Institute of Contemporary Art Miami ICA Miami

This seminar will look at how predictive programing and the commodification of cultural awareness hinders artists from properly engaging in grassroots activism. If once there was a tight connection between radical thinking and cultural production–one thinks of The Last Poets as a paradigmatic example, or Marvin Gaye–which fostered spaces for artists to maintain deep and coherent world-views and positions, those days seem to be far in the past. And as the world begins to call out again to artists to speak on injustices of all sorts, a general disorientation has taken over. Everything is commodified and predictable, and few seem to know how to uphold coherent positions or have the robust infrastructures of solidarity to mitigate the consequences that may come.

This program is presented in conjunction with Hieroglyphic Being’s performance at Pérez Art Museum Miami on October 18, 2018, hosted by the Rhythm Foundation and Poplife.