As the introduction to this collection of essays, “The Art/History of Resistance: Visual Ephemera in Public Space” lays out the conceptual framework for discussion of what is defined as the “ephemeral intervention”: an event in which people convene in public space, using ephemeral elements such as images, texts, sounds, dance, chants, and massed bodies, in order to effect political change through revisualization of that space. The ephemeral intervention has a long history, and not necessarily always a progressive one; its recent deployment in Occupy Wall Street is an important example. This introductory essay allows readers to understand the evolution of such interventions, and the modes through which they become effective. It is also important to note why the immediacy and physicality of such interventions distinguish them from electronic transmission of political events.
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