Seeing Power: Art and Activism in the Twenty-first Century

by Nato Thompson

In our chaotic world of co-opted imagery, does art still have power?

A fog of images and information permeates the world from advertising, television, radio, and film to the glut produced by the new economy and the rise of social media . . . where even our friends suddenly seem to be selling us the ultimate themselves.

Here, Nato Thompson—one of the country’s most celebrated young curators and critics—investigates what this deluge means for those dedicated to socially engaged art and activism. How can anyone find a voice and make change in a world flooded with such pseudo-art? How are we supposed to discern what’s true in the product emanating from the ceaseless machine of consumer capitalism, a machine that appropriates from art history, and now from the methods of grassroots political organizing and even social networking?

Thompson’s invigorating answers to those questions highlights the work of some of the most innovative and interesting artists and activists working today, as well as institutions that empower their communities to see power and reimagine it. From cooperative housing to anarchist infoshops to alternative art venues, Seeing Power reveals ways that art today can and does inspire innovation and dramatic transformation . . . perhaps as never before.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Art History, Politics, History, Activism

176 pages, Hardcover

First published January 10, 2012

About the author

NATO THOMPSON is an author and curator. He has written two books of non-fiction Culture as Weapon: The Art of Influence in Everday Life (2017) and Seeing Power: Art and Activism in the 21st Century (2016) both with Melville House Publishing. His self-published fiction book, Marshsong came out in February 2019. He has also edited and written for many art catalogues. He works as the Sueyun and Gene Locks Artistic Director at Philadelphia Contemporary.

Reviews

[Travis]

"On either side of the political spectrum we find a population increasingly convinced that there is a conspiracy of power against them. (And they are right!) We are dealing with a rapid dismantling of our capacity to trust what we hear, and in that wasteland we find the only reasonable outcome: radical paranoia.

The erosion of trust in an era of vast paranoia is of no small consequence. For what we are truly discussing behind the shroud of television, radio, film, internet and public relations is an ongoing war on meaning itself.

If people can no longer trust what is being said—if they can summarily dismiss all points of fact—then, after a while, we find ourselves in a Tower of Babel moment. Politics and social life depend greatly on the capacity to communicate, and the ongoing manipulation of meaning has begun to radically erode that bond."

[Tracy Fenix · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brillant! The Didactic/ Ambiguous perspectives & tropes within activist art was clarifying.

[Siri Hsu]

偶有啟發，但藝術圈那種用深奧繁複的語句重新包裝簡單概念及描述的裝逼習氣盡顯，廢話太多（理論上的老生常談與語句上的冗詞贅字皆然；當然翻譯也有鍋）看得好痛苦。花大篇幅重新講一遍大家都知道的事（機構掌握權力etc），案例少而簡略，根本本末倒置。展書前對本書能提供豐富實務經歷跟理論如何印證、相輔相成的期望落空，只能說作者沒能發揮身為該領域先驅策展人的價值。