Off Center

There are only a few more days to create and submit signs for My Yard Our Message. Since the project started in May, we’ve gotten over 200 submissions, but there is plenty of room for more. It’s easy to make a sign, we’ve got templates and all you have to do is tell us a little bit about it when you submit the design.

Beginning July 1, you’ll be able to vote on signs, helping to curate the signs that will eventually be available for purchase and show up in some selected neighborhoods in St. Paul and Minneapolis. We’re working on the voting right now, and it’ll be super-easy to vote.

The deadline for submitting your designs is June 30th.

From the moment the Republican National Committee chose to coronate its 2008 presidential candidate in St. Paul, hundreds of strands of people mobilized to have a presence. Republican Party officials populate one of the spectrum; on the other, the broad swath of individuals and interest groups driven to protest the convention. Somewhere in between are the minds behind The UnConvention, a wash of art and alternative media hoping to make a public splash through the run over the Republican convention, September 1-4.

The Walker is both a sponsor and active agent, collaborating with lead partner Intermedia Arts, the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Carleton College, the University of Minnesota's Institute for New Media Studies and The UpTake.org, an online citizen video site focusing on politics and the 2008 election. Together, they hope to present "a counterpoint to the highly scripted and predetermined nature of the contemporary presidential nomination process and convention." Artists are at the heart of this counterpoint, with most projects conceived for broad public participation.

"We're working with artists who are very adept at creating powerful messages that encourage people to get involved and think differently," says Steve Dietz, a founder of The UnConvention. The founding director of new media initiatives at the Walker, Dietz now directs YProductions, which works with museums to build digital cultural programming, and Northern Lights, the entity he formed to drive The UnConvention.

"The goal is not to sort of streak naked across the convention floor during a speech. It's not direct action in that sense," he says. "But in an idea level, we'd like to crack the coverage open a little bit so participatory democracy (goes) beyond holding up a sign that says 'four more years.' We're interested in how the average citizen can use these new tools (of technology) to participate in a civic discourse about the direction of this country."

Activities through the Walker began in the spring, through Insights series lectures exploring how design intersects with democracy. This summer, the Walker's Summer Music and Movies in the Park centers on films portraying American democracy and political folly. Target Free Thursday Nights, the Walker's weekly evening for adult education and free programming, is featuring artist talks, lectures and workshops related to themes of art and the political process.

Intermedia Arts is transforming into "what I'm calling the UnConventional Gathering Space," says Marlina Gonzales, programs manager at Intermedia and program director for The UnConvention, who describes that space as "a cross between an alternative artist press center and an exhibition center." Intermedia is opening its media suite to anyone working on convention-related videos. Its galleries will show digital media work and documentation of events related to The UnConvention. Its theater will host related performances, and muralists are coating the outside walls with UnConventional art. Intermedia will also host discussion groups, classes, a parade, and other public events.

"It's all about participatory democracy, which involves mobilizing our freedom of expression and encouraging people to think creatively in their methods of expression," Gonzales says. "We're doing that by putting artists and community members together."

Through the guidance and resources of Walker, people will create videos addressing the scripted nature of political party conventions. The Walker will host submissions on its YouTube channel. In a project in partnership with mnartists.org, artists and other inspired citizens are creating visual distractions from traditional political endorsement signs by creating and uploading their own yard sign designs. The best of them, as determined in online voting, will be available for personal printing and mass distribution.

In another project, in partnership with mnartists.org, artists and other inspired citizens are invited to declare My Yard Our Message by designing their own yard signs--to counter or distract from the traditional political endorsement signs staked into American lawns. The best of these signs, as determined in online voting, will be available for personal printing and mass distribution. Individual artists have already been tapped for specific projects. At both conventions, Sharon Hayes of New York and 100 local queer community activists will recite a speech developed by Hayes in a public demonstration of the relationship between love and politics. This project is presented by Creative Time, with the Walker and the UnConvention, as part of a national public art initiative called Democracy in America, which is being organized by Creative Time. Also, look for video artwork created and exhibited on the fly by artist Jon Winet, a new media artist and art professor at the University of Iowa, exploring the upcoming presidential election and democratic practice in America. In 2002, the Walker co-commissioned Winet's Democracy-Last Campaign.

The UpTake, partnering with the Walker on I Approve This Message, plans to train and arm 100 "citizen journalists" with video cameras to cover protests, community outreach, art projects, marches, and other elements related to the Republican National Convention (the UpTake is heading a similar effort for the Democratic National Convention in Denver). To help budding videographers participate, the UpTake is leading videomaking workshops at the Walker on Target Free Thursday Nights. "We don't want to have the stiff journalistic storytelling mode," says Jason Barnett, executive director of the UpTake. "Working with the Walker will help with that."

Technological advances continue to play roles for both the political parties and the people countering and commenting on them. An example: the UpTake organizers have built their own social networking foundation and are aiming for live coverage through cell phones. But Dietz sees technology as simply providing tools to fulfill a larger mission. "It's more about taking advantage of what's easily available and doing really creative things with it--to bring a format that makes the content more interesting," he says. "I'm not so interested in the newest technology as I am in how the average citizen can use these new tools to participate in a civic discourse about the direction of this country. That's when really profound changes become possible."

