Paper short abstract:

An ethnographic analysis of bootlegging subjectivity as a form of unruly globalization.

Paper long abstract:

Globalization, in the words of James Clifford, names the complex sum of multidirectional material and cultural connections. Popular music in various forms has always been global. In viewing rock music in terms of globalization as defined above, I notice a less “visible,” often labeled as deviant activity: I call this marginalized activity as bootlegging and its resultant, bootleg subjectivity.

In this presentation I define bootlegging, a set of activities involved in providing for rock music fans recordings unavailable in the consumer market circumscribed by the recording industries: they produce recordings, in concrete material forms (of CDs and DVDs and others) of concerts and outtakes unauthorized neither by artists nor music companies.

Many music consumers have been supporting these bootleg recordings since their appearances of bootleg LPs in early seventies; a certain area of Tokyo is now known as the center of pilgrimage for not only music lovers but also musicians whose music have been bootlegged.

By examining results from my interviews, in Japan, with producers, retailers, and buyers of these recordings as they talk about this somewhat “illicit” form of musical enjoyment, I demonstrate how this marginalized subjectivity has grown out of the same affection for music that has fueled an expansion of the consumer market. Bootleg subjectivity is a case of unruly globalization because it is born out of global expansion of music industries: the more the music industries try to control it, the more it thrives by articulating local contingencies.

Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the varied impact of globalization on different kinds of people in different places across the world, in terms of a shift from the regulation/enhancement of "geopolitical spaces" to the enhancement/regulation of "geoeconomic seams".

Paper long abstract:

This paper seeks to explore the varied impact of globalization on different kinds of people in different places across the world. The two main organizing themes have to do with 1) the tension between capital and population and 2) the tension between the tools used for regulation and the shifting processes for the securing of profit. The modification I try to address is a move from the regulation/enhancement of “geopolitical spaces” – the most obvious being the nation-state – to the enhancement/regulation of “geoeconomic seams” – financial flows, commodity chains, migrant patterns.

As capital has spread its wings in recent years the relationship between territorial spaces and geoeconomic chains has been radically modified. One key element of this is the fact that the logic of capital has become dominated by the logic of finance. A key dialectic that arises from this logic is that between the “augmenting” of flows and their “channeling” to direct profits toward capital on the one hand and the problems that arise with attempts to find new tools that combine the securing of territory with the securitization of flows.

So the ethnographic issue raised by the framework I am proposing here is that of the changing ways in which scales are articulated as the enhancement/regulation pair works itself out across a vast assemblage of phenomena from financial flows, to production chains, to sites of labour and livelihood, to movements of people.

Paper short abstract:

Across the world, states are increasingly responding to the flow of people across national borders through punitive measures. Focusing on the United States, the paper deals with this global practice of governing immigration through crime.

Paper long abstract:

This paper deals with the contemporary global practice of governing immigration through crime. Indeed, across the world, states are increasingly responding to the flow of people across national borders through exclusionary and punitive measures. In the United States, to use one example, the most notable form that governing through crime has assumed over the last twenty years is that of intensified law enforcement at the nation’s borders. The U.S. Federal government has essentially determined that the best way to deal with the “problem” of undocumented immigration is through turning the US into a fortified enclave. More recently, however, governmental authorities have placed increasing emphasis on the interior policing of the United States. Since the early 2000s, criminal prosecutions of immigration violations have increased; local and state law enforcement agencies have become progressively more involved in policing immigration matters; the number of immigrants incarcerated in county jails, federal prisons, and immigration detention centers has surged; and immigration raids have become rather prevalent. What we have essentially witnessed, then, is the progressive criminalization of migrants and a significant expansion in the space of policing. The focus of this paper will thus be on how rather than disappearing, borders in today’s globalizing world have proliferated as the boundaries of immigration policing have migrated inwards, turning countless spaces in the interior of the United States ¬– from workplaces and homes to public spaces – into border zones of enforcement where governmental authorities endeavor to regulate putatively “dangerous” cross-border illegalities.

