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The Occupy with Art blog provides updates on projects in progress, opinion articles about art-related issues and OWS, useful tools built by artists for the movement, new features on the website, and requests for assistance. To submit a post, contact us at occupationalartschool(at)gmail(dot)com .

Entries in occupy with art (22)

Thursday
Dec132012

HOLIDAY REPAIRS & MAINTENANCE FOR OwA

FYI: Occupy with Art [occupywithart.com], our OwA archive & nexus, is temporarily located HERE [at artforhumans.squarespace.com] while we do some needed maintenance.

Beckley, WV Christmas Parade [2003 by Paul McLean]

Wednesday
Nov282012

OwA Website to be included in Tamiment Library Web Archive

Occupy with Art has been contacted by Tamiment Library for the purposes of inducting the site into Tamiment's Web Archive. OwA is excited about the prospect, and we will keep you updated on the progress of our discussion with TL. YOUR FEEDBACK IS WELCOME AND ENCOURAGED.



[EXCERPTS FROM THE CONTACT EMAIL]:

 

 

Hello,
 
The Tamiment Library, New York University (a special collection documenting labor and progressive social activity) has identified your website, Occupy with Art, http://www.occupywithart.com, as a vital publication for current and future researchers.  I am an archivist working on the Economic and Social Justice web archive, which contains websites of entities concerned with promoting economic and social justice in the United States. A specific area of concentration is the Occupy Wall Street Movement that began in September, 2011.
 
Materials in this archive are strictly for educational and scholarly research purposes. 
...
The archiving tools we use are provided by the California Digital Library (CDL), which is part of the University of California.  These tools were initially funded by the Library of Congress in an effort to preserve our digital cultural heritage.
 
...
 
We hope you will agree that your site is an extremely valuable part of the historic record.  These materials will serve as a resource of lasting value for researchers, and the archive may well be of use to your own organization in the event that you should need to easily review older information.

 

[ABOUT TAMIMENT LIBRARY]

History & Description

The Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University form a unique, internationally-known center for scholarly research on Labor and the Left. The primary focus is the complex relationship between trade unionism and progressive politics and how this evolved over time. Archival, print, photograph, film, and oral history collections describe the history of the labor movement and how it related to the broader struggle for economic, social, and political change.

In 1977 the Robert F. Wagner Archives was established as a joint program of the New York City Central Labor Council and the Tamiment Library. The Wagner is the designated repository for the records of the Council's more than 200 member unions. Today the Library has an extraordinary research collection documenting the history of organized labor in New York and the workers who built the City.

Tamiment has one of the finest research collections in the country documenting the history of radical politics: socialism, communism, anarchism, utopian experiments, the cultural left, the New Left, and the struggle for civil rights and civil liberties. It is the repository for the Archives of Irish America, the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives, and a growing Asian American labor collection.

Read more about the history of the Tamiment Library.

Collection Development Policy

Tamiment's archival collections, manuscripts, oral histories, photographs, films, videotapes, books, serials, and pamphlets document the history of labor, socialism, communism, anarchism, utopian experiments, the New Left, and the post-New Left as well as the social and cultural contexts in which these movements functioned.

Full Collection Development Policy Statement



Sunday
Oct212012

UMass/Amherst: The Arts of Protest Series [Oct23]

2012 Arts of Protest Series Presents:

Public/Poets and Protest/Space: A Discussion with Four Occupy Poets,

                       Tuesday, October 23, Machmer E-23, 6:00pm.

 

Travis Holloway is a Goldwater Fellow in Poetry at NYU and a Ph.D. Candidate in Philosophy at SUNY-Stony Brook. He was a Fulbright Scholar to Germany in 2010-11 for a dissertation entitled “How to Perform a Democracy” and, upon his return to the United States, organizer of the first “Poetry Assembly” at Occupy Wall Street. His primary interests include democracy, poetics, and the relationship between public art and social media. His recent work has appeared in The Nation, Guernica, and Symposium, on C-SPAN, and in the co=authored book, Occupying Wall Street: The Inside Story of an Action that Changed America (OR Books, 2011).

