Acts of Resistance: Activists, Interlopers and Pranksters: Agitprop:The Similarities Between Two Artists

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Agitprop:The Similarities Between Two Artists

The Mindset of the Like Mind
Samantha Garcia

Gran Fury is an activist art collective that rose during the mid-1980's that focused on stirring up emotions people have towards AIDS. They use techniques of advertising with information and outrage to get the message out. This is how they educate and motivate the general public. The piece "Women Don't Get AIDS" was one chosen from Agitprop's Exhibition and its slogan was to get people thinking about women and the fact that they do get AIDS and they do get sick and they do die. AIDS isn't discriminatory. It isn't choosy. Men or women can get it and that is what Gran Fury is all about.

Another piece to look at is Jenny Holzer’s The Living Series: You Can Make Yourself Enter Somewhere. For her it was what she said that made an impact. Both pieces are not the same though they share similarities. Holzer’s piece is something to take on a more personal level. While both are meant to raise awareness, Gran Fury does so through advertisement and Holzer does so through a poetic sort of speech. One is about being aware of real life events that are happening around us, while the other is more about what is happening within us.

Holzer once said that for her work, "The anonymity was critical. I wanted people to consider the ideas but not give more than passing thought to who produced them." In her mind it wasn’t as much about why she wrote her pieces or created them, she just wanted a reaction. It was the work that spoke for itself.

The same can be said about Gran Fury. It was about the reaction of the crowd that mattered. It wasn’t just about who was saying it, it was about the why. Both artist intentions were to reach people on an entirely new level. It was a get-in-your face type of level.

Between the two, I enjoy Holzer’s. I like the way she is so straight forward and frank. I wouldn’t call it poetry because it doesn’t feel like it but it seems like it. She intends to "generate debate and make us think critically. A political activist as well as an artist, Holzer's aim is to disrupt the passive reception of information from damaging sources."

To learn more about Jenny Holzer and Gran Fury, check out these two links.https://www.artsy.net/artwork/jenny-holzer-the-living-series-you-can-make-yourself-enter-somewhere-dot-dot-dot-text-living-1980-82

http://hyperallergic.com/46881/gran-fury-read-my-lips-80-wse-nyu/

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Due 12/7

FINAL PROJECTS PRESENTED IN CLASS on 12/7!! Be on time for class - We may be staying a few minutes late to finish all presentations. No class on 12/14

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CRITICAL THINKING ASSIGNMENT

FINAL SEMESTER PROJECT

Mapping Social/Cultural Hot Topics and Interventions: Art, Movements and Civic Action

The goal of this assignment is to get you to take a stand on a significant issue related to the course material and then to highlight and support a past or current act of resistance. In order to be a conscientious participant in community and society, one must attend the current events and important social/political struggles of current times. Race relations, gender equality, social justice, health care, reproductive rights, privacy, corporate regulation, marriage equality, religious tolerance, LGBT rights, etc. are all examples of issues citizens have engaged in acts of opposition and resistance, using any number of creative strategies.

From the database of current events and social issues that we have been discussing during the course, choose an issue, artist, movement or citizen action that exemplifies an act of resistance as we have outlined throughout the semester. Using one (or more) of the readings and resources we have used as a way to make a critical argument, create a writing project that encourages or supports the artist or movement and presents their work to a larger audience. Make a case for why this act of resistance is important, timely and worth engaging in and promoting. Be sure to research extensively and thoughtfully in choosing and supporting your artist or movement. Be sure that your project coincides with your own political motivations, ideas and your professional ambitions.

Consider and research extensively and thoughtfully the history and development of the issue you have chosen. The themes and topics of the course have had a recurring history of friction within America’s culture and institutions.You will need to describe and explain the strategies that have been used and are now being used to engage this issue currently and explain how the example you have chosen to highlight fits into the larger issue. The writing project can take the form of an online article, an essay, a blog, a website, tumblr, or even a podcast. Students can present ideas outside of this list if they would like to propose other ways of presenting their writing for this assignment. All students will propose their final projects at midterm and must have their project topic approved by the professor.

In addition to the writing project, each student will do an oral presentation, with visual support materials that summarizes your project. Be prepared to facilitate a discussion with your peers by preparing questions that will be topics of discussion.

INSTRUCTIONS: Be prepared to present your projects to the class in approximately 7 minute presentations. Visuals are a must. Feel free to bring physical props and handouts if appropriate. Remember you are ”pitching” the project to the class. Prepare a succinct and exciting summary of the project that is clear and makes the class want to look further at your project and potentially share the project, promote it and even get involved!

