I am part of a generation that tends to \ufb01nd inspiration in, and romanticize, all things Situationist without having knowledge of the speci\ufb01c context in which they arose (and the illusions that they might hide). The arrogance, the revelry, alongside the wit, the intellect. In that sense, The Coming <\/em>Insurrection<\/em>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 2 <\/a> - English translation of L\u2019insurrection qui vient<\/em> (2007), available online in both French and English: http:\/\/tarnac9.wordpress.com\/ (last accessed September 2009).<\/span> by the Comit\u00e9 invisible can be seen as a familiar, yet contemporary, intervention into the landscape of cultural products pertaining to political theory and praxis. At last, a thesis that we can relate to \u201cin our lifetime\u201d and \ufb01nd much-needed dis-alienation through direct references. Indeed, the notion of \u201ccultural products\u201d would bene\ufb01t from being \u201creclaimed\u201d outside of academic circles in order to fuel our critique of critique<\/em>, so to speak. There is value in considering objects through the level of the intensity of feedback loops that they create in terms of inspiration. Despite it being imperfect, one of the main values of The Coming Insurrection<\/em> lies there: in intensifying current analyses of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The following proposes a dialogic exercise in articulation and intensi\ufb01cation with the ideas of another cultural product, the forthcoming book byproduct: On the Excess of Embedded Art <\/em>Practices<\/em>,3<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 3 <\/a> - Set to be published in 2010 by YYZ Books (Toronto) & –REV <\/em>(New York City), it \u00adexamines artists\u2019 projects whose artfulness lies in building micro-worlds within other non-artworld systems. While parasitically reliant on the socioeconomic structure and symbolic order of other dominant systems, these artworks\u2014or \u201cbyproducts\u201d\u2014exploit loopholes, surpluses, and exceptions in order to af\ufb01rm individual agency and \u00adcomplicate the mechanisms of their dominant \u201chost.\u201d Includes contributions by Paul Ardenne, Felicity Tayler, Steve Mann, among many others. <\/span> with the \u00adcollaboration of its editor Marisa Jahn.4<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 4 <\/a> - Thank you to Marisa Jahn (www.marisajahn.com) for her collaboration in the research and editing of this piece.<\/span> By virtue of their \u00addifferential objectives, The Coming Insurrection <\/em>and byproduct <\/em>treat the idea of sabotage in vastly different yet parallel ways. Difference is inherently productive. But let us see of what. Let us \ufb01gure out a \u201cby-product.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Power is no longer concentrated in one point in the world; it is the world itself, its \ufb02ows and its avenues, its people and its norms, its codes and its technologies. Power is the organization of the metropolis itself. It is the impeccable totality of the world of the commodity at each of its points. Anyone who defeats it locally sends a planetary shock wave through its <\/em>networks<\/em>.5<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 5 <\/a> - The Coming Insurrection<\/em>: http:\/\/tarnac9.wordpress.com\/.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n There is little way to deny the interconnectedness of today\u2019s world. This is something that the practitioners of what artist\/writer Marisa Jahn calls \u201cembedded art practices\u201d seem to have embraced, whether in a politically conscious way or not. The idea of \u201cbyproducts\u201d arose from conversations with curator Joseph del Pesco. Both had curated exhibitions that \u201cexamined the insertion of projects into non-art contexts.\u201d6<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 6 <\/a> - All quotes, except those from The Coming Insurrection<\/em>, are taken from email exchanges with Marisa Jahn. <\/span> Jahn co-organized \u201cShopdropping\u201d (Calgary, Vancouver, San Francisco), which featured \u201cartwork inserted into systems of commerce that includes tactics such as reverse shopping to performative self-insertion into circulatory systems.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite the differences in backgrounds, af\ufb01liations and periods of practice, what brings together the contributors of byproducts<\/em> is their interest in \u201cinterventing<\/em> systems and institutions\u201d and in \u201cengaging structures of power as both a conscious or instinctual subversive re\ufb02ex that in turn goads a self-inquiry and self-knowledge.\u201d Such systems can include: industry, research & development, law, factories, mass media, government, and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For each a different level of embeddedness. For each a \u00addifferent con\ufb01guration of hooks. For each a different time of retention. The \u00adtargeting of networks can be done in many ways. From tactical media to documentary protocols,7<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 7 <\/a> - See \u201cDocumentary Protocols I and II\u201d (Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery), curated by Vincent Bonin: http:\/\/ellengallery.concordia.ca\/en\/re\ufb02exion_protocol1.php and http:\/\/ellengallery.concordia.ca\/en\/re\ufb02exion_protocol2.php<\/span> the \u201cperformative mastery, the agility in social navigation\u201d varies. Indeed, the idea of embedded art practices developed in response to what Jahn and del Pesco felt were shortcomings of \u00adinterventionist