Mary Patten Remembers 'Schizo Culture'

"Schizo Culture," a four-day 1975 symposium featuring avant-garde artists (John Cage, William Burroughs) and academics (Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari, Jean-François Lyotard) was a milestone event in the ascendency of French theory in New Left political thinking—even if it remains relatively obscure to this day. Focusing, in part, on prisons, torture and emergent techniques of state-led social repression, the symposium was organized by French literary critic Sylvère Lotringer at Columbia University, where he remains a professor emeritus. For Chicago-based artist and activist Mary Patten, one program in the symposium has pierced the present as a potent source of creative and political inquiry: a panel on the medical establishment's complicity in developing so-called "therapeutic" forms of coercive torture. The panel featured Michel Foucault, Scottish (anti-) psychiatrist R.D. Laing, the Insane Liberation Front's Howie Harp, and Patten's friend and comrade, radical activist Judith Clark.
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Art for All at Chicago's Fairs

Upon entering Chicago's Merchandise Mart for the Art Chicago and NEXT fairs of modern and contemporary art, it was difficult to gage which caused more anxiety: the omnipresence of Purell brand hand sanitizer on site to ease any lingering swine flu fears, or the numerous permutations of economic-themed panel discussions that plagued the weekend agenda. The real challenge of this year's fairs would be courting the investments of young art collectors who may be uneasy about buying work (or, rather, still waiting for the artworks they already own to appreciate in value). With less cash in circulation, fair organizers placed an emphasis on cultural capital with CONVERGE, an ambitious program of panel discussions designed to help circulat… Read More