Alternative Culture

Na tle krajobrazu polskiej opozycji demokratycznej, Ruch Wolność i Pokój jest zjawiskiem nieco zapomnianym. Na pewno pisze się o nim nieproporcjonalnie mało w stosunku do jego historycznego znaczenia. Co jednak ciekawe, pisze się o nim więcej za granicą niż w Polsce. Czemu tak jest?

This is my dissertation proposal which I submitted to the Department of History, CEU. I upload this material so that I can get comments and critics from other scholars who have similar interests. If there is any question, opinions and remarks, please do send me messages. I welcome any of them. It is about my on-going dissertation project, therefore please do not use for your citation, thank you.

Представлено на конференции "Личность и творчество А.И. Солженицына в современном искусстве и литературе. К 100-летнему юбилею А.И. Солженицына", 15–17 марта 2017, Государственный Институт Искусствознания.

Presented at "A.I. Solzhenitsyn and his work in contemporary art and literature", 15–17 March 2017, State Institute of Art Studies.

Kultury alternatywne są postrzegane w tekście jako produkt uboczny procesów modernizacyjnych zachodnich społeczeństw, który jednak i jakby wbrew swojej marginalnej pozycji i niskiego status, odegrał bardzo istotną rolę w dopełnianiu procesów, które są jego źródłem. Kultury alternatywne zabezpieczyły bowiem system kapitalistyczny przed barierą wzrostu generowaną przez zbyt jednolitą strukturę potrzeb jednostek, system demokratyczny przed niebezpieczeństwami autokracji i przemocy, a kulturę przed skostnieniem. Ogromnie istotną rolę w tym procesie odegrały procesy konsumpcyjne, które zazwyczaj są traktowane jako jedno z podstawowych zagrożeń, z którymi próbują walczyć kultury alternatywne. W artykule staram się wykazywać, iż jest zupełnie inaczej. Konsumpcja bowiem stanowiła integralny element każdej z kultur alternatywnych. To poprzez dobra konsumpcyjne przedstawiciele tych ruchów komunikowali się z resztą społeczeństwa, to one wyrażały ich program i idee, zaś subwersywne używanie towarów było jedną z najbardziej skutecznych metod oporu wobec istniejących reguł życia społecznego. Efektem takiego działaniu- oporu wyrażanego poprzez konsumowanie- była nie tylko detotalizacja tego ostatniego procesu, ale też upolitycznienie codzienności, uświadomienie, iż zwykłe, prozaiczne, rutynowe działania są równie istotną manifestacją naszego światopoglądu, jak działania stricte polityczne. Pod wpływem aktywności kultur alternatywnych nie tylko więc uległa przeprogramowaniu logika jednego z najbardziej centralnych procesów społecznych: procesu wytwarzania i konsumowania dóbr, a wraz z nim i z konieczności całego system społecznego, ale też zwrócono uwagę na potencje polityczne drzemiące w sposobach używania przez nas towarów.

Paradoksi ratne ‘slobode’: alternativna kultura za vrijeme opsade Sarajeva [Paradoxes of wartime ‘freedom’: alternative culture during the siege of Sarajevo, translation by L. Kurtović]. In Bilić, Bojan and Vesna Janković (Eds.) Opiranje zlu: (Post)Jugoslovenski anti-ratni angažman.  Zagreb: Jesenski i Turk.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01419870.2020.1862271
Special Issue: Culture and Conflict in Palestine/Israel


Abstract:
Excessive redevelopment and gentrification in Jaffa produced liminal extra-territories which serve as fertile grounds for the emergence of unruly urban agencies. Drawing on seven years of ethnographic observations, interviews, and social media analysis of Anna Loulou bar, we outline the contours of a new social type – the political hipster. Unlike the archetypical hipster that could flourish in any urban setting, this specific agent is the product of the particular blend of centre and periphery, characteristic of Jaffa and the Anna Loulou bar in particular. On the seam line between “Palestinian” Jaffa and “Jewish” Tel Aviv, Anna Loulou offers the wild nightlife of the centre, complemented by the rugged authenticity of the binational periphery. The bar serves as a unique intersection between two opposing fields – the cultural and the political. This allows the political hipster to juggle between the fields – commodifying identity and erotizing politics: dancing with tears in her eyes.

