Press Release for LOW LIVES: OCCUPY!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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

OCCUPY WITH ART ANNOUNCES
LOW LIVES: OCCUPY!

January 26, 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. Mark Read (creator of the 99% “bat signal”) will contribute a special projection and performance in conjunction with Low Lives: Occupy! in New York City.

Paul McLean, co-organizer of Occupy with Art, commented: “Occupy with Art is proud to present Low Lives: Occupy! in collaboration with the Hemispheric Institute of NYU. We hope to amplify the voice of the 99% (Mic: CHECK), and articulate our desires and dreams, as a transmission, relayed in real time to presenting partners (and occupations) around the globe. Low Lives: Occupy! will stage a sequence of unique encounters with the 99%, and Occupy with Art will serve, along with our collaborators, as facilitators and archivists for this event. We look forward with great anticipation to what promises to be a magical evening together celebrating Occupy and the Occupiers of Now.”

The Low Lives: Occupy! program will include over two dozen performance artists, Occupy groups, and artist collectives located worldwide in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street and the Occupy movement for the 99%. Participants will expand the reach and visibility of the Occupy protests by broadcasting to an international audience community. The Occupy protests, and the myriad of perspectives and experiences related to this unique movement, will be amplified, explored, and experimented with, through Low Lives’ internet-based creative platform.

Presenting partner and event organizer, Occupy with Art, will host the Low Lives: Occupy! live simulcast at OccupywithArt.com, providing the means for viewers around the world to access the program online. The Hemispheric Institute, presenting partner and official New York City venue for Low Lives: Occupy!, will present one live performance during the March 3 event, and screen all other selections in real time using live-streaming technology. Other presenting partners of Low Lives: Occupy! will present the simulcast in their own venues and public spaces.

Occupy with Art is an affinity group of the Arts & Culture Working Group of the NYC General Assembly for Occupy Wall Street. Formerly Occupenial, Occupy with Art is made up of artists, writers, curators, and art professionals lending their skills to produce art, cultural events and projects, with a particular focus on OWS itself as a social art process. Occupy with Art produces art projects, large-scale events, and exhibitions, working with Occupy groups as well as outside organizations.

Artist proposals for Low Lives: Occupy! are due February 6, 2012. Interested co-presenters must contact Low Lives in advance of that date. For information on proposal and presenter requirements, visit lowlives.net

###

Occupy Yoga News

Sat Nam and Hi,

So, this weekend, I'll be busy taking advantage of living on a planet, in a city, and try to appreciate the opportunity to breathe and jump and move in graceful ways in beautiful outdoor spaces.

But to make it even more fun, it requires a little bit more participation... Yours. So, I'm requesting sincerely for some participation this weekend... and bring a friend!

So this weekend we have some opportunities for you to join in some larger group activities....

Click to read more ...

WS2MS: Call for Co-Curators

[NOTE: As a result of feedback from Arts & Culture Working Group/OwA members, the selection process for Wall Street to Main Street has been adjusted to accommodate and address concerns about inclusivity and organizational integrity. The Call for Co-Curators below reflects the refinement of WS2MS suggested by the feedback of participants. For more info, see the organizational meeting report HERE.]

"Wall Street to Main Street" project organizers are calling for artists and art workers within the Occupy Wall Street movement to join the collaborative team coordinating and selecting proposals. 

"Wall Street to Main Street" is a collaborative art project linking Occupy Wall Street and the rest of America, via the small town of Catskill, NY.  The Occupy Wall Street Movement (OWS) has focused its energy on the need for justice for the 99%. This project offers a platform for creative expression and dialogue focusing attention on an economically depressed community through inventive art exhibitions and cultural events.

Co-curators are invited to participate in an online review and selection of works. Proposal review will occur between February 1 and February 7. Co-curators will view proposals online and rank each on a scale of 1 to 5. Works will be chosen based on the total combined scores of each artist. In addition, co-curators will be responsible for the organization and installation of a Main Street exhibition site requiring a 1-2 day visit to Catskill. 

Co-curators must be committed to participation during selection process and be available to attend 1-2 organizational meetings in New York City and an installation date between February 11 and March 16 in Catskill, NY in preparation for the exhibition launch on March 17th. Co-curators must be reliable, organized and reachable by phone and/or email. Co-curators will work closely with co-organizers Fawn Potash and Paul McLean. We are working to secure funding to cover the cost of transportation between NYC and Catskill with overnight guestrooms.

SEND SUBMISSIONS BY FEBRUARY 1, 2012 TO:

Fawn Potash, Masters on Main Street, Project Director

Attn: WS2MS Space Proposal and/or WS2MS Photo-Doc Entries

Greene County Council on the Arts

398 Main Street, PO Box 463

Catskill, NY 12414

fawn@greenearts.org

 

First Hand Account of Occupy DC Trip on Daily Kos by Occupy Astoria Member Mark Marone

My friend Mark Marone went to Washington DC for the Occupy Congress event and wrote a killer diary of his experience for the Daily Kos. It's good reportage. Check it out:

The Day at Occupy Congress: Levity In Revolution

Here's a great video of when he and some Occupiers went into Congresswoman Maloney's DC office and spoke with them about SOPA and NDAA, both of which she did not support. Occupy Astoria members live in her district.

Share OWS

[NOTE]: Occupy with Art is a proud participant in the new NYCGA Arts & Culture initiative Share OWS! Share OWS has been developed by Antonio Serna and refined/approved by consensus in the A&C Working Group meetings. Antonio sent this message today:

SHARE OWS is a new program from OWS Arts Network that facilitates the sharing of content being produced within the OWS movement. What does that mean? Anyone working within OWS/NYCGA is free to re-circulate art, writing, photography, poetry, and other content produced within the OWS movement and for the movement. Read more about it here: http://artsandculture.nycga.net/share-ows/

We need your help: If you are a member of a working group, collective, affinity group, or thematic group within OWS/NYCGA, please contact us so we can add you the SHARE OWS list: nycga-arts-and-culture-org@googlegroups.com or reach out to Arts & Culture on the A&C Forum (nycga) or here, at the 917 Wall Street Arts Google Group. You can also help by spreading the word about this program and asking other groups to participate!

[From the SHARE OWS PAGE]:

SHARE OWS IS AN ARTS & CULTURE PROGRAM TO CREATE SOLIDARITY WITHIN THE OWS
COMMUNITY THROUGH THE SHARING OF ART, WRITING, and ALL OTHER CONTENT FREELY AMONG WORKING GROUPS AND MEMBERS IN THE NYCGA/OCCUPY WALL STREET MOVEMENT.

Click to read more ...

Upcoming @Yes Lab

Dear New Yorkers:

Two Yes Lab things of local interest:

1. The revolution will be debated - again! This Thursday, and all through the semester, come meet the revolutionaries who have changed or are currently changing the world. The series kicks off this Thursday (at 7pm to 20 Cooper Square, 5th floor) with Carne Ross, the former British diplomat who who resigned in 2004 after giving then-secret evidence to a British inquiry into the Iraq War. He is also the author of the just-published The Leaderless Revolution, and will speak about the future of politics and how ordinary people will shape it. See the Creative Activism Thursdays site for full list of speakers (so far) and locations. Speakers will be added throughout the semester, so stay tuned! (The series is co-sponsored by the NYU Dean for Social Science, the Hemispheric Institute, the Yes Lab, the Humanities Initiative at NYU Working Research Group on Artistic Activism, CAA, and Not an Alternative.)

2. Also, starting next Friday, Feb. 3rd, from 10am to 6pm, come change the world with us during Yes Lab Fridays, a series of weekly brainstorms and trainings to help activist groups and individuals carry out media-getting creative actions focused on their own campaign goals. Participation is easy - just show up Feb. 3 and see how you'd like to plug in. We ask that you email us in advance, at nyu@yeslab.org, so we can give your name to the security guard. (Also feel free to tell us about yourself, your interests, and your skills.)

