Panic in the Studio
Letters to friends they don't know about
Architecture * Art * Art History * Graphic and Print * History * Music * Photography ~ Works * Writing * Apocalypse series
Items tagged "history":
-
Our Radical Future: Cults, Utopias and Rebellions of the 1890s
… The 1890s were a time of starvation and revolt. It was a decade of environmental catastrophe, economic depression and savage colonial wars. It was also the golden age of liberal capitalism and global imperialism, a time when the combination of industrial manufactures and Western arms had penetrated almost every corner of the world. In the 1890s, most people still lived on the knife-edge of subsistence, stalked by the threat of drought and flood, boom and bust. In his book Late Victorian Holocausts, Mike Davis argues that the El Niño-driven famines that characterized this era, exacerbated by political forces, helped to create the Third World. Climate oscillations put millions in jeopardy, while new technologies reduced them to the status of laboring machines and made armed resistance seem futile. In response, people pursued politics by other means. Messiahs and prophets walked the land offering fiery predictions and magical cures. Their movements confronted despair with millenarian longing. Their methods combined mysticism with violence.
In the United States, the 1890s are an almost forgotten time. The whole stretch of American history between the end of the Civil War and the 1920s is gray area in popular memory, but the 1890s are especially blank, occupying a dead zone in between “Deadwood” and “Boardwalk Empire.” The decade lacked wild frontiers to mythologize or heroes to emulate (which might be why no one remembers it). Instead, the 1890s were marked by ferocious class hatreds and savage industrial strife. In Pittsburgh, a strike at the Homestead Steel Works turned into an all-out war between union members and the Pinkerton detectives sent to break them. In Johnson County, Wyoming, big ranchers fenced off lands which had once been held in common. When small farmers refused to leave, the ranchers hired mercenaries to kill them. In 1893, a banking panic set off a four-year depression, the worst the country had known until that time. One in five industrial workers was unemployed. Groups of men in the West banded together into tramp armies, overpowering railroad guards and riding trains for free in search of food. In the East, they rallied around a man named Jacob Coxey, who led an army of them to Washington to ask for work.
Michael Lesy captures this world in his book Wisconsin Death Trip, which uses photos and newspaper snippets from Black River Falls, Wisconsin to tell the story of a rural community consumed by disaster, epidemic, and despair. As agricultural prices fell and farmers could no longer pay their mortgages, families moved out or succumbed to destitution. Lesy writes: “By the end of the nineteenth century country towns had become charnel houses and the counties that surrounded them had become places of dry bones. The land and its farms were filled with the guilty voices of women mourning for their children and the aimless mutterings of men asking about jobs.”Some people hung themselves, some went insane, and some fled to the cities, but for the most part, the American response to these blows was political. Working people agitated for full employment and loose silver. They organized in unions and voted for the Democrats. But then, they had practice. Politics was an American habit.
In other parts of the world, places where literacy was rarer and rights newer, politics took on different forms. In Sicily, socialism was received by the landless peasants of the interior as if it was the true teaching of Jesus Christ. A peasant woman from Corleone (where Vito came from in The Godfather) told a delegation: “We want everybody to work, as we work. There should no longer be either rich or poor. All should have bread for themselves and for their children. We should all be equal…,” she said: “Jesus was a true Socialist.”
Further afield, the response of local people had less to do with parties and more with prophecy, magic and war. In Northern Sudan, Arab people rallied around their own Messiah, Muhammad Ahmad—the Mahdi—whose army drove out the Egyptians before killing General Gordon at the Siege of Khartoum. His followers believed that he could turn enemy bullets into water. A few years later, the Maji-Maji in Tanzania became convinced that their war medicine (a mixture of water, castor oil, and millet seeds) had the same power, as they did their best to slaughter the German settlers who had taken their land. In Zimbabwe, the spirit mediums of the Mwari cult promised that the rains would return as soon as the white men were driven out. In the Philippines, thousands of sugar plantation workers fled into the hills, led by charismatic miracle workers, which included an eighty-year-old woman who called herself the Virgin Mary and a transvestite who claimed to control the weather.
