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pedestrianessay · 3 years

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Augmented Reality test , “Xeno Walk”

Judith Butler's text, Gender Politics and the Right to Appear, informed my work about the meaning of collective walking in the public space as a political alliance. In her book, Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly, she exposes the concept of "we" as a collective body that spatially voices the challenges of exclusion experienced under conditions of oppression. For Butler, the performative action of taking the public space as an act of resistance and solidarity reads as follows:

“Each "I" brings the "we" along as he or she enters or exits that door, finding oneself in an unprotected enclosure or exposed out there on the street. We might say that there is a group, if not an alliance, walking there, too, whether or not they are anywhere to be seen. It is, of course, a singular person who walks there, who takes the risk of walking there, but it is also the social category that traverses that particular gait and walk, that singular movement in the world; and if there is an attack, it targets the individual and the social category at once”

Butler, J. (2015) Gender Politics and the Right to Appear (Chapter 1) in Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly Harvard University Press. P. 27

The action of "walking with " is a crucial tool for collective recognition and a performative act of enunciation, an act of speech that can be exercised in space. The research-creation project "Xeno Walk, an aural essay on Collective Feminism" is an audio walk developed for Augmented Reality (AR), featuring interviews with feminist activists and artists. The project emphasizes the diverse tactics that embrace the collage as a tool of resistance and autonomy. The augmented audio walk creates a sonic palimpsest with their interview voices and soundtracks produced by the Argentinian feminist sound collective #Vivas and Viv Corringham, Shadow Walks. The Augmented Reality tool helps us transit the public space, finding the connections between geographical cues and the content and meaning of the oral histories in the audio walk, departing from the interviews and activist experiences with members of three collectives Collage Feministes and Feminicides Montreal, and Paris.

I had extensively worked on it since the beginning of Spring 2021 as part of my Oral History Class, and it has been evolving into the current project. The initial route was in the neighborhood of Little Italy in Montreal. However, I decided to change because the narrative's location and content didn't create the awareness of gendered spaces or a conflict that layered its complexity. As an alternative, I relocated the project in the Mile-End Van-Horne SkatePark surroundings. It is precisely its so masculine presence, the empty lots, the contested gardens, and the wilderness in these spots that allows walkers to roam and articulate the presence of the noise, ecotones, and spaces of silence that permeate the zone.

Photos by Lola Baraldi

I chose the space by walking with two members of Collage Feministes Montreal, who helped me trace a path concerning their conflict embodiment, aural memory, and locations for pedestrians with disabilities. Understanding these personal traces of the terrain, I was able to locate five interviews, considering the three-dimensional infrastructure of the Boulevard Rosemond highway, the rail tracks walking and bike pass on Van Horne Street, and its connection with the underpass of St Laurent Boulevard. While walking with them we brainstormed about the possibility of collage interventions and phrases that can be in response on the topic of autonomy and freedom in the public space.

Photos by Lola Baraldi

Testing the AR Walk

On the weekend of June 19th, 2021, six participants agreed to walk with me to text for the first time. Three of them were part of the collective Collage Feministes Montreal, and the rest were enthusiastic friends who wanted to join the experiment. We met in front of the skate park. They arrived with a delay, and Kira told me that the noise and male-dominated presence at that meeting point were stressing her out. I found that was precisely one of the points I wanted to test with another woman since I also felt the same, but being hip and an alternative vibe could be welcoming. It turned out that the same issue happened with all six participants; they felt a bit invaded and self-aware of the masculine charge.

Photos by Lola Baraldi

As far as the walk goes, listening with one USB speaker was not enough. The sound of the augmented voices vanished in front of the heavy traffic of St Laurent Blvd and the skate noises; therefore, we decided that the walk could be better if it takes place later in the night. We imagined a walk night gathering where participants can feel more intimate and embraced by the evening. The group gathering could be about autonomy and collective agency walking together at night. These night walks are not something new; Viv Corringham speaks about how she witnessed and participated in the Reclaiming the Night movement, started in London and New York City in the late seventies, where hundreds of women took the streets to walk together at night.

Launching these participatory walks will happen at 11 pm, making sense in terms of the soundtracks, the objective of the walks, and the content of the interviews.

