The first series of images are digital manipulations of mixed-media sketches from the Sketchbook Project at the Brooklyn Library. These drawings are meditations on cellular biology, the mechanisms of which are quickly becoming common language due to the global pandemic arising this year. With weeks of isolation, sketching became a mental-health maintenance strategy as social contact became restricted to the closest of family members and friends, or framed and contained within the digitized world.

The second series of playful mixed media images was created in 2015 to give to my cohort of fellow graduates of the MFA Visual Arts program at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Our postcard exchange project was displayed during our graduating show in Montpelier. 

The images presented here derive from a trip I made to Tanzania this summer with my son, to celebrate his thirtieth birthday. I had not seen his father, an independent forestry researcher residing in the capital, Dar-es-Salaam, in over twenty-four years.

Our travels took us from the edge of the Ngoro Ngoro crater, to the Mara River near the border with Kenya, to the foot of Kilimanjaro, to the salty turquoise seas of Zanzibar.

Out guide in the Serengeti, was so gifted that he could race along a newly-graded road, full-tilt, spot something put of the corner of his eye, screech to a halt and identify the species for us with a field guide.

Some of these images were inspired by the advice of Real Capuano, the resident photography expert at Batiment 7 in Point-St-Charles, where he suggested to me to scan a landscape and later stich together the photos.

These images are of varying quality as I am exhibiting here my learning curve in achieving the goal of seamlessness. Other images are colour overlays of several takes of the same animals. These are experiments in learning what the latest open-source photo-editing software is able to achieve from a colourists’s perspective.

The world-renowned festival, Junkanoo (Bahamas), has its roots in the time of the British slave trade, where the three days free from work were celebrated with around-the-clock processions, dancing and music. With its origins in West Africa's masked dances, today's celebrants fashion costumes, floats and masks out of humble materials: cardboard, wire, paint, crepe paper, glue and glitter to create a glorious extravaganza of colour, whose wearers weave elaborate choreographies in competitive groups led by elaborate floats and marching bands. The infectious music gets the crowds up on their feet and permeates the downtown core of Nassau from midnight until well past dawn. As part of this photo essay, I had the fortunate opportunity to visit and photograph inside the "shack" of one of Nassau's most important Junkanoo crews: the Valley Boys. The exact location of each construction site is a closely-guarded secret so that the public presentation of themes, floats and costumes is kept a surprise until the very night of Junkanoo, December 26th at 12am sharp.

I traveled to Temuco, Chile, with two members of the artist collective, Native Immigrant, who were on a mission to assist some Mapuche friends, Francisca and Gabriel, in their effort to open a cultural center, Newen Ko, in the heart of their traditional territory in central Chile. 

We spent five days in their humble and rustic home, where we were warmly received and were able ourselves to carry out an artistic project on Visions of Peace, where community members and friends came to construct a dress, while sharing stories about what peace means to them.

Francisca and Gabriel recently returned to rural life; he used to work in a mine in the north of the country and she used to work as a maid in Santiago. Four years ago they acquired a small section (50 ha) of land, about an hour and a half into the countryside near Temuco. The majestic Volcan Lonquimay is a sentinel in the distance, 50 kilometers away from their green pastures.

Anita, the eldest daughter of Francisca and Gabriel, has ten rabbits, twenty-seven chickens, a herd of sheep and about thirty head of cattle.

Michelle Bachelet, in her second term as President of Chile has redoubled efforts to return large sections of land to Mapuche ownership, especially in the region near Temuco. At the same time, these efforts have been undermined by large corporate forestry concessions that stand between the essential water run-off from the Andes that would ordinarily feed the streams and rivers of Araucania. Recent years have seen an increase in large-scale forest fires that devastate important tracts of land and compromise water quality, water that the Mapuche depend on to sustain their small-scale farms.

