Are some people in New Orleans afraid of memory? Earlier this week the Vieux Carre Commission , New Orleans heritage department, said "no" to a public sculpture commemorating Katrina's victims.

Artist Dawn DeDeaux's proposed sculpture titled 'Steps Home' is a visual reference to the concrete stoops and entrance stairs left behind after houses were washed away in some of the city's most devastated neighborhoods. The finished sculpture would have shown three freestanding illuminated steps weighing about 800 pounds, 29 inches high and 48 inches wide, installed at Jackson Square - a National Historic Landmark in the U.S. and what was before Katrina an important public gathering place for local musicians and street performers.

The installation at Jackson Square would have been the first of a dozen similar sets of steps being installed at sites citywide for a period of time and then assembled together at a final permanent location.

According to comments from the Commission, their concerns were more focused on Jackson Square than on the memories being commemorated. One commissioner said that he was worried about "a proliferation of 21st-century modernist works that would screw up the square."

Dadeaux can appeal the decision. Write to the Commission and tell them your thoughts. It seems to me the guy on a horse in Jackson Square (image above) could use a little 21st century help, especially from a public art installation remembering how some of the cities "non-horse riding" residents lost so much in the devastation of Katrina ... and, sadly, how much was lost in the tragedy of betrayed public trust.

National Park(ing) Day is upon us once again - Friday September 19, when across the globe people take over parking stalls and transform them into art installations, performance art, temporary gardens, beach parties, lounge space, jazz stages, putting greens, dance floors - whatever!

It is an open celebration of public space, a playful cry for more public greenspace, and a joyful stand against the continuing domination of the damned car in our urban homes!

Get yer posse together, get yerselves a parking stall, and play!

National Park(ing) Day was started in San Francisco by REBAR Art Collective in 2005 “to re-imagine the potential of the metered parking space”.

Check out photos from National park(ing) Days of the past.

More on this topic at Art Threat: Harper government announces more cuts to cultural programs.

The Harper government has announced more cuts to cultural spending in Canada. More than $17 million in cultural programs will not be renewed in the next budget.

The recently announced cuts include $13.7 million for the PromArt and Trade Routes programs which promoted and supported Canadian artists exhibiting and performing outside of Canada, $1.5 million for the Canadian Independent Film and Video, and $2.5 million for the National Training Program in the Film and Video Sector. These decisions come without consultation with the arts community.

In response to criticisms that the cuts represent a further attack on cultural spending in Canada, the government said that the cuts were aimed at specific programs, not arts in general. "The public reaction out there - you'd think we'd shut down the arts. That's not the case," said Kory Teneycke, spokesperson for Prime Minister Stephen Harper. "This was not about less money for the arts. Its about having government programs that are meeting their objectives. We're committed to canceling programs that are boondoggles." But despite suggestions that these programs were cut because they did not provide sufficient returns on investment, the government has yet to make public detailed analysis of why the programs were considered failures.

The Canadian Independent Film and Video Fund, which lost $1.5 million, said that the cuts will force the closure of their program that makes documentaries for libraries, community centres and other grassroots educational purposes. "It's not just a question of how it affects filmmakers and first-time filmmakers and a diversity of voices across Canada," said said fund co-chair Ira Levy. "It actually affects Canadians on a very basic level."

It has also come to light that these cuts are part of a wider series of planned cuts to cultural spending in Canada totaling more than $44 million. The Globe and Mail reported yesterday that additional cuts include $11.7-million for the Canadian Memory Fund (which helps federal agencies digitize collections for online access), $1 million for the Book Publishing Industry Development Program, $3.8-million for the Culture.ca Web portal, $5.64-million for the research and development component of Canadian Culture Online, and $2.1-million for the Northern Distribution Program (which distributes Aboriginal Peoples Television Network to Northern communities).

The timing of the announcements, at the peak of Canada's summer holiday season when many Canadians are distracted with summer holidays and family vacationing, has also been criticized as a cynical attempt to have the cuts go unnoticed.

For more reporting check out Canada.com , Globe and Mail, and Council of Canadians .

In a move that has privacy advocates either piping mad or peeing in their boots, as US Federal court has ordered Google to hand over YouTube user records, including the videos each user has watched, their usernames and IP addresses.

Viacom is suing Google for not doing enough to keep its copyrighted videos from television shows such as The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report off the popular website YouTube. [...]

The company argued it needed access to the information on user viewing habits to prove that copyright-infringing material is more popular than user-generated videos on YouTube, which would strengthen its case against Google.

In a ruling issued on Tuesday, Louis Stanton, a judge with the U.S. District Court for the southern district of New York, agreed with Viacom and ordered Google to turn over the information.

Google argued user data should not be handed over because of privacy concerns, but Stanton dismissed those concerns as "speculative."

In protest I'm going to download torrents of the Daily Show yet refuse to watch them. Either that or visit the crowd lining up outside the Colbert Report studios and shower them with Google juice.

Investigative journalist Greg Palast and cartoonist Ted Rall have created an illustrative series called "Vote Theft for Idiots" that details how Bush and the Republicans will easily steal the upcoming US election in November, 2008. You can download various sizes of the first page here and at freeforall.tv you can watch the new film by Palast, "Free for All."

