Is Occupy Art?

Carl Scrase, "Fractal 090812," bull-clips, 2009. Courtesy John Buckley Gallery.

[An interview by WE Magazine with Carl Scrase]

[LINK]

[EXCERPT]:

WE_MAGAZINE
I assume Carl, you’d argue #occupy is art. Why?

CARL SCRASE: To be honest, I’m not sure if ‘argue’ is the correct verb. I may ‘propose’, ‘put forward’ or ‘ponder whether’. But no, no, I would not fervently argue such potentially slippery logic.

If I were to be pressured into giving an answer – which I suppose I am by virtue of being interviewed – I would offer the following.

I would suggest that in attempting to link ‘occupy’ and ‘art’ one could begin with a paper written in 2008 by Malcolm Miles, entitled Society As a Work of Art and then go on to watch the You Tube clip of him giving a lecture on the same theme. Malcolm gives a fantastic overview of the writing of Herbert Marcuse, talks about Joseph Beuys and touches on the topics of utopia, revolution, the history of occupations and how they all relate to art. This is a really interesting and informative summation of the historical underpinnings of ‘art’ and revolutionary social movements.

In the question and answer session at the end of the lecture Malcolm talks about Joseph Beuys’ claim that “Everyone is an artist”. To paraphrase Malcolm’s take on this famous phrase: Joseph Beuys means by this that everyone has a creative imagination and can envisage new social as well as artistic forms. The definition of art dissolves here into free living.

Joseph Beuys called himself a ‘social sculpture’, expanding and adding to the ambitions of the artist. This following quote from Beuys sums up his stance, and I believe is very interesting when linking ‘art’ + ‘occupy’. His words seem very prescient now, considering they were spoken in 1987, some 25 years ago: “In the future all truly political intentions will have to be artistic ones. … they will have to stem from human creativity and individual liberty. … this cultural sector … would be a free press, free TV, and so on … free from all state intervention. I am trying to develop a revolutionary model that formulates the basic democratic order in accordance with the people’s wishes … that changes the basic democratic order and then restructures the economic sector in a way that will serve the people’s needs and not the needs of a minority that wants to make its profits. That is the connection, and this I define as Art.”

ALAN MOORE with Kathy Battista

[NOTE: The interview with Alan Moore was originally published in The Brooklyn Rail (click link below), on the occasion of the publication of his new book (click image above)]

[LINK]

[EXCERPT]:

I thought that creative people in the U.S., especially academics, became excessively timid under eight years of Bush. They could no longer insist on anything. What I always tried to say to folks was “get crusty.” Insist on what you want, because what creative people want is what other folks need. In that sense, I believe in the vanguard idea. Now, with the Occupy movement, people are again in motion toward their dreams. That is so encouraging! So now I think I have less to say to Americans and more to listen to.



Occupy Your Mind

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Welcome to OCCUPY YOUR MIND! This is where we are posting videos, photos, and transcripts that people across the country have created from interviews with OCCUPY protesters. To help record the living history of OCCUPY, click HERE!

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Interview With Chris Hedges About Black Bloc

Reposted from truth-out.org

Thursday 9 February 2012

by: J.A. Myerson, Truthout | Interview

(Photo: Collin Anderson Sgroi / Flickr)

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Chris Hedges' syndicated Truthdig column "Black Bloc: The Cancer in Occupy," printed Tuesday at Truthout and elsewhere, created quite a stir among members of Occupy Wall Street (OWS). Some endorsed the sentiment. Among others, including some central organizers who helped plan the action over the summer, the column raised eyebrows and hackles. I compiled what I considered to be the best critiques of the piece that I came across (as well as my own questions) and interviewed Hedges over the phone.

I explained at the outset that I, too, had written in Truthout to urge doctrinal nonviolence and that I am enormously fond of Hedges' prodigious body of work. Nevertheless, I explained, there was a lot about the column that confounded me and many people I'd heard from, and I asked him to let me push for clarification on a number of points. Here is the transcript of that recorded interview, edited very minimally for clarity.

Click to read more ...

New Video from Liza Bear

Here's some OWS street theatre
of the absurd to start off the New Year,
which I trust will be an excellent one
for you.

Feliz Año Nuevo

Liza Béar

aka Squaring Off