AUTHOR: Sarah Kanouse
TITLE: Promotion & Audience
STATUS: Publish
ALLOW COMMENTS: 1
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 1
DATE: 04/01/2004 04:45:40 PM
-----
BODY:
When I was in Gainesville, FL last week, my friend and traveling companion
Rachel pointed out that I am likely to not get a very sizeable audience without
'marketing' my project. Marketing, promotion, advertising--all those sorts
of words send winces through my sweet, anti-capitalist heart. But Rachel does
have a point. If I believe art is a communicative medium, then I do want to
have someone listen in to the broadcasts, come to the events, browse the website.
And as Sheila observed last week, borrowing from the capitalism's toolbox can
be pretty handy sometimes.
Rachel suggested some rather expensive promotional tools, and conveniently
enough, I found the expensive ones the most problematic (like T-Shirts--while
possibly effective, I don't want the project to be a fashion statement).
But postering the town; creating cheap handbills and leaving them in libraries,
cafes, and other businesses; sending weekly PSAs to WEFT; appearing on shows
on WEFT to talk about the project--those sorts of methods are acceptable.
Why are they more acceptable? Perhaps because they are low-tech, low-input,
and because they are primarily informational. I need to turn my sights to
these soon. I plan for these to supplement the email list invitation series
I was initially planning to use.
But wait! Is this focus on promotion assuming that size matters? That quantity
makes better quality? I've been struggling against these attitudes in lefty
organizations for years--and also against their inverse, that truly tiny
groups are the only way of staying 'pure,' as if any such thing were possible.
What do I think about size and visibility in relation to this piece?
Well, some of the conversations will be quite small--perhaps only 4 or 6 people.
And that's fine with me. Other will be bigger, and I will be happy with that,
too. But I do want an audience for the project overall, and I want that audience
to expand as the project grows. Keeping an audience intentionally small is
a cocoon, and 'going national' can be an exercise in the most base arrogance.
Somehow I want to balance on that line, leaning from time to time on either
side, and hopefully not faling too far off.
AUTHOR: Sarah Kanouse
TITLE: That Pesky Word, Art
STATUS: Publish
ALLOW COMMENTS: 1
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 1
DATE: 04/03/2004 09:55:19 PM
-----
BODY:
Last night, I received an email from Bill of the Illinois Labor Hour, a weekly
labor-oriented show on WEFT (www.weftfm.org) he's been doing with Peter for
eight years now. He had heard through the grapevine about the project, and
in a desperate need to throw a show together for pledge drive time, he asked
me to come and talk about the project. I jumped at the chance.
I arrived at the station about 20 minutes early and chatted with Bill for awhile.
He's very relaxed about the show, and over the years I've listened to it,
he and Peter have had numerous on-air tiffs stemming from their very different
styles He told me about a general and subtle bias at WEFT against blue collar
folks, or perhaps assumptions and cultural differences he feels as a laborer,
despite his college and master's degrees.
I feel those subtle tensions, too, from the other direction, though,
as a dyed-in-the-wool middle class, white lady whose radical politics
can never quite live that down. Actually, even using the word 'artist'
as a descriptive term seems like a hopeless middle class gesture to claim
some sort of professionalism. The word comes with baggage and a lot of
specialized terminology. It immediately distances me from other people
I'm working with, activists, middle class professionals of a more orthodox
variety, and especially working class folks.
The radio show was rough but fun. I had a hard time explaining the project
on the air because I've come to rely on drawing pictures to describe
it and because I had to avoid talking about the illegal parts of it.
I had to talk about the events and the installation alone, and I'm not
sure how much sense it made. I realized how much I rely on rarefied art
language to talk about this, how much I lean on that platform and vocabulary
to think of this project that I say can also be considered from the framework
of activism and media work. The language starts getting in the way of
communicating.
After the show, I talked to DJ, a dissenting and now blacklisted member
of the Carpenter's union. I had the benefit of face to face contact with
him, and the project seemed to make much more sense that way. I was better
able to explain that the project can be considered from several different
perspectives and that I'm not at all attached to it being thought about
as art all the time. DJ started talking a mile a minute. He got really
excited about the project, really excited about the possibility of art
to be engaging and engaged rather than about museums and spectatorship.
He's going to be organizing an attempt to discuss labor issues on May
Day in a big box store parking lot.
AUTHOR: Sarah Kanouse
TITLE: Privilege and Blinders
STATUS: Publish
ALLOW COMMENTS: 1
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 1
DATE: 04/05/2004 06:00:36 PM
-----
BODY:
In working with others on these events, I've had to confront how sequestering
myself largely in either the ivory tower or the white activist community has
put up blinders of privilege, even though I tried to prevent that. Last week,
at the planning of a free food giveaway, I realized that I had been thinking
of the event as more metaphor--providing food outside of the for-profit food
system--than as an activity that might be actually useful to someone.
This tension over metaphor and utility emerges again and again in conflicts
within the arts, between activists and academics, between academics themselves.
