Military investigation of CADRE

From: "Michael J. Poirier" 
Date: Fri, 06 Jun 1997 11:22:11 -0700
Subject: Military investigation of CADRE

Date: Thu, 05 Jun 1997
From: Brett Stalbaum <beestal@pacbell.net>
Subject: Spam at Nellis AFB and military investigation of CADRE


On Tuesday, May 27th, the following email was sent to a large
distribution list of addresses at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, USA:

> On April 26th 1997, during the height of the Air Force 50th anniversary
> air show, an unexpected counter-surveillance incursion took place on the
> remote border of Nellis bombing and gunnery range near Rachel NV. Due to
> the nature of the counter-surveillance technology employed and the
> combined fact that the team only flirted with, but did not cross the
> border into the Nellis range, the only responses possible were the
> dispatch of a Lincoln county law enforcement official, ridge roaming
> security forces, and a Wackenhut "black" helicopter. (Video of the
> area51 black helicopter is available at the site.) None of these tactics
> were able to suppress the information gathered, which is now being made
> available to the public:
>
> http://cadre.sjsu.edu/area210/index.html

The mailing list I used was delivered to me, apparently in error, by the
military itself. It's use has led to an investigation of the CADRE
Institute by system operators at Nellis AFB, as the following narrative
explains:

At some point in late February 1997, as Joel Slayton's Art 210 class was
beginning a study Area 51 as a social phenomenon, I contacted the base
historian at Nellis AFB and requested transcripts of any email that they
may have received regarding UFO's, conspiracy theories, or any other
oddball stuff which I fully expected that they would have received. My
interest was in studying such messages in an attempt to more thoroughly
insert myself in an engaged, absorbed way-of-being into the paranoid
'fringe' discourses which have steadily become more pervasive in
American culture at least since the 1950's. I sensed a need to overcome
my persistent skepticism regarding all aspects of the mystical and
paranormal in order to better understand those contexts and therefore be
able to perform relative to them. I received a polite reply on Feb 28,
indicating that they had no information.

Months later, on 4/28/97, I received a forwarded email message which
consisted of the "Penpal" virus hoax. I was surprised to find my email
address (and others seemingly not associated with the military), pasted
in at the bottom of a long list of email addresses from Nellis AFB and
other AFB installations. This was how I came to posses the addresses to
which I sent the spam message regarding our website.

Our objective in dealing with this kind of 'information' is to insert
ourselves as artists, via performance, into the discourses surrounding
and intersecting with Area51 social phenomena in a way which practices a
critically informed stance on a variety of issues stemming from our
study of postmodern cultural aesthetics, postindustrial economic
realities, and networked semiotic systems as manifested particularly in
the form of the internet. Conceptual concerns with surveillance as a
means of social control led us as a group to a direct interest in using
the context of obvious surveillance (as indicated in practicing 'art'
physically at the Groom Road border to the air base), as a context for
art performance which combines with these critical concerns as well as
the above mentioned paranoid 'fringe' discourses. What has emerged from
this performance activity is a Web site which is simultaneously
critical, irreverent, useful to users in terms of visual information,
and in my opinion quite funny. I feel that the endeavour was successful
as conceptual art in its use of the surveillance context as a medium or
"art supply", as a light hearted yet simultaneously serious critique of
surveillance, and as a pleasurable experience in the spirit of good fun.

This is exactly the spirit in which I sent the email. That endeavour
represents a similar engagement of a source of surveillance, this time
in the context of online communications. It was at the same time done in
a spirit of dead serious absurdity which is in the the final analysis is
the description I feel best represents Area 51 in terms of it being a
cultural nexus for those who 'want to believe.' It is very interesting
to note that when this particular cultural context of Area 51 meets with
or crosses the physical boundaries of the restricted areas of the Groom
Lake region, serious problems arise which are viewed as either security
issues or freedom of information issues dependent upon which side of the
border you are associated with. Perhaps the most successful outcome of
this particular 'incursion' via email is to show us something about how
the same paradigm plays out in cyberspace.

In this specific case, it plays out with an "investigation of the CADRE
Institute, 'Landscape Painting as Counter-Surveillance' project and  the
Area210 and CADRE Web environment as they relate to potential security
issues." We could hope for very few better informed or more
intellectually prepared audiences for this particular art practice, and
sincerely hope that members of the military whose duty it is to
investigate the CADRE institute (and myself), enjoy the art and might
even be convinced to buy a painting. Only $51.51 each. They are on
display at the Area 51 Research Center Bookstore in Rachel NV, and can
also be ordered directly at the site,
http://cadre.sjsu.edu/area210/index.html.

Brett Stalbaum
.-