The Art of Activism: Your All-Purpose Guide to Making the Impossible Possible

by Stephen Duncombe, Steve Lambert

Overview

The Art of Activism is an all-purpose guide to artistic activism, combining the creative power of the arts to move us emotionally with the strategic planning of activism necessary to bring about social change. With contemporary case studies and historical examples, chapters on cultural and cognitive theory, sections on what can be learned from unlikely sources like popular culture and marketing techniques, along with investigations into ethics and evaluation, explorations of the creative process and the importance of utopian thinking, and an attached workbook with over fifty exercises to practice, the co-founders of the Center for Artistic Activism take readers step-by-step through the process of becoming, or becoming even better, artistic activists.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781682192696
Publisher:	OR Books
Publication date:	11/30/2021
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Stephen Duncombe is an associate professor at New York University's Gallatin School in the department of Media, Culture and Communications and is a lifelong political activist. He is the author and editor of six books including Dream: Re-Imagining Progressive Politics in an Age of Fantasy, Notes From Underground: Zines and the Politics of Underground Culture, The Bobbed Haired Bandit: Crime and Celebrity in 1920s New York, Cultural Resistance Reader, White Riot: Punk Rock and the Politics of Race, and (Open) Utopia. Steve Lambert was born in Los Angeles in 1976. He and his family moved to the San Francisco Bay Area four days later. His father was a former Franciscan friar, and his mother, an ex-Dominican nun. He dropped out of high school in 1993, but went on to study at the San Francisco Art Institute in and the University of California, Davis. He teaches at SUNY Purchase. He is a member of the New York based artist group Free Art and Technology Lab. He has won several awards including from Turbulence, the Creative Work Fund, Rhizome/The New Museum, Adbusters Media Foundation, and the California Arts Council Duncombe and Lambert are co-founders of The Center for Artistic Activism.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Art Needs Activism. Activism Needs Art 1

Hello 6

Artistic Activism Works 10

Chapter 1 The Art of Activism 15

Stepping off the Curb 16

We Hold These Truths to Be Self Evident 20

The Power of Art 25

Affect, Effect, and Æffect 28

What Is Artistic Activism? 30

What Isn't Artistic Activism? 45

Artistic Activism Is Not Enough 47

Chapter 2 Process 49

The Creative Process 50

Creative Habitats 51

The Artistic Activist Process Model 59

Common Mistakes 68

Perfection Is the Enemy of Completion 73

Double Standards 78

Freedom of Constraint 80

The Slump 81

Risk and Failure 82

Process and Progress 83

Chapter 3 History 85

All Successful Activism Has Been Artistic Activism 86

Jesus 87

The American Revolution 98

The U.S. Civil Rights Movement 102

Black Power! 109

United Farm Workers 115

Feminism(s) 119

ACT-UP! 125

History Is Not Destiny 129

Chapter 4 Culture 131

Culture Is Our Operating System 132

Big C Culture 137

The Impossible Possible 146

Learning to Love Las Vegas 150

The Moral Equivalent to Fast and Furious 154

Alternative Cultures 158

Culture with a Small c 163

Chapter 5 Cognition 169

Remember This 170

Thinking about Thinking 171

The Matlock Method 172

How We Think 175

Prepare to Be Depressed 181

Telling Stories 186

Learning to Listen 188

We're of Two Minds 191

Rewriting the Story 194

Surprise! 195

Figure and Ground 200

Hearts and Minds 207

Chapter 6 Persuasion 209

We Need Nick 210

Yes, Marketing 212

Beyond Raising Awareness 213

The Five Ps 216

Benefits and Costs 220

Benefits and Costs Are Not Equal 225

From Awareness to Action 227

Audiences 235

We Are All Human 241

Chapter 7 Æffect 243

Does It Work? 244

Planning a Campaign 246

Directing Our Efforts 253

You Are Not Alone 258

Why So Much Art and Activism Fails 258

And Then What Happens? 269

Clear Intentions 270

Sublime Propaganda 272

What Do You Want to Do? 276

Chapter 8 Ethics 279

The Dark Side 280

Not Just Nazis 290

Our Ethics 293

Ethical Artistic Activism 294

Rules to Live By 297

Using the Master's Tools 301

Examining Our Own Tools 306

With Great Power 310

Chapter 9 Utopia 313

There Is an Alternative 316

There's No-Place Like Utopia 321

Putting Utopia to Work 323

Dystopia, or Why We Love Imagining the Apocalypse 337

Problems on the Way to Utopia 341

Dreampolitik 346

Making the Impossible Possible 348

Chapter 10 Action! 355

Keywords: 358

Acknowledgements: 362

Index: 364

Editorial Reviews

All true art is a form of activism, and the best, most enduring activism rises to the level of art. Here’s a thrilling invitation and actionable playbook for anyone willing to retrieve their autonomy, open minds, and fight the power.” — Douglas Rushkoff, author of Team Human and Media Virus

“Artists and Activists who want to collaborate often find they are separated by different languages. Steve and Steve bring them together and draw out the strengths of both to achieve beautiful and powerful results.” — Nathan Santry, Actions Director, Greenpeace USA

“All roads to lasting change lead through the intersection of art and activism. Too often this truth gets lost in sector jargon, undervalued skill sets and other nonsense. Here is a useful tool for anyone interested in social change to become well versed in creative problem solving and marshaling the talents of both artists and activists.” — Risë Wilson

“An inspiring visual guide to making activism more creative with art and art more effective with activism. The Steves’ humorous and playful approach to artistic activism has me ready to get out in the streets and cause some good trouble. I found a ton to steal in this book, and so will you.” — Austin Kleon, New York Times bestselling author of Steal Like an Artist

“A deep dive on the process, principles, history and practice of artistic activism… [An] important resource” — Waging Nonviolence

“Lavishly illustrated, the text mixes ideas on how to ‘do’ politics with creative application to change the ‘look’ of politics too” — Compass

“Offers an inspirational structure for the concept of artistic activism” — The Village Sun

From the Publisher