I'm dismayed at myself for falling too far on one side of the high-tension
line, and I'm glad I surround myself with people who can keep me honest.
AUTHOR: Sarah Kanouse
TITLE: Success!
STATUS: Publish
ALLOW COMMENTS: 1
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 1
DATE: 04/08/2004 04:49:36 PM
-----
BODY:
On Tuesday night, we hooked up the computer transmitter and a 15 watt amp (which
only put out 4 watts of power because the computer transmitter is micropower).
Range tests showed a good 4 mile radius of good quality sound! I'm thrilled
with the results.
We were also able to get another sound source over the radio, but it sounded
awful because it was going straight into the computer and was using the computer
mixer. But it works!
Tomorrow I need to range test the independent transmitter with the 15 watt
amp. it should put out about that much power. i ordered a 40 watt amp from
england, but that won't come for awhile.
this is all still too last-minute for me, but things are coming together.
the tech team is meeting again on saturday night.
AUTHOR: Sarah Kanouse
TITLE: Loosening the Grip
STATUS: Publish
ALLOW COMMENTS: 1
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 1
DATE: 04/11/2004 10:22:08 PM
-----
BODY:
As I've been filling in the schedule of events, I've loosened my grip on first
the spatial structure, then the definition of 'participatory,' and most recently
an ingrained fetish of authorship. If I'm interested in using 'viral' or 'rhizomatic'
networking strategies for distribution of events, spaces, and participation,
then I cannot author or commission all of the events. If I say I'm talking
about democracy here, then I can't dictate so tightly the parameters of what
takes place, and I cannot ignore the events that represent actually existing
claims to space.
I've decided to incorporate some existing political and social events into
the project without altering them. The first is the annual Take Back the
Night march; the second is broadcasting the graduate critiques (or making
public the public education we're receiving). To me, this represents not
a desire to put my stamp of authorship or the purportedly ennobling art mark
on other practices. Rather I hope to distance myself from the center of the
project, to take a role more of facilitator and coordinator rather than author,
to disappear as an originating point in favor of fostering a hopefully stronger,
rhizomatic structure of creative cultural engagement.
AUTHOR: Sarah Kanouse
TITLE: Problems with Promotion, pt 2
STATUS: Publish
ALLOW COMMENTS: 1
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 1
DATE: 04/11/2004 10:38:08 PM
-----
BODY:
This week, I picked up the 250 slick cards the art department had printed for
me. Nearly hot off the presses when I received them, the chemical smell of
fresh ink still clings to them some days later. My card is beautiful; the image
fits especially well with the designer's template. But I feel a little queasy
about the cards, and not just because a friend sarcastically commented on their
slickness (as if all activist art must be grainy b&w photo copies!).
The decision to step back on authorship has raised more questions about promotion,
especially self-promotion, that the card directly confronts. First, and most
superficially, I wasn't able to get the url of the project site on the card,
so it exists as a rarefied gallery promotional item more than an informational
tool. Secondly, and more significantly, it places authorship firmly with
me, where I really don't think it belongs, and it completely ignores the
collaborative/collective element of the project, as well as its non-gallery
life.
I've responded to these cards by adapting them for cheap xerox-copied
flyers and teasers to leave about town starting this week. These will
announce the daily events and include the frequencies. But their style
is much more the 'on the cheap' activist art aesthetic rather than the
more slick, under the radar look I used in the website design, and I
have visual problems with the range of design strategies used in the
project promotional and archiving materials.
The question of authorship has also problematized other forms of promotion
I had tentatively accepted in order to get more audience. I've been hesitant
to contact some friends with radios shows on WEFT because it feels too
self-promoting, too engaged with identifying me as the author of a project
that others should seek out to 'see.' I feel better about writing PSAs,
leaving teasers, postering, developing an email list from an anonymous
account, posting on the IMC site, etc. than saying "Hey there, look
at how cool my project is!!" Those methods of distributing information
may be accused of ducking from responsibility (I'm happy to accept that
if there are problems) but I don't want to be saying that democratic
uses of public space are my invention.
AUTHOR: Sarah Kanouse
TITLE: notes on race
STATUS: Publish
ALLOW COMMENTS: 1
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 1
DATE: 04/12/2004 09:34:33 PM
-----
BODY:
I'm disturbed by the lack of racial diversity in the organizers of events and
the types of events we've managed to pull together. There's reasonable age,
gender, sexual identity, and class diversity, but the group is overwhelmingly
white. The areas of inclusivity/exclusivity reflect almost precisely the breakdown
of the activist community I've inhabited here.
In a town like Champaign, dominated by a racist mascot like the Chief and segregated
by the car-whizzing-by wall of University Avenue, it's not so surprising.
But if diversity is a problem with the project, and I think it is, it is
a problem also with my life here for the last six years, and it would not
only be impossible but also inadvisable for me to try to rectify that imbalance
in a six-month effort.
