ABSTRACT
Aesthetics are at the core of successful social movements and therefore, artists belong at the core of social movements. This has never been more the case than since the beginning of the technological age. Our world is ruled by the digital. We have entered the age in which our economies are based on information much more than production. In a public lecture, writer and radical Chris Hedges advocated art playing a key role in social movements. Hedges said grief, beauty, the struggle for mortality, meaning, and love can only come through art. It is not accidental the origins of religion were always fused with art. Culture is as important as the traditional infrastructures of resistance. Artists using the methodologies of more traditional and conceptual art can challenge the power of the state. Art has been used in political campaigns and special interest groups to shape public opinion. Think back on the ambiguous platitudes of the Obama Campaign: hope, change.
