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Within todays session I wanted to explore how I would approach my final exhibition by beginning to think about a research question would would allow me to still explore different materials and concepts but stay with a goal in mind. My research question will focus around art as a means for social change: “How is art used to bring about social change and justice”  Take the black lives matter movement, pictures taken at protests show usage of signs, banners, portraits to express sorrow, anger etc. to not only raise awareness of the issue of police brutality but empower people and encourage them to join the movement. As well as looking at art as a means to promote social justice within wider society, I want to explore how educational policy utilises, if at all, art to explore social issues.

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Make Your Own Damn Art - Bob and Roberta Smith

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Deller within this exhibition created an installation documenting the Miner Strikes and in particular the ‘Battle of Orgreave’ With refrence to my research question I am interested in not only looking at the practice of making art focusing on social issues but documenting art that is produced too. Deller produces an archive looking at not only banners from miner strike but clothing with badges on, newspaper article looking at the representation of the miners strike in the 1980′s as well as video footage.

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Research Proposal Question

“How is art used to explore issues of social injustice and promote social change?”

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Shortened rationale for exhibition space

                                             Rituals of Protest                                                                                                                                                     Protests are more than just spaces where people go to shout about their problems, they are places where people engage in a space which can offer “tools” and produce a culture of “solidarity”, demonstrating the ‘power of the people’ which arguably, has been lost from society becoming a more meritocratic and individualistic place.                       I began my research journey with the hope of exploring activism and social change, initially focusing on how art form can be used to communicate social issues within society, I began documenting protests through photography and became intrigued in how they offer a ‘representation’ of protests/ers, different to that found in the newspaper. Drawing on subcultural theory as a main source of influence to my work, I focused on how protesters are presented as ‘Outsiders’ (Becker, 1963) and I wanted to represent the ‘Insider’ experience of protests, by being a protester myself. The Miner strikes of the 1980’s saw the harsh reality surrounding the collapse of the mining industry in Britain and the affect it had on the working-class communities as a result (see Jeremy Deller’s archive installation ‘The Battle of Orgreave’, 2001). Documentation of protests such as these offer insights of the current political and social state of society during the time in which the protest took place. Memories of the miners’ strike and the protests that evolved as a result, are often met with notions of ‘deviancy’ and chaos; but as I discuss below, concentrating on protests and activism in that way ignores and undermines the importance of community and spirit behind strikes and protests, regardless of whether they are violent or not; something that the miners’ strike themselves were trying to protect and ultimately lost. I felt that if I was to truly try and ‘represent’ the experience of attending a protest, this was something I would have to draw and develop on. This narrative of protesters as ‘Outsiders’ (Becker, 1968) resisting dominant ideology constructed by mainstream media may not be false but doesn’t however, represent the whole picture of what protests are and the people that attend them. As Becker discusses in his book ‘Outsiders’ (1968) deviancy in “the simplest form is essentially statistical, defining deviant as anything that varies too widely from the average” therefore media infatuated with depicting protesters in this way is problematic. Within the context of my research I focus on how this narrative of deviancy ignores the collective and ritualistic elements of protest.  Illuminating the ‘rituals of protest’ through my photography was crucial in communicating to viewers the kind of atmosphere the protests gave off; by this I mean the way in which protests give participants a sense of belonging, collectiveness and empowerment. As Duncombe (2002) suggests, protests and the activists that start them, are “free spaces” which “experiment with new ways of seeing and being” and how the rituals of protest are a way to “develop tools and resources for resistance” (5). Protests from this perspective can be understood as a form of “critical pedagogy”, not only in the ways they offer education of social and cultural issues within society but also,  offer ways in which society can implement social change at a grassroots level, as well as a hegemonic one.               My piece takes inspiration from Jeremy Deller and his 2001 conceptual audio, film and photography installation ‘The Battle of Orgeave’; it provided a realistic and rich depiction of what it was like to be part of the ‘battle’ between the miners and the police during this strikes in Northern England in the 80’s. I felt that this realistic element could be brought out even more with producing audio to accompany my photos. I initially began putting together my final piece though finding themes that were emerging through my photography. The theme of rituals itself was the primary focus throughout. As Durkheim (1915) expresses, “rituals can be seen as social practices that produce and reproduce symbolic goods along with moral and emotional attachments to a social order”) and ‘rituals of protest’ being the “spontaneous phenomena that [has] the latent effect of producing functionally integrative solidarity” (Pfaff and Yang, 2001: 541). Durkheim’s notion of rituals really conceptualises the way in which protests offer, and reproduce “moral and emotional attachments to a social order” e.g. the social issues that the protests are about. In terms of ‘ritualistic’ themes, music and dancing is one people would most associate to protests. Images I shot of people playing musical instruments and the ‘Rave Man’ included in this exhibit, really capture where people get lost ‘in the moment’.     I feel that even in these moments they may not be shouting about a social cause (or maybe they are) but it is still the reason as to why they are all there, celebrating the culture protests create, collectively. Throughout the years, I have seen a major increase in families attending protests from grandparents and parents to young children and babies; they were out on the streets amongst thousands of other people. I think this theme as well as my theme of the ‘Child protester’ really challenged the hegemonic discourses presented in mainstream media. Young children and families attending protests and the sense of agency in resisting social injustice could be seen through their homemade banners and involvement in chants (see images of boy with megaphone). After various discussions, with people I met on protests and close family and friends I found three individuals who were happy to participate in answering questions about protests and its connection to media and rituals. All my participants answered the same 6 questions and all the interviews were recorded in one take. As well as recording their answers, I interweaved between the three clips interviews, audio from the protests I went to with the aim to capture the atmosphere of protests first hand, as well as visually.

