A hands on workshop on remote-controlled blow-ups and a reading group on the strategic logic of (non)violence.
- Date: 18.03.2023
- Location: V2_Lab for the Unstable Media, Rotterdam
- Workshop: 11:00 – 18:00
- Reading Group: 19:30 – 21:30
- Max Capacity: 6 people.
On Saturday 18 March we are organising a one-day workshop on remote-controlled blow-ups . We will build a system with an inflatable object that can be activated with a mobile phone. In the evening, we are hosting a reading session that engages on the strategic logic of (non)violence. The workshop is a collaboration between Bambi van Balen from the art activist group Tools for Action and media artist and cultural critic Dani Ploeger.
The workshop forms part of Dani’s research project Destructive Circuits at V2_Lab for the unstable media, which examines the use of everyday technologies in Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and the reappropriation of such systems for non-violent activism. Tools for Action develops tools for assembly, holds skillshare workshops and realises participatory performances and political interventions within an environmental, anti-fascist, queer, educational and performative arts context.
In the workshop, we will work together to build a working blow-up prototype. We will fabricate a balloon, an enclosure and an electronic trigger system. In the evening, following the hands-on workshop, we are hosting a reading group that engages with the question of (non-)violence in art-activism, social movements and revolutions. We are hoping to explore possibilities for a third – neither peaceful nor violent – position of militant non-violence. We will discuss the book How to Blow Up a Pipeline: Learning to Fight in a World on Fire (2021) by academic and climate justice activist Andreas Malm and the article The Strategic Logic of Non-Violent Conflict (2012) by political scientists Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan.
It is possible to only join the hands-on workshop or the reading group. If you would like to take part, please send a message with a short note about your motivation and/or background until Thursday 16th of March.
Email to: info(at)toolsforaction.org