artwork. Critical of the \u201ctouch-and-go\u201d dimension of many interventionist works, Jahn deplores the fact that there is often not enough at stake for the artist:<\/p>\n\n\n\n What concerns [us] about interventionist works is the critical and \u00adprivileged distance between the artist and his\/her context. Relatedly, a \u00adhistoriographical problem of the critical writing around \u00adinterventionist \u00adartwork has been an emphasis on the sensationalist aspects of the work\u2014the evidentiary\u2014often photodocumentary\u2014moments attesting to the fact that the work existed in the real world. Equally problematic are when the passerby or bystander is unwittingly enscripted as \u201cthe man (or woman) on the street\u201d character and he\/she does not have the opportunity to participate in its alteration. More compelling are those projects that do not have an ending pre-scripted and allow for the participant-viewer to alter or in\ufb02uence its outcome\u2014this is ultimately a curiosity about those projects that offer a framework that enacts politically consequential shifts. I suppose it\u2019s a question about \u00adarmatures for emancipation.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Has interventionist work developed from a super\ufb01cial understanding of networks? In the end, what do these interventions really do<\/em>? Would they bene\ufb01t in becoming more self-re\ufb02exive? Or is tactical media, by de\ufb01nition, about avoiding showing one\u2019s vulnerabilities?<\/p>\n\n\n\n From a strategic point of view, indirect, asymmetrical action seems the most effective kind, the one best suited to our time: you don\u2019t attack an occupying army frontally.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Identity is no longer to be \u201creclaimed\u201d or \u201cdefended.\u201d Identity is what any type of institutionalized form of belonging seeks to \ufb01xate, \ufb01le, archive and, in turn, co-opt. Identity is the bearer of borders. On the other hand, the Comit\u00e9 invisible is everywhere and nowhere at once. As another group, Os der ikke \ufb01ndes<\/em> (We who do not exist), states, \u201cThe pirate lives on the water and thus does not live anywhere. [Foucault\u2019s point is that] pirates are better than the police. To travel is better than to spy… Movement away from identity is<\/em> politics [for Foucault].\u201d8<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 8 <\/a> - Os der ikke \ufb01ndes (We who do not exist), An explosive force of freedom<\/em>, 2009: http:\/\/www.metamute.org\/an_explosive_force_of_freedom (last accessed September 2009).<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n In contrast, some practitioners of embedded art do not aim to become \u201cinvisible\u201d and explore the very notion of identity. As Jahn argues, \u201cmany embedded projects begin with a curiosity about the \u00adcontingency of identity, the conditions of subject-formation, the politics of subjection… the artists are driven by existential or experiential questions but, given a politicized sensibility, their work takes on subversive in\ufb02ections.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n What is common between a politics of a movement away from identity and that of using identity as a starting point is the notion of an inde\ufb01nite identity, resonant with \u201cthe rejection of a stable identity, but also a refusal to be called to account or to reveal that which the public <\/p>\n\n\n\n sphere expects and demands.\u201d9<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 9 <\/a> - Idem. <\/em><\/span> In the case of embedded art practices, what is at work\u2014another byproduct, as it were\u2014is a certain process of despecialization. While there exists a well-founded critique of artists who might con\ufb02ate their role with that of social workers or community \u00adactivists, embedded artists put themselves in a situation that complexi\ufb01es the knowledge ecology and thus widen the potential for critique. How can one build a good critique\u2014or be a good artist for that matter\u2014if one does not know what one is talking about? To a certain extent, embedded practices have the potential to remedy to the \u00adromanticization and paternalism prevalent within community (art) practices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The circulation of knowledge cancels hierarchy; it equalizes by raising up. Proliferating horizontal communication is also the best form of coordination among different communes, the best way to put an end to hegemony.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n What is \u201cknowledge production\u201d in the context of embedded \u00adpractices? For Jahn, the dissemination (or \u201cbroadcast\u201d) of these practices is central for the artists\u2014\u201ctheir work signi\ufb01es from a very contextualized position.\u201d As she argues, \u201cRemoving the work from its context risks \u00adpolitical deracination, the loss of originary intent… [Embedded artists] resolve this question in part by using the system they intervent to produce the work, and using its language as the primary artistic medium.\u201d For example, the core medium of Refresh<\/em> is the court transcript that relays the conversation between artist Kristin Lucas and the judge responsible for \u201cchanging\u201d her name to her current name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The important thing is to cultivate and spread this necessary \u00addisposition towards fraud, and to share its innovations. For communes, the question of work is only posed in relation to other already existing incomes. And we shouldn\u2019t forget all the useful knowledge that can be acquired through \u00adcertain trades, professions and well-positioned jobs.