Category Archives: Spatiality

The New Aesthetic Part III: The Network

Posted on November 15, 2012 by Teo Ballvé

This final installment on the New Aesthetic (Part I: Seeing Like a Machine; Part II: Writing Like a Drone) considers the awkward physicality of the Internet as a thing. If the New Aesthetic is that “structure of feeling” produced by … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, City, Everyday Life, Law, Media, Networks, Science & Tech., Spatiality | Comments Off

Video Abstract: Territories of Life and Death

Posted on September 17, 2012 by Teo Ballvé

[youtube_sc url=”http://youtu.be/9ChdRWJkF4o”] A more in depth written description of my project is forthcoming in the pages of Antipode. Thanks to the entire Antipode crew for the award and to others for their kind words.

Posted in Frontiers, Illegality, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Land, Peace, Political Ecology, Race & Ethnicity, Sovereignty, Spatiality, Territory, The State, Violence | Comments Off

Paglen: The Last Pictures

Posted on September 12, 2012 by Teo Ballvé

Experimental geographer and artist Trevor Paglen’s most experimental project (so far) must be this new thing called “The Last Pictures” (video below) and it’s about to debut in New York. The itinerary of events in the U.S. and Europe are … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Frontiers, Media, Science & Tech., Spatiality | 3 Comments

Grassroots Masquerades: ‘Bottom-Up’ Development, Land Laundering, and Frontier State Formation in Colombia

Posted on September 11, 2012 by Teo Ballvé

My abstract for what’s looking like a symposium-sized AAG session series (including fellow bloggers Stuart Elden and Gastón Gordillo) on “Violence and Space” organized by Simon Springer and Philippe Le Billon: A paramilitary commander in Urabá, a frontier region of northwest Colombia, has always … Continue reading →

Posted in Agriculture, Development, Forests, Frontiers, Illegality, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Land, Peace, Political Ecology, Race & Ethnicity, Security, Spatiality, The State, Violence | Comments Off

Frontiers and Deadwood as Geography

Posted on August 22, 2012 by Teo Ballvé

A piece titled “Deadwood as History” by Anne Hyde in Foreign Affairs on the historical content (or lack thereof) of HBO’s Deadwood begins: “All Westerns are stories of people attempting to impose order on a chaotic, lawless, and savage environment.” … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Boundaries, Frontiers, Henri Lefebvre, Historical-Geographies, Law, Political Ecology, Primitive Accumulation, Race & Ethnicity, Spatiality, Violence | Comments Off

Everyday State Formation

Posted on August 15, 2012 by Teo Ballvé

I have a new article that was just published in the most recent issue of Environment and Planning D: Society and Space titled, “Everyday State Formation: Territory, Decentralization, and the Narco Land-Grab.” The lag between writing and printing, of course, … Continue reading →

Posted in Antonio Gramsci, Development, Drugs, Elites, Everyday Life, Hegemony, Henri Lefebvre, Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Karl Marx, Land, Law, Marxism, Primitive Accumulation, Spatiality, Territory, The State, Violence | Comments Off

Critchley Against Escapism

Posted on June 5, 2012 by Teo Ballvé

Simon Critchley’s “Mystical Anarchism” article in Adbusters argues against the escapism of communal utopian projects old and new: Perhaps such experiments lacked an understanding of politics as a constant and concrete process of mediation. That is, the mediation between a … Continue reading →

Posted in Guy Debord, Hegemony, Maps, Spatiality, Spectacle, Violence | Comments Off

1000 Pesos and Fidel Castro

Posted on April 3, 2012 by Teo Ballvé

I couldn’t pass this up. It turns out that the artist commissioned to design Colombia’s 1,000-peso bill slyly included a portrait of a young Fidel Castro in the background of the bill. It took eight years for anyone to notice … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Maps, Nation/Nationalism, Spatiality | 1 Comment

Territory and Autogestion

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Teo Ballvé

Marina Sitrin, who was part of the original #Occupy foco in Zuccotti Park, wrote a brief essay on “Horizontalism and Territory” drawing from her long-standing engagement with Latin American social movements, particularly those that gained force amid Argentina’s 2001 crash. … Continue reading →

Posted in #Occupy, Dialectics, Everyday Life, Henri Lefebvre, Spatiality, Territory, The State | 2 Comments

Salty Geographies

Posted on February 6, 2012 by Teo Ballvé

A recent post by Andy Davies over at the Antipode Foundation’s blog raises some interesting geographical questions, particularly around labor, in light of the recent Costa Concordia shipwreck. On this blog we’ve noted some of the tricky problems the sea … Continue reading →

Posted in Carl Schmitt, Historical-Geographies, Law, Pirates, Power, Sovereignty, Spatiality, The Sea, The State | Comments Off