Paper short abstract:

In this presentation, I will critically examine the implications of changing (emerging) elements of transnational migration in East Asia, through an ethnographic case study on cross-border marriage migration between Japan and the Philippines.

Paper long abstract:

In this presentation, I will critically examine some of the changing (or emerging) elements and implications of transnational (cross-border) migration in East Asia, through a case study on cross-border marriage migration between Japan and the Philippines. Since the last two decades of the 20th century, marriages between Filipina women and Japanese men have been one of the dominant patterns of cross-border (transnational) marriage (so-called “kokusai kekkon” ) in contemporary Japan. Before 2007, the majority of Filipina women marrying Japanese men had already entered Japan legally as “entertainers” to work in bars and clubs in Japan. However, the pattern has recently changed significantly, as Japanese immigration control policy was tightened considerably in response to the U.S. “anti-human trafficking” campaign. In this presentation, I will examine some of the new developments and problems with current cross-border marriage migration between Japan and the Philippines, including legal/institutional barriers, the issue of “gisou kekkon”(fake/imitation marriage), the paradoxical(perverted) side effects of immigration control policy by the Japanese government, and the problem of so- called “konkyu houjin” (impoverished Japanese marriage migrant men), and so on. Through the ethnographic case study on these issues and developments, I will critically reconsider some of the dominant assumptions and discourses based on the “center/periphery” schema in migration (or globalization) studies.

Paper short abstract:

This paper focuses on two cases in which the regional prehistoric arts/artifacts are utilized by the contemporary artists for the purpose of resurrecting the traditions and/or producing their own works of art. The two cases are Marajoara culture (Brazil) and Jomon culture (Japan). What is at stake here is how contemporary people “artistically inherit” the objects produced and left by the people of the distant past.

Paper long abstract:

I would like to focus on two cases in which the regional prehistoric arts/artifacts are utilized by the contemporary artists for the purpose of resurrecting the traditions and/or producing their own original works of art.

Marajoara (ca.400 – ca.1350), a prehistoric culture from Brazilian Amazonia, is famous for its ceramics. In the 20th century, Marajoara geometric designs were adapted to Art-Deco to decorate modern objects and buildings, while local potters began to make copies of Marajoara pottery, ranging from artistic replicas to vulgar souvenirs. Today the Marajoara design is ubiquitous as a token of Amazonian identity.

Jomon culture (ca.13,000 BC – ca.400 BC) produced ceramics famous for their aesthetic uniqueness. In recent years, many endeavors have emerged that make use of Jomon ceramics, artistically. Among them is The Jomon Contemporary Art Exhibition in Funabashi (Funabashi Tobinodai Historic Site Park Museum). Every summer a dozen artists exhibit their works of art “inspired” by Jomon culture and art. If the artists so desire, their works are exhibited in the same space where the archaeological specimens are permanently displayed. This makes possible “dialogue“ between prehistoric and contemporary art.

In both cases art from the distant past is resurrected and started a second life. They can be interpreted as cases of appropriation by people who have no legitimate right to do so. I prefer to say that at stake is how contemporary people “artistically inherit” the material objects produced and left by the people of the distant, prehistoric past. I would further suggest that this kind of creative artistic process is not restricted to the present day but a phenomenon common to all times and places.

Paper short abstract:

Digital tools and the Internet have brought something new to the world of art. Anyone with a device and a wifi connection can be a curator via websites and social media. What does this tell us about art and popular culture, and what we might call the curated self?

Paper long abstract:

In 1936, Walter Benjamin published a seminal essay detailing how new technologies were changing how, and by whom, art was produced and consumed. Until recently, however, public curation to large audiences remained primarily in the hands of museums and wealthy collectors. For most individuals, curation was largely contained to the display of photographs or other aesthetic objects within the home or on the person moving through the public sphere. Today, digital tools and the Internet have brought something new to the world of art. Anyone armed with a device and a Wi-Fi connection can assemble and organize a collection, drawing on images from popular culture as well as the whole history of art, and show it to others around the world. How can Benjamin's position be updated to accommodate these new possibilities? What do these changes tell us about art and popular culture, and what we might call the curated self?