 

Paul McLean is an artist accomplished in new media and traditional fine art, a pioneer in dimensional production and integrated exhibit practice. He has exhibited in one-man and collective shows extensively since 1986, and is currently represented by SLAG Contemporary Gallery in Bushwick (Brooklyn, NYC). His research interests include media philosophy, specifically pertaining to time and systems; individual and collective expression; and the convergence of 4D methodologies among military, political, business and social sectors. McLean holds a B.A. in English with a Fine Art concentration from the University of Notre Dame (South Bend, IN), two Masters degrees from Claremont Graduate University (MFA in Digital Media, Masters of Arts & Cultural Management) and is currently a doctoral candidate at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland. He is a contributing writer for the Brooklyn Rail and other publications and has been blogging since 1999. McLean has been a co-organizer of Occupy with Art since September 2011, and is a founding member of the Occupational Art School Node #1 in Bushwick. He creates moving images for projection, art environments and the web; net.art, web and print graphics; paintings and drawings; poems, commentary fiction and non-fiction.  McLean lives and works in Bushwick.

 

Letta Neely is a Black dyke artist, feminist, and mother. She is originally from Indianapolis, IN where she survived the busing experiments of the 80’s. In the mid 90’s, she lived in New York City where she was a member of the Black Star Express Collective and taught poetry to youth in the five boroughs. She currently resides in Boston with her wife, niece, and daughter. Letta explores the various textures, technologies and intersections of race, sex, sexuality, class, gender, economics and liberation in her daily living.  Hence, her work focuses most intently on the connections and intersections of queerness, blackness, and awareness. 

 

Letta is also teacher, poet, playwright and freelance writer whose books Juba and Here were finalists for the Lambda Literary Awards. In addition, Here was a Triangle Award finalist. She has been New York Fellowship for the Arts recipient (1995), a finalist for both the Massachusetts Cultural Council Poetry Fellowship (2002) and the Astraea Lesbian Writer’s Award (1999).  Ms. Neely is a two time winner of the OutWrite National Poetry Slam (1996, 1998) and in 2001 she was named the Best Local Author by Boston Phoenix readers. Her work has been included in various anthologies, literary journals and magazines such as: Through the Cracks; Sinister Wisdom; Common Lives, Lesbian Lives; Rag Shock; African Voices, Rap Pages, Catch the Fire ,Does Your Mama Know, The World in Us, Best Lesbian Erotica 1999, and, Roll Call—a Generational Anthology of Social and Political Black Literature & Art. Her play Hamartia Blues which was produced by the Theatre Offensive in 2002 has been nominated for two IRNE awards.  A second play, Last Rites, received a staged reading with the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, CA and a world premiere production with The Theater Offensive at the Boston Center for the Arts. In 2011, Neely was awarded a fall residency with the Garderev Center and was a finalist for the Brother Thomas Fellowship. Currently, she is a recipient of the 2012 Winter Creation Fund Award from the National Performance Network and along with The Theater Offensive, a grant recipient from NEFA’s Expeditions program.

 

April Penn is a Boston-area poet who frequents the Cantab Poetry Lounge and has been involved in Occupy Boston protests. She is a member of the Boston Feminists for Liberation and considers herself a poetry blogging fiend with plans to write 365 poems a year for the rest of her life. She originally hails from Hammond, Louisiana and Baltimore, Maryland but loves Boston best of all! She has been published in Amethyst Arsenic, Snake Oil Cure, and Spoonful

Sunday
Sep022012

CO-OP at b.j. spoke Gallery [Photo Array]

OWS Photos by Steve O'Byrne for CO-OPFor CO-OP exhibit at b.j. spoke Gallery opening next weekend in Huntington, Steve O'Byrne will be exhibiting a beautiful and compelling set of OWS photos culled from the remarkable documentary body of work Steve has assembled after nearly a year covering the movement. Click the image above to visit the photographer's Flickr site to see more of his great pictures.

Monday
Aug272012

New OwA ads for the September issue of Brooklyn Rail

Brooklyn Rail ad for September

Brooklyn Rail ad for September

Saturday
Aug112012

[CO-OP]: @b.j. spoke Gallery [BETA][Draft]

Image by Paul McLeanCO-OP at b.j. spoke gallery
by Paul McLean
Co-organizer, Occupy with Art


1

A half-block from the intersection of Wall Street and Main Street in Huntington, Long Island, you'll find b.j. spoke gallery. Here's its history, from the gallery website:

>>
b. j. spoke gallery, incorporated and not-for-profit, is an artist-run gallery of professional artists with a broad diversification of styles and media.

