Invited talk discussing connections between urban community activism, the role of autonomous local community newspapers and the printshops that facilitated them. This is framed within contemporaneous countercultural and alternative left discourses of self-help and autonomy and DIY. The paper partly draw on current research project based at UWE, Recovering the Regional Radical Press 1968-88. The conference, organised by Alt Gar Bra, explored the political and artistic role of the mimeograph.
Foreward to monograph on the London based 'Poster Workshop' that existed between 1968-71. The forward provides a historical, cultural and technological context for the book, and connects the workshop to a wider realm of radical cultural production and activism. The main text is written by Sam Lord with Peter Dukes, Jo Robinson and Sarah Wilson, ex-participants. The book is heavily illustrated with images of posters created.
This conference paper expanded upon the ethical issues raised in my book chapter 'Engaging past participants: the case of radicalprintshops.org' in Innovative Methods in Media and Communication Research. (Eds Kubitschko & Kaun, Palgrave 2016). In the assembly of contemporary digital technologies, wikis are amongst those heralded for their democratic and 'participatory' potential. From the ambitious scale of Wikipedia to the more modest scope of the school classroom, wikis have been used to co-produce and share knowledge. In relation to the latter Robert Fitzgerald (2007: 680) argues that 'the wiki approach' to learning is consistent with the constructionist educational theory perspective that knowledge is 'neither received or found' but produced in interaction with other humans and tools. There has been significant research into the use of wikis in a variety of contexts, as the nine thousand pages of WikiPapers testify. Regarding the use of wikis in academic research, they are mostly utilized as a means for closed groups to manage research data rather than as a method for research. This paper describes an experiment to mobilize this potential through the instigation of an open access wiki, radicalprintshops.org. This wiki was conceived as adjunct to and part of the doctoral research I had recently undertaken. It was partly an attempt to balance the nature of the PhD process and final form with that which was more aligned to the collectivist politics and practices of my subjects. The aspiration was also that it would engender their interest and generate new empirical material to draw on. Without losing sight of the potential and actual value for the principled and instrumental aims of radicalprintshops.org, the developing challenges and contradictions the experiment raised will also be discussed throughout this paper.
Wikis have for some time been heralded for their democratic and participatory potential and there has been significant research into the use of wikis in a variety of contexts. Within academic research they tend to be used by closed groups to manage material rather than for research per se. This chapter describes an experiment and the challenges to do the latter through the instigation of the open access wiki radicalprintshops.org.
This conference paper explored the contradictory relationships between the independent radical printshops of the late 20th century and the print unions, raising issues of identity, solidarity, gender, skill and mobilisation against Thatcher's 1980s attack on trade unions. The conference was organised by the Centre for Printing History and Culture.
This keynote offers an historical contribution towards two of the questions being asked at Performing Resistance symposium: 'How can art and academic work produce political resistance? How can a traditional separation between inside/outside, thinking/doing and art/activism be prevented?' I will draw on the example of the 'alternative' printshops set up to support and 'perform resistance' between the late 1960s and early 1980s. Many of those involved had been to art school, but renounced the title of artist and its circuits. This phenomenon mostly collapsed by the mid 1990s for reasons economic, social, political and of course new technological means. In recent years, partly inspired by the radical print culture that flowered in the 1960s and 70s, there has been a sort of revival; from newspapers (e.g. Occupied Times and STRIKE!) to pamphlets and screen-printing set ups at protest events. Much of this resurgence has been artist and designer led, especially those interested in 'socially engaged practice'. My presentation will discuss this earlier history and the current revival in relation to it.
Commissioned article for Strike! magazine about the artist/designer led radical print revival and how, despite its regular citation of the radical print culture of 1960s/70s, it is fuelled by very different cultural and technological conditions, and what the implications might be for its political resonance.
This article examines the output and practices of two London-based feminist printing collectives that operated between the 1970s to the early 1990s and for whom the principles of democratic participation and access were central. Their activities are discussed in relation to specific, changing and sometimes challenging politic-cultural contexts in which they existed.
