Monongahela
Conference
Carolyn--
Tim- Laurie you were talking about
instrumental engagement and idealized visions.
But we’re not just interested in visions, we want to actualize. What does it mean to have a networked relationship.
Stephanie Flom has a networked relationship here in
Angelo- this is the center of the
discourse
Erica- are you asking how to merge
those.
she
brought up the efficacy of the vision of desire.
Tim- how do you plant the idea like a
seed (no) like a tool.
If I poke
someone in my network, they’ll poke me back.
What we are
talking about is deep humanity and trust.
They speak in a language of their own invention. Instrumentality is manipulative.
Tim
and
Erica- if we each come with a separate
vision, we need to have something that inspires the vision into a collective
vision. The group needs to have some
collective ….
Tim- dan, with the Azerbijian pipeline
book- did you want to inspire them?
Dan- it’s a little different- it’s the
most rational thing we’ve ever done. It
was an enabling project.
Jane- the activist and campaigners commissioned
a report and we said- lets make it something beautiful. The books aesthetics launched the campaign.
Dan- but the people we were working
with had a vision of stopping a huge international effort. The information we could provide launched
this movement.
Tim- the choice of your partners was
critical.
Helen- the choices change as a result of
the partners you work with. It’s the
group networking that changes the work.
Tim- five metaphors on the table- that I would split up on ends of a
continuum.
-tools
-seeds
-catalytic
converter
-morphing
-vision
-pools
of water
Tim- maybe we can’t answer this question, but let me ask
you, those of you engaged in pedagogy- isn’t it important that we have a describable
method.
Laurie- we don’t want a hundred platforms and an overarching metaphor.
We want different actions for different conditions.
Bret- I feel like I don’t want a
homogenizing, overarching metaphor.
Tim- do we want to teach people
change? Do we want to spread this- or do
we want to stay unique separate entities.
Suzi- I think that ….. through resononance all you have to create is a nucleus and
then you see it spreading through culture already.
Dan- tim’s
less patient than you.
Suzi- I can vouch that the little seed
thrown out has taken root and its very gratifying.
Malcolm- if you invent metaphors for people
your framing the world for them. You
can’t do that- they have to do it for themselves- but strategic knowledge is
something you can teach.
Christine- I think branding or labeling is
really limiting and can decrease the excitement of the thing.
Jan- I am an educationalist. I think its our job
to teach multiple pedagogies. We’ve had
terrible arguments about what is change.
This is not a political movement or it will die out.
Dan- let’s become far better at writing
up our projects and making that information go further. There is a certain
amount of reinventing the wheel. Sharing
information requires a good deal of humility.
Jackie- I believe in multiple ways of doing things and that trying to
label them too early on is dangerous.
Tim- I would argue that this is an
incredibly elite group that feels they don’t have a common language to share
with a greater world.
Christine – we share by doing.
Tim- Can we create oak trees and
collect continuously. That
we can go into any community and share in this discourse. We don’t want to continuously be redefining
the world.
Laurie- I think we can teach respect,
anti-racism. I don’t think we have to teach
instrumentality. Engage with people who
already know the community and what they need and you can work with them.
Erika- my town has 400 acres just given to them and I wonder what
this group would do to work with my country.
I doubt that this group could do it.
It’s too academic.
Tim- we can’t agree on anything about
how to create change? We’re going to have a tough time on Saturday.
Helen- it’s incredibly arrogant to think
that we can change anybody.
Tim- what is the common ground?
Stacie- but we’re all individuals. It’s different when you through an artist
into the community its different than throw someone
else in the community. It’s not just
listening, its processing.
Jon- through listening and how we think
cities should be be built.
Nicola- speak to the common ground- it’s
complicated that you
want to seek. 2nd point is that the common ground is the creativity. But its really hard.
Tim- there is nothing that separates us
from other artists, except that I invited you here. Where do we teach people about this stuff.
Tom-
we can
bring things outside the scientific method.
Example of mining causing run off.
Tim- so there’s a
certain autonomy outside of designated specialty.