Photos by Lola Baraldi

After this group realization, we moved to the next walk in a metallic structure near the vicinity. In the corner, there is a sign that can be read as "Pause Publicitaire," which are the bones or the metallic structure of an abandoned building in front of Marche des Possibles park. In that section, participants can hear the interviews of the collective #VIVAS. Their soundtracks welcome the walkers by immersing them into the wall-less building. The participants did not speak Spanish, whomever they seemed engaged to listen to the overlapping sound of their voices in such a space. I realized that I need to make bigger bubbles and center them into the middle of the structure because the cell phone GPS sometimes behaves very capriciously. Also, participants suggested that it would be nice to hear more soundtracks embedded into the oral histories to have a more immersive way of approaching their sound creations.

Photos by Lola Baraldi

I realized that technically speaking, it is not recommended to use the feature of proximity to the center of the sound because once you are out of the range, the sound fades and cuts, limiting the narratives to finish. The walkers seemed excited to keep walking to the other routes, which allowed me to test my theory of sound overlapping between three layers; the underpass, the car bridge, and the walking-bike pass. The sound overlapping worked so well, allowing stories to be interconnected while walking.

This overlapping and connection with the skatepark relations linked with the XR critical theories of Rewa Wright, which describes the radical possibilities that Augmented Reality can convey:

“Emerging with and through AR(t)* is an activist politics engaging wireless networks to achieve a critical 'detournement.' In this context, AR has been deployed as a radical political agent, mapped at specific sites where participants do not simply view 'the work' ( as one does in a conventional art gallery) but activate the sensation of 'being within' a critically resonant event. Such artivist gestures have allowed AR(t) to forge a specific cultural relation with public space that was, prior to mobile technology, largely occluded.”

Wright, Rewa. Mobile Augmented Reality Art and the Politics of Re-assembly. Conference: International Symposium on Electronic Arts ( ISEA 2015). P. 3

To this extent, I wonder about the feasibility of resonating together by creating several participatory walks by each zone and collectively featured in the AR project. Therefore, I am introducing the collaborative and guiding the walk as a soundwalk but asking participants to bring their portable speaker and download the app before arriving at the meeting point and creating a connection with participants into the project. Also another idea is to provide small workshops such as self-defence guided by women in the beginning of the walk and end it with a concert by a feminist bands or a sound intervention by a noise or electronic musician.

We agreed that posters should be placed in critical locations where the pedestrians, people waiting, street artists can find information of the invisible walk in that space.

In conclusion, the best time to launch this project will be September. I need to create connections with local communities who want to embrace, walk collectively on these featured routes, and, most importantly, test the AR aural design several times while creating a team. The research on the spatial and sonic layers has been one of the most complex and engaging parts, which has to be shaped, negotiated, and talked with other walkers to be effective. Its success might be related to the community appropriation, either by an invisible invitation open for random encounters or by a collective sono-[soro]dad resonance embraced in a feminist soundwalk.

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newstechreviews · 4 years

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Building a protest movement during a pandemic requires creative — and virtual — work. For illustrators and artists with social platforms, their output has an attentive audience — and an influential role to play, in parallel to the George Floyd and Black Lives Matter protests sweeping the country. Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis during an arrest on May 25 that turned fatal when Floyd gasped for air as an officer weighed down on him with a knee on his neck. The officer involved, Derek Chauvin, has since been fired and charged with third-degree murder. As artists are aware, their responses can help build narratives of empathy and focus action on what matters.

The movement has seen large-scale marches and clashes with police in cities across the U.S. and abroad as late May turned to June, and has also grown online as support for anti-racism actions and systemic change against police brutality has become a dominant virtual conversation. While the act of re-sharing a portrait or re-tweeting a slogan has drawn criticism as potentially empty, the process of building solidarity through symbolism has played a core role in the history of protest, especially during a pandemic that may rule out in-person activism for some. In the wake of Floyd’s death, social media sharing has helped to dissolve the distances between local pain and global outrage.

