Friday Night -- 03.28.03 --Journal of Aesthetics and Protest --
Marc/Robbie Herbst
Contents:
1. About this Friday
2. About J.A.P.
3. Link to J.A.P. online
__________________________________________________
1. About this Friday
when: Friday at 7:00 pm
where: 16 beaver street, 5th floor
who: all are welcome
We hope all of you can join us as we invite L.A. based Journal of
Aesthetics and Protest Editors Marc and Robert Herbst. We asked them to
formulate some of the questions they are interested in addressing, as
always, it should be an interesting evening.
>From R & M:
Q's we are trying to raise.
What modes of art and political theory connect with the material
conditions of corporate and military globalization?
What are the many responses to this mis-en-scene by media makers?
What are the critical dialogues that fuel creative protest and engagement
with power?
How can critical thought prosper in reppressive times?
Q's for the evening (I am not sure of what we are doing that night, but
here's what I am hoping to raise), What have been the structures which
have supported,driven, and defined the conception of historical phases,
and modes, of counter cultures? Would it be possible (or desirable) to
name as a collectivity the modes of cultural production that are in
opposition to corporate/military globalization?
What are the emerging structures that are supporting,driving, and defining
these multiple contemporary practices? What do they look like?
__________________________________________________
2. About J.A.P
We are captivated by creative, critical, cultural, and conceptual
engagements with manifestations of power. The Journal of Aesthetics and
Protest explores the fertile areas between media production and politics.
We feature the writing of activists, artists, journalists, policy
advocates, and writers. Rather than asking "what can art do?", we ask
"what are the many ways that people are using media right now in sympathy
with, or in opposition to, structures of power?" Ultimately we are working
to locate contemporary modes of theory and practice in order to promote
multiple democratic radical practices.
The Journal of Aesthetics and Protest
A magazine is a stage where characters emerge as
articles. The characters are drawn from the infinite.
Before the curtain opens the audience is united in
their expectations but shy to the possibilities of
where together they might travel. Will it be all to
hell or to the stars with no return? After the final
applause the crowds exit having shared in the creation
of stories. Like a folk song, the sharing of the urge
ensures the continued emergence of tales.
The Second Issue of the Journal is born in the house
of “rollback.” Until September 11th, the movement for
global justice, the “globalization movement” had been
affectively setting the political agenda against
multinational corporate power. The collapse of
multinational hegemony in the rise of the xenophobic
war on terrorism has recast dissent and diversity into
the nomonological dustbin of “terrorism.” Those whose
work is neither “with America nor against it” have
found both a larger spotlight and a greater challenge
to their ideals. This issue of the journal is
dedicated to mapping the ways in which artists,
activist and media makers continue to make meaning in
spite of the flattening of the current war.
--------------------------------------------------
Working list of writes/subjects for issue #2,
Journal of Aesthetics and Protest
1) Alex Bhagat- Interviews Grey Philistine of the
Infernal Noise Brigade on making music for angry
mobs.
Alexis Bhagat is a sound artist and writer, from New
York City. He is co-editor of "Sound Generation:
Recording - Tradition - Politics" a collection of
interviews with 21 sound artists, to be published this
year by Chronoplastics.
2) Mariana Botey- Zapatista and the conspiracy of
silence- Indigenista Media Strategy from 1492 until
today.
Mariana is an artist and Member of the Los Angeles
Zapatista support network.
3) Ben Ehrenreich- LA's Arts and Action activist
space.
An interview with the Los Angeles Based Arts and
Action Collective on their multi-use art space.
Ben Ehrenreich is a journalist and a regular
contributor to the LA Weekly. His Work has also been
seen in the Nation, Mother Jones Magazine.
4) Aaron Gach and Trevor Paglen- Tactical Media and
Site Specificity.
An essay on tactical media.
Aaron Gach is a co-founder of the Center for Tactical
Magic, an organization dedicated to the coalescence of
art, technology, magic, and positive social
transformation.
Trevor Paglen is an artist and cultural geographer at
the UC Berkeley. He has shown his art all over the
place and published his
dough-thoughts in a bunch of cheap magazines and free
newspapers.
