Name: Making Room: Cultural Production in Occupied Spaces
SKU: 48404524
Price: 54.94 NZD
Availability: InStock
Author: Moore, Alan ; Smart, Alan
ISBN: 9780979137792

portada Making Room: Cultural Production in Occupied Spaces

Making Room: Cultural Production in Occupied Spaces

Type

Physical Book

Illustrated by

Alan Moore

Alan Smart

Publisher

Other Forms

Author

Moore, Alan ; Smart, Alan

Year

2015

Language

English

Pages

358

Format

Paperback

Dimensions

21x14.8x1.9 cm

Weight

0.43 kg.

ISBN13

9780979137792

Synopsis "Making Room: Cultural Production in Occupied Spaces "

Making Room: Cultural Production in Occupied Spaces is an anthology of texts on art, media and aesthetic practice in the context of squatting, occupation and urban space activism. It includes pieces by activist researchers working between the academy and the movements they write about, journalistic first-person narratives by squatters, original photography and interviews with artists, theorists and activists involved in struggles over urban space and creative production in the city. Focused primarily on the European context its international relations and connection, this diverse collection of material is organized into sections by country so as to highlight the contrast between different voices and frames of reference. While many of these voices assert accounts of a cohesive, international squatter movement or are committed to specific political projects the anthology, when taken as a whole, tells a more complex story about constellations of movements and practices intensely engaged with local conditions that have developed - sometimes independently, sometimes in dialog with one another - as people have struggled to survive, express themselves, carve out zones of autonomy and resistance, and push back against the dominance of capitalism in the city. In this, "cultural production" appears in a variety of forms ranging from conventional art practices, to the organizing of communities and networks, to the production of media and setting up of information systems. Likewise, squats, occupations and social centers are figured as art projects themselves, housing and workspaces for artists or, most significantly, constituent parts of an alternative infrastructure for the autonomous production of knowledge, discourse, and aesthetics. Making Room includes stories of the squatter movement in Germany both in the 1980s and '90s as the Cold War was ending and Neoliberalism taking shape, and in its contemporary manifestations as resistance to gentrification and struggles for housing and the inclusion of migrants. In Northern Europe it recounts episodes in the emergence of militant autonomism from the softer counterculture of the 1960s and '70s as struggles hardened and utopian exuberance faded in the face of the consolidation of global capitalism and was replaced by grim, determined holding actions. In Italy the housing struggles and social center movement of the 1980s appears as a more popular and pragmatic revival of activism following the decimation of the radical left in the dark years of the anni di piombo. This revival has found new resonance in the resurgence of squatting in Italy and the occupation and debt resistance movement in Spain that have taken much inspiration from it. Other texts in the anthology recount struggles to define the role of creativity as cities in Western Europe and North America have become post-industrial urban economies, organized around knowledge work and affective labor, and gentrification has replaced urban decay as a primary problem. Finally, another narrative thread runs through the anthology tracing a history of radical media from the underground printing and publishing practices of the 1960's and '70s through the proliferation of pirate radio and television projects and into contemporary hacker and internet activist culture.

Alan Moore

(Illustrated by)

View Author's Page

Alan Moore (November 18, 1953, Northampton) is perhaps the most acclaimed writer in the history of graphic media. In 1979, he began publishing his works in the music magazine Sounds, under the pseudonym Curt Vile. Moore, with a nonconformist spirit, decides to jump into the world of scripting and in 1980 creates Ro-Jaws Robo Tales and Abelard Snazz, in addition to contributing to the Marvel Comics UK series Dr. Who Weekly.

With this background, he creates works like WATCHMEN, V FOR VENDETTA, SWAMP THING, and MIRACLEMAN, which have earned him numerous awards. He is also the brain behind the America's Best Comics line, through which he has produced (along with many talented illustrators) THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN, PROMETHEA, TOM STRONG, TOMORROW STORIES, and TOP TEN. As one of the most important innovators in the medium since the early 1980s, Moore has influenced an entire generation of comic creators, and his work continues to inspire an ever-growing audience.

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