Surregional Explorations

Philosopher, activist, artist Max Cafard, has been steadily working his way through critiques of Anarchism, Surrealism, Situationism, Media, Cinema, and Regionalism, to arrive to his own fascinating and practicable practice of the Surregional. The still-standing techniques of all the -isms Cafard has not incinerated in his investigations have been patched to construct a mobile Surregional vehicle that is ecologically sound, civically festive, carnivalistically joyous, and socially just. It helps Surregionality that it takes for its area of action the city of New Orleans and the surrounding delta of the Mississippi River, a region with a fertile imaginary and abundant life (re)sources. Whether Surregional ideas work on an arrid terrain with historically rooted tribal conflicts supplied with modern weapons, is a debatable question, and worth debating. The exciting possibilities of speculation and action that the Cafard proposals open are very much here for the taking, playing with, mulling over, and using as projectiles or caresses. Surregionalism may even be the only way to stay human in the belly of the monster machine. -Andrei Codrescu