New Orleans, public art, institutional critique, education, civil rights, social justice, human rights, higher education, social practice, research based art, digital media, BUREAU of CHANGE, Margot Herster, documentary, New Orleans, collaborative media, social media, art, activism, photography, interactive, social media, Margot Herster, Margot Hester, Margaret, Herster, Hester, education not guaranteed, Louisiana
“The Case for New Constitutions” Considers Radical Constitutional Reform in the U.S. and Abroad
Following a welcome reception, the event kicks off with the 5 p.m. screening of Blueberry Soup, a documentary by Eileen Jerrett chronicling the aftermath of Iceland’s financial collapse that led to re-writing of the nation’s constitution. The film is a deeply touching account of an eclectic group of individuals reinventing democracy, using 21st century media such as Facebook and Twitter.
At 6:30 pm, guest speaker Professor Sanford Levinson of University of Texas School of Law will present arguments for a new Constitutional Convention in the United States and challenge the idea that fundamental governmental principles should remain static over time. A leading critic of the U.S. Constitution and excessive presidential power, Professor Levinson will draw from the extensive research behind his recent book, Our Undemocratic Constitution: Where the Constitution Goes Wrong (and How We the People Can Correct It).
The Case for New Constitutions: A Film Event with Guest Speaker Professor Sanford Levinson
March 27, 2014, LSU Law Center, McKernan Auditorium
4:30 Welcome reception with food and drink
5:00 Film screening: Blueberry Soup, directed by Eileen Jerrett (80 min)
6:30 Guest Speaker: Professor Sanford Levinson, University of Texas School of Law
Followed by Q&A with the director, Prof. Levinson, and Prof. Scott Sullivan, LSU Law
BUREAU organized and co-sponsored this program with LSU Law Center, International Law Society & American Constitution Society.
December 12, 2013 – January 11, 2014
Opening: Saturday, Dec 14, 6-9pm
Closing Ceremony: January, 11, 2014, 6-9pm
BUREAU of CHANGE Public Information Office
638 Clouet Street, New Orleans, LA 70117
Set against the backdrop of a model communist apartment designed from online images of North Korean homes, BUREAU of CHANGE invites the public to our media installation of a November 2013 theater of diplomacy between BUREAU administrators of ideas and acting North Korea officials.
Through the semblance of a seemingly impossible exchange, we staged a meeting with North Korean leaders in attempt to transform parasitic attitudes under different cultural spells into ones that thrive by a symbiotic arrangement. Our office will be open for the duration of PhotoNOLA with a special exhibition of imaginary records of our creative negotiations with the United States’ last remaining Cold War enemy.
Script by Amanda Bourgeois and Scott Sullivan
Objects by Justin Stroemple, Steven Pedeaux, Amanda Bourgeois and Kenzie Franco
Installation design by Kenzie Franco and Margot Herster
You’ve seen it, you’ve told someone else about it, you may even have knocked on the BUREAU of CHANGE Public Information Office door and asked to learn more, spread stories or become arbiter of the word, or cried quietly inside once you realized what the people who made their own death videos were trying to tell you. Collectively you engaged in a serious game of telephone, from Syria to Washington through the streets of New Orleans. If you want a more official curatorial statement, see above.
BUREAU of CHANGE founder and director Margot Herster and international international law scholar Scott Sullivan present dynamic research on the relationship between visual data, propaganda and their effects on law and policy through analysis of “unofficial” citizen-generated content and “official” state and news media speech in the Arab Spring’s migration to YouTube.
Image: Video still from Field Telephone {theaterofwar} 13 videos curated by the U.S. Intelligence Community depicting chemical weapons deaths in Syria on August 21, 2013, a public intervention by BUREAU of CHANGE
Image credit: Michael Alford, “Even in Death We Are All Still the Same,” 2013, cremated remains, glass jars, body tags, light box
Exhibitions
10AM – 5PM Friday – Sun Oct 18-20
in the galley: OPERATION HIGHER EDUCATION
Tracks BUREAU of CHANGE’s history from its origins as a state-funded university research project to a private enterprise through artifacts of our interdisciplinary, inter-generational digital media laboratory for bureaucratic intervention and innovation.
in conference: CONDITIONS OF MY RELEASE
new works by Michael Alford
with a memorial by Justin M. Stroemple
on the street:
theaterofwar FIELD TELEPHONE
BUREAU of CHANGE’s sound-powered teleportation device requires human voices to convert visual data from Syria’s battleground into public directives.
