Projects tagged "Politics & Government"

untitled (Long Live the Real King)
Practitioner:
Unknown
Date:
Feb 24 2025
An A.I. generated video of Donald Trump sucking Elon Musk's toes was broadcast at the Department of Housing and Development headquarters in DC in February of 2025. As an actual art piece, we can debate if the video itself is art. However, the caption, subject matter of the fake video, and chosen location to broadcast is definitely a strategic work of creative activism. From the New York Times:
The Coultergeist
Practitioner:
Act Everywhere
Date:
Apr 20 2010
In 2010, the College Republicans used tens of thousands of dollars from student fees to bring Ann Coulter to speak at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Indian Act
Practitioner:
Nadia Myre
Date:
Nov 8 2002
Indian Act speaks of the realities of colonization - the effects of contact, and its often-broken and untranslated contracts. The piece consists of all 56 pages of the Federal Government’s Indian Act mounted on stroud cloth and sewn over with red and white glass beads. Each word is replaced with white beads sewn into the document; the red beads replace the negative space.
The Democracy Machine
Practitioner:
Adam J Scarborough
Date:
Jun 27 2015
The Democracy Machine! is a performative sculpture that gives participants the opportunity to experience the thrill of democracy in action, in a competitive game that challenges people to work together toward understanding a better society. Using the spectacle and play of performance drawn from Las Vegas Casinos, gambling machines and game shows, The Democracy Machine!
Dark Side of the Prism
Practitioner:
Justin Blinder
Date:
Jan 1 2013
"Dark Side of the Prism" is a Firefox Add-on that provides a soundtrack for our surveilled internet meanderings. The public recently learned that the US National Security Agency's on-going internet surveillance program, Prism, collects data from users of major websites.
Snake Ceiling
Practitioner:
Ai Wei Wei
Date:
Aug 17 2013
On May 12, 2008, a massive earthquake in China’s Sichuan province killed approximately 90,000 people. Ai Weiwei created this serpentine sculpture, made of backpacks, to commemorate the more than 5,000 school children who were killed when their shoddily constructed schools collapsed.
"From Wall Street to Cairo", featuring Fire in Cairo
Practitioner:
Matthew Conners, Photo Journalist by John Otis, Reporter
Date:
Apr 6 2016
Matthew Connors spent much of 2012 in Lower Manhattan making portraits of the protesters in the Occupy Wall Street movement. But a chance encounter during the course of that project made him do a 180-degree turn after meeting some Egyptian activists who had participated in a different uprising: the Jan. 25 revolution that led to the ousting of President Hosni Mubarak. They convinced Mr.
What Are the Biggest Problems Women Face Today?
Practitioner:
Politico Magazine
Date:
Mar 8 2019
It’s been a historic year for women. There are more serving in Congress than ever before, and a record number are currently running for president in 2020. But even with these significant gains, women—both in the U.S. and around the world—can still find gender equality elusive.
Gerrymander 5K run and walk
Practitioner:
J.P. & Cinnamon Kennedy
Date:
Nov 4 2017
Runners and walkers planning to take part in a 5K race in Asheville early next month might do better with a compass — a well-tuned political compass, that is.
Michael Moore demands nationwide boycott of Walgreens for not selling abortion pill: 'Bigotry and misogyny'
Practitioner:
Michael Moore
Date:
Mar 6 2023
Filmmaker Michael Moore has called for a nationwide boycott of Walgreens after the pharmacy chain announced it would not sell abortion pills in 20 states. n February, 20 Republican state attorneys general wrote to Walgreens Corp. threatening legal action if Walgreens provides the abortion pill, mifepristone, to consumers in their pharmacies across the U.S.
Bad Bunny’s ‘Debí Tirar Más Fotos’ is a form of activism
Practitioner:
bad bunny
Date:
Jan 1 2025
Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, better known to the world as Bad Bunny, has once again proven that his artistry goes far beyond reggaeton and trap. On January 5, 2025 — the eve of Puerto Rico’s cherished Three Kings Day — the Puerto Rican superstar released DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS, an album that both celebrates his homeland and delivers a sobering message about its uncertain future.
Capitol Lawn Covered in 7,000 Pairs of Shoes
Practitioner:
avaaz
Date:
Mar 13 2018
Protesters left 7,000 pairs of shoes in front of the Capitol building Tuesday to symbolize the number of children killed by gun violence in the United States since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in December 2012. From 8:30 am to 2 pm, the shoes were displayed on the southeast lawn in the hope of sending a clear message to Congress: Reform gun control legislation or more children will be killed by gun violence.
