Glenn Leisching and Violet Snow, African Seminar/Workshopr

2012: Catastrophe or Opportunity? – An Indigenous Perspective

Whether you're heeding the Mayan prophecies of cataclysmic change in 2012 or witnessing the upheavals of climate change, seismic tectonic shifts, the Arab Spring, and worldwide economic recession, you may be wondering what's happening to our planet.

How can we prepare for fundamental change and help to create a constructive revolution rather than a disaster?

Glenn Leisching, an initiated elder of the West African Dagara tribe, offers solutions based on ancient teachings about our relationshipswith nature and our familial ancestral heritage . A friend and ally of shaman Malidoma Somé and other indigenous African wisdom keepers,Glenn has been to Africa three times in the past year, bringing back powerful insights from his visits with respected medicine men and women.

Glenn is available to give talks to the public, emphasizing empowering yet practical steps we can take as individuals to harness and direct this energy of change.

He will address such concepts as:

• a new yet ancient paradigm for envisaging a new society
• tools for finding each person's life purpose, essential to the flourishing of our communities
• deepening community ties to a level almost unknown in the West
• honoring the seen and the unseen worlds, and how this practice enlarges our understanding and intimacy within our lives
• participating in the truth of nature's unfolding as our birthright
• simple everyday acts for expanding personal power and insight

Franc Palaia, Sustainable Energy Workshops/Demos

Since 1990, my mixed media works have been about light. I make illuminated photo-sculpture using found and recycled materials and fitting these constructions with photographic transparencies and light. Since 2005 I have shifted my light source from a traditional power grid electricity source to a natural sunlight and solar powered light.  I have been striving to make my illuminated photo works as natural as possible.

I can add a more obvious art component to my Occupy Bottle Bulb project by incorporating photo or hand painted transparencies to the illuminated bottle bulbs. Doing this also relates the project to my own illuminated photography works which I have been making for over 20 years.

My Occupy Catskill project proposal is a continuation of this philosophy. I recently became aware of an amazing simple way to create a lighting device that is as  green as possible. It is called the “Bottle Bulb”. 

The Bottle Bulb was invented by a Brazilian named Alfredo Moser in 2002.

The plight of the poor is an overwhelming global ordeal in terms of lack of food, water, shelter, healthcare and electricity.  However, the bottle bulb is a simple and easy solution for the approximately 35% of the world’s population without domestic electricity.

The Bottle Bulb is made of recycled two liter plastic soft drink bottles. They are  filled with clean water along with an added soda capful of chlorine bleach which prevents algae growth over a long period of time.   When the bottle is exposed to sunlight a prismatic reaction occurs and magically, this creates a luminescence equivalent to a 50-60 watt incandescent bulb. The water in the bottle simply defuses sunlight so it spread out after passing through the water rather than in a straight sunbeam if the light was going through a hole in the roof.

   The process of making a bottle bulb is very easy. The bottle is fitted with a 12”x12” metal skirt that fits around the middle of the bottle, then the bottle is inserted vertically with the top half the bottle sticking out above a tin or similar thin roof and the bottom half the bottle hangs down inside the structure below the roof. The skirt is then screwed or glued to the roof and the holes filled with water- proof sealant or caulking and that is all there is to it.  A soft glowing natural illumination will automatically come from the bottom half of the bottle and brightens a dark interior living or work space. This only works during the day when the sun is shining, however there are always interior spaces that are dark during the day for lack if windows or sky lights.  The Bottle Bulb will assist in lighting sheds, club houses, tree houses, tents, cabanas, any small structure and even homes and work spaces with a thin penetrable roof exposed to sunlight.

My Occupy project will consist of workshops in an unused storefront or empty building where we can set up tables and teach people how to make Bottle Bulbs. An extra salient bonus of this project is clearing the environment of empty discarded plastic bottles.

The materials involved are basic and easily procured such as scrap metal, metal snips, drills, sealants, putty knives, plastic bottles, water and chlorine bleach.