I could be true to my middle class whiteness and protest about how hard
I have tried to create some semblance of diversity in the project. While
that may assuage my conscience, it's not really true. Those efforts should
have started many, many years ago, and I was not willing to make bridging
the racial divide my main activist goal. Perhaps I should have done that.
I'm not sure even now I feel up to the task.
I did approach several people to participate in the project and bring
non-white voices to the table. Some of those were people I'd known and
worked with for years, but they were not able to do so. A few have said
yes; others are concentrating on their very real and pressing projects.
I recognize how institutional factors play a role in any group dominance/imbalance;
the 'second shift' women face at home contributes to the relative lack
of women in high-overtime, high-profile, executive positions in the workplace.
But non-responsive institutions replicate the expectations that effectively
shut many talented women from those positions. Perhaps activists of color
(like IB, whom I approached to participate in a discussion on poor women's
health care) are overextended due to job pressures and the needs of their
constituents and can't contribute to this project. But I also recognize
that for years I haven't done enough to support their work, and my unresponsiveness
reinforces systems of dominance and segregation, and trying to address
that now is too little, too late.
AUTHOR: Sarah Kanouse
TITLE: cui bono? guilt and collectivity
STATUS: Publish
ALLOW COMMENTS: 1
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 1
DATE: 04/14/2004 12:29:21 AM
-----
BODY:
In all the writings I've seen on collective praxis, none has touched on the
emotion of guilt as a by-product of the bounded-togetherness of collective
work in a world that celebrates, rewards and even assumes individual accomplishment.
Now, I'm one of the guiltiest people I've ever met, and it doesn't take much
to get me questioning what my true motives might be. In an economy of achievement
dominated by competition and not collectivity, that sort of self-scrutiny is
a useful means of keeping honest. But where worlds of collectivity and competition
collide, as they are in this MFA show/project business, and I find myself getting
credentialed for a project that involved the work of scores of people, even
when I can convince myself that my motivations are not exploitive, I find I
still feel guilty.
Several times this week, I've found myself thanking and rethanking people for
their help, assuring and reassuring folks that I won't feel slighted or angry
if they pass on participation. I know how to advocate for myself and what
I want to do, and I often have trouble remembering that others do not necessary
feel as comfortable pushing for what they need, want or believe. DM called
me "assertive, even pushy" a few days ago, words that smarted even
though if they had been phrased "advocating for one's beliefs" or
given some other spin, I would have been proud. In consituting the temporary
community of participants, or perhaps more accurately, the temporary, dispersed
collectivity of participation that has brought this project about, I have
been very aware of how this is, in the end, a project in which I have more
stake than others because I have more to gain, and I have tried to balance
this knowledge with what I'm asking others to do and offering them in return.
Following the logic of 'cui bono?,' however, leads to some very unidimensional
conclusions that assume a fairly binary exploited-exploiter relationships
that do exist but are easily complicated by reading psychology, sociology,
and Foucault. Not to explain away that people are in fact quite exploited
and that for exploitation there must be an exploiter, but in the realm of
collective praxis, I'm not sure how far that model holds.
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Rachael Weight
EMAIL: posey_fossil@hotmail.com
IP: 169.237.146.196
URL:
DATE: 04/20/2004 01:25:32 PM
Dear Sarah,
I followed your link off of the LACHSA website and look forward to interrogating
you about your project if you come to the reunion - whenever it will
be.
I see no reason for you to feel guilt though, if you are anything like
me, you will feel it anyway. Your genius is that you have that certainty
about what you need and the vision to get it and genius is something
that should be taken away from feelings of regret, guilt, and envy. That
is what art is all about. Self imposed blindness to obstacles. Doing
it because you have to despite external difficulties. I'm sure you know
this already but I just wanted to pound it in a little more. I remember
being so in awe of you in high school. You seemed to have that clear
vision even then. I was deeply jealous that the bullshit that defines
high school somehow didn't seem to affect you. You were someone that
I respected though I never found the voice to say so at the time. I hope
you don't lose too much sleep over worrying about your motives. I have
always believed them to be pure.
AUTHOR: Sarah Kanouse
TITLE: why physical public space matters
STATUS: Publish
ALLOW COMMENTS: 1
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 1
DATE: 04/15/2004 02:31:22 PM
-----
BODY:
The guilt of collectivity I described the other night has been prompting me
to volunteer right and left for groups, people, and causes that are not directly
linked to the project. So this morning at 9 am, I was picked up by a Catholic
Worker and whisked away in a great boatmobile to the main Champaign post office.
We were planning to hand out informational leaflets on what our tax money is
buying.
Now, over the last couple of years I've been struggling with the continued
relevance and effectiveness of street protest and with questions of how to
symbiotically grow a practice that is simultaneously cultural and activist,
discursive and physical. What I like about <em>The Public Square</em> is
that is suggests an intertwining and interdependence of those separate strands,
and the events at the post office this morning reinforced how the physical
really does still matter.
