All Knees and Elbows
of Susceptibility and Refusal:
Reading History From Below
Saturday 24th November 2012 |
Transmission Gallery | 4.00pm onwards
The book All Knees and Elbows of
Susceptibility and Refusal: Reading History From Below began as a
discussion between two friends, Anthony Iles and Tom Roberts, about
the politics of writing history. Neither are trained historians. They
have assembled a critical and necessarily partial picture of the
practice of ‘history from below’: historiographical tendencies
which sought to uncover the agency of ‘ordinary people’ in
challenging capitalism and developing different forms of social
organisation. All Knees and Elbows surveys the work of a number of
British and international left historians and groups, including
Silvia Federici, History Workshop, Eric Hobsbawm, C.L.R James, Peter
Linebaugh, Sheila Rowbotham, Jacques Rancière and E.P. Thompson.
“The completed
study is not intended to be comprehensive. We’ve veered towards the
subjects, areas and materials which interest us. These include
questions of sources and their uses, working class education and
self-education, welfare and the wage, language, historical
authenticity and literary inventiveness, and contemporary political
instrumentalisations of radical history. The book attests to the
importance of reading history critically against the present.”
Authors: Anthony Iles & Tom Roberts
Illustrations: Artwork by Rachel Baker
Publishers: Transmission Gallery, The Strickland Distribution, Mute Books
Format: Paperback, H 182mm x W 118mm
ISBN: 978-0-9565201-3-5 (paperback) / 978-0- 9565201-4-2 (ebook)
Book price: £8.99
Illustrations: Artwork by Rachel Baker
Publishers: Transmission Gallery, The Strickland Distribution, Mute Books
Format: Paperback, H 182mm x W 118mm
ISBN: 978-0-9565201-3-5 (paperback) / 978-0- 9565201-4-2 (ebook)
Book price: £8.99
Film Screening & Introduction -
4.00pm
The Luddites (53
mins) is a film directed by Richard Broad for Thames TV in 1988 as if
it were a contemporary documentary. The Luddites were a social
movement of textile artisans from around Northern England and the
Midlands, who banded together in 1812 in secret societies and
destroyed the machines which were putting them out of work.
Discussion - 5.30pm-6.30pm
A discussion of The Luddites led by authors Anthony Iles and Tom
Roberts informed by some of the All Knees and Elbows themes,
including: The definition and redefinition of the working class in
History from Below • Critical re-examination of ruptures in the
social relation • Techniques developed within struggles to control
and convey their own history • Struggles over the marketisation of
research • Critical struggles over authenticity • The market for
working class memoirs and hardship porn • Determinism and/ or the
potential for action.
Book launch - 7.00pm
Authors Anthony Iles
and Tom Roberts will give a short introduction to their new book All
Knees and Elbows of Susceptibility and Refusal: Reading History From
Below critically appraising tendencies and debates in history from
below. A sample chapter is available here:
http://strickdistro.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Members_Unlimited_blog-sample-version.pdf
The book will be available for purchase
at the launch.
For further info see:
.................
All Knees and Elbows of Susceptibility
and Refusal: Reading History From Below is organised by The
Strickland Distribution as part of its knowledge is never neutral
programme with Transmission Gallery.
The Strickland Distribution, September
2012 – June 2013 with/at Transmission Gallery
knowledge is never
neutral is a series of projects organised by The Strickland
Distribution taking place from September 2012 to June 2013 within and
outside the gallery space. Taken together, these projects set out to
explore the circumstances that surround cultural and knowledge
production. We look to situate this production within a wider set of
social and historical relations, and to reflect on our practices
across these relations. We invite you to join us in these processes.
Creating spaces for participatory
dialogue – for listening and being listened to – the projects
include a public walk, co-research inquiry, facilitated workshops,
film screenings, reading and discussion groups, publication launches
and the ongoing documentation and reconsideration of outcomes
deriving from these projects.
The Strickland Distribution is an
artist-run group supporting the development of independent research
in art-related and non-institutional practices. Art-related includes
research forms that directly implement artistic practice as a means
of research method. Non-institutional includes forms of grass-roots
histories, social inquiries and projects developed outside of
academic frameworks and by groups and individuals normally excluded
from such environments. The Strickland Distribution operates in the
public sphere, seeking to stimulate and contribute to public
education, discourse and debate around the topics and themes
addressed through its projects.
Transmission Gallery 28 King Street
Glasgow G1 5QP Scotland
Tel.:+44 (0)141 552
7141 info@transmissiongallery.org
www.transmissiongallery.org
The Strickland
Distribution contact@strickdistro.org
http://strickdistro.org
