Urban Unrest

28 November 2007 | Opportunities, Politics | Ernesto Aguilar

From the organizers:

Call for proposals! All Power to the Imagination: Conference on Radical Theory and Practice

New College of Florida
Sarasota, Florida
April 4-6th, 2008

All Power to the Imagination! is a conference that will bring activists, academics, and grassroots organizers together for a weekend of listening, networking, discussing, and organizing. We will share ideas, tactics, experiences, and skills as well as theories, scholarship, and research in order to develop our radical vision for the present and future.

People are encouraged to submit proposals for workshops, presentations, film screenings, skillshares, panels, and other types of sessions.

Sessions will be 1 hours and 15 minutes long. The deadline for submissions is January 31, 2008. To submit a proposal, visit the following link:
http://theoryandpracticeconference.wordpress.com/call-for-proposals/

If you have any questions, feel free to email us as APIconference(at)gmail.com.

About the title:
All Power to the Imagination! was a situationist slogan used during the Paris riots of May 1968. It was a detournement of the political slogan “All Power to the Soviets!” used during Bolshevik Revolution.

The title of our conference–All Power to the Imagination!–is an example of the situationist practice of detournement. This process involves combining or altering elements of popular images, slogans, songs, films, texts and other media in order to create a new meaning (one that negates, transforms or replaces the original meaning). In juxtaposing foreign images and texts, a new relationship is form–one that is potentially subversive. Detournement is a practice that attempts to destablize the hegemonic ideology while simultaneously undermining that very ideology.

In replacing “Soviets” with “imagination,” the situationists revealed the absurdity of calling for the power of an authoritarian party. In the process, they redirected power to the creative and politically transgressive imagination. Not only do they disrupt the meaning of the original slogan; they also create and produce an entirely new meaning.

The practice of detournement was conceived as a “powerful cultural weapon” for the working class. It is an effective way to disrupt the dominant ideologies that are disseminated through the culture industry. This practice also shows us how one can imaginatively unite theory and practice. We couldn’t think of a more appropriate title for our conference!

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