Jessica Eis, video/audio

I have created two video/audio pieces that would be installed in a storefront or isolated room. The images will be displayed in the storefront window by video projection or in an isolated room/space in a larger exhibition and would be on a loop. While, speakers strategically placed outside, or within the room depending on location, will be playing an audio loop as well, creating a micro-environment of what life through my eyes was like at Zuccotti Park, a functioning village in the heart of New York City, created by people that could no longer stand idly by as our society yearns for change.

The first piece is called Sights&Sounds, 30min video piece, which is the combination of still images from a day at Zuccotti Park as well as audio from another day. My hope with this piece is to put the observer in the heart of Occupy Wall Street, the village and the movement created in the middle of a bustling city, where everyone was fed, sheltered, and nurtured, and where the possibility for change was palpable and ideas for that change were welcomed. Images will be inter dispersed between black screen or “empty spaces” forcing the viewer into a closed eye state, which encourages the observer to listen and feel what an amazing environment was forged at Zuccotti Park, creating a moment of imagination and interaction for the viewers to place themselves in the OWS movement.

http://vimeo.com/jessicaleis/sightsandsound

                 http://vimeo.com/jessicaleis/take-back-11-15-11

The second piece, Take Back, 16min video piece, during the day after the NYPD had raided the park, while everyone awaited the court’s decision and then eventually the inevitable re-taking of the park. And although Zuccotti Park never got back to its previous incarnation of what I like to call “Village of the People”, it was a incredibly symbolic moment, that no matter what the government organizations would do, they could not stop the movement of enlightenment and change that had begun. This piece too has both audio and visual components that would be set up in a loop just as the previous piece. However, Take Back has an expanded format- in addition to the black screen there are quotes by Thomas Jefferson interspersed throughout that address the need for public dissent- forcing and focusing the listener/viewer into both a closed eye state as well as a reflective state on our society and its founding ideals and principles.

Both pieces, Sight&Sound and Take Back, create a space that transports the viewer back to a moment of origination of Occupy Wall Street, and shows how ideals and change can reverberate through time, people, and space.

Brutus Faust, Animated text for screen or projection

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EBUcfrOsVQ

Brutus Faust, aka Adres Serrano

Mark Skwarek, Augmented Reality

Artist Mark Skwarek and select students from NYU Polytech will transform the city of Catskill NY as part of 
the OCCUPY Wall St. to Main St. Augmented reality mixes the virtual and physical world with site specific interventions. The works created will address the economic concerns of the local community and the nation. Mark Skwarek will drive an augmented reality boat down Main St in Catskill while giving a tour as a performance for the show's opening.



http://MarkSkwarek.com





















http://youtu.be/h0hUiHOMzGY

Mark Read, radio

About the Show

The #Occupy movement, born less than three months ago, has spread like wildfire around the country and the globe, taking root in towns and cities everywhere, connecting local struggles to the wider struggle for social and economic justice.  Something powerful is surging and stirring in the people of the world, a hunger for true democracy and a demand for transformative change.

The affiliates network of Pacifica Radio, with more than 300 stations dispersed all over the country, is in a unique position to tap into the energy of this historic grassroots movement, reflecting and amplifying its power by collecting and broadcasting the stories of movement participants from all over.    The affiliates network represents a pool of talent and a range of perspective that has yet to be fully utilized.  Occupied Radio will harness the skills and passion of our affiliate producers to generate an energetic, intelligent, entertaining program that will in turn further strengthen the affiliate network.

Occupied Radio will utilize new technology to enable production and ensure distribution.  We have created an area on audioport that will allow local producers from around the country, and the world, to easily upload content (segments) and become contributors to the program.  These segments will themselves become a library of content available to programmers from around the country to use if they wish to do so.

Occupied Radio is being produced by Mark Read, a radio producer from new affiliate WGXC in Hudson NY, and the former Outreach Director for Democracy Now!  Mark has been deeply involved in #Occupy Wall Street and is an active member of both the Labor Outreach Working Group of #OWS, and the Movement Building Working Group.  He views this as an extraordinary opportunity for both Pacifica, and the #Occupy movement.

The Pacifica Radio affiliate task force has taken the lead and has marshaled its limited resources in order to produce 3-4 pilot programs in the hope that more resources will be found quickly in order to continue this important work.

The #Occupy movement has created a rare and vital moment, opening up a space within which people can come together to work for the kind of transformative change that the current crises (economic, political, environmental) demand.  Let us seize this moment together and create the kind of media that such a moment deserves.