[ISEA2012] Paper: Sarah Lewison – SWITCHBOARD: THE ORDINARY (R)EVOLUTIONARY NEEDS OF THE PEOPLE

Abstract

In the mid-sixties, an experimental student program at San Francisco State College put community organizing and everyday life at the center of education. Students worked in city neighborhoods, learning about economic and social forces affecting others, and developing creative actions. Money was effectively diverted from the college/state to sites off campus. The program’s students saw themselves as part of a revolutionary process. Poised at the historical transition between industrial and biopolitical production, and between hippie culture and the contractions of the 70s, this little known program offers speculative lessons about corporeality and affect to education in a digital age.