Jeanne van heeswijk biography of williams
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[urban interfaces] research group at Utrecht University
This blogpost is a result of the graduate seminar “Interfacing the (In)formal City” 2021
Rianne Riemens
26 April 2021
Formalizing the informal:
’structures of feeling’ in the work of Jeanne van Heeswijk
Within the field of urban humanities, there is often an emphasis on local experiences in urban environments, and the ways in which these experiences relate to developments at larger scales. By focusing on local, ’informal’ experiences, the ‘formal’ can be reconsidered. But the terms formal and informal can be used in different ways and change meaning accordingly. Through a discussion of the work of artist Jeanne van Heeswijk, this blog questions how the formal/informal terminology can be helpful to better understand the work of Van Heeswijk, by relating the term to Raymond Williams’ ‘structures of feeling’.
Jeanne van Heeswijk is a Dutch artist based in the city of Rotterdam, who aims to create a
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Divergent States of Emergence: Remarks on Potential Possibilities, Against All Odds
More possibilities exist than can fit into our expectations.
—Bilwet/Adilkno
The future may be unwritten, as Joe Strummer maintained, but at times it can seem eerily predetermined. On September 30, 2016, I sent around a draft for the editorial of the October issue of e-flux journal, which was to be titled “Perfect Storm.” The opening sentence read: “On November 8, 2016, Donald J. Trump will win the American presidential election.” This phrase met with motstånd and was ultimately axed: his campaign was going disastrously, Hillary was clearly going to win, and so on. My line may well be a case of a broken clock being right twice a day, and in hindsight it is all too easy to fault American liberals and progressives for their bubble-bound optimism and ignorance of what was brewing in “flyover country.” If anything, the lack of negative feedback in frikostig echo chambers is
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Toward the Not-Yet
Combining handbook, dictionary, and anthology, investigations and examples of artistic practices aimed at social change.
This volume from BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, combines handbook, dictionary, and anthology to investigate artistic practice aimed at achieving social change. With skrivelse and visual essays, definitions, exercises, interviews, and images, the contributors envision a praxis that fryst vatten committed to experimenting with aesthetics and politics in ways that go beyond the conventions of Western modernity. These are practices that are interdisciplinary, theoretically informed, and politically driven, offering ways of “being together otherwise.” Catalyzed by the work of artist Jeanne van Heeswijk, which focuses on radicalizing civic processes, Toward the Not-Yet imagines and enacts alternative ways of conceiving the present and future.
Contributors, among them notable artists, scholars, activists, and writers consider ways of participating in civic life