<nettime> Agit Disco VS The Zombie Apocalypse

[marc garrett <marc.garrett@furtherfield.org>]

Agit Disco VS The Zombie Apocalypse

Marc Garrett reviews Stefan Szczelkun's book Agit Disco. Szczelkun is an 
artist and author interested in culture and democracy. In the early 
Seventies he was fortunate to be part of the Scratch Orchestra and has 
since been involved with a series of artists collectives. His doctoral 
research into the Exploding Cinema collective was completed at the RCA 
in 2002. Recently his collaborative project Agit Disco was published as 
a Mute book in 2012. He has been on the Mute magazine editorial board 
since 2009, and currently working on photographic and performance projects.

Introduction: Entering The Zombie Apocalypse.

"Just cause we can’t see the bars
Don’t mean we ain’t in prison."
Kate Tempest (2009) [1]

The subtle and not so subtle domination by market interests of cultural 
production and dialogue denies us all access to a wide spectrum of 
creative expression, especially those that engage in subjects that 
conflict with the agendas of those in power. Agit Disco by Stefan 
Szczelkun combats this contemporary trend by focusing on music, 
politics, DIY culture, and freedom of expression. In doing so he starts 
to redress the lack of representation across the board for those in 
grass roots culture and working class lives, whose freedoms to have a 
voice in society are so commonly restricted.

The future does not look good for those who value cultural and social 
diversity; who look for a variety of activist histories and experiences 
to be seen and represented on their own terms. The UK government is 
changing university regulations so that private companies can become 
universities. This means tutors will end up replacing educational 
courses once devised with the public good in mind with modules designed 
for maximum profit. Luke Martell, a critic of the marketisation and 
privatisation of education and lecturer of Sociology at the University 
of Sussex, says "This will lead to a different content to education. 
Critical thinking is being replaced by conformity to cash. 
Money-spinning management and business courses are expanding and 
lower-income adult education is being closed down.” [2] (Martell 2013) 
Already, most researchers, academics and those in professional fields of 
practice mainly work within insider frameworks, "there is a qualitative 
difference between the conditions of people living in marginalized 
communities and those in middle-class suburbia.” [3] (Smith 2012)

The knock on effect of an unquestioning culture of compliance with the 
‘free market’ is enormous. How ironic it is that the term ‘free market’ 
is attributed with so much value and (a presumed) logic when in 
actuality it constrains people’s freedoms and makes those who are 
already rich even richer. Because the politicians are not effected by 
the results personally, and because it also serves their interests, they 
have handed over their social responsibilities to these market systems. 
The neoliberal defaults that caused the financial crisis are untouched 
by our democratic processes. These out of reach, distant power systems 
are fixed towards property bias and occupy and govern our everyday 
experiences. How does freedom of expression fit into this and on whose 
terms?

"The more our physical and online experiences and spaces are occupied by 
the state and corporations rather than people’s own rooted needs, the 
more we become tied up in situations that reflect officially prescribed 
contexts, and not our own.”[4] (Garrett 2013)

Review of Agit Disco.

Agit Disco offers a breath of fresh air, in the fug of the developing 
marketisation of everything. It presents grounded examples of difference 
that contrast with the dominating view of entertainment systems. 
Published through Mute Books in 2012, it features 23 playlists put 
forward by 23 different writers, artist and activists. It began as a set 
of mixed CDs and images, each chapter includes annotations and 
illustrations. Its contributors are Sian Addicott, Louise Carolin, Peter 
Conlin, Mel Croucher, Martin Dixon, John Eden, Sarah Falloon, Simon 
Ford, Peter Haining, Stewart Home, Tom Jennings, DJ Krautpleaser, Roger 
McKinley, Micheline Mason, Tracey Moberly, Luca Paci, Room 13 – 
Lochyside Scotland, Howard Slater, Johnny Spencer, Stefan Szczelkun, 
Andy T, Neil Transpontine, and Tom Vague.

Mostly from working class backgrounds the contributors were invited to 
focus on politics and music, and share memories relating to what the 
tunes meant to them at the time. In the preface Szczelkun states, his 
selection of contributors comes from his own worldview and personal 
contacts. Anthony Iles, in his introduction says most who have 
contributed "are closely associated with anti-authoritarian politics and 
DIY culture."[5] (Iles 2012) Contributors offer insights into the 
connections between their music and the politics of the time. Louise 
Carolin says, “When I was a teenager in the ‘80s I lived through one of 
the golden ages of British chart pop, listening to music that was by 
turns, political, danceable, challenging and entertaining. I attended 
CND rallies, marched against South African Apartheid, ran the feminist 
group at school and went to GLC-funded music festivals."[6] (Carolin 2011)

What adds depth to Louise's story, as with the rest of the contributions 
is that many readers feel connected with these histories, and I am one 
of them. It highlights an indigenous, working class culture and their 
personal struggles in a period when neoliberalism was in its early 
stages of world domination. To say that these are merely anecdotal or 
subjective would completely miss the point. It calls for an awareness 
and understanding about people giving an account for themselves in 
relation to music, politics and their social contexts on their own terms.

