Landscape. Politics. Ecology.
Over the last several years, a loose and shifting group of artists, activists, and thinkers has been exploring and creating work about the various forces, both top-down and grassroots, that shape neighborhoods, cities, and rural places in the globalized American … Continued
In light of constantly exploding bandwidth and nearly limitless digital storage, FM radio may appear an anachronistic means of communication. However, many new media artists are using this most ephemeral, unindexable, “old” medium instead of or in addition to digital … Continued
For nearly two hundred years, the figure of the naturalist—the enthusiastic observer of birds, soils, insects, plants, and animals—set the bar for dedicated, non-professional scholarship of the non-human world. With his sketchbook, butterfly net, binoculars, and field guides, the naturalist … Continued
The radio spectrum, regulated in the US since 1927 for the “public interest, convenience, and necessity,” has long been viewed by artists as an unrealized, utopian public space. Today, many artists use FM radio, wireless, and the electromagnetic spectrum to … Continued
After over a century of official silence, the City of Chicago dedicated a new monument to the Haymarket Affair, one of the central events in the history of labor activism and radical politics worldwide, in 2004. The monument signaled a … Continued
Based in Los Angeles, the Center for Land Use Interpretation describes itself as an independent, non-profit, educational organization “dedicated to the increase and diffusion of information about how the nation’s lands are apportioned, utilized, and perceived.” Through exhibits, publications, bus … Continued
A increasing number of popular documentary films are employing prankster tactics for political effect. With a heritage stretching back to the Yippies, the Situationists, and beyond, prankster activists harness broad dissatisfaction with contemporary society and express it in visceral, anarchic, … Continued
Publications grouped here are intended for a non-art audience, are short-form reflections on a creative work, or are commissioned and unrefereed. PDFs are supplied for all refereed publications, though editorial rather than blind peer review may have been the vetting … Continued