After about 15 minutes handing out leaflets outdoors--quite politely, of course,
and without interfering with the conduct of business at the post office--the
postmaster came out of the building and demanded that we leave. He said it
was illegal to protest on federal property and gestured toward the tiny city
sidewalk adjacent to the 50 mph boulevard and suggested we try to leaflet
there. We asked what regulation we were violating and why free speech could
be restricted on public property, and he refused to answer, instead threatening
to call the police.
We retreated to the car and called city legal affairs and the library, both
of which confirmed that we had a right to be there and were not doing any
of the forbidden things--blocking entrances, putting flyers on cars, harassing
people, or (and this is funny) distributing leaflets on behalf of a foreign
government without first registering ourselves. Strengthened with this specific
information, we resumed our leafleting, receiving the usual mix of support
and advice to leave America if we didn't love it.
Another half hour passed, and the postmaster returned, still refusing to tell
us if we were breaking a regulation and insisting that it wasn't what we
were saying but that we were saying anything at all. He didn't want the post
office to become a site of political speech (!), and at times he almost pleaded
with us to leave because customers were complaining. "Do it for me," he
said and then more sternly, "I'm going to call the police, and I won't
ask you again."
About 20 minutes later, the police showed up. Officer Bloom handled everything
very professionally and supportively, asking that we refrain from passing
out literature while he checked the statutes but not asking us to take down
our signs. We had an interesting and remarkably harmonious chat about the
limits of free speech on government property, whether there should be any
so long as the speech was not impinging the speech of others, and what institutional
neutrality means. A small crowd gathered, and a man got angry at the police
for interfering with us. Eventually, the answer came down that while we were
not doing anything forbidden, the postmaster is master of the property, and
he/she has the right to evict anyone from the space as if it were private
land under his/er control.
The incident put into focus questions about the relation of physical and discursive
space, the fetishization of public harmony, and the dominance of the notion
of the private as a model of spatial management.
While the internet has been a powerful tool for information distribution and
political organizing, it is by and large a very safe space for most activities,
despite how it is monitored and surveilled. Because most anti-hegemonic information
must be actively sought out by the browser, oppositional content is mostly
tolerated because it is physically and discursively remote from the issues
it addresses. It's safe--those who access it and those who post information
are mostly privileged, and directing energies exclusively to that domain
reinforces the myth of the free society while leaving the restrictions of
space unchallenged.
Our activities at the post office were objectionable because our bodies were
there, because we were bridging the space between our bodies and others'
bodies enough to pass a sheet of paper between them. Had there been a public
bulletin board at the post office (there is not: posting flyers <em>is</em> actually
prohibited at the post office, while handing them out is not), I'm sure no
one would have complained to the postmaster about the dry-looking flyer.
We interfered more in discourse not merely around taxes but also around public
space by choosing to challenge the limits of permisssible activity in uncontestably
public space of federal land.
Second, the operational metaphor of public space used by the postmaster and
to a lesser extent the police is the idealized space of harmony. Their belief
was that conflict, protest, and politics do not belong in public space. In
this view, the role of government is to manage or prohibit protest in order
to create the illusion of consensus and political neutrality. Granting access
to a political cause wso that people don't feel uncomfortable and can conduct
their business without the 'annoyance' of politics. The resulting 'smooth space'
is undifferentiated and bleached of the markers of difference, conflict, or
power. But because difference, conflict, and power are facts of our social
organization, the maintenance of harmonious space reinforces the current distribution
of power by concealing that and how it operates.
Last, the dominant metaphor of property is 'private.' That is, while the law
proscribed certain activities in public space, thereby implying that others
were permitted, it gave an out that allows for the management of that space
into harmony. The postmaster is literally 'master' of the public property
he manages, and ultimate authority is vested in an individual for the dispensation
of access to public property. One woman who probably complained to the postmaster,
advised us to get away from the 'property' before the police arrived, and
her dropping of the modifer 'public' spoke volumes about where she was coming
from in thinking about public space. While it is well known that free speech
doesn't apply to private property, in the end it appears not to apply to
public property, either, if it challenges either the wishes of the appointed
manager or the reductive harmony of the space.
I wonder, given the dominance of operational metaphors of private property
and public-as-harmony, if we are even able to conceive of public space. The
word 'public' is defined in the OED by its opposite, as that which is not
private. I'm dismayed by how readily individuals accept and even demand limitations
on activities in public space, but until there is a powerful and workable
notion of the public itself--one that embraces the diversity of uses and
users of the space--we will have no touchstone or guide othe than our understanding
of the private and the behaviors and expectations implied.
PING:
TITLE: Who is the public, and what space is theirs?
URL: http://www.criticalviewer.com/archives/000060.html
IP: 66.33.219.12
BLOG NAME: criticalviewer
DATE: 04/24/2004 01:55:09 PM
Sarah Kanouse, a talented local artist and activist probes the question of
the existence and/or purpose of public space in her MFA thesis show piece titled "The
Public Square." The piece uses a variety of technologies and public meetings
to...
