by Mary Jo Aagerstoun, Ph.D.
ACTIVIST ART: Effective Resistance / Dreaming the Future We Need
1) Collectors and rubberneckers enjoy art-for-profit titillation at Miami Art Basel. // Photo: Ian Witlen. As I write, the drums announcing the arrival of Art Market Royalty are getting louder and louder. Art Basel is about to descend on Miami once again, bringing with it lots of objects and titillation for the 1%. So, thank you to Houston Cypress of Love the Everglades Movement for donating this space for my friendly rant, contrasting the annual art-for-profit carnival with what I believe we need now—artists engaged with the real ecological threats we are facing in South Florida and elsewhere. More of them. Much more.
2) Little Panda. 2014. Vinyl Mural. Artist: Birds Art Nice (Diane Arrieta). Artist’s call to action for endangered species and remediation of the degradation of their habitats around the world. Get the scientific info right here: http://faumacarthurlibraryexhibit.blogspot.com/2014/10/birds-are-nice-installs-new-mural.html
I can see the quizzical looks and the raised eyebrows. Artists are engaged with the real ecological threats we are facing, aren’t they/we? Artists across our region are documenting disappearing wild areas, animals and plants in installations, paintings, photographs and videos on the walls of universities, museums, funky art spaces and high end profit center galleries alike. Artists are hitting the art neighborhoods like Wynnwood and the Boynton Beach Art District, with strident guerrilla and commissioned street art admonishing us to change our profligate ways. Artists are often in leadership of activist groups, creating stunning images, banners and signs for demonstrations. So what are you talking about, you say! Artists are out there doing it!
3) Solidarity Fish festoon exterior wall of The Elliott Museum, Stuart, FL. Summer, 2014. Silkscreen on plywood, hand painted. Artists: Janeen Mason, Marjorie Shropshire and Marcia Moore. Fish were also carried and utilized in several community demonstrations to protest Army Corps of Engineers releases of polluted fresh water to the Indian River Lagoon, 2013. Nice video of instigator Mason here: http://www.janeenmason.com/solidarity-fish-project.html
And so you/they are. And thank you for that.
But, to stay relevant to the crises besetting us in the South Florida region, there is nothing like being willing to entertain a little criticism and self-criticism. This is what I offer here.
I believe the time is now to get much more strategic and tactical about how we deploy art activism. We need the whole spectrum from the quieter, slower EcoArt to the high profile, high energy pranks and hijinx of the YES MEN. And we need to learn how to do them, as well as when and where for greatest effect and impact on the public.
For seven years I have worked through the organization I founded, EcoArt South Florida, to promote site specific art interventions into ecological damage. We searched out opportunities for local artists to create eco-positive artworks that engaged science, engineering and community engagement as well as more traditional visual means like scale, color, texture and more.
But, to stay relevant to the crises besetting us in the South Florida region, there is nothing like being willing to entertain a little criticism and self-criticism. This is what I offer here.
I believe the time is now to get much more strategic and tactical about how we deploy art activism. We need the whole spectrum from the quieter, slower EcoArt to the high profile, high energy pranks and hijinx of the YES MEN. And we need to learn how to do them, as well as when and where for greatest effect and impact on the public.
For seven years I have worked through the organization I founded, EcoArt South Florida, to promote site specific art interventions into ecological damage. We searched out opportunities for local artists to create eco-positive artworks that engaged science, engineering and community engagement as well as more traditional visual means like scale, color, texture and more.
4) Biofiltration Wall. Seminole Casino at Coconut Creek, FL. 2012. Architecture-integrated sculpture. Concrete, stone, plant material, water, various technologies. Artist: Michael Singer. Captures, filters, stores and recycles 150,000 gallons of stormwater an hour in large storms. Solar array on roof powers Casino garage and EcoArt work's pumps.
Nearly seventeen South Florida EcoArt works are completed, or under way, that directly address Water Quality, Disappearing Habitat, Estuary Deterioration, Dearth of Canopy Trees and Wildflowers, and lack of connection, especially of our urban dwelling children and youth, with the few wild areas left in our state. Progress was being made in creating exemplary projects to convince stakeholders that engaging art with environmental stewardship deserved support.
5) Sea Rise of 10 meters, effect on Florida peninsula. (Image: NASA.)
About a year ago, I started looking at some very uncomfortable realities …sea rise and climate change… and I began to be convinced there was a strong need for a different kind of activism. Something that matches the urgency of our situation, as the oceans rise and the air becomes hotter.
