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PROTEST - from Latin pro-testari, 'affirm, bear witness to'
(testis = witness, as in 'testify'), a pro-active testifying
to a wrong in order to bring about a change for the better.
The focus of this workshop will be on those who are striving
to break their silence in order to interrupt the world around
them in an empowered critical voice. Workshop participants
will learn how to conceive and develop communicative equipment,
programs and environments to inspire and assist those who
are asserting their communcative rights in physical and digital
public space. Considering that among these potential "speakers"
are those survivors of present-day injustice whose ability
to communicate must first be recovered or developed, the design
concepts may need to respond not only to ethico-political
demands, but also to psychological conditions.
The workshop is offered in the context of present anti-globalization
protests suppressed in the name of "global interest,"
as well as the public debate and resistance against the government-imposed
limits on civil liberties and dissent in the name of "national
unity" and "security" such as the Patriot Act.
The other context of this workshop is an increasing public
focus on trauma, memory and testimony and insufficient focus
on the struggle for social justice through critical truth-telling
and outspokenness (parrhesia).
How can art, design and technology contribute to fearless
speech in light of these contexts? More specifically, how
can artists, engineers, and scientists, operating physically
and on-line within the fields of industrial design, digital
communications, wearable media, performance, critical public
art, media art, fashion design and other fields inspire, give
a presence to, empower and protect fearless speakers?
The course will be based on development of design projects
inspired by selected readings, discussions and student presentations.
The readings will focus on elements of political theory, developmental
and social psychology, ethical philosophy, urban and cyber
civil disobedience, and interventionist and protest art.
Readings and discussion topics will focus on:
- Agonistic democracy
- Agonism/Antagonism
- Fearless speech (parrhesia)
- Trauma and testimony
- Ethics of the self
- Ethics of the other
- Ethics of democracy
- Public space/Public sphere
- Dis-agreement/Difference
- Pro-test
- Polis/Police
- Socratesian democracy
- Declaration of wrong
- Interruption (of naturalorder)
- Stranger/Community
- Prophet/Prosthesis
- Victors/Vanquished.
Readings will consist of fragments of texts by: H. Arendt, W.
Benjamin, J. Herman, C. Lefort, C. Mouffe, M. Foucault, G. Debord,
M. Bakhtin, E. Levinas, D. Winnicott, Deleuze, R. Deutsch, D.
Crimp, W. Mitchell, J. Ranciere, S. Critchley, J. Derrida, and
others.
Artistic Practices and Theories will be introduced through
presentations:
- Situationist International
- Act Up
- Guerrilla Girls
- Women House
- Institute for Applied Autonomy
- Critical Art Ensemble
- Interrogative Design Group
- Pret-a-Revolter (Guerrilla Fashion Group)
Workshop participants will undertake research and development
of design concepts, however, proposals should be finalized as
experimental working models, programs and environments. There
will be a mid-term project and a final project. Projects may
be either individual or collective. Teams may be composed of
students of different skills and interests. Exceptionally, theoretical
and historical research may be accepted as a contribution to
group projects. Innovative and playful adaptation and redesign
of available equipment such as wearable, portable, movable,
and mobile devices, instruments, tools, toys, games, prostheses,
mechanical and electronic systems will be welcome. Situational
and environmental interventions and appropriations are also
welcome. As has been the case in the past, students may integrate
their ongoing research projects with the agenda of the course
in order to explore new cultural and critical directions.
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