James Bradley

Officer Exchange Program Musical: Or, Living in the Past Or, Art of the 22nd Century James Bradley

Utilizing the format of "fan fiction" as a template, with this piece Bradley has attempted to offer a critique of spectacular/mediated culture, as well as the revolutionary politics which seek to abolish it, from within the very mediated, alienated confines this discourse seeks to transcend. Drawing on the radical theories of Guy Debord and the Situationist International, as well as post-war existentialism, science fiction, and apocalyptic traditions ranging from the Old Testament to today's "Conspiracy Culture," Bradley has created a fictional exercise in détournement in which he turns two popular television franchises on their heads. "High School Musical" and "Star Trek: the Next Generation" are the détourned subjects, the former a counterrevolutionary tour de force best summed up in its own show-stopping song and dance number "Stick to the Status Quo," the latter with its utopian pretensions and collectivist, Marxist vision of a "United Federation of Planets," a futuristic nod to today's push for a globally regulated socialist power structure.