Dedicated to critical cultural production at the intersection of art and activism.

We cover artists from around the globe whose work explores and realizes social change. Our goal is to provide a narrative about these activist efforts while simultaneously participating in them. Maintained by The Groundswell Collective since 2007.

In the Footnotes of Library Angels: A Bi(bli)ography of Insurrectionary Imagination

James David Morgan wrote this post at 11:44 am on March 20th, 2009.

John Jordan has a litany of descriptors: co-director of Platform, co-founder of Reclaim the Streets, founder of the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army (CIRCA), author, lecturer, artist, radical, filmmaker, and so on.  His work consistently and successfully merges imagination with social engagement, and with In the Footnotes of Library Angels: A Bi(bli)ography of Insurrectionary Imagination [PDF], he’s scripted a penultimate introduction to thinkers who combine their creative capacities with radical politics.

The Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army for the 2008 Taipei Biennial
The Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army for the 2008 Taipei Biennial. Photo credit.

Written for the Live Art Development Agency’s Study Room, a free, open access research facility by and for artists, students, curators, academics and other arts professionals interested in Live Art, the piece

addresses performance and activism, and the strategies that artists have engaged with to address radical cultural, social and political agendas over the last 20 years.

From Beuys to Provo, stopping off to visit Wendell Berry, Herbert Marcuse, and the Zapatistas on the way, Jordan crams a rich genealogy into fifteen short pages – a must read for anyone wishing to understand and engage contemporary activist art.

Thanks, Andi!

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  2. Close Encounters 2: Acts of Social Imagination
  3. Signs of Revolt – Creative Resistance and Social Movements since Seattle
  4. Play it Cool? In Search of an Ethics and Aesthetics for dealing with Climate Change
  5. Paths Through Utopias – Video Editor Urgently Needed


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