Creators have taken different approaches as they engage. For some, it’s a continuation of their activist spirit. For others, Floyd’s death marked a shift into newfound political involvement and more serious subjects. Millions of reposts later, however, one thing is certain: the conversation is still in its nascent stages. With that in mind, we asked artists about the creative process behind some of the most resonant original imagery of the moment. Much of the most popular works reimagine the subjects at hand, giving us new ways to grasp what’s going on.

For Nikkolas Smith, an L.A.-based artist and activist who calls himself an “artivist,” there has never been a divide between the work he publishes and the justice-oriented goals of his creative endeavors. On May 29, he shared a digital painting commemorating George Floyd.

Intentionally unfinished

Like most of Smith’s portraits — many of which focus on other victims of police violence, like Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor — the style evokes a traditional oil painting, but is rendered almost as an abstraction. (He makes them in PhotoShop, and gives himself under three hours to complete them.) And the unfinished quality is intentional. Smith says it’s meant to echo the unfinished business of these lives, cut short. “I don’t like clean lines,” he tells TIME. “That’s a parallel to all these lives. They did not have a chance to see their end. They should still be living.”

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George Floyd’s life mattered. His killer, Derek Chauvin has just been arrested as he should’ve been days ago. Chauvin’s arrest is not justice, and his conviction will only be a fraction of justice. Black lives in this country are being destroyed by a virus of racism, fear, and hatred. It is up to everyone to take a stand and actively work to tear down this centuries-old pandemic. NOW. Art for @blklivesmatter #BlackLivesMatter #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd #JusticeForGeorge #Justice #JusticeForFloyd #GeorgeFloyd

A post shared by Nikkolas Smith (@nikkolas_smith) on May 29, 2020 at 10:53am PDT

Soon after posting his Floyd portrait, it was shared by Michelle Obama and Janet Jackson among other celebrity fans. It was spread further by the official Black Lives Matter Instagram account. In fact, it soon became one of the widespread original images of the latest protest movement.

Smith coupled his image with a caption that calls for justice for Floyd, but recognizes that just the act of viewing and sharing is a powerful first step. “Even if there isn’t an action item, people are still seeing an image of a human being. The narrative is building up more and more that these are people who should be on this earth who are not here anymore, and their life is important,” Smith says. “To share it, even if it’s just that, is important. I’m hoping that all of this leads to a bigger, more substantial change, especially with accountability of law enforcement.”

Smith is no stranger to protest art. He was still working at a corporate architecture job in 2013 when he first captured attention for his illustration of Martin Luther King, Jr. dressed in a hoodie, meant to cast doubt on preconceptions of the differences between the civil rights leader and the young Trayvon Martin, the unarmed Florida teenager shot by George Zimmerman in 2012. Smith has been creating works with political and anti-racist themes ever since.

“A perfect poster child”

On the other hand, Illustrator Tori Press’s latest Instagram post was a departure for her. In 2016, Press checked out of her own nine-to-five corporate gig to focus on illustrating full-time, as an emotional response to the election that year. But she has always shared lightly humorous personal anecdotes with bits of advice about self-care and managing mental health in a signature style of pastel watercolors and black ink text — until now. “I’m not very political,” Press told TIME. “It’s not really something I wander into all that often. But in the wake of this murder, I’ve been sick all week. I couldn’t stay silent.”

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To my fellow white people: if you are sitting in judgment and condemnation of the protests going on in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, I urge you to look at and reflect on the many, many peaceful protests against systemic racism and police brutality that have gone on in recent years, and how they have been received. I urge you to do the uncomfortable thing by putting yourself in the hopelessly frustrated, righteously furious shoes of the people of color that have been demanding justice for centuries, of honestly examining how you might feel and respond in the same situation, of considering that sometimes a peaceful avenue to meaningful change does not exist. And if you want to see change, as you should, I urge you to do the difficult but critical, unavoidable work of exploring the ways you have benefited from and upheld a racist and unjust system. Only when we can acknowledge that we have inevitably been a part of the problem can we begin to be part of the solution. It’s up to those in power, including white people who benefit from the status quo, to hear the protests of those we have oppressed *in whatever form they take,* to see the system for what it is, to set aside our discomfort and use our power and privilege to reject and dismantle it. I recommend the books White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo and Mindful of Race by Ruth King as places to start scratching the surface. Many more resources are out there and easy to find.⁣ .⁣ I am donating 100% of all proceeds from all my print and greeting card sales to the ACLU for the next week. I am also donating 100% of proceeds from any order placed since May 25, 2020, the day George Floyd was murdered.

