
Uncommon Grounds
New Media and Critical Practices in North Africa and the Middle East
Anthony Downey(Author)
I.B. Tauris (Publisher)
Published on 4. September 2014
Book
Paperback/Softback
296 pages
978-1-78453-035-8 (ISBN)
Description
In this groundbreaking book, a range of internationally renowned and emerging academics, writers, artists, curators, activists and filmmakers critically reflect on the ways in which visual culture has appropriated and developed new media across North Africa and the Middle East. Examining the opportunities presented by the real-time generation of new, relatively unregulated content online, Uncommon Grounds evaluates the prominent role that new media has come to play in artistic practices - and social movements - in the Arab world today. Analysing alternative forms of creating, broadcasting, publishing, distributing and consuming digital images, this book also enquires into a broader global concern: does new media offer a 'democratisation' of - and a productive engagement with - visual culture, or merely capitalise upon the effect of immediacy at the expense of depth?Featuring full-colour artists' inserts, this is the first book to extensively explore the degree to which the grassroots popularity of Twitter and Facebook has been co-opted into mainstream media, institutional and curatorial characterisations of 'revolution' - and whether artists should be wary of perpetuating the rhetoric and spectacle surrounding political events.
In the process, Uncommon Grounds reveals how contemporary art practices actively negotiate present-day notions of community-based activism, artistic agency and political engagement.
In the process, Uncommon Grounds reveals how contemporary art practices actively negotiate present-day notions of community-based activism, artistic agency and political engagement.
Reviews / Votes
'groundbreaking' - Bespoke International Magazine; 'The strength of the book lies in the diversity of the selection of art as well as the scope of area studies and theoretical frameworks... The variation is refreshing and allows the anthropology to be appreciated from a multitude of angles... Uncommon Grounds provides a comprehensive narrative of the region's current transitional moment and the expansive role of new media, for the first time.' - Wided Rihana Khadraoui, Kalimat Magazine; 'it is very difficult not to enjoy and be stimulated by the passionate contributions... What readers get out of this book is an intimate and close reading of certain arts practices situated in various local contexts within the Middle East... Uncommon Grounds is a stimulating exploration into art practices in the region, but also a thought-provoking look at the fluid relationship between art and society more generally.' - Arek Dakessian, LSE Review of Books; 'Edited by the always insightful Anthony Downey, Uncommon Grounds is a good place to start for those seeking to understand the role of new media in the region. This isn't a conventional art book, but an exploration of new media and its impact on a land often manipulated and colonized (particularly through images) by foreign forces.' - Hyperallergic; 'a valuable volume...well edited' - Jane Jakeman, The Art Newspaper; 'rich...provides a crucial and necessary discussion and critique of recent cultural phenomena and artistic practices in new media throughout the MENA region' - Sascha Crasnow, H-Net Reviews; 'Uncommon Grounds is an ambitious anthology that attempts to take the measure of ... the widespread impact and appropriation of social/new media throughout visual culture in its broadest sense' - Jay Murphy, Transnational Cinemas, vol. 6, 2015More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
170 bw integrated, 100 colour in 64pp plates
Dimensions
Height: 230 mm
Width: 165 mm
Thickness: 33 mm
Weight
811 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-78453-035-8 (9781784530358)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
09/2014
I.B. Tauris
€32.99
Available for download

E-Book
09/2014
1st Edition
I.B. Tauris
€29.99
Available for download
Person
Anthony Downey is an academic and writer. He is the author of Art and Politics Now (Thames and Hudson, 2014), and editor of Uncommon Grounds: New Media and Critical Practice in North Africa and the Middle East (I.B. Tauris, 2014). Recent and forthcoming publications include The Future of a Promise: Contemporary Art from the Arab World (Ibraaz Publishing, 2011); Dissonant Archives: Knowledge Production and Art Practices in the Middle East (forthcoming, I.B. Tauris, 2015); and Mirrors for Princes (NYU Press, forthcoming 2015). He is the Director of the Contemporary Art Masters Programme at Sothebys Institute of Art, London, and the Editor in Chief of Ibraaz (www.ibraaz.org), a research forum on visual culture across the Middle East and North Africa.
Content
Anthony Downey
Introduction
Philip Rizk
2011 is not 1968: An open letter to an onlooker
Franco Berardi
The Paradox of Media Activism: The Net is not a Tool, It's an Environment
Anthony Downey
For the Common Good: Artistic Practices and Civil Society in Tunisia.