Since the nineties, culture has been used as tool for attractiveness in managing urban spaces for regeneration. After questioning the basements of culture, a new kind of cultural institutions has emerged: Les Nouveaux Territoires de l’Art. The multidisciplinary cultural places studied in this article; Recyclart in Brussels and Mediamatic in Amsterdam, maintain a peculiar connection with local area. This article aims to understand how eclectic and experimental cultural planning contributes to the dynamism of a neighborhood.

Paper examines the process of emergence of the term "alternative culture" in foreign and domestic science. Author's understanding of the causes and features of the development of alternative forms of culture is put forward with a support on the methodology of P.Bourdieu. Principle of continuous multiplication of alternativity is illustrated on the material of development of Italian architecture and design in the 1960-70-ties.

The paper aims to reconstruct the importance of samizdat in the emergence of the theme of repression in the Soviet Union. Through the analysis of the different paths on which the “repressed word” reached the samizdat public, the author shows the procedure of creating conscience of the past (and present) in the field of human rights and Russian literature. Historical documents, memoirs of former Gulag prisoners, literary works of what is now defined as lagernaya literatura, poems and tales of repressed writers, live reports from the Gulags, documents related to the field of human rights: all these materials compose a grand canvas of the restitution of historical truth. This cultural fight for the “true word”, opposed to the “fake word” dictated by the power, was based on the efficiency of the eyewitness’ word. After presenting the “emersion of the true word” about repression, the author will consider a few critical points, and address a few questions still open on the topic, with the intention of re-opening a debate on some aspects related to the studies of Gulag literature.

This study focuses on describing the samizdat situation in the Tábor region while attempting to portray some of the sociocultural aspects of independent publishing activity on the “periphery”. Local examples of these phenomena (with such series as JITROcel, Anýz, Jiří Novotný and friends’ workshops, magazines such as Studánka, Akát and Obálka, as well as Jiřina Zemanová’s Prostor) are used to reveal the importance of the subculture (in this case the “tramping” or backpacking subculture) as a medium for alternative culture and the social networks and links which create these communities and which influence both distribution and reception among readers. Other characteristics of samizdat in the regions included its apolitical nature and the interconnections with the Prague samizdat centre. In addition to samizdat activity, the backpacking community in the Tábor region also arranged amateur music shows and independent exhibitions in unofficial premises such as private homes and chalets.
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Studie se zaměřuje na popis samizdatové situace v regionu Táborska a současně se snaží postihnout některé sociokulturní aspekty nezávislé vydavatelské praxe na „periferii“. Na příkladu lokálních projevů (edice JITROcel, Anýz, dílna Jiřího Novotného a jeho přátel, časopisy Studánka, Akát a Obálka, Prostor Jiřiny Zemanové) se ukazuje významnost subkultury (v tomto případě trampské) jako nositelky alternativní kultury a sociálních sítí a vazeb, které tato společenství vytvářejí a které ovlivňují jak distribuci, tak například čtenářskou recepci. K dalším rysům samizdatu v regionech patřila jeho apolitičnost a provázanost se samizdatovým centrem – Prahou. Vedle samizdatové činnosti pořádala trampská komunita na Táborsku i amatérské hudební přehlídky nebo nezávislé výstavy v neoficiálních prostorách soukromých domů či chat.

The contemporary phenomenon of secondhand shopping, as an alternative way of consumerism, creates an intriguing relationship between the past and the present, especially through the symbolic value and meaning of used clothes. Previous studies link this consumer manifestation with nostalgia, pursuit of originality, treasure hunting; but pay less attention to the cultural/political dimensions of this activity. The love and pursuit of " clothes from the past " is a noticeable growing trend among European youth which hasn't been studied enough. Thus, the main research interests of this exploratory paper are the different values which motivate young people to buy used clothes, and whether these values connect the shoppers under a group identity. The methodology chosen was conducing eight in-depth interviews in the city of Krakow among regular secondhand shoppers, representatives of the age group from 20 to 33. The paper treats secondhand shopping as a cultural expression in an inseparable relation to the individual identity; hence the choice of engaging in this alterative consumption model is an important development that requests academic attention. The paper gives clarification to the