AUTHOR: Sarah Kanouse
TITLE: Our Work and Why We Do It
STATUS: Publish
ALLOW COMMENTS: 1
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 1
DATE: 04/23/2004 08:56:11 PM
-----
BODY:
The Public Square invites you to the first in a series of discussions, gatherings,
and other events that make space for public engagement.
" Our Work and Why We Do It"
Saturday, April 24, 2004
5:30 PM
preceding the opening of the MFA thesis show
Krannert Art Museum
500 East Peabody Drive,
Champaign, Illinois
Work is a fact of life for most of us, no more escapable than death or taxes.
Some of us have the luxury of working at what our work is; others must differentiate
between their work and their jobs. We are motivated to work partly by the
material rewards it offers (a full belly, a roof over our heads, a paycheck,
an MFA thesis show) and partly by the intangible benefits we derive from
it, though we often overemphasize how motivated we are by those intangibles.
Culturally, we believe there is an achievable golden mean of work: an acceptable
level of unemployment, sustainable productivity, or a relation to work that
is neither 'workaholism' or 'slackerdom.' If work is defined as what is economically,
socially, culturally or interpersonally productive, then it has been losing
steady ground to 'consumption' as a privileged and valued category.
Before an event designed to celebrate, congratulate, and consume art work,
come share how you understand yourself as one who works in a world that requires
that you do.
AUTHOR: Sarah Kanouse
TITLE: partiality and failure
STATUS: Publish
ALLOW COMMENTS: 1
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 1
DATE: 04/24/2004 12:09:52 AM
-----
BODY:
Well, after four long days of set-up and testing, I have a better sense of
how the technology works and doesn't work. I could choose to be upset about
things--the range on both broadcasts being less than I would like it to be,
for example, or how the binaural stereo broadcast mixes the channels together
when the receiver is further away. However, so much of this project has been
about relinquishing control over an art object in favor of sculpting and being
altered by a social and technological process, and the eventual failures of
the available technology under such conditions as the building materials of
Krannert, the severity of the wind, the brightness of the sun, the reflective
waves off other building, the degree of foliage all point toward the need to
accept more completely the vagueries of working in this mode.
Moreover, and perhaps more intellectually defensibly, this project admits its
own failure and turns it to its own advantage. By making a struggling and
ultimately failing effort to claim the public space of the airwaves using
available, if illegal, technologies, the project points out just how out
of reach a powerful platform for speech really is. By eventually losing the
use of public spaces for conversation, the limits of permissible space and
discourse are made clear. In my graduate thesis paper, I wrote of this acceptance
of failure and fallibility as a central hallmark of work I described as 'viral
resistance,' of which "The Public Square" is most definitely kin.
The heroic attempt, rendered modest through its negotiations with actually
existing, messy conditions, is far more interesting to me than the impotent
gesture, rendered heroic by its framing and hanging on the gallery wall.
I wonder how the partial or failed reception in some areas changes the aesthetics
of the project. While I was initially attracted at the idea of the audio
relay, with the spaces for roaming broadcasts delimited by the space of the
other broadcast, the result would have been a campus focus, and I definitely
didn't want that. The virtual and physical spaces seem too separate to me,
and the difficulties in coordinating them have been reiterated, but to force
a harmonization of those two elements usually means to foreground the techological.
Now, the space is fairly decoupled from the virtual space, with the technology
existing more as an enhancement to the activities in the other spaces and
less as a backbone of them, which is where I believe technology really ought
to be.
The failures change the idealism with which I embarked on the project. I had
hoped to create a conceptual/structural space that pointed toward the resolution
of conflicts between organic and techological participation, between physical
and virtual spaces. Rather, through the failures of the technology, the tensions
are reinscribed, or, rather, the technology is personalized, rendered fallible,
and recognition of the necessity for organic modes of engagement is enhanced.
AUTHOR: Sarah Kanouse
TITLE: you make the call: women's sports at the university
STATUS: Publish
ALLOW COMMENTS: 1
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 1
DATE: 04/25/2004 10:22:50 AM
-----
BODY:
" You Make the Call: Women's Sports at the University"
Sunday, April 25, 2004
12 noon
Eichelberger Field
Florida between Wright and Lincoln, Urbana
Popular images of college are dominated by sports--basketball and football
especially, but the players in those images are almost always men. Despite
Title IX and the increase of women's sports programs and players, fans, funds,
and prestige continue to go overwhelmingly to male athletes. Furthermore,
female athletes have even fewer opportunities than male athletes to continue
in their sports after graduation, and lingering stigmas of homophobia and
gender transgression continue to haunt women who excel at sports.
How do these questions play out on the field? Come to the women's baseball
game for impromptu conversations with fans and players, or listen in at www.thepublicsquare.net
or at 90.5 FM (range permitting).