April 1990 marked the inaugural show of two newly merged Long Island cooperative galleries, Northport Galleries and B. J. Spoke Gallery.

Spoke Gallery began in 1976 at a Port Washington site and later moved to neighboring Sea Cliff, New York. In 1980 Northport Galleries was established in Northport and seven years later moved to Huntington, NY.

Because of the ongoing friendship of the two galleries, the idea of a merger was enthusiastically accepted in 1990 by both memberships.

<<

2

b.j. spoke is divided into three areas. Occupy with Art in September of 2012 will present CO-OP in b.j. spokes' central gallery. Our location within the brackets of the other two galleries, which will show member artists, reflects OwA's desire to support the mission of this important Long Island art organization, which has long advocated partnership between the artist and public as an "essential relationship."

Since the first exhibit OwA facilitated, "Occupy Printed Matter," in 2011, Occupy with Art has sought to establish bridges between Occupy Wall Street's artist activism and the artist activism that has emerged since the 70s in New York, and around the world. In "Wall Street to Main Street," for example, we partnered with renowned curator Geno Rodriquez, founder and former director of the Alternative Museum. OwA worked with Yoko Ono to manifest her project in support of OWS, "Wish Tree for Zuccotti Park." Now, with CO-OP, we are calling attention to the important contributions of artist-operated non-profits like b.j. spoke in providing important venues for underserved artist communities in areas outside major retail art markets. b.j. spoke and galleries like it have done great service to the 99% art world and the people for whom art is more than a luxury item or vehicle for speculation.

3

CO-OP is a dimensional art project. CO-OP is first and foremost a small collective show, an exhibit, as such. It is a template or model for occupational art practice, demonstrating one way that Occupy artists can partner with pre-existing arts organizations as an expression of solidarity. among 99% artists and our communities. CO-OP is a conceptual project, in which we will link co-operative food networks and artists within the medium of gift exchange for mutual aid and benefits.

4

Conceptual art typically requires an explanation for the viewer to engage the artwork or process fully. Concept, or idea art, is often meant to start conversations. OWS, which has started or re-started many important conversations, has itself been described in terms of art. CO-OP is meant to start conversations about sustainable art and artist economies for the 99%. OwA co-organizers are drawing on the successful history of co-operative food networks, as inspiration for propositions about new methods of exchange for art.

To summarize what has been a discussion spanning many months, OwA will partner with the Huntington food co-op (OwA co-organizer and Huntington resident Chris Moylan is one of the owners) to intertwine the exchange of art for co-op members, with the exchange of food for artists (or money, as a default or swap). Our art for food exchange, in this initial attempt, is rudimentary: the values are based on 1 to 1 ratios. An artwork valued at $20 can be exchanged for $20 worth of food. Huntington co-op members will be invited to select art and the artists will select food items for straight barter.

We will consider variations on the exchange (enthusiastically). The paper bags installed in the space with the art work are included primarily as symbols and signs of our micro-economy. CO-OP permits contemporary art to enter the consumer portable sector of the cultural economy, for which the brown paper bag has long been a staple. However, you'll see that our shopping bags are not exactly like those branded types a shopper fills with goods in SOHO, for example.

Gallery visitors are welcome to purchase art exhibited by CO-OP artists at full retail prices. b.j. spoke artists' work will not be included in this iteration of CO-OP, which is being conducted as a test of the process, essentially. CO-OP is also meant to raise awareness of local alternatives to the global art markets of Chelsea, for example, or the international art fair circuits.

We hope you enjoy CO-OP. Please don't hesitate to contact us with questions or feedback.

artforhumans [at] gmail [dot] com


Sunday
Jul222012

OwA UPDATE [July/August 2012]

Graphic by Paul McLean[NOTE]: We are pleased to announce a reformation of OwA, as we approach the first-year anniversary of the occupation of Liberty Square. Between now and the launch of OAS Node #1 in August, the Occupy with Art website will undergo an extensive overhaul. Some links may be broken in the process and features changed. We will be posting open calls for artists, proposals and project support. Several new social media campaigns and OAS/OwA iterations will be amended to the nexus site. We look forward to your participation on whatever basis you wish to contribute. Please direct all questions to artforhumans [at] gmail [dot] com.

