Seeing Power

"Like an updated version of John Berger's groundbreaking Ways of Seeing, Nato Thompson's Seeing Power delivers a smart, accessible introduction to the prevailing artistic predicaments of our time. Written by one of our leading public intellectuals, it covers a wide range of key issues from the cultural politics of Occupy Wall Street; to the use and abuse of accumulated social capital; to the perennial antagonism between sophisticated cultural ambiguity and didactic, artistic impact. Seeing Power is a twenty-first-century user's manual for the social responsible artist, critic, and curator."
--Gregory Sholette, author of Dark Matter: Art and Politics in the Age of Enterprise Culture

"A thought- provoking manifesto on the artist's position within a system where making money is inextricably linked to producing culture...Seeing Power isn't only for artists and activists. It is for anyone willing to re-think their consumer habits and ready to identify the power structures that heavily influence our day-to-day behaviours."
--Peace News

Praise for Experimental Geography

"Living in cities, we need a new way to think about how we move and what we notice . . . This strange, exciting book offers just that--a new way to notice public space. It is the brainchild of Nato Thompson: the results of his fascinations with urban planning post-Katrina, abandoned or unnoticed urban landscapes and public art."
--Susan Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Times

"What could be more delightful--and unsettling--than turning loose a group of contemporary surrealists, disguised as vagabonds and artists, in the ripe fields of the hyperreal? Experimental Geography isn't about space; it is about terminal strangeness."
--Mike Davis, author of Ecology of Fear and City of Quartz

"Another step in the ongoing quest for social energies not yet recognized as art . . . exploring the politics and infrastructures that can either change or stall the world."
--Lucy Lippard, author of The Lure of the Local