Re: [-empyre-] Do You Still Your Own Reality?

[Brett Stalbaum <stalbaum@ucsd.edu>]

In retrospect (post-election), and as a citizen of the U.S., it occurs 
to me again that way forward for (political) artists (again, here at 
least) is no longer tactical subterfuge, but a long term strategy of 
analytical practice that produces "reality congruency" tools/experiences 
that are non-didactic and non-ironic. In much of my country, (the only I 
can speak for), many people are suspicious of teachers and knowledge 
workers unless they are vetted by a church, and really are impervious to 
irony. Culture jamming, media manipulation, and subterfuge that draw out 
the contradictions (mostly by giving gentle assistance to machines such 
as the Bush-machine, which are on some level self-ridiculing to begin 
with - like the Yes-men and smoky the log, for example) indeed bring 
much joy in revealing the now fully merged fundamentalist/corporatist 
world-view for what it is. But it reveals it, over and over again, only 
to the choir. In a democracy, there is sometimes a price to pay for 
making fun of people.

At the same time we are competing with a representational machine that 
is able to reflect a great deal artificial-ridiculing back against 
reason; to create artificial realities for reasonable people to think 
about and respond to (in a mode of constant defense), and to do all of 
this with a much greater array of media resources that artists could 
ever hope bring to bear. Politically then, there is little we can do in 
the short term. Art can best serve reason by turning back toward it; 
trying to serve and fortify it without being cheeky. In the U.S. 
anyway... In short, the way forward would seem to be a long-term 
strategic radical transparency, dialog, and honesty over tactical 
culture-jamming and subterfuge.

Brett Stalbaum wrote:

> Hi Randall,
>
> Given, yes. But it raises some interesting questions. At this moment 
> (politically/tactically) is it most effective (or interesting) for 
> artists to perform their own "pre-emptive reality annihilation" (or 
> perhaps: envisioning an alternative future and trying to instantiate it 
> as the Rove's of the world seem to do quite successfully), or to 
> "culture jam" any such (nearly psychotic) right-wing reality distortions 
> (using them as art supplies and comic fodder - seemingly easy to do), or 
> perhaps to formulate an art practice that turns to and engages with (or 
> grapples with) the real maintaining a general goal of producing tools 
> (be they analytic, aesthetic, software, hardware), that are useful for 
> individuals in terms of formulating their own, more congruent readings 
> of the real? All? Something else?