Films Screening: Tue 26, Wed 27 and Thurs 28 12 to 5 pm (see schedule)

Panel Discussion: Thursday, June 28, 8 pm

Olga Kopenkina, independent curator and art critic, discusses issues related to paranoia with artists Mark Boswell, Jim Finn and artist, writer and Professor of Politics at the University of Paris, Anton Koslov.

The program analyzes paranoid sensibilities as presented in contemporary film and video. Paranoia is investigated in two of its phenomena: in the classical tradition of American popular culture, more specifically pulp fiction and film noir, and in the US domestic and foreign politics of suspicion, such as the Patriot Act. Terror Tactics explores the condition that gave rise to what has been called "a paranoid culture." Indeed, "visionary" cultural paranoia, expressed in the total fear of abusive violations of privacy, meets reality. As the advertising for the film Enemy of The State suggested, "it's not paranoia if they are really after you."

The films, by Mark Boswell, Jordan Crandall, Jim Finn, Jenny Perlin, Martha Rosler and Speculative Archive, are concerned with how the visual arts, influenced by the "political unconscious" of mass culture, are able to investigate culture and its relationship to politics, wealth, power, desire and autonomy. The films show how conspiracy theories, which trace their history from the '60s, may resonate in the moral climate in today's society facing world terrorism, increased public demand for security and suspicion of foreign enemies and agents. The films also project the models of constructing the narrative of today's existence using tactics similar to those employed by military and media industries. Terror Tactics is curated by Olga Kopenkina.