Reading 5: O'Rorke on Geyer

O'Rorke, Imogen “Flipping the script” Mute 15 August 2008. Web. 1 June 2010

An artist and writer, Imogen O’Rorke lives in London and writes for the Guardian, Mute and other online journals.

In the conclusion of “Flipping the Scripts” O’Rorke describes the impact of 9 Scripts from a Nation at War as forcing us “to interrogate our roles in this conflict and reassess the position of citizen in relation to state” (O’Rorke 6).

I think this is fertile ground for discussion as the role of citizen changes especially in the US with the recent election of President Obama and the rise of liberal democracy. More and more the citizen is asked to participate in the decisions made by the government as democracy rises in the world.

In “Redefining the Role of Citizen in a Gov 2.0 World”, John Kamensky critiques citizenship under the Obama government. Kamensky see the role of the citizen in the US increasing. One such area, in which this change can be seen, is in an increased involvement in dialogue. The Obama Open Government initiative encourages agencies to converse with the citizens and engage them in meaningful dialogue around issues such as transparency and collaboration. People are being encouraged to contribute to public debate via text, email and online forums (Kamensky 1).

Exhibitions such as such as “9 Scripts from a Nation at War” are particularly pertinent during this climate of change for inciting the dialogue of the citizen, which may then be communicated to the state. I think at this level, the artwork works as information that may warrant further thought and then be transformed into action.

References

Kamensky, John “Redefining the Role of Citizen in a Gov 2.0 World” The IBM Center for the Business of Government Feb. 4 2010 accessed from
http://bizgov.wordpress.com/2010/02/04/redefining-the-role-of-citizen-in-a-gov-2-0-world/
08 June 2010