Just as it is important to ask contextual and critical questions of why 
a particular artwork is being shown at a certain venue or seen in an art 
magazine. It is also necessary to observe who published Agit Disco and 
why? It is no coincidence that it’s a Mute publication, Szczelkun has 
been on its editorial board since 2009, and has written various 
articles, reviews and interviews for Mute.

Agit Disco resonates with Mute’s dedication to DIY culture. Indeed, Mute 
has an excellent history in independent publishing alongside its DIY 
methods of production. Mute’s earliest incarnation used Financial Times’ 
pink paper, broadsheet printing cast offs. Later on a traditional 
magazine format. From 2005 onwards it moved onto its online site, and 
developed a publishing platform that allowed the publication of its POD 
(Print On Demand) magazine. [7] The design and production of Mute and 
its platforms have come a long way enabling a pamphlet-like production 
and distribution, echoing Thomas Paine’s own DIY releases of the Rights 
of Man.[8]

DIY Culture (and its distribution channels) offer a vital alternative to 
mainstream frameworks and their dominating hegemonies as a way to route 
around the restrictions to content, freedom of thought and free 
exchange. We have to contend with networked surveillance strategies 
initiated by corporations and state secret services. Censorship exists 
in many forms and recently there has been a rise of self censorship by 
workers and academics worried about losing their jobs if bosses see 
their interactions on Facebook or similar Web 2.0 social networks.[9] 
And the worrying antics of Britain's GCHQ, in collaboration with 
America's National Security Agency (NSA), targeting organisations such 
as the United Nations development programme, the UN's children's charity 
Unicef [10] reveal a greater investment in the surveillance of everyone, 
and the downgrading of privacy and fundamental human rights.

The credo that Anyone Can Do It reached a mass of individuals and groups 
not content with their assigned cultural roles as disaffected consumers 
watching the world go by. Like the Situationists, Punk was not merely 
reflecting or reinterpreting the world it was also about transforming it 
at an everyday level. Sadie Plant states that with the “emergence of 
punk in the late 70s […] lay the possibility of a threatening political 
response to the vacant superficiality of contemporary society." [11] 
From this, a whole generation of diverse artists emerged; and through 
their practices they critiqued the very society they lived in, 
questioning authority and the authenticity of established politics, 
language, art, history, music and film.

Has the process of appropriating people's civilian personas, and then 
replacing their social contexts with a corporate role as consumer 
created a more selfish world, lacking compassion for others and less 
interest for societal and ethical change? Ubermorgan discussed in a 
recent interview with Stevphen Shukaitis that people are in a state of 
'mediality'. "What we refer to as reality very often is just mediality, 
and also because that’s how human nature often prefers to observe 
reality, you know, via some media." [12] Perhaps our constant 
interactions through different interfaces of proprietorial frameworks 
distances ourselves to what is important. In the 21st Century 
demonstrations and civil disobedience are policed intensively, and even 
though much of contemporary activism exists on-line. The frontline, or 
the heart of politics is still mainly a physical matter; it is still in 
our streets, our homes, our bodies, in our neighbourhoods and communities.

As Oxblood Ruffin a Canadian hacker and member of the hacker group Cult 
of the Dead Cow (cDc) and the founder/director of Hacktivismo, said "I 
know from personal experience that there is a big difference between 
street and on-line protest. I have been chased down the street by a 
baton-wielding police officer on horseback. Believe me, it takes a lot 
less courage to sit in front of the computer." [13]

So Agit Disco reminds us that music is a vital way of both bringing 
people together in a space, story telling and communicating with each 
other, sharing what is happening with people's lives. It is usually at 
the moment of censorship that we then realise how essential this freedom 
of expression stuff really is. For instance, nine months after Islamic 
militants had taken over in northern Mali they announced that all music 
is banned. "It’s hard to imagine, in a country that produced such 
internationally renowned music as Ali Farka Touré’s blues, Rokia 
Traoré’s soulful vocals and the Afro-pop traditions of Salif Keita. […] 
The armed militants sent death threats to local musicians; many were 
forced into exile. Live music venues were shut down, and militants set 
fire to guitars and drum kits. The world famous Festival in the Desert 
was moved to Burkina Faso, and then postponed because of the security 
risk." [14] (Fernandes 2013)

In her article The Mixtape of the Revolution, Fernandes says that in 
Africa many rappers are "speaking boldly and openly about a political 
reality that was not being otherwise acknowledged, rappers hit a nerve, 
and their music served as a call to arms for the budding protest 
movements."[15] Regarding Egypt, the rapper Mohamed el Deeb in an 
interview with Fernandes said, “shallow pop music and love songs got 
heavy airplay on the radio, but when the revolution broke out, people 
woke up and refused to accept shallow music with no substance." [16] 
Music, politics and grass roots dissent are concrete expressions and an 
essential part of our collective freedoms. Alongside this, independent 
publishing as an alternative voice to the marketed franchises that 
dominate our gaze, sight, ears and minds, are needed more than ever. 
Yet, independent voices are being silenced and whittled down by wars, 
oppression and the neoliberal created financial crisis and its resulting 
austerity cuts.