A speech at Adhocracy! convened by New Work Network about the politically motivated printshop collectives that proliferated in the UK in the 1970s and 80s. These were not 'printmaking' workshops for 'limited editions' but places to cheaply produce alternative critical media. Founded by anarchists, artists, lefties and feminists, the focus is on the printshops' connection with the changing politics of women's liberation. Fellow speakers were David Curtis & Biddy Peppin (London Arts Lab), Illona Halberstadt (Scratch Orchestra), Kate Hudson (CND), Marlene Smith (Blk Arts Group), Simon Watney (Outrage). Moderated by Dr Andrea Phillips, Reader in Fine Art, Goldsmiths, University of London.
Commissioned article looking back at London's printmaking workshops of the 1960s and 70s, DIY sites of political and community activism that rejected the role of the artist to participate in a network of campaign groups, radical publishers and distributors.
Chapter that uses the concept of cultural democracy to discuss the the ways in which radical printshops of the 1970-80s attempted to articulate their radical democratic aspirations through their production and organisational practices.
Organised in collaboration with Ruth Collingwood and Monica Sajeva from the LCC Library. To mark the 50th anniversary of '1968', a year of global protest and unrest, the Design Activism Research Hub (DARH) is staging an exhibition/intervention in the LCC Library with related events for UAL students and staff during the month of May. (See below for details and dates.) 1968 was the year that Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated and of riots in over a hundred US cities. It was the year that two winning US athletes made a silent protest at the Mexico Olympics medal ceremony with the 'black power' salute, an image that ricocheted around the world. It was the year that Soviet Russian troops invaded Czechoslovakia bringing an end to the 'Prague Spring' as well as of the 'Tet Offensive' which seriously undermined the US's ill fated and barbarous war in Vietnam. And of course it was the year of the 'events of May' – the extraordinary student and worker uprisings in France — with their proliferation of graffiti and radical posters produced in occupied art school studios (Atelier Populaire). It is often these that are the focus for anniversaries of 1968, especially in the context of visual communication. However the focus of the DARH exhibit is London. It was a time of a growing radical ferment in this city too, ranging from protests about the Vietnam War and Britain's complicity with apartheid regimes in Southern Africa, to myriad forms of activism around urgent home grown issues: housing, racism and workers struggles. And there was student revolt in London too with occupations at LSE, Croydon and Hornsey School of Art, as well as the formation of 'revolutionary' student organisations and 'anti-universities'. London's black power movement was gathering ground with new groups, publications and protests. 1968 was also the year of the Conservative MP Enoch Powell's infamous 'Rivers of Blood' speech, which gave succor to the already endemic racism in Britain — and ever more reason to organise against it. (The Labour Government responded to Powell's sentiments with Commonwealth Immigration Act 1968). The London Squatters Campaign was born in 1968, the harbinger of a movement that would grow exponentially in the 1970s. Tenant activism was on the rise with huge marches and rent strikes. (1968 was also year of the Ronan Point collapse, a newly built social housing tower block in Newham). Localism became one of the new radicalisms. 1968 was just one year after homosexuality had been 'decriminalized', and the slow respectable campaigning for legal rights would soon be challenged by the more radical analysis and approach of the Gay Liberation Front. A Women's Liberation Movement was on the brink of emergence. This swell of diverse activism, only hinted at above, generated numerous pamphlets, leaflets, newssheets and posters, produced by whatever means available: duplicators, offset litho, screen printing and which contributed to the diverse alternative radical culture of the time. It was the year that the London listings magazine Time Out magazine started (which had a dedicated section for 'agitation') as well as when the radical newspaper Black Dwarf was launched. New radical and community activist printing shops were set up, such as Poster Workshop in Camden Town and Notting Hill Press in west London. Agit-Prop was formed, a radical information service which also did street theatre as the Agit-Prop Street Players. There were activist film groups in London too, such as Cinema Action, Amber