The Mapuche, the Indigenous people of this region of Chile, have long been struggling to hold on to their traditional lands and way of life. Like many Indigenous cultures from around the world, they are enjoying a kind of cultural renaissance, consolidated and enhanced by collective community action. Mapundungun is still widely spoken and is taught in community schools, so that young children today will grow up in their traditional lands, adhering to their original folkways and speaking the language of their ancestors.

Recently, there has been a resurgence in land conflicts, often arising over disputes with logging companies growing artificial forests of pine and eucalyptus. These highly flammable trees, which have replaced much of the natural vegetation of the region, are also responsible for using up tremendous amounts of water resources that are badly needed in these fledging agricultural communities.

 I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to document the daily life of this very kind and generous  family, who use every means available to maintain a self-sufficient lifestyle, one that is their cultural heritage and birthright as the original people of this region.

https://www.socialdocumentary.net/exhibit/Judith_Brisson/3380

--- préemption, de la façon qu’il opère aujourd’hui, est au cœur d’une consolidation de pouvoir… « ontopower » … (une qui) organise (les pouvoirs) autour un nouveau pivot de préemption, en même temps qu’il change son objet et façon de s’agir… (il) dénote de réagir dans le avant-temps : avant le menace, avant son émergence comme danger, claire et présent.

Brian Massumi 2015

Quand j’ai retrouvé ces mots de Massumi, dans l’introduction de son nouveau livre, Ontopower, quelque chose s’est allumée.   Une réflexion, commencée, déjà longtemps, qui continue  d’alimenter mon exploration  liée aux  thèmes  des  guerres en Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan et plus récemment, au Yémen. Je ne suis pas vraiment connectée, familière au militaire – je me situe plutôt du côté de contestation,  de la dénonciation. Se positionner dans l’espace public, en tant qu’artiste, c’est  provoquer un processus de réflexion sur les questions de la politique, la guerre et les dynamiques de pouvoir qui existent hors des reportages communs.

Ces œuvres se servent comme mécanisme de défense contre l’amnésie historique. Dans cet époque dans l’ombre des événements du 11 septembre, 2001 – le déplacement du pivot vers préemption, « la guerre sans fin ».

Mon projet de maîtrise m’a donné l’opportunité d’avoir un point de départ vers plusieurs formes d’expression artistique, d’autres médias, le son, l’éclairage, la performance et installation, en combinaison avec la peinture. L’emphase, de plus en plus, était de créer un engagement communautaire, où les participants ont la chance d’apprendre quelque chose et en même temps, trouver un discours ou des actions à suivre, afin de converger vers un objectif de paix.

Désireuse, aussi,  de vouloir apporter un critique féministe aux circonstances actuelles, comme Coco Fusco, j’ai l’envie de mettre fin à la guerre. Sara Wolf a dit du travail de Fusco, « (il) retient l’habilité de contourner les limites de réaction affective en faveur d’une réponse critique, où, ici est aider par sa recherche extensive qu’elle a fait durant son développement » (Introduction au A Field guide for Female Interrogators).

Dans cette série, j’ai fait  de la recherche sur le traitement des prisonniers et civils illustratif de cette  guerre contemporaine, la dissolution des droits sous la pression des changements de la loi sous la rubrique de la loi sur les Commissions militaires et le USA Patriot Act, tant qu’une investigation au niveau de la manque de compassion vis-à-vis l’être humain quand les profits sont en jeu.

Dans ma recherche, j’ai fait des recherches sur  la façon dont  le pouvoir s’exerce, pour qui et par qui, qui sont les bénéficiaires d’un état de guerre perpétuel ? Mon processus est de retravailler les faits de la culture de la guerre contemporaine en objets ou situations qui provoquent une problématisation, ce qui est devenue la normalisation de la guerre et l’exécution sommaire.

