[Wednesday] Strategies and Tactics

Both Jameson and Manovich come up against strategies and tactics. Manovich discusses strategy in relation to Kabkov's work, "Kabakov uses strategies to impose a particular matrix of space, time, experience, and meaning on his viewers; they, in turn use 'tactics' to create their own trajectories...within this matrix" (24). In this passage the strategy seems to capture the collective experience while tactics capture the individual response. The matrix, as Manovich describes it, seems similar to the totality of class structures that Jameson discusses.

Although not a formal part of his essay, Jameson is asked whether cognitive mapping is conceived as a strategy or tactic. His answer does not directly address this distinction but the goal to which both the tactic and strategy address is "the legitimation of the discourses of socialism in such a way that they do become realistic and serious alternatives for people" (359). In not addressing cognitive mapping as a strategy or tactic, does Jameson suggest that cognitive map transcends the idea of a strategy or tactic? Are these categories helpful for thinking through the concept of cognitive mapping? What other terms might prove helpful in understanding cognitive mapping?