Part Two of presentation given to students of CIT Crawford College of Art's HETAC module, Arts, Participation and Development, weekend on Models and Case Studies of Creative Engagement. Eimear McNally, www.makehandstands.com

1. Arts, Participation
and Development
Dec 2011
Creative Activism

2. Theatre/ Spectacle/
Performance

3. Case Study 6: Improv
Everywhere
• Invisible theatre- Free Hugs and Improv Everywhere
and Flash Mobs
• See also Choir of Complaints

4. Case Study 7: Rebel
Clown Army
• Rebel Clown Army and video

6. Reclaiming Public
Space

7. Case Study 8: Guerilla
Gardening
• Guerilla Gardening
• Moss Graffiti
• Seedtrail (last year’s HETAC students)

8. Case Study 9:
Dartmouth Square
• Dartmouth Square Story
• Fitzwilliam Square Outdoor Cinema

9. Case Study 10:
Warriors Without
Weapons
• Brazil- the Warriors without Weapons
game

10. • Occupy Conversations

11. Culture Jamming

12. Case Study 11: Adbusting
Adbusters

16. Case Study 12:
Guerilla Marketing
Guerilla Marketing

22. More…

26. Precedents in Art
SOCIAL SCULPTURE
Only art is capable of dismantling the repressive effects of a senile
social system that continues to totter along the deathline: to dismantle in
order to build ÔASOCIAL ORGANISM AS A WORK OF ARTÕ EVERY É
HUMAN BEING IS AN ARTIST who Ð from his state of freedom Ð the
position of freedom that he experiences at first-hand Ð learns to
determine the other positions of the TOTAL ART WORK OF THE
FUTURE SOCIAL ORDER. (Joseph Beuys 1973)

27. Creative Activism World Café
What can we put into
practice?

28. Creative Activism TASK
How can we support the
Occupy Movement to
creatively engage the 99%

29. Precedents in Art
• SITUATIONS
• “…détournament (Guy Debord 1957)means to turn the
system’s images against it, to simply divert them.
It’s about finding a way to take from the system
without being taken in by it. On the other hand
recouperation is the process by which radical ideas
and images are commodified and incorporated within
mainstream society. “
• Masta magazine +++ written by: Igor Stojanovski

30. Precedents in Art
• HAPPENINGS
• “Audiences should be eliminated entirely… a group of
inactive people in the space of a Happening is just Dead
Space. It is no different to a dead area of red paint on a
canvas… the best participants have been persons not
normally engaged in art but who are moved to take part in
an activity that is at once meaningful to them in its ideas
yet natural in its methods.” (Allan Kaprow 1966)

31. Creative Activism:
Interesting Websites
• Masta http://www.creativeacts.org/
• Hactivism http://knowledge.exchangedublin.ie/lectures/hacktivism.html
• Activist Handbook 2011 http://www.centreforglobaleducation
.com/sites/default/files/publications/Activist%27s%20Handbook.pdf
• Ricardo Levins Morales (Posters)
• http://www.rlmarts.com/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guernica_%28painting%29
• http://www.aiweiwei.com/html/works.htm
• The Lab of Insurrectionary Imagination http://labofii.net/reflection/
• Journal of Aesthetics and Protest http://www.journalofaestheticsandprotest.org/
• About Joseph Beuys and social sculpture
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Beuys#The_concept_of_.22Social_Sculpture.22
• Information Activism
• Information is Beautiful
• Loesje Posters
• Good Is Infographics

32. Finally….
• A Hopi Elder speaks:
•
• "There is a river flowing now very fast. It is so great and swift that there are those who will be
afraid. They will try to hold on to the shore. They will feel they are torn apart and will suffer
greatly. "Know the river has its destination. The elders say we must let go of the shore, push
off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open, and our heads above water. And I say, see
who is in there with you and celebrate. At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally,
Least of all ourselves. For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey comes to a
halt. "The time for the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves! Banish the word struggle from
you attitude and your vocabulary. All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in
celebration. "We are the ones we've been waiting for .