My part will consist of one or several demo workshops with a short power point on the history of the Bottle Bulb and then the workshops can be conducted with assistants and community artists and volunteers.  The finished Bottle Bulbs can be distributed to local citizens who need them and we can ask for a nominal donation in return to help with supply costs.  This idea can be taken to a national level because even today there are many places in the United States where electricity is still a luxury.

Gilbert Gambucci, Music Lesson/Performance

 A music teach-in and performance of participants:
  
 1/ Morning hour piano lesson:  A first piano lesson class (or classes) for beginners of any age. We'll learn to play Paul Strein's Occupy Wall Street Song at the piano. (It's a very easy straight forward piece of music).
 
 2/ Afternoon session:  Learning the words and how to sing the same piece, The Occupy Wall Street Song.
 
 3/ Any evening: a performance of this song (by the participants) at the piano (4 hands) together with the vocals, and possible audience joining in.
  
 www.ConsciousnessConcerts.com

Sam Truitt, Earth Day Action

Occupy the Rip Van Winkle Bridge on Earth Day (Sunday, April 22)


I envision on April 22 (Earth Day) at noon people from the East and West sides of the Hudson River converging on the walkway of the Rip Van Winkle Bridge. A large banner would be unfurled at the center of the bridge on which would be written "Earth day." There might be other things that happen, but I don't envision more than this simple human act.

Buckminster Fuller Institute

The Buckminster Fuller Institute is housed in Williamsburg, Brooklyn above Hyperallergic,  where Occupy With Art has a residency through March.  Paul McLean reports that the BFI is interested in working with us on creative design and sustainability projects.

http://www.bfi.org/programs/prototype


Recap of conversation with the BFI Challenge Director, Jen Joy Roybal:

They have 4-6 project boards, 4'x6' mounted on foamcore.  Each board features 8 finalists from the Buckminster Fuller Design Challenge addressing whole system solutions and integrated strategies for solving sustainability issues and ecological problems- They show how art, energy, economy, design, science engineering, technology can all work together.

They may be interested in a presentation on alternative economies, land use issues such as the watershed, agriculture and tourism relating NYC to the Hudson Valley.  

Also Jen Joy is available for two weeks in March to help install.  We plan another conversation for Mon 2/13.

Maria Byck and Antonio Serna, Forum and Workshop

ART & THE COMMONS: Beyond the Tangible

Traditionally the commons brings to mind a system where tangible resources are shared by a community. For practical reasons these types of tangible commons have built around them complex ecologies of functions that can be counted, sorted, and balanced to maintain the vitality of the resource as a commons. The advantage in a commons is that responsibility and care is distributed within its members whose livelihood in-turn depends on it, to a certain degree.

With this basic information about tangible commons, can we begin to think about other types of commons, commons who’s functions are less tangible and cannot be enumerated and written as clearly and precisely as those such as land, water, and air? If so we can begin the process of negotiating a relationship to the commons that has no physical form at all, such as ideas and culture.

OCCUPY WALL STREET & THE COMMONS: A New Lens for Analysis

Occupy Wall Street has directly confronted the issue of privatized public space, or the commons, and its impact on the social and political landscape. Through this we can see how the value of the land moves beyond its physical properties to the intangible outcomes of bodies in a shared space: expressions, serendipity, imagination and engagement. What is the potential when we open up spaces that provide an alternative to sitting in our American Dream homes isolated observers of world through the mediated images on our screens?

Through the Occupy Wall Street lens we can see how corporate and capitalist thinking has lead to the commodification of the cultural commons. What is the impact of copyright? As corporations own much of our culture how do we interact with our culture if it is off limits? How is value created in a market driven economy in which art is horded as a luxury item rather than shared as a public good. Does this lead the artist to self-censorship? Does this affect our imagination of the possibilities? Where are the borders of this system? How can we push up against them? Can current practices in technology, such as open source, hacking and killer apps that take privately owned and coded entity and redefine it as public, provide some insight? How do the evolving dynamic of OWS actions provide a chance to challenge the current boundaries between the public good and private capital?

