On Friday, October 20 from 12-2pm we'll conclude the Me(dia) Response series at MIT List Visual Art Center with a creative action open to the public. I'm eager to share the works participant's made during the first two workshops, expand the dialogue we've been having, and conclude with a cathartic activity during this free workshop open to the public.
The workshop will begin, as all have, with a brief guided meditation. We'll then discuss the function of violent imagery in media to provoke and spark action, the role photographers, editors and we as consumers have in disseminating imagery, and we'll discuss strategies for staying present with violence (not turning a blind eye) while practicing self-care. I'm honored to have international photo journalist Dominic Chavez and wellness & self-care coach Danielle Benaroche Gottesman join us in this discussion.
These images show the transformation of "accumulations" over two workshops.
At the conclusion of the workshop, we'll collectively deconstruct a 2'x4' artwork — the final accumulation I created using past participant's works and other violent imagery I've collected from newspapers over the course of one year.
This workshop's theme of creative action and agency was determined by participants in the second workshop on September 15. Read more about their activities here and see their works here. Click here to see images of the first accumulations in the series made by participants on August 18 and click here for my alterations to their accumulations.
Me(dia) Response: Self-Awareness and Activism Through Art-Making is part of List Projects: Civil Disobedience, a program of documentaries, news footage, citizen journalism, artist’s films and videos focusing on moments of political resistance and public demonstration from the early 20th century through today. Presenting records from the historical Civil Rights and women’s movements, gay liberation and AIDS activism, the Black Lives Matter movement, and recent Women’s Marches recognize the history of resistance, and considers the role that artists and documentarians play in chronicling and confronting abuses of power and social injustice. July 18, 2017 - October 29, 2017 (Note: closed August 22–27. Daily screening program will resume on August 29.)