Support Conflux
Partners
Not an Alternative
Not An Alternative is a non-profit arts organization that aims to facilitate and engage in the work of shifting symbolic terrain to create social change. By employing a culturally-focused organizing strategy built on narrative structures, we treat symbols, stories and events as vehicles whose meanings are available for hijacking.
Beka Economopoulos has been a field organizer for various causes for the past 12 years. She directs the Greenpeace online organizing program, where she develops and uses technology tools to coordinate scalable online/offline grassroots organizing and volunteer efforts, and develops outreach and advocacy strategies in online social networks. She is a founding member of Not an Alternative, a non-profit political arts organization that treats symbols, stories and events as vehicles whose meanings are available for hijacking.
Jason Jones is a practicing artist based in New York. Since completing Whitney Independent Study Program in 2001, he co-founded Black Out Media, a nationally syndicated TV show and in 2004 acted as one of the principle organizers for Arts and Media Clearing House in preparation for the Republican National Convention. He is a founding member and Creative Director of Not An Alternative.
Brooke Singer is a digital media artist and educator who lives in New York City. Her work provides entry into important social issues that are often characterized as specialized or opaque to a general public. She often works with emerging technologies not only because they are fun but also because they are contingent and malleable. She is currently Assistant Professor of New Media at Purchase College and co-founder of the art, technology and activist group, Preemptive Media. www.bsing.net/blog
Michael Mandiberg is an artist, computer programmer and rogue economist who uses the Internet, Video and performance to explore subjectivity, labor, and commerce. His current work employs Firefox plug-ins and open API platforms to highlight the real environmental costs of a global economy. His most recent project is Real Costs (TheRealCosts.com), a browser plugin that inserts carbon footprints into airplane travel websites. His work lives at www.Mandiberg.com. He lives in and rides his purple bicycle around Brooklyn.
Not An Alternative Tactical Media Presentation: Picture New York
Filed under Presentation, projects
This summer the Mayor’s Office of Film proposed regulations that would severely restrict the ability of even casual photographers and filmmakers to operate in New York City. These rules can be seen not only as a blow against New York as a place that welcomes and inspires art-making and documentation, but are part of a broader continuum of attacks against civil liberties and free expression.
In response, an ad hoc group of working artists, filmmakers, and photographers met, formed Picture New York, and waged a campaign that got international press attention, garnered tens of thousands of online petition signatures, YouTube public comments, letters, and on-the-ground demonstrations. Less than 2 weeks later, the proposed regulations were dismissed.
The first portion of this presentation will examine culturally-focused organizing strategies that aim to shift symbolic terrain to create social change. In the second half, we will demo how online tools were used in the Picture New York campaign, including pbwiki, citizenspeak, wordpress, Flickr, YouTube, and Facebook.
Presenters include Beka Economopoulos and Jason Jones of Not An Alternative, and new media artists Brooke Singer and Michael Mandiberg.
Conflux is the annual NYC festival for contemporary psychogeography where international artists, technologists, urban adventurers and the public put investigations of everyday city life into practice on the streets.
