The end of the insurgency...in name only

Those who suffered through Topics this summer might be amused to know that the Pentagon has decided that the fighting in Iraq is not against an insurgency. In the latest bit of linguist ballet from an administration that, this summer, tried to change what it had originally and aggressively sold as "The War on Terror" to "The Global Conflict Against Violent Extremism" (see George Packer's item in the August 8 & 15 issue of The New Yorker), National Public Radio today reported that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld objects to the use of the word insurgent to describe the opposition in Iraq. You can listen to the story by taking the NPR link.

Politics of the war not withstanding, it seemed by the end of summer of that the investigation of the insurgent personality had attained some traction among students who regarded it as continuous with the iconoclastic and avant gardist persona of the modern artist. I’ve been pouring over writing about artists and research lately (see the November 16 post asking for help with "research") and one thing that's impressed me is the importance of an artist's "iconoclastic tradition" of inquiry when art and research are combined. Stephan WIlson writes eloquently about it in his book Information Art: Intersections of Art, Science, and Technology (which I know Terri and Denise have looked through - and thanks to Jane Marsching for reminding me of Wilson's thoughts in her artist's statement.)

Perhaps, at least as far as insurgency in the arts, the war is at home after all.