ReInterpret - December/January 2012/2013

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interpret

December 2012 - January 2013Issue 2

Whats in a frame? p3 Lost (and Found) in Translation, p7 Art as Ethnography,p8 Breaking the Chains of Corporate Conformity, p10 Review: ReinterpretingOur Common Struggle, p12 Artwork by Marie Sennyey (p4), Alley Cat (p4,Cover) and Portia Roelofs (everywhere else) Radical Calendar (back page)


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In his 1995 book An Anthropologist on Mars Oliver

Sacks describes the case of Virgil, a fty-year old man

who regained his sight after becoming blind in early

life. When the bandages came off, despite havingmedically perfect vision, Virgil couldnt make sense

of the colours, movement and areas of light and dark

that he was vividly presented with. Only after weeks

of examining objects rst by touch, and then linking

this primary information to ever changing views of the

world, could he piece together sensory information tomake the visual universe. It turns out that we have to

learn to see.

If we could start again, how would we learn to seedifferently? Foucault writes that we cannot escape

the need to mediate the material world through

an interpretative lens. It can feel like we have little

choice about what that lens is and we end up seeingthings which are not there. In the absence of walls

and fences we see borders; in the absence of uniformsand badges we see status. Sometimes we become

overwhelmed by seeing, and endeavour to raise

colourblind children.

In this issue of Re we pose the following question: by

asking different questions, how can we see the world

differently?

Louisa Bartolo asks What is in a frame? exploring

the fundamental question at the heart of this issue

of Re. Caroline Leonard highlights the often unseen

interpretations of foreign language translation. David

Cromwell and David Edwards, editors of MediaLens, explore ways our thinking is controlled by elite

interests and how we can hope to overcome thatcontrol. Jan Leonhardt reviews What we are ghting

for: A radical collective manifesto edited by Federico

Campagna and Emanuele Campiglio. Sarah Carsonintroduces us to her project Art as Ethnography:

how people describe the world ar ound them without

words. Artwork is also contributed by Alley Cat,

Portia Roelofs and Marie Sennyey.

We are used to the slogan Another World is Possible,

but perhaps that is at once over- ambitious and

defeatist. The challenge is not to make a new world,

but to see it, hidden among the conventions, habits

and cluttered assumptions of the old one.

The team (so far)

Louisa BartoloAlley Cat

Sarah CarsonDavid Cromwell

David EdwardsJan Leonhardt

Caroline LeonardPortia Roelofs

Marie Sennyey

Sarah Carson

Marc GascoigneBen Lattimore

Portia RoelofsHannah Tompson

Kat Wall

A famous Maltese book by Frans Sammut

called Il-Gagga (The Cage) tells the story

of a young village boy, Fredu (Alfred)struggling to break free from the connes

of the religious and conservative small

mindedness that he increasingly comes to

see as dening Maltese village life. Fredu

begins by delving into philosophical and

literary works, then gets involved in acting,then starts driving and eventually moves

out of his parents home to experience

the freer spirit of a Maltese city. Ateach stage of the process, each level of

liberation, Fredu nds himself trappedagain, a new cage surrounding him. The

claustrophobia of the village is merely

replaced by the equally debilitating and

limiting oppression of social expectation

in the city. The book ends with Fredu

leaving Malta altogether, his nal attemptto free himself from the cage that has

been limiting him thus far. The reader is

left with (and is meant to be left with) the

impression that even this nal step will

bear little fruit. The cage, it appears, is part

of the human c ondition.

Yet the reader is also left with the distinct

sense that the rich experiences born of

attempts to break free from that cage beatsettling for the latters seductive comforts.

I want to use Fredus analogy as a wayof thinking about the way we think

about things. Id like to suggest that the

analytical frames we use are like Fredus

cages, locking us into a way of thinking:

inescapable, limited - and limiting.

