WiseBooks

Beautifully illustrated with original colour photos, Dialectical Butterflies is a psychogeographical exercise in butterfly preservation as part of the environmentalist, anti-capitalist struggle against ecocide, The lifelong fascination of David Wise and his late twin, Stuart, with the ecology of butterflies goes back to their involvement in the mid-1960s surrealist-inspired radical arts scene in Newcastle. From their contact with the Situationist International the Wise brothers adopted the concept of 'recuperation' which they see exemplified in today's 'greenwashing' PR exercises. Their latter-day rewilding campaign is effectively a post-situationist Longue Dérive through the relatively forsaken terrains of derelict industrial sites and zones of autonomy in northern England; as well as the contested public space of Wormwood Scrubs in London.

Twin brothers David and Stuart Wise, as art students in mid-1960s Newcastle, immersed themselves the radical ideas of Icteric ('the often confusedly anti-art magazine'). The Wises participated in the saving and restoration of Kurt Schwitters' Lakeland Merz Barn, and organised a controversial commemoration of the Russian Futurist, Kazimir Malevich. The documents in this book, written over a 50-year period, describe these and subsequent efforts by the Wises to subvert the 'recuperation' of 'art' into the capitalist culture industry. In reflection on their engagements with like-minded radicals - the English and French Situationists, New York's Black Mask collective, the London-based King Mob, and more recent formations - the authors consider how and why the Revolution 'due to unforeseen circumstances' did not take place. They also analyze the recuperation of radical aesthetic ideas in the works of latter-day chancers like Damian Hurst and Banksy.

In 1966, King Mob founders Stuart and David Wise were students at Newcastle School of Art, publishing the avant garde magazine Icteric. A Newcastle Dunciad, the latest in the WisEbook Series, recalls the ideas and practices of the Tyneside radicals and how they were 'recuperated'' by the developers for the post-industrial 'regeneration' of Tyneside. This volume also has a Situationist critique of their art school contemporary, Bryan Ferry,