Transborder Immigrant Tool
Practitioner:
The Electronic Disturbance Theater
Date:
Jan 1 2009
The Transborder Immigrant Tool is a ECD 2.0 (Ricardo Dominguez, Brett Stalbaum, Amy Sara Carroll, Micha Cárdenas, Elle Mehrmand) project designed to repurpose inexpensive used mobile phones that have GPS antennas (through the addition of proper software which the TB project is designing) to provide emergency personal navigation, helping to guide dehydrated immigrants to water safety sites established by activists and to provide poetic audio nourishment
3 Billboards Outside Grenfell, London
Practitioner:
Justice 4 Grenfell
Date:
Feb 16 2018
Activism imitated art when Justice 4 Grenfell protesters drove three provocative signs through the streets of London. In a clever nod to Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, the Oscar-nominated film directed by Martin McDonagh, the billboards were bright red, with black letters that read: 71 DEAD AND STILL NO ARRESTS? HOW COME?
Humor to overthrow Mubarak
Practitioner:
Egyptian revolutionaries
Date:
Feb 23 2011
from "Laugh, O Revolution: Humor in the Egyptian Uprising" by Anna Louie Sussman, in 2011. Revolutions can be messy. They can be tragic. As long as the Internet is working, they can be tweeted. And, as Egyptians demonstrated during their 18 days of protest, they can also be funny.
Glam Up the Midterms
Practitioner:
Billy Eichner & Funny or Die
Date:
Nov 6 2018
You think midterm elections are boring? Not this year. Funny Or Die and Billy Eichner are going to Glam Up The Midterms!
Turkey Erdogan: Women rise up over withdrawal from Istanbul Convention
Practitioner:
Feminists in Turkey
Date:
Mar 28 2021
It has been a tumultuous and anxious week for women in Turkey. When President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a decree at midnight last Friday, annulling Turkey's ratification of the Istanbul Convention on violence against women, women poured onto the streets of Turkish cities to protest. Further demonstrations are planned.
StopFake News
Practitioner:
StopFake
Date:
Feb 27 2017
To Battle Fake News, Ukrainian Show Features Nothing but Lies KIEV, Ukraine — The studio lights dim, and the anchor taps a stack of papers on her desk and directs a steely gaze toward the television cameras. What appears to be a nightly newscast is about to begin, only with a very Ukrainian twist: Everything is a lie, from start to finish.
Pussy Riot Was Carefully Calibrated for Protest
Practitioner:
Pussy Riot
Date:
Aug 22 2012
DEPENDING on your taste, punk died in 1979, or maybe 1994, or whenever studded leather cuffs became a must-have mall-girl accessory. Now, suddenly, punk has been resurrected, stitched together anew in the form of the well-accessorized Russian women who call themselves Pussy Riot.
Postcards for Gun Control
Practitioner:
Ileana Doble Hernandez
Date:
Apr 15 2019
The installation consists on providing postcards to gallery visitors that they can use to mail their Elected Officials to advocate for gun control. The front of the postcard shows the photograph “Mommy, what is this?” (2018), which is the hand of Ileana's son, Lucca, holding a toy bullet while making the peace sign. The back of the postcard contains a short letter with the phrase “No more children should die from gun violence.
The Condom on Jesse Helms' House
Practitioner:
ACT UP
Date:
Sep 5 1991
On September 5th, 1991, I put a giant condom over Jesse Helms’ house. Why? Because, as the condom said, “Helms is deadlier than a virus.” Senator Jesse Helms was one of the chief architects of AIDS-related stigma in the U.S. He fought against any federal spending on HIV research, treatment or prevention.
Sun Mu: From Propaganda to Protest
Practitioner:
Sun Mu
Date:
Feb 7 2014
"Sun Mu is not the artist’s actual name. It’s a nom de plume that uses a combination of two Korean words that translate to ‘The Absence of Borders’. It not only represents what he feels is the transcendence of art but also the literal military demarcation line that keeps the Korean people separated.
Be Clean!
Practitioner:
Hi-Red Center
Date:
Oct 16 1964
On October 16, 1964, the artist collective Hi Red Center, clad in sanitation masks and white uniforms and wielding small brooms and toothbrushes, spent several hours meticulously cleaning the streets of the Tokyo district of Ginza, amid the hustle and bustle of a “normal” day.
Demonstealer Fights For a Better India Through Death Metal
Practitioner:
Demonstealer
Date:
Mar 23 2023
The Propaganda Machine is a battle cry delivered in the language of extreme metal. On Sahil Makhija’s fourth solo album as Demonstealer, he takes aim at the right-wing politicians, racist nationalists, disinformation artists, and religious extremists who manipulate and exploit the masses, in his native India and all over the world. He doesn’t mince his words; just about every lyric on the album could easily be printed on a protest sign.
Grand Theft Auto V becomes battleground of Hong Kong protests
Practitioner:
Hong Kong Gamers
Date:
Dec 27 2019
The Hong Kong political crisis is now playing out in the virtual world. Popular online video game "Grand Theft Auto V" has become a battleground between protesters in the semi-autonomous Chinese city and their rival players in mainland China.

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