AUTHOR: Sarah Kanouse
TITLE: (r)evaluation
STATUS: Publish
ALLOW COMMENTS: 1
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 1
DATE: 04/25/2004 11:51:30 PM
-----
BODY:
The first two events have come and gone, and now feels like an appropriate
time for some evaluation.
Yesterday's discussion on work got started slowly, partly because of the over-broadness
of the ways I described the topic, partly because of the lack of familiarity
with one another, partly due to the strangeness of talking about something
in the sterile space of the museum. By the end of the conversation, which
lasted about 45 minutes, we had begun much more to focus our attention on
people who are not so privileged as being able to talk in the museum space,
and while I found that to be a good thing in that it addressed the omissions
of the space, it also had an element of the indignity of speaking for others.
I needed to take a more active role in sculpting the conversation, and I
think the structure I've described for subsequent conversations will be more
successful. The part I enjoyed most was the sight of dozens of people streaming
into the museum a bit shocked to see a large group of people already seated
on the floor and engaged in a somewhat animated conversation about something
that was simply not there in that space.
Today's set of conversations at the women's softball game were similarly superficial,
with Sasha able to engage people about the game but less about the structures
they were participating in. I was struck by how enthusiastically people engaged
with being able to call the softball plays on micropower radio--there is a
reflexive sense of the rightness of being able to make your own radio such
that people want to participate in it. We had an interesting conversation with
the athletics person who wanted to close us down because we hadn't tried to
get the proper credentialing; he eventually let us continue, but on air we
talked about the rules and strictures for making your own media and how that
rubs up against NCAA regulations in so many ways.
In both of these events, I've had to back away from what I might hope for them
to be and let them become what they will be, given the limitations of the
spaces where they take place and given the limitations of the time we are
giving to them. I have a sometimes unfortunate tendency to want very intellectual
and very precise conversations, and I need to give this project room to breathe
and the listener the room to reach his or her own conclusions about the conversations
and what they mean. This has been a struggle for me throughout making my
own work, and it may be particularly potent here in discussion-based work,
where I tend to have little patience for anecdote or cliche, even when those
are mode people must (and I include myself here, though I'd like to think
my cliches are less cliche than other cliches) move through to get somewhere
less familiar or comfortable. These conversations may also have to last longer
than I anticipated in order to get there.
Also, the tech problems continue to mount. While the 103.5 broadcast sounded
great over the radio at the field, somehow the mp3 is full of artefacts and
punctuated by moments of complete silence. I'm not sure why this is happening,
why what you hear over the radio is not exactly what is recorded. I will
have to clean up the sound more than I wanted to in order to make it usable,
and it may be most interesting as a kind of sound piece weaving in elements
of the broadcast, moments of static, and noises from the museum into a sprawling
whole.
AUTHOR: Sarah Kanouse
TITLE: Finding the Village Square
STATUS: Publish
ALLOW COMMENTS: 1
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 1
DATE: 04/25/2004 11:54:16 PM
-----
BODY:
" Finding the Village Square: A Walk through Downtown Urbana"
Monday, April 26, 2004
12:00 PM
Urbana Civic Center
108 Water St.
Urbana, Illinois
For a midwestern town built on a grid pattern, Urbana is strangely lacking
a public square - an edge on which public political/juridical space and private
commercial space intersect, with the public space in the center. While walking
from one public space (the Civic Center) to another (the city-owned Lincoln
Square parking lot) investigate how this absence developed and the disconnection
between current downtown Urbana public spaces. Walkers will also be invited
to envision what might make a physical public square and how the parking
lot might be re-designed to become one.
Join the walk at Monday, April 26th, noon, starting at the Urbana Civic Center,
or listen in at 103.5/90.5 or online at www.thepublicsquare.net (range permitting).
An mp3 of the event will be available soon.
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: George R. Carlisle
EMAIL: carlisle@soltec.net
IP: 64.5.68.152
URL:
DATE: 04/27/2004 10:30:09 PM
Danielle Chynoweth's comments are enlightening. She would very much like to
see the downtown reconfigured to make it a friendly place to interact with
others, but many obstacles are in the way.
The idea of signing the bus shelters to indicate that it really is Downtown
Urbana, and having a directory of businesses and other points of interest
is sound, but I wonder if a coffee shop would make a go it it were located
in infilled parking garage area beside bus shelter. The Cinema Caffe
failed three times and is now only an art gallery.
The Urbana Civic Center is underutilized. We need to find ways to have
more events in there. It is too bad there was not the funding initally
to make it larger and having recreational facilities as originally envisioned.
Original plans called for a gymasium and swimming pool. Such facilities
now exist in Brookens Center and the Aquatic Center, but not in one location.
Danielle does not feel the need to raise funds to extend the courthouse
tower to how it was before being struck by lightning in the early 1950's.