Psychology, sociology and political science

have shed great light on the way social and

political frameworks are passed down to

us by our parents, inuenced by our social

networks and affected by what happens to

us. Once established, frames can becomequite potent guides for how we live our

lives. Inuencing the people we seek out,

helping us make sense of experiences, and

organize information. They provide some

stability in a constantly shifting world and

a dened space from which to start inquiry.

But forming decisions based on an

uncritical acceptance of those frames isproblematic. Its a bit like sitting inside

a kitchen discussing what is wrong with

the whole house and making plans for its

refurbishment with a belief that the entire

house can be gleaned from the view inside

its kitchen. It leads to the idea that the onlypeople worth talking to are the ones sitting

around the kitchen table.

The whole idea of Re-Frame (a series ofblog posts I will be contributing to www.

rethezine.com ) is that thinking critically

requires that we rst break down the

analytical parameters that frame ourthinking. If we accept that facts dont, on

their own, tell a story, that its the storythat gives meaning to the facts, it suggests

that questioning our frameworks might be

even more important than being open to

different factual information. Like Fredus

cages, attempting to break through ourframeworks wont lead us into a world fr ee

from delimited boundaries. But it will allow

us to discover new ones. That, in itself,

can lead to dramatically different ways ofthinking and living.

The people in the living room havent

necessarily got it wrong, but its very hard

to see that from the kitchen.

Whats in a frame?Louisa BartoloRethink.

Reimagine.Recreate.

Contributors

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FablesThese black and white photographs were taken in

Gaza as part of Al Madad Foundations project. Theymade a book of the prints and sold them as wellas these printed canvases to raise money to buildlibraries in Gaza. For the exhibition in March, sevenartists including me were asked to reinterpret the

canvases and the stories seen in those photographs.

FABLES is a testament to the power of stories toboth open up a world of possibilities and lead us toour inner treasures. Folk tales, fairly tales, old wivestalesthese are threads in the intricate fabric of ourcollective and individual histories. In the companyof these brave, honest, adventurous characters, thechildren approach a threshold marked by telephonepoles through which theyll nd a world, mid-transformation, from rubble to mountains of goldand treasure. These stories give children the powerto improve themselves and their future by offeringboth simple examples of virtuous creatures - andcautionary tales.

Middle MiddleAlongside our re-worked paintings were paintings

and drawings made by Palestinian children. Idecided to paint one of these drawings into one

of the photographs/canvases in order to show the

perspective of the child and of the photographic lens

at the same time.

MIDDLE MIDDLE highlights the fact that Palestinehas been, more than any other country, Middled

by the world. The Middles in the title refers to the

Middle Man, the intermediary between Palestine

and our perception of it. The piece itself has three

Middle men--the photographer, through whose lenswe see a decrepit wasteland, the artist, whose wish

it was to get rid of the middle man, and nally thePalestinian child.

The superimposition of Dalias perspective on the

photograph (the latter of which should, by its nature,

offer us the most faithful portrayal of the scene) asks

us to question which point of view is more accurate.

4 5Marie Sennyey

[email protected]


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As careful consumers of news, we keep a lookout for the interpretations that have been

imposed on the events we read and hear about.

But when a journalist uses quotation marks,

they are claiming that an individual used the

string of words they contain (or something

very similar). If we found that journalists were

regularly using quotations that were never

uttered, we would think they were dishonest.

However, this practice is widespread. A large

number of people have their names put next

to things, that they never said in words, they

would never use and sometimes which they

disagree with. This is because they speak in a

language that is not English, but translations

of their words are still attributed to them as

direct quotations.

Translation necessarily involves imposing an

interpretation. Languages are messy tangles

of meaning that dont align neatly with oneanother, and it is impossible to bring all the

subtleties of an utterance in one language

into another intact. When someones speech

is translated, the translator has to take a view

on what the speaker meant and what it is most

important to preserve in their translation.

