Arts Admin | Two Degrees

One of the most successful UK social movements of the last few years has been the network of direct action groups fighting for climate justice. Some of these create performative media events, such as Plane Stupid’s runway invasions or members of Climate Rush gluing themselves to a statue in the Houses of Parliament. Others create a space that prefigures alternatives, such as Climate Camp, whose temporary pop up eco-villages on squatted land are run with direct democracy and sustainable energy on permaculture principles. Whilst some would say these actions could be framed as contemporary art works, others would argue that their aesthetics lack a progressive edge. How can art develop the aesthetics of activism, and together with strategies learnt from permaculture, prefigure a postcapitalist future?

The C.R.A.S.H Conversations are three public discussions facilitated by the Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination (Lab of ii) as part of the C.R.A.S.H Course, which explore the relationships between art, permaculture and activism, and their role in providing radical solutions to the ecological crisis. Each evening focuses on a specific discipline and will be introduced by key proponents in the field.

The Lab of ii project C.R.A.S.H – A Postcapitalist A to Z opens a space in which to imagine a postcapitalist future. As the future of our ecological life support systems hangs in the balance and we suffer the consequences of reckless economic fantasies, the question of what our future could look like has never been more vital. The Lab of ii will be experimenting with radical sustainable alternatives to the ecological and economic crises in the symbolic heart of the capitalist system, London’s square mile.

Working with artists, activists and permaculturists C.R.A.S.H merges popular education, live art and direct action. The project begins with the C.R.A.S.HCourse and Conversations, building skills of resilience and resistance with precarious and unemployed workers, and ends with C.R.A.S.H Contingency and Culture, a mystery night time journey to utopia and back, and a series of interventions across the City.

http://www.labofii.net

http://www.artsadmin.co.uk/projects/event.php?id=670