A PROJECT BY ADA REINTHAL

In the age of the attention economy, how do you engage and sustain people in political actions?

We either find a way or make one.      

– Hannibal.

Scroll, swipe, selfie! Subscribe! Eat, sleep, repeat. When our front facing camera-smartphones see more of our faces that we see each other, how do you pull people out of their filter bubbles and genuinely engage with them? What prefigurative methods, if any, are being used by organisers?

Diverse Fronts // Diverse Tactics ( DF//DT) aims at identifying design principles of democratic consensus methods. Consensus takes many shapes and forms but some characteristics seem to be universal, whether used by traditional farmers sharing a common resource-pool or an autonomous collective of political actors.

First, something is agreed to be done [1], after which this is broken down into tasks [2]. Collective coordination follows [3] where everyone tends to their agreed tasks, after which these experiences are considered [4] before regrouping to see what progress has been made in doing the thing (back at [1]). While doing these tasks, the people involved think about why, how and what is being done [5] and these experiences inform future protocol [6]. These protocols inform future collective endeavours. [7]/[1]

By embedding herself within groups who are championing very different causes, Ada Reinthal seeks to identify universals within these organisations and to compile a database, a tool-belt for today’s radicals. In commoning the methods of diverse groups into one space, she attempts in helping organisers to draw upon each other’s experiences – like mycelium transferring nutrients from one tree in the forest to another, DF//DT aims at cross-pollinating experiences across the left.

Whether it is a call for an international boycott, or to try to destigmatise a social prejudice- organisers have to communicate both within the group and with the public through media, DF/DT is an exploration of political and social actors of today.