The book Under Fire 1 is one instantiation of the Under Fire project, and an edited compilation of a series of dialogues that occurred online from (25 January – 19 April, 2004) among a group of artists, theorists, scientists, critics, activists, and journalists, both from the West and the Middle-East. The discussions were moderated by Jordan Crandall.
Under Fire is a project by Jordan Crandall, curated by Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, in collaboration with V2_Institute for the Unstable Media, Rotterdam. Under Fire project explores the organization and representation of armed conflict. Looking at the forms of militarized agencies that are emerging today, it attempts to understand the nature of emergent power and the forms of resistance to it, situating cycles of violence within the modalities of a global system. It looks at the role that representations play as registers of symbolic meaning and as agents of affective change, exploring the ways that violence materializes as both act and image. It probes into cultural imaginaries of conflict and the deeper truths they may offer about collective identifications and aggressions. Through this approach, Under Fire aims to reconstruct a discursive and affective terrain that can offer new insights into symptomatic violence.
The book Under Fire 1 is followed by the publication Under Fire 2, which is an edited compilation of a series of dialogues that occurred online (September – December, 2004).