Tuesday
Jul102012

CO-OP/Occufest Flyer

Download a printable flyer (8.5"x11" 300dpi TIF 18.5mb) HERE.

Tuesday
Jul032012

Wednesday
May302012

What Is the Soul of Occupy? [Draft/BETA][Introduction Notes; Section II, Part 1]

[revGames]

What Is the Soul of Occupy [Draft/BETA][Introduction Notes; Section II, Part 1]
By Paul McLean

Shane Kennedy [The Thomas Kinkade Experience]

>>
..."I know where I am, but I don't feel that I am where I am." The cognitive experience of the space in which the body moves is detached from the actual movement of the body in that space. It relates to mapping the potentially confusing transformations of a body in non-Euclidean topologies that are not as predictable as table architectures are supposed to be. What Caillois referred to here was some kind of "technology of movement" different from that of Euclidean space.

Caillois's reference to Saint Anthony reveals the "I" is dispersed into a depersonalized matter "whatsoever."
<<
- Insect Media: An Archaeology of Animals and Technology, Jussi Parikka (p. 99)

[Ambrose Curry]

surfing postures are primal
the triggers to remind us we should be surfing
are everywhere.The real fact remains 
we are interstellar beings and surfing is the link
to our primordial /molecular memory...

- Ambrose Curry

http://dannybryck.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/No-Room-For-Wishing-Image2.jpeg


[NOTES: The chronology of the text is not linear, but dimensional. On Saturday at BRIK Gallery in Catskill, Danny Bryck performed his play, "No Room for Wishing," a moving series of documentary soliloquies derived from interviews he conducted on site at Occupy Boston. I realized that the structure I'm aspiring to in the Soul of Occupy sequence of briefs is in some ways a correlation to the relational dynamics one might find on any given day at OWS, with the interplay of elements (time, images, texts, subjects, etc.) not necessarily existing compatibly, but simultaneously existing in proximity, at least temporarily. One medium for the co-existence of disparate parts in such scenarios is personal memory, and also other kinds of memory, such as history documentation or memory, also contiguous, if not exactly mutually ratifying. The record does not necessarily reinforce the individual recollection, which is probably a function of divergent emphases. Without going further, although there is much to explore here, the construct is dimensional, and one that I have attempted to represent in art arenas and other texts, as have others. So, for the reader the suggestion is that she suspend the desire to "get it," meaning the point of the text, for the purposes of recursion, since the text, which is actually more than a progressive series, although that is the case, too, will evade that play. In this realization, I recognized a significant flaw in the society, as it is moving, towards a test-based self-education programming format, in which answers are inevitably dispensed to students prior to the test. In such a flow, the student will feel entitled to the answer, even prior to the question being asked. When confronted with situations that do not or refuse to conform to that model, the student will usually feel offended, and critical of the test-giver. But what if the exchange has nothing at all to do with the test, the Bell Curve or some other scheme for distinguishing success and failure or mediocrity? The implications for a democratic society that reduces its educational complex to a recursive test-based system - in which all students (and this is wrong anyway) will receive the solutions prior to any other exploration - is significant, and significantly negative, for a number of reasons, which I won't list here. What I will say is that I refuse to participate with a system so organized, since in my assessment, it tends to subvert free thought. Such a system of answer-before-question is conducive to pre-determinism, and a certain disability of the adventurous mind. Understandably, for those who find comfort in routinely possessing answers to problems before they arise, without having to earn those answers per se, or practice solutions as proofs to assert correctness over falsity, a dimensional narrative architecture can be frustrating. Unfortunately for them, our future will not play along with the old answers. The future is [4] dimensional.]

Click to read more ...

Tuesday
May222012

What Is the "Soul of Occupy?" II [Draft/BETA][Preface]

Updated on Friday, May 25, 2012 at 12:18PM by Registered Commenteradmin

[Video link to US Military propaganda exercise sent by Jez]

What Is the Soul of Occupy?
By Paul McLean

II

Robert Henri: Snow in New York, 1902
Source: Artcyclopedia; photograph by Michael Weinberg  

>>
Do some great work, Son! Don't try to paint *good landscapes*. Try to paint canvases that will show how interesting landscape looks to you - your pleasure in the thing. Wit.

