Social Innovation Grant New York 2019: Art, Activism and Tech
From 9th–13th September, our Engagement Producer Euella Jackson, spent five days in New York city on a Rising research trip interrogating the relationship between art, activism and tech – funded and developed by The British Council and supported by BCDP’s Festival of Ideas and Bristol City Council. There, Euella met with some phenomenal artists, creative practitioners, organisations and activists who shared some valuable insights – here are her main take-aways.
I was given the opportunity of a lifetime to go to NYC for five days on behalf of Rising through the British Council’s Social Innovation Internationalism Grant scheme, in partnership with Festival of Future City. My mission? Research – and not just any old research. Research exploring the relationship between art, technology, co-creation and community – and how we can further embed these into the work we do. I was beyond pumped. There, I became an inquisitive sponge – eager to learn, make new connections and explore new methodologies for Rising. This really was perfect time for this type of work, as our small (but mighty) team is growing and we are establishing what values/questions we want to embed in the organisation for the future.
When in New York, I reached out to a range of amazing local creative organisations and practitioners who are contributing to New York’s art/activist legacy and using tech to empower their communities. These people very generously gifted their time to Rising to share their thoughts, challenges and triumphs so that we could learn from them and begin to think about answers to the following questions:
What is the relationship between art and technology in activism? And how can art and technology be used to empower marginalised groups and communities?
We believe that art should be taken out of traditional arts spaces to meaningfully engage with audiences, how can we start to use alternative spaces – be it virtual or physical to showcase artwork, provoke change and interrogate the world we live in?
Rising’s New York Fairy God-Parents
I was so lucky to be able to meet with such a range of different creative practitioners who I admire and who started to really challenge the way I think about tech, Rising and the work we do. Here are my New York ‘fairy godparents’. This group of remarkable people, artists, teachers, film-makers and organisations were my teachers and provided much stimulus for my curious mind. They were attentive, thorough and super engaging. Thank you all for squeezing me in such a short notice.
Stephanie Dinkins:
Stephanie Dinkins is a force to be reckoned with! A transmedia artist who creates platforms for dialogue about artificial intelligence (AI) as it intersects race, gender, ageing and our future histories. She is particularly driven to work with communities of colour to co-create more inclusive, fair and ethical artificial intelligent ecosystems.
Alex Winters, Project Manager, Creative Time
Creative Time is an exciting arts organisation based in New York city. Over the past four decades, Creative Time has commissioned and presented ambitious public art projects with thousands of artists throughout New York City, across the country, around the world (and now even in outer space!) Their work is guided by three core values: art matters, artists’ voices are important in shaping society, and public spaces are places for creative and free expression. Alex is a project manager there and manages their world-renowned Creative Time Summit.
Clarinda Mac Low, Co-Founder and ED, Culture Push
Clarinda Mac Low is the Co-founder and Executive Director at Culture Push. A brilliant thinker and cross-disciplinary artist who also teaches a NYU – Socially Engaged Art and Digital Practice. Culture Push is an exciting arts organisation that creates programmes to nurture artists and other creative people who are approaching common problems through hands-on civic participation and imaginative problem-solving.
Special thanks:
Gus
Shaun Walsh
Stephanie Gillman
The Activist New York curation team at Museum of the City of New York
Stephanie Dinkins
We know you’re dying to know… what did we find out?
Our research questions provided me with a solid framework for the rich discussions encountered over the week – and I left with lots of food for thought that spanned across organisational ethics, future-planning and creating city-wide movements – as well as the themes mentioned above. Below are some of the key take-aways from the trip.
The Power of Documentation:
During the trip, I took a visit to the Museum of the City of New York – where they were exhibiting their Activist New York exhibition – a celebration and exploration of the role that New Yorkers have played in creating social change in the USA. From the recent Black Lives Matter movement to Social Purity rebellions in the 17th century – the museum created an accessible and very real archive of the legacy of activism in the city, emphasising the importance of keeping records, documenting what is happening in the city and also showcasing it. When speaking to nurse and local documentary film-maker, Shaun Walsh this point was emphasised further. If there’s anything happening in the city, that affects his community, Shaun is sure to film it. There is power in documentation and this something we are very conscious of at Rising. When stories, voices and legacies are constantly being erased, documenting and preserving records becomes revolutionary. Platforming the voices of young people in the city is just half of it, we need to keep living records of the work we’re doing because it’s valuable.
Not using technology in your art is a disservice to those around you.
Technology is often considered an attractive add-on to a show, performance or arts installation, but conversations with practitioners in NYC reframed our view on technology as integral to modern cultural activity. As Clarinda Mac low, scientist, multi-disciplinary artist and founder of Culture Push asserts, making socially engaged art that doesn’t address or incorporate technology omits about 3/4 of our contemporary lives (especially for young people). In order to serve, reflect and/or comment on the world we live in, technology needs to be incorporated in some way.
