> > https://revistas.ucp.pt/index.php/jsta/announcement/view/91 > > Call for Papers: Counteract: practices of artistic resistance, dissidence and > furtivity > > Posted on 2025-04-14 > Deadline: June 15th 2025 > > Guest Editors: Verónica Metello, PhD (Faculty of Letters – Coimbra > University) and Prof. André Rangel, PhD (Faculty of Fine Arts – Porto > University) > > Submit here <https://revistas.ucp.pt/index.php/jsta/about/submissions>  > Posted of the documentary My Name is Janez Janša (2012) by Janez Janša, Janez > Janša, Janez Janša. Image courtesy of: Aksioma | Institute for Contemporary > Art, Ljubljana > > We appeal to those who are the operators of dissident practices, to those who > use dominant modes to affirm them as divergent, to those who resort to the > common to unfold it in the singular, to those who incorporate and underline > repetition to reveal it with the difference. > > We call for the submission of essays that explore practices in the scope of > performance art and theory, of new media and autonomous and alternative media > that operate and focus on the creative power of dissident, resistant and > furtive modes in shaping the world in the face of power and normativity. > > In the post-digital Anthropocene in which we live, statistical probability > and the economies of data and attention shape the emerging contemporary > condition in which we live – a global, computational digital ecosystem > updated by calculation – from ecology to society. In this reality subjugated > to algorithmic bias and data dictatorship – which, as Meghna Jayanth states, > “robs us of agency, time, self-esteem, connection and fosters addiction, > dependence, hatred, fear, insecurity and even social and interpersonal > violence” (Jayanth, 2021, as cited in Spies, 2024) – new “luddites” are > needed: who, in an attitude of Marcusian “great refusal”[1] are capable of > reconfiguring the relationship with the instruments of calculation, > surveillance, governance and arbitration of truth, using them as instruments > of expression and emancipation. > > In this present, of simultaneous temporalities in overlapping and repetitive > iterative rhythms, we call on those involved in radical artistic and > scientific practices and in cultural subversion to submit their contributions > to this issue of JSTA. > > As Achille Mbembe points out and Jonathan Crary describes, the current > landscape of experience, in a world governed by the experience economy, > operates in the tension between the living and the machines (Mbembe, 2021; > Crary, 2022). What Mbembe called brutalism [2] affects the entire set of > fundamental relationships between human beings and the world. Furthermore, in > a movement of assimilation, technology and its coincidence with media in the > structuring spheres of life has become central, reconfiguring the > “psychogeography” [3] of encounters, modes of presence, the articulation of > subjectivity, mobilization and social emancipation. The social, the artistic > and the political, digitally transmediated and mobilized by information > capital (Sierra Caballero & Sola-Morales, 2021), is thus configured in a > hyper-controlled network of relations (Stiegler, 2016) in which the capacity > to create the conditions and the experiences of dissidence is formatted, > conditioned and blocked by the means themselves (Crary, 2022). > > At the intersection of art and politics, artivism conjures up dissident and > furtive, powerful and political articulations, operating in a fluid and > extensive space that makes minorities visible, imposing deviations, shaping > subjectivities, empowering and creating alternatives. Dissidence, as José > Miranda Justo shows, more than having a fundamentally discursive > characteristic, is, above all things – political (Justo, 2021), operating > with experimentation and the exploration of difference, evolving from a > decentralized or minority perspective, in the face of dominant modes and > forms of thought and action. > > Artivism, Paulo Raposo defines, results from a porosity between art and > politics, designing a plane of inscription where the imagination of > alternatives and a consequent intervention in the world converge (Raposo, > 2015 as cited in Raposo 2023). In this regard, also the autonomous or > alternative media operate as powerful vehicles of dissent and stealth, > subverting the social order through appropriation, liberating the media and > public space from the private domain. Autonomous media are defined by their > openness – in terms of content and accession – and their goal is to amplify > the voices of groups and individuals who do not normally have access to the > media, involving them in the production and dissemination of contents > (Langlois, & Dubois, 2005). > > The furtive mode acts as a denormalization, designing strategies and modes of > affirmation that are estranged to the exercise of power and norm, operating > through a destabilization and reconfiguration of the relations and > articulations of the conceptual, the sensitive and the aesthetic in > experience. Cynthia Fleury and Antoine Fenoglio propose this concept as a > formalization of a way of exfiltrating oneself from reality, creating > alternative ways of inhabiting it (Fleury & Fenoglio, 2022). > > Given the urgency and the above coordinates, we intend to highlight the > magmatic and political power of counteracting, bringing to the discussion and > making visible exploratory, dissident, furtive and resistant theoretical and > artistic practices in the scope of performance art, new media and autonomous > alternative media, in a broad field that crosses: > > Aesthetics > Archives, memory and resistance > Art and Experimentation > Art and New MediaArtivism > Communication – digital media, alternative media and nano-media as artistic > means of dissent and resistance > Cybernetics > Data economy > Digital humanities > Divergent identities and exploratory subjectivities > Epistemic disobedience > Emergence > Experience and experimentation > Heterotopia > Ontology, identity and technology > Philosophy and anarchism > Political aesthetics > Political philosophy > Politics and ethics of care, Politics of reparation > Resistance, dissent and furtiveness > Studies of Experience > > Notes > > [1] Thomas Spies evokes the great refusal described by Herbert Marcuse as the > radical practice that involves cultural subversion and recognizes the mark of > social repression in traditional cultural expressions and technological > progress. Following Marcuse's line of thought, Spies emphasizes that for > cultural subversion to drive change, it must involve radical political > practice. (Spies, 2024). > > [2] “Concretamente, o brutalismo caracteriza-se pelo estreito entrelaçamento > de várias figuras da razão: razão económica e instrumental, razão eletrónica > e digital e razão neurológica e biológica. Baseia-se na profunda convicção de > que o vivo e as máquinas deixaram de se distinguir. Em última instância, a > matéria é a máquina dos nossos dias, o computador no seu mais amplo sentido, > bem como o novo, o cérebro e toda a realidade numinosa” (Mbembe, 2022). > > [3] “Psychogeography sets for itself the study of the precise laws and > specific effects of the geographical environment, whether consciously > organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals” (Debord, 1981). > > [4] “Artivismo pode ser pensado como um neologismo complexo e polissemântico > que recobre uma vasta gama de práticas artísticas com foco político. A > utilização de inúmeras linguagens e plataformas para explicitar, comentar e > expressar visões do mundo e de produzir pensamento crítico, multiplica o > espectro do artivismo a partir do qual é possível intervir poética e > performativamente e construir espaços de comunicação e de opinião no campo > político – arte de rua, ações diretas, performances, vídeo-arte, rádio, > culture jamming, hacktivism, subvertising, arte urbana, manifestos e > manifestações ou desobediência civil, entre outras” (Raposo, 2015, as cited > in Raposo, 2023). > > References > > Crary, J. (2022). Scorched earth: Beyond digital age to a post-capitalist > world. Verso. > > Debord, G. (1981). Introduction to a critique of urban geography. In K. Knabb > (Ed. & Trans.), Situationist International anthology (pp. 5–8). Bureau of > Public Secrets. > > Fleury, C., & Fenoglio, A. (2022). Charte du Verstholen: Ce qui ne peut être > volé. Gallimard. > > Jayanth. (2024, March 18). White protagonism and imperial pleasures in game > design. Medium. > https://medium.com/@betterthemask/white-protagonism-and-imperial-pleasures-in-game-design-digra21-a4bdb3f5583c > > Langlois, A., & Dubois, F. (Eds.). (2005). Autonomous media: Activating > resistance and dissent. Cumulus Press. > > Mbembe, A. (2021). Brutalismo. Antígona. > > Miranda Justo, J. (2021). Heterogeneity, Experimentation and Dissidence in a > Contemporary Understanding of Philosophy. In J. Miranda Justo, E. M. de > Sousa, & F. M. F. Silva (Eds.), Philosophy as experimentation, dissidence and > heterogeneity (pp. 2-33). Cambridge Scholars Publishing. > > Raposo, P. (2023). Arte e política: O artivismo como linguagem e ação > transformadora do mundo? Dossiê Mundos em Performance: Napedra 20 anos, 8, > e-202989. https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2525-3123.gis.2023.202989 > > Sierra Caballero, F., & Sola-Morales, S. (2021). El lugar de la cultura en la > era del capitalismo cognitivo. Notas para una discusión sobre ciudadanía > digital. Comunicación y Hombre, 17, 253–269. > https://doi.org/10.32466/eufv-cyh.2021.17.591.253-269 > > Spies, T. (2024). The special laboratory of total refusal. In (un)real data > – ()real effects. Aksioma. > > Stiegler, B. (2016). “Ars" and organological inventions in societies of > hyper-control. Leonardo, 49(5), 480–484. https://doi.org/10.1162/LEON_a_01080 -- # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: https://www.nettime.org # contact: nettime-l-ow...@lists.nettime.org