This does not mean I think the EcoArt I have worked hard to help establish in our region is no longer relevant. I believe it is vitally important to produce EcoArt direct intervention projects as models of what a sustainable presence of humans on this planet can and must become. I consider these EcoArt works to be “slow activism” and intrinsically valuable.
The term “slow activism" was coined by British theorist Wallace Heim who has proposed that some of the most effective art interventions are consciously designed to proceed slowly: “…in the time it takes to engage in conversation…” A great example of “slow activism” as “conversation” is the human-generated trophic cascade that occurred with the reintroduction of the wolf into Yellowstone National Park. This intervention was not EcoArt, it was a straight science action, but it shows what can happen when a species long gone from an ecosystem reenters it, and by human design. Soon after the wolf was reintroduced, aspen, cottonwood and willow, that had been all but extirpated, began to reestablish. Why? Because wolves were eating the elk, and therefore not as many elk were foraging on those trees, allowing small trees of these species to proliferate. Trophic cascade as conversation between natural systems and human intervention was occurring!
This does not mean I think the EcoArt I have worked hard to help establish in our region is no longer relevant. I believe it is vitally important to produce EcoArt direct intervention projects as models of what a sustainable presence of humans on this planet can and must become. I consider these EcoArt works to be “slow activism” and intrinsically valuable.
The term “slow activism" was coined by British theorist Wallace Heim who has proposed that some of the most effective art interventions are consciously designed to proceed slowly: “…in the time it takes to engage in conversation…” A great example of “slow activism” as “conversation” is the human-generated trophic cascade that occurred with the reintroduction of the wolf into Yellowstone National Park. This intervention was not EcoArt, it was a straight science action, but it shows what can happen when a species long gone from an ecosystem reenters it, and by human design. Soon after the wolf was reintroduced, aspen, cottonwood and willow, that had been all but extirpated, began to reestablish. Why? Because wolves were eating the elk, and therefore not as many elk were foraging on those trees, allowing small trees of these species to proliferate. Trophic cascade as conversation between natural systems and human intervention was occurring!
6) EcoWalk at Seabourn Cove. Boynton Beach, FL. 2014. Transformation of streetside right of way: reforestation and pollinator habitat. Concrete, stone, soil, plant material. Artist: Lucy Keshavarz. http://nativeplantwildlifegarden.com/revise-revitalize-rejoice-urban-reforestation-works/
In each of the EcoArt projects completed we can point to such “conversation” occurring, a kind of call and response between ecosystem crises, human (art) intervention and ecological response: EcoArt as slow activism!! EcoArt projects in this mode of activism teach, show, demonstrate and engage -- at a conversational pace. They are tacitly critical of common eco-negative practices that have gotten us in the trouble we are in. They point the way, and gently point the finger.
But today, in this space Love the Everglades Movement has so generously provided, I want to urge all of us, especially artists, to engage a different kind of activism. While EcoArt’s slow activist conversations with ecologies in crisis take place on one stage -- ecological restoration art as slow activism performance -- we also need to take assertive action on another stage -- the doorsteps of the entities causing the ecological damage. We need actions that continue, expand and localize mobilizations like the impressive Climate Action event last September in NYC.
But today, in this space Love the Everglades Movement has so generously provided, I want to urge all of us, especially artists, to engage a different kind of activism. While EcoArt’s slow activist conversations with ecologies in crisis take place on one stage -- ecological restoration art as slow activism performance -- we also need to take assertive action on another stage -- the doorsteps of the entities causing the ecological damage. We need actions that continue, expand and localize mobilizations like the impressive Climate Action event last September in NYC.
7) People’s Climate Event. NYC. September 2014. Photographer unknown.
I am convinced what we need now here in South Florida is a tactical art activism that emphasizes irony and humor while burning indelible images into public consciousness, amplifying the information and warnings from our scientists and backing up the legal strategies of our advocates, with careful forethought and planning. And, a basis in theories generated by some of the most interesting minds to focus on effective direct action and advocacy.
Tactical is the operative word. Two of my favorite theorists come to mind: the Chicana feminist thinker Chela Sandoval, and the Argentine born anthropologist Néstor Garcia Canclini. I propose we consider their advice for how to engage a tactical art activism in the current context in which we find ourselves.
