Paper presented at a two-day symposium at the Revelator in conjunction with The Journal of Media Practice and Education
Over two days, fifty artists, writers, filmmakers and academics seek to open a conversation on how to reject the straitjackets imposed by universities and art schools on their way of working through a discussion of what we have termed ‘wild research’.

Considering the Artwork as an active tool for political change, the paper discusses issues of privacy and visibility as they pertain to the military industrial complex. Taking as a starting point the tumultuous history of military transmissions, their history and relevance to language and by extension to culture, the paper looks at ideas of activism, the grey area between legality and opportunity with a particular focus on current events. The paper proposes that there are multiple dimensions to making work and that it is indeed a different context that determines the role and function of the artwork than one dictated by it's form, format, context and institutional and legal frameworks. This context is neither easy to determine, police or define, but it is one that is largely established between idea, work and reception (both in practical and art-historical terms).