Hierarchical Power, Invisible Users

[caption id="attachment_43" align="alignleft" width="225"] IWW poster, 1914 "The Pyramid of Capitalism"[/caption] “Envisaging an art without artwork, without authorship, and without spectatorship has an immediate consequence: art ceases to be visible as such.” – Steven Wright Part of the confusion between high art, activist art and participatory art and vernacular forms…

Makers: Actors, Artists, … Users

Who makes activist/political arts? The individuals and groups who make this kind of cultural production are primarily: movement actors [e.g. activists] within the communities meant to experience and co-create the work; artists, cultural activists, tool-having professionals, also often from within the discourse communities. These groups are far from mutually exclusive…

Activist Art & Participatory Art

[caption id="attachment_33" align="alignleft" width="198"] People's Park sign, late 1960s, S.F.[/caption] What We’re Looking For The first place I began researching was in and around the concepts of “activist art” and “political art,” both of which are colloquial terms that I hear and use regularly.  I was hoping to find a…