Fred Forest's Utopia

Media Art and Activism

Nonfiction, Art & Architecture, General Art, Individual Artist, Artists, Architects & Photographers, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science
Cover of the book Fred Forest's Utopia by Michael F. Leruth, The MIT Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Michael F. Leruth ISBN: 9780262341226
Publisher: The MIT Press Publication: September 1, 2017
Imprint: The MIT Press Language: English
Author: Michael F. Leruth
ISBN: 9780262341226
Publisher: The MIT Press
Publication: September 1, 2017
Imprint: The MIT Press
Language: English

“France's most famous unknown artist,” the innovative media provocateur Fred Forest, precursor of Eduardo Kac, Jodi, the Yes Men, RT Mark, and the Guerilla Girls.

The innovative French media artist and prankster-provocateur Fred Forest first gained notoriety in 1972 when he inserted a small blank space in Le Monde, called it 150 cm**2 of Newspaper (150 cm**2 de papier journal), and invited readers to fill in the space with their own work and mail their efforts to him. In 1977, he satirized speculation in both the art and real estate markets by offering the first parcel of officially registered “artistic square meters” of undeveloped rural land for sale at an art auction. Although praised by leading media theorists—Vilém Flusser lauded Forest as “the artist who pokes holes in media”—Forest's work has been largely ignored by the canon-making authorities. Forest calls himself “France's most famous unknown artist.” In this book, Michael Leruth offers the first book-length consideration of this iconoclastic artist, examining Forest's work from the 1960s to the present.

Leruth shows that Forest chooses alternative platforms (newspapers, mock commercial ventures, video-based interactive social interventions, media hacks and hybrids, and, more recently, the Internet) that are outside the exclusive precincts of the art world. A fierce critic of the French contemporary art establishment, Forest famously sued the Centre Pompidou in 1994 over its opaque acquisition practices. After making foundational contributions to Sociological Art in the 1970s and the Aesthetics of Communication in the 1980s, the pioneering Forest saw the Internet as another way for artists to bypass the art establishment in the 1990s. Arguing that there is a strong utopian quality in Forest's work, Leruth sees this utopianism not as naive or conventional but as a reverse utopianism: rather than envisioning an impossible ideal, Forest reenvisions and probes the quasi-utopia of our media-augented everyday reality. The interface is the symbolic threshold to be crossed with an open mind.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

“France's most famous unknown artist,” the innovative media provocateur Fred Forest, precursor of Eduardo Kac, Jodi, the Yes Men, RT Mark, and the Guerilla Girls.

The innovative French media artist and prankster-provocateur Fred Forest first gained notoriety in 1972 when he inserted a small blank space in Le Monde, called it 150 cm**2 of Newspaper (150 cm**2 de papier journal), and invited readers to fill in the space with their own work and mail their efforts to him. In 1977, he satirized speculation in both the art and real estate markets by offering the first parcel of officially registered “artistic square meters” of undeveloped rural land for sale at an art auction. Although praised by leading media theorists—Vilém Flusser lauded Forest as “the artist who pokes holes in media”—Forest's work has been largely ignored by the canon-making authorities. Forest calls himself “France's most famous unknown artist.” In this book, Michael Leruth offers the first book-length consideration of this iconoclastic artist, examining Forest's work from the 1960s to the present.

Leruth shows that Forest chooses alternative platforms (newspapers, mock commercial ventures, video-based interactive social interventions, media hacks and hybrids, and, more recently, the Internet) that are outside the exclusive precincts of the art world. A fierce critic of the French contemporary art establishment, Forest famously sued the Centre Pompidou in 1994 over its opaque acquisition practices. After making foundational contributions to Sociological Art in the 1970s and the Aesthetics of Communication in the 1980s, the pioneering Forest saw the Internet as another way for artists to bypass the art establishment in the 1990s. Arguing that there is a strong utopian quality in Forest's work, Leruth sees this utopianism not as naive or conventional but as a reverse utopianism: rather than envisioning an impossible ideal, Forest reenvisions and probes the quasi-utopia of our media-augented everyday reality. The interface is the symbolic threshold to be crossed with an open mind.

More books from The MIT Press

Cover of the book The Agony of Eros by Michael F. Leruth
Cover of the book The Prism of Grammar by Michael F. Leruth
Cover of the book GPS by Michael F. Leruth
Cover of the book Biological Clocks, Rhythms, and Oscillations by Michael F. Leruth
Cover of the book The High Price of Materialism by Michael F. Leruth
Cover of the book Families at Play by Michael F. Leruth
Cover of the book Digital Apollo by Michael F. Leruth
Cover of the book Atari Age by Michael F. Leruth
Cover of the book Moral Judgments as Educated Intuitions by Michael F. Leruth
Cover of the book Rule of Law, Misrule of Men by Michael F. Leruth
Cover of the book Chaos and Organization in Health Care by Michael F. Leruth
Cover of the book The Cost-Benefit Revolution by Michael F. Leruth
Cover of the book 101 Things to Learn in Art School by Michael F. Leruth
Cover of the book Shifting Practices by Michael F. Leruth
Cover of the book Responsible Brains by Michael F. Leruth
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy