Utopias as radical imaginary

Introduction

The following chapter is about action. Among the examples presented it will be easy to identify people that would observe a situation and react to it. The focus will be on creative acts towards political circumstances. Marcel Duchamp said that ‘the creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the speculator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus add his contribution to the creative act.’(1) The activist, the guerrilla performer and the charity volunteer understand the context, in other words, the sociopolitical moment and the historical background. The second outweighs the first because the human problems are of utterly concretion, due to the fact that they are historical. Therefore, as Ortega y Gasset points out, the only method that would solve them is the (2) The human being have the opportunity to learn from the past and to try not to repeat mistakes. Moreover, in case the future is as Nietzsche thought, an eternal return, and we are drawn to this spiral of time, remembering the past is the only way to plan the future. A model that Isaac Asimov would call Psychohistory in his Science Fiction Novel (and modern society critique) “The Foundation”(3).

The citizen tends to blame the government for the problems in the city. A chain of blame that would continue endlessly until

(1) THE CREATIVE ACT by Marcel Duchamp. Session on the Creative Act Convention of the American Federation of Arts Houston, Texas. April 1957. Published in: Robert Lebel: Marcel Duchamp. New York: Paragraphic Books, 1959, pp. 77/78.

The Human Being, due to his ability to remember, acumulates his own past, he posess it and make use of it. The man is never a first man. (2) La Rebelión de las Masas. (The Revolt of the Masses) José Ortega y Gasset. Ed. Tecnos. Spain. Originally written in 1929. Tecnos Edition 2003.

(3) Preludio a la Fundación (Prelude to Foundation) Isaac Asimov. Ed. De Bolsillo. Spain. 1988. Pp. 452-455

(4) An Introductory Dictionary Of Lacanian Psychoanalysis. Dylan Evans. Routledge. London. 1966. Pp 195-196.

(5) Claire Bishop, ‘Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics’, October, Fall 2004. 13 Artforum 36, no.9. Pp 65-66

(6) The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life by Erving Goffman. Anchor; 1st edition. USA. 1959.

someone takes responsibility for what is happening. Politic is not a matter of the leaders of the society only, it concerns and, more important, is responsibility of every member of the same. The activist for instance, understand the sociopolitical moment and the mistakes of the past and creates a situation where change is possible. Laclau and Mouffe argue that a fully functioning democratic society is not the one in which all antagonisms have disappeared, but one in which new political frontiers are constantly being drawn and brought into debate. (4) The responsibility of the members of the society is to understand the moment, to organize themselves and to live democracy, and ultimately to dream, to bring utopias into the political context. As Claire Bishop recalls that without the concept of utopia there is no possibility of a radical imaginary. (5) Of course there is a need to balance a social positivity and a totalitarian regime both extremes have been proven wrong, and then again, learning from the past clarifies the path to follow. The process of socialization is based on the everyday acts and ways of interaction shaped through the contact with the daily environment. The performance of social identity, the exercise of culture (6). Whenever someone is expressing his opinion is practicing an exercise of culture. A common saying declares that culture is lived on the streets. On the following examples it will be possible to observe how people takes responsibility on the political moment and generate change throughout culture.

Guerrilla Performance

Situation Chart

(1) Culture in the Age of Three Worlds. Michael Denning. Verso, London and New York. 2004. (2) Periodising collectivism. Blake Stimson and Gregory Sholette. Third text ISSN 09528822, 2004 Kala Press/Black Umbrella. (3) “The performer of the ‘Panic Theatre is not hiding behind his character, he aims to find his real expression. Instead of being a false exhibitionist, he is a poet in trance mode.” Psicomagia. Alejandro Jodorowsky. Siruela, !st ed, Argentina. 2005 Pp 49.

(4) Definitions and dates based on the Official Website: www.sfmt.org

Action Art Between 1945 and 1989, culture took on a definite political heft in the undeclared war between capitalism and socialism. As a result, the cultural turn raised the specter of a cultural politics, a cultural radicalism, a cultural revolution (1). Cultural politics in the post war were most clearly realized by informally networked communities of artists, from the Situationists to Group Material to the Yes Men (2). Is during this period that the Guerrilla Performance starts in the shape of street theatre. These performances mostly political would draw the attention of the people using the surprise factor and what Alexandro Jodorowsky would describe as ‘Panic’ (3). This would be the scenario where The San Francisco Mime Troupe (SFMT) started their performances, first as an alternative to present divergent theatrical concepts but then transitioned to comment about the political repression in the United States of America, the growing American Civil Rights Movement, military and conventions abroad. The Troupe clinched its radical reputation in 1967 when L’AMANT MILITAIRE, a comedy by Goldoni updated to satirize the Vietnam war. The Guerrilla character of the group is guided by the surprise factor. They perform in local public parks identifying relevant headlines and dramatizing the operation of these forces in stories that make audiences feel the impact of political events on personal life (4) The artist and author Allan Kaprow said that “The line between art and life should be

kept as fluid, and perhaps indistinct, as possible” He was a pioneer in establishing the concepts of performance art and explored multidisciplinary collaboration on his happenings. Following the concepts that he started the Teatro Campesino (“Farm-workers’ Theater”) enacted events inspired by the lives of their audience. Although the troupe began by entertaining the farm workers, within a year of their founding they began to tour to raise funds for the striking farm workers. By 1967, their subject matter had expanded to include aspects of Chicano culture that went beyond the fields: education, the Vietnam War, indigenous roots, and racism (5).