U ovome radu iznose se podaci o okolnostima nastanka Multimedijalnog centra SC-a (MM centra), osnovanog 1976. u Zagrebu, tipovi njegove djelatnosti tijekom narednih godina te pozadina i posljedice opadanja uloga Centra od 1990-ih na dalje. Ustanovljen kao programsko rješenje korisno u sklopu modernističke konste- lacije djelatnosti u Kulturi SC-a, MM centar je od samih je početaka nudio različite prikazivačke i proizvodne programske sadržaje koji se mogu klasificirati kao: 1) programi interdisciplinarnosti; 2) urbane akcije; 3) novo- medijski programi; 4) redovit program eksperimentalnog jugoslavenskog filma; 5) redovit program svjetskog ek- sperimentalnog filma; 6) program domaće i strane videoumjetnosti; 6) filmsko-eksperimentalistički proizvodni program (ranog razdoblja MM centra); 8) alternativni filmsko-umjetnički programi. U tekstu se podrobno objaš- njava svaki od navedenih tipova djelatnosti, a shodno tomu i uvjeti ustoličenja Centra kao važnog čimbenika u stvaranju alternativne filmske kulture u Hrvatskoj i regiji.

In the final issue of the clandestine Lidové noviny from December 1989, Václav Havel bid farewell to the newspaper’s samizdat era in his “Goodbye samizdat” editorial: “Goodbye samizdat Lidové noviny, goodbye conspiracies, goodbye interrogations! Hello printer, hello new readers, hello freedom!” A few months later the press began to report about an extraordinary project by the Liberated Samizdat Club and its promise to literally “return to samizdat” by self-publishing the first editions of previously unpublished books. All the participants were to work for free, and the size of the print run was to be determined by previous subscriptions. This “new” samizdat, as a revolt against the principles of market economics in the era of liberalisation and transformation, is at once a specific chapter in the post-Communist history of the Czechoslovak book market and a contribution to the history of samizdat and its continuities and discontinuities.

Die Undergroundkultur der 1960er und 70er Jahre ist ein wichtiger Motor im Übergang von der Moderne zur Postmoderne, von der Ordnungs- zur "Event"-Gesellschaft. Die Autorin folgt den geschichtlichen Spuren dieser Entwicklung anhand der bisher kaum erforschten Undergroundpresse. In den Manifesten, Collagen und Cut Ups der Zeitschriften formiert sich eine ästhetische Guerilla, ein wilder Tanz der Kategorien, in dem traditionelle Grenzen von oben und unten, Hoch- und Populärkultur, Wissenschaft und Praxis durcheinander gewirbelt werden.

"Die Studie von Anja Schwanhäußer verdient allergrößte kulturwissenschaftliche Beachtung." (Rolf Lindner, emeritierter Professor des Instituts für Europäische Ethnologie der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)

Author of more than 50 entries on Czechoslovak samizdat editions (publishing houses and manufactories), journals and almanacs (including Alef, Česká expedice, Edice Expedice, Edice Petlice, Jazzstop, Krameriova expedice 78, Krtek a Datel, Kvart, Nový brak, Renega, Rukopisy VBF, Sklepník etc.) and author of one of the introductory chapters VI. Právní rámce vydavatelské činnosti, represe a obrana proti ní [VI. Legal frameworks of publishing, repression and defense against it] in the encyclopedia.

- - - Main editor of the book: Michal Přibáň
- - - Author´s team of the book: Eduard Burget, Marta Edith Holečková, Michal Jareš, Veronika Košnarová, Petra Loučová, Alena Přibáňová, Pavel Šidák, Andrea Vítová