You must create a POST for your final project on the class blog. These must be completed and posted the night before class on 12/6 before 11:30pm. This is a portion of your final grade. The post must include a link to your project, a clear and well written summary, images and/or videos. You will present from your post. Your project must live in the world (online or not) but all components of your project and presentation must link from the blog post somehow. Your resource list/bibliography must be included in your post or handed in to the professor.

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Checklist for posting your project to class blog:

-clear and well written summary of your project on the class blog along with images and any videos

-link to your project which lives elsewhere in the world must be clearly included in your post

-presentations (7 minutes) will be from your blog post and must be linked directly from the post PLEASE CHECK YOUR POST and be sure LINKS and images are working BEFORE ARRIVING IN CLASS.

-research must be included in the blog post as resource list/bibliography

Tweet #actsofresistanceAIP the last two weeks if you have not been tweeting! These count as extra credit.

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Due 11/30

No new readings due

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WRITTEN COMMUNICATION

Activism through Art Writing Assignment
Post the following writing assignment to the class blog:

Using the Interventionists text book as a resource choose a social or political issue often addressed by artists and activists. Then choose 3-5 projects that intersect/address/critique this theme. Present the ideas of this issue and the various projects that in different ways address similar a similar issue. you may use only artists listed in the text or feel free to use artists that are not listed in the book but that you may find in your own research. How do the artists address the issue? What medium do they use? how do they engage an audience? Why are these challenges to these issues important? How is activism in art different from political activism outside of the art world? Is it?

~800 words, at least 3 artist examples, 3 images and 3 links (portfolio sites, gallery exhibitions, videos etc)

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This is your last writing assignment.

Tweet #actsofresistanceAIP the last two weeks if you have not been tweeting! These count as extra credit.

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Due 11/23

READINGS: Chapter 3 Ready to Wear pgs 97-108 Interventionists

WORK ON YOUR SEMESTER PROJECTS!!

Group 5 presents

two tweets #actsofresistanceAIP

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Due 11/16
READINGS: Chapter 2 Interventionists

Update of your project 3-4 paragraphs printed and handed in

two tweets #actsofresistanceAIP

Group 3 and Group 4 present

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Due 11/2

READINGS: REVIEW Chapter 1 Nomads pgs. 25-60 Interventionists

and

read online:

William Pope L. interview in BOMB Magazine:

http://bombmagazine.org/article/1957/william-pope-l

Article about recent exhibition in NYC from NYTimes:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/22/arts/design/william-popel-makes-statements-from-the-fringes.html?_r=0

In you have not already made it to see the exhibition you must go on Friday, October 28 11-6pm

Visit the exhibition Selfie: Us and Them at Living Incubator Performance Space inside of Gateway Projects Space in the Gateway Center. Newark, NJ

The only time you can visit at this point is Friday October 28 11-6pm. You must do so in order to complete the assignment due next Wednesday.

Post 2 Due

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WRITTEN COMMUNICATION
Gallery Visit Writing Assignment
Post the following writing assignment to the class blog:

Please look closely at the pieces in the art exhibition Selfie: Us and Them. Be sure to pay special attention to the labels describing the pieces and to the artist statements in the exhibition binder. You must take notes and then write an ~800 word response to the ideas being addressed. Take pictures. Include images in your post. Please be sure to address the following questions:

What are some themes of the exhibition?

How do the artists address identity and the selfie?

What are some critiques of self, identity and perception?

Describe at least two of the projects in detail and explain how the projects are or can be activist in their messages?

What are the artists and curators telling the gallery audience?

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Due 10/26

READINGS: Chapter 1 Nomads pgs. 25-60 Interventionists

two tweets #actsofresistanceAIP

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Due 10/19

READINGS: Confessions of the Guerrilla Girls pgs 7-95 (the whole book)

Project Topic printed and handed in to me by 11/2 the latest!!

~1 page describing what you would like to research and write/present for your semester project. Think about your semester project topic read the project description on our syllabus and choose an artist, movement or civic action that is an act of resistance. As per our discussions and readings thus far in class choose an issue and a player or players working to raise awareness, disrupt or resist the status quo or existing paradigms of oppression etc. This is at it's core a writing assignment but it can take many forms. Choose how you might like to approach the writing assignment and how you will share that writing with an audience outside of the classroom. Please include in your 1 page description some of the research you have done thus far, list resources, describe the subject of your project clearly and why you are making this project.

