An Artsadmin project allowing young people to express their socio-political opinions through processes including performance, discussion and happenings. The project involved a group of 16-25 year olds who met weekly between February and April ’08 to discuss political issues that affect them and their communities. Participants worked with artist Richard DeDomenici and a selection of invited guest lecturers to see how they can actively bring awareness to the issues affecting the group.
Last week, I wrote a letter asking SC Johnson for donations for the Make it Smell Nice intervention. Theres a post around here somewhere on it. SC Johnson finally replied, and alas no such luck on their support. Below is their reply:
Dear Ms Amjad Thank you for your enquiry regarding donations from SC Johnson. While SC Johnson appreciates the worthy cause supported by your efforts, we must regretfully decline. We have enclosed our Guidelines, which explain our Giving Back policy, and illustrate that we cannot possibly be involved in all that we would like. Although we cannot help, we do wish you success and thank you for thinking of S C Johnson. Yours Sincerely Martin Wilkins Customer Service Supervisor SC Johnson
So I did a similar piece to Joanne, going off on inanimate objects.
Walking past a TV shop with my cousin I start shouting at the TV:
‘I am tired of you always asking for a break, you’ll be back in 5 minutes!?! No more breaks I want to talk! I just wish I could get over you. I go away and when I come back you have changed 434 this week 343 next week and I checked you listings, who the hell is Nollywood, that wasn’t there last week!
My cousin thought I was Bananas! She thought it was funny how I was playing on the ads and new channels etc. She didnt really get the concept but we had an interesting chat about Political Art after that.
Richard devised a series of questions that the group researched live on a selection of laptops.
Each group had 10 minutes to research the posed question and then presented their findings.
Question 1
This picture was taken yesterday in Athens.
Who is the man standing behind Liu Qi, president of the Beijing Olympics organising committee, what is he doing, and why?
RESPONSE
The man holding the flag is a reporter from the group Reporters without Borders. RWB campaign for freedom of speech amongst journalists. Each year RWB produce a report about press freedom figures include: In 2007:
86 journalists and 20 media assistants were killed 887 arrested 1,511 physically attacked or threatened 67 journalists kidnapped 528 media outlets censored
Online: 37 bloggers were arrested 21 physically attacked 2,676 websites shut down or suspended
In 2006 85 journalists and 32 media assistants were killed 871 arrested 1,472 physically attacked or threatened 56 journalists kidnapped 912 media outlets censored
Question 2
This is a branch of Starbucks in the Forbidden City in Beijing. Some say that China has a love-hate relationship with western capitalism.
But what is Communism and Capitalism anyway?
And do the ideologies of each diifer from their real-world application?
RESPONSE WOW this is a huge question! the group produced a bite sized answer but said that they could write a dissertation on this subject!
Put simply Communism in theory = equality amongst all, no state, no class system, no hierarchy.
Communism in Practice = the state owns everything, leaders exist and become power hungry. Examples of communist countries include China,Cuba and North Korea.
Capitalism = To support yourself and gain wealth within a free market, value is placed on progress and power.
Extreme Capitalism = an American Theory called Libertarianism which is a form of capitalism where the state doesn't exist.
Communism and Capitalism negate each other but without either what do we have? Chaos and Anarchy, perhaps!
Question 3
This is the emblem of the Olympic Movement.
What are the ideals of the Olympic Movement?
Are there any contradictions between these ideals and the forthcoming Beijing Olympics?
(answers to be uploaded shortly)
Question 4 - not answered in this session
On the right is Nancy Pelosi in India last week.
Who is she with, who are they both, why did they decide to meet, and what has been the response to their meeting?
Question 5 -
As it gears up to host the 2008 Olympic Games Beijing has been awarded an unwelcome new accolade: the air pollution capital of the world.
What has been the environment effect of China’s rapid economic growth?
And what can be done to improve the situation?
Question 6 -
This is Björk performing her song Declare Independence at a recent concert in Shanghai. At the end of the performance she shouted “Tibet! Tibet!”.
To what was she referring, and what was the response?
Question 7 -
Fear of a looming recession grows as the global credit crunch continues. Many say that China is “propping up” the US Economy.
What do they mean by this, and what are the potential implications if true?
Question 8
This is the 2012 Olympic Stadium. The current total cost for the Games and the regeneration of the East London area, is £9.345 billion.
What criticism has there been of the plans?
What is the government’s justification for the games?
Do you think the Olympics are good value for money, and how could costs be reduced in future?
THE GROUPS RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS 3,5,7 AND 8 WILL BE UPLOADED TOMORROW
Whitechapel Gallery expansion complete Venue: Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, E1
The Whitechapel Gallery is set to enter the construction phase of a £10m expansion programme in January 2007, incorporating the former library situated next to the gallery. The expansion aims to unite and preserve two landmark buildings, increasing gallery space by 78% and offering more learning opportunities by trebling training and education facilities. Construction is due to take 18 months, during which time the Whitechapel will present a programme of free film and video exhibitions, off-site artist commissions and late night openings with live music and poetry. When it reopens, the Gallery's 100-year old archive will be open to the public for the first time, alongside a new restaurant, expanded bookshop and full access for disabled visitors.
www.whitechapel.org Whitechapel Art Gallery; Rachel Mapplebeck: 020 7522 7880 rachelmapplebeck@whitechapel.org
August 2008
London bids to host Gay World Cup Venue: vtba, worldwide
London-based gay football team Leftfooters FC is fronting London's bid to host the International Gay & Lesbian Football Association (IGLFA) World Championships in summer 2008. The annual tournament features separate competitions for men and women, and is set to take place in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 2007, where the winning bidder for the 2008 tournament will also be announced. The Leftfooters are proposing a week-long tournament to take place in Regent's Park, which will also include a social and cultural celebration of London ahead of the 2012 Olympic Games. The bid already has the backing of the FA, Mayor of London Ken Livingstone and VisitLondon. The Leftfooters are currently looking for businesses willing to sponsor the event should the bid be successful, with a Sponsor Pack now available detailing packages costing £2k, £5k and £12k.
www.iglfa.org www.londonwc2008.co.uk Leftfooters FC; Richard Collumbell: press@londonwc2008.co.uk
Late 2008 London's biggest shopping centre planned Venue: Shepherd's Bush, London
Plans have been announced for a £1.6 billion shopping mall in London's Shepherd's Bush. The centre, scheduled to open in 2008, will house almost 300 stores and 40 restaurant's, cafes and bars, reflecting the capital's vibrant eating-out culture. The complex will be twice as big as Brent Cross and is being seen as a major rival to the West End. It will house flagship branches of Marks & Spencer, Debenhams, Waitrose and NEXT, as well as 265 smaller retail units. A 14-screen cinema is also planned for the site. As well as the new retail park, a £170m upgrade of local transport links is also in the offing. The centre will be developed by property company Westfield.
In reference to this afternoon's discussion, China did sign the Kyoto treaty, but because it is considered a developing country, it doesn't have to reduce it's emissions. Also, if you calculate emissions per capita, things become rather more complicated. The following is from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyoto_Protocol:
In 2004 the total greenhouse gas emissions from the People's Republic of China were about 54% of the USA emissions.[39] However, China is now building on average one coal-fired power plant every week, and plans to continue doing so for years.[40][41] Various predictions see China overtaking the US in total greenhouse emissions between late 2007 and 2010,[42][43][44] and according to many other estimates, this already occurred in 2006.[45][46][47]
The Chinese government insists that the gas emissions level of any given country is a multiplication of its per capita emission and its population. Because China has put into place population control measures while maintaining low emissions per capita, it claims it should therefore in both of the above aspects be considered a contributor to the world's environment. In addition, the country's energy intensity - measured as energy consumption per unit of GDP - was lowered by 47 per cent between 1991 and 2005; from 1950 to 2002, China’s carbon dioxide emissions from fossil sources accounted for only 9.33% of the global total in the same period, and in 2004, its per-capita emission of carbon dioxide from fossil sources was 3.65 tons, which is 87% of the world average and 33 per cent of that of Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries.[48]
In June of 2007, China unveiled a 62-page climate change plan and promised to put climate change at the heart of its energy policies but insisted that developed countries had an “unshirkable responsibility” to take the lead on cutting greenhouse gas emissions and that the "common but differentiated responsibility" principle, as agreed up in the UNFCCC should be applied.[49][50]
In response to critics of the nation's energy policy, China responded that those criticisms were unjust[51], while studies of carbon leakage suggest that nearly a quarter of China's emissions result from exports for consumption by developed countries[52].
Instead of starting with a political concern or issue and trying to turn it into a performance, Oyinda and I decided to start simple with an intervention that doesn't really have an impetus.