Helen- the method of apprenticeship is
the best method of teaching this practice.
Tim- that’s the dominant method in science and engineering. Is that what we’re talking about. We teach
mentor ship in the art model.
Jackie- lets separate common ground from
methodology. We do have common ground and we shouldn’t have the same
methodologies. We each develop our own
methodology. It does us a disservice to reduce it to three steps.
Tim- I’m not trying to establish myself
as the expert. I want to give these guys
a set of methodologies. I feel a little
responsibility to tease out
what is in the tool box for this practice.
Mark D.- I haven’t figured out what exactly
your getting at. But different students are going to respond to different
methodologies. But the network is
important. Your job as a teacher is to
connect your student with the most compatible method. Relational point of view your job is to
connect your students with opportunities/mentors.
Suzi-I think the major tool is the one
that you’ve set up here. This discourse. The next step could be to talk about what is
in the tool box. What have you got in
place in terms of tools that you could share with us.
Mark - we had many presentations yesterday
and you can pull apart and find out what you liked of each of them. I don’t think theres a simplified way to get
into the richness of one day.
Erika- I want to speak to your
students. When you get
out to a place that you want to impact.
This level of trust has to be developed with the people you work
with. Humility and
listening. You open completely
and listen. Provocative
questions to learn more. Humble investigator. Even if there is tremendous dispair. Americans never listen we always tell. But listening is such an effective tool. The
persons mind becomes less cluttered. They can speak on par with you and work
together as equals.
Reiko- we know everyone is different and
we have to have respect about that. We
are going to the mon valley and look and see we want
some change, what can we do abut that.
Can we work together for just three days?
Tom- I think we are working together. Responsibilities to our students is getting a sense of who
they are and who they want to work with or know about.
Helen- tool box- man y tools: listening,
information and vision- have to care.
Caring shows in the way you look.
Tim- can you talk about skills, the
skills you bring to the tools
Ann- how do you……. Organize, work
across culture, how do you organize people. It’s not some formula.
Tim- it’s
dialogic expression. It’s the
carnevelesque, the diverse.
Erika- its not
throwing out the old tools, like the paint brushes.
Jackie- I have to become a bit of a
bloodhound to lead me to the people I need to talk to.
Tim- I’m sorry if this discussion is
provocative. I get emotional and …
Erica- obviously we’re here to serve you
in part, somehow we’re missing it amd you are wanting
more- what in your guts to you want to get out of this.
Tim- its simple – 10 arrows. Art world is made up
of single arrows and individuals… everyone of you has suggested in your paper
that there’s a different way of working and we need to find ways to let that
impact the world faster better stronger.
I don’t know what it is you all have, but if we don’t get it into
teaching into the arts, but we’ve got real problems. We have to get started.
But these conversations are really important.
Robin
Both from
greater
Industrial
landscape is part of their common experience
Tom worked
in a mill in McKees Rocks to get through college
Towns
faltered after mills declined and struggled to figure out how to manage themselves
Early work
dealt with the individual being effected by larger economical political
decision that were beyond their control
This work
was criticized for not being based on factual evidence and research, needed to
engage more in the issues to know what they were talking about
Tom and
Connie researched for a year, talked to stakeholders, what was their position?
Talked to
those involved in the project, as well as native people who would be effected
by it (Cree and Inuete)
Ecological
effects were huge – water contaminated with Mercury, waters made to reverse
their direction in river beds, etc
“Perceptions
of Power” – Canadian officials from HydroQuebec said the land was barren,
wasteland. Cree and Inuete see it as
their garden
Tom and
Connie attended a gathering of these two tribes to talk about how to oppose
this project
Hydro-Quebec
were very proud of their proposed project, engineers felt that it was a very
important technological step
T and C
started to think of them as priests maintaining a cathedral to technology
T and C
were given full access to the project
They made
installations responding to this situation:
Air
conditioner and space heater dualing – Canadians used electricity for heat,
Asked
Inuete man how they could help, he said go home and turn off your lights.
