This books gives examples of how art and graphic design can be used as action material. For this, the author analyzes the effects of the results of creative engagement by using a simple communication model. The roles of the engaged broadcaster and the active receiver all get a chance, as well as the way on which the sent message can be designed – namely by alienation and overidentification – opening communication channels and manipulating them by means of communication guerilla.

With these texts the author wishes to contribute to a fundamental knowledge on the effect of communication processes and the possibilities one has of working with this. For the rest, this book does not ask the question of why showing active engagement, but does ask in great detail the question of how to do this. This essay was not intended to convince artists and designers from the political centre that an actively applied engagement is necessary, nor to deliver proof for the idea that this society could be a lot better, or that exclusion, poverty, a lack of solidarity, the power of capital, and the destruction of the environment are all processes that can and must be fought. This essay is directed at those that (already) agree with the sentences above, that no longer need convincing. The reader might be an activist that wants to know more about conveying a message as effectively as possible, but also artists and designers that would like to apply their skills for creative resistance.

This book, originally in Dutch, has been translated into English by students of the Translation Minor at Radboud University, Nijmegen, NL.