[-empyre-] Reclaiming creativity as agent of change

[Saul Albert]

On Tue, Jul 19, 2011 at 11:09:33AM +0100, Simon Biggs wrote:
> The jester worked up close and dirty with authority, right by the
> monarch's side, but often in conflict with them.

Mongrel http://www.mongrel.org.uk/ used the word 'motley' to describe
their social/technical cultural practice and group identity.  It's a
word derived from the mixed colours of the 16th C court jester's
clothes, which was also used to describe colourful naval uniforms of the
'motley crew'. It has a literary heritage as the heroic or anti-heroic
group, facing adversity using their varied skills and characteristics.

This seems to be an integral part of the figure of the pirate: a heroic,
oppositional posture, flagrantly adopting the ethos of nomadic
pragmatism that Jussi brought up earlier via Rosi Braidotti. 

The discussion so far has outlined the ontology of the posture:
kingdoms, republics, corporations and unions that adopt this ethos
become 'vandals'. The moral archetype must remain embattled.

'Autonomous' practices may adopt similar strategies, but unopposed
pirate practices have nothing to 'reclaim'. Infrastructure art may be
very interesting, but only becomes sexy when it gets in trouble.

Mongrel remained embattled by being embattled, not seeking opposition,
but encountering it in language, technocracies, and the operations of
the markets it was involved with, and its own motley subjectivity.

This is not to say that dandy pirates are gentrifying the discourse.
It's to say that Lulz did the right thing by melting away in the face of
opposition. Not getting caught was a great strategy. So far at least.

I was really disappointed to hear about the Danish government banning
the operations of the Copenhagen Free University. 
http://www.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-1106/msg00079.html

My disappointed wasn't because they were banned, I was disappointed that
they came out of victorious retirement to announce their re-instatement
in the face of opposition. The CFU had shown a thousand pirate
universities how to take power simply through motley self-institution.
http://copenhagenfreeuniversity.dk/sisuk.html The Free U Resistance
Committee of June 18 2011 were the first to frame this as an intention.


X

Saul.

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