The Alianait! arts festival in Nunavut is being streamed live on the internet on Isuma.TV every night this week beginning at 7 pm. From the festival website:

The Alianait Arts Festival is an annual event in its fourth year. No less than ten days (and nights) of art, music, film, storytelling, circus arts, dance and theatre. Alianait is an Inuit expression of joy and celebration and to celebrate our fourth annual festival, the theme for Alianait 2008 is String Games - an ancient Inuit tradition.

The festival started on June 21 and runs until July 1. Here's the webcast schedule for Isuma.TV:

June 21: 7 to 10 pm EST –
ALIANAIT GRAND OPENING - LIVE at www.isuma.tv from the Big Top

June 22 : 7 to 9 pm EST –
FIBONACCI CIRCUS PERFORMANCE - LIVE from the Big Top

June 23: 7 to 9 pm EST –
NUNAVUT ARTS FESTIVAL WITH LIVE MUSIC - LIVE from the Old Residence

June 24: 7 to 9 pm EST –
ARTICIRQ/OATIARIO - LIVE from the Big Top

June 25: 7 to 10 pm –
STORYTELLING PERFORMANCE - LIVE from Parish Hall

June 26: 7 to 10 pm EST-
SAQIYUQ THEATRE PERFORMANCE – LIVE from the Parish Hall

June 27: 7 to 9 pm EST –
ART EXHIBIT – LIVE from the Nunatta Museum

June 28: 7 to 9 pm EST –
YOUTH MUSIC CONCERT – LIVE from the Big Top

June 29: 2 to 5 pm EST –
FREE MUSIC CONCERT – LIVE from the Big Top

June 30: 7 to 10 pm EST –
STRING GAMES FINALE CONCERT – LIVE from the Big Top

July 1: 2 to 5 pm EST –
FREE MUSIC CONCERT - LIVE from the Big Top

Wired has published an interview with Trevor Paglen, photographer and "experimental geographer", whose most recent work features a collection of 189 photos of officially non-existent spy satellites.

In taking these photos, Paglen is trying to draw a metaphorical connection between modern government secrecy and the doctrine of the Catholic Church in Galileo's time.

"What would it mean to find these secret moons in orbit around the earth in the same way that Galileo found these moons that shouldn't exist in orbit around Jupiter?" Paglen says.

Image: Trevor Paglen, Lacrosse/Onyx IV Near Alfirk (USA 152, 48 x 60 inches, C-Print, 2008

Previously on Art Threat:
Follow spies in the skies with Terminal Air

Make sure you catch Paige Gratland's "Celebrity Lezbian Fist Launch" this Saturday June 21st from 1-3pm at Art Metropole, 788 King Street West, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Mél Hogan for AT with Paige Gratland

[AT] Can you talk a bit about the story of Cynthia Plaster Caster, the inspiration for your project?

[PG] I saw a documentary made about her practice of casting rock and roller cock. When she started she was a art school student and rock and roll groupie who united those two interests in a project which gave her access to the people she admired. I identified with this aspect as my own projects and collaborations, free dance lessons, tit pin, burdensum, came out of an interest in connecting with a direct public. I was turned on by the strategy.

The winners of Amnesty International's 17th annual Media Awards have been announced. The awards were created to recognize excellence in human rights reporting and to acknowledge journalism's contribution to raising awareness and understanding about human rights issues. It's not exactly art in the traditional sense, but there is the 'art of fact', so to speak, in how the historical “now” is (re)created from the miasma of infinite facts of material reality. And, these are important stories being told by courageous culture-makers and we would like to share in acknowledging their bravery and the importance of their contributions.

This year also marked the first NEW MEDIA award given to Iraqi journalist Sahar al-Haideri, who was tragically killed shortly after her article “Honour killing sparks fears of new Iraqi conflict” was published on the Institute for War and Peace Reporting's website.

The other journalists being honored are:

GABY RADO MEMORIAL AWARD (for a journalist covering human rights for less than five years): Xan Rice, The Guardian

INTERNATIONAL TELEVISION AND RADIO - Eunice Lau, Stephanie Scawen, Tricia Tan, Tony Birtley for The lost tribe - Secret army of the CIA, Al Jazeera English

NATIONAL NEWSPAPERS - Deborah Haynesfor the Iraqi interpreters series, The Times

NATIONS AND REGIONS - Fiona Walker, Dorothy Parker, Fiona Walker, Matt Pinder, Susan McCusker Thompson for Congo to Motherwell, BBC Scotland (television)

PERIODICALS (a winner announced in each subcategory): Newspaper supplements - Jonathan Green for Selling soccer into slavery, Live (Mail on Sunday magazine); Consumer magazines - Fatima Tlisova, Sergei Bachiwin, Alexei Simonov for Russian media freedom, published by Index on Censorship

PHOTOJOURNALISM - Cédric Gerbehaye for Congo unrest, Newsweek

RADIO - Pascale Harter, Ceri Thomas, Mike Thompson for Where there's muck: Mike Thomson in the Congo, Radio 4, Today Programme

TELEVISION DOCUMENTARY AND DOCUDRAMA - Gretchen Wallace, Jane Wells, Annie Sundberg, Ricki Stern, Nick Fraser, Brian Steidle for Storyville: The devil came on horseback, BBC FOUR / Break Thru Films

TELEVISION NEWS - Chris Rogers, Deborah Turness, Tony Hemmings for Too young to die - Children of the frontline, ITV News / ITN