see http://www.nictoglobe.com/new/ainac2010

Friction Research: Art is not about Communication

Third issue of Friction Research, a series of collective investigations on contemporary arts & media practices.

Previous issues:

Investigating Ruptures in the Art Political Grid, Nictoglobe, Volume 12 Issue 3, Amsterdam The Netherlands (2008).

Creative Resistance: New Media as Soft Arms, Nictoglobe, Volume 11 Issue 2, Amsterdam The Netherlands(2007).

Art is not about Communication

The following individuals and collectives have contributed to our call for submissions.

Poetry

It has been 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall. We are ‘celebrating' this anniversary at a time when global capitalism and liberal democracy, the so-called winners of the Cold War struggle between East and West, find themselves in one of the deepest economic and political crises since the Wall Street crash in 1929 and the global turmoil that followed.

It would appear that human flesh is back on the menu this month with Clemens von Wedemeyer's faux docu-anthropology at the Barbican http://www.barbican.org.uk/artgallery/event-detail.asp?ID=8903 and a new book on the history of cannibalism reviewed in the LRB. A more culturally entertaining response to the credit crunch than bank bailouts and trader suicides, I expect there may be more of this to come e.g. A Popular History of Cannibalism from Below must surely follow.

Perhaps a bit of fancy footwork and a catchy show tune is the key to introducing a new generation to Karl Marx’s Das Kapital. At least that’s what He Nian, director of the upcoming musical, is anticipating for the Shanghai theatregoers. The play which is on schedule to open next year, is meant to serve as a kind of ‘edutainment’ providing the audience with amusement but also an intellectually sound interpretation of Marx’s work. Shanghaiist and The Guardian report more extensively: