Undergrowth #6 - RANDOM MOLECULES

From the quantum to the cosmic, chaos theory to chaos magick, political powerplays to psychedelic activism, free radicals and spiritual anarchism - beware a premature definition of reality.

Feature Writers:

The Human Animal is out of control. It spreads across the earth like a virus, taking what it wants and always needing more. It builds machines to do its work and cities to congregate its masses away from the natural world it exploits. Oblivious to the fact it lives in a natural ecosystem, the Human Animal replaces energetics with economics, the real with the rationalised in a virtual web of globalisation. Yet, moving through its monoculture crowds, pockets of diversity and multiculturalism still thrive. The undergrowth is fertile with the coloured plumes of resistance, with strange and wonderful new forms that have mutated to survive a world out of balance. From office drones in their concrete archipelagos to dumpster divers in the backstreets of the Empire, the Human Ecology pulses with life. Feral communities celebrate on the edge of bush dancefloors. Urban pagans connect with nature under the eyes of satellite cameras. The children of the System are remembering the Sacred. The walls are coming tumbling down as the Human Animal starts to recognise itself and its place in the web of life...

Undergrowth DVD: "Snapshots of the Resolution" explores the power of independent media activism to discuss and speak out about themes of social, ecological and political issues. The compilation weaves together subject matter ranging from war to deforestation, alternative energy, street art, culture jamming, overpopulation, uranium mining, organic farming and the challenges of democracy in a fast paced collection of humourous, creative and politically charged short films, music videos, animations and documentaries.

Australian and international filmmakers featured include; Benjamin Ducroz, Joe Brumm, Heidi Douglas, Izzy Brown, Deepchild, Paul Baiguerra, Mutiny Media, Anto Skene, Freerange Graphics, Tim Parish, Nina Paley, Jean Poole and Adam Robb. Also featuring soundtracks by Combat Wombat, Deepchild, TZU, The Herd and Yum.

History
After a second well received program of short films, documentaries and animations at the 2004 Electrofringe Festival, produced in association with Undergrowth Digital Magazine, we decided to curate a DVD for our fourth issue, collecting together national and international video activist documentaries, political satire, short films and animations.

Launched in December, 2004 at the Queensland media art festival Straight Out Of Brisbane, Undergrowth #4 - Snapshots of the Resolution is now available as a free PDF online magazine as well as a DVD for sale from the Undergrowth website. Since then the compilation has been screened around Australia, at various festivals, outdoor cinemas in Darwin, independent and underground cinemas and through the web archives of archive.org

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In the early 21st Century the War on Terror was a billion dollar Spectacle conceived by the military-entertainment complex, which served to distract humanity from the more widespread and dangerous War on Terra. In the human zoo, we stand somewhere between monoculture and wilderness, shaping our mental ecologies from the debris of empire + revolution. Resisting the fictions broadcast by crude television satellites and saturated by tabloid media. On the streets, poetic terrorists paint the rumour of some new indigenous struggle. Earth magicians retrofit the urban ecology. New paradigms mingle with archaic lores in the interzones of the information war. We are all natives remembering the language of Terra Poetica.

As planetary monoculture is enforced from above, thousands of counter-cultures are also sprouting from below, in organic networks that sustain and build a sense of community and unity in diversity. Powered by new technologies and an archaic revival of thought, a balance is being struck between the past and the future that may be our best hope for survival.