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Audio answers thoughts and discussion

Although I only have 1000 words for my rationale I wanted to talk about how each participant in my recording offers both extremely interesting but different perceptions of protests and the notion of ‘the protester’. My first participant almost looks at my topic from a historical perspective, having lived through the miner strikes of the 1980s in a mining community there comments link to my thoughts of Becker’s (1968) concept of ‘outsiders’ and the “iron fist” the protesters were met with, really symbolising the times ahead of a neo-liberal era where community and collectivity as a way of living would no longer be a part of.

My second participant offers the ways in which ‘rituals’ of protest could offer an increase in particular to the participation of protests and educate people on the “power” of the collective people’s. This really resonated with my concepts about protest as critical and public pedagogy (giroux, 2000) (Duncombe 2002)

My last participant takes a strong feminist approach to protests and the identity of the protester, offering feminist theory of 'personal is political’ (Hanisch, 1969) as a way to understand how protest can be a form of solution within itself of the social and political struggles that influenced them.

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Media Coverage of 2017 Womens March London

It is estimated that the number of people that attended the Womens March in London was in the 100,000′s region; people across all races, cultures, sexualities and genders took part in getting the message out for an equal future for Women and Men. Across the globe around 2 million people took part as part of an alliance with the ‘Womens March On Washington’ with sister marches taking place in Prague and Paris to New Delhi, Budapest and Ottawa.    With the Daily Mail, in a lot of it’s articles covering the sister March in London, replacing ‘Womens March’ for ‘Anti-Trump march’ and across the US media, namly Fox and ABC too,  mainstream media’s coverage of the march was saturated with Donald Trump rhetoric. It goes without saying that, as I can confirm due to takin part myself in the march in London was an ‘Anti-Trump’ vibe, the demonstration was much, much more than that.  With Pro-life protesters out, and various womens empowerment groups, as well as families with young children with their own womens equality and empowerment plac cards - this was a day to celebrate women - not give Donald Trump all the limelight.  It is important to note that ‘Womens March on Washington’ was in light of the recent presidential election results in the USA, which saw Donald Trump, a right-wing leader take leadership of one of the biggest and more powerful countries in his bid to ‘Make America Great Again’, whatever that means? However, it is also important to note that this wasn’t a day to just talk about Trump, as i’ve mentioned above - but the top media outlets did. Now this may not be something that neccersarily is a bad thing, because coverage of the march is great non the less? However, this years Womens March had 129 times more coverage than the March for Life (US media) the year