OPEN FORUM:

Exploring the commons beyond the tangible.

WORKSHOPS:

In an effort to harness the potential of moving between the intangible to the tangible, we will explore how to move from ideas to actions and back again. Various workshops focus on furthering our understanding and relationship to the commons, for example: Art & the Commons or Music & the Commons.

OTHER EVENTS:

-A discussion exploring the political, economic, and social intersections and conflicts within painting: Van Gogh, Casper David Friedrich, Bruegel family, Da Vinci, Jacques-Louis David. - In Practice Events: post-workshop gatherings and events to implementing sustainable solutions beyond WS2MS.

PENDING COALITION OF OWS ARTS GROUPS:

Arts & Culture Arts & Labor Occupy Museums Occupy with Art as well as other autonomous artist and individuals within OWS

Laurie Arbeiter, We will not be silent

PROJECT PROPOSAL 

A small group of artists from NYC created a language-project in 2006, when we began wearing and distributing shirts that said WE WILL NOT BE SILENT, a historic statement that dated back to a 1942/1943 resistance movement in Germany called the White Rose. We translated the statement into six languages and over 50,000 were distributed all over the world. This project was chosen to be included in a curated exhibition in Sienna, Italy, dealing with artists and their response to war. 

We have recently been inspired by the liberation and occupy movements worldwide and in October designed over 35 new statements that are now being distributed and worn by people in the public realm and inspiring communication between those who wear the shirts and those they encounter. 

We also create public happenings with people wearing the shirts during site-specific actions. Our goal at these actions is to capture public attention and to be captured by photo-journalists who then, through their framed images, help continue to spread the messages worldwide through the media. Our efforts have been documented in many publications.

Our proposal for participation in the OCCUPY WALL STREET TO OCCUPY MAIN STREET exhibition would include:

1. An ongoing installation, through the course of the exhibit, in which the shirts would be displayed either in a storefront space and/or a gallery space. We would also include photo documentation of images of people in action in the shirts. The shirts would be available for purchase for people who wanted to join us in embodying the different messages. We are considering setting up a video camera to document some of the people who would choose to wear the shirts, to have them speak about the meaning of the language that they will now embody and what it brings to their mind.

2. A public happening in the streets with people unified by wearing the different shirts to capture people's attention and compel involvement by others passing by. This event would also be documented.  

Thank you for your consideration,

Laurie Arbeiter

www.wewillnotbesilent.net

Matt Bua, Shelter Drawings

I would like to produce a wall of drawings(filling a space roughly 4x 4 ft) dealing with occu-pods and other ways to build quick shelters and stay warm during the winter months.
A small zine could be produced for visitors. Living with Less and Loving It.
http://bhomepark.blogspot.com/2011/11/occu-pod-building-workshops-dec-26th.html

Also maybe a visionary drawing building workshop.

The Great Tortilla Conspiracy, Jos Sances and Rio Yañez, Event

The Great Tortilla Conspiracy is the world’s most dangerous tortilla art collective. Modeling themselves after the Free Masons, artists Jos Sances, Rene Yañez, and Rio Yañez bring the gospel of tortilla art to the masses like no other. The Great Tortilla Conspiracy uses the tortilla as a canvas to make art accessible to the masses. As a medium tortillas have the ability to expose the community to a wide range of issues. The Conspiracy uses their art to raise issues related to identity, immigration, miracle tortilla apparitions, the high price of tortillas in Mexico, and the rise of Transgenic Corn. The genetic engineering of corn is something that is impacting millions of people in the United States and Mexico and they address their concerns with it through their artwork and mischief.

