Update: Activist Technology Demo Day & Other Occupy Art News

At EYEBEAM, on Saturday [j28], Occupy with Art participated in the Activist Technology Demo Day, along with other occupiers like the OWS Tech Ops, and the folks who McGyvered the bicycle-driven generators at Zuccotti Part during the occupation last fall. Some amazing apps were on display, with the app-makers on-hand to answer questions and bandy around new ideas for collaborations and exchange. It was a really great event! OwA co-organizers Chris Cobb, Paul McLean and Seth Wulsin passed out Yoko Ono/OWS Wish Tree cards to the many attendees packing the workshop/presentation space, and talked about the projects we're working on for 2012. Paul Talbot came by to photograph the event (we'll post those when they're processed), and CO-OP/Occuburbs/-fest coordinator Chris Moylan came by as well. Quite a few folks from OWS and Arts & Culture supported, too, including Owen, who's working with Rachel Shragis on translations of the Declaration Flow Chart, and Jez of Archive WG, who was still wearing the (fake) bloody shirt he'd worn for his kickoff performance at the previous evening's Occupy Museums intervention at MoMA. We displayed the new blanks of the Declaration with the finished print at our table (see photos), along with handmade signs by Chris Cobb, some flyers from the occupation, relevant texts, and Adrian Rocchio's GA hand signal prints. An informal panel inspired some passionate conversation about technology's impact on activist praxis, at one point almost switching to People's Mic mode, when the wireless microphones glitched out.

Some notable activist tech people/projects:

• Vibe app: a new GeoSocial App with which users send Mini-Blogs with Anonymous and Self-Destruct options.  http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/vibe/id433067417?mt=8

• Augmented Reality Activists: an archive, a meeting place, and a  knowledge center for activists working with augmented reality  http://augmentedrealityactivists.blogspot.com/

• Signal Strength:  It consists of modules for ad-hoc social networking that let people in an urban area interact offline, leveraging their mobile phones for untraceable communications. http://www.ameliamarzec.com/signalstrength.html

We were able to meet-up with these folks to talk about their participating in some of our 2012 programs, like Wall Street to Main Street and CO-OP, and the Space Team residency at Hyperallergic (which starts on Wednesday - more details soon).

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Other Occupy Art News:

• Occupy Museums is on a tear! Check out the latest news, photos and video HERE.
• Occupy Town Square is happening right now at Washington Square Park! Get on over there!
• The Novads' Salon IV was, we heard, "loads of wild fun - think all the freedoms we enjoyed in the park this Fall, but indoors :)" - kudos to the Revolutionary Gamers and all who joined in on another memorable occupy-fun happening!
• The Tax Dodgers hit one out of the park last week & are planning a doubleheader for next week. Stay tuned for details!