WEBVTT 00:00:13.980 --> 00:00:14.480 Okay. 00:00:14.480 --> 00:00:15.147 We're live. 00:00:15.147 --> 00:00:16.315 Hi, Camila. 00:00:16.315 --> 00:00:18.917 Helena. Hi, everybody. 00:00:18.917 --> 00:00:21.120 Welcome to our friend, the computer. 00:00:21.120 --> 00:00:22.756 Happy End of the year. 00:00:22.756 --> 00:00:26.126 Yes, it's the end of the year. 00:00:26.225 --> 00:00:35.701 Which means that I'm going to be editing tomorrow on the 31st, which I think will be fine, because there's nothing really to do on the during the day. 00:00:35.701 --> 00:00:38.704 Yeah, during. During the day. 00:00:38.972 --> 00:00:40.906 So, yeah. 00:00:40.906 --> 00:00:41.875 Just so sad about the. 00:00:41.875 --> 00:00:42.174 Yeah. No. 00:00:42.174 --> 00:00:50.616 Do you like Instagram round up you have pick your 1010 best photos of the year to post on the carousel on your Instagram. 00:00:50.649 --> 00:00:51.384 Yeah. Yeah. 00:00:51.384 --> 00:00:58.857 Do Spotify rant, listen to some songs, the Beyonce album and just reminisce. 00:00:58.857 --> 00:01:02.161 That was a fabulous year. 00:01:02.228 --> 00:01:09.368 So before we start, I'm so excited about this episode that you're going to you're going to tell us all about. 00:01:09.368 --> 00:01:33.126 But I yeah, I wanted to just talk really briefly about an event I went to and I did a little poster out Instagram, but I went to this like one day event that Rhizome put on at the new museum, and it was sort of centered around this like computer program, artistic project called Cyber Powwow. 00:01:33.259 --> 00:01:35.628 And it was so it was so good. 00:01:35.628 --> 00:01:37.563 It was this. 00:01:37.563 --> 00:01:38.730 So the whole event was really great. 00:01:38.730 --> 00:01:43.569 It was like a pop up exhibition and a panel discussion. 00:01:43.635 --> 00:02:11.531 But cyber powwow was this like chat interface exhibition platform, and I thought that you would love that, Ana, because you run an online exhibition platform and like a virtual world called Cyber Powwow, and it was started in 1997 in Canada by the Nation to Nation Collective, which consisted of Ryan Rice, Eric Robertson and Scarnati, who was in person at the event. 00:02:11.598 --> 00:02:16.568 And they described it as an Aboriginal determined territory in cyberspace. 00:02:16.635 --> 00:02:20.439 So it used this popular computer program called the Palace. 00:02:20.439 --> 00:02:21.974 Did you ever use a palace? 00:02:21.974 --> 00:02:25.878 No interface, I think I did. It. 00:02:25.878 --> 00:02:30.415 Was this like use graphical chat room. 00:02:30.483 --> 00:02:33.752 There was a bunch of them and that's where the palace was, Where those. 00:02:33.752 --> 00:02:35.687 Did you ever see those? 00:02:35.687 --> 00:02:37.590 I'm a slightly older than you. 00:02:37.590 --> 00:02:40.860 The dolls, like little avatars. 00:02:40.926 --> 00:02:43.629 No, not that either. Sorry. 00:02:43.629 --> 00:02:45.731 Maybe I should do an episode on Dolls. 00:02:45.731 --> 00:02:52.872 There were these little avatars that were kind of like, sort of, I guess, like, sexy, a bit like Bratz dolls. 00:02:52.972 --> 00:02:55.441 And they had different fashions, and you could like who? 00:02:55.441 --> 00:02:59.044 There were websites, offshoots that you could, like, create your own. 00:02:59.111 --> 00:03:05.384 But they were they got really popular on Palace chat rooms, but they had all sorts of different ones. 00:03:05.485 --> 00:03:17.729 And I can't remember what I when I used it, but they were sort of like Club Penguin, you know, like that style have our hotel like pre those ones. 00:03:17.729 --> 00:03:27.372 So it was a kind of a graphical like a, a graphic background, so like an image of something, a room, whatever. 00:03:27.372 --> 00:03:34.781 And then people that came in could like pop up on the screen as avatars, as little images with their name, and you could like chat. 00:03:34.881 --> 00:03:50.862 And yeah, it was a program that was used for all sorts of things, but Cyberpower used this, but they used it as this kind of like graphical chat room, but also to create a space for like exhibition. 00:03:50.862 --> 00:03:58.037 So they would have these different rooms that you could enter by clicking a link. 00:03:58.037 --> 00:04:15.622 Yeah, I'm seeing a little window of what the, the palace window would look like and I'm seeing like little cartoon tapes in the background and it says, Click on a teepee to go to another room and see art. 00:04:15.722 --> 00:04:22.427 And then there's a person at the front that says, Choose a cool avatar and make your own. And then, yeah, yeah. 00:04:22.427 --> 00:04:24.463 Q Mm hmm. 00:04:24.463 --> 00:04:28.767 And then you could, like, talk with people within those spaces. 00:04:28.834 --> 00:04:34.139 And they mostly presented works by Indigenous artists and it was, yeah, it was great. 00:04:34.139 --> 00:04:35.440 I hadn't heard of it before. 00:04:35.440 --> 00:04:45.617 Rhizomes going through the process of restoring it and some of it's available now, but they're doing a lot more and I was able to play around with it on some of the old computers. 00:04:45.617 --> 00:04:48.120 They had a in like the Sky Room or whatever it's called. 00:04:48.120 --> 00:04:51.089 They had a like the top floor of the new museum. 00:04:51.357 --> 00:05:06.406 They had a presentation with with ephemera and then also some of some computers so you could access it and Yeah, and scavenger is such a wonderful artist and it was really great to hear more about her work. 00:05:06.406 --> 00:05:24.891 But specifically she, she gave me all this talk how like later projects of hers could be seen as linking back to cyber powwow, including she created like a sort of next version of it within Second Life and sort of plays around with ideas of avatars and things as well. 00:05:24.990 --> 00:05:53.052 Yeah, and it was just really nice to hear about her, sort of like this decades long interest in digital colonialism, saying creating spaces for like gatherings and community and even some questions around what it means and what it looks like to be indigenous within digital space and just a continue continuous investigation into this since the nineties, since the eighties, even I think she was doing stuff. 