When we think 'weapon' it's not long before we are thinking of those traditional yin-yang positions of attack and defence. But in a world in which power has become diffuse if not invisible, we are increasingly asking the questions: 'attack what?' or 'defend against whom?'. Weapons are mutating too, becoming more undetectable to the eye, more insidious, more ethically confused.( "What happened with U.S. forces in Somalia foreshadows the impending ethical dilemmas. In early 1995, some U.S. marines were supplied with so-called dazzling lasers. The idea was to inflict as little harm as possible if Somalis turned hostile. But the marines' commander then decided that the lasers should be 'de-tuned' to prevent the chance of their blinding citizens. With their intensity thus diminished, they could be used only for designating or illuminating targets On March 1, 1995, commandos of U.S. Navy SEAL Team 5 were positioned at the south end of Mogadishu airport. At 7 a.m., a technician from the Air Force's Phillips Laboratory, developer of the lasers, used one to illuminate a Somali man armed with a rocket-propelled grenade. A SEAL sniper shot and killed the Somali. There was no question the Somali was aiming at the SEALs. But the decision not to use the laser to dazzle or temporarily blind the man irks some of the nonlethal-team members. "We were not allowed to disable these guys because that was considered inhumane," said one. "Putting a bullet in their head is somehow more humane?"*).

We are experiencing an age in which chemical weapons, designed to wipe out civillians en masse, and 'non-lethal' weapons co-exist on the political world stage. This is an age of information war and genocidal wars. Power is diffuse but its effects are as blatant as they ever were. The enemy is nowhere, the enemy is everywhere. The gun is a phallus, the gun is a coffee table lighter. Political action is inevitable, political action is an aesthetic posture. The weapon is losing its coherence, bleeding into itself, becoming more and less flesh.

The armchair, which is a favourite dwelling place of activists, is also a seat where we know power to reside. Bearing all the contradictions of remaining seated in mind, we offer you Crash Media's 'Extra Special' arsenal of weapons - to be viewed whilst moving or remaining still.

* Douglas Pasternak, Wonder Weapons,
www.azstarnet.com/~freetht/us_news_070797_the_pentagon.htm

Crash Media [crashmedia@yourserver.co.uk]