UTOPIA & YOUTH
EXPERIMENTATION AND RESEARCH IN CONTEMPORARY
ARTISTIC PRACTICES
Utopia as an expression of unlimited imagination and desire is a concept that has always fascinated artists. Art can see in utopia a means to lift the restrictions of reality and accomplish the free expression of its visions. Starting from this connection and its various instantiations in the history of art, this workshop deals with the multiple significations, implications and dimensions of utopia. In everyday discourse the term ‘utopia’ is usually connected with an ideal future, with what seems impossible within the confines of reality, and is thus bound to create margins for many and often contradictory interpretations. Utopias are the places of dreams and hopes for a better life, which provide an escape from an always incomplete and constraining status quo. Sometimes they involve grandiose metaphysical schemata, other times they take the form of ephemeral shelters distanced from detailed sociopolitical reflection. Always, however, their creation is based on the criticism of established (political and aesthetical) institutions and social structures. Inspiring antithetical political and artistic practices, praised but also criticized, utopia has been a focus of debate for many disciplines and approaches. By blending theoretical discussion, aesthetic reflection and the artistic work of the participants, this workshop aims at critically exploring the various interconnections between theory and praxis, vision and reality, desire and finitude, utopia and dystopia.
Utopia and Youth
Within the context of the generalised youth protests that rocked Greece last December – also gaining widespread international recognition – this year’s workshop focuses on the relation between utopian discourse and youth. A historical study of youth movements reveals that youth has always functioned as a nodal point of resistance against the socio-political status quo of the day, advancing radical political transformation and social change. This is not to say, however, that all youth mobilization has a progressive orientation; on the contrary, it has also been lured by utopias of exclusion such as the Nazi Utopia of Racial Purity. Hence, the workshop will deal in depth with youth creativity and youth violence, will examine the role of youth subcultures in social and political mobilization, focusing on both the creative as well as the destructive dimensions of youth activism.
6th Painting Studio ASFA (Athens School of Fine Arts)
Basic timetable:
2 July: arrivals
3 July – 6 July: presentations
14 - 15 July: preparation of the presentation of the work
16-17 July: show and presentations of final works
18 July: end of show - departures
Number of Participating Students: 11
Organizer-Facilitator: Vassilis Vlastaras, Visual artist, Lecturer, ASFA
Assistant Organizer-Facilitator: Maria Glyka, Visual artist.
Youth subcultures as a response (symbolic resistance) to oppression
In the 1960's, a group of Marxist academics at the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) at the University of Birmingham suggested that youth subcultures constituted the way in which different classes of young people manifested their opposition to the dominant social-cultural order. As they argued, youth subcultures enter into struggle with the dominant order, and indeed, they 'seek to modify, negotiate, resist or even overthrow its reign - its hegemony'. Hence, 'all-youth subcultural phenomena, whether in the realm of style [mods, scooters, teddy boys, punks, rockers, etc.] or of action (riots, hooliganism) can be read as "symbolic", "displaced"... manifestations of the class struggle and the contradictions of capitalism'. (See S. Hall and T. Jefferson (1993),
Resistance Through Rituals-Youth Subcultures in Post War Britain, London and New York: Routledge. First published in 1975 as Working Papers in
Cultural Studies no. 7/8)
[Youth]'...subcultures are made up of youth dissatisfied with the mainstream adult world who seek to carve out their own niche. They offer disadvantaged youth symbolic resistance to oppression, an alternative lifestyle, a "cultural space" through which to challenge dominant values, meaningful leisure time and solutions to existential dilemmas' (See Brake in R. Haenfler (2006),
Straight Edge: Hardcore Punk, Clean-living Youth and Social Change, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press).
The Emo Subculture
The Goth Subculture
The Skinhead Subculture
The Punk Subculture
The Hippie Subculture
The Teddy Boy Subculture
The Mod Subculture
The Rocker Subculture
Proposed Bibliography on Youth
Amit-Talai V. and Wolff H. (1995), Youth Cultures: A Cross Cultural Perspective, London: Routledge.
Angel W. (1990), Youth Movements of the World, Harlow: Longman.
Boren M.E. (2001), Student Resistance-A History of the Unruly Subject, London and New York: Routledge.
Brown S. (2005), Understanding Youth and Crime, Maidenhead: Open University Press.
Cavalli A. and Galland O. (1995), Youth in Europe, London: Pinter-A Cassel Imprint.
Chisholm L. and Kovacheva S. (2002), Exploring the European Youth Mosaic, Strasbourg: Council of Europe Publishing.
Cohen P. (1997), Rethinking the Youth Question, Basingstoke: MacMillan Press.
Coleman J. and Hendry L. (1996), The Nature of Adolescence, London: Routledge.
Craig S. and Bennet S.E. (1997), After the Boom-The Politics of Generation X, London: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Epstein J. (ed) (1998), Youth Culture: Identity in a Post-modern World, Malden Mass: Blackwell.
Fornas J. and Bolin G. (eds) (1995), Youth Culture in Late Modernity, London: SAGE.
France A. (2007), Understanding Youth in Late Modernity, Maidenhead: Open University Press.
Frank T. (1997), The Conquest of Cool, Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Hall S. and Jefferson T. (eds.) (2006), Resistance Through Rituals, Abingdon: Routledge.
Hodkinson P. and Deicke W. (eds) (2007), Youth Cultures: Scenes, Subcultures and Tribes, London: Routledge.
MacDonald R. (ed) (2000), Youth, the ‘Underclass’ and Social Exclusion, Abingdon: Routledge.
Miles S. (2000), Youth Lifestyles in a Changing World, Buckingham: Open University Press.
Mizen P. (2004), The Changing State of Youth, Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.
Muncie J. (2006), Youth and Crime, London: SAGE.
Nava M. (1992), Changing Cultures-Feminism, Youth and Consumerism, London: SAGE.
Roche J., Tucker S., Thomson R. and Flynn R. (eds.) (2005), Youth in Society, London: SAGE.
Savage J. (2007), Teenage-The Creation of Youth 1875-1945, London: Chatto & Windus.
Wallace C. and Kovatcheva, S. (1998), Youth in Society-The Construction and Deconstruction of Youth in East and West Europe, Basingstoke: Palgrave.
2 comments:
Hi. My name is Alisha, and I live in Tucson, Arizona, United States. My mom and I are planning a trip to Greece in June 2012. I am looking to radical, leftist political, vegetarian, sustainable ideas to understand modern day Greece.
Any ideas for cities or sites to see, please let me know.
Thank you!
Alisha
What's the definition of symbolic resistance???
Post a Comment