See you this Thursday!

Your friends at the Yes Lab 

OwA @Activist Technology Demo Day [EYEBEAM]

Occupy with Art will be a presenter at Activist Technology Demo Day.

Saturday, January 28

Jan 28 3~6pm at Eyebeam Art and Technology Center 

[Details TBA]

From Arab Spring to Occupy Wall Street, technology has played an important role in shaping contemporary resistance and the representation of these events in the media.

We do not believe technology is the main force behind these events and disagree with mainstream media’s phrases such as “Facebook Revolution” as it can lead to a misguided perception of the different movements in general and overshadow the more complex social conditions and regional characteristics specific to each. However we do believe technological innovation has always played a role in social movements and there is a need for collective investigation into the current potential of technologies deployed for activist purposes. Learning from Occupy Wall Street in the fall of 2011, we can collaboratively plot a blueprint for works in near-future.

  

                 

By using the term Activist Technology, we want to focus on tools of protest and occupation for this event.  We are curious about anything from strategic use of social networking sites to bicycle powered generators, instant architecture to anti-police violence suits, real-time video streaming to counter-surveillance tools. Our interest extends to the creative use of technology and designing its social implications.

We invite activists, technologists, artists, designers, and community organizers who have a working prototype or a proposal for collaboration to occupy a desk at Eyebeam Art and Technology Center, NYC on Jan 28 3~6pm. The Activist Technology Demo Day will be open to the public and promoted through Eyebeam and collaborators’ media channels. It will be an opportunity to meet with other makers with similar interests. The day will culminate with a discussion with members of the Eyebeam Urban Research Group and The Public School New York at 5pm.

Eyebeam Urban Research Group and The Public School New York

For more information on the organizers 

Tue - Sat, 12 - 6PM / 212.937.6580 / 540 W 21st St. New York, NY 10011

(map)

What Next? - Occupy Wall Street at the Crossroads

Image by Paul McLean

COUNTERPUNCH

Weekend Edition January 20-22, 2012

[LINK]

What Next?

Occupy Wall Street at the Crossroads

by ISMAEL HOSSEIN-ZADEH

Power concedes nothing without a demand

– Frederick Douglass

Occupy Wall Street (OWS), giving vent to the pent up anger of the 99%, has inspired the people in the United States and other parts of the world to expose capitalism for what it is: a profit-driven system that tends to enrich and empower a tiny minority at the expense of everyone else. The movement has successfully shown how the two-party machine of the US politico-electoral system has increasingly become a charade, as the moneyed 1% is essentially in charge of the government. Regardless of its shortcomings and how it would evolve henceforth, the movement’s achievements have already been truly historical, as it signifies an auspicious awakening of the people and a new spirit to fight the injustice.

Despite these glorious achievements, however, OWS does not seem to be growing. The initial excitement and novelty of the movement has dissipated, and the public has become almost indifferent to watching commando-like police raids and evictions of protesters from most of their encampments. Many of its potential allies such as larger numbers of working people seem to be taking a wait-and-see stance toward it.

Click to read more ...

It's the Political Economy, Stupid

Dance and the Occupy Movement

Dance and the Occupy Movement

January 25 WED 7:30pm

Presented by the Movement Research Studies Project

Organized by Abigail Levine

Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics 

20 Cooper Square, 5th Floor, at 5th Street  

"Exploring an expanded notion of choreography and how it is related to our social and political organization and discovery of ourselves as individuals working within a temporary collective... circling and questioning around ideas of a moving community."   --Movement Research Festival Spring 2011 brochure

"Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; occupy public space; create a process to address the problems we face, and generate solutions accessible to everyone."   --Declaration of the Occupation, NYC General Assembly

What are the points of contact between experimental, contemporary dance and the Occupy Movement? As spatial and embodied practice? As social investigation and organization? As improvisation and movement? As agents of change? How do and might these moving communities interact? How do we approach (public and private) space in New York City? Barbara Browning, Daniel Lang-Levitsky, Paloma McGregor, Clarinda Mac Low, and Edisa Weeks open a conversation about this creative political moment.

www.movementresearch.org

www.hemisphericinstitute.org



Occupy the Courts : [J20] Foley Square Rally to End Corporate Personhood Part 1

Uploaded by nothingofficial on Jan 21, 2012

New York City, January 20

On the occasion of the two year anniversary of the historic Citizens United v Federal Election Commission, in which a Supreme Court treated granted a corporation First Amendment rights, a high-energy rally was held at Foley Square. Among the excellent roster of speakers, Virginia Rasmussen, a member of POCLAD, offered a rare historical analysis of case law involving corporte personhood which dates back to the early 19th century. POCLAD or Program for Corporations, Law and Democracy is an activist collective that has focussed on the issue of corporate personhood for several years.

16 Beaver Group's Midwinter Retreat

[NOTE: 16 Beaver conducted a forum from January 7-15. Below is an excerpt. To review the propositions, click HERE.]

WELCOME TO THE NEW PARADIGM
or THE CRISIS OF EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE

A midwinter retreat, a modular molecular seminar
with Everyone

[SAMPLE PROGRAM]

Day 3 : Monday (09.01)

__________________________________________

Body Practices : Spatial Politics

"to attack the body is to attack the right itself, since the right is precisely what is exercised by the body on the street"

The use of Bodies and (in) Space have been two critical elements of the emergent political movements of 2011 (eternal?). This day will be dedicated to thinking about the spatial practices which have emerged over the last year. We would like to invite all those interested in these issues to join us. We will begin with a walk that will enter a kind of taxonomy of the sites and practices which have emerged this last Fall. We also hope the walk will also be a way to activate and enter the conversation which will take place in the evening, oriented toward some questions about the role of space and the use of bodies in liberating spaces, reasserting a common right to the city, and potentially blocking the flow of relentless enclosure.

Pt. 1 (walk) 5:30-7:30PM

Meet at 16 Beaver at 5:00

Pt. 2 (discussion) 8PM

Bodies and Spaces Matter: On Spatial Politics, Spatial Practices and the Performativity of Reclaiming the Common(s)

Squares, parks, streets, bridges, ports, banks, factories, offices, campuses, museums, gardens, farms, forests, rivers, atmospheres, houses, apartments, community centers, neighborhoods, zoning districts, cities, towns, villages, camps... No space is ever neutral; every space is governed in some form or another by various combinations of institutional and economic power at local, national, and planetary scales. In some cases, these spatio-political relationships are brutally evident, while in others they may be obscure, illegible, or simply taken for granted in the course of everyday life. From the encampments of Tahrir Square to the foreclosed homes of East New York and beyond, the movements of the past year have brought questions of spatial politics to the forefront of theory and practice, strategy and tactics.

These movements have involved the performative appropriation and transformation of physical spaces--whether officially designated "public," "private" or something in-between-- for common occupation and use. In doing so they have also necessarily raised questions about what Judith Butler, following Hannah Arendt, has recently called "the space of public appearance": who can appear where and when, doing what, and what are the conditions for this appearance? Social media networks and the spaces they create have clearly been one of the necessary enabling conditions for recent movements; but commentators have sometimes overemphasized the latter at the expense of "real" bodies assembling in physical spaces--and the forms of violence to which these assembling bodies have been subjected by police and security forces.

Given the central role bodies in space have played in the encampments and occupation movements, we thought to begin the weeday discussions with a focused inquiry into new uses of space and our bodies in the context of political struggle inside the city.

The evening will include a performative contribution to the debate by Randy Martin.

