"POPLAB" Debuts!

The unit, titled Werkberg, was created by sculptors Cassandra Emswiler, Kristen Cochran, and Greg Metz, and is part of the Co- Re-Creating Spaces exhibition at CentralTrak, 800 Exposition Ave., Dallas, that opened on Nov. 17, 2012, the first anniversary of the nationwide Occupy demonstrations that authorities presumably hoped to avert by evicting all the camps within the preceding 24 hrs.

The Werkberg houses a selection of enjoyable yet empowering books and videos donated by various collaborators, as well as projected views of artists' work spaces (the unit was partially inspired by Gregory Sholette's Dark Matter).

The show includes a related work, 451 degrees, by Karen Weiner with Celia & Frank Eberle, which functions as a card catalogue for the library (I'll try to get a pic of that and post it here soon).

The exhibition "surveys how artists are questioning and subverting existing systems, contexts, or spaces – the law, the economy, history, the news, language, etc. – and contributing to their re-imagining and re-creation, recognizing that 'reality' itself can be both art medium and art object, and speculates how developments in the virtual and the actual might affect one another."

In addition to the artists mentioned above, the show also includes works by Morehshin Allahyari; Nadav Assor; Amy Balkin; Aram Bartholl; Zanny Begg & Oliver Ressler; Linda Bilda; Irina Botea; Martha Colburn; eteam; Cao Fei; Yevgeniy Fiks, Olga Kopenkina, & Alexandra Lerman; the Institute for Wishful Thinking; Martha Rosler; Dread Scott; and the Yes Men with Steve Lambert; and it was curated by Carolyn Sortor and Mike Morris.

See the exhibition through January 5, Sats. noon - 5pm or by appointment (subject to changes over the holidays); more details at Co- Re-Creating Spaces.

Happy B-day, Occupy!

A friend in Baltimore shot this photo this evening.

Exhibition at CentralTrak; Event at The Reading Room

We've been quiet but busy.

We now have a cool crew committed to creating the first POPLAB! More details will be announced soon, but I can tell you it's scheduled to debut at an exhibition that Mike Morris and I are co-curating, which will open at CentralTrak on Nov. 17 – mark your calendars!

The OccuLibrary has been invited to be included in Make Art with Purpose, itself an art project created by Janeil Engelstad. Among other things, its MAP website helps people connect with a selection of other art projects that are designed to lead to positive social and environmental change.

Meanwhile, Danette Dufilho and Anne Lawrence are creating an OccuLibrary-inspired project called the Yankee Doodles Sing-A-Lot Sing-A-Long. This will be a series of programs for kids in which they'll participate in sing-alongs while learning about the songs' historical significance. The first event will take place Sunday, Aug. 19, from 4 - 6PM, at The Reading Room art gallery, in cooperation with the gals from Oil and Cotton, who will conduct a related visual art activity. All ages welcome; I and my literally or figuratively kid-ish friends can't wait! The Reading Room is at 3715 Parry Ave., Dallas.

UPDATE: You can now see video of the Yankee Doodles program at Art this Week (thanks, Richie and Kate!) (Image right by Elijah Sala.)

Updated OccuLibrary needs:

People to help wrangle books for the POPLAB
People to help catalogue them
Grant writers or other fund raisers
People who are good with people
People who can get big things done
People who can get small things done
People with good ideas or advice
And more!

A Few Thoughts Behind this Project

. . . (among others):

An educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people.
–Thomas Jefferson, Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Digital Edition, (1760-1799?).

Knowledge is power.
– Sir Francis Bacon, Religious Meditations, Of Heresies (1597).

A balance of power requires a balance of knowledge.

A modern economic system demands mass production of students who are not educated and have been rendered incapable of thinking.
– U.N.E.F. Strasbourg, On the Poverty of Student Life (1966).

Hatred never ceases by hatred;
But by love alone is healed.
This is an ancient and eternal law.
– "Dhammapada," Ch. 1, the Twin Verses 5, as quoted by Maha Ghosananda

There is no responsibility without freedom;
No freedom, without power;
No power, without knowledge;
No knowledge, without love.