Who: Joanne What: Shouting at a signpost Where: Kensington Gardens, Brighton Why: Not too sure (W)How: Walk up your chosen object, address it as you would a human being, lecture it and walk away. Dress as you would normally When: 12pm, Brighton
The sound isn't very clear so here is the jist, that I remember:
"What are you doing? Why are you just standing there, above everyone else, telling them what to do, where to go? Just make a decision for yourself. And this baggage [re: the bin], just holds you back, you're so full of rubbish"
Success? Well, I don't know, few people really cared or paid attention to what I was doing, I was in Brighton however where anyting goes. I was ranting, I could have thought more about what I was saying, perhaps inadvertently spread awareness about an issue. By saying it to the signpost perhaps people would pay more attention? Or just thougt I was either mad, or doing a performance. I think thought into the context, audience, place is needed for this to work
For my project this week, I wanted to make a response to the vehement objection to the ID cards scheme made by NO2ID. I don't neccessarily support the idea of ID cards, I just feel that people ignore the possible benefits of the scheme too much; when people talk about ID cards they often talk as if everyone assumes that they're a bad idea. Call it a protest against people only seeing one side of the story. I should have called it "MAYBE2ID", but it didn't seem quite as effective.
I'm not entirely happy with it at the moment, I feel that my arguments are half hearted and unpolished, but it is a work in progress. If anyone wants to give me some advice or critisism, please do.
As we were discussing on Tuesday about mine and Vivian's little protest, I decided to make a start on my [rather bad] letter writing campaign, for the donation of Aerosol Sprays to Make it Smell Nice!
Below is a copied and pasted version of my email to SC Johnson, the producers of Glade and Oust and other such things.
I will now wait for the reply.
Dear SC Johnson,
As a family company, I'm sure the pleasant atmosphere of any family home, and of any family establishment would be of interest to you. I'm sending this email on behalf of the group TFL[To Freshen Our Loos] regarding a suggestion of the donation of some of your products for a greater cause.The TFL works to create a more pleasant environment for the public, and we believe that your products would be of great use to us.
As a non profit organisation, we have no financial means to purchase your products, so a donation of some of the Glade® Aerosols would be ideal, as this we could then distribute amongst local lavatories that have been expressed as smelling absolutely foul.
You can view more information about TFL's campaign, 'Make it Smell Nice' at http://makeitsmellnice.blogspot.com/
Looking forward to your reply.
Hopefully we can sort something out.
Cheers.
Maryam Amjad
[P.S. For the title choices, there are only Mr, Mrs, and Mrs again. But as an unmarried woman, I don't feel comfortable calling myself Mrs. Amjad. I highly doubt I'm in a matrimonial contract with my father. I hope this can be addressed too.]
Let's see if TFL get the resources to Make it Smell Nice!
How we individually read the interpretation of Escalated, how it felt to be part of Escalated.
Efficacy of performance and protest
Who is the target of the work: public, a target group, college peers?
Vivian and Maryam's performance (images on the blog) what would have been the effect of this performance if they took direct action?
Lisa's performance, (video on the blog) How would this change if it was performed in a public space? How would it's interpretation alter if what was written on the paper was different (a dollar sign? for example)
How the understanding of work can change when performed in different contexts.
We then split into smaller groups discussed ideas for actions that could be applied to two different locations/audiences. What issue's would we protest against? What are the themes we want to address? How location/ audience/ dress/ context will effect the interpretation of this performance.
This week's project brief:
To create a performance that can exist in two spaces, one of these spaces must be a 5 min walk from Toynbee Studios.
Remember to address:
WHO / WHAT / WHERE / WHY / (W)HOW / WHEN
Perform one performance/action/protest anywhere but this must happen before next Tuesday (MAKE SURE YOU DOCUMENT IT).
Perform again for ThinkTank group, in or around Toynbee Studios next Tuesday (25th March).
A poke at the selfishness, egotism and general self-indulgence that people possess.
Too many people have a "Other people do it, why shouldn't I?" attitude to too many things; environmental things like litter, not recycling, not saving energy and similar, or things that have a direct effect on other people like casual homophobic insults: "That's so stupid and gay" or commiting benefit fraud - something that fraudsters may claim only steals from the government, but actually backlashes on the people who have to haul themselves halfway across town just to prove to the authorities that, yes, they do have a broken leg and aren't just trying to get free money. People have to take the time to look at what bigger ripples their actions are creating, and to understand that things will only start to change for the better with the action of an individual.
Well, this title can look a litle bit strange. Let me explain:
My name is Josefa. I am a brasilian girl, and I am 22 years old. I am here to try some kind of "virtual exchange" by the other side of the ocean to Think Tank Project.
"Against Gravity" is not a manifestation, it's a test about the possibility of not-manifestation.
In my University, one of the most important of Brasil, we have started a discussion about the decision of the rector to forbid any kind of manifastation inside the univerty.
I decided accept it. But I started to have some problems, I don't know how to stop manifestations.
I still feeling hunger every day, I still feeling necessity to excrete urine from my body. Even trying hard my body manifest all the time. Sometimes I just have to laugh and it's impossible to stop, other times I just can't stop crying. Even the in a raining day, rain just keeps falling even telling it that's prohibited.