In China, the forces of famine, folk religion and hostility to foreigners coalesced to create the most spectacular conflagration of all. At the end of the 1890s, in the drought-stricken provinces of Shandong and Zhili, bands of landless peasants organized together in martial arts societies. They became convinced that Christians, both Chinese and foreign, were harming the geomantic currents in the earth, causing drought and floods. The churches had bottled up the sky. Fearing starvation, at odds with the government and outgunned by the Western powers, the Boxers turned to the only instrument at their disposal—their bodies. They believed in the discipline of body and of breath. With sacrifices and spells they invited spirits to possess them. Once possessed, they behaved as if they were drunk or in a dream state. They felt themselves to be invulnerable to bullets. Like the dervishes and Maji-Majis, they fought courageously and recklessly, winning many victories on the road to total defeat.
Tags
Info
- posted by:
- panicinthestudio
- date:
- May 4, 2013 (a Saturday)
- time:
- 9:08:47 (2 weeks ago)
Notes
There are 16 notes on this item.
-
stinging nettles: Human Rights Campaign: Largest LGBT Donors Are Drone Manufacturers
In the 1960s and 1970s, queer liberation (what we now call “LGBT equality”) was seen by its advocates as an all-inclusive movement intrinsically bound to other social justice movements: there could be no justice for queer people without justice for people of color, women,…
What doesn’t seem to be pointed out explicitly in the excellent article is the role of the HIV/AIDS crisis in the late 1970s and the crumbling of radical elements afterwards. Stigma from HIV/AIDS effectively cooled the outspoken left and moderates who became devoted to medical research, development and aid. Growing up in the 90s, it was one of the few topics that was inextricably linked to queerness and LGBT, especially in the insular and conservative media. There were few role models, and fewer honest representations. The only thing I can compare it to in the history of Western queer liberation is the loss of the pre- and inter-War generations, both the people and their nascent ideologies.
One of the side effects of appealing to the medical field and the law of equality and non-discrimination, was the commercial, industrial, and political connections made as a cause du jour. While immensely beneficial to a public image, it also affected a silent, internal “gay panic”. It lingered on in policies like DADT, ubiquitous medical self-advertising, corporate-sponsored events like Pride, continuing travel and blood/organ donation bans, and the huge generation gap that is just now being closed. The splintering of groups like ACT UP were less a sign of weakness but maturing under the scrutiny and pressure of their honed purpose. Factionalism and divisiveness came with the realization that the varying motivations and levels were beginning to conflict, as seen in the emergence of the Log Cabin Republicans and the purge of groups like NAMBLA. In some strange sense it was a concerted effort to construct a singular image to maintain, which was simultaneously exclusionary and a stepping off point for groups to diverge. In doing so, powerful allies were gained and other bridges were burned.
The last few decades have been a very different socio-political and activist landscape, which has only re-converged more recently around same-sex marriage and focused aspects of non-discrimination. The umbrella grouping of LGBTQ, et al. is only a remnant of the larger, changing whole that has been repeatedly beaten back by circumstance.
Our current ideologies are still relatively young or being rediscovered, and in part propped up by an entrenched corporate culture and structure. Using this to regain establishment clout, there has been some significant traction in the last decade or so. However, it remains controlled by anxious and conservative assimilationist ideals; it tends to ignore the complicated intersections of race and ethnicity, gender, poverty, further physical and mental health concerns, religion, and greater issues abroad. Mainstream elements like the Human Rights Campaign are working under an ageing paradigm that has promoted a homogeneous, non-threatening image to donors, sponsors, and corporations. That same tactic that has worked so well in the past, will only carry them and similar organizations so far in terms of relevance.
It’ll be interesting to see if the current closed culture of navel-gazing, self-gentrification, consumption, and conformity is able to expand itself back into something motivated by more than achieving personal right and rights. There needs to be a larger discussion on the ethical implications of who we accept support from, as well as untangling the Gordian knot of conflicting interests, history, and baggage. The true test will be whatever cause comes next (and after that, ad infinitum)—whether we fall to complacency or boost momentum—in the following discussion and struggle for liberation.
