The Many Words of Subversion

I conducted a brainstorm where I wrote out all the words I could think of relating to subversion. Rather than creating a mind map, as I usually would, I thought it would be good to take a note from the surrealists and use one of there methods to subvert my practice. I am not practised in the method of automatic writing but I thought I should at least attempt the idea of writing whatever comes to mind.

I came across an article in Fahrenheit Magazine about André Bretón's automatic writing. Bretón wrote the First Manifesto of Surrealism and is recognised as the father of the movement. He transcribed his dreams through automatic writing which is a method of writing he is believed to have invented. There is large criticism on automatic writing as some believe it is impossible to disconnect from the world while creating works. I have struggled to find much in ways of explaining how I could attempt automatic writing so instead, I chose the method described above.

I found it difficult after the first couple of lines. As I was writing, I was questioning whether was a link between what I had written and subversion. This 'over-thinking' that I struggle with is going to be harder to overcome than I thought. Once I had written a page of words I went back through and highlighted the ones I was most confident had a link to subversion.

I started with the word subversion as that is what I wanted to focus on. The word 'overthrow' comes up regularly in definitions and seems to be key when discussing subversion, particularly when regarding politics. Devoid is how Charles Townsend sees subversion and I like this term to describe subversion as that is how I feel about the word. The word informant is written and is a note I had previously made when reading about subversion. When discussing that the act had to come from within this is what I thought of. Someone on the inside giving information to others on the outside to take down a government, organisation or company. I also highlight later the term 'inside man'. Bricolage is something I thought of earlier in my research. Bricolage is defined by Oxford Languages as 'something constructed or created from a diverse range of things'. I have studied bricolage before when looking at fashion. When items are used to add to clothes or used in a way they weren't intended for fashionable purposes. An example is how Punks added safety pins and paperclips to there clothes giving a metallic edge to their looks. I believe this could be a form of subversion as you are subverting the use of an object; much like the shopping trolly chair that I looked at before.

Comedians and satire have come up in research as examples of subversion. Satire comments on topics, politics and society. It uses irony and criticises aspects of the world that don't make sense or things that the writer/comedian opposes. This is a form of artistic expression, which I have also written down. In dadaism and surrealism, the members believe in the writings of Karl Marx and represented their views in their work in less traditional ways.

I also mentioned civil unrest which can cause subversive activities to occur. Assassination can be a result of civil unrest and can be classed as a subversive act. Blackmail and bribery and subversive acts as well and can be used as a method to overthrow. Economic pressure from either inside or outside forces can affect government or organisations choices and maybe change who is in charge. This would make it an example of subversion. For internal subversion to occur there needs to be a form of inside support to allow the subversion to happen from within.

As mentioned earlier, subversion has been seen as devoid of meaning. As a result, I have written 'undefined' and 'unknown'. These words also represent my current feelings toward the word. A subversive would be considered a traitor by the government they are attempting to remove from power. This same person could also be considered a saviour, however. This is if they have groups outside that believe in their cause and oppose the government as well.

Creative.

Not sure why I wrote this down but I think creativity itself could be subversive. There are so many creative fields that use subversion in there work as they are showing there opposing feelings, portraying a message or fighting a cause. I highlighted Adbusters as I believe their work could be considered subversive. They also create spoof adverts which subvert the original campaigns and the advertising industry as a whole. A link to these ads can be found in the bibliography.

I think I could select some of these words to maybe create a piece of work or a poster to show what subversion represents. This could be the before and after I discussed in previous posts about making a comparison between two pieces of work before and after adapting my practice.

Bibliography

Adbusters. (n.d.). Spoof Ads. Adbusters. https://www.adbusters.org/spoof-ads

Fahrenheit. (n.d.). Andre Breton’s automatic writing, a transcription of his dreams. Fahrenheit Magazine. https://fahrenheitmagazine.com/arte/arte-letras/la-escritura-automatica-de-andre-breton-una-transcripcion-de-sus-suenos