Erika Doss (Université Notre Dame), a présenté au Musée d’art américain (Smithsonian) son observation sur la prolifération des monuments spontanés aux EEUU et sa critique conceptuelle et esthétique de ces cérémonies  commémoratives. Selon Doss, le plus important est la manière que les perceptions et discussions, autour du sujet de la mort, soient changées par ces manifestations, surtout dans le cas d’une mort injuste. Les cérémonies commémoratives jouent un rôle important, aussi, dans la gestion des sentiments de chagrin vers la guérison. Elle perçoit que ces cérémonies expriment, rarement, les causes sous-jacentes politiques/économiques/sociales que comporte la tragédie commémorée. Cette exploration, en « Shooting the Stars out of the Sky », vise à faire un pont entre mes propres sentiments de rage vis-à-vis la guerre et l’éducation et la participation publique dans un acte de contestation.

Shooting the Stars out of the Sky

The work exists at the intersection of activism, performance, sound art, painting, and community engagement: it is both multidisciplinary and inter-disciplinary.

This exhibit and performance draws attention to the current US drone program. Media often report that drone attacks are targeted, killing only terrorists – as if summary executions are normal. Philip Alston, the former UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary executions, condemns the U.S. claims of self-defence as overly expansive, stating "if other states were to claim the broad-based authority that the United States does, to kill people anywhere, anytime, the result would be chaos." 

With drone technology, the military has erased the loss of American life from the war equation. Does this make war-faring more palatable to the American public? The broad support of drones in the US suggests, yes.

What are the effects of drone strikes on people in Pakistan, Yemen, who live in a constant state of terror? Does this strategy effectively fight terrorism, or possibly create more of it?

The performance piece that draws on the work of Reprieve International and the writings of Phyllis Bennis. Performative actions consist of voice and gestures completing anunfinished, large abstract painting- shot with bullets - with casings labelled with names of people killed. Names and numbers of those killed in Waziristan are voiced. Viewers can take over the voice and gestures. Light shines through the bullet holes, casting an array of star shadows on the wall.

The intention is to create an opening into a world that few care to explore, where the unknown becomes named, obliterated lives commemorated. We honor the living while documenting and reporting the crimes against ordinary people in a borderless war, consisting of drone strikes separating operators from those killed. We seek to connect the art-viewing public more deeply to this reality.

Artist Statement

...pre-emption, as it operates today, lies at the heart of a newly consolidated mode of power... “ontopower”... [one that] reorganises [powers] around a new fulcrum of pre-emption, changing their object and mode of operation.. [it] denotes acting on the time before: the time of threat, before it emerged as a clear and presentdanger.

Brian Massumi, 2015[1]

When I read these words in the introduction to Massumi’s new book, Ontopower, it illuminated a long-standing inner dialogue on what had motivated me to commence and continue the project of making art about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I am not particularly attached to the military – I identify within the contestational terrain of the war resistor. Notwithstanding, I document the war with a similar desire and relish as the people who follow the subject of war right into the battlefield: as a defense against national amnesia. I instantaneously understood the shift the world had taken after 9-11 – this shifting of the fulcrum of pre-emption. I don’t think it is an exaggeration to say that he world has subsequently taken on a meaner and more menacing countenance.

I struggle to give art-life to this societal distortion. In pursuing graduate studies, this project has provided an entry point into many modes of practice I may not have otherwise considered, to bring a feminist criticality to current circumstances, with the hope to arrive at a future without war, as recalled by Coco Fusco in A Fieldguide for a Female Interrogators. Fusco’s work has “ability to circumvent the limitations of affective reaction in favor of critical response, which is here assisted by the extensive research she conducted during its development.”[2] Only at times have I succeeded yet in this regard, especially if affect is a treasured notion among many visual arts practitioners, including in my own practice.

In documenting the treatment of prisoners and civilians or veterans in today’s warscape, the wearing away of rights under the prodigious weight of over-reaching new legislation, the unabashed disregard for human suffering in the face of evident financial gains, in this series I sought to bring forward the ways in which international treaties and and national laws have been circumvented and  twisted to render the state and its sponsors Orwellian players in a dangerous new set of power games. I research how power is exercised, for whom and by whom, as well as who are the beneficiaries of the concept of perpetual war. My process is in the reworking of contemporary cultural history into objects or situations which provoke, perhaps at a visceral level, or more within philosophical problematizing. As a public artist [there is also a private one], my intention is to provoke a thought process for viewers on politics, war and power dynamics which reside outside the realm of newscast.