Tags
#lgbtq#AIDS#history#human rights#civil rights#civil liberties#identity#politics#ACT UP#NAMBLA#Log Cabin Republicans#corporations#DADT#sexuality#HRC#writing#rant#social justice#ethics#HIVInfo
- posted by:
- panicinthestudio
- date:
- May 3, 2013 (a Friday)
- time:
- 3:37:00 (3 weeks ago)
Notes
There are 114 notes on this item.
-
Milo Manara - “Storia dell’Umanità”, 1999
So many ethnocentric, racist, and sexist implications, so little time. Admirable points that are tarnished by one-sided perspectives, objectification, along with giant leaps of anachronism and missing context.
I’m not sure if I’m more angry about the problems it has or the brand of history and half-truths that it is a symptom of. It straddles the line of judgement, being technically and aesthetically sound while taking serious liberties with its content.
Tags
#Milo Manara#1990s#history#comics#illustration#human condition#state of the world#sexuality#violence#nsfw#war#racism#ethnocentrism#Indigenous Peoples#appropriation#pop culture#figure#nudeInfo
- posted by:
- panicinthestudio
- date:
- Apr 29, 2013 (a Monday)
- time:
- 9:08:00 (3 weeks ago)
Notes
There are 106583 notes on this item.
-
Tags
Info
- posted by:
- panicinthestudio
- # of plays:
- 109
- date:
- Apr 25, 2013 (a Thursday)
- time:
- 9:08:48 (4 weeks ago)
Notes
There are 30 notes on this item.
-
Reiner Riedler’s shots of original filmrolls from The Deutsche Kinemathek,
Tags
Info
- posted by:
- panicinthestudio
- date:
- Apr 23, 2013 (a Tuesday)
- time:
- 11:17:21 (1 month ago)
Notes
There are 3017 notes on this item.
-
Exhibition: Gordon Parks: Centennial at the Jenkins Johnsons, San Francisco. February 21 - April 27, 2013
In celebration of the 100th birthday of Gordon Parks, one of the most influential African American photographers of the 20th century, Jenkins Johnson Gallery in collaboration with The Gordon Parks Foundation presents Gordon Parks: Centennial, on view from February 21 through April 27, 2013. Gordon Parks, an iconic photographer, writer, composer, and filmmaker, would have turned 100 on November 30, 2012. This will be the first solo exhibition for Parks on the West Coast in thirteen years. The exhibition will survey works spanning six decades of the artist’s career starting in 1940. The exhibition consists of more than seventy-five gelatin silver and pigment prints, including selections from Life magazine photo essays: Invisible Man, 1952; Segregation Story, 1956; The Black Panthers, 1970; and Flavio, 1960, about favelas in Brazil. Also included in the exhibition is his reinterpretation of American Gothic and his elegant depictions of artists like Alexander Calder, fashion models, and movie stars.
Tags
#Gordon Parks#race#America#San Francisco#photography#20th century#history#art history#human condition#Americana#portraitInfo
- posted by:
- panicinthestudio
- date:
- Apr 19, 2013 (a Friday)
- time:
- 11:17:00 (1 month ago)
Notes
There are 2149 notes on this item.
-
Sam Humphries and Dalton Rose - Sacrifice covers, 2012-13
Art direction by Dylan Todd
Tags
#Aztec#Mexica#Sam Humphries#Dalton Rose#comics#history#colonialism#mythology#folklore#violence#epilepsy#ink#graphic#drawing#want#race#politics#Dylan Todd#2010s#SacrificeInfo
- posted by:
- panicinthestudio
- date:
- Apr 16, 2013 (a Tuesday)
- time:
- 1:25:00 (1 month ago)
Notes
There are 35 notes on this item.
-
Stanley Kwan’s Yang ± Yin: Gender in Chinese Cinema, 1996
Been looking for this documentary forever. If queer Chinese cinema is your thing, highly recommended.
Tags
Info
- posted by:
- panicinthestudio
- date:
- Apr 3, 2013 (a Wednesday)
- time:
- 9:08:00 (1 month ago)
Notes
There are 2 notes on this item.
