Intervention Final Project - Angel Gonzales

 Art of Activism, Chapter 9 Utopia:

Quote: "They resist and object to discussing their own success. It’s as if they are afraid to allow these thoughts to enter their minds because acknowledging them will make it too difficult to return to the everyday reality of setbacks and struggle."

Her perspective/legacy:

Quote: "which is very interesting about legacy, what you going to leave after you die. But one thing you can leave always is a good idea and I really wanted to have this good idea to live after me."

Art of Activism, Chapter 2 Process: 

Quote: "Physical and mental space is key for creativity. A space away from the ordinary routines, obligations, and distractions of daily life."

An Introduction to Activist Art:

Quote: "When the public is looking away from suffering that could be prevented or does not want to be confronted with it, activist art often creates a dialogue and forces people to think about these problems."

For my final project, I will be performing performance art based around spreading awareness of homeless veterans in America. The reason I chose this topic is because it is a topic that I never hear being discussed. This situation is nowhere near mainstream talk and I find it insane how people who serve for this country’s freedom have to wind up living in the streets when their service is done. Even though my project is based around spreading awareness, I would also say that my message is to give people a different perspective on homeless people. Usually when one sees a homeless person they think of just a “bum” or that they wasted all their money on drugs and that’s why they're homeless. I want people to realize that they don’t truly know what these people have gone through. For all we know the homeless man that we always see at the path station is a veteran who is dealing with mental illness. During my performance I will be sitting on the floor with a sign that says, "Saying "Thank you for your service" isn't enough." There will be a hat laying in front of me for people to drop spare change in. Instead of using real money, I will be giving the audience blank dollar bills and have them write whatever amount they want, but the amount has to be realistic like 50 cents or a dollar. They can't write a thousand dollars on it as that is not realistic. I want the audience to have a choice as to what amount they would give a homeless person. After each person drops their money into the hat, I will be handing them a note that tells them statistics about the rate of homeless veterans in the U.S. Statistics such as "In January 2024, 32,882 veterans were experiencing homelessness in the US." Yoko Ono’s performance art “Cut Piece” gave me inspiration on how to make this project interactive with the audience. In Yoko’s performance she gave the audience the choice to cut off any piece of clothes from her while she was on stage. In my performance I am giving people the choice to put whatever realistic amount of money they would give a homeless man. The visit our class took to the Jersey City Theater to watch Perennial Land also gave me inspiration as to what I would perform. Perennial Land - Data Forrest presented their statistics in a clear and interesting way. We were able to read the data on environmental damage on the screen while seeing nature itself on the screen. I will be giving each audience member a note with statistics after they put their donation into the hat. This performance art is to tell people about the cruel reality that despite these men giving up their lives for our freedom, they will still be left behind by our government. The point I am trying to make is to give people a different perspective on homeless people. 

Resource list:

• https://endhomelessness.org/overview/ 

• https://news.va.gov/126913/veteran-homelessness-increased-by-7-4-in-2023/ 

• https://vimeo.com/106706806 

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GD5PBK_Bto 

• https://www.laiacabreraco.com/perennialland 

Instruction Poems + Primitive Games - Scott Bram

Instruction Poems

Juxtaposition

Enter the quietest place you know

Scream for five seconds

Enter the loudest place you know

Whisper for five seconds

Record how the surroundings responded

Scott Bram

____

Influence

Dress formally

Sit in front of a group of people with your chin up and a straight posture

In a clear, understandable, and charismatic voice, spew nonsense

Examples include:

"Have you asked your father about his real name? The answer may surprise you!"

"The real body of Ronald Regan is hidden in an underground bunker in Greenland."

"Only about 21% of livers are human-grade edible."

"Windows and locks were invented to increase the sale of hammers"

Thank the audience for their time

Leave

Scott Bram

____

The Definition

Take a piece of paper

Try to draw a circle with only straight lines

Repeat until driven to insanity

Scott Bram

Final project- George Ghattas

For my final project I am going to be finding a police brutality video and show it to my friends in a close room. After watching the video my friends are going to write their reactions of the video on a piece of paper and put it inside my bag and I will open it for the first time during the class and read what they said. I will though have a conversation with them about it when the video is over to see if there’s reaction is the same as what was written or different

chapter 9 + final intervention project DRAFT - fatima flores

the art of activism: ch. 9

“The joy of making our own free party instead of paying for over-priced drinks at a club was a lot of fun, but there was a political objective as well: to change people’s perspective about their everyday urban experience.”

- the activists in the late 1990s wanted to people in new york to live a little, and creating a party in a subway car makes it 100 times better. they wanted people to change their minds of, out of all places, new york because it’s the “city that never sleeps”. i understand why the activists created a lively environment, because it doesn’t matter the night of the ‘subway car party’, it’s what happens the morning of it. 

“ Our goal was to revitalize public spaces in the community and to encourage the creation of a vibrant civic society that could make this happen.We planned out an entire creative campaign with multiple objectives. We brainstormed dozens of tactics. We had a grand plan, but with less than a day to enact something, we decided to execute one of the simplest pieces proposed: to build the waterfront beach dreamed of by the people in the neighborhood.”

- they tried re-created the neighborhood’s dream, the residents of the neighborhood expected something big; even though dreams sometimes come true, this one didn’t. this performance piece was smart, the residents wanted something big and exciting in their neighborhood. their performance piece makes you think, “what they dreamed of, will never become a reality.” it’s upsetting to think that the neighborhood wanted something that they can all enjoy, but the activists wanted to show what they expected instead of making it come true. 

