Random Acts of Culture

Reclaiming Art and Community in the 21st Centure

Clarke Mackey

In our society, cultural activity – or “the arts” – usually refers to the high culture of the elites and popular mass culture. Clarke Mackey argues for a third category that is as old as human society itself but seldom discussed: vernacular culture. Vernacular culture comprises all those creative, non-instrumental activities that people engage in daily – activities that provide meaning in life: conversations between friends, social gatherings and rituals, play and participatory sports, informal storytelling, musical jam sessions, cooking and gardening, homemade architecture, and street festivals. In this lively and eclectic discussion, Mackey maintains that practicing and celebrating such activities at the expense of passive, consumer culture have far-reaching benefits. Mackey further examines how literacy, imperialism, industrialization and electronic technologies have produced a culture of spectatorship, apathy and powerlessness. This is a timely, considered, and provocative response to the popularity of amateur, participatory, and do-it-yourself culture available on the internet.

Contents

Chapter 1 Lessons from Children
Chapter 2 Bedtime Stories
Chapter 3 Snapshots from the Edge
Chapter 4 The Vernacular Ocean
Chapter 5 Foraging Fundamentals
Chapter 6 Folk and Their Observers
Chapter 7 The Postman and the Tile Setter
Chapter 8 Social Majorities and Social Minorities
Chapter 9 Postmodern Squatters in the Fourth World
Chapter 10 Literacy and Its Discontents
Chapter 11 The Invention of the Spectator
Chapter 12 Pete’s Proposal
Chapter 13 The Retribalization of the World
Chapter 14 The Politics of Play
Chapter 15 A Vernacular Manifesto
Notes
 

About the Author

Clarke Mackey has taught in the Dept. of Film and Media at Queen’s University since 1988. Over the last forty years his feature films, television shows, and documentaries on social justice issues have won awards and garnered much critical praise.