Mark Fisher, Edia Connole and artist Sally O’Reilly were brought together within the environment of Cult of Engagement to claim agency of the stage.

Mark Fisher examines the pervasive sense of resignation that results from our contemporary situation in his recent publication Capitalist Realism. Fisher uses the term Capitalist Realism to describe the “invisible barrier constraining thought and action” prevalent in Western contemporary society. In refusing to accept that there are no alternatives, Fisher’s discussion, convened by Edia Connole, seeks to examine ways of challenging the situation of Capitalist Realism to enable the formation of an alternative, (collective) political subject.

Playing with the theme of instructive pedagogy inherent to Greek tragedy Sally O’Reilly delivered a chapter of an instructional manual through a revival of the format of The Living Newspaper. The Living Newspaper was a musical theatrical form used by the Soviet state to deliver practical information to the illiterate proletariat and later adopted as an educational tool by the US government during the Great Depression. A scratch performance by Drazen Derek and Andrew Sutton accompanied this performance.

This event was generously supported by GradCAM.

Images courtesy of Project Arts Centre

http://k-punk.abstractdynamics.org/
http://www.implicasphere.org.uk