The project proposed here is a performance lecture, a political think tank, a drawing up and dismantling of a blueprint for revolution and a propaganda machine set in motion by a cold strategist with a golden heart: meet Olga Posumović, a sixty year old Ukrainian prostitute, tv-actress and resistance fighter who has trained extensively with Otpor, aka Centre for Applied NonViolent Action and Strategies, whose headquarters in Belgrade I will be interning in in July. Otpor, which means resistance, is run by the kid that toppled Slobodan Milošević some sixteen years ago, using creative and purely nonviolent strategies. He is now doing Harvard and TED talks and was called by the Atlantic the secret mastermind behind the Arab Springs.
For this project, Posumović and I will try to fix Australia- Eastern European style. We will performatively regurgitate what Otpor has taught us and out of this vomit of revolutionary thought we will implicate our audience in the task at hand: we will come up with an actionable strategy that will try to fix Australia.
We will need to focus: What do we want? What is a solid goal we can work towards? Let's get the Greens in power(!) This would be a decent beginning. What are some compelling actions we can execute? (Olga suggests offering the voters standing in the Liberal line blowjobs if they vote Green, handjobs if they vote Labor. I objected to this as I am a feminist but Olga said: do you guys wanna win or not?? So we will lure the Liberals to a tent where we will show them pornos that are in actuality specially crafted propaganda videos, made in consultation with top advertising gurus and consumerism-psychologists. I suggested these lured Liberals be masturbated by solar-powered robots so as to maximise the number we are able to process/convert in a short amount of time).
These are just some strategies we’ve come up with that will be addressed during our performance lectures.
Following a think-tank we will be accepting further suggestions and we will act on the best of these.
Posumović says she doesn't think art needs to be political, that it would be better if there was no politics and art could focus on other things, like sex/linguistics/death and there's lots of other interesting things- but if it wants to be political then-why-the-heck-not-go-and-be-political?
it's so simple, the plan is a good one, “she says”
FURTHER IDEAS, UNEDITED, ON THE FORTHCOMING RESISTANCE, AS VOICED BY VARIOUS MEMBERS OF THE THINK TANK
uncensored dreams and nightmares: we were watching porn on giant screens in the field, sitting in colourful fold up fabric chairs - voina fucking in the museum, otpor against milosevic, etc, with fist up in air going yeah, and all crouched up weak body sickly face screaming yeah in a weak voice with my fist up in the air in support of the porn on the tv, the politics of my brothers and sisters, and here i am watching it on replay on a big TV and i'm thinking fuck you mum fuck you for saving me from this, for bringing me to this shitty haven with its shitty foldable chairs, if you hadn't taken me away that would me getting rammed from behind whilst heavily pregnant (note: it's immigration i'm angry at)
nostalgia in an angry bitter voice: when i was 7 i used to make my mum take me into town so that i could drink coca cola the most expensive drink on the menu - and as i sat there enjoying this usa beverage i thought to myself you have brought me to a better life, because coca cola is fucking delicious! and despite not having received her pay check for 6 months on account of the wartime economic collapse she did this for me and paid the money because she also believed that coca cola was luxurious and totally worth while (note: it's delicious coca cola i'm angry at)
pros of propaganda: i used to think that advertising was deeply evil and that, like dfw said, it manipulates you into believing that it cares for you - is emotional abuse - but then i realised that it’s interesting that it can be used for good, like herding people into believing in the revolution (note: it's corporate emotional manipulation that i'm angry at)
quote: people need to dress the same have music you need to make it look like, how you call it, love parade
strategy: plant supporters in the audience, activate a herd mentality (note: if john and jane have washed their brains then bob and mary will too)
audience strategy: learn from otpor how to organise a massive (peaceful) protest, then after organising a massive (peaceful) protest subject them to a show
quote: to lead a protest movement effectively, an organisations leadership has to venture outside of cyberspace
representational leadership: have giant screen machine thing calling heroically for action, then be revealed like wizard of oz as a weak little dried up golem (note: the Idea of a leader = bums on seats)
overheard conversation between an unstable sympathiser who suffers from what he refers to as cultural & spiritual starvation and an eastern european otpor facilitator: holy shit! holy shit! otpor! let's do it here! but your country is stable and wealthy! what?! ooh come on! let's do it here!! but you are stable and wealthy!! ha ha
realisation about how things are here and the smartest way to dismantle that: lolz artists can't win because people want capitalism. but can someone think of the children! explain to a group of pre schoolers how they're being mentally oppressed and brain washed by their yuppy scum parents - the children are our future, the revolution must start here - turn them against their parents - sharp - reading club for toddlers - take them through the otpor revolution training school
on pro-western-democratic revolution, as one concerned member of our resistance put it: wait wait wait wait! i thought we were trying to turn this place into some kind of utopia, maaaan, your tellin' me you trying to turn this into a mcdonald munchin' tv watchin' glossy magazine flippin’ neoliberal conforming craphole, man? is that what you're trying to tell me? i don't know how i feel about this, man. man are you crazy? you wanna turn them into us? man they speak like 4 languages on average man, and i don't even know what a fucken verb is!
commonly overheard conversation between the resistance and their brethren: i'm leaving where are you going i'm joining the revolution , my sisters and brothers need me. we need you. no you are comfortable. i'm uncomfortable, i'm so sad, i, we need you, we are the carnage that's been left behind (note: don't worry AFP, its a "pro-democracy" revolution, NOT the other kind)
things that are interesting: nah i'm just interested in the performance of revolution, and therefore the performance of writing history and let's get a little kooky here but ultimately the performance of reality, is something that's endlessly interesting (note: is this an ethical sentiment?)
on the implications of uncovering the performance of reality: but after a while of listening to such a nauseating bunch of conspiracy uncoverers don't you just feel like shouting shuuuuuuut up! shut the fuck up! in mega derro accent (note: as in, shut the fuck up and be normal, i can't fucken handle any more of this shit)
ending: at the end of it all in white beds say no we'll stay here, we're free to be creative here