TOOLS IN COMMON | AS THE UNION BETWEEN US

AS THE UNION BETWEEN US

Author: Red76
Date: 2007

01 - Title Narrative
02 - Commentary
03 - Documents
04 - Colophon

TITLE NARRATIVE

An interlinked series of actions, texts, workshops, lectures, publications and more, Revolutionary Spirit took place over two years up to the approach of the 2008 presidential election. The platform aimed to create conversive space around the question, “What does revolutionary mean to America today?” As a country, having been founded on a revolution both armed as well as philosophical, the idea was to consider what, if any, weight that word, Revolution, retained in the consciousness of citizens.

The first public manifestation of the platform took place over three months at the Institute for Contemporary Art in Philadelphia with the project As the Union Between Us. For it we set up a distribution kiosk and information center for activities to take place across the city over the course of the exhibit. We began with a free radio transmitter building workshop with Lee Montgomery, teaching guests to the museum how to construct their own pocket radio transmitter, able to fit into an Altoids tin. Following the workshop we broadcast for our project 72hr Nuclear War. Inspired by the "Levitation of the Pentagon" and the Sun Ra Arkestra track Nuclear War, we arranged a series of transmitters across the city in the shape of a pentagon which interlinked with any pocket transmitters roaming the city. Via dozens of personal transmitters and the five points of our pentagon system, covers versions of the Arkestra track Nuclear War were broadcast over a 72hr period. Prior to the broadcast we commissioned cover versions from musicians across the country, including Tara Jane O’Neil (Rodan, TJO), Vespers, and Bardo Pond, who played an afternoon set in part of our installation.

The first issue of Journal of Radical Shimming was produced for this series and distributed in parallel with it. As well, the recurring dinner discussion / pirate radio platform Revolutionary Table began at this time with a handful of sessions around the Philadelphia area with, among others, Conny Purtill and Jenelle Porter, and Courtney Dailey. Revolutionary Daze, another interventionist study from this time, debuted through As the Union Between Us. An foray into a kind of psychogeographic multi-player game, Revolutionary Daze invited anyone to take part by dressing up as a "revolutionary character" and walking the streets in costume. Nothing elaborate was asked in terms of dress or manner, and inasmuch, the project asked participants not only to attempt to "spot the revolutionary," but also to question ideas around the construction of tropes, how myth and narrative are strategically used to hinder radical political participation and more.