The group Reclaim the Streets (RTS) is a collective with a shared ideal of community ownership of public spaces. Participants characterize the collective as a resistance movement opposed to the dominance of corporate forces in globalization, and to the car as the dominant mode of transport. Reclaim the Streets often stage non-violent direct action street reclaiming events such as the ‘invasion’ of a major road, highway or freeway to stage a party. While this may obstruct the regular users of these spaces such as car drivers and public bus riders, the philosophy of RTS is that it is vehicle traffic, not pedestrians, who are causing the obstruction, and that by occupying the road they are in fact opening up public space. (6)

“Performance Art does not represent the illusion of events, but rather present actual events as art “(7). The opportunity that

(5) GUIDE TO THE EL TEATRO CAMPESINO ARCHIVES 19641988. University of California, Santa Barbara. Davidson Library. Department of Special Collections. California Ethnic and Multicultural Archives. Collection Number: CEMA 5.

(6) No Logo: No Space, No Choice, No Jobs. Naomi Klein. Picador., 2002. USA

(7) Perform. Jens Hoffmann and Joan Jonas. Art Work Thames and Hudson. UK. 2005. Pp 15

guerilla performances found is in the sake of identifying a community and empower the same to question their situation. This insight will allow transformation on the political moment and a mature public opinion.

Activism

Situation Chart

The Demiurgic Business of Rebellion

Is important to make clear that the word activisim, for the purpose of this work, is taken by the most essential meaning of intentional action to bring social or political change. The methodology that is used outweigh the means (1). Being clear on this, is important to mention that even organizations like the United Nations are following an activist method by sending peacekeepers to countries torn by conflict. The cases of study chosen here are implementing designed tools and a service strategy that for the ultimate purpose of this work would inspire the design process to be more holistic and have a deeper impact in their target group. And following the concept of impact and target, the first case is the collective Casagrande. In the 2004, after 70 years after the General Francisco Franco invaded it, the city of Guernika was bombed again, although unlike the last time in this occasion the inhabitants were bombed with poems. The survivors of the bombing in 1937 were clapping at the time that the sky was covered by the reflection of the poems that 3 Chilean artists were throwing from an helicopter. The aim of this action was to heal a society, to transform the past into future. Understanding the context the artists mixed Latin American and Basque poems. This gesture was targeted on one hand for the older generations that survived the Spanish Civil War, and on the other hand to the new generations that would decide wheth-

(1) The Activist’s Handbook. Randy Shaw. University of California Press; 1 edition. 2001. USA

Series of images taken from revistacasagrande.blogspot.com

Series of images taken from revistacasagrande.blogspot.com

Series of images taken from revistacasagrande.blogspot.com

(2) Psicomagia. Alejandro Jodorowsky. Siruela, !st ed, Argentina. 2005 Pp 284

Volkskrant newspaper 5th of November 2008. Netherlands

Format of the student card that Mejor Vida Corp would send upon request via their website. www.irational.org (3) “For a human interface-Mejor Vida Corp. Minerva Cuevas 2003 (CC)Creative Commons License

er if terrorism is the best way to either agree or disagree with the disentanglement of the region from the country. It was an act of social therapy that was performed before in Santiago and Dubrovnik, Croatia. Jodorowsky said: “In my opinion a scientist can not become a therapist. Healing is the job of artists and poets. (2) The Graphic design collective Gorilla is in charge of the lower right corner of the Volkskrant newspaper (Netherlands). Six days a week, they fill it with their graphic column, commenting on the news. Their guerilla-like designs try to stimulate a reaction from their viewers, rather than making a short joke about actuality: a difference between common comics and the graphic statements of Gorilla. In the year 1998 the Mexican artist Minerva Cuevas founded a one-woman, notfor-profit enterprise called ‘Mejor Vida Corporation’ (Better Living Corporation). The company aims to enhance the quality of life of the citizens of the world. Items like free subway tickets, barcodes to reduce the price of food in the supermarket, letters of recommendation and student identification cards were distributed around the city. While these interventions were not planned as an experiment, they evolved into one: a social and political experiment conducted in the arena of everyday life (3). The company sends student cards upon request in order to make available student discounts for everyone. Cuevas distrib-

uted caffeine pills to subway passenger in the New York Metro in order to keep them awake and alert in case somebody would steal their bags while they are asleep. The purpose of her work is to interfere into the daily routine and provide various forms of services. An artistic practice that focuses on inter human relationships, diverse forms of exchange, and links between the work of art and the social sphere in which it is produced, perceived and exhibited (4).

What these examples are making available for this work is the possibility to participate actively in the society where one is living, not only activism but pro-activism. The anarchist cookbook suggest their readers to think first what and why they are doing it, and before every recipe points out whether if the activity would be consider as legal or illegal. Nevertheless, it promotes creative social action, organized strategies for expression (5). Perhaps some activities and result would result questionable, but then again, the aim of this work is to pint out the methodologies used in social action to generate positive transformation.

Posters in the NY Metro promoting Cueva’s campaign.

(4) Perform. Jens Hoffmann and Joan Jonas. Art Work Thames and Hudson. UK. 2005. Pp 109

(5) Recipes for disaster: an anarchist cookbook. Anonymus. CrimethInc. 2004. USA.