Passing off a translated quotation as an original

utterance can have dangerous effects. Perhaps

the most famous recent incident of this is

the reporting a speech given by Mahmoud

Ahmadinejad in Persian in 2005. The Iranian

President was widely reported as having

said Israel must be wiped off the map. Theimplications of such phrasing are far-reaching:

it contains the suggestion of complete

obliteration and is consistent with a reference

to nuclear attack.

The translation was contested, with many

people arguing that a more accurate

translation would have talked about vanish[ing]

from the pag e of time. This translation, while

still very hostile to Israel, does not imply

a physical attack which would decimate

the country, and in no way alludes to using

nuclear weapons. The impact of the original

translation, however, could not be erased.

There is no such thing as a correct translation,

and a speaker can always disagree with how

their words have been rendered in another

language. But while translation issues are

never going to go away, our ignorance of

them could. The simplest option would be touse a symbol alongside quotation marks to

denote translated material. In an increasingly

web-based world, the possibilities multiply

using hover text or hyperlinks to reveal the

source language words used, and encouraging

source language speakers to give their own

understandings in the comments. It isnt that

each reader needs to understand every nuance

of every source language quotation. Instead

we need to learn to treat translated quotations

with caution, and realise that there are layers

of interpretation between what we read or

hear in English and what the speaker said.

perd en la traducci

Lost (and found) in translation

Caroline Leonard

Teapots Portia Roelofs


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These images are from a pilot ethnographic study of my local area. Using a

mobile studio, I have created art works with strangers using the local highstreet. Individually they represent what each person wanted to tell me about

our shared environment at that particular moment. Collected, they aim to offera snapshot of a particular place during a particular period of time. Not everyone

is best able to articulate themselves with words; using art materials to facilitateexpression is a powerful alternative for gathering diverse perspectives.

Collecting the images and displaying them together gives the viewer theopportunity to get a feel for the varied views of the local community, as well as

consider them in relation to each other.

Sarah Carson

Art as

Ethnography

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Elite interests in society control thequestions and discourse that dominate what

passes for mainstream news and debate.

How are they able to do this? Because the

mass media are prot-seeking corporations

that are owned by wealthy individuals or,

more often, by giant prot-seeking parent

corporations with close ties to other, allied

sectors of the global economy banking,

mining, arms and so on. These media are

regulated weakly and ineffectually - by

governments that are also largely dominated

by corporate power. As three-time US

presidential candidate Ralph Nader said:

We have a two-party dictatorship in this

country. Lets face it. And it is a dictatorship

in thraldom to these giant corporations who

control every department and agency in the

federal government.

Much the same applies in the UK, of course.

Now recall, as Canadian lawyer Joel Bakan

explains in his book The Corporation, that

big businesses are required, as a matter of

legal obligation, to subordinate all priorities

to prot - compassion, people, planet, and

the search for truth very much included.

But what about the publicly-funded BBC,

and the Guardian and Observer newspapers,

both owned by the Scott Trust? Apart from

noting their corporate-friendly output,

just look at the relevant boards who run

these organisations. They are stuffedwith people who have strong links to the

main political parties, banks, industry,commerce, property and other corporatenews media. We are supposed to believe

that media organisations embedded inthese establishment networks are notcompromised in their ability or motivation toprovide honest, challenging journalism.

The subordination of questions to protis a crucial part of this. If journalists andpoliticians ask the wrong questions, or

encourage the public to ask the wrongquestions, it costs a corporate systemthat has precisely evolved to reduce costsas far as possible. The insanity is such

that even as evidence of human-inducedcatastrophic climate change has becomeoverwhelming media coverage of the crisis

has actually collapsed. But the lteringeffect of corporate greed is felt far beyondthe environmental and political in the mostpersonal aspects of what we think and feel.

Overcoming this domination begins inawareness. We need to consider the

possibility that media and politics are biasedin a particular direction. We need to consider

the medias reporting and commentary onIraq, Libya, the banking crisis, climate changeand so on, and look for serious, credibleevidence offering alternative views. Then

we need to decide for ourselves which

versions are more rational and act on that

understanding.

But modern thought control is only part of

the story; we are also subject to emotion

control. Here again awareness is vital.

From infancy, we are trained for ambition,persuaded to pursue high status academic

and professional careers primarily to feel

successful, special. Virtually the entire

culture education, politics, entertainment,

advertising - insists that happiness is

achieved through high status consumption

and production. This is our main motive for

opting to function as cogs in the corporate

machine. But awareness of how we feel

deep attention to our emotional life reveals

that this kind of ego-centred success leaves

us alienated, deadened and empty inside.

Genuine success involves rejecting the life ofa pampered puppet and instead expressingourselves freely, independently. Workingcreatively in order to benet others isinnitely more satisfying than employmentby others. But to know this we have to besensitive to our emotions and to trust thosefeelings against the tsunami of corporatepropaganda contradicting them.

Political thought and activism will neverchange anything until we also become awareof our emotional life and the extent to whichit is also manipulated and chained.

www.medialens.org

New book by David Cromwell: Why Are*We* The Good Guys?, Zero Books, 2012http://www.zero-books.net/books/why-are-we-the-good-guys

Montage Portia Roelofs

Breaking the Chainsof Corporate Conformity

David Edwards and David Cromwell

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The editors of What We Are Fighting

For describe their project as a clandestine

sound-system, breaking into the chaos of

the global [late-capitalist] dance, concerned

with whats worth ghting for, rather than

against. Timely, as in our post-crash, post-

Arab Spring, mid-Eurozone fuck-up world,

many of the things we are against appear to

be crumbling around us.

The twenty contributions mix practical

suggestions for alternative forms of social

and economic organisation, critiques of

the current system and compelling calls to

action. Highlights include: David Graebers

Revolution at the level of Common Sense,

challenging us to re-engage in a battle

over common sense assumptions; Milford

Batemans A New Local Financial System, a

great analysis of current credit institutions

that also presents concrete ideas for

future action and Mark Fishers challenge

to disarticulate technology and desire

from capital (p.135) when exploring Post-

Capitalist Desire.

However the book presents the reader with

a fundamental tension. We might expect a

manifesto to contain a united set of ideas,

but this particular clandestine sound-

system lacks a coherent melody. The 20

chapters share no clear points of reference,

other than being divided into 5 themes:

new economics, governance, public, social

imagination, and a new tactics of struggle to

realise them.

The editors, aware of this, admit that despite

the title referring to a unitary we, the

movement behind the book is inherently

pluralist, fragmented and not unitary

(p.2 - 3). Acknowledging the plurality of

voices on offer is well and good, but making

no attempt to harmonise them through

shared interaction leaves this project lacking

a cohesion which may have transformed it

into something altogether more useful.

There are no outright contradictions, but

the contributions champion a number of

different approaches. One striking example

of this is Federico Campagnas call to free

ourselves from the fraudulent imperatives

of revolution as part of his wider aim to

reject the tiresome discourse of changing

the world(p.160). Compare this to Nina

Powers insistence that we ght the war on

multiple fronts through campaigns, political

action, writing on blogs or elsewhere

(p.180). Yes, these are compatible, strictly

speaking, but they pull in differentdirections.

The question at the centre of themanifesto therefore becomes:

what level of agreement do we, asa movement, require for action?Reading the various contributionson offer you get the sense that,

actually, we only need a minimal amount.

Policy holds us to a different standardthan theoretical debate. It is sufcient tosay that in the here and now we can agree

on the bare minimum, such as a workingNHS, free education, secure employmentwith a living wage for all, a sustainableeconomy and any other just causes weare able to collaborate on.

But, while the variety of viewpointsheld by this collective may be easy toaccommodate in polite intellectualconversation on paper, it will be in the

streets, in open debate and in relating to

one another, on a personal level, that this

approach is tested.

