Détournement et Recuperation

Détournement is a technique developed in the 1950s by the Letterist International, and consists in "turning expressions of the capitalist system and its media culture against itself," like turning slogans and logos against the advertisers or the political status quo.

Recuperation is the process by which politically radical ideas and images are twisted, co-opted, absorbed, defused, incorporated, annexed and commodified within media culture and bourgeois society, and thus become interpreted through a neutralized, innocuous or more socially conventional perspective. More broadly, it may refer to the cultural appropriation of any subversive works or ideas by mainstream culture.

Nightscapes

First released in 2006
Now available for download

The Quickening

First released in 1993
Now available for download.

Jez'll Fix It

Save Lewisham A&E: Jez'll fix it

On Saturday November 24, 2012, despite the rain, around 10,000 protestors marched through Lewisham, in south east London, to a rally in Ladywell Fields, to protest about the proposals to close Lewisham Hospital's A&E Department, and send emergencies to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich, to downgrade maternity services, and to sell off over half the hospital's buildings. If the proposals go ahead, there will be just one A&E Department for the 750,000 people in three London boroughs -- Lewisham, Greenwich and Bexley.
This placard is aimed at Jeremy Hunt, the disgraced culture secretary who, despite his corrupt dealings with Rupert Murdoch, was nevertheless given the job of health secretary in September, replacing Andrew Lansley. I find it ironic that, behind the Jimmy Savilled image of Jeremy Hunt, is an advert on a bus for something called "Hitman."
The proposals were published on October 29, 2012 by Matthew Kershaw, an NHS special administrator appointed by ex-health secretary Andrew Lansley to deal with the financial problems of another NHS trust in south east London that is totally unconnected to Lewisham NHS Trust, and the insultingly short consultation period ends on December 13, 2012.
Campaigners -- myself included -- are demanding that the plans be scrapped, and that Lewisham Hospital be allowed to continue providing a comprehensive service to the 250,000 inhabitants of the borough, whose health needs are more important than cuts designed solely to save money.
For further information, see: www.savelewishamhospital.com/
Also see: www.andyworthington.co.uk/2012/11/03/save-lewisham-ae-as-...
www.andyworthington.co.uk/2012/11/09/lewisham-residents-r...
www.andyworthington.co.uk/2012/11/21/save-lewisham-hospit...
For more on Andy Worthington, see: www.andyworthington.co.uk/

Cut & pasted from Andy Worthington's Flickr page. The placard image will be available for free download from a more permanent source shortly..

Lest We Forget

Claude "Chuckles" Choules

Claude Choules was not only the last surviving combat veteran of the First World War, but also the final person alive who saw active service in both world wars. 

He became a pacifist and would not march in parades that glorified wars such as the one that made him famous.

 

Jez'll Fix It

Portrait of JEREMY HUNT, Health Secretary by Nigel Ayers

2012.

Free for anti-cuts campaigners.


STOP THE CUTS!



See you at the demo in London tomorrow

Slime Trails

Nigel Ayers’ "Slime Trails" records two terrestrial gastropods, active just after rain. The camera casts a relentlessly flawed eye over the scene, which is so botched, off-centre and fragmented that subjects the gastropods to its unblinking stare, leaving them stripped bare on more levels than mere physical nudity and without a full-sized shell. Slugs produce two types of mucus: one which is thin and watery, and another which is thick and sticky, adding a whole new tactile dimension to the camera’s way of looking. Beyond the bodies made up mostly of water, the scene is so relentless and obstinate that the slime trail is turned back on the viewer, who thus becomes the decomposer, chewing up leaves, feces, and other detritus and helping to recycle the nutrients back into the soil. Examining the relationship between ecosystem services and biodiversity as a formal surrogacy relationship facilitates a more analytical examination and brings the issues into sharper relief. The slugs subtly deconstruct the conventional system of the male gaze in conditions and processes, through self-portrayal and seduction strategies which sustain and replenish soil fertility.