"It's more about taking advantage about what's easily available and doing really creative things with it--to bring a format that makes the content more interesting," he says. "I'm not so interested in the newest technology as when technology becomes commodified and available on a very widespread basis. That's when really profound changes become possible."

In conjunction with The UpTake and The UnConvention, we have just launched a new video project: I Approve This Message. The project is similar in scope to the Tell Us a Story About the Suburbs video project we did for Worlds Away. We want you to tell us what questions you’d like to ask the presidential candidates or delegates at the Republican or Democratic conventions. What questions aren’t being asked that should be? Who isn’t asking them?

We asked Carolyn Swiszcz & Wilson Webb, who made the most excellent West St. Paul video, to help us make the announcement video for the project. You won’t be disappointed:

There are already a handful of submissions.

The Walker is, of course, a non-partisan organization, and we’ve project is open to people of all political stripes. There are some rules: no endorsing or trashing specific candidates, and the video must be free of profanity and other objectionable material. Think of the children. All of the project rules, information on submitting and submitted videos can be found here: theunconvention.com/iapprove.

Don’t know how to make a video? We’ve got workshops on video editing for this project over the summer. We’ll be showing the best videos periodically in the Walker, as well as highlighting them on TheUnConvention.com and TheUpTake.org. We’re working on some other venues and ways to show the videos to sweeten the deal, too.

For 15 years or thereabouts, the Walker Art Center’s frame shop has held a one-day sale, open only to staffers, to clean house of the dozens of hand-built frames from exhibitions past that are no longer usable. The latest was Wednesday — and my first here on staff — and I was stunned to see loads of sturdy, elegant wood frames of varied sizes for less than $10. Bargain-conscious staffers streamed into the Cinema, cash in hand, when the doors to the Walker Cinema opened at 10 am (My rookie move: Leaving my wallet at my desk). The smallest frames, which are the most functional and practical on living room walls, were the first to go. Some staffers horded a dozen or more, squirreling them into a corner to measure them, before committing to the all-sales-are-final buy.

The Walker Art Center isn’t just a home for the best in contemporary art — it’s also available for rent. One tenant is the annual Push Institute Conference. PUSH 2008 (tagline: “The Fertile Delta”) attracted business leaders, politicians, artists, economists and others for two of inspiration and future-gazing. The conference — or at least the opening-night party — also attracted the intervention of Art for the People / Art on Wheels, a new course at the University of Minnesota led by Ali Momeni.

Look for Momeni and his students to roll-and-show somewhere during the 2008 Republican National Convention, through The UnConvention.

Former Walker director (and now director emeritus) Martin Friedman and his wife, Mickey, were at a reception in their honor Friday afternoon at the Gallery 8 Cafe. Just before the mass of staff poured in for free wine and crackers, Martin Friedman discussed his interactions 20 years ago with artists placing their works in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. Friedman also talks here with Deborah Butterfield, who was also at the reception, about her work in the garden, Woodrow (1988).

Walker assistant curator Yasmil Raymond juried Open Door 4, the the fourth annual juried exhibition at Rosalux Gallery, an artist-run co-op, at Open Book in Minneapolis.

Raymond sifted through more than 200 entries to select 15 artists for this show: Matt Bakkom, Greg Carideo, Sarah Christianson, Jennifer Danos, Jan Estep, Gregory Euclide, Mark Fisher, Luisa F. Garcia Gomez, Caroline Kent, Janet Lobberecht, Jennifer Nevitt, Tim Roby, Chad Rutter, Tony Sunder and Aaron Van Dyke. Bakkom recently mentored teens from the Walker's Teen Arts Council on their Collections Project.

Opening reception for Open Door 4 is 7-10 pm Saturday. The exhibition is up through June 29.

part 1

part 2

I spent last weekend at the National Conference for Media Reform, at the Minneapolis Convention Center, where about 3,500 media activists, educators and entrepreneurs discussed policy, journalism, trends, and outlooks. Among them were several heroes of the reform movement — Bill Moyers, Amy Goodman, Arianna Huffington, Bob McChesney, more. They all appear in my two-part video report — my personal highlight is Dan Rather’s answer to my question at a press conference he gave Saturday.

What, you might ask, is the relevance to this blog? Your ability to access this (or any) blog depends, in large part, on the gatekeepers of the Internet. “Net neutrality” is the oh-so-sexy term for the guiding principle that preserves a free and open Internet. Here’s a little more detail from savetheinternet.org:

Put simply, Net Neutrality means no discrimination. Net Neutrality prevents Internet providers from speeding up or slowing down Web content based on its source, ownership or destination. Net Neutrality is the reason why the Internet has driven economic innovation, democratic participation, and free speech online. It protects the consumer’s right to use any equipment, content, application or service on a non-discriminatory basis without interference from the network provider. With Net Neutrality, the network’s only job is to move data — not choose which data to privilege with higher quality service.

The cause also dovetails into the Walker’s involvement with The UnConvention, a “non-partisan collective of citizens who have come together to create a forum in which to promote the democratic and free exchange of ideas on important issues.”