Do we hold too strongly to the micro-labels to which weve become attached?Trots, anarcho-syndicalists, eco-anarchists, social democrats, etc. - at the

end of the day, maybe the reason these

self-appellations exist is because wequite like being marginal, and the idea

of dropping these niche-nicknames toretake the mainstream (as Mark Fishersuggests) requires more of a sacrice

than we are willing to make.

What We Are Fighting For starts us offon this process of convergence, making

two important contributions. Providinga set menu of practical suggestions, and,crucially, a realisation that, agreeing on

practical suggestions might be all theunity we need.

Review

Common StruggleReinterpreting our

Jan Leonhardt

What We Are Fighting For: A Radical Collective ManifestoEdited by Federico Campagna and Emanuele Campiglio

Portia Roelofs


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This is the city from theperspective of Alley Cat,a 19 year old squatter

who has been homelesssince the age of 12. Theart work is a response

to the recent change in

law making squatting inresidential buildings acriminal offence. Withinthe art work there are

several miniatures of theartist sleeping in variousplaces, including a disusedblock of ats, her oldschool, the no. 38 busand a tumble dryer at thelaunderette. Alley Catoffers an alternative view

of familiar surroundings.

Alley Cat

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DecemberThe Long March to Equality: Treasures of The Womens LibraryWomens Library, London Metropolitan University 25 Old Castle Street, Aldgate, London E1 7NTExhibition runs throughout December.

Visualizing Political Struggle in the Middle EastWednesday 12th December, 6.30-8.00pm, Old Theatre, Old Building, LSE

Lina Khatib focuses on the evolution of political expression and activism in the Middle East over thepast decade, highlighting the visual dimension of power struggles between citizens and leaders inArab countries undergoing transition.

Sanja Ivekovic: Unknown Heroine14th December 2012 to 24th February 2013, Main Gallery at the South London Gallery & Calvert22, 22 Calvert Avenue, London E2 7JPTackling issues of female identity, consumerism and historical amnesia, the exhibition featureswork made across four decades against a background of political unrest. Curated by Lina

Duverovi, admission free.

JanuaryThe London Interdisciplinary Discussion Group: Vision and Images22nd January 2013, 6.00-8.00pm, Dana Centre, Science Museum, South Kensington.Speakers Helen Barron, Matteo Farinella, Ludmilla Jordanova, Toby Ward and Lucy Wilfordwill discuss vision and images from the perspectives of history, medicine (psychiatry), art and

neuroscience.Free and all welcome. Full details at:http://londoninterdisciplinarydiscussiongroup.wordpress.com/

Death ExhibitionOngoing - to 28th February 2013. Wellcome Collection, 183 Euston Road, NW1 2BEDelve into the morbidly fascinating, but intellectually intriguing, Death Exhibition at Wellcome

Collection. Enjoy Richard Harriss huge range of artifacts and art devoted entirely to the concept of

death and investigate the varied human attitudes towards mortality.

London Short Film Festival 20134th - 13th January 2013. Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), 12 Carlton House Terrace.London Short Film Festival is celebrating its tenth year and showcasing the very best of thecountrys raw talent.

A New Century, A New World January at the Southbank Centre (SE1 8XX)Imperialism begins to dissolve in the build-up to the First World War. The aristocracys powerbegins to fade, workers rights become a crucial political issue and the world adjusts to a new ageof electricity and mechanisation. Reecting this, artists and musicians take 19th-century forms tothe limit, then dare to imagine a new world

Information is correct to the best of our knowledge at time of going to press.

A guide to free and nearly free events for the curious, vexed and perplexed in London throughoutDecember and January. Listing does not imply endorsement, only curiosity.

Thank you for reading Re. If you want to get in touch, contact us at [email protected], on twitter @rethezine or onfacebook.com/RetheZine.

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ReInterpret - December/January 2012/2013