Workshops
12:00PM Sat Oct 19
theaterofwar CHOW TIME
BUREAU of CHANGE founder Margot Herster and international law scholar Scott Sullivan present research on the relationship between visual data, propaganda and legal norms through analysis of Syria’s “unofficial” citizen-generated content and “official” state and news media speech.
1:30PM Sat Oct 19
theaterofwar GAME CHANGER
Hands-on tech workshop with a digital media professional. Experience the newest techniques to mine the internet for explosive data and generate political interventions.
Drink from our newest venture: Silver Moon Bar – Nitely ENTERTAINMENT.
SOCIAL (DIS)ORDER SHEDS LIGHT ON TECHNOLOGY’S ROLE IN ART AND COMMUNICATION
BY KASHA LISHMAN
POSTED SEP 5, 2012
Have you ever strolled around LSU’s campus? Walked the mall? Sat at a party? Chances are that most people are nose-deep in iPhones and Androids, surfing the web or “creeping” Facebook.
These days, you can tweet your favorite celebrity, and if you’re lucky they’ll tweet back. Read a blog, and you can gain knowledge that you’d never learn on the news or on television. Social networking is allowing information to be thrown at the public in new and inventive ways. People have a vast array of knowledge at their fingertips all day, every day.
Margot Herster and Derick Ostrenko, both faculty in LSU’s School of Art and part of the AVATAR initiative, took notice and created Social (Dis)order, an interactive art exhibit to be held at the Glassell Gallery. Despite the recent hurricane, the exhibit is scheduled to open Sept. 5 and features unique and contemporary works with which visitors can interact.
The month-long event focuses on how social networking sites like Facebook influence current social constructs, and the featured artists create works that play on the underlying drives of these networks.
“The current state of digital media provides rapidly diversifying public platforms where social expression is used as a device for control and influence,” says [a curatorial text about the exhibition]. “The artists represented explore the balance between freedom and control in relation to social change…and offer reflections that traverse the dynamic range of the impact digital communication technologies have on our increasingly globalized society.”
Nearly every piece of art presented in Social (Dis)order is interactive. Some complicated pieces include instructions provided by the artist, while others are familiar to vast audiences, like online gamers or Apple computer users.
Visitors to the Social (Dis)order website add to the show as well. “Anyone who visits our website [www.SocialDisorder.us] will contribute to activating Jonah Brucker-Cohen’s Alerting Infrastructure! piece for the show. All hits to the website prompt a power drill to bore a hole in a formidable cement wall in Glassell gallery,” Herster said.
Social (Dis)order will feature works from artists and contributors from around the world, and strives to “generate a focused discussion around the global impact of progressive digital communication.”
Some contributors include Ant Hampton and Brit Hatzius, Joseph DeLappe, and Molleindustria.
Social (Dis)order clearly demonstrates the human element in art. Despite technology being a useful platform for our growing and changing society, people are ultimately the ones in control. What was once simple communication between friends and acquaintances is being noticed by other organizations, and could potentially be stripped of its innocent intentions.
“Governments, universities, businesses, families, and individuals are in the midst of reconsidering communication models in light of emerging social norms,” Herster stated. “Each person or organization that embraces or rejects emergent technology controls and interprets whether the change that technology enables is ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ both for them personally and for society. Social(Dis)order hopes to provide a venue for continued discourse that engages anyone who has ever used any of the proliferating digital devices and platforms introduced over the past 50 plus years.”
Social(Dis)order @ Glassell Gallery September 5-October 7, 2012 Reception Friday, September 21, from 7 p.m.-9 p.m. Curated by Margot Herster and Derick Ostrenko Lydia Dorsey, assistant curator Open Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Weekends 12 p.m.-5 p.m. 225.389.7180 ArtGallery@LSU.edu www.SocialDisorder.us