Sandoval’s concept of tactical activism is elaborated in her classic book Methodology of The Oppressed. This is the concept of the “differential.” Sandoval’s construct of “the differential” is not unlike the differential in the manual transmission of a car – it is the mechanism that allows gears to shift based on changing terrain; it is what makes the car adaptable. Like the now old-fashioned stick shift, Sandoval asserts that contemporary activists can be more effective by being knowledgeable about and prepared to use multiple methods in their pursuit of social change. They must have “differential consciousness” and engage in “differential social movement” that allow them to shift “gears” deftly from one approach to another. In an environment of rapidly morphing political threats, it is not enough to use one method or pursue a single, unvarying strategy; today’s effective art activist must be prepared with a toolkit of diverse methods and a tactical mindset.
My other favorite theorist to whom I recommend we look for advice is Néstor Garcia Canclini. In his 1995 book Hybrid Cultures: Strategies for Entering and Leaving Modernity, Canclini argues that politicized art gestures cannot, by themselves, lead to real change. Canclini proposes that art should be deployed in situations calling for change as “performances” which represent and simulate political action in sync with other politically transformative energies, but on different stages at the same time.
Keeping Sandoval and Canclini in mind, then, I would like to introduce several examples of current art activism that tactically deploy both the “differential” and the “performative,” are directly engaged with environmental crises, and operate in sync with politically transformative energies in the culture.
Tactical is the operative word. Two of my favorite theorists come to mind: the Chicana feminist thinker Chela Sandoval, and the Argentine born anthropologist Néstor Garcia Canclini. I propose we consider their advice for how to engage a tactical art activism in the current context in which we find ourselves.
Sandoval’s concept of tactical activism is elaborated in her classic book Methodology of The Oppressed. This is the concept of the “differential.” Sandoval’s construct of “the differential” is not unlike the differential in the manual transmission of a car – it is the mechanism that allows gears to shift based on changing terrain; it is what makes the car adaptable. Like the now old-fashioned stick shift, Sandoval asserts that contemporary activists can be more effective by being knowledgeable about and prepared to use multiple methods in their pursuit of social change. They must have “differential consciousness” and engage in “differential social movement” that allow them to shift “gears” deftly from one approach to another. In an environment of rapidly morphing political threats, it is not enough to use one method or pursue a single, unvarying strategy; today’s effective art activist must be prepared with a toolkit of diverse methods and a tactical mindset.
My other favorite theorist to whom I recommend we look for advice is Néstor Garcia Canclini. In his 1995 book Hybrid Cultures: Strategies for Entering and Leaving Modernity, Canclini argues that politicized art gestures cannot, by themselves, lead to real change. Canclini proposes that art should be deployed in situations calling for change as “performances” which represent and simulate political action in sync with other politically transformative energies, but on different stages at the same time.
Keeping Sandoval and Canclini in mind, then, I would like to introduce several examples of current art activism that tactically deploy both the “differential” and the “performative,” are directly engaged with environmental crises, and operate in sync with politically transformative energies in the culture.
EARTH AMBULANCE
8) Earth Ambulance. 1982-2004. Artist: Hélène Aylon. Performance with vehicle, pillowcases, soil, seeds and other materials. Currently in long term installation at Hudson Valley Center for Visual Art, Peekskill, NY. http://hvcca.org/press/011506.html
In May 1982 ecofeminist artist Hélène Aylon created the “Earth Ambulance” that she took on a road trip to US Strategic Air Command bases, to “rescue” earth, metaphorically, from the threat of nuclear war. (See slide show) Aylon collected soil samples at each site, in pillowcases inscribed with women’s accounts of their dreams and nightmares about atomic holocaust. Aylon transported them in her retrofitted “ambulance” (a converted U-Haul van) to a mass disarmament rally at the United Nations on June 12, 1982. The earth-filled pillowcases were carried on army stretchers down the steps of Ralph Bunche Park, across the street from the United Nations complex.
Over the next decades, Aylon carried out related Earth Ambulance projects in the Soviet Union, Japan and Israel as well as the United States. The original Earth Ambulance has been decommissioned from active travel, and is reconstituted as a permanent exhibit at the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art in Peekskill. Viewers are invited to sit inside the ambulance, which is outfitted as a kind of meditation space, decked with photographs and video documentation of several previous Earth Ambulance projects.
