The Journal of Aesthetics and Protest
April 17, 2012 - 6:00pm - 8:00pm
Hi everyone,
This Tuesday, we return to our Potluck Skype Chat format and talk to co-editors Christina Ulke and Marc Herbst about the current issue of The Journal of Aesthetics and Protest (JOAAP).
About the current issue
Grassroots Modernism, issue #8, was released in November 2011 and is infused with the spirit of current social movements and the multiplicity of approaches to freedom that they inspire. To help navigate the latest issue of JOAAP, the opening editorial offers a chart describing how each writers’ articles articulate “distrust/trust of institutionality in relationship to how much mediation they understand is useful in reflecting on the complexity of culture”. Contributors to Grassroots Modernism include Ultra-red, Olive McKeon, Jaleh Mansoor, Sue Bell Yank, and the Survival Kit Collective.
There’s a lot to say about this issue, and we’re really looking forward to talking about it with everyone this week!
About JOAAP
Both The Journal of Aesthetics and Protest (editorial collective / periodical) and The Journal Press (their publishing imprint) were founded around 2000 in Los Angeles as collaboratively run entities. Co-founder Robby Herbst describes JOAAP as “…an interdisciplinary activist art and media project. The Journal publishes the eponymous periodical as well as books, organizes exhibitions and events, and acts as an artist collective.”
During a residency and exchange project in 2006, the editors described the project:
Our magazine sits at the discursive juncture of fine art, media theory and anti-authoritarian activism. We sculpt projects that challenge hegemonic representations (of knowledge, art, activism) or that spark situations for community-based social change or creation. We work collaboratively with individuals and collectives on several continents.
The Journal of Aesthetics and Protests may be a rare critical machine in that while it publishes critical theory, it has no ties to any academic or cultural institution. In spirit and practice, it has as much in common with Indymedia.org as it does with October.
October magazine describes JOAAP:
Things like The Journal of Aesthetics & Protest, 16 Beaver, e-flux, and a lot of mildly contentious Web sites are incubating what in Eastern Bloc societies would have been called “dissident culture.” And despite this “underground” culture’s many shortcomings, it is clearly outstripping the official, state-sponsored, corporate- sponsored aboveground culture. This peripheral material is downloaded—it’s on people’s desktops—and even if it has no particular pedigree, it has been driving the conversation below the official conversation.
More links
The Journal’s website:
http://joaap.org/
Dispatches from Occupy:
http://joaap.org/webspecials/dispatches.html
A reflection on JOAAP and economies:
http://www.artandwork.us/2009/11/how-do-you-respond-to-the-economic-depr…
Join us this Tuesday!
See you all then!
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