www.spoonbill.net.au

http://www.omelette.net.au/ " target="_blank">http://www.omelette.net.au/ 

Join passionate plant heads sharing their experiences with psychoactive plants and their relationship to the Gaian matrix. Behind the chemistry are there active intelligences in the plant world, and if so how do we best interact with them? How can reclaiming our human-vegetal partnership help us become a sustainable culture? Why do we need to connect to the plant world? If plants can be teachers, can humans be students? What is our historical and bio-chemical relationship with plants? What does Nature have to teach us? What is the Australian plant kingdom’s place in the global entheo blossoming?

Panel discussion held at EntheoGenesis Australis Nov 7, 2009 (see entheo.net) moderated by Rak Razam, featuring speakers: Jewelli Dollman, Dan Schreiber, Margaret Cross, Michael Bock, Julian Palmer, Rob Bruce and Mulga.

American Drug War : The Last White Hope details the journey of Producer/Director Kevin Booth  trying to understand the complexity and paradoxes of the ongoing drug war in America after losing three members of his family to legal drugs such as alcohol, tobacco and prescription drugs.  Through a wide variety of interviews with users, dealers, DEA officers, CIA operatives, the former US Drug Czar, prisoners, wardens, doctors, medical marijuana administrators, lawyers, victims and rednecks the documentary covers a huge range of the the opinions and issues revolving around this highly controversial issue.

The documentary explains the process behind the ongoing escalation of the drug war to the point at which is it now an $18,000,000,000 + industry which is mostly used to pay for the imprisonment of drug violators, revealing the astonishing fact the 50% of American prisons are now filled with non-violent drug offenders. 

Comparing the ideas of prohibition to regulation the documentary explores the highly succesful 'Medical Marijuana' system instituted in a dozen states across the country, as well as traveling to Amsterdam in Holland in order to compare the 'drug proble' in a country that has decriminilised drug use, only to find that it now has only 50% of the drug use pr capita than America. 

Delving further into the powerplays of the drug war, the film includes direct interviews with LAPD police officers, DEA Agents involved in illegal trafficking and Ricky Ross, former crack cocaine kingpin of South Central Los Angeles who had direct connections to Nicuraguan supplies of Cocaine which was used to fund the Contras as brought to light in the Iran Contra Scandal. Further evidence in the documentary proves the connection between the CIA and elements of the Reagan White House during the 1980's 'War On Drugs' period when Crack was first introduced into American ghettos.

Looking into the interests of the drug war, from corporate powers in tobacco and alcohol to the privatised prison system itself,  the documentary suggests that the prohibition of drugs has more to do with racial and religious discrimination than it does with health and rehabilitation. This is especiallyevident in the case of psychoactive substances such as magic mushrooms and other naturally occuring psychoactives which have been used in the ritual practices of traditional cultures around the world, including the Native American cultures of north and South America. 

American Drug War is one of the most comprehensive documentaries on this subject to date, exploring the issues and problems perpetuated by a war, which by it's very definition can never be won. 

Watch the entire documentary on Youtube here: here:

Uranium Wormwood> Andy Thomas (Android)

Andy Thomas' work creates a visual fusion between Nature and Technology. By taking photos of plants, insects and machines and compositing them with artificially created forms in various 3D programs. The very process of the art he creates is symbolic of mankind’s continuing corruption of the natural world. His photographic endeavours have led him to such exotic locations as Borneo, Laos and the rainforests of Tasmania and the Daintree River.

Freak of Nature > by Andy Thomas

http://www.android.net.au