THIS IS NOT A SPECTATOR SPORT

For the past several weeks, post-WS2MS, most of the work for Occupy with Art has been taking place off-grid as we prepare to launch Occupational Art School and our other upcoming projects, such as CO-OP/Occuburbs. Temporarily, the OwA Facebook page has been the nexus for the OwA constant data stream. We have been documenting the unfolding LIBOR scandal and conspiracy, the drumbeat of Occupy-Is-Dead stories, the censorship of coverage of global protests, corruption of democracy at national to local levels, the consistent efforts by multinational corporations and their proxies to co-opt and monetize every aspect of human society, accelerating campaigns to convert de-colonized/liberated sovereignties into permanent militarized surveillance + police + prison states serving 1% interests, the perpetuation of de-humanizing conditions such as endless wars (on "terror" or "drugs"), closed-door negotiations by plutocrats who deign and collude to brutally and insidiously determine humanity's future from the top-down... and the stunning, courageous actions of individuals operating, usually with no visible means of support, against these forces of oppression, greed and hate.

Please be patient while we format the 2.0 iteration of our enterprise. Or rather, don't be patient. Get off your fucking ass and do something. 

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!

OwA Update [Christmas Day, 2011]

Photo by Paul Talbot

Dear Occupiers!

Santa's elves have been helping us with OwA this Holiday Season, because we've been such good 99%ers!

We've added some new social media sites to our OwA platform:

• Occupy with Art Twitter
• Occupy with Art Facebook [Community Page]
• Occupy with Art Facebook [Profile]

We've added two new Active Project Proposals to that section:

• Wall Street to Main Street, with my essay and a "Suggestion Box" - more about the Suggestion Box concept soon; expect more WS2MS project info in the next week, as we prepare to launch the international call for entries, and include more details on the initiatives we're planning for this substantial and exciting production.
• CO-OP|occuburbs, with Chris Moylan's awesome essay serving as the start-point; the second part of Chris' "Occuburbs" will soon be posted, along with outlines of this program

You'll be hearing about developments in two other OwA projects, "Low Lives: Occupy" and another TBA, in the next week or two.

We've added many more links with other Occupy websites, online sources and resources in our site tree, including:

• Off-site photo galleries
• A blog roll in the OwA Journal
• New Occupy links

Other sections (like OWS Stories, the Poetry/Music section in the art database, AH Journal, etc.), have been updated with links to outside sites dedicated to the subjects in our archives and listings. OwA is hoping to continue to serve as a comprehensive nexus for occupant art in 2012.

OwA co-organizer Chris Cobb has launched Occupy Publishing and is moving forward with an outstanding and important project for February (see his site for more details). Photographer Paul Talbot continues to expand our OwA Photos section with galleries covering occupations, actions and the 99% who make them happen. You can expect more beautiful and compelling camera work from Steve O, Monty and new team members in the coming year, contributing images that capture the power and vision of Occupy.

There's much more, but I'll stop there, and get back to the egg nog and candy canes, leaving you with a link to a December 25 poem I wrote for the occasion.

Onwards!

co-organizer p