Group presentations

Be sure all groups have one or several possible topics for their presentations available to discuss in class.

two tweets #actsofresistanceAIP

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Due 10/12

READINGS:

Review Interventionists, Chapter 4 of 111-132 - please choose one project to focus on for class discussion that we have not already discussed. How does this project illustrate some of the ideas of alternatives to institutional knowledge, "experimental universities" and how might the artist, the amateur and collective play a part?

Please look at the projects, videos and articles

ONLINE:

Eyebeam Residents Okunseinde and Asega present the Iyapo Repository

http://archive.eyebeam.org/events/iyapo-dc

about creating the future

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuPvZKEKCYo

Luis Camnitzer "Art thinking"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NItWZPdXfUU

Project Topic: Think about your semester project topic read the project description on our syllabus and note any questions you may have about the assignment. Please write 1 or more ideas you are considering for your project topic. We will be discussing the project assignment in class. I will collect your short list of project ideas and full project proposals (1 page) will be due the following week.

two tweets #actsofresistanceAIP

NOTE: Attendance is especially important on 10/12. We will be pairing off for our group presentations in class and I will be allowing some time in class to work together. If you miss this opportunity you will affect your partner as well as miss the chance to coordinate the presentation in class and must make arrangements outside of class only. Please be in class and be on time.

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Due 10/5

READINGS: Interventionists, Chapter 4 of 111-132

Online,

FIX YOUR AGITPROP POST format, images (add captions to images), links, EDIT grammar, spelling etc.

two tweets #actsofresistanceAIP

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Due 9/28

READINGS: Interventionists, Anarchy in the Ruins pg 143-146 and Encyclopedia Entries pg 147-154

FIX YOUR INTRO POST! format, images, links, EDIT

Post 1

Agitprop assignment on the blog

Choose a project from the Agitprop! exhibition and write a short description about it. Keep in mind the previous readings and the segment of the documentary, Century of the Self, we watched in class. Then choose a second art project (not in the exhibition) that you connect to the first and compare and contrast them. Describe each project but also include themes in relationship to the other. What is similar? How does each of them reach an audience? Are the messages similar? What themes connect them or set them apart? Who made them? What are some of the philosophies or policies that affect each? Include two images and two links. (4-5 paragraphs) Assignments must be posted to the blog before 11pm on 9/27.

two tweets #actsofresistanceAIP

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Due 9/21

READINGS: Read through the Agitprop! website at the Brooklyn Museum

https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/agitprop

Articles online:

Art in America

http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/news-features/news/agitprop-at-the-brooklyn-museum-waves-of-dissent-legacies-of-change/

NYTimes

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/18/arts/design/the-art-of-politics-in-agitprop-at-the-brooklyn-museum.html

Wall Street Journal

http://www.wsj.com/articles/brooklyn-museums-agitprop-explores-the-fine-art-of-activism-1449658802

**Read the readings from last week if you did not already do so and prepare the quotes and description for each reading for collection in class (see the syllabus under 'Class Participation' for details)

Intro

Who do you think you are?

What is your role in media consumption, critique and/or media making. How much of who you are is measured against media examples and images? How much of our common experience involves shared mass media images, events and stories? Use several media examples to illustrate your description of your relationship to media.

Can you think of ways that the media covers activists, acts of resistance and protest? How do you feel about this relationship? Use examples to illustrate your answers. Your blog post must be at least 4 paragraphs and you must include at least one link and one image.

two tweets #actsofresistanceAIP (4 if you have not tweeted already)

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Due 9/14

READINGS

John Berger Ways of Seeing Ch7 on BLACKBOARD

Susan Sontag excerpt from On Photography

http://www.susansontag.com/SusanSontag/books/onPhotographyExerpt.shtml

**For those interested I will be attending the Guerilla Girls exhibtion Not Ready To Make Nice at SUNY Stony Brook after class at 3pm on 9/14. You are invited to join me.

http://zuccairegallery.stonybrook.edu/2016/08/not-ready-to-make-nice-the-guerrilla-girls-in-the-artworld-and-beyond/

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Link to the Syllabus

Link to Class screenings

Link to our twitter hashtag: #actsofresistanceAIP

Discussion guidelines

The course material and discussions can often be provocative and challenging. We must therefore be careful to be respectful of each other and of our viewpoints.

We must come to class prepared and ready to discuss the readings. Please keep discussions focused on the readings and class materials and keep examples relevant and appropriate. If you have not done the readings you are not to participate in the discussion.