There are lots of people who can make sweet colors, nice tones, nice shapes of landscape, all done in nice broad and intelligent-looking brushwork.

<<

- Robert Henri, The Art Spirit

>>
America is one of the few countries where May Day, the International Workers' Day, is not even a holiday – ironically enough, considering the fact the date was chosen to commemorate events that occurred in Chicago, during the struggle for the 8-hour day in 1886. During the cold war, the idea of unions signing on to a statement like this would have been inconceivable: in the 1960s, unionized workers were known to physically attack Wall Street protestors in the name of patriotic anti-communism. But the collapse of state socialism has made new alliances possible, and, in making common cause with occupiers, and the immigrant groups that first turned May Day into a national day of action in 2006, working-class organizations are also beginning to return to their roots—up to and including, the ideas and visions of the Haymarket martyrs themselves.

[Later, in May, in Chicago]

The words might be diplomatically chosen, but there's no mistaking what tradition is being invoked here. In endorsing a vision of universal equality, of the dissolution of national borders, and democratic self-governing communities, nurses, bus drivers, and construction workers at the heart of America's greatest capitalist metropolis are signing on to the vision, if not the tactics, of revolutionary anarchism.

<<
- David Graeber, "Occupy's Liberation from Liberalism; the real meaning of May Day"


BACK IN TIME

there's such a feeling in my room
it's like i'm in another calendar year

the future seems dreadful
it's obvious to all
the times have changed no more
we are certain to fall

the future seems worthless
society to blame
the price is out of reach
american con-game

there's such a pattern of thought here
it's like i'm just another rock 'n roll fool

i want to go back in time
i want to go back in time

the future seems dismal
for us in mid-thirties
the general opinion
never escapes gerdes

there's such a feeling in my room
it's like i'm in another part of the crowd

the future r.stevie
may well give up the fight
i want to go back in time
i want to go back in time

the future seems dreadful
it's obvious to me
the times have changed no moore
we can certainly see

there's such a lack of emotion
it's like i'm justanotherrock'nrollfool

the future seems dreadful

©1986 r.stevie moore

[PREFACE]: ...Pondering the soul of Occupy, considering art and spirit, reflecting on the "American Spring."

Click to read more ...

Saturday
Apr212012

Occupy Forever

[Photo by Paul McLean]

Alicia McCarthy's painting (made in the 90s) on view at the newly renovated & re-opened Sugar in Bushwick/Brooklyn/NYC. As Richard Timperio said, "Occupy Forever!"

Worthy of note: Occupy with Art just passed the 100,000 mark in page views by 30,000 unique visitors, since September 2011.

Thursday
Apr192012

WS2MS: Stage 2 [Press Release]

PRESS RELEASE

For Release in All Media

April 18, 2012

WALL STREET TO MAIN STREET
STAGE 2


Catskill, New York – The second stage of the landmark exhibition cycle Wall Street to Main Street [WS2MS] commences in April and continues through the end of May 2012. WS2MS will offer a variety of creative, fun and educational opportunities for the communities of OWS and the Hudson River region to explore, evaluate and imagine 99% alternatives to the status quo.

Installations along Catskill’s Main Street have sparked sometimes-intense responses from the town’s citizens, since the festival opened here on March 17. The programming of WS2MS demonstrates the organizers’ and artists’ sustained commitment to establishing common ground for lively and spirited exchange. Our goal is to encourage democratic art and free speech. To that end we are trying to be responsive and responsible to our generous hosts, the people of Catskill.

The art in Wall Street to Main Street communicates the amazing breadth of emotion, vision, and drama that is Occupy, which Naomi Klein characterized as “the most important thing in the world now.” Art and artists have been central to OWS since the occupation of Liberty Plaza in the financial district of Manhattan on September 17, 2011. WS2MS offers viewers a window into the ideas, dreams and inspirations arising from the movement that has spread across the globe.