For the surreptitious viewer and publicly-funded viewer, the works of art stand as acts of resistance in and of themselves.

©Judith Brisson 2015

[1] Massumi, Brian. Ontopower War Powers and the State of Perception. Duke University Press, 2015.

[2] Wolf, Sara. Coco Fusco’s A Field Guide for Female Interrogators. 2008 Hemispheric Institute , UCLA. Internet resource. (http://hemisphericinstitute.org/hemi/en/e-misferica-52/wolf)

"

I […] talk about indigenation [...] because when you talk about decolonization, that means you have to admit that you were colonized. Until the colonizer can prove to me that we have actually been beaten […] on this territory, ain’t nobody colonized nobody. Attempts at killing the Indian to save the man, the whole termination process, the whole colonization process to get rid of the original land owners here – they haven’t won yet. We’re still here. I want to be indigenized, and to bring indigenation into society, into the greater society and into the world."

- Bear Clan Mother Akwesasne, Louise McDonald (Montreal, March 2017)

Whispers of War: Monument National, Montréal, commemorating civilians killed in the drone wars (août, 2016)

The intention of this performance is to provoke a thought process for viewers on politics, war and power dynamics that reside outside the realm of the newscast and to contribute to the preservation of historical memory.

I have documented the wars with a similar desire and compulsion as the people who follow the subject of war right into the battlefield: as a defense against national amnesia. I instantaneously understood the shift our world had taken after 9-11 – this shifting of the fulcrum toward pre-emption.

The piece lends a feminist criticality to the current circumstances, in the hope of arriving at a future without war, as recalled by Coco Fusco (introduction to A Field guide for Female Interrogators).

In this performance, using the experimental theatre methods of Ana Borralho and Joao Galante, I draw upon the luminous poetry of Parveen Shakir, Nadia Anjuman and Omer Tarin, combine it with testimonies of prisoners, civilians and veterans in today’s war economy, reportage and commentary on the wearing away of rights under the prodigious weight of over-reaching new legislation, the unabashed disregard for human suffering in the face of evident financial gains. This piece outlines the ways in which international treaties and national laws have been circumvented and twisted to render the state and its Orwellian sponsors in a dangerous new set of power games.

To create this work I researched how power is exercised, for whom and by whom, as well as who benefits from the realpolitik of perpetual war. My process is in the reworking of contemporary cultural history into objects or situations that provoke, perhaps at a visceral level, or even more within philosophical problematizing of what is quickly becoming a normalization of war and summary executions in the contemporary world of American foreign policy. This piece was created in partial fulfillment of an MFA in Visual Arts at the Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier, Vermont and reinterpreted for the World Social Forum, at the Monument National (Montreal)

-          

Je suis née à Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, au sud de Montréal et y vit toujours, mais plus pour très longtemps. J'ai étudié au Cégep du Vieux Montréal en Histoire et Civilisation et Arts et Lettre profil Langues avant de prendre une année « off » pour partir voyager. Après m'être promenée un peu en Europe, Asie et Australie je suis revenue à Montréal et j'étudie présentement les Relations internationales et le Doit international à l'Université du Québec à Montréal. Le projet Whispers of War m'a été présenté par Judith et je l'ai tout de suite trouvé intéressant. L'impact humain des guerres est souvent sous estimé et je trouve que la performance artistique est un moyen étonnant de rejoindre les gens et de passer un message qui me touche de prêt et de loin dans mon domaine d'étude. - E. Dumas, Étudiante

In a manner similar to Leon Golub, Ehrin Tool, Joseph De Lappe, Mel Chin or Coco Fusco, I revisit and visit again the themes of war, patriarchy, media disinformation and vested interests. These themes are at the heart of the most serious challenges that we humans face as a species. Our survival and that of many other species hangs in the balance as we pay to hurry along the annihilation of people and planet for profit.