00:05:53.119 --> 00:05:55.754 But yeah, it was just really great. 00:05:55.754 --> 00:06:11.002 You should I'll put a link in the in the show notes so you can say what they have online but the end of the whole panel is the panel discussion is available now to they record it and I asked a question so you might oh what question did you ask? What did I ask. 00:06:11.002 --> 00:06:17.509 I think I was asking about it's a restoration, but I guess I was wondering about they wanted it to be accessible. 00:06:17.509 --> 00:06:28.653 And because it was such a interactive sort of community thing, I was kind of wondering when they're putting it online again, how they're viewing it. 00:06:28.653 --> 00:06:35.894 Like, is it just a is it like a an artifact, you know, from the past that now we can look at? 00:06:35.894 --> 00:06:42.300 Or are they hoping that it will continue and and continue growing? 00:06:42.367 --> 00:06:46.072 And something that's the question wasn't the answer was more that it was Yeah. 00:06:46.105 --> 00:07:02.088 More just like an artifact that it wasn't something that they were really considering as continually evolving because obviously, like I said, the, the sort of ideas and things have evolved since then. 00:07:02.088 --> 00:07:06.692 So to go back to this now, it's really great to look back on it. 00:07:06.692 --> 00:07:11.430 But yeah, and I think there's only so much you can do when you're trying to restore a website. 00:07:11.430 --> 00:07:32.350 Yeah, like even though you're making it visible and you're making the interactions a little bit more accessible, there's still other technological limits that won't allow people to kind of use it in the same way that people would have engaged in in the past. 00:07:32.350 --> 00:07:54.139 And it sort of felt a little like wandering through a deserted gallery or something because there weren't like these this, these digital spaces in cyber powwow would have been filled with people at the time chatting and, and, you know, activity and talking and discussions within the artworks. 00:07:54.139 --> 00:07:56.776 But when I entered it, there wasn't anybody else in there. 00:07:56.776 --> 00:08:03.815 So I just sort of clicked around and it was really great to see the artworks and experience what it felt like it was on. 00:08:03.815 --> 00:08:07.853 It was also on like a I think a XP, Windows XP. 00:08:07.920 --> 00:08:20.432 So it was very weird to bring back some old muscle memory of how to navigate Windows XP because I had to open the I was the first one to use it on the on that computer. 00:08:17.196 --> 00:08:20.432 So I had to like, open it. 00:08:20.500 --> 00:08:26.172 But yeah, it's sort of it was a strange feeling. 00:08:26.172 --> 00:08:27.406 I am. I am. 00:08:27.406 --> 00:08:27.740 Yeah. 00:08:27.740 --> 00:08:30.877 Really glad that they're doing it and it was fascinating. 00:08:30.877 --> 00:08:32.477 You should watch the panel discussion actually. 00:08:32.477 --> 00:08:33.513 And I think you would find it. 00:08:33.513 --> 00:08:34.379 I think I will. 00:08:34.379 --> 00:08:35.947 Yeah, if I have time. 00:08:35.947 --> 00:08:41.354 Another question someone asked that was really interesting was about moderation because it's a chat room. 00:08:41.354 --> 00:08:45.323 And firstly, was the chat room back then moderated? 00:08:45.557 --> 00:08:52.030 And secondly, will it be moderated in the new like the accessible version now? 00:08:52.097 --> 00:08:59.071 And the answer is I don't think they've decided what's going to happen with the current like iteration. 00:08:59.071 --> 00:09:04.176 But yeah, in the past they were like, we didn't know what motivation was that didn't exist. 00:09:04.176 --> 00:09:04.844 That wasn't the thing. 00:09:04.844 --> 00:09:17.956 If people came in and they were being like, you know, dickheads, we'd just kick them out, I guess like the people in that it wasn't that big of an issue, that they needed someone to actually make sort of like executive decisions. 00:09:18.090 --> 00:09:18.423 Yeah. 00:09:18.423 --> 00:09:24.263 So there was an, an executive, there was the people on the chat that were the mudder Raiders themselves, right? 00:09:24.263 --> 00:09:25.697 I think so, yeah. 00:09:25.697 --> 00:09:26.765 I like that. 00:09:26.765 --> 00:09:30.903 We all have a responsibility, Right. Mm. 00:09:30.970 --> 00:09:31.437 Cute. 00:09:31.437 --> 00:09:33.004 I will give that a watch. 00:09:33.004 --> 00:09:33.839 Yeah. 00:09:33.839 --> 00:09:40.011 And I feel like that links sort of slightly in with, with the topic that we're doing today. 00:09:40.111 --> 00:09:40.446 Yeah. 00:09:40.446 --> 00:09:47.720 I was wondering about the name of this because of the episode of the episode. 00:09:44.250 --> 00:09:47.720 Yeah. 00:09:47.720 --> 00:09:54.559 Because I wanted to call it Tamal Net, which is the main website that we'll be covering. 00:09:54.659 --> 00:10:08.841 But the thing is that will actually be covering quite a few different websites and we'll talk about the Tamil population and Sri Lanka and the history of it and the online presence that Tamil people have. 00:10:08.941 --> 00:10:17.515 But I kind of want to call it Tamil net just because it sounds a little bit more like, you know, this is a space. 00:10:17.649 --> 00:10:23.855 Yeah, I think if that's sort of the main the main website that we're covering, we could call it. Yeah. Yeah. 00:10:23.855 --> 00:10:25.191 Okay, cool. Let's call it that. 00:10:25.191 --> 00:10:26.759 Yeah. It's a little bit more catchy. 00:10:26.759 --> 00:10:29.528 Yeah. Let's call it time on that. 00:10:29.528 --> 00:10:41.273 But I guess this is like a disclosure that it's not just about Tamil net, but it's a big kind of amalgamation of, of websites and a whole network. 00:10:41.340 --> 00:10:58.390 But yeah, I mean I guess before I give kind of a detailed account of Tamil Ellen online, I'll just give a brief description of the Tamil history and Sri Lanka. 00:10:58.490 --> 00:11:13.004 The Tamil people are historically referred to as the small, like self-sufficient population in the north of the island of Salon slash Sri Lanka. 