In Stage 2 of WS2MS, we will engage in skill-sharing workshops, demonstrations, performances, discussions, panels, tours and more.  Almost all the WS2MS Stage 2 events are being offered for free. As the program evolves through April and May, WS2MS, like OWS, will continually evolve and re-shape. That means more art exhibits, concerts and events will be launched over the remaining weeks in our schedule. See the WS2MS sampler listings below for details, or visit www.greenearts.org/ws2ms for the complete, up-to-date calendar.

  • WS2MS is proud to present the Buckminster Fuller Institute’s presentations “Practice Where You Occupy” with the Mobile Design Lab team discussing their water, food and energy solutions for Zucotti Park from 11am-1pm and “Solution Sets for Main Street” from 2-4PM (April 21, 408 Main Street).
  • The following Saturday, April 28, will feature “Change Is in the Air,” a seminar with Glenn Leisching based on our relationship with nature and familial ancestral heritage.
  • If you’re interested in making art, sign up for Emily Bruenig’s free screen printing and bookmaking workshop (462 Main Street on April 29 from 1-3PM).
  • If you’re just out for a walk and a great overview of WS2MS, join New York based artist and educator Ellen Levy and Occupy with Art organizer Paul McLean for a walking salon tour of the gallery and window spaces of WS2MS. The tour meets at the arts council, 398 Main Street, on Sunday May 6 at 11AM.
  • Green workshops include Franc Palaia’s Eco-Bulb demo/class, a 100% solar option for sheds and other buildings (May 12 from 1-3PM, 408 Main Street).
  • Canadian artist Joel Richardson will offer a two-day stencil painting workshop to help you create your own designs and a custom Suitman illustrating Catskill’s economic history (May 12 and 13, 10AM-2 PM, 473 Main Street - $50, with advance registration). 
  • For the literary crowd, on May 12 the poet Sparrow will host “Speaking to the Gods,” a reading and conversation about our relationship to the great poets at Occupy Books, 450 Main Street from 4-6PM. He will also host “Silence Poetry”  from 2-4PM.
  • “Awaken the Dreamer/Changing the Dream” on May 13 (10 AM-3 PM, 344 Main Street) will present a vision for an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling, socially just human presence on earth.
  • Poet, author and educator Sam Truitt will lead a day of panel discussions and workshops at Occupy Books on Saturday May 19 from 11 AM-4PM and with a reception from 5-7pm (details TBA on the GCAC website and here, closer to the launch date). 
  • Community artist extraordinaire Matt Bua will teach a sustainable living/drawing workshop, envisioning life off-the-grid (May 26 from 4-6pm).

For more info, contact:

  • Fawn Potash: fawn@greenearts.org
  • Paul McLean: artforhumans@gmail.com


View Larger Map

Friday
Feb242012

WS2MS: Press Release [#f24]

[NOTE: We've launched a section in our WS2MS Active Projects & Proposals area for 411 on the Catskill production, where you'll be able to find the latest updates and info on WS2MS art, artists, initiatives, events, activities, context, press and documentation. You can find out more about the WS2MS programming HERE.]

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


WALL STREET TO MAIN STREET

Six months after Occupy Wall Street (OWS) sparked a global 99% movement, Occupy with Art and Masters on Main Street launch "Wall Street to Main Street" (WS2MS) in historic Catskill, NY. Through a dynamic series of art exhibits, performances, screenings, happenings, public discussions, community- and family-focused activities, WS2MS will not only illuminate the amazing phenomenon of OWS, it will explore possible futures of the movement and build a creative bridge to connect the protests with the real needs and values of Main Street, USA. WS2MS opens March 17, 2012 in Catskill, NY. For additional details, see attached information. 

Click to read more ...

Saturday
Feb182012

Press Release for LOW LIVES: OCCUPY! [#f18]

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For further information, contact:
Paul McLean
Co-organizer, Occupy with Art
artforhumans@gmail.com

OCCUPY WITH ART ANNOUNCES
LOW LIVES: OCCUPY!


February 17, 2012 (New York, NY)–Occupy with Art will partner with international presenter Low Lives and The Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics to present “Low Lives: Occupy!,” a unique one-night-only program of live performance art, simulcast via an online streaming network to presenting host venues around the world. Low Lives: Occupy! will take place on March 3, 2012 from 6 – 10pm (EST). Mark Read, creator of the 99% Bat Signal / The Illuminator, will contribute a special projection and performance in conjunction with Low Lives: Occupy! in New York City.

Click to read more ...

Wednesday
Jan112012

Tuesday
Jan102012

Yoko Ono brings her project Wish Tree to Occupy Wall Street. 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
A short press conference will be held at Zuccotti park in Lower Manhattan on Saturday, January 14, 2011 at 1PM. Members of the OWS Arts & Culture & Occupy With Art groups will be distributing copies of an artwork that Ms. Ono created specially for OWS, and will be available to answer questions about to the project. 
 
Ono’s participatory project Wish Tree originated in 1996. It has since been re-imagined in various locations around the world, where people have been invited to write their personal wishes for peace and tie them to a tree branch. 
 
In accordance with the raid of Zuccotti Park, and its subsequent closure, and the ubiquitous nature of the Occupy movement, Ono has broadened the project. So now instead of literally placing wishes in the trees, she has made a postcard edition of 10,000 with written instructions to be distributed nationally by Occupy Wall Street groups. 

As a movement sparked by imagination, Wish Tree for Zuccotti Park encourages a continued re-imagination of OWS and the world we live in. 

Make a wish to any tree, in any occupation. 
 
About the Wish Tree project:

In Ono’s words (from http://imaginepeacetower.com):

“As a child in Japan, I used to go to a temple and write out a wish on a piece of thin paper and tie it around the branch of a tree. Trees in temple courtyards were always filled with people’s wish knots, which looked like white flowers blossoming from afar.

All My Works are a Form of Wishing.

Wishes can also be sent directly to Ono’s website and will be kept private. Ono assembles the wishes into another artwork, Imagine Peace Tower, based in Iceland.
 
 
Where: Zuccotti Park, Lower Manhattan – Broadway and Liberty Street
When: Sat. Jan. 14, 2012 1:00pm

Info: Project website: http://imaginepeacetower.com/yoko-onos-wish-trees 
Twitter ID: #IPTower
OWS Occupy With Art group: http://www.occupywithart.com/

Contacts:

Chris Cobb – occupypublishing@yahoo.com
Yaelle - contact@yaelleamir.com 

Thursday
Jan052012

Official Call for Entries/Presenters for Low Lives: Occupy!

Low Lives: Occupy!
INTERNATIONAL CALL FOR ARTISTS AND PRESENTERS

LLO_logo_small

Event Date: 3 March 2012
Deadline for proposals: 6 February 2012
www.lowlives.net
lowlivesoccupy@gmail.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Low Lives launches new program in partnership with Occupy With Art and The Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics.

On March 3rd, 2012, Low Lives: Occupy! an international platform designed to enable artists, audiences, and presenters in alliance with the Occupy movement to support the occupation, will transmit live performances, actions, and happenings online as they occur in real time around the world. Participating artists, artist collectives, Occupy groups, and presenters worldwide will expand the reach and visibility of the Occupy protests by broadcasting to an international community and audiences. The Occupy protests, and the myriad of perspectives and experiences related to this unique moment, will be amplified, explored, and experimented with, through Low Lives’ internet-based creative platform. Low Lives: Occupy! recognizes the powerful opportunity that is the presentation of performances from around the world, and invites artists to open eyes and minds by presenting a radical re-imagining of possible ways of existing and relating.

Over the past 4 years Low Lives has developed a platform that invites and enables artists, audiences, and presenting venues to "plug in and participate" from anywhere an internet connection exists. This technological platform brings a history of supporting artists’ full creative freedom to imagine new worlds and is now offered to artists interested to present work in solidarity with #OWS. Online documentation of the live event will allow Low Lives: Occupy! to inspire online audiences far into the future.

Click to read more ...

Thursday
Jan052012

Clarification

https://twimg0-a.akamaihd.net/profile_images/1571126371/Aa1uVwuCIAAQY8r_1_.jpg

This isn't our Twitter, but @occupywithart does a great job tweeting "art from and for the 99%," too! Click on the logo/image to visit their feed.

Sunday
Jan012012

New for 2012: OwA Suggestion Box!

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO MAKE YOUR 99% SUGGESTION!

Topic 1: "Occupy 2012"

Suggestions? Predictions? Directions? Projections?