Preface
“This year, the Reader looks at ‘Acts’ – at instruments of legislation, at things within and outside the law, and at ‘acts’ – as different ways of ‘doing’ things in society and culture. Several essays echo and complement themes that have emerged in earlier readers. Piracy, borders, surveillance, claims to authority and entitlement, the language of expertise, the legal regulation of sexual behaviour and trespasses of various kinds have featured prominently in previous Readers. This collection foregrounds these issues in a way we hope can make a series of coherent but autonomous and interrelated arguments…”
Production
Editors: Monica Narula, Shuddhabrata Sengupta, Jeebesh Bagchi (Sarai), Geert Lovink (Waag), and Lawrence Liang (Guest Editor).
Design: Mrityunjay Chatterjee, Gauri Bajaj, and Monica Narula.
Read
The entire book can be accessed and downloaded from the Sarai archive.
Contents
ARGUMENTS
Invitation – Sarai Reader Editorial Collective
Porous Legalities and Avenues of Participation – Lawrence Liang
“…Bolti Band (SILENCED)!” – Clifton D’Rozario
Lepers, Witches and Infidels & it’s a Bug’s Life – Francesca da Rimini
Rested – Colette Mazabrard
DISPUTATIONS
Of Butchers and Policemen: Law, Justice and Economies of Anxiety – Gunalan Nadarajan
Down by Law: A Critique for the 21st Century – Alexander Karschnia
‘New’ Delhi: Fashioning an Urban Environment through Science and Law – Awadhendra Sharan
Improbablevoices.net: An Improbable Monument to Witnessing and the Ethics of Trespass – Sharon Daniel
TRESPASSES
The Discovery of the Fifth World: Stealth Countries and Logo Nations – Daniel van der Velden, Tina Clausmeyer, Vinca Kruk, Adriaan Mellegers (Meta Haven Project)
Transcoding Sovereignty: Naked Bandit/Here, Not Here/White Sovereign – KR and CF
SMS to Passport – Vishwajyoti Ghosh
The Strange Case of Qays Al Kareem – Tripta Wahi
Marginalia – Kai Friese
On Smugglers, Pirates and Aroma Makers – Ursula Biemann
Sponge Borders – Guido Cimadomo and Pilar Martínez Ponce
Notes on the Disappeared: Towards a Visual Language of Resistance – Chitra Ganesh and Mariam Ghani
Dreams and Disguises, As Usual – Raqs Media Collective
HACKS
Trespasses of the State: Ministering to Theological Dilemmas through the Copyright/Trademark – Naveeda Khan
Harmony or Discord? TRIPS, China, and Overlapping Sovereignties – Shujen Wang
Innovating Piracy: The Bare Act of Stealing, and Shaping the Future – Menso Heus
Is Hacking Illegal? – Yuwei Lin and David Beer
Three Proposals for a Real Democracy: Information-Sharing to a Different Tune – Brian Holmes
Roots Culture: Free Software Vibrations “inna Babylon” – Armin Medosch
ENCROACHMENTS
Touts, Pirates and Ghosts – Solomon Benjamin
Daily Journey – Satyajit Pande
Complicating the City: Media Itineraries – Media Researchers @ Sarai
Begum Samru and the Security Guard – Anand Vivek Taneja
My Driving Master: A Story of Everyday Trespasses – Zainab Bawa
Naye Qanoon (New Laws) – Iram Ghufran
ANNOTATIONS
Vis-à-Visage – I. Helen Jilavu
Cybermohalla Logs/Acts/Texts – Cybermohalla Labs @ LNJP-DP-NM
NEGOTIATIONS
The Act of Leisure – Iram Ghufran and Taha Mehmood
Surveillance, Performance, Self-Surveillance: Interview with Jill Magid – Geert Lovink
Living between Laws – Ninad Pandit
Negotiating Territory – Ateya Khorakiwala
RECORDS
Tis Hazari Diaries – Chander Nigam
Bare Acts and Collective Explorations: The MKSS Experience with the Right to Information – Preeti Sampat and Nikhil Dey
TRIALS
Zimbabwe’s ‘New Clothes’: Identity and Power Among Displaced Farm Workers – Amy R. West and Blair Rutherford
Standardised, Packaged, Ready for Consumption – Ravi Agarwal
The Act of Instruction – Jan Ritsema
VIOLATIONS
Womanhood Laid Bare: How Katherine Mayo and Manoda Devi Challenged Indian Public Morality – Alice Albinia
Literature and the Limits of Law: Crime, Guilt and Agency in Premchand’s Ghaban – Ulka S. Anjaria
The Honourable Murder: The Trial of Kawas Maneckshaw Nanavati – Aarti Sethi
Representing a Woman’s Story: Explicit Film and the Efficacy of Censorship in Japan – Hikari Hori
The Queer Case of Section 377 – Siddharth Narrain
ASSAULTS
“For God’s Sake, Be Objective!” – Somnath Batabyal
Another 9/11, Another Act of Terror: The ‘Embedded Disorder’ of the AFSPA – A. Bimol Akoijam
Warporn Warpunk! Autonomous Videopoesis in Wartime – Matteo Pasquinelli
‘First, Do No Harm…’: Ensuring Humanitarian Military Interventions – Bikram Jeet Batra
War Cake – Linda F. Beekman
DISSENSIONS
The Law of the Mother: Soldiers’ Mothers and the Post-Soviet Army – Irina Aristarkhova
Naked Protest and the Politics of Personalism – Isaac Souweine
Analytical World Statistics Wall Chart, 2003 – Louise Kolff
A Comparative Anatomy of Post-Mortem Acts – Smriti Vohra
ALT/OPTION
The Accidental Activist – Fredrik Svensk and Kristoffer Gansing
‘Our’chitecture – Jayson Claude
Sex Workers’ Manifesto – Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee, Kolkata
Bare Wiring – Sophea Lerner