This volume offers the currently most comprehensive collection of information on Czech literary samizdat from the era of the communist regime which in 1948–1989 consistently persecuted its political as well as cultural opponents. Writers whose work had been rejected by official publishing houses for political reasons usually had to make do with a typewriter that allowed them to disseminate literature about ten copies at a time. In the era known as “normalisation”, in 1970–1989, samizdat became the refuge of even the most significant and most popular writers of the previous periods. Over time, they were joined by talented authors from the younger generations who refused to feign loyalty to the communist ideology. In the introductory chapter, the authors provide a brief outline of the history of samizdat literature in the Czech lands and describe the practical aspects of its dissemination. They discuss the legal and economic circumstances of samizdat, the issues of distributing samizdat literature as well as the contacts of samizdat publishers with the Czech exile and international collaborators. The main part of the publication, however, is dedicated to detailed entries on individual publishing operations, magazines and some non-periodical almanacs. The selection of entries is not confined to the “central” samizdat hubs of the cultural dissent, represented by Ludvík Vaculík (Edice Petlice), Václav Havel (Edice Expedice) and other well-known and respected figures. The authors understand samizdat as one of the manifestations of the alternative culture of the time and therefore follow its development in all regions of the Czech Republic (even though most of these efforts did not play any major role in Czech literary history of the post-war period). The encyclopaedia covers also samizdat editions with very narrow specialisation, generation almanacs, magazines of specific subcultures (“tramping” samizdat) and the creative output of people with specific literary interests (sci-fi fanzines) as well as typewritten manuscripts shared only within small groups of close friends. This approach to samizdat allows the authors to capture not only the artistic dimension, but also the social function of samizdat as one of the forms of anti-communist resistance.

"Andrea Gullotta‟s essay, “The „Cultural Village‟ of the Solovki Prison Camp: A Case of Alternative Culture,” follows the history of the Solovki prison camp and describes the intellectual culture that flourished in its early years of existance. Gullotta takes an “internal” approach, relying on documents produced by camp inmates, as well as on memoirs, poems, and other artistic works produced later, but deal- ing with the camp experience."

quoted from:

ALPERT E., BREVIG H., KLIMOVA O. (2010)
Editor’s Introduction
STUDIES IN SLAVIC CULTURES, vol. IX; p. 5-6, ISSN: 1527-3776

Nightlife, the night‐time economy and ‘alternative’ culture have been a source of academic contestation over recent years, with differing views as to the direction and meaning of the contemporary drift of law and policy that serve to regulate this area of social and cultural life. Further, there have so far been few attempts to theorise the nature of change. This article aims to highlight some key theoretical underpinnings that can facilitate an understanding of the kinds of regulatory innovation that pervade nightlife and alternative cultural forms. Using two case studies – free or alternative festivals and Form 696 – it specifically draws on the concepts of disciplinary power and juridification as a way of theorising both the acceleration of regulatory forms and its impact on the production of alternative culture.

The aim of this article is to examine the concept of ‘alcohol-related disorder’ in the night- time economy as a reified notion that neglects the broader impact of economic, social and cultural influences on nightlife. The combined impact of gentrification and disorder management have in turn created and reinforced an idea of nightlife that is dominated by the culture of consumption; marginalising the potential for experimental subcultures while creating an apparatus of control and moral disapproval directed at the ‘binge’ drinking, common assault and nuisance. The paper will draw on historical frameworks that demonstrate that the regulation of nightlife has, since the earliest licensing statute, been concerned with consolidating big business and criminalising popular cultural forms, a precedent that continues today. The argument will be made that, rather than focusing on nightlife as an undifferentiated social problem, researchers should look more broadly at the cultural, spatial and regulatory barriers facing a creative and diverse nightlife.

The following works, translated from Czech and from German into Italian, are here included:

La superciviltà e il suo conflitto interno
(Nadcivilizace a její vnitřní konflikt)

La razionalità europea e il segreto del mondo
("Es ist noch eine immer unerfüllte Aufgabe...")

L'uomo spirituale e l'intellettuale
(Duchovní člověk a intelektual)

Che cos'è e che cosa non è Charta 77
(Čím je a Čím není Charta 77)

Perché non vi è modo di divulgare Charta 77 e quali sono gli e- spedienti logici della sua deformazione e del suo occultamento
(Proč nemá Charta 77 být zveřejňována a jaké jsou logické pro- středky jejího zkreslování a utajování)

Che cosa possiamo aspettarci da Charta 77?
(Co můžžeme očekávat od Charty?)