5) Liz Hanson- A narrative memory of fundamentalist
jail-brake as a youth expat. in Egypt.
Liz Hanson is a comedy writer and a playwright from
LA. She is also a founding member of c-level.
6) Tessa Laird- KRITIK!!!
An essay and vox populi critiquing and positing the
role of contemporary criticism. This piece starts with
the supposition that art criticism is an amazing way
for the art community to discuss its values.
.
Tessa Laird is a New Zealand born art critic and
artist who wrote the essay during her time in LA.
7)Bea Schlingelhoff- Security and Privacy.
An essay on the philosophical illusion of privacy.
Bea Schlingelhoff is a NY city based artist.
8) Benjamin Shepard- Absurd Responses vs. Earnest
Politics; Global Justice vs. Anti-War Movements;
Guerrilla Theatre and Aesthetic Solutions.
An essay critiquing the organizing and
representational strategies of the anti-war movement.
Benjamin Shepard is an active member of the Absurd
Response and Reclaim the Streets New York. He is
co-editor of From ACT UP to the WTO: Urban Protest and
Community Building in the Era of Globalization (Verso,
2002).
9) Yates McKee- Boom! -Protest art, why another world
is not paintable.
This essay discusses the double-edged critical work of
the David Thorne/Oliver Ressler collaboration.
Yates McKee recently co-curated Empire with the
Whitney studio program.
10) Patrick Reinsborough- De-colonizing Imagination
On the activist illusions of cultural change and
towards a long-term revolution.
Until recently, Patrick was the Rain Forest Action
Network's grassroots coordinator and has recently been
published in the Earth First! Journal.
11) Alan Minsky- notes towards an anarchist
democracy.
Alan writes on the real example and potential of the
European left to gain power and strengthen a
multinational anarchist economic system.
Alan is a sports writer and media activist based in
Los Angeles.
12) Christina Ulke- Interview with Peter Fend
Christina is writing on an interview with the artist
Peter Fend on collaborations, spy networks and the
revolutionary role of the artist.
Christina is an artist, thinker, cultural organizer
and founding member of C-level.
-------------------------------
Issue #1
Contributors List
The list of contributors is broken down into three
categories; production, mediation, and reception. The
production list contain stories about how art is made.
The mediation list traces what happens when art leaves
the studio. The reception list details how art is
received by audiences
Production
-Frida Berrigan (Policy Analyst-World Policy
Institute)
Writing on the ongoing collaborations between the
anti-war movement and the globalization movement.
-Alan Minsky (Sports Writer, Media Activist)
Writing on the semiotic schism between the new left
and the either younger globalization movement.
-The Masquerade Project (Artists Collective)
A group seeking to inject stylish fashion into
confrontational street protests.
masqueradeproject.org
-Dispute Resolution Services (Artist Collective)
Interview about art and direct action protest
tactics.
-Robby Herbst (Artist/ National College Professor)
Writes on the globalization movements critique and
response to academic forms of post-modern theory.
Mediation
-Lize Mogel (Artist/CalArts Professor)
Writes how art has been used to respond to the
collapse of the World Trade Center,
-Jen Liu (Artist/ Artist Assistant to John Baldessari)
Ponders the point at which @rtmark’s spectacular
warfare becomes ineffective on the spectacular field.
-Danielle Albright (UCLA PHD Candidate-Critical
Theorist)
Explores the similar ways that museums and theme parks
recreate their content to the public.
-Sarah Lewison (Artist, Film-maker)
(Ponders how the mediation of curator as contractor
affects the creation and mediation of the art object.
She also shares her experiences working as a
conceptual artist employed by the AFL-CIO.
Reception
-Cara Baldwin (Artist/ MOCA Employee)
Rants on the reception of artwork as a low paid museum
employee.
-Scott Benzell (Artist/music producer; John Spencer
Blues Explosion)
Theorizes on avante garde movements and how scary
post-human theorist are.
-John Kawakami and Cayce Calloway (Los Angeles
Independent Media Center)
Converse on the way in which community media both
challenges and ingratiates its audiences.
la.indymedia.org
__________________________________________________
3. Link to J.A.P.
http://www.journalofaestheticsandprotest.org/