This exhibit aims to draw attention to the controversial covert drone program. Many corporate media outlets have devolved into propagandists whose narratives serve their own interests. One such narrative is that the drone war is “targeted” and “accurate”, killing only militants – as if summary execution was just a normal, everyday occurrence. “Philip Alston, the former UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions, condemns the U.S. claims of self-defence as overly expansive, stating that "if other states were to claim the broad-based authority that the United States does, to kill people anywhere, anytime, the result would be chaos." “[1]

When the viewer enters the exhibition space, there will be four large-scale paintings: two finished paintings will be suspended and two unfinished paintings will need to hang away from the wall to accommodate the performance actions. The sound-piece that accompanies the paintings is composed of recorded readings of different kinds of texts: the poetry of the Pakistani poets, Parvin Shakir and Kishwar Naheed, the testimonials of drone attack survivors as well as US military personnel who have come forward to denounce the drone wars. The voices are mixed together in a masala of poetic reportage. When the live art action is not taking place, the sound-piece will be running on a loop.

The performance will consist of voice and gestures taken to the complete the two unfinished paintings. While the art action is taking place, viewers can move freely through the space and are invited commemorate the lives lost by reading the names of drone strike victims. The actions consist of adhering bullet casings and stars to the surfaces of the unfinished paintings while reciting the known names and the numbers of people killed in each of the hundreds of drone attacks in Waziristan, Pakistan since 2004.

The intention is to create an opening into a dark world, a world few of us care to enter or learn about, a space in which the unknown becomes named, and obliterated lives are commemorated. The texture and scale of the paintings recall ancient caves, or perhaps the resources for which we dig deep into the ground, and for which we are willing to sacrifice so many lives. Gold, copper and silver leaf shimmers among the specks of carbon, yellow ochre and cadmium, which have been ground into the rough, motor oil –treated and gesso-ed surfaces. The light shifts across the surfaces, glinting here and there as the viewer passes through the space. Like walking in a mine.

The surfaces of the paintings also recall a topography, a reference to the oligarchs’ concern with land (real estate) and sub-soil ownership rights, as well as the measures they are willing to take to secure them.

[1] Masters, Jonathan, Deputy Editor, Targeted Killings, Center For Foreign Relations, 2013. Websource:  http://www.cfr.org/counterterrorism/targeted-killings/p9627

Shooting the Stars out of the Sky, VCFA graduation exhibit, Montpelier Vermont (July 2016)

Kultrun de Paz: Workshop on Cultural Appropriation, Universisdad Austral De Chile, Valdivia, Chile, in collaboration with Native Immigrant (December 2015)

Marquer les Esprits (collaboration avec Christine Brault, Sarabeth Trevino, Johanne Chagnon, Inti Naxhielii Barrios Hernandez) au Centre de Culture Frontenac (août 2015) Commemorating missing and murdered Indigenous Women.

http://www.erudit.org/culture/inter1068986/inter02349/80415ac.html?vue=resume&mode=restriction

Myriam's Dress, Spoken Word at Café Artère, Montréal, in collaboration with Native Immigrant (December 2014)

At The Woods' Edge: Condolence Ceremony with Native Immigrant and members of the Mohawk community of Kahnawake. (June 2014)

Lament for Mother Earth, Just Watch Me, Leonard and Bina Ellen Gallery, Concordia University (September 2014)

We Own This: fictional scenes of torture perpetrated in the name of a borderless war, Vermont College of Fine Arts, Montpelier. (February 2015)

100 jours en 1, in collaboration with Origamilitantisme, Philip's Square Park, Montréal. (October 2013)

Pacifest, in collaboration with Origamilitantisme, in Peace Park, Montreal (September 2013)

Montreal Municipal Court decision on Loi P6, public intervention in collaboration with Origamilitantisme (photo credit MADOC) (April 2013)

Kultrun de la Paix, in collaboration with Native Immigrant at the Centre Culturel Ashukan, Vieux Montréal (June 2015)

