Hito Steyerl, the documentary filmmaker and writer whose work focuses on contemporary issues such as feminism and militarisation, states in the essay A Thing Like You And Me [1]:
“The feminist movement, until quite recently (and for a number of reasons), worked toward claiming autonomy and full subjecthood.
But as the struggle to become a subject became mired in its own contradictions, a different possibility emerged. How about siding with the object for a change? Why not affirm it? Why not be a thing? An object without a subject? A thing among other things?”
You and me are usually seen as things to “fuck, ignore, minimize, repel, maximize, attract, adore, and/or all of the above.” [2] You and me are seen as victims, and we see ourselves as victims too. Our subjectivity is managed by biopolitics, pharmacopornographic capitalism [3], gentrification, and media representation, thus our image is edited by others, our territories are occupied by others, our desires are dictated by others, our everyday lives are managed by others. As the others impose the dominant cultural and economic values, you and me are constantly frustrated by what seems like a cul-de-sac. But wait, aren’t we things?
“Activating the thing means perhaps to create an objective—not as a fact, but as the task of unfreezing the forces congealed within the trash of history. Objectivity thus becomes a lens, one that recreates us as things mutually acting upon one another. From this “objective” perspective, the idea of emancipation opens up somewhat differently.” envisions Hito Steyerl.
First we occupy the narrative by writing/recording/visualizing what it means to be a thing among other things, an object without a subject, a vibrant present thing, an uncategorized thing, a non-toxified and non-toxic thing, a thing that experiences an anti-normative sexuality, or embraces asexuality, a thing that creates a different narrative not only against sexism and oppression but toward a feminist world.
aglimpseof would like to explore all these by bringing a variety of activists, artists, poets, and writers together working on a feminist narrative of camaraderie, defiance, desire, revolt, subversion, survivalism, and more.
Each contributor is assigned a date so as to contribute to A Thing Like You And Me once a month with a new or unpublished text, sound or visual work. Contributions can be serial or not. We welcome the shifting between genres, and works that engage queerness in general.
If you want to participate in new series of A Thing Like You And Me, please contact Dimitra Ioannou [dimitra at aglimpseof.net].
Taking part in this ‘multi-authored narrative’ means that your pieces will be published on the same page along with the works of all other participants. The pieces will be positioned chronologically with the most recent coming first for the reader. Your works will be signed, and dated. You will be assigned a date, so your contributions will appear on the X of every month.
Works can be serial, and in this case, we’ll publish one fragment per month. They can be of any length and form. If a contributor wants to, she can also respond to a previous piece rather than strictly to the intro of A Thing Like You And Me.
A Thing Like You and Me started on December 2nd, 2015, and features works by Jessica Borusky, Louise Anne Buchler, Sarah Crewe, Sophie Geater, Myriam Gurba, j/j hastain, D.I., Navine G. Khan-Dossos, Lila Matsumoto, Sophie Mayer, Shelagh Rowan-Legg, Nana Sachini, Erica Schreiner, Sandra Simonds, Liliana Vasques. Please, click here for their statements and bios. A Thing Like You and Me was edited by Sarah Crewe and Dimitra Ioannou.
Thank you.
Dimitra Ioannou
[1] “A Thing Like You and Me” was written for the catalogue for Hito Steyerl’s solo exhibition at the Henie Onstad Art Centre, Norway, May 20–August 15, 2010. You can read the whole essay here: http://www.e-flux.com/journal/a-thing-like-you-and-me/
[2] The contemporary American writer Teresa Carmody on Kathy Acker’s writing.
[3] See, Testo Junkie by Paul. B. Preciado (The Feminist Press, 2013).
Enjoy:
A THING LIKE YOU AND ME | DECEMBER 2015
A THING LIKE YOU AND ME | JANUARY 2016
A THING LIKE YOU AND ME | FEBRUARY 2016
A THING LIKE YOU AND ME | MARCH 2016
A THING LIKE YOU AND ME | APRIL 2016
A THING LIKE YOU AND ME | MAY 2016
aglimpseof.net 