[-empyre-] Tactics and Strategies

[Renee Turner <geuzen@xs4all.nl>]

Hello Ryan ,Christina and all,

I am sorry for the delayed response.  We were in Stockholm and could  
only go online via a coin operated surfing station in our hotel. The  
whole experience was a nightmarish mixture between broadband  
technology and a penny arcade.

Christina: thanks for the gentle prodding to get us to elaborate a  
little more...it was much needed ;-)

Ryan: I am so glad that you bring up De Certeau, as his thinking has  
been very influential for us.   In his book, The Practice of Everyday  
Life, he writes: "Everyday life invents itself by poaching in  
countless ways on the property of others." (intro: p.xxii)  This is  
precisely what we find exciting about the web.  To come back to the  
idea of "arriving first" mentioned in the Holmes quote, I was trying  
to suggest that we don't have that desire because "arriving second"  
might offer altogether better opportunities.  Sometimes, it is  
interesting to be both consumer and producer.  There are immense  
potentials in operating at that intersection.  (maybe that's the  
pragmatism you speak of...)

Borrowed languages and adapted tools, create space for things not to  
be what they seem.  They open up space for works to tap into other  
systems, known languages and as a result, reach audiences never  
imagined.  And here, I would like to pick up on another notion of De  
Certeau,  "la perruque", the wig or disguise. He writes: La perruque  
is the worker's own work disguised as work for his employer.  It  
differs from pilfering, in that nothing of material value is stolen.  
It differs from absenteeism in that the worker is officially on the  
job.  La perruque may be as simple a matter as a secretary's writing  
a love letter on "company time" or as complex as a cabinetmaker's  
"borrowing" a lathe to make a piece of furniture for his living room.  
(p.25)

For us, using words like tools and DIY,  is about playing with the  
conventions of the net.  It's our version la perruque.  If you do a  
google image search for paper dolls, you'll find us nestled amongst  
children's games, book images and little girlie goodies: http:// 
images.google.com/images?num=50&hs=ZAN&hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox- 
a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&q=DIY+paper 
+dolls&btnG=Search&lr=lang_nl%7Clang_en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

Or another example, we have been archiving the negative names for  
women over several years (ranging from the virgin to the whore)  and  
have turned them into a set of T-shirts sold in our webshop.  Our net  
stats show us that people often come to our site because they are  
searching for porn. (their keywords reveal them ;-)  And oddly  
enough, they linger.  We actually get teenagers that email us because  
they want to add to our list of words, or they want to buy a T-shirt.  
(sorry this project is in Dutch but hopefully you get the idea:  
http://www.geuzen.org/current/geuzennamen/ ) In a way, through mis- 
recognition and the vernacular of the web, our work can move across  
unfamiliar territories or finds itself viewed in unconventional  
registers.

> But that is what i'm interested in regarding the sub-rational. It's  
> a way to not wholly give oneself over to irrationality -- that  
> there is some possibility for the rational/conscious and the  
> irrational/unconscious to crossover and overlap. It's also  
> important to clarify that i'm using the terms "ir/rational" and "un/ 
> conscious" in their most generic sense, and not in some grand  
> reference to psychoanalysis. i am somewhat interested in the  
> application of some psychoanalytic ideas into socio-political  
> theory, as the references to Victor Wolfenstein and the Frankfurt  
> School make apparent, just not in the disciplinary sense. i'm not  
> concerned with disciplinary integrity, i guess is what i mean.

Thanks for the elaboration and I completely agree about crossing  
over.  It's funny, because we, meaning De Geuzen, come from such  
different disciplines, purity of discourse is something we cannot  
accomplish even if we tried.  :-)  I guess that is one of the  
affordances of collaboration, like you say... skill swapping and  
cross-pollination are what it's about.

>  Just about everyone that's used a web browser since 2001 has  
> performed a Google image search and has experienced how images are  
> instantly archived by some hidden mechanism, so when that mechanism  
> is made overtly political by the use of recognizably political  
> keywords and the implicitly political through the revelation of the  
> process of distribution, modification and manipulation (through the  
> process of montage, juxtaposition and layering as translations of  
> geopolitics [via language] and time for example) there are several  
> "inroads" there i think.

I don't think we live in a time of singular strategies, but as you  
said earlier, perhaps in a moment of multiple tactics.  And within  
our own work this has played itself out in different approaches.   
Sometimes we make simple things, a logo-style doormat with the word  
"democracy" printed across it (http://www.geuzen.org/?p=42 ) , a  
sticker of solidarity amongst prostitutes in the red-light district  
in Amsterdam, a tactical media swap meet  blanket (http:// 
www.geuzen.org/?p=73#more-73 ) or a head scarf to wear at protest  
rallies (http://www.geuzen.org/current/uniform/brains/slogan.html )

And other projects run at another speed, they are slow and their  
results not immediately visible.  If practice can be compared to a  
stove, these projects would be stewing and cooking on a low fire.   
For us, that is a project like, the Image Tracer which came out of an  
earlier project Historiography Tracer and before that it was a  
lecture series looking at the mediated image.   Research is like  
that, it takes on many forms and requires different scenarios to get  
your head around a subject..

Of course this is nothing new.  Artists like Group Material worked on  
exhibitions, hosted discussions and published books.  People like CAE  
have done the same.  Also, General Idea made everything from  
sculptural objects to posters, buttons and badges.

> i think maybe a useful way of taking this further is to think about  
> what the "stakes" are... what are the consequences of different  
> tactics? Is there "failure" or "success"?

Actually, in an interview many years ago someone asked this same  
question.  If you say your engaged in "research" it is inevitable.   
We couldn't answer then...and we've discussed this point with each  
other quite a lot.   "success or failure?" ....it was a question that  
literally stupefied us.   Not because there is nothing at stake, but  
maybe successes and failures have their own delusions.  Could there  
be another option, of going back to the drawing board....again... and  
again...?

well, I guess that is it for the moment.... take care and all the  
best out in cyberland,

Renee