00:11:13.105 --> 00:11:26.384 But Tamil people are largely scattered around this area and are basically Dravidian ethno linguistic group who trace their ancestry mainly to India's southern state of Tamil Nadu. 00:11:26.485 --> 00:12:00.852 And when Tamils from southern India were brought to Sri Lanka during Portuguese, Dutch and British colonial occupation starting roughly in 1597 and lasted for 351 years, that number of the Tamil residents just boomed and this influx initiated resentment among the Sinhalese because the colonial Brits were pretty much boosting the Tamil people as better workers and gave them the sort of superior status. 00:12:01.019 --> 00:12:03.422 Do you know why they why they did that? 00:12:03.422 --> 00:12:04.923 I I'm not sure. 00:12:04.923 --> 00:12:13.666 I think it could be a motivational tactic, but I don't really know what the psychology was. 00:12:13.666 --> 00:12:18.604 It's I mean, none of this like British colonialism ever really makes sense. 00:12:18.604 --> 00:12:22.041 Like all that logic is rooted in extreme race racism. 00:12:22.140 --> 00:12:25.110 So, yeah, exactly. 00:12:25.244 --> 00:12:26.211 Yeah. 00:12:26.211 --> 00:12:47.198 The British then decided to create a single state of that area that they called Salon with the government located in Colombo, which was a majority Sinhalese area and became the capital even after the island's independence from colonial rule in 1948. 00:12:47.265 --> 00:13:01.480 The government wanted to rectify injustices that the British rule imposed and decided to kind of basically segregate and disenfranchize most of the Tamil population who did not speak Sinhalese nor practiced Buddhism. 00:13:01.480 --> 00:13:28.307 So they kind of considered to them to be this like reminder and symbol of colonial subjugation which prevailed for so long that eventually instigated, you know, violence between Tamil guerrillas and Sinhalese government troops in I think it was 1983 and thousands of people were killed during this event. 00:13:28.407 --> 00:13:31.777 Several ceasefires were called throughout the eighties. 00:13:31.844 --> 00:13:36.014 But disagreement and violence continued. 00:13:36.115 --> 00:13:40.785 Peace plans haven't been achieved and the country still remains unified. 00:13:40.785 --> 00:13:44.889 Although the Tamils want to become an independent state called Eelam. 00:13:44.990 --> 00:13:58.671 Situated in the north, I was first drawn to this history by an exhibition at the ICJ here in London by Christopher Callender, and Thomas called Another World. 00:13:58.770 --> 00:14:10.982 It explores the visions of the Tamil Eelam liberation movement as a prompt for alternative possible futures through the help of its virtual project. 00:14:11.049 --> 00:14:15.888 So what's what's the what's the virtual what's the virtual project? 00:14:15.988 --> 00:14:21.092 So the virtual well, I guess we'll get into that eventually later. 00:14:21.092 --> 00:14:44.115 Okay. But essentially the Tamil population managed to utilize cyberspace and they created loads of web sites which tried to create a sort of but narrative of recognition of Eelam as a state that this this exhibition is like a new, new. 00:14:44.316 --> 00:14:45.216 Yeah. 00:14:45.216 --> 00:14:52.258 So this exhibition is a new project, but it takes inspiration from Tamil Eelam online. 00:14:52.323 --> 00:14:53.192 Cool. 00:14:53.192 --> 00:15:02.000 And he does a lot of work around this idea of like new Eelam, which is like the cybernetic construction of a new type of citizenship. 00:15:02.234 --> 00:15:02.801 What? 00:15:02.801 --> 00:15:04.003 What is that? 00:15:04.003 --> 00:15:07.005 What's the new what's the new type of. 00:15:07.172 --> 00:15:08.807 So I guess that's the question. 00:15:08.807 --> 00:15:19.051 I guess a citizenship that isn't linked to borders, something that is a little bit more fluid, doesn't really have a geopolitical linkage. 00:15:19.118 --> 00:15:20.119 But yeah, I guess so. 00:15:20.119 --> 00:15:22.120 Like digital space. 00:15:22.120 --> 00:15:25.390 Using space is like a way. Yeah. Mm hmm. 00:15:25.490 --> 00:15:34.466 And creating this new sort of form of nationalism or even just exploring what nationalism really can mean. 00:15:34.533 --> 00:15:37.535 Bfsi It is a lot of work around that. 00:15:37.802 --> 00:15:50.249 And he's, he's quite an interesting artist, but yeah, so he's English and Sri Lankan and he even recites his Tamil family's emigration journey. 00:15:50.249 --> 00:15:55.687 In a talk at the 2017 Verbier Arts Summit. 00:15:55.754 --> 00:15:58.691 And he says this is a transcript. 00:15:58.691 --> 00:16:09.335 For three decades during the Sri Lankan civil war, the Tamil homeland of Eelam was self-governed as an independent place led by a neo-Marxist revolution. 00:16:09.400 --> 00:16:18.210 It was supposed to be an autonomous nation based on equality for all, irrespective of class, gender, race, faith or sexuality. 00:16:18.277 --> 00:16:28.486 But this idea was eventually crushed by an authoritarian president, so my family left that corrupt pretense of democracy to look for a better life in the West. 00:16:28.586 --> 00:16:50.908 And I have to emphasize that the war was a high tech and high velocity war with exceptionally, you know, well-armed freedom fighters who managed to withstand government force for decades, even though this was a relatively small population in comparison to the country. 00:16:50.975 --> 00:17:10.895 I also need to say that just for just disclosure, although my you know, research on this does come out of like a very positive fascination with the liberation movement, I don't condone violence in general, even though I do believe, you know, violence is necessary when fighting for rights in some cases. 00:17:10.962 --> 00:17:17.970 But the war, what is essentially become a civil war in Sri Lanka was traumatizing and awful. 00:17:17.970 --> 00:17:22.106 And I don't know what life was like for the people that lived through it. 00:17:22.106 --> 00:17:23.575 I can't speak for that. 00:17:23.575 --> 00:17:25.877 But, you know, people have died in the process. 00:17:25.877 --> 00:17:29.882 Families, children, innocent people. 00:17:29.948 --> 00:17:48.200 I do also think that the Western and Australian media that had their eyes on the conflict at the time were unfair to the to the Tamil Tigers, especially during a period when the topic of terrorism was so sensitive and kind of novel. 