One reason I make Montreal my home is the vibrant arts community, which extends to all disciplines, whether music, performance, theatre, circus, visual or new media arts. We also have a host of venues, from artist-run centers, reclaimed churches, museums, concert halls, and of course, our four universities. The summer festival season begins just at the cusp of the season and extends well into the fall. And the most wonderful thing about Montreal's culture scene is that you don't have to have a big wallet to take it all in. Many events are free, or nearly so. So just heading out on foot on a warm summer's night can lead to a jaunt across the city, where one can witness dozens of events. While artists typically do not earn much in Quebec, nonetheless a great deal of collaboration and mutual support takes place, making this city a catalytic incubator for the arts scene right across the country.

It is true that not all f the photos originate from Montreal. This series includes a few artists I have met or collaborated with in other cities and countries.

Visiting South Carolina was a real eye-opener. As a Canadian, rural poverty is not an uncommon sight, but the poverty of Allendale County was beyond anything I had expected. There appeared to be only two kinds of businesses that were flourishing: cash loans and pop-up churches. On the stretch of highway between Orangeburg and Allendale, barely ten miles from highway 95, not a restaurant, gas station or hotel was open for business. In fact all of the shuttered buildings along highway 301 had been thoroughly gutted of any useful items: windows, doors, roofing, signage - all long gone. Weeds sprouted through cracks in the highway, and nary a vehicle did we pass. A drive through small town centers revealed shuttered libraries and shopping malls. How could the state and federal governments have prevented such a precipitous decline of this region? Not even fifty miles away, the jewel of Charleston shimmers with stately grandeur, tremendous ocean-front properties and thousands of sailboats and yachts. The contrast in wealth of these two areas of South Carolina was starling.

Right-Wing Makes Gains in Salvadoran Congress Election

(first published in NACLA, March 2012)

With shouts of “Presente por la patria” (“Committed to the homeland”), spirits were high on Sunday night amongst right-wing supporters at the Feria Nacional polling center in San Salvador, where international observers watched the vote count in El Salvador’s first election since the historic victory of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) in 2009. 

Judith Brisson

With shouts of “Presente por la patria” (“Committed to the homeland”), spirits were high on Sunday night amongst right-wing supporters at the Feria Nacional polling center in San Salvador, where international observers watched the vote count in El Salvador’s first election since the historic victory of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) in 2009. At the Feria, the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) quickly assumed and maintained a significant lead over the other parties.

As the tallies were called in from across the country, ARENA party leaders, decked out in red, white and blue vests, announced their victory in the 2012 legislative and municipal elections. The mood could not have been different from the elation three years prior, when Salvadorans waving red flags poured into the streets, car horns blaring and fireworks exploding, to celebrate the election of Mauricio Funes, who broke ARENA’s 20 year hold on the presidency.

Though slim—ARENA garnered 39.88% of the vote while the FMLN won 36.87%—the right-wing’s victory poses a significant challenge to the FMLN for the remainder of their first term. ARENA, with 33 seats in the unicameral 84-seat Legislative Assembly will edge out the FMLN with 31, down from 35.

Right-wing split enables FMLN to bring about reforms in health, literacy and education

The Salvadoran right-wing, however, remains bitterly divided following the 2010 departure of former President Elías Antonio Saca (2004-2009), who broke away from ARENA to form his own right-wing party, the Great Alliance for National Unity (GANA).

The FMLN maneuvered the division in El Salvador’s right wing to implement an array of legislative reforms that might otherwise not have been possible, since no party held the majority, including a law permitting the procurement of generic medications, a comprehensive law condemning violence against women, and El Salvador’s first progressive tax reform in decades.

Despite ARENA’s opposition, the FMLN passed a national budget to support social reforms, including nation-wide health teams, incentives to encourage education among youth, and literacy programs for adults, being directed by the Funes administration.