What is to become of us if we lose our skills of discernment and slump 
into a homogenous consumer class, to define ourselves solely through 
marketed stereotypes and ideologies?

Agit Disco offers a festival of dance and dialogue for independent 
minded individuals and groups around the upturned burning car in the 
barricade against the coming zombie apocalypse.

It has been fun listening to all of the playlist contributions provided 
in Agit Disco. Below is my own Agit Disco playlist. You are welcome to 
add your own playlist in the comments section below (with links)...

Agit Disco 24. Marc Garrett.

Damien Dempsey - 'Dublin Town' (2000)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brhO8pqTNHU
Asian Dub Foundation - 'Modern Apprentice' (2000)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgtWhjaOgQ4
Dan Le Sac & Scroobius Pip - 'Great Britain' (2010)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeV2cExvnMI
Kirsty MacColl - 'Fifteen Minutes' (2005)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSQrH3JUQ2s
Jeffrey Lewis - 'Do They Owe Us A Living?' (2007)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWU-W0SzVE0
The Pop Group - 'Forces of oppression' (1979)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Txzmbu6o-gg
Kieron Means - 'I Worry For This World' (2005)
https://play.spotify.com/track/6AI2QujkrP6B2nfIUK55lY
Robyn Archer - 'Ballad on Approving of the World' (1984)
https://play.spotify.com/album/3hNQY8q9sO3M0R6es2d3ka
Robyn Hitchcock - 'Point it at Gran' (1986)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HFkimK9FAU
Sound of Rum - 'End Times' (2011)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dWPe7Au68A
Silver bullet - '20 Seconds to comply (final conflict)' (1990)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=24b6pYGT9MM
Maze - 'Color Blind (Featuring Frankie Beverly)' (1977)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COY4gKLwV2I
Akala - 'Bullshit' (2006)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxpxpQ7j8Sg
Sarah Jones - 'Your Revolution' DJ Vadim (2000)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E62SZ1CmBOI
Julian Cope - 'Soldier Blue' (1991)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dGOr-JpOmI
June Tabor - 'A place called England' (2009)
https://play.spotify.com/track/3YB6sSlLfB8kmMrrm5COKX

References & Notes:

Original article here.
http://www.furtherfield.org/features/reviews/agit-disco-vs-zombie-apocalypse

[1] Kate Tempest. Song - Sound of Rum 'End Times' & Rhyme 'Broken Herd' 
(2009)
The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (March 2011) pdf - http://bit.ly/1ggn2Kp

[2] Luke Martell. The privatisation of the universities. Filed under 
Education. Web site - Shifting Grounds. July 2013. http://bit.ly/1ltLRTB

[3] Linda Tuhiwai Smith. Decolonizing Methodologies. Research and 
Indigenous peoples. Second Edition. Zed Books Ltd. 2012. P.207.

[4] Marc Garrett. DIWO (Do-It-With-Others): Artistic co-creation as a 
decentralized method of Peer-2-peer empowerment in today’s multitude. 
From chapter - DIWO, Emancipation and Mainstream Culture. Page 2. 
(2013.) http://bit.ly/1d9EDRA

[5] Anthony ILes.. AGIT DISCO. Edited by Stefan Szczelkun and Anthony 
ILes. Mute Books 2012. P.6.

[6] Louise Carolin. AGIT DISCO. Edited by Stefan Szczelkun and Anthony 
ILes. Mute Books 2012. P.105.

[7] Julian Stallabrass. DIGITAL PARTISANS. On Mute and the Cultural 
Politics of the Net. 2012. P.2.

[8] Rights of Man: Being an Answer to Mr. Burke’s Attack on the French 
Revolution. (2nd edition) by Thomas Paine (London: J.S. Jordan, 1791). 
Paine’s pamphlet defending the early liberal phase of the French 
Revolution was written in response to Edmund Burke’s critique.
http://bit.ly/1aiXXtu

[9] Rebecca Schuma. The Brave New World of Academic Censorship. If 
you’re a professor in Kansas, better stay off the Internet. 
http://t.co/gpG3NkNdKF

[10] James Ball and Nick Hopkins. NSA/GCHQ Targeted EU Chief, UNICEF, 
and Charities, Amongst Others. Dec 20th 2013. http://bit.ly/19zu2gA

[11] Sadie Plant. The Most Radical Gesture: The Situationist 
International in a Postmodern Age. Chapter - Those Who Create Disorder. 
Routledge 1992. P. 143

[12] We Hate the Users: An Interview with UBERMORGEN. By Stevphen 
Shukaitis, 18 December 2013. http://bit.ly/1dP1fqO

[13] Activism! Direct Action, Hacktivism and the Future of Society. 
Editor, Tim Jordan. Reaktion Books Ltd. 2002. P.132.

[14] Sujatha Fernandes. The Day the Music Died in Mali. Published: May 
19, 2013. http://bit.ly/1cQ7tdv

[15] Sujatha Fernandes. The Mixtape of the Revolution. New York Times. 
Published: January 29, 2012. http://nyti.ms/1d3qjbS

[16] Ibid.


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