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Rituals of Protest

I began my ‘journey’ with the hope of exploring activism and social change; initially focusing on how art form can be used to communicate social issues within society. As part of this exploration, I began documenting protests through photography and became intrigued in how they offer a specific ‘representation’ of protesters and the atmosphere protests create. One image I captured was of a woman holding a banner; I took the image from behind and through the lighting of candles surrounding her, the banner became illuminated and transparent revealing the text ‘Black lives matter’ (see Tumblr page). This image was taken at a vigil held in memory, a year after Michael Brown’s death, for the countless young black men and women who were killed at the hands of police brutality. Not only did this image present the sombre atmosphere of the vigil itself; but was taken from an ‘insider’ perspective, as oppose to one being taken by a journalist. Thus, making the photograph perhaps ethnographic, as it gives the viewer a sense of what it was like to be amongst hundreds of people who were holding candles and grieving together in the dark. Although I was attending protests to take photographs, it is important to express that I was first and foremost attending as a protester myself. I felt that my connection to and enthusiasm for the social issues the protests were about really verbalised the ‘insider’ perspective I was trying to create.                I have referred on subcultural theory as a main source of influence to my work, specifically the sociological notion of the ‘Outsider’ (Becker, 1963), something which I feel protesters are depicted as. The Miner strikes of the 1980’s saw the harsh reality that the anger and frustration surrounding the collapse of the mining industry in Britain had on the working-class communities which were built around it (see Jeremy Deller’s archive installation ‘The Battle of Orgreave’, 2001). Protests offer an insight and reflection of the current political and social issues within society, but also provide historical insight too. Reflection on the miners strikes and the protests that evolved as a result, is often met with notions of ‘deviancy’ and chaos that was caused by the miners; but this perception in fact ignores and undermines the importance of community and spirit behind the strikes; violent and non. I felt that if I was to truly try and ‘represent’ the experience of attending a protest, this was something I would have to draw on and develop. I found that whilst protests are covered extensively within mainstream media, the narrative offered of the protest/er, didn’t truly represent what was happening on the streets of the protests I was attending. The discourse of deviancy within coverage of protest presents protesters ‘Outsiders’ who deviate and resist dominant culture and ideologies. As Becker discusses in his book ‘Outsiders’ (1968) deviancy in “the simplest form is essentially statistical, defining deviant as anything that varies too widely from the average”, this is problematic, for several reasons. Within the context of my research I focus on how this narrative of deviancy ignores the collective and ritualistic elements of protest. From this view point, I began to look at that ways in which my photography can challenge the hegemonic narrative of protest/ers presented within mainstream media. Illuminating the ‘rituals of protest’ through my photography was crucial in communicating to viewers the kind of atmosphere the protests gave off; by this I mean the way in which protests give participants a sense of belonging, collectiveness and empowerment.  As Duncombe (2002) suggests, protests and the activists that start them, can be seen as “free spaces” which “experiment with new ways of seeing and being” and how the rituals of protest are a way to “develop tools and resources for resistance” (5). Protests from this perspective can be understood as a form of “critical pedagogy”, not only in the ways they can teach those who witness them about social and cultural issues and the resistance to the structures that create them but offer ways in which society can implement social change at a grassroots level, as well as a hegemonic one.   From collecting photos from various marches; such as the Black Lives Matter movement, Women’s March, Emergency demo against Trump’s ban on certain Muslim countries and Anonymous movement; I began to draw out themes that were emerging.         Music and dancing at protests is the most obvious ‘ritualistic’ trait people identify with and are a big part of creating the ‘collective’ atmosphere at protests. These themes were translated through the images of people with musical instruments and the ‘Rave Man’ really capture the moments where people get lost ‘in the moment’. I feel that even in these moments they may not be shouting about a social cause (or maybe they are) but it is still the foundational reason as to why they are all their; celebrating the culture of activism.    The more protests I attended the more I noticed an increase in families attending; grandparents, parents, young children and babies were out on the streets amongst thousands of other people. I think this theme more than the others really challenged the hegemonic discourses presented in dominant media narratives of who and what a protester looked like.    Another theme I have drawn on is ‘The child protester’; young children attending protests and their sense of agency in resisting social injustice could be seen through their homemade banners and involvement in chants (see images of boy with megaphone).                These themes were what then influenced how I chose my final photos which are featured within this audio-visual exhibition. My actual presentation of my exhibition draws inspiration from Jeremy Deller and the way in which his artwork is an archive of a particular moment in history; his 2001 conceptual audio, film and photography installation ‘The Battle of Orgeave’ really presented a realistic and rich depiction of what it was like to be part of the ‘battle’ between the miners and the police during this strikes in Northern England in the 80’s.  Although my picture really do speak for themselves in terms of offering the ritualistic aspect of protests; I felt that the discourse of ‘voice’ within protests could be further embraced by using the actual voices of protesters, and non-protesters and their views on how protest and the identity of the protester are represented within society. After various discussions, with people I met on protests and close family and friends I found three individuals who were happy to answer the questions and contribute to my work. All my participants were answered the same 6 questions and were given the freedom to answer them, however they wanted. We did all the interviews in one take so that the answers were as raw and natural as possible.   Questions 1. What do you think of when you hear the word protest? 2. Have you ever attended a protest? 2a. If so, which was most memorable and why? 2b. If not, why not? 3. If you could start your own protest what would it be about and why?   4. Through my research so far, I’ve been interested in this notion of ‘ritual and how protests have their own ‘rituals’ e.g. music, dancing and singing and chanting, people making art collectively -Do you think there is ‘rituals of protest’?     5. Do you think the mainstream media truly represents what happens at protesters and the multiple identities  of ‘The Protester’.      Drawing from feminist Hanisch (1969) theory of the ‘Personal is political’ Abi, one of my interviewee’s talk about how protests could be seen to offer a space in which people can celebrate the culture of activism and feel a sense of belonging and generate debate and discussion around how personal problems should be seen as political ones; and if shared publicly, within spaces such as protests then this could be a way of offering solutions and tools to resolve the Duncombe (2002.  Protests are more than just spaces where people go to shout about their problems, they are places which contain rituals where people come together to offer solutions and support, reflecting a sense of community that arguably has been lost during the transition in to a more meritocratic and individualistic society.