Over the next decades, Aylon carried out related Earth Ambulance projects in the Soviet Union, Japan and Israel as well as the United States. The original Earth Ambulance has been decommissioned from active travel, and is reconstituted as a permanent exhibit at the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art in Peekskill. Viewers are invited to sit inside the ambulance, which is outfitted as a kind of meditation space, decked with photographs and video documentation of several previous Earth Ambulance projects.
I am drawn to the concept of Earth Ambulance as particularly relevant to the state(s) of emergency now faced in Florida, especially in extreme Southern Florida, as sea rise will have some of its first effects here, both on coastal communities and the Greater Everglades as well as for our aquifer that provides fresh clean drinking water for all species, including humans. Earth Ambulance has the potential to be used on many stages across the region, supporting the initiatives of many organizations working to bring the message of emergency and the hope of healing that can activate whole communities. It literally provides a vehicle that can respond quickly and deftly carrying both activists and messages to specific locations. It can serve “differential” and “performative” needs on many stages.
The YES MEN
9) The Yes Men-Cutting the Corporate Crap. Graphic from YES MEN website. “The Yes Men are a culture jamming activist duo and supporting team. Through amazing actions of tactical media and other organizing techniques, the Yes Men raise awareness about problematic social issues.”
The YES MEN are a dynamic prankster art duo who specialize in satirical performances, impersonating corporate lackeys and fooling journalists. They began pranking in the 1990s, and, in addition to their ongoing hilarious hijinx, have a passel of books and films, and an action network and planning instruction YES LAB to their credit. They also teach activist performance in prestigious NY institutions. Their real names are Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonnano, names that seem so fake they decided to create other names for their YES MEN personae--Jacques Servin and Igor Vamos--just to confuse people.
In a recent prank, the YES MEN crashed a Homeland Security Congress in Washington DC, attended by government contractors, lobbyists and officials, including a retired Navy Admiral, a retired USAF general, a former Seal team leader, and an aspiring Republican Congressional candidate.
In a recent prank, the YES MEN crashed a Homeland Security Congress in Washington DC, attended by government contractors, lobbyists and officials, including a retired Navy Admiral, a retired USAF general, a former Seal team leader, and an aspiring Republican Congressional candidate.
10) Andy Bichlbaum as “Benedict Waterman” YES MEN performance at US Dept. of Homeland Security Congress, 2014. Disguise included page boy grey wig similar to hairstyle of US Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz.
Their performance consisted of:
- A stirring announcement of a fictitious new US government plan, the "American Renewable Clean-Energy Network" (AmeriCAN), to convert the US to 100% renewable energy by 2030. The completely false, but also completely doable new energy initiative would redirect oil company tax breaks and subsidies to support renewables; commit to "Manhattan Project-level" Defense spending on conversion to renewables in order to prevent future climate-change-related conflicts; and partner with Native American nations whose lands could provide all of our renewable energy needs. The announcement was interrupted repeatedly by audience applause.
The announcement was made by the (allegedly) US Department of Energy's "Benedict Waterman" (Andy Bichlbaum ) wearing a page boy grey wig recalling the hairdo of the recently appointed Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz. The wig was made especially for the occasion by RuPaul’s wigmaker.
- This was followed by an eloquent speech by "Bana Slowhorse" of the “Bureau of Indian Affairs” (actually Gitz Crazyboy, a youth worker and anti-tar sands activist from the Athabascan Chippewayan First Nations, whose land includes the Alberta Tar Sands). “Bana's" speech concluded: "We are all the Department of Energy.“ Accompanied by enthusiastic audience applause and whistles.
13) "Bana Slowhorse," actually Gitz Crazyboy with “Benedict Waterman” (Andy Bichlbaum) at YES MEN intervention, US Dept. of Homeland Security Congress. Photo courtesy of Yes Men.
- All attendees then danced a “celebratory circle dance” to the singing of "Drum Chief Four Feathers" (actually Tito Ybarra, an Ojibwe comedian and singer). After the event, two dozen contractors lined up to hand "Waterman" and "Slowhorse" their cards and offer their services in carrying out the conversion.
Besides the Yes Men, Crazyboy, and Ybarra, participants in this project included members of Idle No More, and several other groups. The action occurred just a few days after the Cowboys and Indians Alliance rally against the Keystone XL pipeline.
