Creativity in Action: Counter-Spectacles and Affective Collectives

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes 1 Stevphen Shukaitis, Imaginal Machines: Autonomy & Self-Organization in the Revolutions of Everyday Life (London: Minor Compositions, 2009), p.142. 2 Judith Butler, ‘Bodies in Alliance and the Politics of the Street’ < http://eipcp.net/transversal/1011/butler/en/print> [23/03/2012] 3 See, for example, Paolo Virno, ‘Facing a New 17th Century’ < www.generation-online.org/p/fpvirno4.htm>; Rodrigo Nunes ‘What were you wrong about ten years ago?’, < http://turbulence.org.uk/turbulence-5/ten-years-ago/>; David Graeber, ‘The Shock of Victory’, < http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story = 2007graeber-victory>; Tadzio Mueller and Kriss Sol, ‘A tale of two victories? Or, why winning becomes precarious in times of absent antagonisms’, < http://transform.eipcp.net/correspondence/1183042751>; Ben Trott, ‘Notes on Why it Matters that Heiligendamm Felt like Winning’, < http://transform. eipcp.net/correspondence/1183458348> [01/04/2012]. 4 Christian Scholl, ‘Bakunin's Poor Cousins: Engaging Art for Tactical Interventions’, in Cultural Activism: Practices, Dilemmas, and Possibilities, ed. Begüm Özden Fırat and Aylin Kuryel, (Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, 2011), pp.157–178. 5 Matteo Pasquinelli, Animal Spirits: A Bestiary of the Commons (Amsterdam: NAi Publishers, Rotterdam and the Institute of Network Cultures, 2008), p.22. 6 Anja Kanngieser, ‘Breaking out of the specialist ‘Ghetto’: Performative encounters as Participatory Praxis in Radical Politics’, in Cultural Activism: Practices, Dilemmas, and Possibilities, ed. Begüm Özden Firat and Aylin Kuryel (Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, 2011), pp.115–136. 7 Stephen Duncombe, Dream: Re-imagining Progressive Politics in an Age of Fantasy (New York and London: The New Press, 2007). 8 Emrah Irzık, ‘A Proposal for Grounded Cultural Activism: Communication Strategies, Adbusters and Social Change’, in Cultural Activism: Practices, Dilemmas, and Possibilities, ed. Begüm Özden Fırat and Aylin Kuryel, (Amsterdam and New York: Rodopi, 2011), p.139. 9 The rationale of The Center for Artistic Activism is explicated as follows: ‘The practice of artistic activism has only accelerated in recent times, as savvy organizers learn to use the increasingly mediated political terrain of signs and symbols, stories and spectacles to their advantage. […] There has not been a place where researchers across a range of disciplines can gather to share their investigations and their challenges, a place where skilled practitioners in artistic activism can share their expertise and cultivate new tactics through cross-disciplinary collaboration. The Center for Artistic Activism fills this important need.’ For more information, see: < http://artisticactivism.org/our-rationale/> [01/04/202] 10 < artisticactivism.org/wp-content/uploads/…/SCA2012Nomination1.pdf> [01/04/202] 11 Here, we follow Marion van Osten, who argues that there is no such a thing ‘as “the creative industries” yet, but rather a discourse around culture and the economy based on an international desire to realise the creative industries as an actuality’. This desire materializes first in the creation of a new language, embodied in creative inventories and indexes, based on the transmission of the concepts of the market and finance, such as performance analysis, shareholders, and investment. Through these notions, cognitive abilities or capabilities are ‘treated as a value and a source in themselves, a source that could be generated and improved by training methods, or exploited by capital’. Marion van Osten, ‘Unpredictable Outcomes. A Reflection After Some Years of Debates on Creativity and Creative Industries’, in My Creativity Reader: A Critique of Creative Industries, ed. Geert Lovink and Ned Rossiter, (Amsterdam, Institute of Network Cultures, 2007), p.51. 12 Years ago, Raoul Vaneigem accused young militants of ‘enter[ing] the service of a Cause - the “best” of all Causes. The time they have for creative activity they squander on handing out leaflets, putting up posters, demonstrating or heckling local politicians. They become militants, fetishising action because others are doing their thinking for them’. Raoul Vaneigem, The Revolution of Everyday Life (London: Left Bank Books and Rebel Press, 1994), p.109. Now, being creative has become a ‘Cause’ lingering over activists. 