I shall start where I wish to finish, in the twenty-first century. As contentious as ever in the seemingly climactic year of 2019, the failings of Neo-liberal policy are a practical starting point for my project. The clutches of perpetual Capitalism seem as fixed as ever, and the issues surrounding the current political and global climate make it harder to consider positive future change in any way; how can art respond at such a time?
To respond to the question of defying Neo-liberalism, I always go back to a thought inspired by David Harvey: the only way to defy neoliberalism is to act as a collective. The group that deals with these questions in a practical way, in recent years, is the ‘forensic architecture’ project, led by Eyal Weizman. The group has collaborated with artists, human rights activists, scientist, etc., to fight causes of social justice case by case. Weizman, in a 2018 speech, talks about using post-structuralist philosophies in a practical way, instead of contributing to the post-truth landscape, using ideas of ‘Collective Truth‘, through many ‘weak sensors’, to create a bigger picture that can contribute to the cases the group works on. Weizman says ‘post-structuralism’s culture of suspicion is essential in exposing the gaps, inconsistencies, biases, traces of manipulation […] in the statements of those in power’ (Eyal Weizman, Open Verification, https://www.e-flux.com/architecture/becoming-digital/248062/open-verification/ accessed 12/11/2019). Wiezman uses ideas of truth in a practical way, since post-structural iconoclasts tore down the walls of the signifiers in place. Weizman employs ‘collective truth’ for collecting ‘different local, ground-level perspectives’. Here Weizman uses multiple perspectives of the local to act against so called ‘dark epistemologies’ of post-truth, and these perspectives can start to build a picture consistent to experience in that area. The Hegelian notion ‘the true is a process, not a conclusion’ (p.9) also seems to be encapsulated by Weizman (J Glenn Gray, introduction in Hegel on Art, Religion, Philosophy, (London, Harper Torchbooks, 1970) p.9).
Composing the North East 