285 Social Justice in Visual Culture

Course blog for Art History 285: Social Justice in Visual Culture, at Duquesne University. Posts by Christine Lorenz and class participants. (Avatar: Alec Soth's Migrant Mother project)

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The Remarkable Story of a Tech Incubator Inside a Prison

The documentary short premieres today at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin.

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The Land Art Generator Initiative group spent a summer with a group of kids in Homewood for a learning-intensive camp that culminated in a fully functioning, solar-power-generating public artwork that the kids designed for their own neighborhood. In the Art+Energy camp, kids of a wide range of ages all took on important roles. They traveled to sites where energy is generated from conventional sources, learned through hands-on projects how solar energy works, built experimental structures, and brainstormed on how their project could best serve their community’s needs. Their Renaissance Gate was fully functional by the end of the camp, and the kids can carry this experience with them into their future learning.

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Goodman wants Las Vegas to be the first city that’s 100% powered by renewable energy. (x) | follow @the-future-now

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Inventions like this could help to reduce our reliance on oil and aid in making the planet healthier. It may be more expensive to implement a program like this but it does not come with all the drawbacks that come with offshore drilling and the oil market. 

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I am not sure how true this is, and how far along they are with the plan if it is true, but this could help humanity in more than an environmental way. It could also help with the obesity problem that is plaguing our country. About 33% of the United States is obese. The detection of foot traffic could act as an incentive for people to get up and walk around, especially in Vegas where the nightlife is pretty popular. 

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Grand Rapids kids walking home from a rec center were held at gunpoint by multiple officers. The bodycam video shows how kids trying to comply with the police were unsure what to do; how people in the neighborhood were told to go back inside instead of watching; and how easily things could have gone horribly wrong. If you want to build a community’s trust in the police, this isn’t the way to do it.

Kids: “I don’t want to die.” “I don’t want to go to Juvie, I have a basketball game tomorrow.” Police: “He was just at the wrong place at the wrong time.” “The officers followed protocol.” Parent: “This is why we don’t let them go nowhere.” Video from ABC News, April 25 2017.

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The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (screencapped above) has been covering the ongoing problem of contamination of the city’s water supply, but for the most part, visual coverage  has been limited to stock images of faucets and occasional shots from activist meetings. The stock photos in particular do nothing to help us understand the problem; they mostly just fill space. The city is attempting to distribute free lead filtration pitchers to city residents, but the publicity for this program has been mostly invisible. (I had to laugh when I noticed that the ad in the bottom screencap is from Moen, manufacturer of quality faucets.)

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Have you heard about 412 Food Rescue? This dynamic local nonprofit connects grocery stores and other food providers with organizations that serve the hungry, using a network of volunteers to get food to people while it’s still fresh. It’s an innovative solution to both food waste and healthy food access in Pittsburgh neighborhoods. You can even use their app to be notified when they need help -- or follow them on Facebook for regular updates. Their branding reflects hometown pride, and projects a sense of Pittsburgh’s identity as a hub of innovation and sustainable thinking.

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Bearing Witness to Executions: Last Breaths and Lasting Impressions

Only a few people ever watch death sentences carried out in the name of the state. Here, five witnesses recall their experiences in the nation’s death houses.

We’re accustomed to photographs of empty execution chambers. But how often do you see the people who witnessed the deaths? Seeing their faces, and hearing about the impact of what they witnessed, offers a direct impression of the reality of executions.

caption: The Rev. Carroll L. Pickett at his home in Kerrville, Tex.  Photo by Ilana Panich-Linsman for The New York Times    

Having witnessed over ninety executions in Texas, this prison chaplain says:

“Family members get sick. Witnesses get sick. Some of my best guards who were with them all day long — they got sick. The warden changed it to where I would have the same guys all day long, and those are the ones that just eventually had what they called a nervous breakdown, which I just think is horrible — to see some good-looking captains and lieutenants leave the system because they just can’t do executions. It affects everyone, one way or another.

“The victim’s family is hurt, and the family of the individual. You’re not just killing a person. You’re killing his whole family. There’s a lot of people involved in this, not just the poor kid lying on a gurney.

“People don’t realize that you never get over it, unless you’re just cold and calculated. I’ll never forget it. Not a day goes by. Not a day goes by. And I don’t expect it to. If it does, then I didn’t do what I was supposed to do, as a Christian and as a chaplain and as a human being.”

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Source: https://www2.calstate.edu/impact-of-the-csu/student-success/basic-needs-initiative

The California State University conducted a study on hunger and homelessness among students from 2015-2016. Their findings showed that 21% of students were food insecure. As a result CSU began a basic needs initiative that made resources for aid readily available. This included a website with listsof food banks and resources nearby, having on campus food banks, increasing exposure for donations, etc.

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These illustrations are from comic books produced by The Real Cost of Prisons Project. They distribute a range of comic books about the prison system in America, which you can download as PDFs. The top and bottom images come from Prisoners of the War on Drugs; the center page spread is from Prisoners of a Hard Life: Women and Their Children. These comics are inviting to read and emotionally expressive in a way that only visual art can be. The stories create a human connection to day to day workings of mass incarceration.

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These are from Matt Black’s ongoing photographic project The Geography of Poverty, in which the photographer has been traveling the country to document what poverty looks like in many different regions and demographics. His style stands out with a refined, classic approach that makes it feel more like midcentury fine art photography than contemporary documentary, but the scenes are all too real. He was selected Instagrammer of the Year by TIME magazine. (Captions below are directly from Black’s site.)

Top: Poplar Bluff, Missouri. Downtown. (at Poplar Bluff, Missouri).