I consider the YES MEN to be the sine qua non of the super-sophisticated, brainy end of the artistic activism spectrum. They do their homework. They craft their hijinx carefully to gain maximum exposure in all corporate “news” media, create and circulate films in traditional venues, and for free online, and take full advantage of social media’s viral effects. They utilize satire, shaming and wild humor, turning the real life ridiculousness of huge international corporations’ poisonous actions, responsible for our many environmental and human tragedy crises, against them. They fund all this successfully with crowdsourcing, and have a team of probono lawyers ready to respond to lawsuits. That they now focus almost all their efforts on their YES LAB, teaching others how to incorporate these kinds of approaches in their local efforts means this is a resource I hope we can’t refuse to use!
I consider the YES MEN to be the sine qua non of the super-sophisticated, brainy end of the artistic activism spectrum. They do their homework. They craft their hijinx carefully to gain maximum exposure in all corporate “news” media, create and circulate films in traditional venues, and for free online, and take full advantage of social media’s viral effects. They utilize satire, shaming and wild humor, turning the real life ridiculousness of huge international corporations’ poisonous actions, responsible for our many environmental and human tragedy crises, against them. They fund all this successfully with crowdsourcing, and have a team of probono lawyers ready to respond to lawsuits. That they now focus almost all their efforts on their YES LAB, teaching others how to incorporate these kinds of approaches in their local efforts means this is a resource I hope we can’t refuse to use!
The Illuminator
14) The Illuminator. Support to students in Montreal protesting a controversial law prohibiting protests with more than 50 people in the wake of the student movement in Québec. Photo: Kyle Depew.
The Illuminator, in its first incarnation, was a cargo van equipped with video and audio projection equipment as well as a fully stocked infoshop and mini-library. Illuminator explains that technically tricked out van was “a tactical media tool, available to the movement in several cities [nice video summary of the Illuminator crew’s experiences here]. It adds a bit of visual energy and pop, becoming the centerpiece around which an event is organized, or randomly appearing at a busy intersection and creating a spectacular surprise.” How it works: the projector is lifted through the van roof opening to project onto a building. The plain white van is converted into The Illuminator instantly via magnetized identifiers. Instantly removable allowing the van to fade unobtrusively into city traffic. Lately, Illuminator has been operating via a tricycle camouflaged as a delivery bike. The high powered projector conveniently recedes into the trike’s rear basket quickly when authorities appear.
Illuminator is the ultimate guerrilla street art intervention. The images are ephemeral “murals” that appear and disappear at exactly the right places at the right times, last long enough to be photographed or videoed, producing images which are then posted online right as they are being projected so they go viral almost immediately!! Illuminator is a perfect example of the Canclini suggestion of how best to activate art interventions “in sync with but on different stages” from other energies abroad in the culture. There is some synergy with the Earth Ambulance idea, as it allows the activist artists to be very mobile and be present where the images and slogans they project are most needed. And, the mobility allows them to become quickly anonymous and make fast getaways when appropriate! Illuminator activists have been experimenting recently with bicycle deployment which eliminates the expense of buying or renting vans.
Light Brigades
17) Overpass Light Brigade. Milwaukee. “Americans in 275 locations, across 49 states sent a strong statement to President Obama that the Keystone XL pipeline is wrong for the nation. Joining vigil goers in several cities was the Light Brigade Network, and the DIY Drone Brigade.” See more at: http://occupyriverwest.com/us/no-kxl-vigils#sthash.njtipQiL.dpuf
Light Brigades are popping up all over the country. A little film about their work is part of PBS’s Online Film festival…see it here. This activist art intervention began in Wisconsin during the “Wisconsin Uprising” that sought to recall the Republican Governor Scott Walker. While the recall did not succeed, the approach did! The Wisconsin originators of the “Overpass Light Brigade” describe who they are and what they do: “Our messages shine over highways at night. We believe in the power of communities coming together in physical space, as well as the importance of visibility for grassroots and progressive causes. We are a loose and inclusive affiliation of people dedicated to the power of peaceful and playful protest.” Since the initial overpass displays on bridges spanning Wisconsin freeways, the approach is spreading rapidly across the country and are added to the OLB website as they emerge. Detailed instructions on how to create the illuminated letters that spell out OLB messages are here.
Like The Illuminator, Light Brigades are highly mobile, placing illuminated messages at targeted locations, appearing and disappearing quickly. Events are photographed, and have a longer life via postings on social media. There are several points at which individual community members can engage in Light Brigades, including planning and strategizing for where the Lighted Messages should appear, development of the slogans, creating, maintaining and storing the lighted letters, and holding the messages at targeted locations, as well as keeping social media updated as events unfold. Costs are relatively low, so this explains why so many brigades are appearing across the country, as opposed to Illumination projections, which do require a major investment in 10,000 lumen (minimum) projectors.
