Topics include frameworks of ideology, violence, representation, critique, and image production, as examined through Cokes’s videos, and many of the writers and thinkers he sources from, including the Situationist International, Louis Althusser, Our Literal Speed, and others. The workshop will examine the uses and limits of theory in critical practice, and the ever-shifting idea of what it means to be critical.

[UPDATE 13 March: We are sad to announce that, in light of the COVID-19 outbreak, this event is now cancelled for 19-21 March 2020. We are looking into postponing it and will update our website and social media as soon as we know more].

Thursday 19 March
On the representation of violence, mass movements, and riots. This day will draw on the works Black Celebration(1988), FADE TO BLACK[/i (1990), and shrinking.criticism(2009), alongside the texts “Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses…,” and “The Decline and Fall of Spectacle Commodity Society” by Situationist International, and “The Decline and Fall of Art Criticism” by Julian Stallabrass.

Friday 20 March
The recurring return of evil. This session will be dedicated to the works in Cokes’s “Evil[/i” series, including Evil Evil.16[/i (Torture.Musik(2011), and Evil.20[/i (b.o.m.b.edit(2012), viewing them through the lens of relevant texts by Alain Badiou, Moustafa Bayoumi, and Retort.

Saturday 21 March
Why produce another image? This session explores the proposition of video as a non-representational media, and alternate conditions that could produce different forms of legibility. Works discussed include Evil.27: Selma[/i (2011), Evil.8(Unseen[/i) (2004), and Before & After The Studio Pt. 2 [/i](2019), along with two related texts from Our Literal Speed and other sources.