Text en català – English text

ANTONI PADRÓS, PERTORBADOR DE CONSCIÈNCIES
Nascut a Terrassa el 1937, Antoni Padrós és el cineasta més representatiu i celebrat del moviment underground català. Comença a pintar al principi dels anys seixanta. El 1966 exposa una selecció d’obres a la Sala Gaspar de Barcelona i el 1967 participa a la IX Bienal de São Paulo. La seva pintura, que certament s’inclou entre les produccions més originals de l’art català dels anys seixanta, projecta una mirada sardònica, veladament polèmica, sobre la faceta més àmpliament desfigurada de la incipient societat de consum (som als anys del franquisme desarrollista), establint un diàleg a distància —caracteritzat d’altra banda per evidents seqüeles metadiscursives— amb els mestres del Pop Art. Padrós també, seguint el model d’un numen tutelar implícit, Andy Warhol, elabora imatges i imaginaris consolidats (sobretot pouant en els vastos repertoris del cinema i de la cultura popular), però ho fa com a marginat entre els marginats, ignorat pel ressò asfixiant dels mitjans, apartat dels focus intensos dels escenaris, entre els bastidors de la «societat de l’espectacle» sotmesa a dissecció aquells mateixos anys per Guy Debord («Tot allò que s’ha viscut directament una vegada, s’ha convertit en mera representació»). A les acaballes de la dècada, la recerca expressiva de l’artista aborda el 8mm i el 16mm. El pintor es converteix en cineasta: una transició de mitjà —de la tela a la pel•lícula— que no marca una ruptura traumàtica, sinó més aviat una mena de continuïtat profitosa. 


ANTONI PADRÓS, DISTURBER OF CONSCIENCES
Born in Terrassa in 1937, Antoni Padrós is the most representative and celebrated filmmaker of the Catalan underground movement. He started painting in the early sixties. In 1966 he exhibited a selection of his works in the Sala Gaspar in Barcelona and in 1967 he participated at the IX Bienal de São Paulo. His painting, which certainly counts among the most original productions of 1960s Catalan art, projects a sardonic, veiledly controversial look at the most widely disfigured facet of the coming consumer society (this was in the years of the Francoist economic development), establishing a dialogue at a distance (one characterised moreover by obvious metadiscursive after-effects) with the masters of Pop Art. Padrós also followed the model of an implicit guiding inspiration, Andy Warhol, by producing consolidated imagery and imagination (drawing especially on the vast repertoires of cinema and popular culture), but he does so as someone on the fringe of the fringe, ignored by the suffocating noise of the media, separated from the limelight of the stage, kept backstage by the “show-business society” that was dissected in those years by Guy Debord (“Everything that has been experienced directly once has become mere performance”). Towards the end of the decade, the artist’s expressive research turned to 8mm and 16mm. The painter became a filmmaker: a change of medium, from canvas to film, that was not a traumatic break but more a kind of profitable continuity.

New URL: <https://alluvium.bacls.org/2012/12/09/insurgent-subliteratures-fictions-of-resistance/>
This article was reviewed by Louis Armand at 3.a.m. Magazine in his article Lumpenproletariat Writing: Attack/Antisystem/Subliterature’ (https://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/lumpenproletariat-writing-attackantisystemsubliterature/) and republished by Itchy Monkey Press (http://itchymonkeypress.com/2016/12/09/insurgent-subliteratures-fictions-of-resistance-by-mark-p-williams/).

In a study of an Australian ‘alternative lifestyle gathering’, I investigate the authentica (the multiplicity of discourse and practice valued as ‘true’, ‘natural’, ‘pure’) championed and performed on site. Using emic description, the article details the authentica of ‘play’ (ludic exploration via alterity, especially indigeneity), ‘Earth’ (ecological consciousness) and ‘tribe’ (the search for belonging in community) which are axiomatic to ConFest (Conference/Festival), one of Australia’s principle sites for the celebration of alternative (‘edge’) culture. In this counter-space, an outsider status I call ‘ferality’ is conditioned. A repository of authenticity for many ConFesters, the ambivalent category ‘feral’, with its particular subcultural traits, is realised in a hyper-liminal zone on the margins, the cultural hinterland, of Australian society. Using the work of Turner (on ‘liminality’) and Maffesoli (on ‘neo-tribalism’), I seek to throw light on the (re)production of alternative culture in an analysis of an event where new frontiers in the fields of leisure, health, environment, religion and community are explored