Among the questions to be explored this Monday include:

-- Does the meaning of "occupation" necessarily involve physical encampment of the sort that took place at Zuccotti Park?
-- What forms of life are prefigured in such occupations, and how might they relate to the transformation of political and economic life at larger scales?
-- What are some emerging spatio-political possibilities for New York as we enter the new year?
-- What have the spatial practices of these last months of occupy and experiments globally brought to the fore in terms of our thinking around the use of space?
-- How do they relate to or differ from the bodily ‘repertoires’ and spatial practices of past social movements?
-- What qualities do we associate with the postures, gestures, bodily movements we see in these movements?
-- How might techniques of physical occupation – including sleeping, eating, and reproducing life in a specific space – be understood as political speech in its own right?
-- How to understand these encampments both as temporarily ‘utopian’ realized places, where new - and more horizontal - sociabilities and redistribution of labor ‘immediately’ occur and also as sites of resistance, highly mediatized and completely surounded by the police? ...........(i don´t like this formulation but... how can we say something of this kind?)
-- What techniques of resistance and participation are being rehearsed here?
-- What have these processes revealed about the role of our bodies in the space of the city, in the space of political struggle?
--How to address the struggles for and through the use of space and body in light of the force and violence employed by the police body?
-- Is the occupation and liberation of new space in the city critical for sustaining these movements?
-- What kind of small-scale spatial experiments may potentially contribute to longer term goals of the movements?
-- What does it mean to occupy a space (like this), assembling (like this), and moving - or not moving (like this)?
-- What spaces are being contested and which new spaces are being created?
-- What are people fighting for when they struggle for these spaces?
-- How can these bodies -sleeping, eating, occupying … temporarly living there- be understood as signifying or embodying?
-- How is this “being there in person” different from representing …a political party, an agenda, a group of interests?

[REPORT BACKS?]

Mannahatta: OWS by Photojournalists

[From Vanessa Bahmani, whose work will be displayed]

The State of the Occupation Address: Where We’ve Gone and What to Expect from Occupy in 2012

Monday, January 30 at 7:00pm

A discussion and launch party for the publication of The Declaration of the Occupation of New York City, Second Edition.

Join Dr. Benjamin Chavis, co-founder of Occupy the Dream; Allison Kilkenny, contributor for The Nation  and co-host of Citizen Radio; Malik Rhasaan, co-founder of Occupy the Hood; Rachel Schragis, designer of the Flow Chart of the Declaration of the Occupation, Ryan Devereaux reporter for The Guardian by way of Democracy Now!; with Julie Gueraseva and Andy Stepanian of The Sparrow Project as they discuss where Occupy has taken us, where it can bring us, and what to expect in 2012.

The Declaration of the Occupation of New York City booklet is a collection of the official statements drafted by the New York City General Assembly, a Letter from the Occupiers at Tahrir Square to the Occupiers of Wall Street, and an expanded resource list for occupiers to organize and network with. Taking inspiration from the pamphlet that sparked the Mai 1968 uprisings in Paris, France, the crowd-funded, design-savvy Declaration has already received acclaim from Vanity Fair, Current Television, and other forward-thinking media outlets.

Twenty thousand copies of The Declaration of the Occupation of New York City will be made available for free during the event. Attendees are encouraged to each take a bundle and help distribute them around the city.

Related video http://vimeo.com/32069003.

MORE INFO HERE.

Bookstore Cafe

126 Crosby Street

Map | Directions

NATIONAL OCCUPY ARTS CALL -- Occupy 2.0: The Next Phase

NATIONAL OCCUPY ARTS CALL -- Occupy 2.0: The Next Phase

Wed, Jan 25th at 10pm EST/7pm PST

To register for the call, go to: http://bit.ly/x7WM1S

(You only have to register once, so if you registered for the first call, that call-in information is all you need)

The Occupy movement started with encampments in public and private space, but Occupy communities across the country have been exploring what the next direction of the movement will look like. Art and culture has taken a lead role in many of the varied and innovative answers to the "next phase" question. How art is supporting or leading these efforts will be the topic of this next national Occupy arts conference call. Please join us!

We are looking for presenters for this call. If you are doing art and culture work that supports moving the Occupy movement in new directions, please let us know if you would like to present on the call. Just send a short description of your project with the project's contact info and web presence to: InterOccupyArt@gmail.com  If you know of artists whose Occupy work fits this theme, please forward this to them.

