In 2011 a protest movement started in Israel. Citizens expressed their demand for a fair distribution of resources, claiming for the lack of housing and maintenance of the buildings and apartments, due to the privatized housing schemes. In these instances no one feels responsible for maintaining buildings and those in need are forced to live under poor and risky conditions.
Together with a group of homeless New Yorkers, Wodiczko constructed the Homesless Vehicle as an instrument of survival for urban nomads. A modified shopping cart that facilitates refundable bottle and can collection, it also provides temporary shelter. As a house on wheels intended for New York City sidewalks, the Homeless Vehicle embodies Wodicko’s practice of ‘Interrogative Design’.
The Stanford Daily:
There is no word short of “spectacular” that better describes the experience of examining “Pan American Unity,” Diego Rivera’s 1940 mural, housed since 2021 at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). The piece is the crux of SFMOMA’s soon-closing exhibition, “Diego Rivera’s America,” curated by James Oles and Maria Castro.
Note before the post: This article is great in highlighting a specific case of creative activism in the streets of New York City, but also gives some contextual background to how this project manifested.
On a sidewalk in the Village in downtown Manhattan, an African-American woman leans on her elbows and knees, wearing only black underpants. Scrawled in black marker all over her body are the words "Ain't I a Woman?"
BANGKOK — The rhymes came to Nutthapong Srimuong before dawn, when Bangkok is as still as it can be and the night jasmine overpowers the Thai capital with its perfume.
The country whose capital is turned into a killing field
Whose charter is written and erased by the army’s boots
The country that points a gun at your throat
Where you must choose to eat the truth or bullets
In December 2008, Tim DeChristopher, along with his church group, was protesting outside a Bureau of Land Management oil and gas lease auction of 116 parcels of public land in Utah's red rock country. Tim decided to take his protest inside and disrupt the auction itself. Instead, at the door, he was offered a bidder's paddle — which, after a split second of hesitation, he accepted.
“I want to show the people how bad the troubles were," says artist Muhiyidin Sharif Ibrahim of Mogadishu, Somalia. "That’s the message we’re going to send to people.”
(Robyn Dixon, Los Angeles Times)
Xu Bing, the internationally acclaimed Chinese artist, has brought his “Phoenix” installation to the majestic nave of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine on Manhattan's Upper West Side. The two phoenixes, both Feng, the male, and Huang, the female, faced the decoratively carved bronze doors of the Cathedral, as if poised to take flight in the middle of the night.
Through the Market Token program, wooden tokens are used as market currency, making it possible for customers with SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) food-stamp benefits to get fresh, healthy, affordable foods at the Market. Customers stop at the Market office to swipe their Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card and purchase $1 and $5 tokens that function as cash and are accepted by dozens of Market vendors.
On January 12, 2016, Shanghai's temperature dropped to its lowest of the year. A little girl was seen selling matches in the cold wind on Bund street. The little girl, wearing a classic dress, wrapped in an ocher-red scarf and carrying a small bamboo basket full of matches, gave matches to passers-by.
Invincible: Detroit’s Homegrown, Hip-Hop Activism: Powerful, passionate, and politically charged rhymes that speak for marginalized people.
by Shannan Stoll
Ilana Weaver started listening to hip hop when she was seven, after her family moved from Israel to Ann Arbor, Mich. She was trying to learn English, but soon became fascinated by how hip hop gives a voice to marginalized people.
This blogger documents all the cool things that are on their way to extinction in New York. A mix of preserving history and nostalgia through old school photography and new media. This website creates a nostalgic internet record of pre-internet New York.
LEGOVC is a fictional, made up, 100% fake, plastic, 'pantomime villain' Vice Chancellor of a fake British University struggling as his utter managerial brilliance crumbles in the face of sustained strike action by his staff after their pension scheme is slashed.
A new series of video commentaries with Davey Drumpf, The Donald's long-lost third cousin, twice removed. His views are several degrees to the Left of the Don's. First installment: Co-housing vs. Weaponized Xenophobia.
A technological feat has emerged amid the Chilean protests. A video of protestors bringing down a police drone has gone viral on social media sites. These protestors didn't use any physical or gun force to bring the drone down. Instead, they used another form of technology: lasers. A lot of bright green laser beams were pointed in unison at the drone, which can be seen moving erratically, before quickly falling down to Earth.
By Andrea Long-Chavez
The recognizable figure of a Latino gardener is a common sight for most Southern California locals. But if you happen to see the cardboard painting of a gardener propped up against a chain link fence or hedge, chances are you’ve just seen the public art of Los Angeles-based artist Rarmio Gomez, Jr.
In the 2012 presidential election, did you know that one of the underdog anti-party runners was Gumby?!
In the attached video, you will hear Gumby offer transportation alternatives (Pokey and friends), challenges of not believing in vice presidents, and the importance of people and clay-people working together.
From Public Delivery:
Located behind a resplendent Opera House in Budapest on the same road as Louis Vuitton sits Hunger King, a place that seems to be just like any other burger joint. However, it is anything but. Hunger King is a regular fast food outlet that is pushed onto the masses; Hunger King is a critical sociopolitical art installation that highlights Hungary’s significant crises of social inequality and homelessness .
Spent is an online in-browser game designed by ad agency McKinney as part of a partnership with Urban Ministries of Durham, NC, calling attention to the problem of poverty and educate people about homelessness. In the game, players are challenged to live on $1000 over a month, often having to decide between essentials and utilize outside options in order to survive.
For the Midsummer Festival in Cork, Ireland, SUPERFLEX encouraged Lord Mayor of Cork Cllr. Dara Murphy to bring a proposal to the city council that would ban the use of the word 'Recession' in the city.
The New Life Foundation is a Colombian organization located in Bogota, whose aim consists of offering vulnerable women alternatives to quit prostitution and rehabilitate from its surrounding dangers (crime, drug addiction, AIDS, etc.) One of its remarkable projects was based on theater as a method to overcome a past of shame and grief building a more dignant present in which they co-construct with their communities.
Brainstorm of ideas and collection of the group individual experiences and input.
Preparation and design of the action.
Interview of a member of local organization that is working with homeless.
Research of data,concrete stories.
Build up the scenario to establish the environment to raise awareness of the rising local issue of homeless, specifically female homeless and their challenges in daily life.
Amidst a crowd of protesters and oversized signs, Pat Walsh shouted, “What’s disgusting? Union busting?”
At a glance, Walsh, a woman with well-kept gray hair and an open
smile, didn’t strike one as the usual angry protester. But that night,
Walsh was fighting.
“My husband, John, has been locked out from Sotheby’s,” says Walsh.
“He’s been a worker for 30 years. I’m here to fight for him.” Currently,