Center: Philadelphia, PA.  Philadelphia has a population of 1,526,006 and 26.7% live below the poverty level.  Ken Murray wakes up at 4:00 AM to get to a minimum-wage job by 7:00 AM:  “The only thing I can control is me.”   Jailed for 18 years, he has been out of prison for nearly two years but has difficulty finding steady work due to his history. “I’m 48 years old.  Time is not my friend,” said Murray.  “The way I feel is I will never have the American Dream.  I will never have a normal life.“ (at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

Bottom: Standing Rock Reservation, North Dakota.  “I could see a teardrop going down her eyes.  I didn’t know what was going on. Before noon, we heard screams and cries.  When I went up there, I seen nothing but women getting attacked by dogs, getting chewed up.” (at Standing Rock Indian Reservation)

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From The Daily Show: So many brands could have capitalized on social justice tie-ins!

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The Tampa Bay Times posted this interactive data visualization, including individual narratives, to accompany a larger project on race and policing in Florida. It’s a particularly effective example of information graphics, where dots come to represent cases we know, then multiply into more dots, reorganizing into patterns that are easy to follow. The interactive feature serves as an introduction to Why Cops Shoot, a substantial work of investigative journalism.

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A great image of police swarming an unarmed African American in Missouri by an unknown photographer. This represents the issue once again very well because of the focus on the image. The photographer made his audience want to understand the conflict taking place between the men. You can also notice that there is something taking place in the background of the image with the multiple cop cars. The man on the left appears unarmed and not a threat, but the police are taking it as a threat. You can notice this due to the image depicting the officers like they are running towards the man. https://peoplebranch.org/2014/08/27/to-kill-a-black-to-kill-a-roach-2/

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This picture is really powerful to me because not only do you see the divide between the two separate groups but you see the divide of color. This picture is really really interesting to me.  

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Perhaps he should offer them a Pepsi.

(I’ll show myself out, thanks)

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Rob Lach on Twitter: “Hey @Google, exactly what kind of AI am I helping you guys train with this?”

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Is imaging technology ethically neutral?

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“My main issue with (non)welcoming experiences in museums is the absence of a space for dialogue. I served as a tour guide for 2 years in high school for a submarine exhibit at a science museum and while I was required to learn a lot to do my job of giving tours of the sub, I learned a lot more from tourists and even veterans who served in WWII, including the guy who captured it back in ‘42. So the space for dialog was crucial for me as the “host” of the exhibit to learn by taking some responsibility for basic facts, but creating a space for others to help all of us collectively learn.

What I love about museums is the opportunity to experience the power of shared observation and reflection. I visited a presidential museum which includes an exhibit on slavery. The exhibit has wax statues of a Black family being torn apart as the slave Master is taking the father away in chains as his wife, holding their infant child, cry out in pain. It is a startling scene and I recall when I first saw it, another family-a White couple with their young children-entering in. The young boy quickly grasped his father’s leg in fear and the father said to him, “Do you see that? That’s why it’s important that we treat everyone the same, equally.” I was blown away. It was, ironically, just weeks before Obama won the election and gave me a sense of awe how the nation had changed. There is great hope in a nation that has people like that family whose father took a horrific scene of history to reify values during the formative years of his child’s development.

If the purpose of museums is in part educational, I would like to see opportunities, in person or online, for visitors to contribute to the educational dialogue. It may range from the simple appreciation of an exhibit to the nuanced insight of a person who was affected by the issues raised by the work(s) depicted. I would like to find more questions than answers at a museum and see them utilized as a launching pad to support learning. Granted, I am a biased as an educator myself, and getting people to the museum may be a victory in and of itself, but I think those moments can be transformational and that begins with an environment that welcomes some degree of participation. Education is always a two way road.”

– Dhrubajyoti Bhattacharya, dad, husband, interprofessional human rights educator and advocate, focusing on issues in population health, women’s rights, and healthcare administration

[Photo Description: ¾ view of Dhrubajyoti gazing thoughtfully into the distance. Text reads: “I would like to find more questions than answers at a museum. I think those moments can be transformational and that begins with an environment that welcomes some degree of participation. Education is always a two way road.” Dhrubajyoti Bhattacharya, dad, husband, interprofessional human rights educator and advocate]

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What is the role of the museum now -- in a rapidly changing society, with a diverse population to serve, when the internet makes any information available to anyone who wants it? How can an institution best use its resources to inspire, provoke, and create meaningful experiences? Follow Visitors of Color to hear a range of perspectives on these questions.

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In the news lately ...

If you’re doing your visual research on hunger and food access, you might want to look into recent stories about Meals on Wheels. The longstanding program for bringing food to senior citizens stands to lose its essential federal funding under the President’s proposed budget. Some prominent public figures have made statements on the subject in social media. You can take it from there ...

Prisons and policing bloggers will want to look at recent coverage of Kalief Browder's story, which is back in the news due to Spike TV’s recent documentary series Time: The Kalief Browder Story. Browder spent three years at Rikers, starting at age 16, for a petty theft for which he was never convicted. Much of that time was spent in solitary confinement.  Full episodes of the series are available to cable subscribers; the program site includes a selection of clips and supplementary material, and the story has been addressed by a number of other outlets as well.

Recent developments in energy include impending closures of multiple coal plants. We’re also seeing widespread discussion of the role of the EPA, as people speculate on what the future of the agency might look like. Part of this discussion has been a look back at the agency’s achievements, and in this context, a number of sites have featured material from the Documerica project, which was covered on this tumblr a few weeks ago.

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“Images can be a point of entry for movements, so they can bring people in ... they maybe can give a sense of the big picture, and also images can be used to complicate what the big picture is.” The Interference Archive is an enormous international collection of activist graphics, including posters, buttons, zines, t-shirts, and more. Exhibitions have been curated from their collections of ephemera, including Signs of Change, which was first seen here in Pittsburgh. You can sift through a growing sample of their collection at the Interference Archive online.