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John Jordan
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clowngames G8 2005
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John? What happened? Are you in jail? I love what Rajni is saying here and that is the goal of all my work - to create openings where we don't know the answers and dialogue can happen. And yet, of course, because we all have different access to la...
I wasn't being cynical, if that's what you were saying here. My observation is that more advanced technologies are being created, in response, to control those who wish to live in harmony with each other and the natural world. Two parallel tracks ...
return-to-turtle-island
and the more we wallow in fear and cynicism the more the world doesn't change and we head towards the collapse of life as we knew it
It seems the more people come together in protest, the more technology is developed and implemented to 'control' it, by those the protest is directed at.
On April the 1st, I will be joining with thousands on the streets of London's Financial district on the eve of the G20 summit.The movement that i work with 'climate camp' which in the past has squatted land next to fossil fuel developments such as...
Thanks John for your reminder, as always, of the politics of revolutionary hope -- not at all the same thing as naivete or armchair idealism, as your work makes clear, but instead something practical, material, and demonstrable.
Bloody marvellous!
I just returned from giving a talk at the distributed premiere of THE AGE OF STUPID a shattering film about climate change, a docu fiction set in the future in a post climate catastrophe world... the premiere was the worlds largest simultaneous pr...
Comment Wall (3 comments)
- At 4:43am on April 6, 2009,
chloe cavagna said…
- Hello,
I’m a French journalist working for a new TV show called “Global resistance” about the new form of activism and subculture in general aired on the French public channel called France 4. For this TV show, we are actually searching for groups which are really implicated in activism and use comedy, provocation, art (…) as means of expression that we could follow on a report. Have you planned any action soon? If so, what type? All info is welcomed…
We’ve already filmed guerrilla gardeners in London (Richard Reynolds), the Rebel Clown Army of Amsterdam, anti-nuclear militants in Berlin, the Yes Men, Alexandre Orion in Brazil, adbusters, granny peace brigade in NY, bike lanes in NY…etc…
Thanks for your help and for forwarding this mail to other groups. If you have some other contacts, I would appreciate if you could send me their info…
All the Best,
Chloé Cavagna
cavagna@kmprod.fr
- At 9:37am on March 23, 2009,
rajni shah said… - John - I'll respond with an image because there are so many words already. I wanted to say "I always enjoy conversations with you" but realised we've really only had one, that time in Vienna. But since then I have become more hopeful, taken hold, created my own 'clowning days', held feasts in public spaces, travelled by train when I am working in Europe, and I'm sure there are many more traces of your influence in my life. Here's an image I was playing with for my new show, 'Glorious!' -- which is about the future.
- At 12:41pm on March 18, 2009,
Caffyn Kelley said…
- John Jordan,
How absolutely wonderful and full of hope I feel after spending the morning looking at your websites and ideas. I had to wait until I could print out your paper (Library Angels) to read the tiny footnotes, which are indeed a marvelous “bibliography for socially engaged practice” and a goldmine for future teaching and inspiration. Thank you so much. I would love it if you could share here your essay on “The Art of Necessity” re “the body that most touches and effects society is the one that is placed between the cogs of the machine” (p. 5) as my current project on touch explores issues and tissues of the body. Feeding this project will be your brilliant observation that “In a time when capitalism has hijacked our desires and wants, we must make rebellion more beautiful than anything capitalism can ever dream of” – and that “No one is going to want to change the world unless it is the most joyful and desirable activity around” (p. 7). I see the erotic as a colonized place in myself and others and the space between us that has this kind of potential for creative play, heartfelt resistance, juicy joy. I will send you a picture of a rock (one of my “Touchstones”) to speak back to the rock on your website at The Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination. I loved your quote by unknown writer: “Don’t ask me what to do to change the world. Ask yourself what makes you feel alive, because the world needs more people who feel alive.”
From your words on The Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination: “We believe that playful forms of cultural intervention in everyday life and the development of convivial spaces that enable participants to cultivate full confidence in their own creative capacity are fundamental tools for social change.” Yes! Perhaps because I am living in an isolated small rural community, but also perhaps because of my inborn inclination to living a very solitary life, I have been inclined to explore the Web as a place to play with creating such convivial spaces – I see this network as potentially becoming a space like this. Web 2.0 interactive technologies can help us create a radically democratic online environment with permeable boundaries and a web of hyperlinked projects and ideas that begin to co-create solutions with a collective intelligence. Easier to imagine than to accomplish, of course, as everyone is so busy and it’s hard to make time for interactions online – yet one more job to do. I look forward to the project you have in mind for April Fool’s day, and would love to hear any other ideas you may have for how to explore possibilities for the development of convivial spaces in online environments. Because I am on online educator, I think of how wonderful it would be to see your project C.R.A.S.H - A Postcapitalist A to Z developed as an online course/community/project.
By the way, some things that Library Angels have brought me – at the Recycling Free Store one day, a copy of Christopher Alexander et. al.’s book A Pattern Language, which became the starting point and inspiration for my work on Mapping Queer Meanings, as well as later approaches to online education. Alexander Wilson’s The Culture of Nature which continues after almost 20 years to feed my environmental work.
Regarding your comments on not getting caught up in proving whether what we do is art, yes I agree. I wrote an article many years ago on the notion that it is the very uselessness of art that gives it its status as art – a status that emerges in the 19th Century in opposition to the new ubiquity of images and image-making. I think this historically observable and unavoidable for people who situate themselves as artists. (Art and Life)
So thank you again and again. So many intersections and inspirations. I look forward to reading more and having this time of your residency to focus on your wonderful work.
Profile Information
An introduction to art and activism
To start my residency, I thought that i would post this text. "In the footnotes of Library Angels" which introduces the way i think about art and activism, engagement and rebellion. It was commissioned as a library guide for the Live Art Development Agency in London a few years ago, and also works as a bibliography for socially engaged practice. The foot notes are more important than the main body of text, like grassroots rising up ...
Ill be posting various texts and seeing if they generate a debate.. and then on April the first which is Financial and Fossil fools day, i am suggesting that this online community try to do something in the public sphere...I'll explain more later..
The Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination, which I'm part of, has just launched a call for work/interventions and a course merging permaculture, art and activism - see http://labofii.net/experiments/crash/ some of you might be interested in applying?
Enjoy ...
Library angels.pdf
Ill be posting various texts and seeing if they generate a debate.. and then on April the first which is Financial and Fossil fools day, i am suggesting that this online community try to do something in the public sphere...I'll explain more later..
The Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination, which I'm part of, has just launched a call for work/interventions and a course merging permaculture, art and activism - see http://labofii.net/experiments/crash/ some of you might be interested in applying?
Enjoy ...
Library angels.pdf
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April 1st Financial and Fossil Fools day
On April the 1st, I will be joining with thousands on the streets of London's Financial district on the eve of the G20 summit.The movement that i work with 'climate camp' which in the past has squatted land next to fossil fuel developments such as Heathrow's third runway and Kingsnorth Coal fired power station, is going to attempt to take over the street… Continue
Posted on March 26, 2009 at 6:00am — 7 Comments
THE AGE OF STUPID
I just returned from giving a talk at the distributed premiere of THE AGE OF STUPID a shattering film about climate change, a docu fiction set in the future in a post climate catastrophe world... the premiere was the worlds largest simultaneous premiere, featured in 65 different cinemas all linked up by satellite ... and all this done by an independent documentary which got all its funding via crowd funding and not TV/film companies. The film leaves one… Continue
Posted on March 16, 2009 at 2:00am — 2 Comments
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