As William Hernandez, FMLN representative to the Central American Parliament (PARLACEN), reported, “We have provided 1,300,000 school children with two pairs of free shoes, a school uniform, and a set of school supplies... ARENA plans to replace that by giving $40 per family. But a pair of shoes in this country costs $25.” Though funding for those programs hangs in the balance, both of El Salvador’s major parties will have to continue negotiate with Saca’s GANA in order to push their agenda.

Law and order platform competes with social reforms, dovetails with U.S.-backed regional security initiatives

Celebrating ARENA’s victory, Jorge Daboub, president of the National Association of Private Enterprise (ANEP, a private sector lobby group) said that the Left got a “message from the poor” and called the results a “protest vote.”  However, given the success of the social programs that primarily address the needs of the poor, especially in rural areas, Hernandez suspects that the low results might instead reflect dissatisfaction from the middle class, including in urban areas, where the FMLN lost several strongholds.

As Jorge Schafik Handal, FMLN candidate who lost his bid for mayor of San Salvador, predicted following the results, “The first mistake ARENA will make is to go after the social programs, which are the most highly-rated in the country.”

Running a campaign against school uniforms and doctors will be a tough road for ARENA in their attempt to retake the presidency in 2014. Perhaps as a sign of what is to come, their campaign has focused on the bringing more law and order to the country.

Beset by enormous economic instability (according to the World Bank, El Salvador has one of the lowest tax-collection rates in the world, leaving remittances from family members in the U.S. as the largest source of GDP, approximately 17%), low levels of investment, the presence of large numbers of small arms among the populace and a large sector of chronically unemployed youth, the country faces unprecedented levels of poverty and one of the world’s highest murder rates.

Hernandez and the FMLN make the case that the cause of violent crime is poverty, and that the solution must address the cause. “This is not a five-day or a 15-year project,’’ says Hernandez. But long-term solutions can get sidelined by the constant barrage of murders, crime and violence in the morning headlines, especially in a country where one of the largest news conglomerates, Telecorporación Salvadoreña, is owned by former president Saca.

ARENA’s law and order agenda suits the U.S.-led Central America Regional Security Initiative (CARSI), which, in the face of the violent narcotics trade, seeks to remilitarize the region in the name of “citizen security.” Both U.S. vice-president Biden and Secretary of Homeland Security Napolitano were in El Salvador just prior to these elections to reinforce U.S. support for the War on Drugs. Hernandez also concludes that El Salvador is essentially a ‘’conservative country” and, as such, ARENA’s hard line position on security may have held more political sway.

Electoral reforms: the test drive

Several other factors may have contributed to the right-wing’s gains, including a series of electoral reforms. While the implementation of a residential vote in nine out of 14 departments, where large regional polling stations were replaced by smaller localized polling stations, made the act of voting more accessible, the process of voting was rendered more complicated at the same time.

The reforms included dramatic changes to the ballot—the size of a standard newspaper page and packed with a dizzying array of choices. In San Salvador, where each of the eight competing parties ran 24 candidates, plus two independent candidates, the ballot was crowded with 194 names and photos, as well as party flags, leading to discrepancies in the way the vote count was conducted at different sites.

Voter turnout may have also contributed to the lower-than-expected performance of the FMLN, which was polling ahead of ARENA according to CID-Gallup and the University of Central America polls. While the Supreme Electoral Tribunal had predicted between 62-65% voter turnout, La Prensa Gráfica reported that only 49% of eligible voters came out on Sunday. 

¡La lucha sigue!

When asked for his reaction to the election results, Mr. Hernandez responded, “In El Salvador we have a saying: ‘After somebody dies, you bury the dead, you don’t cry over the body.’ Last night we had our cry, and at eight o’clock this morning, we began our 2014 presidential campaign.’’

Judith Brisson is a teacher, artist and human rights activist from Montreal, Quebec who observed the 2012 Salvadoran elections with CISPES, the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador.

Not much of Montreal's historical architecture has been preserved. But one exception is the old city center of Vieux Montréal. Packed with tourists, night and day, a cold rainy day is one of the best times to get out to catch the reflections on the cobblestone streets.

