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Who Protests?. - Bombs, Beards & Barricades, p. 26. Sick comics, 1968. TIME Magazine Cover 13 Dec 1999. Occupy Wall Street Toby Toons October 9, 2011. Flattened Identities. Bra-burning Feminists?. Demonstration in Atlantic City in September 1968 that targeted the Miss America Pageant.
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Who Protests? -Bombs, Beards & Barricades, p. 26
Bra-burning Feminists? Demonstration in Atlantic City in September 1968 that targeted the Miss America Pageant
What Greenham women looked like in the Tabloid Media What Greenham Women actually looked like
“They call us whores, slags, sluts, lesbians. They are all sexual insults. We seem to threaten their manhood, but we can do without them...Living with women is a wonderful experience. There is strength here.” - Sharon Ross, The Guardian, July 30 1983
Portraits of #OWS “What I learned is that these people are not wackos, anarchists, or indigents. They are overwhelmingly working and middle class people of all backgrounds who feel that their government has failed them and does not represent their interests. They are there to protest corruption, not to tear the rich from their penthouses and drag them down in to the streets. They just want the basic promise of America; that everyone has a fair chance to live with opportunity and dignity. These people are your friends and neighbors, their children, and your own. They are Americans, they are Patriots, and they have a right to be heard.” -Eddie McShane
“As a moniker, The Face of Protest served both to individuate the social act of protest-thus rendering it as identity-and to enact a process of selection and repetition that effectively codified meaning.” -AK Thomson, p. 51
Presence/Absence Original Photo: Sarah Mason , 25, Occupy LA
“Wearing masks is such an effective tactic that more and more police departments are implementing anti-mask laws. The practice of "masking up" is controversial within activist circles. Some activists criticize mask-wearing because it contradicts the image of activism being open and accessible, in other words, "we have nothing to hide." There are several reasons for wearing masks at an action: 1) to protect ourselves from illegal police surveillance; 2) to promote anonymity among the ranks, which helps protect against the rise of charismatic leaders; 3) to provide cover for activists engaged in illegal actions during the demo, and 4) to promote solidarity within the bloc.” -(infoshop.org, 2001) in AK Thomson p. 57 Black Bloc, Seattle WTO Protests 1999
“… Besieged by those who desire justice, the men of money are getting scared. They want to name the faces of resistance name them thugs, terrorists, flat-earthers, delinquents, dreamers. They want to capture, catalogue and criminalise the faces of those who are saying "enough is enough." They want to wipe the smile of resistance off these faces forever… During Carnival, as in rebellion, we wear masks to free our inhibitions, we wear masks to transform ourselves, we wear masks to show that we are your daughter, your teacher, your bus driver, your boss. Being faceless protects and unites us while they try to divide and persecute. By being faceless we show that who we are is not as important as what we want, and we want everything for everyone.” Carnival against Capitalism, Quebec City 2001
“As the worldwide occupations grow people are rioting and showing their leaders and financial institutions that they will no longer be pushed around. On november fifth we ask every single person who is involved with these worldwide occupations to wear a guy fawkes mask in defiance of your leaders’ police brutality, censorship, sexual bigotry, racial inequality, unemployment, foreclosures, lack of health care, and any other reason … [We wear the mask] not only to protect our privacy and redefine the word anonymous back, but to convey an idea of freedom. The word anonymous has been redefined … becoming the unified voice and becoming part of our society of people who seek nothing more and then the quality of life to improve. Being anonymous now simply means you are a human being … Become one with your fellow humans. Do it for them, do it for yourself, do it for all. We are anonymous we are legion we do not forgive we do not forget expect us” Anonymous, Occupy, 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70BR6XI84UU
Thinking Beyond the Sign “Speaking about what the mask enables and not what it means … effectively reformulates the relationship between activists and objects .... From the managerial realm of surveillance and the bio-political possession of the body comes the mask. By wearing it, the activist enabled her passage through violence from ontology to politics.” -AK Thomson, p. 57
Thinking Beyond the Sign • 1. Seeing Through the Surface • Who is in the picture and who is not in the picture? • How do myth, stereotypes and archetypes influence how and who we see? • What does the circulation of particular images produce? • 2. Seeing Beyond the Surface • What is the purpose of activist objects? (clothes, tools, signs, instruments, props, etc.) • How do ‘context’ and place matter? • How can we best analyze the system of people-objects-place? (human and non-human entanglements)
Material-Semiotic Street Fights Derry, Northern Ireland 1969
Material-Semiotic Street Fights Cairo, Egypt 2011