System was
set up to support American culture, we need to solve
our cultural problems
Residency
at a school – the area had been strip mined, devastated
Students
worked to reclaim the site and make a statement about it,
they created a wetland on the site
USX who
owned the site contributed resources
Interest in
There are
polluted streams, compromised communities, mountain
top removal for stripmining
Coal is
being extracted in large amounts and shipped over seas cause
it’s high sulfur coal
Local
resistance movement is emerging
Coal miners
union was involved in supporting the movement
It was hard
to see what was happening from the ground.
Mining
companies control access to sites and don’t allow
people to see the effects
T and C
flew over the area with an advocacy group
Mining
companies remove mountain tops and place the displaced material in the valleys,
filling in riverbeds, killing trees
Leads to
flooding because there are no trees
Another
problem is the coal slurries, where the coal is cleaned on site
One
accident was bigger than the Exxon Valdese spill
Destroyed
sections of the Allegheny
Company’s
solution was just to bulldoze the slug out of the water and leave it on the
flat land
People in
the area felt that their problems had just been dismissed by the rest of the
country and the destruction of their homes wasn’t seen important
More
installations in response:
Slides
projected onto a screen with images of animals, the devastation of the town
obscured the animal life
Connie made
quilts in which she planted seeds
After the
show the quilts were taken to the bony piles near their home and reseeded
Laurie
Palmer:
Background
in site based art practice
Personal
practice as well as collaborative practice with Haha
Political
work is slightly separate from art work
Works on
housing issues and queer politics in
Ecology has
always been part of the work however
FLOOD
Hydro-phonic
garden project
Initial
idea was of Interconnection
Chemical
lased water goes over the roots of plants and all the roots grow together
Dirtless
situation would avoid the contamination potentials of dirt
This was
more of a rationalization for setting up this system though
The project
took on more dimensions than expected
They had
the store front where there were harvests, meals each week, aids ed programs, other educational programs
Outdoor
gardens as well
Sterility
of hydro-phonic system suggested the sterility of the medical issues
Outdoor
gardesn were more involved in the sensory aspects of gardening
Sponsorship
of the projects raised issues
Initially
sponsored by and arts fund – bus tours each week
Once it was
no longer affiliated with an arts organization people were very confused about
what they were doing
Storefront,
what are you selling? Nothing, come
inand talk to us
That
relationship of a storefront and the people that they talked to and interacted
with were really crucial, they provided many services beyond the garden,
developed relationsips with people and this was the major lesson of the project
Another
project
3 Acres on
a lake
She was
just really interested in this meadow
Heard that
it was going to be turned into a parking lot
Researched
the area, what was it used for?
Found that
it had been dedicated to a black explored who was the first non-indigenous
settler
It had yet
to be transformed into a park because of the lingering racism
Also found
it was contaminated
Couldn’t
figure out initially who owned the land
It was
partially set aside as park land
BUT clauses
connected to a developer who had rites to purchase and develop it in 2007
Laurie saw
it as a rich site of contradiction
Put out a
call for proposals independently – no prize or competition, no realization
She had not
control over the land, but was interested in
Emphasised
that proposals not defer to practicality, safety issues, etc
But
required it to remain dedicated to Du Sable
Began
working with an organization that was working to push for the development as a
site as a park
But art
project was to do something else
Proposals
came from all over the world,
They held
exhibitions of proposals: they were all over the place: mobile gardens in
trucks, high rise landfill, landscape designs, bio-remediation, boats full of
floating gardens, retirement homes for special interest groups, Du Sable league
proposed text
Wild ideas
Du Sable
coalition was able to use this publicity and momentum
Jamie
Johnson’s project
Gardener in
To creates
public space
Exhibition
had information about each of these spaces
Also Made benches in the shape of vacant lots in the city to show
potential within the city
Now in
Visiting
mines and writing about them
Visited
mines in
Looking at
market based initiative to sell helium
Writing
essays and educating self about these systems and their complexity
Carolyn
11:07
Ann
Rosenthal
Eco-art process and practice.