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Jahn notes that \u201cembedded practices rely on the invitation of another institution or host; what makes these works edgy is their capacity for that hospitality to turn to hostility, the prospects of subversion, a talent or knack in applying a skill or mastery to render this tension productive and towards compelling ends.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today, there is a necessity to come up with new ways of creating alliances and \ufb01nding accomplices. As proclaimed by the Comit\u00e9 invisible, \u201cWe don\u2019t want to occupy the territory, we want to be the territory.\u201d Can embedded art practices contribute in building solidarity at all? By virtue of in\ufb01ltrating the \u201cmachine\u201d and thus witnessing<\/em> \u201cour state of truly catastrophic dispossession [that] the normal functioning of the world usually serves to hide,\u201d10<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 10 <\/a> - CI, \u201cFourth Circle,\u201d TCI<\/em>. <\/span> what do they end up destabilizing exactly?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Communes come into being when people \ufb01nd each other, get on with each other, and decide on a common path. The commune is perhaps what gets decided at the very moment when we would normally part ways. It\u2019s the joy of an encounter that survives its expected end. It\u2019s what makes us say \u2018we\u2019, and makes that an event… Why shouldn\u2019t communes proliferate everywhere?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Will embedded artists proliferate? According to Jahn, many artist work-placements are arising today due to the \u201cvalorization of creativity in making industries more ef\ufb01cient and intellectually adaptable\u201d as well as \u201cgovernmental-initiated programs to stimulate the cultural sector and render it more economically viable.\u201d She believes there are many projects in which the artist\u2019s work becomes instrumentalized towards the organization\u2019s needs but more challenging are those that resist a full assimilation and insist on a critical function. Hence, the extent to which byproducts can contribute to a certain decentralization of power remains to be seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Given the above, one could ask the timely question: \u201cHow risky can art be?\u201d11<\/sup><\/a><\/span> 11 <\/a> - See Wolfgang S\u00fctzl and Geoff Cox, eds., Creating Insecurity: art and culture in the age of security<\/em> (Autonomedia [DATA browser 4]: 2009).<\/span> The very idea of being embedded implies an enclosing, an in\ufb01ltration. But who (or what) is being enclosed\u2014that is, co-opted\u2014exactly? This is where \u201cperformative mastery and the agility in social navigation\u201d become critical. And where thinking of embedded positions, while potentially mind-bending, is most productive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n On the margins of this workforce that is effective and necessary for the functioning of the machine, is a growing majority that has become super\ufb02uous, that is certainly useful to the \ufb02ow of production but not much else, which introduces the risk that, in its idleness, it will set about \u00adsabotaging the machine.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n In a sense, embedded artists themselves are the very byproducts<\/em> of today\u2019s world, revealing their own intertwinement in the current networks, which in turn affect the terms and conditions of sabotage. Between direct action and indirect action. Between comrades and accomplices. Between identity and \ufb02ux.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ultimately, embedded practices might question the notion of agency in the context of \u201cinterventionist\u201d work\/art. Where risk seems minimal by virtue of the necessary adherence to existing con\ufb01guration of networks, that is, of power (for embedded practices to actually take place), the risk seems at once signi\ufb01cant due to the very idea of embedded praxis. As the contributors of Marisa Jahn\u2019s book show, embedded artists cannot help but being affected as a result of their voluntary act of in\ufb01ltration. This affect and its potential for self-transformation constitute a risk. It would be interesting to further inquire on the way artists evaluate that risk. But in the meantime, byproduct<\/em> shows that many have decided to go ahead. As the Comit\u00e9 invisible claimed, \u201cto no longer wait is, in one way or another, to enter into the logic of insurrection.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/68_DO03_Ho_A-Constructed-World_Altamont-scaled.jpg\")
photo : S\u00e9bastien Agnetti<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nLesson One: Target the networks.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure>\n
Experiments in the Aisle<\/em>, Pond, San Francisco, 2005.
photos : permission | courtesy Pond: art, activism & ideas, San Francisco<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nLesson Two: Move away from identity.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Lesson Three: Never forget knowledge\/power. <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/esse.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/68_DO03_Ho_Camille-Turner_Miss-Canada-scaled.jpg\")
photo : Wayne Dunkley<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nFinal Dispatch: The risks of embedded practices.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n