Participatory Research and Political Art: California to New York
Thu, May 7, 2015
6:30 PM
The James Gallery
For decades the NYPD has practiced a tactic of aggressive policing known as “Broken Windows” that focuses on minor offenses and misdemeanor arrests, and are strategies—like the controversial “stop and frisk”—that disproportionately target communities of color. The Morris Justice Project, based at the CUNY Graduate Center, has been involved in pushing against erroneous rationalizations for Broken Windows, engaging community members in the south Bronx in data-collection and actions that contradict the perceived wisdom of the policy. In the summer of 2014 they began working with Oakland-based artist Evan Bissell to create a series of posters that empowered community members to question the policing strategy.
Join Evan Bissell and Morris Justice Project members for a discussion of how they have used forms of participatory research and art in pursuit of social justice and political change in New York as well as California. Among the questions to be discussed are: do artists have particular skills and knowledge that can be useful to emancipatory struggles? How can visual strategies be educational, within and beyond the characterization of so-called ‘social practice’? And what are the benefits of using art as a methodological tool in gathering research? Audience members are encouraged to participate in this forum, which will take the form of an open conversation.
Cosponsored by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; PhD Program in Art History; Public Science Project, The Graduate Center, CUNY.