and the Angry Arts Society (See below for details of 68 film night: Agitate-Propagate-Reel!). Print culture though was especially crucial to the dissemination of information, arguments and rallying cries. Recall it was pre internet, social media, and the wide spread availability of video recorders! The exhibition will display a range of this material including pamphlets, magazines, books and newspapers loaned from Bishopsgate Archives, the Feminist Library and from DARH members own collections. These will be shown in the glass display cases on the library bridge. Copies of some of these items as well as more contemporary materials will be available for browsing in the central area in front of the library reception desk. Library staff will be showing a selection of related stock items and DARH have created a series of 'shelf interventions' to highlight further sources within the library. The exhibition coincides with the release of the first book about the above mentioned Poster Workshop who operated between 1968-71. Their posters provide a near index of social and political struggles of the period and we will be displaying some reproductions, alongside other posters produced in a workshop for students led by members of the Propagate Collective. This display will be along the main right wall as you enter the library. (Here we will also show one of Cinema Action's films, GEC). To celebrate the publication of Poster Workshop's book, we are hosting a 'mini' launch and Q&A with ex-members for LCC and UAL staff and students in the library. Copies of the book will be on sale at the event. Agitate-Propagate-68! Exhibition Opening and Poster Workshop, 1968-71 Book Launch Thursday 3 May 2018, LCC library, 5.30 – 7.30pm 5.30pm: Exhibition opening and tour 6pm: Poster Workshop book launch and Q&A (The exhibition runs from 1 to 31 May 2018) Agitate-Propagate-Reel! Thursday 24 May, MLG06A, LCC, 6 – 8pm 1968 themed film night co-organised by Screen School PhD candidate Mario Hamad, more information to follow but it is promised to include a screening of Cinétracts (1968) on a 16mm film projector. STUDENT WORKSHOPS: Agitate-Propagate-Print! Wednesday 2 May This is a limited number sign-up screen-printing poster workshop for students on BA/MA Graphics and Illustration courses (now full). The workshop will be run by members of Propagate Collective, with ex-members of Poster Workshop joining in. It will take inspiration from the political visuals and techniques of the late 1960s ad-hoc protest poster making that spread across many parts of the globe at the time, notably in France in the Atelier Populaires set up in occupied art school studios, but also in the Camden basement of the above mentioned Poster Workshop. The most successful posters produced will form part of the display in the library. This workshop is supported by a SEEF Award. Agitate-Propagate-Read! Tuesday 22 May 2.00-3.30pm Ruth Collingwood and Monica Sajevo from the LCC library team will be running a student workshop with publications from the exhibition and the library's extensive zine collection. Further information to follow.
Exhibition at LCC as part of the London Design Festival Alternative do-it-yourself (DIY) publishing in the UK is often assumed to have started with photocopiers and punks. However, counterculture and grassroots movements from the mid-1960s onwards generated an explosion of alternative 'not for profit' print and publications, frequently produced by amateurs using basic technologies. Much of this was consciously infused with notions of autonomy and anti-specialism. The mid-60s were a contradictory period of political, creative and social turbulence, a moment when radical ideas were in ferment and hopes for change were high. The experimental and creative energies generated by the counterculture stimulated a proliferation of DIY or self-sufficient activity that spread across the expanding field of the alternative left: from 'happenings' to free schools and communes. Within the pages of the underground/alternative press there is clear evidence of how DIY or 'self-help' activities provided a significant component of countercultural sensibilities and practice. 