-
Tags
#Hong Kong#Kowloon#Kowloon Walled City#九龍城寨#urbanization#history#Architecture#Illustration#infographicsInfo
- posted by:
- panicinthestudio
- date:
- Mar 16, 2013 (a Saturday)
- time:
- 9:08:56 (2 months ago)
Notes
There are 1063 notes on this item.
-
Adam Curtis: You Think You Are A Consumer But Maybe You Have Been Consumed
One of the guiding beliefs of our consuming age is that we are all free and independent individuals. That we can choose to do pretty much what we want, and if we can’t then it’s bad.
But at the same time, co-existing alongside this, there is a completely different, parallel universe where we all seem meekly to do what those in power tell us to do. Ever since the economic crisis in 2008, millions of people have accepted cuts in all sorts of things - from real wages and living standards to benefits and hospital care - without any real opposition.
The cuts may be right, or they may be stupid - but the astonishing thing is how no-one really challenges them.
I think that one of the reasons for this is because a lot of the power that shapes our lives today has become invisible - and so it is difficult to see how it really works and even more difficult to challenge it.
So much of the language that surrounds us - from things like economics, management theory and the algorithms built into computer systems - appears to be objective and neutral. But in fact it is loaded with powerful, and very debatable, political assumptions about how society should work, and what human beings are really like.
But it is very difficult to show this to people. Journalists, whose job is to pull back and tell dramatic stories that bring power into focus, find it impossible because things like economic theory are both incomprehensible and above all boring. The same is true of “management science”. Mild-mannered men and women meet in glass-walled offices and decide the destinies of millions of people on the basis of “targets” and “measured outcomes”.
Like economics it pretends to be neutral, but it isn’t. Yet it’s impossible to show this dramatically because nothing happens in those glass-walled offices except the click of a keystroke that brings up another powerpoint slide. It’s boring - and it’s impossible to turn it into stories that will grab peoples imaginations - yet hundreds of peoples’ jobs may depend on what is written on that slide.
I want to do a series of posts that will go back and reveal the forgotten roots of some of this fake objectivity that surrounds us today. They will be a series of stories that show how over the past fifty years both the political Right and the Left have gnawed away at the idea of objective truth. Sometimes almost colluding together to help bring about today’s uncertainty and confusion about where power and influence really lies in our society.
The first is an odd story - with a very strange character at its heart. It is about how in the 1950s the richest man in the world, an oil billionaire in Texas, invented a new form of television journalism. It pretended to be objective and balanced but in fact it was hard core right-wing propaganda. It was way ahead of its time because, in its fake neutrality, it prefigured the rise of the ultraconservative right-wing media of the 1990s - like Fox News, with its copyrighted slogan, “Fair and Balanced”
Tags
Info
- posted by:
- panicinthestudio
- date:
- Mar 7, 2013 (a Thursday)
- time:
- 11:58:00 (2 months ago)
Notes
There are 7 notes on this item.
-
Tags
#Ai Weiwei#art#sculpture#history#art history#war#bronze#Opium Wars#chinese zodiac#Architecture#colonialism#repatriation#artifact#Qing dynasty#repurpose#China#Baroque#metalInfo
- posted by:
- panicinthestudio
- date:
- Feb 15, 2013 (a Friday)
- time:
- 7:51:45 (3 months ago)
Notes
There are 1 notes on this item.
-
The Antikythera Mechanism
What is it? It was found at the bottom of the sea aboard an ancient Greek ship. Its seeming complexity has prompted decades of study, although some of its functions remained unknown. X-ray images of the device have confirmed the nature of the Antikythera mechanism, and discovered several surprising functions. The Antikythera mechanism has been discovered to be a mechanical computer of an accuracy thought impossible in 80 BC, when the ship that carried it sank. Such sophisticated technology was not thought to be developed by humanity for another 1,000 years. Its wheels and gears create a portable orrery of the sky that predicted star and planet locations as well as lunar and solar eclipses. The Antikythera mechanism, shown above, is 33 centimeters high and therefore similar in size to a large book.
(via myancientworld)
Tags
Info
- posted by:
- panicinthestudio
- date:
- Jan 21, 2013 (a Monday)
- time:
- 11:17:00 (4 months ago)
Notes
There are 162 notes on this item.