I myself pointed out some historical information on the tour, as the
old Illinois Terminal Railway power plant that was where the Civic Center
is now located, and such as the old Montgomery Ward Store, Smith drugs,
Gebhart's Auto Supplies, Roney's White Spot Lunch, Mel Root's Cafe, and
Smith Drugs, and the old Champaign County Bank and Trust Compamy and
Nehi/Royal Crown Cola bottling plant.
We talked about the transformation of the Mini Park and that it will
also serve Iron Post for outdoor seating, yet remain a publicly-owned
space. We discussed the fact that Lincoln Square being privately owned,
free Speech is not always allowed within its corridors. There have been
security issues surrounding the courthouse so assembly in the space north
is discouraged.
And they said "Don't let me get started on the fate of the old
Elite Diner!" That is an institution sorely missed by its longtime
loyal patrons.
Much needs to be done to redevelop Lincoln Square and downtown Urbana.
I hope this discussion gets the ideas flowing that may help make it a
reality. I am disappointed tht the tram has been put "on hold." It
could ahve done much to redevelop downtown Urbana.
AUTHOR: Sarah Kanouse
TITLE: Where are the WMDs?
STATUS: Publish
ALLOW COMMENTS: 1
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 1
DATE: 04/27/2004 12:30:16 AM
-----
BODY:
Where are the WMDs? Citizen Weapons Inspections at the University of Illinois
Tuesday, April 26th, 2004
12:00 PM
meet at the University of Illinois Engineering Campus Fountain
Urbana, Illinois
A group of concerned citizens will be conducting a weapons inspection of the
University of Illinois Engineering campus. Dressed in appropriate weapons
inspection gear (white-collared shirts, lab coats, and surgical masks), we
will be followed by a video team, radio team, and local press, as we investigate
labs that we believe are producing weapons of mass destruction.
After researching some of the funding sources of the engineering department,
our team has uncovered that a staggering amount of research grants to this
university are issued by the Department of Defense, the Academic Strategic
Alliance Program, and the Center for the Stimulation of Advanced Rockets, all
of which develop and produce research for creating weapons of mass destruction.
In a climate of military aggression, violence, and occupation, we cannot wait
any longer! We must get to the bottom of this university's involvement in the
production WMD's!!!
Meet us at 12:00 PM sharp at the fountain, or listen in on the web at www.thepublicsquare.net
or on 103.5/90.5 FM (range permitting). An mp3 of the event will be available
soon.
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Ray Arias
EMAIL: rariasuiuc@hotmail.com
IP: 68.77.118.9
URL:
DATE: 05/14/2004 03:16:07 AM
I found the information posted here and printed in the Public i helpful, but
I was wondering if there is any more detailed information available.
AUTHOR: Sarah Kanouse
TITLE: Abstain from What?
STATUS: Publish
ALLOW COMMENTS: 1
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 1
DATE: 04/27/2004 10:26:35 PM
-----
BODY:
Abstain from What? Teens Discuss Abstinence-only Education
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
Westside Park
SW Corner of Church and State
Champaign, Illinois
During the State of the Union address, George Bush sought to double funding
for abstinence-only education to $270 million in the coming fiscal year.
Throughout debates on abstinence-only, the voices of the recipients of this
program--young people themselves--have been ignored. Sex Ed will never be
effective until youth offer feedback, give
attention, and conduct the organizing.
People ages 19 and under will discuss the effectiveness of abstinence-only
education, its consequences, and what they can do to
improve their sexual health. If you're 20 or over, or can't make it to the
conversation, tune in to 90.5/103.5 or listen online at
www.thepublicsquare.net (range permitting). An mp3 of the event will be available
soon after.
AUTHOR: Sarah Kanouse
TITLE: Listening to the Electronic Citizen: Technology and Democracy
STATUS: Publish
ALLOW COMMENTS: 1
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 1
DATE: 04/28/2004 11:25:21 PM
-----
BODY:
Thursday, April 29, 2004
5:00 PM
Champaign City Building
102 N. Neil
Champaign, Illinois
Digital technologies promise greater accessibility of the information and open
debate vital to a democratic society, as well as easier to use and more accurate
forms of polling and petition. Online advocacy groups like MoveOn leap to
prominence almost overnight and help millions email or fax their comments
on a range of issues, and political blogs on a dizzying array of topics connect
readers with writers for debate and communication. But increased information
doesn't necessarily enhance a capacity to understand, and a greater volume
of email to the White House seems to mean each one counts for less and less.
Recent headlines have been filled with concerns over the security of electronic
voting machines, and political campaigns have begun using demographic and
marketing data to craft their messages. And with greater emphasis on electronic
forms of participation, those who cannot or chose not to access the internet
might be shut out all together. Clearly, new technologies and politics mix
in complicated ways, and understanding and negotiating those complexities
will be a major task of those citizens wanting to speak, be heard and hear
others.
Join an open conversation anchored by several people whose work has intersected
with these issues and others, or listen in online at www.thepublicsquare.net
or on 90.5/103.5 (range permitting).