00:17:48.299 --> 00:17:58.844 Yeah, there's a lot to unpack there obviously, and will not get into this right now, but I guess like you must have probably heard things growing up in Australia, right, about the Tamil Tigers. 00:17:58.844 --> 00:18:17.162 Well, I was just going to bring it up very briefly like I was very young when this was happening. And, you know, I was I was looking over your notes for for this. And and it had been like a minute since I had heard the phrase Tamil Tiger. 00:18:17.229 --> 00:18:41.286 And and when I was reading about it, like I was thinking over it again and I yeah, I don't remember much of the actual discussion around it or even like seeing it on TV, but I did have this like vague sense that it was like a very dangerous thing. 00:18:41.286 --> 00:18:50.496 It was, yeah, there's like some weird memory sense sort of vibe that I have from my, like very early childhood. 00:18:50.561 --> 00:19:07.645 And it's interesting to hear you say about like the Australian media because that must that's it, you know, I mean, like my I don't really know how to explain it, but I guess Australia is so close to Sri Lanka as well that it's I can see why we would be having more like media around it. 00:19:07.645 --> 00:19:21.559 But yeah, yeah, a lot of the press that covered the stories were Australian, even if they worked for the BBC worldwide and it was broadcasted, you know, to Europe and America. 00:19:21.660 --> 00:19:23.862 But yeah, yeah. 00:19:23.862 --> 00:19:38.676 So a lot of the documentaries that I was researching that were produced were Australian and I would say they were quite harsh towards the representation of the intention of, yeah, what the Tigers were actually doing. 00:19:38.876 --> 00:19:49.020 But yeah, I mean it was also visually very shocking because like I said, you know, they were very well armed. 00:19:49.086 --> 00:19:59.932 Women were most definitely amongst the front lines as complete equals in the fight, and teenagers were sometimes the majority of the soldier population. 00:20:00.031 --> 00:20:14.946 And these fighters which called that, you know, Tamil Tigers, used video footage and news outlets to create a propaganda very efficiently, even though Western media remain to be very anti-Islam and kind of dub them terrorist. 00:20:14.946 --> 00:20:17.215 Yeah, I'm just looking it up now. Actually. 00:20:17.215 --> 00:20:32.431 I found an article in the Irish Times about Australia putting the Tamil Tigers on a terrorist list and this stressed out the Tigers and they were disappointed and shocked by the West's accusation of terrorism, especially with the event of 911. 00:20:32.431 --> 00:20:38.703 Like I mentioned, which happened around the same time that the guerrilla movement continued to be very active. 00:20:38.869 --> 00:20:55.586 Yeah, but the desire for national sovereignty remained strong, remains strong, and is even echoed throughout the Internet by its proliferation of the phrase Tamil Eelam. 00:20:55.653 --> 00:21:16.674 So land and self-governance has been refused to Tamils by Sri Lanka and international governing bodies such as the United Nations and the Sri Lankan government has suspended the entire Tamil population's rights as citizens, which led a large number of Tamils to flee the island for political asylum. 00:21:16.907 --> 00:21:29.755 Well, yet the Tamil diaspora grew even more so into nationally and together with their compatriots in Sri Lanka, constitute the stateless nation of Tamil Eelam. 00:21:29.954 --> 00:21:43.835 This is reflected in these scattered groups presence online where virtual Tamil Eelam commits itself to the establishment of an ethnically homogenous Tamil nation state. 00:21:43.902 --> 00:21:56.981 And Sri Lankan Tamils in diaspora have been present online since the early internet days, posting on Usenet groups and launching websites in or even before 1996. 00:21:57.048 --> 00:21:59.851 But what does Eelam mean? 00:21:59.851 --> 00:22:09.294 So Eelam is the name of the northern part of Sri Lanka where they tried to constitute that as a state geographically. 00:22:09.361 --> 00:22:13.531 So it's interesting that that's like the phrase being used. 00:22:13.597 --> 00:22:20.771 I guess that goes back to that idea that you were saying earlier about the like new forms of citizenship. 00:22:20.838 --> 00:22:26.611 But, you know, what does that mean to be from a specific, very specific place? 00:22:26.611 --> 00:22:33.018 But you're exploring that or establishing that through this like digital space? 00:22:33.018 --> 00:22:45.931 Yeah, because I think the desire for this citizenship is still kind of comes out for the right to inhabit a space, even though you might not ever fully occupy it. 00:22:45.931 --> 00:22:52.037 There's always this desire in the background or motivation in the background to have your own space and to have a home. 00:22:52.170 --> 00:22:57.843 The idea that can transcend and a space to connect and collect together. 00:22:58.076 --> 00:23:05.450 Yeah, if you're if you're so separated, just like one location to yeah. 00:23:05.450 --> 00:23:08.519 To feel the mass of the of the group. 00:23:08.686 --> 00:23:19.798 And I think also what Christopher Callender and Thomas writes about a lot is especially the phrase new Elam kind of refers to like this new world. 00:23:19.865 --> 00:23:30.875 So even though it might not be physical, it's kind of this creation of like a new sovereign nation and also like there's a little fun fact here. 00:23:30.875 --> 00:23:32.009 Okay. 00:23:32.009 --> 00:23:46.691 So the ancient fairy tale place of Sarah and Deb, which appears in 1001 nights, was also the old Arabic name for the island of Sri Lanka. 00:23:46.791 --> 00:23:50.796 Oh, yeah, that's it's like an ancient fairy tale place. 00:23:50.796 --> 00:24:01.306 And and yeah, and the English word for serendipity means a fortunate discovery, which was coined by Arthur Horace Walpole in 1754. 00:24:01.306 --> 00:24:06.243 So you can kind of see a wonderful rom com with John Cusack. 00:24:06.310 --> 00:24:10.816 Oh, what serendipity. 00:24:10.915 --> 00:24:12.150 Okay, I'll watch it. 00:24:12.150 --> 00:24:13.184 I really like it. 00:24:13.184 --> 00:24:21.726 One of my best friends, it's like one of her favorite absolute favorite films is it's set in Sri Lanka. 