"Fondée en 1996, la Société des arts technologiques [SAT] est une organisation à but non lucratif reconnue internationalement pour son rôle actif et précurseur dans le développement de technologies immersives, de la réalité virtuelle et l’utilisation créative des réseaux à très haut débit. Avec sa triple mission de centre d’artistes, de recherche et de formation en art numérique, la SAT a été créée pour soutenir une nouvelle génération de créateurs/chercheurs à l’ère du numérique. 

Rencontres d’intelligences, de curiosités, de savoirs et de talents multiples, la Société des arts technologiques est un laboratoire créatif vivant aux expériences éclatées où le tangible côtoie l’improbable.

À l’intérieur de ses espaces de 4 400m² on retrouve la Satosphère, dôme modulable permanent, dédié au développement et à la diffusion d’expériences immersives à 360˚. Avec ses 18 mètres de diamètre et 13 mètres de hauteur, équipé de 157 boîtes de son, cet équipement unique s’ajoute aux studios et ateliers qui sont logés à la SAT.

Espace de rendez-vous incontournables et lieu de tous les possibles, la SAT est à la fois moteur et vitrine des tendances en technologies appliquées aux arts et au design. 

Important révélateur à portée sociale et économique, la SAT a un modèle d’organisation qui lui a valu d’être invitée comme premier membre nord-américain du réseau des Open Living Labs (ENoLL), une initiative européenne regroupant plus de 170 centres de recherche et d’innovation à travers le monde.

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for its active, leading role in developing immersive technologies, virtual reality and creative use of high-speed networks. With its double mission as a centre for the arts and research, SAT was created to support a new generation of creators/researchers in the digital age.

A gathering place for diverse intelligence, curiosity, knowledge and talent, the Society for Arts and Technology is a live creative laboratory whose unconventional experiences bring together the tangible and the unexpected.

Within its 4 400m2 premises one can find the Satosphere, a permanent modular dome, dedicated to the development and presentation of 360° immersive experiences. With a diameter of 18 meters and height of 13 meters, filled with 157 speakers, this unique equipment complements the studios and workshops housed inside the SAT.

The SAT has in a natural process become a space for pivotal events, where everything is possible, at once stimulating and showcasing trends in technology applied to arts and design.

SAT has an organizational model that has led it to be the first North American member to be invited to join the Open Living Labs (ENoLL) network, a European initiative regrouping more than 170 research and innovation centres all over the world, demonstrating how its activities impact social and economical spheres."

http://sat.qc.ca/en/sat#section

The Quebec student movement, in conjunction with the more generalized atmosphere of social unrest was dubbed the 'Printemps Érable", a play on words derived from the pro-democratic "Arab Spring". At the peak of the movement, the student demonstrators and supporters numbered over two-hundred-thousand strong, protesting in response to then Premier Jean Charest's plan to nearly double university tuition fees over a period of five years. In Québec, tuition fees has been frozen for over thirty years (1968 -1990 and 1994- 2007),  putting the province's several universities in dire financial states, but nonetheless guaanteeing accessibility to higher education for all classes of Quebeckers. It was both a festive time and a pitched battle between demonstrators and the state, which eventually forced an election wherein Charest's Liberal were voted out of office.

Jubilant and energetic during the day - the demonstrations were a daily occurance - the atmosphere of the manifesations quickly took on a more sinister tone at night, with police in riot gear chasing demonstrators with truncheons and firing teargas indiscriminately into the crowds. Mounted police charged the demonstrators, who continued, undeterred, for weeks.

Direct action was the preferred tactic of the leadership of the student movement. This took the form of blocking entrances to buildings, including banks and universities, and even blocking traffic at the entrance to the Jacques Cartier bridge. In reponse, the provincial government enacted Bill 78 in an attempt to salvage the year by preventing demonstrators to block access to classes. Many professors stood in solidarity with the students and refused to cross the "picket lines".

The state responded by passing new legislation targeted at hitting students where it hurt them the most - in the pocket book.