Protest. A word indissociable from the year 2011. In America, Occupy Wall Street protestors took up tented residence across the country to demonstrate against crony capitalism. Spurred by events in Tunisia, Egypt erupted in a people’s revolution that ousted dictator Hosni Mubarak. Popular unrest has been brewing since the imposition of austerity measures in Greece and Spain. Meanwhile, the evening news continues to cover these events in one-and-a-half minute intervals accompanied by a flood of images, making these events difficult to assess.

 

News represents an innovative collaboration between journalist Susanne Fischer and artist Monika Huber. A former reporter in Baghdad, Fischer has on-the-ground experience with revolutionary events and has brought together contributions that present a balanced view of the Arab Spring, including essays exploring freedom of the press and the role of the Internet in enabling revolution. Huber draws more broadly on events that have dominated television coverage in the past year, including Occupy Wall Street, the uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East, the earthquake and nuclear reactor accident in Japan, the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan, and the mass killings in Norway. Photographing and manipulating images from the news, she creates photo-art that casts a critical eye on the selection, presentation, and perception of these images.

 

With many of the uprisings showing no signs of abating, the words and images in News together offer a fresh look at the issues that exceeds what we can find in traditional journalism.

Monika Huber is an artist who lives and works in Munich. Susanne Fischer is the Middle East program manager at the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, Beirut. She is the author of The Villa on the Brink of Insanity.