00:24:21.726 --> 00:24:25.564 It's set in York. 00:24:25.630 --> 00:24:26.832 That's my fun facts. 00:24:26.832 --> 00:24:39.577 You know, so you can kind of see like the importance of the discovery of Sri Lanka in the colonial context, just by the like etymology of the word serendipity. 00:24:39.577 --> 00:24:40.511 Yeah, Yeah. 00:24:40.511 --> 00:24:45.217 And it used to be the name for Sri Lanka. 00:24:45.282 --> 00:25:25.690 So basically, yeah, since the Sinhalese, you know, they kind of assert the insignificance of Tamil presence before Colonial occupation, the Tamils really persist through online documentation that the island contained these like two coexisting kingdoms and that they have one of the earliest written alphabets and they contain manifestos and lengthy attestations of their distinct traditions, heritage and culture, along with proposing daily activities that help to kind of claim for for land and recognition. 00:25:25.789 --> 00:25:39.804 And many sites also include pastimes for families and kids and forums for discussion of the topics that could be of interest to Tamil Eelam advocates or supporters. Wow. 00:25:39.871 --> 00:25:52.049 And these opportunities to share news and participation architectures of the site allow visitors to believe in this communal decision making and nation building process. 00:25:52.116 --> 00:26:01.992 So yeah, basically like virtual Tamil Eelam really like perpetuates this insignificance and passion for diasporic citizenship in a way. 00:26:02.093 --> 00:26:23.213 So it's it's kind of like preserving and archiving what once was sort of the physical reality or the kind of like physical culture, but creating this like living online version that continues to grow and change, plus envisioning possible futures from that. 00:26:23.248 --> 00:26:25.349 It's amazing. Exactly. 00:26:25.349 --> 00:26:25.717 Yeah. 00:26:25.717 --> 00:26:36.161 And this is all reflected in the project's use of the website, where they also use the inherent conditions of the Internet's medium. 00:26:36.161 --> 00:26:43.067 You know, the the network information, communication and global interconnection to kind of build this idea of a new world. 00:26:43.101 --> 00:26:45.103 Wow. So. 00:26:45.103 --> 00:26:48.105 So when was this Where was this started? 00:26:48.138 --> 00:26:50.808 Basically since the dot com boom. 00:26:50.808 --> 00:26:59.150 So kind of just like early noughties, anywhere between 2001 to 2006. 00:26:59.150 --> 00:27:05.890 So I would think as Tamil Eelam was banned in 2005, then towards the end. 00:27:05.890 --> 00:27:17.301 But there's a study that came out in 2004 called Cyber Cafes in Sri Lanka, Tamil Virtual Communities. 00:27:17.402 --> 00:27:29.881 That is the city of well, the what in Colombo and focused on the emergence of basically just like an unprecedented number of cyber cafes and net two phones. 00:27:29.948 --> 00:27:37.188 And yes, it basically this correlates with the boom of cyber cafes. 00:27:37.355 --> 00:27:37.788 Yeah. 00:27:37.788 --> 00:27:49.200 And the Internet and phones that enabled Internet surfing basically correlates to that and also to how active the Tamil Tigers were as well. 00:27:49.299 --> 00:27:53.971 Hmm. Because some of the websites would also document what was happening on the ground. 00:27:54.172 --> 00:27:58.476 But this isn't all like this isn't all Tamil Tiger stuff, right? 00:27:58.476 --> 00:28:00.377 It's like Tamil. 00:28:00.377 --> 00:28:03.048 No culture. Yeah. And things. 00:28:03.048 --> 00:28:10.755 And then some of the sites were more explicitly about kind of the fighting, the freedom fighting. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. 00:28:10.755 --> 00:28:11.722 Mm. Yes. 00:28:11.722 --> 00:28:17.828 So the main sites are Tamil net trauma dot com which I can't reach. 00:28:17.929 --> 00:28:33.010 Evan web Eelam webcam which the domain name now seems to be up for sale so that looks to be down and Elan K Tamil Eelam Sangam which is Sangam dot org which still is up and running. 00:28:33.111 --> 00:28:44.455 So yeah, a lot of the website analysis I got is from spatial conceptions of you are ls the Tamil Eelam networks on the worldwide web. 00:28:44.489 --> 00:28:46.324 That's a great name. 00:28:46.324 --> 00:28:49.294 Spatial conceptions of URLs. 00:28:49.294 --> 00:28:57.801 Yeah, it's written by Julianna and Tina for the New Media and Society Journal for Northwestern University in 2006. 00:28:57.902 --> 00:29:09.446 And yeah, basically just got a lot of this information from her because I do not have access to most of the websites, unfortunately. 00:29:09.513 --> 00:29:29.701 But like I said earlier, they tend to mostly just chart out the kind of pre-colonial period where Tamils and Sinhalese peacefully coexisted on the island and sometimes even demonstrating what society would have been without colonial domination at all. 00:29:29.768 --> 00:29:42.446 Sometimes the site will also argue that their online presence is a legitimacy in and of itself for the kind of recognition of both their ancient past and right for autonomy. 00:29:42.513 --> 00:29:52.390 And they declare that the virtual, not just the geopolitical occupation is just as important for the independence project. 00:29:52.457 --> 00:30:03.034 So they kind of envision like a solid network that facilitates a constant and engaging dispersal or exchange of information. Mhm. 00:30:03.101 --> 00:30:07.771 And I just want to look at the domain name. 00:30:07.838 --> 00:30:30.627 One of the most popular sites, Tamil net to kind of explore the motives of the Eelam project. So first of all, it uses Tamil, which points to the South Asian ethnic group specifically, but most Tamils actually reside in India where they are not that concerned with the independence struggle in Sri Lanka. 00:30:30.694 --> 00:30:52.784 And then it uses the word net suggesting the electronic and electronic network and then dot com which explicitly isn't using a domain name extension that associates itself with the geographical location because, you know, LK would be the Internet country code domain for Sri Lanka. 00:30:52.951 --> 00:31:02.026 I wonder if that's also got something to do with like the timing of it that it was so early on in like internet right. 