A post shared by Tori Press (@revelatori) on May 31, 2020 at 1:32pm PDT

The result: “If you want non-violent protests, listen to non-violent protestors,” reads her latest post in large black letters, with a small kneeling figure of former NFL quarterback and social justice activist Colin Kaepernick in the corner; it has over three times the likes of the prior post. “When something like this happens, and people are righteously angry, and justifiably so, but you hear folks being dismissive of the entire cause — I just think that’s a way to dismiss this fury, and the reason behind it,” she said. Press added that she feels particularly responsible to share this message as a white, privileged woman with a platform.

“I drew Colin Kaepernick because he’s a perfect poster child for someone who tried to make a peaceful protest, and was absolutely vilified for it. It’s just infuriating,” she said. “We need to have space to say, yeah, I recognize how furious you are.”

As she says in her caption, she feels there is a role for white people to play. “I can address my fellow white people and say look, this is a time we all need to stop and reflect. Really put yourself in the shoes of people who are angry right now, who are protesting. Have some empathy.” She hopes her illustration will help “at least a few people” to have that moment of self-reflection.

“It can turn into a tidal wave”

Eric Yahnker, a California-based satirist who has displayed his absurdist works in fine art galleries, laid aside his typical tongue-in-cheek tone when he published his latest Instagram post: another George Floyd portrait, done in colored pencils on a sheet of kraft paper as a “gut reaction” to Floyd’s death.

“I am absolutely unimportant in this story,” he said to TIME. He chose to draw Floyd as the “gentle giant” he was described as by friends, reflecting his “soft humanity.” “It absolutely guts me that if Mr. Floyd were a white gentle giant or anything other than black, he’d still be alive today,” Yahnker notes. “As a Jew, indoctrinated since birth to the scores of my own ancestry massacred by the hands of evil forces, I know full well that silence itself can be a painfully violent and oppressive act.” On its own, Yahnker knows a single piece of art can’t create real change on its own. “But I am a firm believer in the power of the collective. If we all put a drop in the bucket, it can turn into a tidal wave,” he says.

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Justice for George Floyd. The wheels of justice are criminally slow. Sweeping institutional change must occur NOW before we can even think of healing our hopelessly divided & wounded nation… *All 4 officers involved in George Floyd’s murder need to be charged NOW. *Derek Chauvin’s charge should be upgraded to 2nd degree murder (a long shot, but should). *All nationwide Mayors and Police Chiefs must IMMEDIATELY adopt the policing strategies/tactics outlined by the Black Lives Matter organization to dramatically reduce these violent incidents. *Non-violent protests must continue across the nation to hold officials feet to the fire until they act. *City, State and Federal Government must not escalate the situation by inviting military tactics to stamp out peaceful protests. *We all must VOTE as if our lives (especially the lives of African-American’s) are depending on it. There is so much more to overcome, but we have to start somewhere. #blacklivesmatter #justiceforgeorgefloyd #ripgeorgefloyd #icantbreathe #ericyahnker

A post shared by Eric Yahnker (@ericyahnker) on May 31, 2020 at 11:33am PDT

Reimagining the possibilities

One of the most widely circulated images is an illustration from Shirien Damra. It’s a pastel, color-blocked portrait of Floyd that sees him wreathed in flowers, one in a series of similar portraits Damra has done for people who have recently fallen victim to violence. Damra, a former community organizer in Chicago and a Palestinian-American, turned to this form of commemoration in order to spread awareness in a way that avoided sharing videos that she said can be “traumatic and triggering,” she told TIME. “I think art can touch our emotional core in a way that the news can’t.” Damra adds that one thing artists can do is help illustrate what comes next.

“We know what we don’t want. We don’t want any more black lives targeted by police and white supremacy. But one thing that I have found we struggle with is actually imagining what kind of things we do want to see in our world,” she says. “I feel like as artists, one role we could play is allowing ourselves and others to reimagine the possibilities. Our society will likely never turn back to how it used to be before the pandemic and everything happening right now. Art can be a powerful catalyst in bringing more people together to take action.”