In 1995, I
attended the united nations 4th world
conference on women, I was contemplating going to grad school. The conference inspired me to return to
school in the hopes that I could use my art to create change in the world.
The
Q: what is the roots of our environmental problem.
I wanted to
trace it back. What belief systems, were making it possible to destroy our lifesupport
system. * was searching for a form to
convey my ideas that would incorporate
Eco social
interprestaions fo place
Etc.
Another project that began to inform my work.
We had an echange with an art school is southern
Eco-confessional- adobpted personas of wood-nyph and mother earth.
Set up
crazy booth. Recycled
items, plastic ivy. Playing with
idea as nature as a construction. Set up
on campus and in market area in downtown
Cards that
we handed out with easy things people could do to promote their relationship to
nature.
Social
construction of nature
Layered
histories
Play and
irony
Personalizing
the political
Went to
various streams , brought cloth there and sometimes
left it there and let the streams stain the cloths.postcards of the site. Tourist narrative and
information on the site. Images
altered in terms of coloring, but they are actual sites. Juxtapose apple tree and industry. Hisotry of the site- information we wanted to
communicate. Complicity
with the industry.
River
Vernacular- for a show at the
This project intergrates the form content and
strategies that I have been crafting for several years.
Eco-art values intention of
my process and practice is to model the following values as an artist,
educator, community activist an citizens
Land ethics
Systems
thinking
Sustainability-
designour our lives
Social and
biological diversity-
Social and
environmental justice
Collaboration
inter disciplines respect
Integrity
Quote from
bell hooks going deep and find the roots of our environmental dis-ease.
.public
sculpture opinion poll- 3 of us work together. We decided to talk about a
single project. Project
from 2000. “episodic” a sculpture that appeared
in our neighborhood. It seemed like this
project just fell from the sky into our neighborhood. No information provided- except “keeping
neighborhoods alive”
even calling the city to find out about the sculpute was really a
hassle- self addressed stamped envelopes.
Agenda: drive by sculptural experiences.
Placement of sculpture of how the democratic machine works in
We make
publications for almost every project we do.
To take responsibility for our ideas and the discussions we were
having. We started talking about how we
might strategize about this sculpture.
It’s a preety diverse area. We
wanted a means for finding out how people felt about this thing. Anonomously, or in
different language. To hear unbiased unmediated opinions. We bought cheap clip boards and mounth them
on telephone poles. The survey had
images of the sculptures. Asked people
to respond and said that it their feedback might be sent to dept of public art.
After we
learned that we had missed a lot of commentaries. We didn’t want to organize the neighborhood
to remove it. Some people liked it,
others wanted to remove it, said it was for the white people to enable
gentrification. Some of the most thoughtful
responses were from children. (they reaad the responses) when you read them as a
whole. They displayed these responses
where? And made a publication.
Brett was
on a panel with mike lash director of the cities public art. I was able to counter what he said about the
project. He compared the people of the city to rats.
FRIDAY IN
Discussion
with the
Ginger Steve and
Lorrain, Outreach Director,
Steve, homestead main street manager
Ginger,
In
Over the
last 50 years the mon valley has seen a 60% decrease
in population.
The
waterfront –its here- what can we do- to make it a more positive
situation. Owning a home in the
Jane- who funds the MVI-
Ginger- some gov’t funds. Small developers fee.
Grant- ask about
the power of the CDC organization. sometimes they are
covers for gentrification. Usually at
the beginning the CDC opens with a benign face- talking about housing, but
those things get dropped. What leverage
do you have to defend the assets of the working class who live here.
Ginger- while we call ou r member
organizations CDCs most of them are not incorporated, most of them are
neighborhood organizations. Have you
been reading howard husak?
Ginger- one way to get power is to be
successful and we haven’t always been successful. Get attention of funders.
Jon- gentrification in urban areas in
driven my market- in
Grant- but someone thought therewould be
a market
Jon- but that is just for consumers
from the other side of the river.
Jon- what about a big old house?