The Great Tortilla Conspiracy for lots of info on the project. Go here to see images.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/elrio/sets/72157594283529437/

Also go here for info : http://tortillaconspiracy.wordpress.com/about/

Films

From: Geno Rodriguez
Subject: Short videos/films

May I suggest a selection of short films/video like this one would communicate the plight of the poor very clearly to others in the same situation up here. We should also find some films with struggling nurses, pilots, teachers etc to connect to the unemployed middle class.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/22/occupy-yall-street-ows_n_1163873.html

                                        ___________________________________

From: Christopher Moylan 

Here are my reactions--just as someone who will be in the audience watching and who knows little about film.

It looks like three genres or styles are emerging: three minute or so clips of street protest montage interspersed with remarks from individual protesters; more experimental or whimsical pieces like the Pavlova piece and the AR (altered reality?) bits; and what promises to be, I think, a more documentary style film from those people who are appealing for funding help.

I assume that one evening or event could mix street protest bits with the experimental ones but stringing them together to make an hour or hour and half presentation would require running commentary either live or within the film, preferably within the film followed by someone taking questions later...I'd get pretty antsy watching twenty three minute videos without a lot of help understanding what it all amounted to... And I would, as an audience member, want to learn something fairly substantial, perhaps useful in a practical sense--or get a zen slap of having the films demonstrate a very different way of looking at reality...

Maybe the whole fest would take the form of a groundbreaking experimental occu-zen-slap-a-thon. That would be cool.

___________________________________

From Paul Smart:

A collection of protest films from the Mid Hudson Library System housed for the duration of the project at the Catskill Library (just of Main Street) relating to OWS to the 60's protest movement.  Withtake-away Netficks list and possible film screenings at the library.

 ___________________________________

From: "Paul McLean" <artforhumans@gmail.com>

Subject: Re: occupy film/moving image links...

A sampler

• http://www.whilewewatch.com/
• http://www.occupywithart.com/video-art-of-ows/2011/11/20/a-new-day-begins-at-occupy-wall-street.html
• http://www.99percentfilm.com/  http://kck.st/u5KTt4
• http://youtu.be/IgEdrh617qs
• http://www.occupywithart.com/video-art-of-ows/2011/10/26/the-99.html
• http://youtu.be/t89SoPB1sZ0
• http://www.youtube.com/user/nothingofficial

• http://www.youtube.com/user/OccupyTVNY
• http://www.occupystreams.org/
• http://occupycinema.org/
• http://www.occupyfilmmakers.com/
•  video uploaded in real time during protests as ad hoc news and tactical tool of the protesters
• livestream channels that document/promote the movement, offering some amazing moments as alt.news (such as the BBridge crossing N17/Bat signal scenes, or Times Square)
• short/long treatments self-released by pro videographers and filmmakers in support of the movement
• art films and videos (music and visual/tech driven) inspired by the movement and its memes/people
• interviews of the 99%
• feature-length films assembled for wide distribution

Then there are more new media-oriented works that blur lines of art and information or expression (like animated gif/AR/music videos, etc) that really exist almost independent of the streaming media, but which in some way exist as a satellite to it.

I think the formats for presentation are dimensional. Whether one chooses to present any of these or all of these divergent-formats in the combinative montage (say, reeling them into a format for big screen, or reducing/compressing them for projection/monitor-based presentation in a white environment, or offering them online as a mobile download) is certainly the New Media orientation. Selecting for traditional "filmic" or cinematic presentation doesn't afford a curator with a variety of choices at this point. In fact it wrongly indicates a lack of "finished" work. I think the best solution requires a re-tooling and re-imagining of usage of all available presentation formats. Good precursors for this are - stay with me here - indicated by models for planes (especially long-flight transports), minivans or limos, and home entertainment systems. Some museums have adopted this presentation approach which is modular and allows the "viewer" to toggle among several media choices. This is a 3D or environmental approach, and with audio added (either as an encompassed sound-field, or particularized - through the use of headphones or other isolation- or dictional- sound solutions), produces an immersive scenario in the presentation, which is actually closer to real life experience than the phalanx-based "theater" architecture. It's what I would recommend, but involves a fairly involved educational curve - i.e., is it cool to leave your smart phone on during a show? In the 4D presentation method I'm describing, live performance is the final additive element that can be introduced to activate the environment. Now you have a party! I've produced numerous variations on these arrangements over the years. At this point I would think we can all think of plenty of successful examples of the 4D presentation practicums, although they're not called that (even though that's what they are). Some of these approaches are ancient, pre-electronic. Some have evolved over centuries in theater and elsewhere. Others are really new, based on emerging AC technologies. 