Than I just realized that I couldn't give up. Maybe we can find a way of stop things to manifest in the world. That's why I have decided to fight against all the things that insist to manifest and exist. As I am very tired of walking long distances every day, as I am tired of taking croud buses every day, as I am tired of hurt my kness when I fall over the ground, I imagined that would be wonderfull if gravity could stop to manifest over my body. If I could stop the manifastation of gravity I could try to fly, I would never fall, I would never have problems on my knees.
Some pictures of my first challenge: stops the manifestation of gravity over my body
I have recently discovered the "Armando Iannucci Shows"
Its a really surreal comedy, making comment on society and encourages awareness. Its very funny and poignant! I recommend, it gave me some ideas for interventions...
Its on dvd or could probably see snippets of it on youtube or something
Which reminds me of something else that he did called "Time Trumpet", which is a show set in the future looking back on 2005/2006 etc, you can watch it on aluc.org and youtube. Again poignant at making a comment on society with comedy!
As good old, or not so old as the case may be, Vivian explained, our little subtle performance was a mini protest against the smell that erupts from toilets, and in particular, male toilets. Rooting for fresher air, and making 'it' smell nice, the TFL [To Freshen our Loos] working for the The Royal Society of Urinary Refreshment.
We dumped our stuff with some colleagues, and donned XXXL t-shirts [because they're comfortable and cheap] with the TFL slogon, Smell the Breeze, not the Wees!, explaining quite clearly, I imagine, the purpose of our performance.
Donning our shirts, and grabbing the flyers I made while watching America's Next Top Model, which show a very happy urinal named Willy. And why is Willy so happy? Because he doesn't smell. And he wants to pass on this feeling, so Make it Smell Nice he says.
And here Vivian wears her version of our t-shirt. As you can see, she looks ecstatic to be passing on Willy's word.
Vivian was not too keen on the flyers, so she made up her own way of passing on Willy's word. Via Postits! Now postits are the most magical thing invented so far, and for a bright orange one to tell you to Don't Make Bad Smell! [Courtesy of Frank] is just icing on the cake. Other such magical phrases that these postits donned include the magical, Smell the Breeze, Not the Wees!, and Heart not Fart! and Kiss not Piss! and a Bloo not Poo!
And here we are, with token stuff carrier while I attempt to convert the people around me. They didn't seem to pleased. But some enjoyed me screaming at them to, Make it smell nice!
I attempt to convert some more people with Willy's word..... it's not working very well. So I decide to try harder. By stalking.
So here I am, stalking. They don't seem very pleased as they ignore me, and walk past. Although there were several nicer people who stopped to take a depiction of Willy. And some who stopped to ask for directions. To Tescos.
And finally, a job well done. The End!
All in all, it was quite fun and enjoyable, and if I wasn't so cold, it might have lasted longer. And the cause seems to have taken off! With it's own blogspot, and facebook group with actual people besides me and Vivian, the Make it Smell Nice campaign seems to be causing quite a minimal stir.
So our "project" was to do a discreet perfomance, and the performance Maryam and I decided on was a protes against smells in the toilets. (mainly male toilets, as Maryam was so "pumped up" on that idea). Our campany name was To Freshen our Loos, a.k.a T.F.L. and the main idea was that during our photography trip to galleries in London we would do our performance. However, due to our teachers embarassment, we had to do it sometime after the trip. But with Maryam's enthusiasm, we ended up doing it during our little Lunch break, which meant we walked around with big t-shirts with "Smell the Breeze, Not the Wees" painted on it.
Our journey started out at MacDonald's near the Photographers Gallery, where we decided to have our lunch at, we put our t-shirts on and started giving out flyers which said something along the lines of "Make It Smell Nice!" it also included our blogspot ( which does exist) http://www.makeitsmellnice.blogspot.com/, it also had a nice picture of a Urinal on it, (designed by our lovely Ms Maryam). As an extra we also wrote notes on postit notes and stuck them on people, places, and whatnot. We walked up and down the area passing the entrance of MacDonald's a few times and ended up outside a pub for a while giving out flyers. Although we got very, very, weird looks from the audience, if was quite an enjoyable event.
Right, so enough from me, enjoy some memorable photographs.
Arts Admin
86 journalists and 20 media assistants were killed
and jumping...
Vivian was not too keen on the flyers, so she made up her own way of passing on Willy's word. Via Postits! Now postits are the most magical thing invented so far, and for a bright orange one to tell you to Don't Make Bad Smell! [Courtesy of Frank] is just icing on the cake. Other such magical phrases that these postits donned include the magical, Smell the Breeze, Not the Wees!, and Heart not Fart! and Kiss not Piss! and a Bloo not Poo!
And finally, a job well done. The End!
