With the global rise of a politics of shock driven by authoritarian regimes that subvert the rule of law and civil liberties, what paths to resistance, sanctuary, and change can cultural institutions offer? In this book, more than twenty leading curators and thinkers about contemporary art present powerful case studies, historical analyses, and theoretical perspectives that address the dynamics of activism, protest, and advocacy.

The work of art has often been a battleground—its decorative and formal aspects positioned against its nature as an embodiment of cognitive acts. Leonardo da Vinci’s claim that art be a “cosa mentale” is winning at last: recent debates around art schools and their methods, of which this book is a vast survey, demonstrate that, now more than ever, art is considered the result of a thinking process.

This new collaborative publication, Dare to Count Phonemes and Graphemes, has evolved within the framework of these geographically separate yet collaboratively conceived exhibitions held in the fall of 2013: “Journal of Bouba/kiki” at Glasgow Sculpture Studios (October 5–December 20); and “Journal of Echomimetic Motions” at Bergen Kunsthall (October 18–December 22).