13 BAVO, ‘Plea for an Uncreative City. A Self-Interview’, in The Creativity: A Free Accidental Newspaper Dedicated to the Anonymous Creative Worker ed. Geert Lovink et al., (Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures, 2007). 14 Stevphen Shukaitis, Imaginal Machines (Brooklyn, NY: Autonomedia, 2009), p.102. 15 According to Mitropoulos, activism ‘[…] is not a synonym for political action. It is a definition of it. It is a political doctrine – an -ism – that circumscribes what actions and dispositions might be deemed to be properly political and, therefore by contrast, those which are not. Similarly, “activist” is not a term that coincides with those who engage in political activities. Rather, “activist” is the demarcation of an identity and community that privileges particular kinds of activities, and forms of relation, by defining them as properly political. And what is deemed proper, for the most part, are the kinds of appropriations that make representational claims possible, and the apparent self-evidence of the boundaries of that appropriation.’ Angela Mitropoulos, ‘On the Borders of the Political – Activism Bound’ < http://s0metim3s.com/2007/06/30/on-the-borders-of-the-political/> [01/04/2012]. 16 Umut Kocagoz, ‘Icerigi Asan Bicim: Ankara Direnisi’ [Style that Goes Beyond the Content: Ankara Resistance], Birikim (2010), pp.94–97. 17 Various theoreticians have elaborated on the affective working of power relations, Foucault's formulization of bio-power, which conceptualizes power relations as productive and focusing on life itself, being amongst the first and the most influential. The relationship between affect and capitalism is explored in detail by Deleuze and Guattari, Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri as well as Brian Massumi, Franco ‘Bifo’ Berardi, Judith Butler and Sara Ahmed, among others. For our purposes here, we will mainly focus on Sara Ahmed's emphasis on the encounter and ‘stickiness’ in the emergence of ‘affective economies’. 18 Judith Butler, ‘Bodies in Alliance and the Politics of the Street’ < http://eipcp.net/transversal/1011/butler/en> [19/3/2013]. 19 Stevphen Shukaitis, Imaginal Machines, p.165. 20 Simon Critchley, Infinitely Demanding: Ethics Of Commitment, Politics Of Resistance (London: Verso, 2008), p.232. 21 Simon Critchley, Infinitely Demanding, p.232. 22 The difference between emotion and affect is a contested subject and is theorized in various ways. For an overview of the discussion, see: Kristyn Gorton, ‘Theorizing Emotion and Affect: Feminist Engagements’, Feminist Theory, 8.3 (2007), pp.333–348. 23 Sara Ahmed, The Cultural Politics of Emotion (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004). 24 Harry Cleaver, ‘The Inversion Of Class Perspective in Marxian Theory: From Valorisation To Self-Valorisation’, in Open Marxism: Theory and Practice, Volume 2, ed. Werner Bonefeld, Richard Gunn and Kosmas Psychopedis, (London: Pluto Press, 1992), p.129. 25 Harry Cleaver, ‘The Inversion Of Class Perspective in Marxian Theory’, p.129. 26 Judith Butler, ‘Bodies in Alliance and the Politics of the Street’. 27 Judith Butler uses the Brechtian term ‘re-functioning’ when she refers to the act of the political crowds in the streets. 28 Sungur Savran, ‘The “Sakarya Commune” Wins the First Round!’ < http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/326.php> [01/04/2012]. 29 Judith Butler, ‘Bodies in Alliance and the Politics of the Street’. 30 Judith Butler, ‘Bodies in Alliance and the Politics of the Street’. 31 Tabitha Bast and Hannah Mcclure, ‘The revolution is My Boyfriend’, in Occupy Everything: Reflections On Why It's Kicking Off Everywhere, ed. Alessio Lunghi and Seth Wheeler (New York: Minor Compositions Press, 2012), p.72. 32 Stevphen Shukaitis, Imaginal Machines, p.162. 33 Sara Ahmed, The Cultural Politics of Emotions, p.11. 34 Paolo Virno, ‘Wit and Innovation’, in Critique of Creativity: Precarity, Subjectivity and Resistance in the ‘Creative Industries’, ed. Gerald Raunig, Gene Ray and Ulf Wuggenig (London: Mayfly, 2011), pp.103. 35 Brian Massumi, ‘Navigating Movements’, in Hope: New Philosophies for Change, ed. Mary Zournazi (New York: Routledge, 2003), p.214. 36 Colectivo Situaciones, ‘Politicising Sadness’, < http://www.chtodelat.org/index.php?option = com_content&task = view&id = 329&Itemid = 167> [01/04/2012]