Misrule, punks and ravers

Prefigurative politics

A related concept but probably not quite what I am interested in here

Yates (2015):

The notion of ‘prefigurative politics’ is becoming established in this debate and refers to scenarios where protesters express the political ‘ends’ of their actions through their ‘means’, or where they create experimental or ‘alternative’ social arrangements or institutions. Both meanings share the idea that prefiguration anticipates or partially actualises goals sought by movements. This article uses narratives and observations gathered in social movement ‘free spaces’, autonomous social centres in Barcelona, to evaluate, critique and rearticulate the concept. Participants' attention to the ‘means’ through which protest is carried out and emphasis on projects such as experimentation with alternative social and organisational forms suggest they engage in prefigurative politics.

Against legibility

See legibility.

Makers

See making.

Gift economy

• apenwarr, The Gift of It’s Your Problem Now

Incoming

• Life on the Grid (part 1) - by Roger’s Bacon

  To review: growing up in simplistic spatial environments and using GPS has given you brain damage and life has become a soul-crushing video game utterly devoid of mystery or adventure. We are trapped in the Grid like an insect in the spider’s web; vigorous struggle will only serve to entangle us further. To extricate ourselves, we must, as individuals, gently subvert the very foundations of the Grid, which is nothing external but a facet of human nature: the impulse towards control, the systematizing instinct, the part of us that abhors anomaly and ambiguity and seeks to eradicate them. What begins as an earnest attempt to break free can so easily slip back into a self-imposed system of rules and practices with standards to be met and schedules to be followed. For that reason I am hesitant to provide any concrete suggestions—they will only serve to constrain your thinking. For now, there is perhaps only one thing that can be said: if you want to get off the grid, then get lost.

• The Dance of No Tomorrow: The socio-political hardships of Tbilisi’s electronic music scene — Naja Orashvili et al sound interesting.

Historical fools’s societies

Surprisingly hard to research in English by naïve googling. Not even that easy in French.

When reading about the Mattachine Society we learn that the French had Sociétés Joyeuses, but no one seems to have an encyclopedia entry for this concept. Britannica mentions Enfants sans Souci as an example, and refer briefly to the Feast of Fools

There are examples given: La Farce de maître Pathelin and Confrérie des Conards.

TODO: download images from Narrenschiff as illustrations.

• Das Narrenschiff von Sebastian Brant (Narragonien digital) -
• Ship of Fools Woodcuts // Digital Collections

References