Where It Lands: Users and Relational Aesthetics

We did an overview of what activist, and socially-engaged / participatory art is and who it is made by in the last posts, so now lets look at some of the ideas artists and makers invoke behind this type of work: users and usership, relationality, intersubjectivity* and groups. Users of the Art/Cultural Experience Activists and… Continue reading Where It Lands: Users and Relational Aesthetics

Makers: Actors, Artists, … Users

Image from the Interference Archive, Photo by Shaun Slifer

Who makes activist/political arts? The individuals and groups who make this kind of cultural production are primarily: movement actors [e.g. activists] within the communities meant to experience and co-create the work; artists, cultural activists, tool-having professionals, also often from within the discourse communities. These groups are far from mutually exclusive and often involve a lot… Continue reading Makers: Actors, Artists, … Users

Activist Art & Participatory Art

People's Park sign, late 1960s, S.F.

What We’re Looking For The first place I began researching was in and around the concepts of “activist art” and “political art,” both of which are colloquial terms that I hear and use regularly.  I was hoping to find a repository where an understanding of the critical importance of the role of those using or… Continue reading Activist Art & Participatory Art

Intro To Study

Over the next three months there will be weekly [ish] posts with writing and readings. Learn with me, talk back to me and each other. To get started and read along, I suggest the following: “Contributions to a Resistance Visual Culture Glossary” by Nato Thompson, http://journalofaestheticsandprotest.org/new3/thompson.html Peruse Beautiful Trouble: A Toolbox for Revolution, edited by… Continue reading Intro To Study

Femme 2012: in Baltimore and Everywhere on the Web

I’m busting with pride because, for the last year, I’ve been volunteering co-leading the Media team of this weekend’s Femme Conference. Between starting work on this conference and now, I started graduate school and went to two Allied Media Conferences, and it’s just really clear to me how incredibly important media –  accessible, horizontal, participatory… Continue reading Femme 2012: in Baltimore and Everywhere on the Web

Providence, RI Events 7/7-7/8: KEEP QUEERING, KEEP FIGHTING!

Keep Queering, Keep Fightin! Poster by Olivia H.

Weekend events July 7-8, 2012 For more info: http://queerlilrhody.tumblr.com/ Resisting Racism Workshop: Queer Liberation is Collective Liberation Saturday July 7, 1:30-5:30pm Workshop starts at 1:30 sharp, please arrive 15 minutes early. $5-20 sliding scale How do dismantling the gender binary and resisting racism relate to uprooting classism and disability justice? In this workshop, we will explore… Continue reading Providence, RI Events 7/7-7/8: KEEP QUEERING, KEEP FIGHTING!

STUDENT STRIKE!!! Understanding what's happening in Quebec and Montreal for US anglophones*

Want to know some context and the super-short version of what is happening in Quebec? Read this for some media, history, and special artist appearances — and if you’re in NYC, attend the Quebec in Revolt: Film Night at Interference Archive in Brooklyn on Thursday viagra usa 6/7 at 7:30pm. I want to thank my… Continue reading STUDENT STRIKE!!! Understanding what's happening in Quebec and Montreal for US anglophones*

So Excited About Horizontal Networks and Radical Politics

I just finished a few proposals for the Allied Media Conference — which I swear I will co-work on organizing one of these years! — and one that I’m particularly excited about is called “Out of the Streets and Into the Networks: Horizontal Digital Collaborations for Radical Projects.” I’ve been growing in my comfort level… Continue reading So Excited About Horizontal Networks and Radical Politics