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February 10, 2012

Occupy as Form: Catherine Ming T’ien Duffly

For those of us engaged in community-based art practice (via scholarship and/or via practice), what does the occupy movement have to offer our understanding of the term “community?” Miranda Joseph’s theorizing of community has asked us to think carefully about our tendency to hold up “community” as always and only a liberatory category. Other scholars have joined Joseph in questioning the use of “community” as an organizing concept for certain modes of socially engaged theater, performance, and art practice.

Occupy as Form: Amanda Eicher

Keyword: Tactics | I am curious about how we have come to use the word tactic, a word which is distinctly military in form, but which is also at play in contemporary art practice through the use of phrases such as tactical aesthetics and tactical media. It seems to me that many of the gestures we make in everyday life may slip in and out of the frame of tactics, depending on their context.

Occupy as Form: Seth Holmes

Keyword: Health | After news of the initial eviction and arrests at Occupy Oakland spread, thousands of people gathered for a general assembly outside the Oakland Public Library.  After 5PM that day, some two thousand people marched from the library toward the jail to demand the release of the protesters.  Marchers held signs regarding economic justice, racial justice, and re-funding education and health care.  Close to 6PM, my colleagues and I witnessed dozens of police and sheriffs in riot gear throwing tear gas and shooting projectiles into the marching crowd.  Later that night, we witne

Occupy as Form: Laurel Butler

How does the consensus decision-making process function on an embodied level? Moving through downtown Oakland the night after the police raid, I am struck by the heightened kinesthetic awareness evident in the hundreds of bodies that fill the streets.  True to the Occupy ethos, there is no top-down leadership, and yet the group is certainly moving together, en masse, with implicit nonverbal agreements about directionality, pauses, speed, and – in particular – a highly attuned empathetic response mechanism that kicks in as we encounter the blockades of riot police.  I am reminded of Susan Fo

Occupy as Form: Tirza Latimer
The horizontal governance and DIY aesthetic politics of Occupy foster a visual culture of creative diversity–letting “a thousand flowers bloom.”  Occuprint, a website showcasing donated graphic designs of protest from all over the world, makes this case visually. As part of the creative commons, the graphics can be freely downloaded for noncommercial use.
Occupy as Form: Ken Goldberg

Keyword: Occupation | “Love and work…work and love, that’s all there is.” – Freud. I’m curious about the resonance of the word “occupation” which connotes both non-violent strategy and employment.  The Occupy Movement is fueled by frustration over unemployment: many of its participants are out of work.  The movement provides a daily set of roles and duties that provide a form of employment with its associated benefits (outside of salary). I’d like to explore possible associations with Frederick Froebel’s “Gifts and Occupations” concept which was the foundation for kindergarden (1837).

Occupy as Form: Dee Hibbert-Jones

Keyword: Class | Having grown up in class-conscious Britain of the ‘70’s and 80’s (a country I like to describe as a former social democracy) it is with a growing sense of excitement that I have witnessed the rise of discussions around class within the Occupy movement.

Occupy as Form: Erin Johnson

I am interested in researching and creating work around the idea of care in sites of protest. Social practice artists and contemporary artists working around issues of protest engage different value systems than traditional, market-based production, often leading to alternate systems of exchange around needs and care, both in society and on a personal level. Which social practices are being employed at Occupy by a wide range of participants to address gaps in services provided by governments, institutional structures? How effectively are these practices filling these gaps?

Occupy as Form: Zoe McCloskey

Keyword: Desire | “We know that people often desire something but do not really want it,” said Slovoj Zizek, in closing remarks to the Zuccotti Park Occupiers on Oct 25 2011, “Don’t be afraid to really want what you desire.” Adbusters Magazine, and its co-founder Kalle Lasn are arguably the first to call for an occupation of Wall Street, and despite the current multitudinous voices, it is worth examining the desires of this demographic. Adbusters lived between fashion and car racing, on the shelves of a corporate bookseller where I, and its demographic were too.