From Boo Lynn Walsh:

I am casting the net a little further out, looking for some diversity in medium and also my friends around the world who are experiencing the peoples' movement firsthand.
Since we are thinking of some additional film and image short reels... 
I am offering this endearing short of Emily a long-term OWS artist for group consensus below. 
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM4CFzxF8Dw&list=UUBe2vbH7G8MJOrxnIcPvStQ&index=2&feature=plcp

(I remember seeing this woman's work many times during my visits to ZPark. Also Ms. Minsky who filmed this is a not a videographer but a very well known photographer and journalist who has offered to look through of a few of her images of Occupy for submission to the rotating photo viewing project.) 


 
here's another related to arts and kids at Zpark. Again, very raw, but I love the connection and how Zpark was really a community and one parents brought children to!
Park Slope kids come to Occupy Wall Street- Zuccotti Pk (OWS- Tequila Minsky) "mic check"  
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bV1JhMUH9hE&feature=autoplay&list=UUBe2vbH7G8MJOrxnIcPvStQ&lf=plcp&playnext=3
 
another student talking about budget cuts been in Zpark since Sept. 17
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UrAvbZ-peI&feature=autoplay&list=UUBe2vbH7G8MJOrxnIcPvStQ&lf=plcp&playnext=4
 
I'm sure there are other priceless treasures on youtube if mined correctly and the videographers and hopefully the subjects were contacted.

Dave Lippman, Live Music

Glad to hear of your art project. If you are having an opening event or something like it, I can offer singsongs related to OWS - see/hear at http://www.davelippman.com/mp3s.html - note Sgt Pepper, You Get What You Need, and others. One about to come online: All we are saying (Is end corporate greed) - don't worry it's more interesting than that.

Danny Bryck, One Man Play

 I'm creating a documentary play about Occupy Boston entitled "No Room
 for Wishing." It is a one-man show written using only exact words
 culled from roughly 90-100 interviews with people at or involved with
 Occupy Boston in some way, telling the story of the individuals
 involved in the movement, and the sequence of events during the time
 Dewey Square was occupied, through a series of monologues. The piece
 moves more or less forward through time, from a week into the
 occupation, through its various legal battles, encounters with police,
 etc., to a week after its eviction by the city of Boston. The
 narrative bounces around between different people's perspectives, from
 a variety of ages, races, political views and economic backgrounds,
 from a homeless woman to a left-of-center bank employee to an
 anarchist organizer to a protest chaplain. The play attempts to paint
 a complex, multifaceted portrait of this time and place, viewed
 through the lens of one actor interpreting a broad spectrum of real
 characters.

 The interviews include mostly off-the-cuff conversations but also
 public speeches, recordings of general assemblies and other meetings,
 civil disobedience trainings, interviews with news media, performances
 of songs and poems about the movement, and more, providing a wide
 array of angles. Currently I'm in the process of transcribing and
 cutting together the interviews into a script, and discussing
 possibilities for performance with local producers in Boston. I will
 be performing an abridged version of the play with my theatre company,
 Whistler in the Dark, on March 12, with other performances to be
 determined.

 The goal is to bring the play to multiple venues and to perform it in
 conjunction with other performances and pieces of art arising out of
 the Occupy movement, in order to raise awareness and inspire
 connection and dialogue between the activist and artistic communities
 as well as the greater community in the Boston area and beyond.

