[iDC] Reposting - Re: A Reflection on the Activist Strategies in the Web 2.0 Era

Tue Jan 27 17:21:24 UTC 2009

Hi Michael,

Any action within the cultural landscape performed from a minoritarian
political position -- whether reactive or positive, new or old -- will be
perceived by authority as a "contestational" act. And often as not, any or
all of a variety of disciplinary agents will be sent to re-stabilize the
discourses of the status-quo.

cheers,

Lucia

On Tue, Jan 27, 2009 at 12:20 PM, Lucia Sommer <sommerlucia at gmail.com>wrote:

> Hi Michael,
>
> Any action within the cultural landscape performed from a minoritarian
> political position -- whether reactive or positive, new or old -- will be
> perceived by authority as a "contestational" act. And often as not, any or
> all of a variety of disciplinary agents will be sent to re-stabilize the
> discourses of the status-quo.
>
>
> cheers,
>
> Lucia
>
>
>
>
> On Tue, Jan 27, 2009 at 4:45 AM, Michael Bauwens <michelsub2003 at yahoo.com>wrote:
>
>> Lucia,
>>
>>
>>
>> you write:
>>
>>
>>
>> Meanwhile, all we have is permanent resistance, by definition tactical.
>>
>>
>>
>> But why is resistance, by definition a reactive and negative endeavour,
>> the only alternative to  the strategy of taking power??
>>
>>
>>
>> Why not construct and interconnect the new, using all the interstices and
>> new possibilities of interconnection at your disposal?
>>
>>
>>
>> Why not turn it around, the construction of alternatives first, resistance
>> second.
>>
>>
>>
>> Michel
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>  ------------------------------
>>  *From:* Lucia Sommer <sommerlucia at gmail.com>
>> *To:* idc at mailman.thing.net
>> *Sent:* Saturday, January 24, 2009 1:29:21 PM
>> *Subject:* [iDC] Reposting - Re: A Reflection on the Activist Strategies
>> in the Web 2.0 Era
>>
>>
>> Sorry, I meant to post the below reply to the whole list. Curt, perhaps
>> you want to re-post your last reply as well? Good discussion. -- Best, Lucia
>>
>> For de Certeau, individuals and resistant constellations can't produce
>> strategy, and I think he's pretty convincing on that point. It's not an
>> ethical distinction I'm making (and I don't think it was for de Certeau
>> either, rather his was among other things a challenge to certainties of the
>> orthodox left that had led to impasse and to totalizing notions concerning
>> the location of resistance). I certainly WISH  we, the "multitudes", had
>> strategic power. Indeed, the utopian left has long proposed that we do, and
>> even some recent attempts to re-think Marxism, like Hardt and Negri's, argue
>> that a "movement of movements" could have strategic power. I myself am
>> sceptical and tend toward the pessimistic on this point, or at least
>> "pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will". While I would in
>> principle support a genuinely left revolution (strategic action), I don't
>> see it happening any time soon. Meanwhile, all we have is permanent
>> resistance, by definition tactical.
>>
>> But to return to the kind of discussion that I think you're proposing with
>> its emphasis on the questions of efficacy of practices -- which is  also
>> what interests me: I really appreciate your attempt to problematize the
>> binary use/production and to open up discussion about the kinds of
>> negotiations that cultural producers make vis a vis institutions. I agree we
>> need a better language to describe and think about these negotiations.
>>
>> In this sense de Certeau's strategy/tactics distinction can be an ally to
>> problematizing unproductive binaries like the "pure" activists vs. "bad"
>> institution. I think we need to acknowledge the degree to which our work has
>> the potential to be used by institutional power in ways that can compromise
>> the public good, for instance by creating a signifier that houses a false
>> set of associations that in turn mask the narrow interests and desire for
>> profit of a few. But that realization can also lead to a paralysis, where
>> one is afraid to do anything at all. One tactic suggested by Certeau's work
>> on monumentality and used by many cultural producers in the process of
>> institutional negotiations is that of ephemerality (as counter to strategic
>> monumentality): the tactician gets in and out fast, deterritorializing, so
>> as to avoid leaving material monuments or ideological imperatives.
>>
>> That's only one example, but perhaps a fruitful area of discussion would
>> be that of failure. CAE sometimes does a talk called "Crash and Burn," where
>> it discusses times that projects have failed dramatically and even helped
>> reinforce authoritarian power.  There's also the related question of how art
>> fails every day, if we measure cultural activism (or any other resistant
>> action) by the individual achievement of a single action. But fortunately
>> collective power, the aggregate of cultural activism, can create the
>> possibility to shift the status quo.
>>
>>
>> Thanks again, and best,
>>
>> Lucia
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Lucia Sommer
> 60 College Street
> Buffalo, NY 14201
> (716) 359-3061
>
>

-- 
Lucia Sommer
60 College Street
Buffalo, NY 14201
(716) 359-3061
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