Occupy as Form: Cheryl Meeker

Keyword: Horizontal | Taking an axis as a keystone, the Occupy groups utilize an organizing form that is diametrically perpendicular to, if not opposed to the vertical hierarchies employed by corporations, institutions, the academy, the church, and the patriarchal nuclear family. As an artist that has worked in a variety of collectives and collaborations, coming up against the embedded habit of top-down hierarchy has always worn me down. What happens to the discontent that remains from not being heard under majority rule?

November 28, 2011

The Art of Occupy
Someone sent me an email recently asking “where are the artists” in the Occupy Cal movement.  My short answer would be: everywhere.  From my perch on the sidelines, I have observed arts embedded in the protests and demonstrations in a number of ways and on a number of levels.  Some echo long-standing traditions of protest.  Folk singers and gospel choirs have sung from the steps of Sproul Hall.

November 7, 2011

Salon: Ed Campion
We had the opportunity to hold another ARC Salon to celebrate the work of UCB faculty composer, Ed Campion, when Cal Performances featured the performance of his work by the stunning Paris-based group Ensemble Zellig.

November 1, 2011

ARC | Arts + Design welcomes Susan Miller!

It gives us great pleasure to introduce you to Susan Miller, our new Director of Organizational Strategy for the Arts + Design Initiative!

Susan Miller is a seasoned arts and academic professional who has held key posts in numerous presenting institutions, universities, and non-profit cultural centers. She brings deep experience in organizational development, planning, fiscal management and community engagement, and a commitment to public education in her new appointment with us at the Arts + Design Initiative.

October 24, 2011

Michael Roth, Why Liberal Education Matters

Michael Roth's lecture was co-sponsored by the Arts Research Center and the Townsend Center for the Humanities at UC Berkeley. Currently President of Wesleyan University, Roth has served as President of the California College of the Arts, Associate Director of the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, and Director of European Studies at Claremont Graduate University. He was also H.B. Professor of Humanities at Scripps College, where he founded and directed the Scripps College Humanities Institute.

October 10, 2011

Situated: A Rite to Heal
The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the symposium “SITUATED: Time-Based Art and Neighborhood Ecologies” on October 10, 2011, organized in part around the premier at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts of red, black & GREEN: a blues, a collaboration between Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Theaster Gates, and Michael John Garces. ARC Director Shannon Jackson was commissioned by YBCA to write an essay on the piece, in which she explores many of the issues that will be taken up at the SITUATED symposium:
Situated: Art +
The Arts Research Center at UC Berkeley is sponsoring the symposium “SITUATED: Time-Based Art and Neighborhood Ecologies” on October 10, 2011.  ARC Director Shannon Jackson discusses the event and the research projects it grows out of on the SOTA (State of the Art) blog:
Post-Situated
Like so many others who attended SITUATED on Monday, I returned to the mayhem of other responsibilities, but I found myself returning again and again to the ideas shared and questions explored.Here are some of my reflections, and I would love to hear what is preoccupying you.

Expanded Art Inside Artistic Silos or “How many people can you make love you” (Theaster Gates)

Situated: Sunny A. Smith
1) What are you most looking forward to from this gathering?
I am most looking forward to seeing the same set of things using a different set of lenses.
2) What are the top five lessons you want to share to fellow artists and community leaders about the kind of work you do?
Most likely no one will encourage you to do the most important work, because it hasn’t been done yet and is literally unthinkable. If your idea feels awkward at first, it may mean that it is especially worth pursuing.

September 19, 2011

ARC: Launching the 2011/2012 Academic Year!
Hello Friends,
While campus was calmer during the summer months, we have been hard at work planning a number of research projects, retreats, and public symposia for the upcoming academic year.  Check out a preview of Fall events in the works so far.

September 12, 2011

Understanding Market Street, by Will Thacher
Market Street was once a glamorous destination for the western world, boasting of such landmarks as the Palace Hotel, the most expensive and luxurious hotel of its time, the Chronicle building’s clock, the largest ever built, the Call building- one of the tallest in the world, and City Hall, a splendid monument to the city.  People came to Market Street for shopping, entertainment and business.