Throughout this entire semester I learned about how everything in its own way is political. We have come across many groups of artists or solo artists who get their point across in various ways. Two of the biggest projects we covered this semester that caught my eye are privacy and homelessness.
Privacy:
The Yes Men have a good take on privacy when they intervene with certain companies' presentations because they like for the truth to be revealed. The Yes Men expose big companies on their unlawful business acts and get praise and hatred for it.
Link to video just in case above does not work: Yes Men make their own New York Times Newspaper
Link to video just in case above does not work: Yes Men pretend to be Shell
Above the two videos show two examples of how the Yes Men work. Whether they are impersonating a higher up person in a big corporation or creating a false newspaper they get themselves out there and blurt out the truth. They are against privacy in the terms of major companies keeping secrets to gain profit, etc.
Another group who is involved in privacy aspects of things is the Surveillance Camera Players. The SCP are a group of people who believe that surveillance cameras invade our privacy. Their big thing is to say that "Big Brother is watching" just like the book 1984 written by George Orwell. Basically meaning that the government is always watching us no matter how much privacy we think we have in this world. This group puts on a acts right in the main view of surveillance cameras to get their message across which is different than any other group we learned about.
Homelessness:
Michael Rakowitz and his "paraSITE" project is something you cannot ignore if you are walking on the street and happen to catch a glimpse of it. It was an inflatable shelter for homeless people that was produced from plastic bags and tape and attached to air vents on buildings. It is interesting to see people take such a stand on the issue of homelessness and make use of the HVAC system air in a positive way to benefit someone or a group of people.
All of these activists prove their points with different types of mediums and that is what makes theme each unique. Each work in their own way because people know about all three of these groups and their stand on certain topics. While these are within the art world in some way, it varies from others because of how they do what they do. They are not just creating posters, tweets, or motivational videos. They go out and make something out of the group they have created.
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