00:31:02.026 --> 00:31:11.269 That that maybe the dot com might have been the only option at the time because I feel like the country codes came a bit later. 00:31:11.269 --> 00:31:11.836 Yeah that's true. 00:31:11.836 --> 00:31:15.539 And that is actually interesting in and of itself. 00:31:15.539 --> 00:31:41.965 I feel like with this to sort of think about if, if that, if that was the case, I have done my research, but the fact that they're entering and choosing to establish themselves within this virtual digital space that at the time perhaps really didn't have connections to specific locations or there was nothing to denote a different country. 00:31:42.032 --> 00:31:49.240 And then I wonder how that would that feeling shifted just generally even when different country codes started to come in? 00:31:49.240 --> 00:31:50.275 Yeah, that's true. 00:31:50.275 --> 00:32:04.055 I guess there's like the point of view from the marketing side where it's like you want to use a country code just to stand out somehow or if it's relevant in some way. 00:32:04.055 --> 00:32:05.957 But yeah, I you're right. 00:32:05.957 --> 00:32:19.871 It was definitely like an early time for the internet and they used you could tell how like the use of the domain names and the use of the websites themselves were still kind of being explored. 00:32:19.971 --> 00:32:30.781 Like even though they used news media mostly for the websites to kind of keep things relevant and up to date. 00:32:30.847 --> 00:32:41.058 The sites also hosted various kind of like fun techie features like online stores and games and desktop backgrounds that people can download for free. 00:32:41.159 --> 00:32:44.429 I have a few things to say that I feel like I don't know what to say first. 00:32:44.561 --> 00:32:46.798 Yeah, I was going to say that I miss those downloads. 00:32:46.798 --> 00:32:47.731 I miss I've started. 00:32:47.731 --> 00:32:58.977 Maybe like I've been making some for my art practice because they're just they're fun, like computer backgrounds and things that you could download from websites that was often like a free thing. 00:32:59.042 --> 00:33:01.011 And then they say something else. 00:33:01.011 --> 00:33:01.878 What was it? 00:33:01.878 --> 00:33:12.490 Oh, also, I guess just like the the use of you were talking about the participation architecture of websites and that that is like. 00:33:12.490 --> 00:33:17.161 So it's a way to be interactive and engaged with a website. 00:33:17.161 --> 00:33:22.567 Before that, interactivity was really like an established concept on websites. 00:33:22.633 --> 00:33:38.048 That ability to kind of download something you got from a website and then use it in your either your digital world or even your physical world, depending on what the download is, is like a fun concept. 00:33:38.115 --> 00:33:39.182 Yeah. Yeah. 00:33:39.182 --> 00:33:43.421 I wonder why we've like moved away from, from that. 00:33:43.421 --> 00:33:45.589 I think people just don't want clutter as well. 00:33:45.589 --> 00:33:52.596 Yeah, but also I think that that's you know, we talked last episode actually before about, I don't know, we might have cut it out there. 00:33:52.596 --> 00:33:53.498 We got it. Yeah. 00:33:53.498 --> 00:34:11.315 I think we could end up having tones and phones used to feel really customizable and because they were all there with lots of different types of phones and people were really into those like downloadable ringtones that you'd like purchase or like little things you could like. 00:34:11.382 --> 00:34:14.485 I don't know, I feel like and we were saying I think that it was coming back. 00:34:14.684 --> 00:34:27.697 But I do think that the sort of early Internet, early phone life was kind of a customizable vibe and that people enjoyed downloading things to change stuff up. 00:34:27.697 --> 00:34:33.036 And yeah, you'd download little icon packs to change the the folder icons on your desktop. 00:34:33.036 --> 00:34:34.838 Yeah, yeah, yeah. Things like that. 00:34:34.838 --> 00:34:35.373 Yeah. 00:34:35.373 --> 00:34:40.911 There's so many little tricks like that that early websites really love to play with. 00:34:40.911 --> 00:35:21.719 Like it's even just the idea of posting news like general news and current affairs to websites is quite interesting as well because so the site's kind of in assist visitors to come back by letting them in with you know obviously like the the the relevant news up to date news articles but also like with these consumer tactics and some of the desktop background designs have Wayne waves on them which is quite interesting because apparently waves represent resistance committed by the Tamil Tigers as well as like an esthetic reference to the former island of Salon. 00:35:21.751 --> 00:35:32.929 Yeah, and most of the sites are written in English, but they encourage learning the Tamil language and how to write Tamil script on a computer and on the internet. 00:35:33.030 --> 00:35:33.764 Well, right. 00:35:33.764 --> 00:35:45.510 So it was sort of like it was for the Tamil diaspora to have like a place to collect and to to feel connected. 00:35:45.576 --> 00:35:53.317 But it was also to kind of teach other people about their culture and wow, yeah, yeah. 00:35:53.317 --> 00:35:56.086 Anyone that was interested, literally anyone. 00:35:56.086 --> 00:35:57.989 Yeah. 00:35:57.989 --> 00:36:01.626 And the representation of maps is interesting too. 00:36:01.692 --> 00:36:13.471 For example, the homepage of Islam dot com showed a map at the top of the main page, which was like a heart shaped island with a dark pink field symbol symbolizing the nation. 00:36:13.538 --> 00:36:28.452 And he writes that the outline suggests a version of Tamil Eelam removed from the physicality of its location and a common form of representation that Tamils abroad deploy. 00:36:28.518 --> 00:36:40.597 And to be honest, even when you just Google image search Tamil map, the map of Tamil Nadu comes up, which is just the alleged origin, you know, of Tamil people, as I mentioned in the beginning. 