Nationalism, Art, etcetera...

I’ve been a tad on the busy side over the past couple of weeks, and amongst the events I found myself at was the Rally for a Republic (Oct 1) and a pro-Independence Meeting @ Socialism 2005 (Oct 8).

Both events mentioned events in Corsica that I hadn’t realised before. On both occasions it was brought up by Lloyd Quinan. (Briefly, a link is here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4288994.stm)

The actual events are interesting (and, incidentally, virtually unreported over here) but that’s not what I was intending to bring up. Equally as interesting, was how far deep in Corsican society, (and equally so in Basque and Catalonian Society) was how entrenched their pro-independence struggles were. Trade Union Activists captured the ship. It wasn’t some militia; it was their equivalent of shop stewards. Over here, if you want Independence, that’s what you do, you go out and get Independence.

At the Oct 8 meeting, activists in the room were being challenged to think up ways make the struggle more relative the locality where they were from.

Naturally, when I was thinking about this myself, and what I could do, I naturally though about the two areas where I feel most comfortable: on Computers and being the artsy-fartsy bastard that I can be at times.

On that note, a thought had occurred to me. Partly about the art-project / ARG Neurocam, which I’ve mentioned before. The art aspect, which personally I interpreted in a more Dadaist / Surrealist sense, is why I joined it (see previous articles).

I had been toying with the idea of doing a Scottish Dadaist thing for some time. I even had a template for a website lurking on my Computer. One that’s rather stylish, more image based and based on my photography and some of my writing, as well as some images based upon themes that frankly are rather absurb and a wee bit complicated to go into here.

I felt a wee bit insecure about it, partly because the Dadaists I respected tended to be of the variety that were at the Cabaret Voltaire despairing about the war, not out there at rallies behaving like a crap, fat, Che Guevara.

So, that’s one of my ideas. Strange one, admittedly, but an idea nonetheless. A Scottish Independence Dadaist Art Project on the Internet. One that is guaranteed not to appeal to the very people it will be marketed to (which is kind of the point).