Like The Illuminator, Light Brigades are highly mobile, placing illuminated messages at targeted locations, appearing and disappearing quickly. Events are photographed, and have a longer life via postings on social media. There are several points at which individual community members can engage in Light Brigades, including planning and strategizing for where the Lighted Messages should appear, development of the slogans, creating, maintaining and storing the lighted letters, and holding the messages at targeted locations, as well as keeping social media updated as events unfold. Costs are relatively low, so this explains why so many brigades are appearing across the country, as opposed to Illumination projections, which do require a major investment in 10,000 lumen (minimum) projectors.
18) Rude Mechanical Orchestra. Audience participation limbo-ing under the trombones! Photo: Leonardo March
The Rude Mechanical Orchestra is a 30-odd-piece radical marching band and dance troupe. They are for hire, and play protests, demonstrations, direct actions, picket lines, marches, benefits and events for good causes. They say: “We’ve played protesting union-busters and tip-garnishers, gentrifiers and privatizers, xenophobes, homophobes, and a host of other big uglies. We’ve worked with groups like Time’s Up, the Restaurant Opportunity Center of New York, the Sylvia Rivera Law Project and the War Resisters League. We’ve played community events around town and beyond, like the Queens Pride Parade, the Mermaid Parade, the East Village Roving Garden Party, Philadelphia’s Spiral Q Peoplehood Parade, and Boston’s Honk Festival.” The group originated in the early 1990s, and has emerged and reemerged depending on need. The most active orchestra operates in NYC, and there are new ones currently emerging in several other cities. A typical set might include “a spritz of klezmer, some Balkan and Brazilian notes, plenty of funk, some Latin beats, a little jazz and an El Tigre cover, all of it served up with a patina of punk.” They don’t do Sousa marches. Here’s a sample from their gig at the big Climate Action March in NYC in September 2014!
Music is so important to activism, and the Rude Mechanical Orchestra provides a mobile alternative to the stationary concert which often is expensive, discourages those not actively playing in the band from participating directly, and obviously cannot be deployed at fraught locations such as the headquarters of oil companies. Activist musicians in the orchestra also point out that “To be effectively loud on New York streets, you usually need a loudspeaker, and to use a loudspeaker, you need a permit from the NYPD. If you’re planning on playing loud instruments, however, no such limitation exists, and this has made the RMO an essential ingredient in many impromptu demonstrations.” TMO is a great example of the tactical wisdom of figuring out ahead of time what needs and what does not need a permit! And acting accordingly!
Music is so important to activism, and the Rude Mechanical Orchestra provides a mobile alternative to the stationary concert which often is expensive, discourages those not actively playing in the band from participating directly, and obviously cannot be deployed at fraught locations such as the headquarters of oil companies. Activist musicians in the orchestra also point out that “To be effectively loud on New York streets, you usually need a loudspeaker, and to use a loudspeaker, you need a permit from the NYPD. If you’re planning on playing loud instruments, however, no such limitation exists, and this has made the RMO an essential ingredient in many impromptu demonstrations.” TMO is a great example of the tactical wisdom of figuring out ahead of time what needs and what does not need a permit! And acting accordingly!
The Backbone Campaign
19) Backbone Project. Demonstrators from Tacoma, Olympia, and Seattle gathered to protest oil trains currently carrying Bakken crude through populated areas and the 24 trains proposed for the future. Photo: Alex Garland
The Backbone Campaign out of Vashon, WA, provides creative strategy, tactical trainings and action support to progressive activists, organizers and organizations around the US. Backbone says: “We are renowned for our ‘Artful Activism’ that is both fun and effective in service of societal transformation. Our training programs invigorate and nurture a people-powered, community-based, and internationally-networked nonviolent social movement for human rights, thriving communities, and ecological wellbeing.”
20) Backbone Project. Localize This! Action Camp.
The group runs Localize THIS camps (video), coaches communities on creating actions and offers training in: Non Violent Direct Action 101, Creative Tactics For Visibility & Building Power. Giant Banner Building & Overpass Bannering, Flashmob Training, Projection As Protest, Light Brigade Training, Climb Training & Tripods, Blockade Training, Papier Mache Puppetry building. Backbone pays special attention to “Security Training which shows would be activists how to stay two steps ahead of the authorities, versus two steps behind in paranoia. Covers the basics of creating and implementing security within the group when engaged in an action, as well as in offices, homes, personal lives, and on computers.” Lots of online action kits as well!
