The Final: Making Connections

For your Take Home Final 
-Start with the quiz. Supplement the missing details from your memory with your notes from our presentations this semester and your CEC experiences.
-Organize your quiz answers into a Formal, Readable Format. Don't list out the answers. Instead, position them and add more, as needed, to make your argument.
-If you'd like to present a fact  (FACT! not opinion or someone's analysis) from a source other than your notes, cite it properly and include a bibliography.
-This should read like a 2-4 page paper.

SWOON
-Callie is a fine artist who mixes activist processes with traditional ones and balances gallery exhibitions with real action.

Your canvas: Stairs

Here is the template for our stair project. Each stair is divided into three segments marking out the average width of a piece of duct tape.  Each group will have one stair set.  Your 3-color designs are due next Monday. The following Thursday we'll install them.

The steps to produce your image for the steps:
1) design your campaign (clear, simple, 3-color image)
2) reduce your image to our scale: in Photoshop save a version of your image, go to image>size and change the height of the total number of pixels (it could be as small as 21px high or as large as 50px high (simpler images can be 50 px, more detailed should be 21 px- this prevents you from having to cut the tape into tiny bits on the bottom step)
3) open our template in photoshop
4) paste your scaled-down image over it, resize it, and make it partially transparent.  You should end up with something like this

Everyone should be finished with your color activism QR codes. Please send me a snapshot of your outdoor codes once they've been placed. Thursday we'll go on a 'QR TOUR'  so please reserve one copy of your QR codes to take on the tour.

The Color of Activism III

-Your PDF images will be on separate pages on this site.

-Next, create the QR code for your page. 

-Print and duplicate them

-"Laminate"

- Apply to appropriate locations

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For people looking to complete CECs or if you're interested...

-This Friday, April 20, 7:15pm in the D-Lot the automobile orchestra score "motor vehicle sundown" by fluxus artist George Becht will be performed. Everyone is welcome to watch (or if you have a car, you can also perform). To receive CEC credit, write about how performance could be used as a form of activism.

-Wasteland Screening, food and panel  APR 25
to receive CEC credit for this, attend and write about the panel (but please also enjoy the Brazilian food and the film) 

The Color of Activism II

You have a campaign, with an audience and a specific set of colors

Color, information, and detail are now important. Think of your content as a beautiful, detailed, full-color poster. It's time for an output that can support these aspects.

1) your content must be up on the web somewhere...  if you don't have web space, give me your project as a PDF and I will put it up on a page associated with this site

2) you must associate text, a map, or the URL of your content with a QR code by GENERATING ONE HERE:
or with another QR code generator.

3) your QR code can now be printed out, weather-proofed and placed at the right location.


Also, we need to plan out the rest of the semester. Options, below.

Anonymous, Hoboken

Swoon

Banksy

The Color of Activism

What to do with your color names and hex data:

Now it's time to have fun making connections.
What you have:
-an image of your color
-the name of your color
-the hex code for your color
-an issue of concern to you

What you need:
Step ONE
-who is your empathetic (local) audience
-who is your opposing audience (the people in power at the root of the issue)

Step TWO
-design messages for your audiences -they may be very similar or very different
keep your color and color name in mind. Use your color as part of the design of your message

Step THREE  (we'll work on this together in class but start thinking about it)
- imagine a possible connection between location or object and the message or audience
- is there a way to work your hex code data into your message presentation.
- what is the medium? It could be posters, labels, websites, txt messages, QR codes, performances, marches or something else? How could connections be made between your medium and location/object or hex code?

Electronic Art Activism

We just finished one of the oldest art activism methods- printmaking (woodcut-style)
Now let's jump ahead to some electronic art activism.
This is the process we will start today and then finish with the Obadikes 
Wednesday April 11th from 3-5pm BC142a   (CEC- required) see me if you have a conflict.

DATA MAPPING AS ACTIVISM
1) CAPTURING
go out and capture plant life with your camera. We're concentrating on color so the
image can be blurry. The color of the plant life should take up as much of the image
area as possible. Be inspired. Look for a variety.

2) EXTRACTING
one image may have 10 different plant-life colors in it, so choose a color family or plant
feature to concentrate on (ie blue or a flower petal)

3) CODING
when you're done extracting all the colors you can, use Photoshop's eye dropper to
sample one of your colors. In the color picker drop down menu (here)

We'll be doing part one of a data mapping/coding/connection-making exercise

(Another coding step you could use is to download a free camera utility for your smartphone that lets you capture the hex code of what you're viewing)


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Activist Apps for your smartphone?

Pocket Congress

Free2work


Obscuracam

Hacktivist Augmented Reality

the leak in your hometown

BP LAYAR app by Mark Skwarek

AR Flashmob
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HOMEWORK DUE MONDAY
Get the hex codes for your colors! (at least 10 codes)

HOMEWORK DUE THURSDAY
Please watch both of these and respond to both in one blog post.

What are the aspects of internet connectivity that Democracy could benefit from?
The potential for social media to assist Democracy

Is the isolation that comes with online filtering bad for Democracy?
Ted Talk

Activist Printmaking

Today we finish our activist linocut prints.
Everyone should have at least 3 originals.
Once they have dried, (dried all the way), xerox them to make 15-20 copies.
Place them creatively around campus, keeping your target audience in mind.

SAVE THE DATE: a very important workshop with activist artists Keith and Mendi Obadike
APRIL 11, Wed, 3pm BC142a- we'll be making electronic art together!

Homework due Monday, April 9
Look at Mendi & Keith's work,
pick a piece to write about- (not blackness for sale since we will have discussed that piece already)
write a paragraph describing how the work could fit the definition of activist art. Be sure to include what the message is, how it is conveyed, and who the audience is.

Black Power Print Styles

Presentation on Black Power Print Styles

 

 

Emory Douglas references woodcut styles

Prepare your own woodcut images for after the break. You can work with the protest ideas from your group or use other protest ideas that are important to you.

Labor and Printmaking II

Labor Timeline and Print Examples


Think about what labor rights mean and how they could possibly effect you.

Consider the time line:was there a definitive date that labor rights were won and labor laws were passed? Why do you think this is?

The labor movement has come a long way. Are there any labor issues still left that you think should be addressed?

What was the role of printmaking in the labor movement?

Why was woodcut such a commonly used printmaking medium for labor-artwork?

How would you describe the style of 1900-1940s labor-related woodcut images? Where did this style first come from?

(not mandatory but encouraged) Possible CEC Writeup Keliy Anderson-Staley's Artist Talk Wednesday at 3 or Demos  Wed 11:30am or 4pm

Due Thursday:
Everyone (each individual) should have an image from your group's work on one of the aspects of reproductive issues.  For many of you this will be your version of the image your group started working on. For some of you who were hitting a wall,  you might want to brainstorm terms and come up with a fresh image.
Your image is going to be printed on something which is smaller than 1/4 of an 8.5x11 piece of paper. Keep details and text to a minimum. Think of Steve Wada's cat image.
Or of these below:

Due After Break: Meeting CEC #1 writeup/ emailed question CC'd to me.

Labor and Printmaking

The Working Day, No. 37 by Hugo Gellert, lithograph, ca. 1933

During the late 19th century, the United States saw a rise in industrialization, with machines replacing the work of skilled craftsmen.
As a result, the idea of labor organizations became more and more attractive. Although such unions would not gain equal ground with businesses and industries until the 1930s, during the late 19th century, they were able to organize strikes and other events that brought their grievances over working conditions and wages to light.

Reading:

Article on Depression-era Printmaking from Salon

Organizing

There's more to organize than just the protest.

After viewing everyone's responses about current problems facing us today, we need to organize this  information into categories before we can determine what should be acted on and how.



In preparation for a midterm quiz, we should be able to organize the issues we've learned about so far, the tactics used for each, and the method or style of artwork particular to that tactic

Homework: Read and BLOG a response (no more emails, please) on the "Riles" chapter from Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals

CEC#3
Join us for any or all of these events. To receive CEC credit, respond on the blog with your analysis and include any of your own personal experiences and ideas that are relevant.

THURSDAY 3.1 @ 3:45-5:15pm in H-Wing Auditorium
Roundtable #1: Student Debt + No Jobs + Growing Inequality = Occupy Student Debt.
Learn how the Occupy Movement is organizing against rising tuition, growing college student debt, and anti-union attacks on faculty/staff wages and working conditions.

THURSDAY 3.1 @ 7:00-9:00pm in ASB 136
Roundtable #2: What Is “Occupy Everything” & Where Did it Start?
Learn what’s going on and why YOU should be concerned. Sponsored by Maroon at Midnight: Interesting Things with Heather & Danielle on WRPR, Political Forum, NORML, and College Democrats. Organized by Danielle Corcione.

FRIDAY 3.2 @ 3:45-5:15pm in H-Wing Auditorium
Roundtable #3: Occupy NJ: The Higher Education Crisis
Learn how the second richest state in the U.S. is making college unaffordable for students while seeking to drive down faculty/staff wages and working conditions, contributing to national growing inequality.

WEDNESDAY 3.14 @ 3:15-5:00pm in H-Wing Auditorium
Roundtable #4: Occupy Wall Street as a Growing Social Movement
Learn about the history, lessons, accomplishments and growing activities of the Occupy Movement to organize for social change in the U.S., New Jersey, and at Ramapo.

Art Against Political Repression

Under political repression dissenters lose the freedom to talk openly about problems or question authority.
In extreme cases even the protest art must take a form where it will not attract the wrong attention.  Arpilleras (pronounced ar-pee-air-ahs) are a great example.


Art Against Political Repression presentation      (Arpillera images from facinghistory.org)

Activist art can also be performative and still be "underground".
For Chilean women under Pinochet's regime, the La cueca, (pronounced kewk-ah) a popular courtship dance, was performed in a unique way as a protest.

What else can we learn about Civil Society from this?
Where does freedom of expression and association come into play?
What is the buffer between you and the government?
Are there ways for you to shape culture, politics and economy other than voting?

Homework due Thursday: 
                     a) Comb through sources for current events and come up with 10 issues of concern. 
                     b) Of these, select the one that you feel most strongly about.
                     c) List three things that would have to happen to resolve this issue.
Post your lists on the blog or email them to me.

Civil Society

Due Thursday-

1) in the comments field, enter examples of things, people, groups or other entities which exist (or could exist) within the field of Civil Society.

2) CEC writeups on a piece of political or activist art from one of the Berrie Center exhibitions (writeup guidelines here in original description of assignment).

Sexual Politics part two

Visual Symbols in Activist Art

 

Sexual Politics Protest Images

HIV Activism

Sexual Politics part one

Design: Visual Choices Made By Activist Artists

We'll start with the suffrage movement as a way to lunch ourselves toward the present, taking into consideration all issues of sexuality and equality.

Read the Demilio article on Sexual Politics (spend at least two hours reading, looking up terms, considering tangents)
Respond to the article by sketching a poster design on 8.5 x 11 paper. You can create your design using software, or by sketching. I'm looking for the ideas present in the image though you may also use text.

Poster design Due Monday Feb 20

Culture Jamming and Pre-Jamming

Culture Jamming Presentation

Homework due Monday (look at blog entry from Monday for instructions)


CEC #1  Political Meeting: Due March 22
-Attend your proposed political meeting.
-While there, think of a question to ask that is important to you (and one that cannot be answered via internet research)
-Ask the question or email the question to the appropriate board member following the meeting
-To get CEC credit, CC me on the email you send, containing your question

CEC #2 Kresge and Pascal Galleries: "From the Mezzanine" and  " A Journey Into the Spirit World: Selections from the Heloise and Martin Ruskin Collection"  Due Thurs Feb 23
-In either exhibition, look for an artwork that could be considered protest art, activist art, or art created to provoke a specific political or social change.
-Identify the issue and use our Writing About Exhibition Guidelines for writing your CEC critique.
-To get CEC credit, email me your written critique as a PDF.

Trickster Artists and Culture-Jamming

 
The trickster is a boundary crosser and a speaker of profanities. He is the “mythic embodiment of ambiguity and ambivalence, doubleness and duplicity, contradiction and paradox”.
The trickster can “bring to the surface a distinction previously hidden from sight”.
He disrupts and reshapes the world around him.

Robin Rhode as Trickster
Barbie Liberation Organization
Jonah Peretti tangles with Nike

For next Monday:
Find 3 artists who use trickster methods. Email me their work as a PDF or slide show with one image of each example, captions for each image, and one sentence for each image describing what the artwork is reacting to, or how it is meant to affect or engage viewers.