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: George R. Carlisle
EMAIL: carlisle@soltec.net
IP: 64.5.68.141
URL:
DATE: 04/29/2004 10:45:04 PM
This comment is for upcoming "Prospect for Peace:"
We have a severe traffic congestion problem on North Prospect Avenue.
We can no longer afford to consume so much fuel and drive willy-nilly
whenever we feel like it. We are at War with Iraq over petroleum. We
must place some restrictions on driving here in town.
We must take steps to reduce dependency on foreign oil.
It is inappropriate to drive out there to display protest signs etc.
Many of the businesses do not like protestors to park in their lots,
fearing that it may block spaces for legitimate customers.
I had that experience last year when I went out there, just once, to take pictures
of the signs, then left and never came back.
If you must go out to North Prospect, at least take the MTD. I believe
the Lavender Route will get at least to the intersection of Bloomington
Road and Prospect. It is a dangerous crossing, what with all the cars.
But if you leave yours at home it will be one less car. Like other environmental
issues, this is an "if-we-each-do-a-little-we-can-all-do-a-lot" solution,
and one less car will make quite a difference, if enough people leave
their cars at home.
It is too bad the plans for the Tram have been scrapped for the moment
when over half a million dollars has already been spent. That money could
have placed an extra bus on several major routes.
We now must be prepared to pay an impact fee on motor vehicles to fund
mass transit. The current 27 cents per $100 assessed valuation property
tax will not get us much more frequent service off-campus.
We need to pay an annual sticker fee on cars to fund more transit, or
else face paying yet another nickel per gallon at the fuel pump.
Traffic congestion was severe during the Champaign City Building The
Public Square session Thursday, April 29. It was hard to hear the commentary
over the roar of traffic, especially loud diesel trucks and buses.
We need to investigate some electronic transponder, similar to "I-Pass'
on the tollways, to automatically charge impact fees on motor vehicles.
I realize the infrastructure of such a system would probably cost as
much as the tram system. We need differential rates for times of day:
off-peak, and a rush-hour rate. That rate needs to be in effect starting
at noon Fridays and all-day Saturdays, what with all the shopping and
what I call "Running Around" Traffic. I am guilty of that myself,
somewhat more lately, in trying to keep track of, and photograph, demolition
of the old Burnham City Hospital, and the Baker Board Labyrinth Project
in Crystal Lake Park. But these projects will be completed soon, and
the camera will again go into hibernation, here in town at least. I have
to congest streets to go to Bates Camera in Campustown, in order to purchase
and process color slide film, as most mass mercahndise stores no longer
carry it. I would have to give up five 36-exposure rolls of slide film,
all else equal, to pay for a $75 annual sticker fee for my car.
Students have prepaid bus transportation through their student fees,
but many are still congesting our streets unnecessarily. If the buses
ran more frequently, it would be more practical to use them for shopping
trips. I have to pay fares so it is not as practical for me. I am trying
to combine errands and walk when I can. At least, I live only two blocks
from Urbana Schnuck's, so I can walk to shop there.
It is appalling to see so much good farmland go to more urban sprawl,
which only results in more and more driving to reach outlying stores.
Meanwhile, shopping centers like Lincoln Square remain mostly empty.
Better urban planning and mass transportation would result on fewer
automobile trips, which leads to less dependency on foreign petroleum
supplies, and to war.
The best way we can "Prospect for Peace" is not to drive on
that street any more than absolutely necessary.
-----
COMMENT:
AUTHOR: Sarah Kanouse
EMAIL: kanouse@students.uiuc.edu
IP: 130.126.30.105
URL: http://www.readysubjects.org
DATE: 05/07/2004 11:33:33 PM
Conrad just emailed this to me, assuming I'd have known of it, but I did not.
http://www.personaldemocracy.com
The Personal Democracy Forum will bring together political figures,
grassroots leaders, journalists and technology professionals to discuss
the questions that lie at the intersection of technology and politics
-- to take a realistic look at where we are now and where we are headed.
Of a spirit, perhaps, but given the list of participants, is much more
expert-oriented, more composed than mine--not bad, just a different model.
Anyways, thanks!
AUTHOR: Sarah Kanouse
TITLE: Take Back the Night
STATUS: Publish
ALLOW COMMENTS: 1
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 1
DATE: 04/30/2004 02:38:53 AM
-----
BODY:
Friday, April 30, 2004
7:00 PM
Westside Park,
Champaign, IL
Each year, a collective of women and
transgendered people work for months to organize "Take Back the
Night," an annual rally and march that publicly protests the conditions
that cause women to feel unsafe when alone at night on the streets and
symbolically reclaim the night as a safe space for those who are frequently
the targets of gender-related violence. What is the experience of most
nights, and how does this night differ? What do these activists and attendees
get out of organizing and participating in the march, and why does it
continue to matter?
The march is open to women and transgendered people only, but audio from the
event will be at www.thepublicsquare.net or 103.5/90.5 FM (range permitting).
An mp3 of the event will be available on the website soon after.
|