The Gun as...

Between weapons and sanctions, war and lawyers

Scan and original from a collage I did last year

While this collage is from last year (January 2021 if I’m not mistaken), with the events this week it seemed timely to showcase in this newsletter. Between guns and sanctions, war and lawyers, democracy seems to be playing a risky game of balance.

Also timely is this open call from RICE called 'Guns for Fun':

GUNS FOR FUN is an invitation to critically rethink the role of weapons and their symbolism, in order to subvert their meaning and significance. Their aesthetic and design are iconic. We are looking for proposals that use their representation, that rethink their use as well as strength and power relations, from the public sphere to the closest and most intimate spaces.

As rethinking and deconstructing the things we take for granted is at the core of (de) as a practice, I decided to give it a shot.

In order to be critical and speculate on alternative narratives, it’s important to first deep dive into its meaning. So, for this open call, I’m going to take a page out of my design research alter-ego's playbook and jumpstart the creative process by making a list of the roles that the gun plays in today's world. It goes a bit like this:

The gun as...

... a negotiator
... an enforcer
... power tool
... an intrinsic right (as in USA’s Second Amendment)
... an attitude
... a weapon
... craftsmanship
... a toy
... a community
... a sport
... an aesthetic
... art
... an hobby
... DIY (as in zip and 3D printed guns)
... an aspiration
… the reaper
… a victim (as in “guns don’t kill people” argument)
… an offering
… a children’s game (as in kids pretend-shooting each other)
... a dream
... commodity
... medium
…

What other unexpected roles do you think guns can play? Feel free to write them in a reply to this email or as a comment to this post on substack.