Asbjørn Skarsvåg Grønstad – författare

This edited collection examines the effects that macrosystems have on the figuration of our everyday—of microdystopias—and argues that microdystopic narratives are part of a genre that has emerged in contrast to classic dystopic manifestations of world-shattering events. From different methodological and theoretical positions in fieldworks ranging from literary works and young adult series to concrete places and games, the contributors in Microdystopias: Aesthetics and Ideologies in a Broken Moment sound the depths of an existential sense of shrinking horizons – spatially, temporally, emotionally, and politically. The everyday encroachment on our sense of spatial orientation that gradually and discreetly diminishes the horizons of possibilities is demonstrated by examining what the forms of the microdystopic look like when they are aesthetically configured. Contributors analyze the aesthetics that play a particularly central and complex role in mediating, as well as disrupting, the parameters of dystopian emergences and emergencies, reflecting an increasingly uneasy relationship between the fictional, the cautionary, and the real. Scholars of media studies, sociology, and philosophy will find this book of particular interest.

In eleven essays of scholarly inquiry encompassing a variety of disciplinary perspectives including literature, visual culture, and media studies, Microutopias and Everyday Hope illuminates the potential for alternative futures that resides in utopian thinking on smaller scales.Reflecting on analyses of source material that ranges from entertainment media to concrete sites, contributors draw our attention to the important aesthetic details of everyday life that are increasingly drowned out in a landscape dominated by continuous polycrisis. Caught in late capitalism’s relentless and dystopian march, they argue, any kind of future is necessarily predicated on utopian thinking in the present and must look beyond the spectacle of horror to draw on the hope that can be found in the smaller wins day to day.Ultimately, this collection serves as an appeal to the crucial role the humanities can play in withstanding and moving past the contemporary societal fragmentation plaguing the globe.

In eleven essays of scholarly inquiry encompassing a variety of disciplinary perspectives including literature, visual culture, and media studies, Microutopias and Everyday Hope illuminates the potential for alternative futures that resides in utopian thinking on smaller scales.Reflecting on analyses of source material that ranges from entertainment media to concrete sites, contributors draw our attention to the important aesthetic details of everyday life that are increasingly drowned out in a landscape dominated by continuous polycrisis. Caught in late capitalism's relentless and dystopian march, they argue, any kind of future is necessarily predicated on utopian thinking in the present and must look beyond the spectacle of horror to draw on the hope that can be found in the smaller wins day to day. Ultimately, this collection serves as an appeal to the crucial role the humanities can play in withstanding and moving past the contemporary societal fragmentation plaguing the globe.

This is the first book to offer a systematic account of the concept of opacity in the aesthetic field. Engaging with works by Ernie Gehr, John Akomfrah, Matt Saunders, David Lynch, Trevor Paglen, Zach Blas, and Low, the study considers the cultural, epistemological, and ethical values of images and sounds that are fuzzy, indeterminate, distorted, degraded, or otherwise indistinct. Rethinking Art and Visual Culture shows how opaque forms of art address problems of mediation, knowledge, and information. It also intervenes in current debates about new systems of visibility and surveillance by explaining how indefinite art provides a critique of the positivist drive behind these regimes. A timely contribution to media theory, cinema studies, American studies, and aesthetics, the book presents a novel and extensive analysis of the politics of transparency.

This is the first book to offer a systematic account of the concept of opacity in the aesthetic field. Engaging with works by Ernie Gehr, John Akomfrah, Matt Saunders, David Lynch, Trevor Paglen, Zach Blas, and Low, the study considers the cultural, epistemological, and ethical values of images and sounds that are fuzzy, indeterminate, distorted, degraded, or otherwise indistinct. Rethinking Art and Visual Culture shows how opaque forms of art address problems of mediation, knowledge, and information. It also intervenes in current debates about new systems of visibility and surveillance by explaining how indefinite art provides a critique of the positivist drive behind these regimes. A timely contribution to media theory, cinema studies, American studies, and aesthetics, the book presents a novel and extensive analysis of the politics of transparency.

This book focuses on the theme of counter-surveillance in art through a multi-faceted engagement with the highly controversial Norwegian play Ways of Seeing. Denounced by the prime minister and subject to a police investigation, the play gained notoriety when it featured footage showing the homes of the country’s financial and political elite as part of its scenography. The book provides a thorough consideration of the work’s reception context before elucidating its relation to the politics of neoliberalism. What is foregrounded in this analysis are, first, the use of an aesthetics of sousveillance to visualize the material infrastructure of racism and right-wing populism, second, the tangled interrelations of art and law, third, questions of censorship and artistic freedom, and fourth, the promotion of an alternative mode of political governance – grounded in feminism and ecological awareness – through the example of the Rojava experiment.