00:36:40.630 --> 00:36:48.572 So that represents just a fraction of the population, let alone completely ignores Sri Lankan Tamils and. 00:36:48.572 --> 00:37:05.956 ELAM So are there any sites that like specifically address like the diaspora sections of the diaspora, like Tamils that live in like specific other countries, or is it all kind of a group groups sort of together under the one? Yes. 00:37:05.956 --> 00:37:21.038 So the Lanka Tamil Eelam Sangam, which is also known as the Association of Tamils of Eelam and Sri Lanka in the U.S., defines citizenship by identification rather than placement. 00:37:21.172 --> 00:37:24.175 Placement like location. Yeah. Okay. 00:37:24.242 --> 00:37:26.309 Even though they are aware of their U.S. 00:37:26.309 --> 00:37:27.945 borders. 00:37:27.945 --> 00:37:41.759 So the website makes it clear kind of standpoint that Tamil ex-patriots who reside in liberal democracies are, and I quote, the only voice through which the voiceless Tamils can speak. 00:37:41.826 --> 00:37:56.507 And the Eelam web website letter states our people are strength and shows images of demonstrations in Europe like France, Germany, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom and North America as well. 00:37:56.606 --> 00:38:09.954 And this kind of like, you know, portrays the limitations of location by depicting the nation as like a network and that it's the participants that form Eelam web. 00:38:10.021 --> 00:38:27.371 So the the Christopher Calandra and Thomas show that was a ACA that work is it so we've been talking about the like the original websites and community that sort of came up in the 2000s of nineties twins. 00:38:27.438 --> 00:38:46.523 But his work in that show, that's like is it using that as an archive to create new work or it like responds to it how how are they linked and what's he trying to do it just responds to it But he he's making like a virtual project. 00:38:46.590 --> 00:38:48.458 Yeah. As well. Yeah. 00:38:48.458 --> 00:39:00.271 But I think he's also invested in like this idea of kind of subverting rentier and subscription models to create like housing. 00:39:00.471 --> 00:39:13.983 He, I think he wanted to make at one point this, this housing for people where you're just paying for a subscription and then it gives you like a house and you might move and you might exchange it with other people. 00:39:13.983 --> 00:39:23.293 But he kind of believes in the fact that after a long period of time, the subscription service will be able to pay itself off and then people will eventually have like free housing. 00:39:23.360 --> 00:39:35.438 So he's kind of like interested in these techie new rentier things that can liberate us and actually execute quite leftist desires. 00:39:35.438 --> 00:39:36.340 But interesting. 00:39:36.340 --> 00:39:36.706 Yeah. 00:39:36.706 --> 00:39:51.288 So yeah, he also underpins the kind of construction of identity through the idea of exit or expats in the speech I mentioned earlier. 00:39:51.288 --> 00:40:01.766 And he says the economist Albert Hershman makes the argument that the possibility of exit gives power to the exercising of Democratic voice. 00:40:01.766 --> 00:40:06.202 And his biggest example of this is actually that of America. 00:40:06.269 --> 00:40:06.836 Yeah. 00:40:06.836 --> 00:40:18.681 And in April 2005, the editor of Tamil net Dama Linga Sivaraman, was abducted and killed by unknown gunmen. 00:40:18.815 --> 00:40:20.317 What? 00:40:20.317 --> 00:40:26.289 According to the BBC News Sinhala, his body was found near the parliament. 00:40:26.289 --> 00:40:28.759 Inside the high security zone. 00:40:28.759 --> 00:40:31.561 The police is yet to find the assassin. 00:40:31.561 --> 00:40:39.804 This followed Tamil net to be blocked by all major internet service providers in Sri Lanka on the orders of the government. 00:40:39.869 --> 00:40:42.739 Well, Telnet was that suspicious? 00:40:42.739 --> 00:40:51.181 Yeah, I mean, it was instrumental in the self-determination of Eelam and the government obviously saw its power and wanted to shut it down once and for all. 00:40:51.181 --> 00:41:09.900 So even though Tamil Net wasn't the one that was specifically looking at like fighting or anything like that, it was more just a I guess establishment or a demonstration of, of culture that was that was enough that it was dangerous to them, to the government. 00:41:10.099 --> 00:41:17.106 Well, they were also posting what was happening on the front lines. 00:41:17.106 --> 00:41:17.407 Yeah. 00:41:17.407 --> 00:41:20.411 So they were covering lot of the footage. 00:41:20.543 --> 00:41:22.947 They had a lot of video footage of that too. 00:41:22.947 --> 00:41:29.353 So but yeah, I mean, these were just updates of what was actually happening. 00:41:29.452 --> 00:41:32.356 Again, not really sure who killed him. 00:41:32.356 --> 00:41:49.005 Basically a former member of the People's Liberation Organization of Tamil Eelam, which is a former Tamil militant group that had become a pro-government military group and political party, has been accused of the murder. 00:41:49.005 --> 00:42:02.018 But the Tigers accused the government and Colonel Karuna Amon, more specifically, a politician who's also like a former militant who is basically fighting the tigers for 20 years. 00:42:02.085 --> 00:42:04.855 They they yeah, they they essentially blamed him. 00:42:04.855 --> 00:42:24.041 Well, but, you know, the results of Tamil Eelam online is still a global network which amalgamated international links to create a type of sovereignty through the virtual even though they never really occupy an entire space. 00:42:24.141 --> 00:42:43.760 Eaten also writes that this type of national participation and information dispersal for a recognition of a kind of autonomous population are reminiscent of the efforts of Pollard's The Basques and Nash and Black nationalists making connections to Africa. 00:42:43.860 --> 00:42:55.739 She also states that with this example, we can kind of begin to rethink, like the concept or kind of conditions of possibility for nation state or national membership. 00:42:55.806 --> 00:43:15.826 Also, I think it's just kind of like to include, I guess there's this quote by Bruno letter, which goes, the network practice is more supple than the notion of system, more historical than the notion of structure, more empirical than the notion of complexity. 