CREATIVE TIME: Jamshed Vesuna

On October 12, the Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley and the Curatorial Practice at the California College of the Arts are partnering to host a live-streaming of the Creative Time Summit, an annual conference in New York that brings together cultural producers--including artists, critics, writers, and curators--to discuss how their work engages pressing issues affecting our world. To jump-start the conversation in advance of the event, attendees have been asked to submit a paragraph on a keyword associated with one of the summit themes: Inequities, Occupations, Making, or Tactics. This posting is by Jamshed Vesuna, American Cyberculture student at UC Berkeley.

Keyword: Tactics

Tactics can be interesting things. They can be used to progress through a society and built upon almost anything. Tactics are a method of understanding and then either building upon or tearing down. In order to develop this so called tactic, one must first understand. A tactic to build or tear a system cannot be created without a deep level of understanding of the inner workings of the said system. Tactics themselves can employ various sub-tactics such as subversion. While there are a wide variety of tactics that can be used with or against any given system, a tactic calls for change, a plan for action. Take war tactics, for example. Napoleon employed countless 'tactics' in war and integrated intensive deep study of the enemy. Clearly he was somewhat successful in his implementations as he is regarded today as one of the most powerful leaders in the history of mankind. I think things become purely interesting when a body, namely a government, creates these so called 'tactics' without a deep understanding of what the system actually is. While the government is not necessarily a militaristic dictator, it still uses similar leadership skills as one. I do not have sources to back up my claim nor am I claiming that what I say is fact. I simply think that there is a certain level of research that one must obtain before making a judgment or plan of action towards a certain subject. In a parallel manner, I have not yet studied all of the inner workings of our government and can thus not contribute anything of factual value to this discussion, but I can offer my opinion and logical intuition. I know that said tactics are used in politics ‘correctly,’ in that the implementer has done the necessary research in their subject. This can be scary as we have seen in political advertising, ad campaigns, and campaigning in general. I think the best and most efficient method of counteracting manipulation is education. That starts here.