Ginger- between 20 and 90 thousand.
Tom- isn’t homestead more than other
neighborhoods?
Stephanie- yes it’s half that down the river.
Some talk
about the house market ensues
Mark- how does a citizen idea come
through the cdc- through mvi to fruitition?
Ginger- there’s a lot of examples from a public health issue
to…. Housing issues. Eventually the group says we need
some professional help with this.
Dan- do you feel you have power in this
community? I really want to know who
makes decisions in this community.
Enter
David lewis- did a huge charette many years ago.
Dan- if you don’t feel you have the
power- who does.are there economic forces at work in which you are just pawns.
David- the answer is that we are proud
that we live in a democracy. I grew up
in capetown.
Got in trouble as a student (kicked out ) for
trying to open up the university. We
were branded as communitists. I
immediately volunteered for the war. I then became an exiled citizen at the
time of the big crackdown
on the African national congress.
Then I became a brit. Then I became an American. This country for all its faults- is a
democrazy- the power is spread in a democracy.
The council can control some of what we can do. We know the council people. We have a CDC. It sit on the board
of a CDC. Each borough has their own mayor, their own fire dept. their own trash
dept. the power
is distributed. I can’t think of any
centralized power that controls our life here in the borough.
I started
an urban laboratory.
Tim- we are trying to get to a sense of
the
David- In 1984 the Mills closed down and
17.5 million jobs were lost- overnight- mostly male jobs. This valley here was
a male dominated valley- steelers- iron city beer. But it didn’t just happen here- it happendd
all trhough the north of England.and the rurh valley. So in 1982- I was asked
to be part of a seminar- organized by the prince of wales. At that conference I got an idea. I would form an international conference to
deal with the fall of industry to make proposals for these brownfields
site. In 1986 we had the re-making
cities conference – what are the assets after this tremendous economic loss.
And after the conference was over- I was left with a sense of terrible guilt-
what had I done?
All these ideas- but still thousands of people unemployed.
Gigantic castration. I decided to move over here to work for
it. I moved in 1987- I knew nobody. The first person I met was Ray sinosky- we
were appointed to the board of the local community college- educated thousands
of unemployed. Steel buildings bought by
a park system. Steel to be sold to japan
to make Toyotas .
the community wanted to hold on to the mills-
they wanted the companies to come back and restart the steel production.
We felt the
only way to make a differnce was to develop a master plan for the three
boroughs. Then two detailed action
plans. That all took the best part of
seven or eight years. But we are moving
now. Meanwhile the mills came down. We managed to save the chimneys and the pump
house.
David- power over what?
Dan- power over decision making.
David- this community is largely African
American- but they are not doing the decision making and they aren’t active on
the street. When I go to the bank and
redevelopment corp. there are few African Americans we have to reinfranchise
this large disenfranchisement.
Gentrification is a two way street.
Tends to drive out lower income family, but gentrification stimulates
the economy. We need to have owner
occupied businesses on this street.
Cheryl
Sears- Mckeesport neighborhood –
Hannah
Erlich- mon valley trail council-
Laura
Cheryl- why do you want to talk to
me? Tim said to just tell him what you
do.
We’ve got
hope that this community will be revitalized. Tim and reiko
didn’t tell you about the backbreaking experiences that they’ve had with me
with the green space.
We want to
make this a place that kids will want to stay here and we want to make them
stay here. These are some of the
projects we’ve done here in
Hannah- I’m not from
I’ll talk
specifically about the steel valley trail. We’re a volunteer board. In order to
build a trail through the mon valley. The RIDC park
spans…..
Hannah- it makes it exponentially more
expensive to work with them. One example is to talk about the removal of a
pipe. The price for the land (1.3 miles)
is 100,000 dollars, but 1 million dollars of clean-up. Can’t leave the pipe on the land, because us
steel would be liable.