It’s apparent that digital technology is a contradictory vessel; it is possible to use tech to challenge the technological – and that is where the space for exciting, provocative work can lie. Clarinda believes that the role of the artist is to create space for imagination in any given space – be it virtual or physical – even more so when it feels impossible. Clarinda spoke of how many artists get into technology through ‘imaging’ – using tech within their work to convey a vision e.g. photography, film, VR etc. Imaging can be a useful bridge between conversations between art activism and technology. When talking about forming her own organisation, Culture Push, she wanted to take the concept of an organisation and treat it like an arts project – which is super interesting. If we’re thinking about Rising as an arts project, as opposed to an organisation, what possibilities does that open up? And what ways could we use technology to reconceptualise these ideas of imaging, temporality and performance in an organisational context?
A New World is Being Built
Digital technology is always intersecting with society and its effects can be felt physically and psychologically. Stephanie Dinkins, an inspiring transmedia artist who creates platforms for dialogue about Artificial Intelligence and how it intersects with race, gender and future histories, recognises that there is a world being built without the participation of people of colour – and the effects of that can be detrimental. She works to empower communities of colour to become engaged with this technological revolution and alleviate the barriers to marginalised groups getting a stake in this new world.
Rising’s Whose Culture project aims to do some of this work in Bristol. Co-created with young people of colour in the city, Whose Culture is a creative data-mapping project aiming to interrogate what we mean we talk about ‘culture’ in the city. Stephanie spoke about using young people’s interests to explore together how technology mediates our lives – as a way in, helping young people claim ownership of technology – not as consumers but as critics and future producers. As an example, she used real-life systems such as the criminal justice system and reconceptualised it as an ‘algorithm’ – which could be a useful tool for getting people engaged with the real-life implications of technology.
Dinkins emphasises that it is important “not to take people so far out from what they know” to create “magical spaces” at the intersection of tech and art activism. She said that using tech to empower young people doesn’t need to be complicated, using the National Theatre as an example. The National Theatre used Twitter to do a modern-day social media exchange between the two protagonists in Romeo and Juliet.
As well as empowering young people, Clarinda argues that we also need to be teaching ethics to the people who make the systems, both frameworks (empowering young people to think differently about tech and educating those with power) could potentially add an empowering technological dimension to our work.
The Physical Gathering of Bodies
Alex Winter is a project manager at Creative Time, an exciting arts organisation doing work in NYC. Alex manages the Creative Time summit – an annual convening that gathers artists, activists, academics and creative practitioners in different locations as a form of artistic/ political organising. Although technology is used to facilitate the summit, the power comes through physical gathering and sharing ideas collectively. In the 1990s, while Shaun was training to be a nurse, he became a party promoter, hosting parties for High School children. During his parties he started to bring medical information and stalls to the parties, so that the young people could become informed while partying. The young people would come to the party and leave having registered to vote or get sexual health information for example. This type of work is only possible through gathering. We recognise that social media is an invaluable tool for bringing people together (e.g. hashtags), but it’s important that we create physical and virtual spaces safe spaces that allow for entertainment, organising and education.
A lot of the work that Creative Time and Culture Push do centres around bringing art to non-traditional spaces and bringing work to diverse audiences. Their portfolios are as subversive as they are impressive. There is a power in using and claiming non-traditional arts spaces and giving them back to the people. Creative Time have exhibited work in outer space – there clearly are no limits. While Rising might not be ready for outer space just yet, there is a lot of possibility. Creative Time, in particular, has built a strong reputation around using non-traditional arts spaces to exhibit work for example, abandoned buildings, bridges and walk-ways. This was something that we wanted to explore more through this research. Taking on Dinkins advice of “not taking people so far out from what they know” – not using traditional arts spaces could serve as a real tool for shaping our future work. There are multiple examples in Bristol of artists creating work outside of traditional art spaces, e.g. – Pervasive Media Studio’s Playable City project and Theatre Company, Raucous, who do a lot of work in this sphere, however, it would be very interesting to explore what spaces could be utilised to showcase, exhibit and create work that is specifically aimed for young people.
Conclusions:
This trip has given Rising lots to think about moving forward. As well as actioning our learning from the trip. We hope that we are able to connect our new NY friends with the rest of the city – exploring ways we can work together internationally. We are eager to empower young people in our community to claim ownership of tech, use it more actively in their work and up-skill our team to support this. As with any good research, it has opened more questions and now that we are armed with a new international network, we can begin to answer our original questions with our community, try some new things and document our learning.
We would like to take the opportunity to thank British Council, BCDP Festival of Future City, Bristol City Council and the amazing creative experts who contributed to this research. What a joy!