Damra’s Instagram account is only a year old. But especially in the pandemic era, people are turning to the digital sphere to consume art perhaps more than ever, by default. “This has opened up a way to reach more marginalized communities who need art most during this heavy time,” she says.

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Yesterday, in yet another act of anti-black police violence causing mass outrage, George Floyd yelled “I can’t breathe” and pleaded for his life as a white Minneapolis police officer violently pinned him down with his knee on his neck. George died after. He was murdered in broad daylight. His death is reminiscent of the death of Eric Garner. Even with a crowd yelling at him to stop and while folks filmed the murder, the cop did it anyway, showing the massive injustice, zero accountability and white supremacy embedded in the “criminal justice” system. Heartbroken, angry and disgusted. This must end. Much love and solidarity to Black communities grieving another beautiful life lost. May George Floyd Rest in Power. Text ‘Floyd’ to 55156 to demand the officers be charged with murder. You can also call Mayor Jacob Frey at (612)-673-2100, DA Mike Freeman at (612)-348-5550 and demand justice. #blacklivesmatter #georgefloyd #icantbreathe #justiceforgeorgefloyd

A post shared by shirien (@shirien.creates) on May 26, 2020 at 12:07pm PDT

Inspiring protest signs

Another popular image is a gesture to the Black Lives Matter movement by the French artist duo Célia Amroune and Aline Kpade, who go by the name Sacrée Frangine. Like a spin on an earth-toned Matisse cut-out, their trio of Black faces — overwritten with the “Black lives matter” slogan — is a universal statement that is just abstract enough to be repurposed in many ways; protesters have even drawn versions of it for signs at marches. Amroune and Kpade may not be U.S. citizens, but they told TIME they feel “very close to” the movement. This has, after all, had a wide reach.

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Say it with your voice, say it with your chest, say it with your words, but say it. #strongertogether #blacklivesmatter

A post shared by sacrée frangine (@sacree_frangine) on May 30, 2020 at 12:05pm PDT

The comments to their art are a chorus of “thank-yous” and heart emojis, with the promise of sharing. As social media was overtaken by “blackout” trends on June 2, these works momentarily disappeared from feeds. But they will resurface again.

“Some people who never spoke out before — when Mike Brown or anybody else was killed — they saw this video, they see this art, and say, now I’m going to say something,” Smith said about what’s different this time around. “I don’t even really know where things are gonna go from here, but it’s getting to a boiling point. People are done. They’re going to make their voices heard.”

As for Smith, his latest piece of art, called “Reflect,” isn’t a portrait but a depiction of a single masked protester, kneeling at the foot of a line of riot-gear-clad policemen and raising a mirror to their hidden faces. “Can we just hold up a mirror to what this looks like right now?” Smith wants to know. That’s what contemporary art is for, after all: to refract back reality, and raise questions about what we are willing to accept.

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So that they may see what they have become… So that they may see what they have become… So that they may see your light. So that they may see what they have become… So that we may see what they have always been. #REFLECT #SundaySketch #ThisIsAmerica #BlackLivesMatter #takeAKnee #cops Art inspired by the incredible photography of @daisugano 🙏🏾✨

A post shared by Nikkolas Smith (@nikkolas_smith) on May 31, 2020 at 10:01am PDT

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phooll123 · 4 years

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New top story from Time: ‘Art Can Touch Our Emotional Core.’ Meet the Artists Behind Some of the Most Widespread Images in the Wake of George Floyd’s Death

Intentionally unfinished

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A post shared by Nikkolas Smith (@nikkolas_smith) on May 29, 2020 at 10:53am PDT

“A perfect poster child”

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A post shared by Tori Press (@revelatori) on May 31, 2020 at 1:32pm PDT

“It can turn into a tidal wave”

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A post shared by Eric Yahnker (@ericyahnker) on May 31, 2020 at 11:33am PDT

Reimagining the possibilities

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A post shared by shirien (@shirien.creates) on May 26, 2020 at 12:07pm PDT