Through the ages, the powerful have sought to limit our access to important knowledge by gaining control of the media and education and by defunding or otherwise attacking sources they can't control. In our time, the internet has become a vital “public square” for free expression, but as Lawrence Lessig observed in Foreign Policy as long ago as 2001, "[t]he innovation commons of the Internet threatens important and powerful pre-Internet interests. During the past five years, those interests have mobilized to launch a counterrevolution that is now having a global impact."

The infowar is not a war against or for any particular nation. Rather, it’s a struggle between old and new power structures over who will control information. In such times, the dissemination of truth becomes a subversive act.

And as Julian Assange suggested at the New Media Days 2009 conference, Denmark, “[Wikileaks] can't do it alone . . . We spend our efforts getting [the information] to you and allow you to publish it. But you've got to turn it into a story and make it moving to the population.”

While info can serve as a weapon in the infowar, it’s not the only one. P.r. can obscure and distort; data doesn’t inevitably empower. Sometimes it takes art to create personal, actionable insight; or, as artist William Powhida put it in What Has The Art World Taught Me? (2012):


. . . or at least, lure them toward it.

(This post has been moved . . . )

. . . to here.

The "GlamROccuLibrarymentary Trailer Shoot 1"

Since we don't have a cart yet, we pulled together a script consisting of short chunks of text describing the project and a bunch of relevant quotations from writers and artists through the ages, and we invited passers-by to read whatever bits they liked best while we videotaped them, with the idea of editing them into a promo. The response was enthusiastic, and we got some great footage, shared some good info, and everyone had a great time. We think we'll do it again.

The second photo shows our ultra-hot GlamROccuLibrarians, Sally Glass and George Quartz. We also made some cool little 'zines to hand out.

We were too busy shooting video to get many photos, so if you happen to have any, we'd love to see them.

If you'd like to get involved, we could use:

POPLAB (bookbuggy) builders
Librarians (real or artificial)
Artists
Grant writers or other fund raisers
People who can recruit others
People who can organize others
People who can pitch in now and then
Make us an offer!

You're invited to help us co- re-create reality, only better!

UPDATE: Nice mention by Margaret Meehan in Glasstire!

An installation of the sandwich boards, 'zines, and props remains on view at the Shamrock (along with the rest of the Fallas Dart Air), on Sat. afternoons or by appt. until 4/28, at 4312-1/2 Elm St. between Peak and Carroll.

FURTHER UPDATE: You can download PDF files of the sandwich boards here. They're standard poster size and print-ready; feel free to use them in your own OccuLibrary incarnations.

OccuLibrary Project Debuts Tonight

At the The Fallas Dart Air, 5 - 9PM, at Shamrock Hotel Studios, 4312 Elm St., Dallas between Peak and Carroll (more details at the link): GlamROccuLibrarymentary: Trailer 1 Shoot (2012), by Carolyn Sortor and Lizzy Wetzel, with performances by Sally Glass and George Quartz. The Fallas Dart Air is occurring the same weekend as the Dallas Art Fair. (Photo right by P. Peniweight).

We haven't got a cart built yet, but we've made some pretty fine printed materials for our p.r. debut (p.r. being 1/2 of what this project is about anyway. You can click on the image below left for a more legible version; or contact us if you'd like a hi-res pdf).

The show also includes work by lots of other great artists: Kristen Cochran, Lanie Delay, Vince Jones, Kirsten Macy, Margaret Meehan, Ludwig Schwarz, Marjorie Schwarz, Edward Setina, Lizzy Wetzel, and open studios of Lily Hanson, Peter Ligon, Marianne Newsom, Brian Ryden, Noah Simblist, Sunny Sliger, and Saul Waranch.


Many thanks to Peter Ligon for creating our illustrious venue, organizing the show, and encouraging us to debut the project there!

(Click on the images for larger versions. B.t.w., if you'd like to help build a cart, pls contact us!)

Thought for the Night

I dreamed this the other night: