Politics

31st January 2020

Jonas Staal’s Propaganda Art in the 21st Century
by Hailey Maxwell

Where would propaganda stand in the ‘early days of a better nation’ while the world is contemporaneously beset by the War on Terror, Fake News and other effects of the will of Trump and of Bannon and their likes on the contemporary political landscape? Hailey Maxwell looks through Jonas Staal’s work to open up some horizons.
19th December 2019

As Radical as Reality?: Werner Herzog’s ‘Meeting Gorbachev’

Based on three in-depth conversations with the former President of the Soviet Union, Meeting Gorbachev (2019) is the latest documentary from Werner Herzog. How does ‘ecstatic truth’ fare when contending […]
13th December 2019

Federalism – A Drouth Enquiry by Owen Dudley Edwards

It seems appropriate to publish a long meditation on the nature and history of federalism on the day of a British election where Brexit is the pressing issue and the […]
4th December 2019

Take the High Road: Scott Hames’ Literary Politics of Scottish Devolution by Colin Kidd

Colin Kidd muses on relations (if any) between the near unanimity of the literary world and the actually existing historical world in his review of Scott Hames’s new book The Literary Politics […]
27th November 2019

The Pro-test Lab – by Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas

When Marc Augé wrote in The Future that ‘Every protest is a form of research’ he could have been describing the artwork(s) / protest / civil disobedience / celebration / sit-in that was […]
21st November 2019

The Drouth was at TRAINING FOR THE FUTURE

What is a 'Training Camp' organised for and by artists and activists? What would ‘Training for the Future’ mean at an International Arts and Music Festival? The Drouth was at ‘Training for the Future’ at the Ruhr Triennale.
21st November 2019

Humanitarian Crisis, Dignity and Hope on the Río Atrato – Allan Gillies

On the impact of illegal gold mining in Colombia and how communities in Chocó are preserving hope and dignity in the face of a humanitarian crisis.
11th November 2019

‘Dangerously open’ – Los Angeles and the (Grass)roots of segregation – Andrea Gibbons

The principle of self-government of provinces is at the heart of the concept of 'Federation', and ‘The grassroots’ is for many, an inherently leftist, liberal construct. Yet as Andrea Gibbons shows, the white supremacists who shaped the growth of Los Angeles force us to reassess out assumptions over the innate virtues of ‘participation’ .
29th October 2019

UNATTRACTIVE CREATURES: A Field Study of Michael Gove, Boswell and other migratory scavengers.

From The Drouth Issue 60 I make no doubt, Sir, but you consider me as your very good friend; although some people – and those, too, not destitute of wisdom – will […]