Comments on: Recapturing Subversion http://brianholmes.wordpress.com/2008/05/18/recapturing-subversion/ Wed, 16 Dec 2009 22:49:09 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: Book Materials « Continental Drift http://brianholmes.wordpress.com/2008/05/18/recapturing-subversion/#comment-4638 Book Materials « Continental Drift Fri, 21 Nov 2008 17:53:50 +0000 http://brianholmes.wordpress.com/?p=318#comment-4638 [...] -Recapturing Subversion: Twenty Twisted Rules of the Game [...] [...] -Recapturing Subversion: Twenty Twisted Rules of the Game [...]

]]> By: brianholmes http://brianholmes.wordpress.com/2008/05/18/recapturing-subversion/#comment-4537 brianholmes Tue, 30 Sep 2008 20:30:14 +0000 http://brianholmes.wordpress.com/?p=318#comment-4537 Well, the celebration of subversion through consumption is not something I really care much about. Notice that here, there is no consumption : there is production. A deliberatiely subversive device like Nikeground is created, not consumed. The blog you are reading is created, and it is read with the strict minimum of commodified relations intervening, to the extent that there is no advertising, you don't pay for anything except the electricity and the tool you use (I consider a computer a tool), what's more the talk was delivered at a self-organized, not paid-for event, etc. There is no reason to think of yourself as "consuming" either the blog or the event, the whole point is to clear out some semi-autonomous space within all that pervasive and invasive consumption, which if course is very real and affects us all. There has been a tremendous amount written about "Culture Jamming" (title of a book), Adbusters has year by year accumulated huge amounts of stuff on subversion through consumption, and according to an entire academic discipline called cultural studies, that's the very definition of culture itself! Of course they have some interesting points to make, but I don't find this so-called "subversion" very interesting in those forms, and the point of this text is to look beyond that. What you are doing as an artist may be different, may be fantastic, I have no clue and more power to ya if you are on to something new! But subversion-through-consumption is a very old idea, going back to Pop art I guess, and it now has thousands of accolytes among the Madison Avenue types. One could also argue that Nikeground draws on that old tradition even if it gives a slightly different twist; yes, for sure, I would agree, and it is the twist that I find valuable and also limited. best, Brian Well, the celebration of subversion through consumption is not something I really care much about. Notice that here, there is no consumption : there is production. A deliberatiely subversive device like Nikeground is created, not consumed. The blog you are reading is created, and it is read with the strict minimum of commodified relations intervening, to the extent that there is no advertising, you don’t pay for anything except the electricity and the tool you use (I consider a computer a tool), what’s more the talk was delivered at a self-organized, not paid-for event, etc. There is no reason to think of yourself as “consuming” either the blog or the event, the whole point is to clear out some semi-autonomous space within all that pervasive and invasive consumption, which if course is very real and affects us all. There has been a tremendous amount written about “Culture Jamming” (title of a book), Adbusters has year by year accumulated huge amounts of stuff on subversion through consumption, and according to an entire academic discipline called cultural studies, that’s the very definition of culture itself! Of course they have some interesting points to make, but I don’t find this so-called “subversion” very interesting in those forms, and the point of this text is to look beyond that. What you are doing as an artist may be different, may be fantastic, I have no clue and more power to ya if you are on to something new! But subversion-through-consumption is a very old idea, going back to Pop art I guess, and it now has thousands of accolytes among the Madison Avenue types. One could also argue that Nikeground draws on that old tradition even if it gives a slightly different twist; yes, for sure, I would agree, and it is the twist that I find valuable and also limited.

best, Brian

]]> By: Todd Fraser http://brianholmes.wordpress.com/2008/05/18/recapturing-subversion/#comment-4535 Todd Fraser Mon, 29 Sep 2008 07:54:52 +0000 http://brianholmes.wordpress.com/?p=318#comment-4535 Hello, I am an artists doing some research on cultural subversion through consumption and am looking for as many examples of this possible...are there any you can think of? Hello,

I am an artists doing some research on cultural subversion through consumption and am looking for as many examples of this possible…are there any you can think of?

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