 I would love to bring the piece to "Wall Street to Main Street."


www.whistlerinthedark.com 

BooLynn Walsh, Collaborative Social Art Project

OCCUPY THE WALLS – OUR STORY PAST & PRESENT - a visual collaborative social art project

PROJECT SUMMARY:

The intention of this proposal is to create a welcoming, informal meeting space for everyone to participate in an interactive, all inclusive, community art piece which will evolve for the duration of this collaborative event, creating a bond among attendees (both locals, visitors and beyond). It would provide documentation and expressions of the Occupy Movement that many have not been exposed to due to the censorship of mainstream media, lack of internet access or the broad array of lesser known channels. This is “Our Story, Past & Present”.

The installation contains two main components (labeled A and B below) both related to the Occupy Movement and are intended to be presented in the same physical space. “A” is art created during the event on canvas. “B” is a people’s theatre, an informal screening space for the multimedia presentation of short films, animations, photo and puppet shows. I believe this type of community involvement, uncensored creative expression and exposure to be an invaluable component of the event which could be produced for a minimal investment in physical space and materials. I would suggest this be done on the ground floor of the Catskill Community Center and also include a welcome information station with map of events and schedules component.

(A) OCCUPY THE WALLS, PAST AND PRESENT:

This is done with two walls, each covered in a separate piece of large canvas. One wall canvas is labeled “OCCUPY PAST” a second wall canvas is labeled “OCCUPY  PRESENT:” People enter the space and are invited to bring or create a postcard size (4”X6”) flat artwork memento of photos, writings, poetry, newspaper clipping and collages related to the OWS movement and affix it to the appropriate canvas. For OCCUPY PAST, images and impressions that relates to the events of the past. For the OCCUPY PRESENT People are encouraged to document the current events within the time frame of this event particularly local images and feedback as the events are continuously unfolding.

The canvas would begin to fill up with these images respectfully placed in lines like a quilt creating a living testimony of our experience and visions, giving it a voice while evolving into a communal art piece. When the canvas becomes full another piece of canvas will be installed to continue to collect more memobillia. The finished canvases would be sealed with a protective, covering substance, becoming part of the Creative Commons art and image resources collection of OWS, under the care of the Arts & Culture group, to be utilized as needed for future exhibitions, political action etc. (online and physical).

(B) MOVING IMAGES, SLIDE SHOWS, ANIMATIONS AND SHORT FILMS

Moving visual arts, mini movies and animations related to OWS.

In the same room as the living canvases, there is one wall or a screen that would be available to artists to show their Occupy related slide shows, independent documentaries live feeds, animations or do shadow puppet style shows throughout the event’s duration. 

Adbusters May Day Event

Wall Street to Main Street may want to acknowledge this event or come up with our own May 1 event(s).  

ADBUSTERS TACTICAL BRIEFING #25

Hey you redeemers, rebels and radicals out there,

Against the backdrop of a global uprising that is simmering in dozens of countries and thousands of cities and towns, the G8 and NATO will hold a rare simultaneous summit in Chicago this May. The world’s military and political elites, heads of state, 7,500 officials from 80 nations, and more than 2,500 journalists will be there.

And so will we.

On May 1, 50,000 people from all over the world will flock to Chicago, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and #OCCUPYCHICAGO for a month. With a bit of luck, we’ll pull off the biggest multinational occupation of a summit meeting the world has ever seen.

And this time around we’re not going to put up with the kind of police repression that happened during the Democratic National Convention protests in Chicago, 1968 … nor will we abide by any phony restrictions the City of Chicago may want to impose on our first amendment rights. We’ll go there with our heads held high and assemble for a month-long people’s summit … we’ll march and chant and sing and shout and exercise our right to tell our elected representatives what we want … the constitution will be our guide.

And when the G8 and NATO meet behind closed doors on May 19, we’ll be ready with our demands: a Robin Hood Tax … a ban on high frequency ‘flash’ trading … a binding climate change accord … a three strikes and you’re out law for corporate criminals … an all out initiative for a nuclear-free Middle East … whatever we decide in our general assemblies and in our global internet brainstorm – we the people will set the agenda for the next few years and demand our leaders carry it out.

