Uncommon Grounds

More and more contemporary artists are using new media in their work, creating new horizons for cultural experimentation and political activism. In this ground-breaking book, internationally renowned and emerging academics, writers, artists, curators, activists and film-makers critically explore 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, these writers consider the prominent role that new and social media has come to play in artistic practices - as well as social movements - in the Arab world today. Analysing alternative forms of creating, broadcasting, publishing, distributing and consuming images, Uncommon Grounds enquires into a global concern: does new media offer a 'democratisation' of and productive engagement with visual culture, or merely capitalise upon the affect of immediacy at the expense of depth and engagement? Featuring critical analyses and original, full-colour artists' inserts, this is the first book to explore, in depth, the degree to which the grassroots popularity of Twitter and Facebook has been co-opted into the mainstream media's characterisation of 'revolution' - and whether artists should be wary of being co-opted, by mass media, institutions and curators alike, into this 'revolutionary' event. In the process, it reveals the ways in which contemporary art practices not only reflect upon but also actively negotiate present-day notions of social activism and political engagement.