Jens Maier-Rothe, Dina Kafafi, Azin Feizabadi
Citizens Reporting and the Fabrication of Collective Memory
Derya Yucel
Art's Networks: A New Communal Model
Dina Matar
A critical reflection on aesthetics and politics in the digital age
Nat Muller
Performing the Undead: Life and Death in Social Media and Contemporary Art
Sheyma Buali
Digital, Aesthetic, Ephemeral: A brief look at image and narrative
Omar Kholeif
Re-Examining The Social Impulse: Politics, Media and Art after the Arab Uprisings
Maymanah Farhat
New Media and the Spectacle of the War on Terror
Laura U. Marks
Arab Glitch
Maxa Zoller
Potential Media The appropriation of images commercial media and activist practices in Egypt today
Nermin Sayba??l?
The Magnetic Remenances: Voice and Sound in Digital Art and Media
Edit Molnar and Aleya Hamza
When the Going Gets Tough...
Tarek Khoury
The Art of the Written Word + New Media Dissemination: Across the Borders between Syria and Lebanon
Mahmoud Abu Hashhash
Farther Than Language Can Reach
Walter Mignolo
Re:emerging, Decentring, Delinking: Shifting the Geographies of Sensing, Believing and Knowing
Amal Khalaf
The Many Afterlives of Lulu
Timo Kaabi-Linke
On Revolution and Rubbish: What has Changed in Tunisia since Spring 2011
Annabelle Sreberny
Cardboard Khomeini - An Interrogation
Gulf Labor
Saadiyat and the Gulf Labor Boycott
ARTIST PROJECTS
Tarzan and Arab: GAZAWOOD
Ganzeer: POSTER DESIGNS
Sophia Al-Maria: CHEWING THE DATA FAT
Sarah Abu Abdallah: SAUDI AUTOMOBILE
Faycal Bahgriche: FAMILY FRIENDLY
Jananne Al-Ani: SHADOW SITES
Mosireen: REVOLUTION TRIPTYCH
Mariam Ghani: Notes from the Archive (IMAGES)
Introduction
Philip Rizk
2011 is not 1968: An open letter to an onlooker
Franco Berardi
The Paradox of Media Activism: The Net is not a Tool, It's an Environment
Anthony Downey
For the Common Good: Artistic Practices and Civil Society in Tunisia.
Jens Maier-Rothe, Dina Kafafi, Azin Feizabadi
Citizens Reporting and the Fabrication of Collective Memory
Derya Yucel
Art's Networks: A New Communal Model
Dina Matar
A critical reflection on aesthetics and politics in the digital age
Nat Muller
Performing the Undead: Life and Death in Social Media and Contemporary Art
Sheyma Buali
Digital, Aesthetic, Ephemeral: A brief look at image and narrative
Omar Kholeif
Re-Examining The Social Impulse: Politics, Media and Art after the Arab Uprisings
Maymanah Farhat
New Media and the Spectacle of the War on Terror
Laura U. Marks
Arab Glitch
Maxa Zoller
Potential Media The appropriation of images commercial media and activist practices in Egypt today
Nermin Sayba??l?
The Magnetic Remenances: Voice and Sound in Digital Art and Media
Edit Molnar and Aleya Hamza
When the Going Gets Tough...
Tarek Khoury
The Art of the Written Word + New Media Dissemination: Across the Borders between Syria and Lebanon
Mahmoud Abu Hashhash
Farther Than Language Can Reach
Walter Mignolo
Re:emerging, Decentring, Delinking: Shifting the Geographies of Sensing, Believing and Knowing
Amal Khalaf
The Many Afterlives of Lulu
Timo Kaabi-Linke
On Revolution and Rubbish: What has Changed in Tunisia since Spring 2011
Annabelle Sreberny
Cardboard Khomeini - An Interrogation
Gulf Labor
Saadiyat and the Gulf Labor Boycott
ARTIST PROJECTS
Tarzan and Arab: GAZAWOOD
Ganzeer: POSTER DESIGNS
Sophia Al-Maria: CHEWING THE DATA FAT
Sarah Abu Abdallah: SAUDI AUTOMOBILE
Faycal Bahgriche: FAMILY FRIENDLY
Jananne Al-Ani: SHADOW SITES
Mosireen: REVOLUTION TRIPTYCH
Mariam Ghani: Notes from the Archive (IMAGES)