Larry Stillman of Monash University wrote the original drafts on community informatics for Wikipedia. He just posted this comment to the “ciresearchers” listserv: “From my perspective, SI [social informatics] is more the academic study of social uses of technology, but CI [community informatics] is much more an activist approach of ICTs for social change and […]
Guerilla Art Action Group
Temporary Services (TS)–through Half-Letter Press–has been producing wonderful little booklets of interviews, which now number five. One of the “Temporary Conversations” was with Jean Toche of the Guerilla Art Action Group (GAAG). Formed in 1969 and enduring through 1976, GAAG consisted of Jean Toche, Jon Hendricks, and Poppy Johnson, with occasional others. The bright orange […]
Every Body! Again
Artist Bonnie Fortune, organizer and curator of the exhibit “Every Body!,” asked some of us to reflect on these questions, or similar ones: How feminist health movements challenge/change the images of women and/or men and health? Where do you think the visual representation of bodies in feminist health movements needs to go, and/ or the new concerns they must grapple with? […]
Every Body! Visual Resistance in Feminist Health Movements, 1969-2009
Artist Bonnie Fortune is tremendous (she’s shown above on the right, with another tremendous artist, Heather Ault)! She conceptualized, organized, and raised funds to produce a two-city, multi-event extravaganza called Every Body! This past week I have gotten the flier for the public performance of Terri Kapsalis’s “The Hysterical Alphabet,” and the flier for the […]
Aim High
I have been obsessing about this challenge today. This photo, taken by a student in a first-year class that I am co-teaching, captures it well. There’s the goal on a pole, but the pole is rusty and without a top. The conflict I feel is that the efforts I and many others make to “engage” […]
The Big Neighborhood Supper
About 25 of us gathered on a fairly warm and humid August evening to enjoy The Big Neighborhood Supper. Artist Maggie Taylor worked hard all summer to collaboratively organize workshops , conceptualize a group gathering around local food and drink, and produce a meal in a lovely setting. She pulled it off, and then some! […]
Nina Simon on “It Is What It Is”
Here’s a thoughtful post by Nina Simon on her “Museum 2.0” blog that digs into the quandaries and challenges of “conversational art.” Her focus is Jeremy Deller‘s interactive installation on the Iraq War, “It Is What It Is.”
Out in the Country
I just met Mary L. Gray and heard her talk about her new book, Out in the Country (NYU Press, 2009). She spent about three years living in smallish towns in Kentucky, West Virginia, and Tennessee, as a participant observer of LGBTQ youth. The subtitle of her book is “Youth, Media, and Queer Visibility in […]
Art, Not Art?
Edgar Heap of Birds might be labeled a conceptual artist; unfortunately a lot of people find conceptualism off-putting because it doesn’t stress the visual and usually it isn’t conventionally beautiful. While that term doesn’t fully describe Heap of Birds’ whole practice, it still might be useful to provide people with a label for his signage. […]
Confrontations Do Not Conversations Make
Walking on the sidewalk with “Respect Native Hosts” yard signs under my arm, I am on my way to deliver them in east Urbana. Man on porch whistles, then yells at me: “Let me see those signs!” Retracing my steps, I stand in his driveway and say that the signs are in support of Heap […]