DRAFT

my final project will be a continuation of my midterm project of black lives matter. the idea is to place pieces of tape on my arms, with the names of black people who were killed by police officers. with the written names on the tapes, people would rip off the tape and say the name that’s written on it, then once they rip the tape off, they take a moment of silence of the victim. this idea came from black protesters, reading the names of victims killed by police. this takes me out of my comfort zone, at the same time, i stay inside my zone; i don’t enjoy being looked at, making eye contact, or being center of attention but i enjoy staying quiet, so doing this makes me stay in between both in and out my comfort zone. my materials is a roll of masking tape and a marker, and this will be done in a public place, possibly at the mall. the message of my performance is to remember the innocent victims of black lives, knowing that by the color of their skin, it what makes a them a target for people i want the audience to not forget that their lives was worth more, because once an innocent black person is murdered, they forget soon after.

 

Chapter 9 + Draft Project - Aileen Herrera Ojeda

 Chapter 9:

"We seem to spend much more of our time and attention focusing on what keeps us down instead of looking up."

Especially true now with the amount of information we have that is readily available to us, it is fairly easy to fall and spiral and to start imagining only horrible scenarios. We really need to shift our focus towards something more positive, while still knowing and fighting for justice

"...it’s remarkable how similar and relatable these ideal worlds are. As diverse as people are, it seems we share some common dreams."

It's really sad to think that we all strive for the same things, like comfortability, love, safety, and happiness yet we let such trivial things separate us and stop us from everyone equality living those dreams. But at the same time, it is comforting we are all the same.

Draft Project:

For my final activism project, I want to focus on the topic of immigration and the overall theme of being empathetic. In my previous project I had the imagery/symbol of a butterfly which is used a lot in immigration rights movements, I want to continue that imagery in this final. An idea I've had since the beginning was to wear butterfly wings that on the back would say something along the lines of “be the voice who can’t use theirs”. I don’t want the message to be outright since I’m planning to do this outside of campus, and don’t want to come across nasty people. Along with the wings I was thinking of handing out stickers in the shape of a butterfly that would have “be empathetic” on it. I might also make a zine, if time allows it. I relate my project to that of the guerrilla girls, in the sense of having some type of costume in order to attract attention for their message. 

Chapter 9 + Rough Draft - Christopher Cruz

 Chapter 9:

Q: “And, as important, it is a vision of a better world that other people can also fight for, no matter what their relationship is to the Texas prison system”

R: This to me is powerful as it is a goal toward bettering the world regardless of their ties or connection to the Texas prison system. Even if the people have history to the Texas prison system, people are going beyond that to fight for the world and vision of a better one. This implies that the results matter more than the past.

Q: ”We’ll share our theory of power with you now: The dominant system doesn’t dominate because most people agree with it, it dominates because we can’t imagine an alternative.”

R: This is very true. People who cannot imagine this alternative end up being realistic, but somewhat negative or closed-minded about it. Efforts for an alternative are seen as futile though I feel these types of people forget that change and creating an alternative doesn’t happen overnight. It is a process, sometimes a painstaking one, to achieve an alternative that does not crumble under the stress and pressure.

Rough Draft

Abortion rights is a current problem we face post-overturning Roe v Wade. This blow to women's autonomy and essential rights has impacted women severely. 20 out of 50 states have some sort of restriction on abortion. Some states totally ban it while others have near-total bans with a few exceptions to it. This is detrimental as abortion is “a tool to express woman autonomy” (Cato). To further add insult to injury, there are men who are saying  “It’s not my problem” or other related phrasing regarding abortion rights.

My performance, (Name WIP) is a performance where men are involved in this conversation via slips of folded paper that focuses on the empathic and responsible roles men abandon. These slips will encourage men to be empathic towards their partners or whoever in their life or in general regarding this issue and how it affects them. It also will encourage them to be responsible for the out of intimate moments as well as make them take a stance on the matter. At the bottom of the slip will have the participants pledge to do what the slip encourages them to do. They then will deposit their slip into a box with two cut openings. One for abandoning the pledge, and the other for it. I’m still currently working on how I can involve female participants and think the same premise should be applied to them. This will be done in GSUB as it is more accessible to everyone and there is more foot traffic.

Chapter 9 + Rough Draft - Teana Maitland

 Chapter 9 Utopia 

    Quote: "Many activists and artists operate under this premise: that the biggest problem we face is that most people don’t understand."

    Reaction: This quote stuck out to me because I feel as an artist you would want people to actually understand your art. Sometimes they don’t see what’s happening, or they don’t fully grasp the impact of it. So the work becomes about opening eyes, telling stories, making people feel something real. I also feel like even though people don't understand you shouldn't feel distraught or let down because some people really just may not know. 

    Quote: "Utopia is an image of a world we would like to inhabit. It draws us into the future and says to us: this can be yours if we move forward together as a society"

    Reaction: This quote stuck out to me because it gave me inspiration that if we all come together we can make the world we want, I also feel like this is why art is so important because even though we may not understand it like the last quote says I feel like it always bring people together which is something that the world need right about now. 

Rough Draft 

So my final project I want focus on how the trump administration makes black women feel unheard and not seen. During trump's terms there has been many policies put into place that disproportionately affect black women some policies that trumps admin has put into place for example one policy that is well know is his partaking of the abortion bans as stated in an article  "57% of Black women ages 15 to 49 (which the organizations consider reproductive age) live in states with bans or threats to abortion access, which have increased in the two years since the Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision." going to show atleast one of the policies trump put into place that affects black women. 

My final project will be called “Words They Gave Me” preformance will mainly focus on the stereotypes and harmful words that are used on black women especially during the trump adminstration where trump makes room for hate and even in general. I will wear all black and have sticky notes each saying word that they describe us black women including some that was said in the media and politics. I will stand in an area and remain silent while i allow people to look at me and either add or pull one of the post it notes. The words can either be encouraging or negative. I will need post it notes and somewhere to sit or stand where there is moderate traffic.