Anarchism and Art: Democracy in the Cracks and on the Margins

183 Pages·2016·1.53 MB·English

by  Mattern Mark.

Anarchism and Art
SUNY Series in New Political Science
Bradley J. Macdonald, editor
Anarchism and Art
Democracy in the Cracks and on the Margins
Mark Mattern

Cover image: “Madison Near Pitt—NYC 2000” by Dan Witz. © Dan Witz, 2000.
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany © 2016 State University of New York All rights
reserved
Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner
whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or
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For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Production, Eileen Nizer
Marketing, Anne M. Valentine
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Mattern, Mark, 1954– Anarchism and art :
democracy in the cracks and on the margins / Mark Mattern.
pages cm — (SUNY series in new political science) Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4384-5919-6 (hardcover : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-4384-5921-9 (e-book)
1. Politics in art. 2. Arts—Political aspects. 3. Democracy and the arts. 4. Popular culture—Political
aspects. 5. Art and society. I. Title.
NX650.P6M37 2016
700.1'03—dc23 2015006075
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. Anarchism and Democracy
Chapter 3. DIY (Do It Yourself) Punk Music
Chapter 4. Poetry Slam
Chapter 5. Graffiti and Street Art
Chapter 6. Flash Mobs
Chapter 7. Prefiguring Progressive Change
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Michael Rinella, SUNY Press editor, and his assistant,
Rafael Chaiken, for their assistance in completing this project. I also thank
Bradley Macdonald, editor of the New Political Science series at SUNY Press,
for his excellent work in developing the series. I gratefully acknowledge the
scholars and activists of the Caucus for a New Political Science, who make the
series possible.
Nick Riley and Jeremy Feador deserve special thanks for helping me enter
the world of DIY punk music. I thank Alix Olson for her generous insights about
poetry slam, and apologize if I managed to get it wrong anyway.
I thank Baldwin Wallace University (BW) for its financial support during
the research and writing of this book. I thank Donna McKeon, BW Political
Science Department secretary and office manager, for her endless patience and
capable assistance. I thank BW students Dan Clapper, Matt Kusznir, Alex Nagy,
Jenna Perry, and Rich Teel for their research assistance.
Chapter 4, “Poetry Slam,” is adapted from my essay, “The Message in the
Medium: Poetry Slam as Democratic Practice,” in Nancy S. Love and Mark
Mattern, Doing Democracy: Activist Art and Cultural Politics (Albany, N.Y.:
SUNY Press, 2013), 121–42.
1

Introduction
“We don’t believe in waiting until after the revolution. … If you want
a better world you should start acting like it now.”
—Unbound Bookstore, Chicago1
“We need not conquer the world. It is enough to make it anew.”
—Subcomandante Marcos2
“All human experience teaches that methods and means cannot be
separated from the ultimate aim. The means employed become,
through individual habit and social practice, part and parcel of the
final purpose; they influence it, modify it, and presently the aims and
means become identical. … The ethical values which the revolution is
to establish in the new society must be initiated with the
revolutionary activities of the so-called transitional period. The latter
can serve as a real and dependable bridge to the better life only if
built of the same material as the life to be achieved.”
—Emma Goldman3
In this book, I argue that some forms of popular art exemplify anarchist
principles and commitments that, taken together, prefigure deeper forms of
democracy than those experienced by most people in today’s liberal