'How To' articles, sharing and 'demystifying' uncommon knowledge, were a regular feature, and all manner of self-help handbooks could be obtained by mail order or found in alternative bookshops; how to build things, grow things, fix things, take or make drugs, meditate, print and squat. There were also articles and handbooks about how to navigate the unavoidable parts of 'the system', notably the law and the welfare state. It was not just that people could do it for themselves, where possible outside of 'the system' of experts and institutions, but that others could also do it to build 'the alternative society'. At the same time we find in the pages of the underground press biting satire and critique of capitalism, militarism and consumerism. The four publications shown here offer a glimpse into this new upsurge of left voices and causes of protest, specifically the feminist movement, the anti-war and nuclear disarmament movement, as well as radical art and alternative living. This mini-exhibition will be followed by a larger exhibition in 2018, which marks the 50th anniversary of 1968, the year that was the highpoint of 60s era youthful revolt in many parts of the world. Captions: Shrew – August / September issue, Volume 5 No.3 1973 Shrew was the magazine of the Women's Liberation Workshop, a collectivist federation made up of smaller autonomous local women's liberation groups. Many were 'consciousness-raising' groups, with their own character, agendas and affiliations. Shrew ran regularly between 1969 and 1974, had a circulation of about 5,000 and sold very cheaply either by mail order or in women's centres and sympathetic bookshops. Each issue of the magazine was produced by a different local or special interest group that had total freedom in all aspects; content, layout, images and overall design. There was a Shrew collective of representatives committed to helping with the production. As the production of each issue was rotated, the contents and aesthetics of the magazine were incredibly diverse. Shrew represented the sense of empowerment associated by feminists in 'doing it for themselves'. From the collection of The Feminist Library (www.feministlibrary.co.uk). —————————- Hapt – Issues 26 & 27, 1970 Started by a small collective connected to the English Diggers Hapt was a DIY hand-printed counter-culture magazine. Produced between December 1967 and May 1971, running for 27 issues, Hapt was legal-sized, stencil duplicated, with silk-screened covers and centrespread, printed on rough paper in editions of up to 400. It was distributed for free by post, at alternative bookshops and in radical spaces. The UK edition was written and co-ordinated by a small team of seven, initially based in London before later moving to set up communes in Bournemouth and Stroud. There were sister Hapt communes in Holland, Argentina, Belgium and Switzerland. Hapt promoted a DIY culture synonymous with their commune lifestyle, encouraging writing from their readership and sharing knowledge about their means of production through a comprehensive description of the screen print making process. —————————- Resistance – Committee of 100 bulletin – Vol 3 No.4 Apr & 9 Dec 1966 & Vol 4. No 2 June 1967 In 1960, in response to the increasing sense of frustration over the limitations of tactics used by such groups as the Campaign Against Nuclear Disarmament, anti-war activists led by Bertrand Russell launched the Committee of 100. This more militant organisation sought to step up resistance to the UK government policy on weapons of mass destruction by calling for and engaging in mass non-violent resistance and civil disobedience, such as large sit-down demonstrations. In 1962 the group re-launched itself on a decentralised basis, made up by 13 regional Committees organising actions in London and at military bases across the country. Resistance was a bulletin published by the Resistance Working Group in Birmingham and London. It provided information and updates about the movement to the Committee's membership and other related anti-war groups. —————————- King Mob Echo – Issue 1, April 1968. King Mob emerged out of a coming together of members of the English section of the Situationist International and a network of London based cultural radicals in 1968. It went on to become a short-lived but influential radical group that engaged in subversive actions often involving carnivalesque, Dada-esque costumes and humour, such as infiltrating Selfridges at Christmas time dressed up as Santa, handing out the store's toys as 'presents' to children, which resulted in the spectacle of store employees and police desperately snatching toys out of crying children's hands. The group announced their actions through hand-distributed leaflets and word of mouth and between 1968 and 1970 published 5 issues (issue 4 was never published) of King Mob, a glued-together magazine. The first issue, King Mob Echo, included a translation of part of Raoul Vaneigem's 'The Revolution of Daily Life'.
Exhibition of protest and social movement material culture, highlighting the histories and memories associated with the items, from Greece to Greenham, Animal Liberation to ACT UP and the alter-globalisation movements to the recent student occupations.