00:43:15.960 --> 00:43:21.664 The idea of network is the Ariadne thread of these interwoven stories. 00:43:21.864 --> 00:43:33.143 So here again, I guess we can see how, like the online network provides us with really a more accurate expression and building of national identity and virtual. 00:43:33.143 --> 00:43:49.827 Tamil Eelam also provides the Internet with a better definition of itself too, because it kind of goes against this like Cartesian idea of cyberspace, which is known as this other space, you know, this other world that is mutually exclusive to the physical. 00:43:49.893 --> 00:44:03.840 And since the word diaspora is frequently referred to as an imagined community, it kind of really goes to show that the online and offline work in tandem because of this idea of the network, really. 00:44:03.940 --> 00:44:08.811 So yeah, that's the story of Tamil Eelam online. 00:44:08.911 --> 00:44:10.813 That's amazing. Thank you so much. 00:44:10.813 --> 00:44:19.556 And we are coming close to an hour, so yeah, thank you so much for listening and asking all the right questions as always. 00:44:19.623 --> 00:44:23.860 Yeah, I mean, even I would just like my brain is also pow wow. 00:44:23.860 --> 00:44:36.239 So it's it there was something with cyber power as well that I didn't mentioned before but that they would have it was like a gathering online where people could enter this space and see the show. 00:44:36.239 --> 00:44:43.179 But then there was also they had physical gatherings, they call them gatherings the physical. 00:44:43.280 --> 00:44:43.614 Yeah. 00:44:43.614 --> 00:44:48.652 Like events and, and things that they didn't really see as being different. 00:44:48.751 --> 00:44:54.190 The virtual or the the digital versus the, the physical reality. 00:44:54.257 --> 00:45:05.235 And it yeah, it's really interesting concept to think about a particularly in like early Internet days we talk, we talk so much about like what is it? 00:45:05.235 --> 00:45:17.681 How if we negotiate and renegotiate, dated the relationship between computers and humans and the role that computers play in our lives, that serve our lives as our physical. 00:45:17.681 --> 00:45:22.585 But so much is now played out in the digital world. 00:45:22.652 --> 00:45:26.956 And yeah, it's really interesting to look back, particularly at this. 00:45:27.023 --> 00:45:34.731 The Tamil Tamil net to think about like what that meant in the early 2000s and how that continues today. 00:45:34.731 --> 00:45:44.307 Yeah, and I mean it's kind of examples that like these that really show that the Internet is inherently connected to land. 00:45:44.340 --> 00:45:44.907 Yeah. 00:45:44.907 --> 00:45:58.688 And it's connected to our idea of place and home and idea of like nationalism, citizenship and the rights of land and how occupy and the spaces that you occupy. 00:45:58.755 --> 00:46:01.291 It all works on the Internet as well. 00:46:01.291 --> 00:46:07.831 And just the idea of like colonialism online and the concept of decolonial ization online. 00:46:07.831 --> 00:46:20.010 And in in that panel discussion, it came up about the vocabulary of particularly early Internet computer programs and this idea of, I guess, colonialism. 00:46:20.010 --> 00:46:26.884 But it's they were referencing browsers like Explorer, Navigator. 00:46:26.884 --> 00:46:28.085 Yeah, Yeah. 00:46:28.085 --> 00:47:15.331 And even referencing, you know, I think it's like Apache, like early Mac programs and things that, that this naming really references a colonial mindset or this like the Explorer going into this to this new land and and within that sort of fraught unexplored like that those topics not being really looked at critically in the early days like why are they just picking these these names how does how the different cultural, cultural groups or indigenous groups exist within those spaces in a way that is get connected with with the physical land and these. 00:47:15.331 --> 00:47:26.909 Yeah, I do know it's a no, but that's interesting where in the beginning they tried to show the internet as this like Wild West that should be occupied and explored and conquered. 00:47:26.909 --> 00:47:52.202 Yeah, but it really goes hand in hand with the idea of cyberspace and this other world that needs to be surfed, that needs to be navigated and explored, scrolled through all these very physical metaphors are certainly put on to this thing that they think is like an abstract alien space, but in reality it's just cool. 00:47:52.302 --> 00:47:52.702 Yeah. 00:47:52.702 --> 00:47:57.608 And it's this thing of like, okay, yeah, reusing the same language. 00:47:57.673 --> 00:47:58.108 Yeah. 00:47:58.108 --> 00:48:12.922 And then taking language from indigenous groups because for some for those those names, well it's like, yeah, those names have in this like Western mindset of that era. 00:48:12.956 --> 00:48:13.322 Yeah. 00:48:13.322 --> 00:48:17.226 Have some weird like denote other thing and it's, it's like Yeah. 00:48:17.226 --> 00:48:17.927 Would just use it. 00:48:17.927 --> 00:48:22.766 Those things are things that we should be critically analyzing anyway. 00:48:22.766 --> 00:48:44.887 It's just that yeah, it's just weird that this whole like language like set of expectations around like new spaces got all mixed up and then maybe we haven't been I mean, obviously people are, but as a, you know, overall haven't been kind of looking at it enough and thinking about, oh, maybe we set this whole thing up. 00:48:44.954 --> 00:48:46.722 Not with the best. 00:48:46.722 --> 00:48:53.664 Uh, yeah, language or words or of thinking around what is digital space. 00:48:53.730 --> 00:48:56.099 Yeah, that's interesting. 00:48:56.099 --> 00:48:56.266 Right. 00:48:56.266 --> 00:49:01.905 Well, thank you so much and thank you also will be will be back in a month. 00:49:02.005 --> 00:49:02.873 Yeah. 00:49:02.873 --> 00:49:05.342 And I hope you'll have a lovely new year. 00:49:05.342 --> 00:49:07.443 Yeah. Oh, my God. Happy New Year, everyone. 00:49:07.443 --> 00:49:19.088 I guess this Happy New Year will be coming in the New Year, but shortly after so yeah, hopefully everyone's having a good start and we'll see you in the next one. 00:49:19.088 --> 00:49:21.425 See you soon. Bye. Bye, y'all.