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Inspired by the work of Jeremy deller I wanted to create an archive of protests, not to the extent deller had with clothes Nd newspaper articles but in the sense of using both photography Nd sound from protests to give an ethnographic feel.

JEREMY DELLER

Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2008.

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Marlon Brando Pocahontas and Me.

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Media Coverage of 2017 Womens March London

It is estimated that the number of people that attended the Womens March in London was in the 100,000′s region; people across all races, cultures, sexualities and genders took part in getting the message out for an equal future for Women and Men. Across the globe around 2 million people took part as part of an alliance with the ‘Womens March On Washington’ with sister marches taking place in Prague and Paris to New Delhi, Budapest and Ottawa.    With the Daily Mail, in a lot of it’s articles covering the sister March in London, replacing ‘Womens March’ for ‘Anti-Trump march’ and across the US media, namly Fox and ABC too,  mainstream media’s coverage of the march was saturated with Donald Trump rhetoric. It goes without saying that, as I can confirm due to takin part myself in the march in London was an ‘Anti-Trump’ vibe, the demonstration was much, much more than that.  With Pro-life protesters out, and various womens empowerment groups, as well as families with young children with their own womens equality and empowerment plac cards - this was a day to celebrate women - not give Donald Trump all the limelight.  It is important to note that ‘Womens March on Washington’ was in light of the recent presidential election results in the USA, which saw Donald Trump, a right-wing leader take leadership of one of the biggest and more powerful countries in his bid to ‘Make America Great Again’, whatever that means? However, it is also important to note that this wasn’t a day to just talk about Trump, as i’ve mentioned above - but the top media outlets did. Now this may not be something that neccersarily is a bad thing, because coverage of the march is great non the less? However, this years Womens March had 129 times more coverage than the March for Life (US media) the year

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All but two of my photos have been left in black and white, the two that aren't are the pictures of the 'rave man'. During editing my photos and experimenting with the saturation, after being the saturation down on each colour except for the green and blue it created this image. I tied with other photos but none had the same effect as this one. The bright yellow of the safety jacket not only symbises the vibrant atmosphere of the DJ and the people dancing round him, but can be seen as a metaphors for the 'safety' net that protests provide for people as a space to have their say and support eachother in the wider community. People from different backgrounds, ages and countries were dancing and celebrating the importance of standing up for women's rights. This man in particular you will recognise if you are a regular protest goer, he has his sound system attached to a bike and rides in the marches and sets up at various points of protests. He is always upbeat and really helps in creating a friendly and fun environment. Children. And families often are amongst the younger generation as he plays music from all different he Res and time periods. Music is a. Important part of protests, as ' ' discuss in the most Influential protest songs. They are away music can bring people together about important issues as everyone enjoys music in some form or another. It you can see in the image 'soundsystem' - sound system culture is an important subculture in its own right and has historical been associated with protests and various social movements.

Final edited photos for exhibition 

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Editing software

After recording my interviewees I began editing the sound and making sure that they transitioned to eachother. After I had done this I decided that instead of fading each person into the next I would edit audio from the protests if attended between each person. I had played around with video recording at protests but found that the most important part of them was the sound. Between each interviewee I have either music from the protests, chanting or cheering. This will mean that depending on what point you enter the exhibition you will be met with the atmosphere of the protest or people talking about one. I did play around with the software to see whether I could actually play the audio from my videos throughout the audio at a lower frequency but felt that actually it was important that the voices were not interfered and had there own space. Having music or chanting play in the background took away from the message of giving people a voice which is an important part of protest, as is the music and the chanting Nd thus why it was also important that the audio from the videos had there own space too.