And everyone should feel free to post ANY Occupy art projects they are working on to our new InterOccupy Art Facebook page! (And "Like" the page while you're at it!): http://www.facebook.com/InterOccupyArt

Moving forward,

InterOccupy Arts Call Planning Committee



Four Months Ago [Today]

From Liza Bear:

New York, September 17 --the Global Revolution comes to New York in Zuccotti Square in a rally/general assembly to protest corporate greed at the expense of human need.

Great #j13 MoMA Action Coverage at ARTFAGCITY

Occupy Museums meeting beneath Sanja Iveković's "Lady Rosa of Luxembourg"

[EXCERPT]:

On Friday night, Occupy Museums — in conjunction with Arts and Labor, 16 Beaver, and Occupy Sotheby’s – conducted an exceptionally clear and efficient GA under Sanja Iveković’s controversial feminist monument Lady Rosa of Luxembourg, while a small group from Arts and Labor demonstrated with OWS banners and a flugelhorn outside the museum. Though “this isn’t Wall Street” was the general response from museum visitors, articulate speakers pinpointed specific issues. Feasible goals were set.  The crowd, of about fifty people in the atrium and a combined sixty looking down from MoMA’s three landings, included a notable increase in women and academics.

[LINK]

OWS Photos by Vanessa Bahmani

My name is Vanessa Bahmani, and I'm a Brooklyn based artist and photographer. I've been working on an Occupy portrait series since early October. I want to share this work with your group and be part of larger occupy arts collaborations.

My work is a compilation of over 1,000 black and white film Occupy Wall Street Portraits taken at the various occupy NYC and occupy Oakland, locations. I simply set up a photo booth on-site, hand people a dry erase board and marker, and ask them to write their reasons for being at OWS. Since early October I have photographed over 200 veterans, pilots, families, children, students, doctors, investment bankers, and even wall street employees and members of the 1% that seek change for our country. The thoughtfulness and sincerity that people have shown has inspired me to pursue this work and expand it. One of the unique things about my work is that I've grouped images into collages for example families, children, students, teachers and graduates. I did this to show that despite the various ethnic, financial or demographic differences, they all share the same concerns and values for the future of this country.

My work has been featured at the RUSH Arts gallery in Chelsea (Dec. 2011), and on the CURATE NYC on-line exhibit. This project is important because it is documenting a moment in history when thousands came together with the common goal to create a more just and fair society for everyone.  I believe that by giving this work exposure, I can amplify the volume of the voices of the 99%.

This work has been featured in the Huffington Post, Global Grind, and Turnstyle.

Thank you for your time and consideration. Happy New Year, may 2012 be occupied by your dreams and aspirations!

Here is a link to my Kickstarter to put it all into context: http://bit.ly/occupyportraits

- Vanessa

http://vanessabahmani.com/OWS/OWS.html

Ninety Nine

Hi,

my name is Maddalena Ugolini, I am an Italian photographer, in Florence I have already exhibited my works and now I am preparing my first exhibition in DC, the city where I live now. I just finished my photography project of Occupy DC, movement in which I actively participated in the last three months. 

"Ninety-nine" is the title of this series of ninety-nine portraits photographed at McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza, the two occupied squares in Washington DC. Here men, women, children, students, workers, businessmen, teachers and unemployed people are following the movement of Occupy DC in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street. These people, most of whom have been living and sleeping in tents since October , gather to give voice to a substantial majority of the population to protest and oppose the logic of greed, injustice and corruption linked to a small percentage of wealthy and powerful people. The latter category represents one percent of the population, so here comes the pretext of the number of portraits: ninety-nine. Ninety-nine percent of us. The messages they have written and hold in their hands are messages of justice, love and freedom which describe in a simple but sincere way their desire  for optimism and confidence in a better future .

Here my website where you can find this project and a link of an italian webmegazine where it has been published.

• _www.maddalenaugolini.com
• _http://www.teladoiofirenze.it/cultura-firenze/ninety-nine-occupy-dc-progetto-fotografico-di-maddalena-ugolini/

Thank you very much. 

Maddalena