Dada - Origins of Trickster Art

Dada Presentation

Dada is a cultural movement that started in Switzerland during WWI.
Visual arts, literature, thater, graphic design, and concentrated it's anti-war though a rejection of the status quo, especially against the prevailing standards of art, and against traditional easthetics.
These works were a protest against the bourgeois nationalist and colonialist interests which many Dadaists believed were the root cause of the war.

1700-1900 America Continues to Define Itself

Due next Monday are two readings:
Kushner-  a basic reading. Enjoy it.
Corbet and the Paris Commune- this one is challenging but exciting- Courbet is jailed for his activism! One strategy for getting into this reading is to:
1) define any unknown vocabulary (when you do this, please post the terms and their meanings as blog responses so that we can create some collective knowledge here, folks)
2) take it page by page- at the end of each page, ask yourself "What is the point the author is trying to make on this page?, What relationships are being drawn between people and events?"   You'll probably need to read this one twice. Have a sandwich in between readings.

In class we'll talk about this timeline

Also, you can watch clips from a reality tv-style film about the Paris Commune

Quiz/Discussion
1) Were the Puritans Democratic?

2)In what instances were the settlers getting it right?

2a)What were some of their mistakes?

3) Was there a separation of church and state?

4) Considering what you've read so far, why do you think America has so many different Christian religions?

Questions About Questions

Zoidberg: Why? Why? Why?

 

 

 

What do you want to get out of school?
What do you want your Democracy to do for you?
You're here to learn. What questions do you want the answers to before you graduate?
How do you find the answer?
What do you do to get it?
How do you know the answer is yours? Or is it? Is it someone else's?
Columbus discovered America
Or did he? what did he do?
Is having the answer for the test the same as learning?
In science discovery is made through asking questions, accumulating evidence, and making determinations.
Are high school and college students qualified to question the way their (your) communities work? What are your communities?
What level of participation in your community do you have?
Is being a consumer of information or goods the same as being a participant?
When you think about these issues:

• climate change
• globalization of our economy vs national interest
• health care
• poverty

What should be done about them? How do we find the right solution? Or do we just find the right person to come and fix them? Who knows all about these issues? Or everything about just one of them?
Does knowledge change over time?
In order for our Democracy to work, for any social or political or economic construct to work, it must be constantly re-examined and everyone (!) must be prepared to ask the questions that will force this re-examination.
No matter how web savvy you are you can't get critical thinking skills through
memorization, ideology or groupthink
Answers can not be retrieved. they must be constructed.
Your questions must be new  and they must be yours
Does our society value questions or answers?
What does it mean when people seem more comfortable to live only among those with whom they agree. (you don't have to question if every one of your FB friends already agrees on a topic that's important to you)
When have you been afraid to ask questions? There are certain types of situations that make us reluctant to ask questions. Try to think of one.

Suggested CEC: Proposal Due next Thursday   Select one of these and refine it to a specific meeting and date.

• Attend a board of trustees meeting here at Ramapo or at BCC or somewhere else
  Attend a HS school board meeting at your old HS
• Find out who your student govt reps are and attend one of their meetings
• Attend a local municipal board meeting where decisions are being made about parks, environmental issues, public safety, social services.

Take notes and come up with questions to ask while at the meeting. If you're not comfortable asking during the meeting, email your question to one of the board members afterward.

Welcome

Illustration by Mataparda
Based on a 1909 woodcut by John Bauer

Art Activism: Democracy, Dissent and the DIY Movement 
(Syllabus Here)
focuses on the history of artist response and role in political and social movements in the 20th and 21st centuries. We will look at understanding artistic and social movements from relational aesthetics to relational society as well as the tools used by graffiti and street artists, inventors, and activists to participate in the marketplace of ideas as well as our general economy. Public response to guerilla activism will be explored through the lenses of geography, demographics, history and culture and the outcomes will be analyzed. 

Today we looked at an INTRO TO ART ACTIVISM

and discussed MODELS OF DEMOCRACY

A reading from REBELS AND RENEGADES is due next week. 

In this text you're reading for overall background info on the European settling of North America.  Take note of phrases coined in the 1600s and 1700s that politicians may still be using today.  As you read, look ahead to current day American Democracy.  Can you predict what will happen next… to the settlers and colonies? to the changes in our government?  Are you surprised by anything you have read?  In what instances were the settlers getting it right?  What were some of their mistakes?