The term surreal is often invoked to describe many of the downstream effects of our contemporary crisis context (the tripartite apex crisis comprised of what Nick Lawrence terms "world-economic, world-political, world-ecological", that are sometimes loosely organized under Anthropocene Studies). So-called surreal effects such as: images of vast encampments of homeless people living on the streets of Los Angeles (world-economic), courtroom sketches of Donald Trump sitting clownishly in court because of an “alleged” hush payment made to a porn star while at the same time leading many of the US election polls (world-political), and images of the trash vortex known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch collected by and hedged in by the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre (world-ecological). The term surreal is often mobilized to describe these and many other downstream effects of our crisis context.
The chief intervention within the Acid Archipelago project is to take surrealism and place its radical methodology upstream as a way to 1) produce conceptual and material trouble for these lumbering and homicidal crises; 2) help us see past the supposed realism that underwrites these crises; 3) work to better imagine ourselves and our communities in contexts other than this crisis context; and 4) begin the work of imagining and enacting new and better post-crises, post-capitalist worlds to come.
Acid Archipelago's programming consists of in-person and web-based events offered to communities around the world. These events will utilize specially tailored surrealist practices that perform reorientational interventions to help participants think differently about their relationship to the world (the more-than-human register) in order to enact what theorist Erin Manning calls a ‘politics of the infrathin’. Acid Archipelago will culminate in a conference and collective-action event in Martinique.
The name Acid Archipelago brings together two elements very important to ICIS: “Acid” refers to Fisher’s final, unfinished work Acid Communism which suggests a particular route necessary to escape "capitalist realism" and restore our collective, creative capacities. “Archipelago” refers to a surrealist-derived, Martiniquan discourse regarding a mode of intellectual and cultural exchange that emphasizes crossing and transforming boundaries while also maintaining an intact, individuated self.
If you belong to a community concerned about our crisis context and would like more information about this project, please reach out through the contact page. We would love to see about doing an event with your community.
The chief intervention within the Acid Archipelago project is to take surrealism and place its radical methodology upstream as a way to 1) produce conceptual and material trouble for these lumbering and homicidal crises; 2) help us see past the supposed realism that underwrites these crises; 3) work to better imagine ourselves and our communities in contexts other than this crisis context; and 4) begin the work of imagining and enacting new and better post-crises, post-capitalist worlds to come.
Acid Archipelago's programming consists of in-person and web-based events offered to communities around the world. These events will utilize specially tailored surrealist practices that perform reorientational interventions to help participants think differently about their relationship to the world (the more-than-human register) in order to enact what theorist Erin Manning calls a ‘politics of the infrathin’. Acid Archipelago will culminate in a conference and collective-action event in Martinique.
The name Acid Archipelago brings together two elements very important to ICIS: “Acid” refers to Fisher’s final, unfinished work Acid Communism which suggests a particular route necessary to escape "capitalist realism" and restore our collective, creative capacities. “Archipelago” refers to a surrealist-derived, Martiniquan discourse regarding a mode of intellectual and cultural exchange that emphasizes crossing and transforming boundaries while also maintaining an intact, individuated self.
If you belong to a community concerned about our crisis context and would like more information about this project, please reach out through the contact page. We would love to see about doing an event with your community.