And if they don’t listen … if they ignore us and put our demands on the back burner like they’ve done so many times before … then, with Gandhian ferocity, we’ll flashmob the streets, shut down stock exchanges, campuses, corporate headquarters and cities across the globe … we’ll make the price of doing business as usual too much to bear.

Jammers, pack your tents, muster up your courage and prepare for a big bang in Chicago this Spring. If we don’t stand up now and fight now for a different kind of future we may not have much of a future … so let’s live without dead time for a month in May and see what happens …

for the wild,

Culture Jammers HQ

Adbusters issue #100 is hitting doorsteps and newsstands in a couple of weeks. Go online or call Nicole at 1-800-663-1243 to make sure you don’t miss it!

---

abcdefgCORPS, Ariel Abrahams, Interactive Performance

The artwork that I would like to present is in the form of a group that I formed called the abcdefgCORPS. We have a website that acts as a menu of free activities

(http://cargocollective.com/abcdefgCORPS ).

For the WALL STREET TO MAIN STREET the abcdefgCORPS would like to set up shop in a space of any kind and invite people in the area to browse and use our services. We will make house calls. We will welcome walk-ins.

Let me tell you about the abcdefgCORPS:

who we are:

the abcdefgCORPS

*is a group dedicated to providing free, collective interaction to anyone willing to play along.

*believes in social justice, generative communication and free, critical thought.

*believes in the power of Athletic Abstraction.

*will come visit you in your home.

*will take over your space and make it holy.

*will send you gifts if you send them your address.

*provides programming for all ages, ethnicities and archetypes. 

*wants to learn from you and teach you things.

I am not attaching images because as of yet I have not collected images from most abcdefgCORPS excursions. My website, however, has documentation of 4 "Power Hours" and 3 "Invisible Winds." Please look at my website for reference. 

www.arielabrahams.com

Thank you! Feel free to email me with questions.

I look forward to hearing from you. 

http://cargocollective.com/abcdefgCORPS

arielabrahams@gmail.com

Michael Harris, Text/Spoken Word, Music, Symposium

Proposal: 

 ERNEST SONG PROJECT:

The Ecology of Happiness

From Petrified to Occupy

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Michael Harris, Deep River, Connecticut (aka, Ernest Song) proposes The Ecology of Happiness exhibit.

Visual/Spoken Word Display (http://pecha-kucha.org/what)

The Ecology of Happiness is a combination visual/spoken word piece based on the Japanese presentation format of ‘Pecha-Kucha’ - 20 slides for 20 seconds. The topic delves into a holistic exploration of ‘happiness’; if and how it is even possible at this time in history, how it relates to the fuller experience of our aliveness, and how it is ultimately a limited, individualized aspect of a much larger experience of relationship.

The display features 20 white poster boards arranged in a 4x5 grid and each containing words and phrases. Each slide is accompanied by written text representing the twenty-second spoken-word presentation for that slide. The display can be self-toured, as a stand alone piece, and will also be accompanied by live presentation during a variety of events within the exhibit time frame.

Musical Element (http://www.myspace.com/ernestsongcombo/radio)

The Ernest Song project features original music relating to the message in The Ecology of Happiness. It is proposed that local musicians will be recruited to perform the seven songs featured on the Ernest Song CD, Petrified, If Not for You at a variety of events.

Inter-Active Symposium (http://www.awakeningthedreamer.org/)

An inter-active Awakening the Dreamer/Changing the Dream symposium is proposed for the exhibit time frame. The symposium is a 3-hour transformative mixed media experience presented by trained facilitators. I am a facilitator, and propose working with one or two other, local facilitators to present the symposium. The goal of the Awakening the Dreamer/Changing the Dream symposium is to help bring forth an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling, socially just human presence on this planet.