Along with the YES LAB and Beautiful Trouble, the vibrant Backbone Project not only plans and carries out their own artistic activism related specifically to local issues in Washington State, but they also provide assistance to other groups locally in Seattle and other WA cities, and elsewhere, both coaching actual actions on site, and training groups to do their own actions. One very impressive offering is assistance with personal and group security, very much needed when activist art is introduced in contested public spaces. Backbone also personifies the Sandoval prescription that activists become proficient in advance planning and the use of a wide range of approaches, tailored to specific on site requirements. A new Backbone emphasis will be to develop a program to prepare CSOs (Community Supported Organizers) in local areas, based on the model of Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs).
Along with the YES LAB and Beautiful Trouble, the vibrant Backbone Project not only plans and carries out their own artistic activism related specifically to local issues in Washington State, but they also provide assistance to other groups locally in Seattle and other WA cities, and elsewhere, both coaching actual actions on site, and training groups to do their own actions. One very impressive offering is assistance with personal and group security, very much needed when activist art is introduced in contested public spaces. Backbone also personifies the Sandoval prescription that activists become proficient in advance planning and the use of a wide range of approaches, tailored to specific on site requirements. A new Backbone emphasis will be to develop a program to prepare CSOs (Community Supported Organizers) in local areas, based on the model of Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs).
Beautiful Trouble and Beautiful Solutions
21) Beautiful Trouble is both a book and a website.
Beautiful Trouble is a book, or rather it was a book. It is now much more than a book. The project consists of short, interrelated modules that share the best of resistance campaigns – creative tactics, action design principles, case studies, and theoretical frameworks – that together comprise an accessible matrix of best practices and ideas in creative activist resistance campaigning. The website includes the core content of the book as well as a growing array of additional modules, resources, profiles, debates and a cutting-edge visualization interface that allows perusal of the project’s content with pinpoint accuracy according to one’s needs and interests.
22) Beautiful Trouble is also a cutting edge visualization tool!
Beautiful Trouble also has a corps of experienced trainers for hire. The trainers available through the Beautiful Trouble network are both artists and activists. Recently Beautiful Trouble spun off a new initiative: Beautiful Solutions! As they point out, “Resistance is essential, but it is not enough. As we fight injustice around us, we also have to imagine – and create – the world we want. We have to build real alternatives in the here and now –alternatives that are not only living proof that things can be done differently, but that actively challenge, and eventually supplant, the power of the status quo.”
I end this discussion of a selection of the best of the best activist art initiatives currently available with Beautiful Trouble and Beautiful Solutions. As concept and ongoing resource, these twin entities speak eloquently to what two of my favorite theorists, Chela Sandoval and Canclini pointed to almost two decades ago. Beautiful Trouble and Beautiful Solutions demonstrate the effectiveness of acknowledging, utilizing and distributing the best theoretical thinking and the best examples of intelligent, creative, strategic resistance visioning and deployment.
I look forward to working with many of you to address what needs to be confronted, and what needs to be dreamed into existence here in South Florida. There is so much that can and should be done to which all our innovative, artistic and creative thinking and action must be directed.
— Mary Jo Aagerstoun
I end this discussion of a selection of the best of the best activist art initiatives currently available with Beautiful Trouble and Beautiful Solutions. As concept and ongoing resource, these twin entities speak eloquently to what two of my favorite theorists, Chela Sandoval and Canclini pointed to almost two decades ago. Beautiful Trouble and Beautiful Solutions demonstrate the effectiveness of acknowledging, utilizing and distributing the best theoretical thinking and the best examples of intelligent, creative, strategic resistance visioning and deployment.
I look forward to working with many of you to address what needs to be confronted, and what needs to be dreamed into existence here in South Florida. There is so much that can and should be done to which all our innovative, artistic and creative thinking and action must be directed.
— Mary Jo Aagerstoun
Mary Jo Aagerstoun has studied a lot of activist art history and theories of cultural activism. She enjoys brainstorming with likeminded folk on how to get epic stuff out there that can change the way things are. She lives and schemes in West Palm Beach, FL. See her on Facebook, or contact her at: mjaagerstoun@gmail.com
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