We are an
important connector and a valuable asset for
We don’t
have a lot of trails complete, but once we have that through trail for
Tim- Cheryl and laura could you
talk about what rivers and trails mean to
Laura- I think it’s a very viable for
Cheryl- we took a space in the marina and
we tore it our and planted
butterfly garden. The patients from the nursing home
could enjoy the butter fly. And that s where the trail starts in
Hannah- could you talk about the ______history and
environmental day? We asked historians to dig out their boxes and people could
display their history and people from outside the community could see the
history and so that youth could see the history. John Herr wrote about
Reiko – everybody is made to feel so welcome and
introduced and recognized.
Cheryl- we’d like everybody to live here. We have no budget. John Stevens? Brought mulch and trees. We name the trees after the kids
and tell them to take care of it. 3
rivers second nature brought the trees one year.
Tim- what are some of the issues with
the trail besides the obvious one of the pipeline.
Hannah- we have a lot of municipalities
down here.
Laura- it’s
hard to get everybody active about it.
Over 300 people ride their bikes all their way up there- different ages.
Anytime we put the word out, we get what we need.
I am the
director of a new housing project – 7 ward- a targeted
neighborhood. We’ve got to sell those
homes. The marina and the trail are big selling points. I walk it every
evening. It’s an important selling point
for new and rehabbed homes in this area.
Brian- how did the trail (that goes to dc) get started.
There is an organization called the
Tom- but there was a rail line that was
abandoned.
Jackie- you mentioned you had problems
maintaining the spaces- how have you handled it.
Cheryl- we publisze them, ask people to
take a look at them. I keep everything in very visable spaces.
Jackie- because when we have a child that ongoing work is
caring and nuturing.
Tim-Asks a queston-
Cheryl – I got the city to come out, the
only issue was the union wouldn’t let me talk to the workers directly. They
came with great tools and equipment and by the end of the day
They were
getting excitied about the work and asking me “Cheryl whats next” !
Ann: Why a butterfly garden?
Cheryl – Johns Stephen’s had the idea.
Ann – teaching a
learning over time, grass gardens, herb gardens, moss gardens.
History as
part of the ideas in the gardens….
Cheryl – Reiko brought the plants and
helped the kids learn what they all mean to the kids.
Laura – not in
Cheryl – industry as you will see here, Manchester
Craftsmans guild wants to grow hydroponic tomatoes. Bio-tech, there is work,
but mostly skilled labor.
Laura – people are talking about a mill.
There are people ready to work on a daily basis. They can find jobs.
Cheryl – Echostar a
Laura – schools are good, penn state
extension is here, student community center just opened
Jane – how many people go to
Cheryl – we had a train,
that was taken away, people thought it was the ridership but we think it
was really the jail.
Tom – the loss of the trains, was tied to the construction of the jail.
Hanah – what about the Mon Fayette?
Laura – subway or maglev sounds right to me.
MFE – I
don’t like it one bit. When steel was here we got goods to the business without
it.
Laura –
Helen – I was impressed when I saw that
you had a head start here, lots of community caring, and elderly.
Laura – we have weed and seed, community
cares, arts and soul program.
Return
toe CMU for Prensentations
-
action
network
-
a point of convergence for creative people,
information and communities
books that describe where we started.
For this conference we’ve tried to focus on method.
Our basic structure is a network. The only defining thing
that we have is that those people be creative and do stuff. We also have some shared values
. focus
on the built environment and genergating projects.
Have three project types
Encourage and spawn creativeity
Ecologically regionally thinking
Making connections- between people, infrastructure, andinformation.
We are not:
No incorporated
No board
No offices no
No money
No bueraocracy
Loose volunteer network run by core group
Structure/ no structure
Core group 10 to 20 people all are part time, connected to other
organization throughout the city. Every
couple months the core group gets together to resource share
One of the core members will lead the project and try to
form a team. Large degree of autonomy/ I might not know that much about
it. Projects need some money – they’ll
go find it.
Then we have a large network of people who get our emails and
people we try to engage. Our basic model
is the flexible network. Web based network:
Connect people
Communicate information
Solicit ideas
Build project teams
Advertise our events
Bueys- everyone is an artist. Everyone is creative and we can tap that
creativity and get them to go do things.
By engaing with people we can work with them. We can build culture from the bottom- get
everyone to do this. To do this in a
meeting setting we’e stolen some of the ideas from urban planning. Whats’ good whats bad, what can we do, what
do we want to happen but we need to ask someone with more power than us. Encourage participants to become leaders. Because people know that we’re not the
government = people get engaged. Some don’t that’s how we get people working on
these things. Then we use our network to
try to connect them to people who can help them realize their goals.
Methodology
New projects coming out of Activate Pittsburgh sessions
Existing projects seeking resources and
development
Individuals approaching ground zero with a specific idea.
Building coalitions of existing
groups around a project or issue.
In 2000- a little after we were both after school. Fifth and
forbes catalyst.
-anger with a removal and replacement development project
for downtown
Mattress factory meeting- an event organized by Richard
Out of that initial
event we had a cinco de mayo event that would gather
more people together to see what we could do.
A few projects were taken on right away.
First steps- a manifesto email invitation
Cinco de mayo event
Yellow book summarizes ideas
A second event starts projects
Initial projects-
Network development
Fighting fifth and forbes
Celebrate
Transit- UV loop.
Critique of the model-
Inherently disorganized
Personality driven
Weak underfunded center
Volunteer nature creates difficualty with follow through
Perception of core as a closed clique
Issues of legitimacy in public policy debates
Difficulty engaging people in the over all organization
Audience limited by technology
Limited ethnic diversity
No one person’s full time focus.
Good stuff-
Speed and flexibility
No constraits on positions
Highly inter/multi disciplanarity
Connections to many types and
levels of other organizations
Some progress in influencing policy
Structure forces …..
Projects
happenings
flux
act poittsburgh collaboration sessions
UV loop
Mon-fayette expressway- organized people who were working
against it.
The art of the news- public cable channel- spoof news show.
Skinny building- 6 feet wide building art gallery
Making a scene- 10 day long getting artists to work together- free
building to play in
Urban hike- one day once a month- 4
or 5 mile hike.
Art Votes
Busk
Forgery- collaboration of literary magazine- common office
space-
Salvo- construction junction-
F7- adult spelling bee
Community murals project- taken over
by the sprout fund.
Project- stay Pittsburgh- pitt
students want to get people to stay.
All that in three years.
Nicola
J 18-
1999.
Campaign against capitalism.- foucault quote- my work is based on.
My research is an attempt to engage with this event. Engage with it as a network
creativity. Takes place in the financial
district. Essentially I wanted to engage with this as something that embodies
the wider context. Street based events- has tended to mark these events as resistance but it has
produced the demonstration as container. This approach describes events for
political purpose. Repeatable.
Demonstrations outlive the participants. Protest is a sign of protest. Demonstration of a sign. Is it effective or not? Whom is changing public opinion and how?
Model of culture is communication. Literatures use culture as a model of
communications. Container
and the sign.
Doesn’t matter in this model if we
give priority to the demonstrator or the city as long as the gap is
represented. The invisible is made visable.
In this
model-
Communication
is a constant production of difference.
Breaking down the boundaries …..
Rather than
mainaining this difference post structuralism fetishizes theis difference.
Everthing
is reduced to meaning not really. In
this world how do we become ethical beings.
In the
I’ve chosen
to engage with this demonstration in creating new spaces of action. Rather than
engage with the protest as a text, I‘ll try to engage with this activity as a
singular language.
Cultural production and a new space to test them in.
an event of theory and practice.
The methods
have been a real struggle. I’m cconstantly forced to be an eterinal critic
instead of finding what is the creativity of this.
I am taking
each of the elements of this, samba band, critical mass, each of these elements
that emerge in the demonstration and I follow them as they move.
A physiological examination of the demonstration. What I am trying to do is put these
practices on a plane of effectivity.
Similar to lock ins and sit ins. They locate and characterize the event.
Problem of aligning effectivity and creativity which (as you all know)
is seen as not artistic practice.