Self-introduction

 Hello everyone, my name is Cierrah but you can call me Ceci if you like.

I'm usually quiet until you get to know and then I can't shut up. I'm currently a illustration major, character design is my specialty. I have a wide range of interests;horror and the macabre is my main go to. I love anything that's horror or unsettling. I can't wait to get to know you guys throughout the semester.

1.) Artsy: "Today’s meme culture adopts the techniques of postmodernist movements like Pop, performance, and conceptual art to buck their precedents in order to subvert the status quo."
- It's quite interesting that meme culture adopts techniques from certain movements. It just seems like people that sees something and make a joke out of it. It never seems like it goes deeper then that.
"Memes are essentially 100 years of text art boiled down into your feed,” said professor Darren Wershler, research chair at Concordia University, who argues that memes are a type of “everyday Conceptualism.” "
- Darren Wershler research shows that memes that evolved and has been around for a century. It came from one artwork to pretty much another. Who could've known that memes has been around for this long.

2.) VICE:"Memes can spread far more quickly than the songs or art projects of previous generations, and there’s such a low barrier to entry that anyone can make them; they can go viral in a matter of minutes."
- I have notice when something blows up, it's always an meme. And the meme itself always reveals an issues that's in our society. For an example "oceangate" with the billionaires going to see the titanic in a submarine that's was completely unsafe and the waiver that mentioned that they can die three times in it. As we laugh at their stupid decisions it also shows how the 1% have all this money that they can use to help so many people and charities, but instead they use it for something completely stupid, harmful, or disrespectful.

"Then there is the category referred to as “activist memes,” which includes those like Permit Patty and BBQ Becky, nicknames that became shorthand for white people calling the police on black people for merely living their lives."
- I still remember when Permit Patty and BBQ Becky went completely viral. And then a serge of "Karen" videos that were constantly posted online. The main targets of these Karen's where always poc. The central park karen feels like it was the last straw cause the "CAREN" act exist now. 

3.) Understanding Patriarchy:"It is no accident that feminists began to use the word"patriarchy" to replace the more commonly used "male

chauvanism" and *sexism."'These courageous voices wanted

men and women to become more aware of the way patri-archy affects us all."

- It seems like til recently that some people are understanding that the patriarchy affects both men and women. When the barbie movie came out at first people thought it was a going to be a regular kid's movie and didn't expect it to dive into this topic. People are slowly starting to understand that the patriarchy is not directly targeted towards women, instead it affects both and men and women.

"I often tell audiences that if we were to go door-to-door asking if we should end male violence against

women, most people would give their unequivocal support. Then if you told them we can only stop male violence

against women by ending male domination, by eradicating

patriarchy, they would begin to hesitate, to change their position."

- I've noticed that people will be vocal about violence against women, but once mentioned that we need to rid of the patriarchy in order fix this issue they start acting weird towards the topic. I think it's due to how people still not understandinh what patriarchy means. 

An introduction of Activism Post

• "The case of Paula Rego’s ‘Abortion Series’ shows how many people were apparently unaware of the painful and dangerous situations women had to face during and after an illegal abortion."

    - When there's serious issues that are present most of the time there's people that don't know what's going are greatly misinformed. There has been many time that people used their art to shine on the issue in ways to inform or shock the viewer in a way to inform and show us the brutal truth.

• "Another important goal of activist art is to create awareness of existing political and social issues."

   - Activist artist do anything mean possible to get their message spread around, most of the time it's by graffiti. 

Why Artistic Activism 

• "The ability of artistic activism to surprise us – to show up in unlikely places (e.g. not a gallery) or take on unfamiliar forms (e.g. not a protest march) provides an opportunity to disrupt people’s preconceived notions of art and protest, and their predetermined ideas about the messages we are trying to communicate."

   - Nines time out of ten, the times I have seen activism artwork is either by graffiti or by someone's post online. And their posts always would educate me and others on what's going on and bring awareness.

• "'I’m not political,' is a phrase one hears often; it’s a rare person, however, that doesn’t express themself through some form of creativity."

   - The phase "I'm not political" seems like a double edge sword in my opinion. Politics do get overwhelming and scary in most times, but if we ignore what's going people get voted into power that shouldn't be and many injustices goes under the radar. There are times when artists put political ideology in their art it's either subconsciously or on purpose.

Cases of political art

• "Through his kaleidoscopic installations, that tend to use the natural elements such as air and water, he unravels the invisible threads binding humans and nature — reminding us of our profound interconnectedness and calling for urgent action for earth's protection."

    - Eliasson works is really amazing, the way he uses his kaleidoscopic installations to speak on the environments is breath-taking.

• "Each intimate and evocative portrait captured by Muholi becomes a vessel for social change, dismantling stereotypes, and amplifying the voices of those historically silenced. Their art goes beyond reflection; it is a mirror demanding recognition, acceptance, and equality for the LGBTQI+ community."

    -Looking through Muholi photography and other works was quite interesting and especially learning that each protrait had a meaning.

THE ART OF ACTIVISM:

Introduction:
• "Peering back further and casting our gaze wider, we encounter the poetry of Muhammad, the pre-figurative performance of Jesus, the spectacles of Moses, and engaging riddles of the Buddha. The more we look, the more we find examples of artistic activism."

- When look back into history and historical and biblical figures, there's parallel between now and then. Especially when it comes to protest and standing up against authoritarian leaders. Forms of protest has evolve throughout centuries and we can compare current forms of protest of those back then.

• Our modern political terrain is a highly mediated landscape of signs and symbols, story and spectacle. For us to stage successful battles on this cultural topographical we need to observe, think, analyze, and respond creatively. We need to become artistic activists."

- Signs, symbols, and people's stories are important parts of activism. Especially symbols, with powerful symbols people will know what the meaning is along with the group of people.

Chapter 1:
• We should always remember the first rule of guerrilla warfare: know your terrain and use it to your advantage. If we are going to be effective as artistic activists, we need to operate on real terrain, not on basis of the democratic fantasy of the European coffee house. This means rational understanding that politics are not only rational. The truth about politics is that it is not about truth. Politics is about people's perceptions of the truth, their feelings about facts, and their visceral experiences of the world."

- This passage from chapter 1 goes into depth with the lining issues with politics. It's all about people's opinions and feelings trumping serious issues down. People want to live in their own bubble and refues to see any other point of views or experiences other then their own. People have to understand that most of the time these politicians we vote and agree with don't care about us, not will fix problems that's going on.

• Conversely, artistic activism is not simply activism that adds art as a window dressing. This is too often how art is urd by organizations and advocacy groups, who may ask an artist to design a poster or banner, or donate their talents and prestige to raise money or awareness for a shared cause. Artistic techniques may help to make a protest more palatable, or profit a cause, but without using creativity in designing tactics, strategies, or goals from square one, these organizations are squandering a valuable resource."

- This passage shows another issue with art activism which when corporations and companies that sees any political movement as a trend and for profit. For an example, when BLM was viral, companies had made post supporting the movement aslong with promoting their deals and products with colorful corporate art of fists and people applaud these companies for their "activism" when they're using an movement for profit. The movement it dies companies and people too forget about and move on to the next viral movement. People sees movements and causes as trends and forget that these movement are created for a reason.

-The "Silence=Death" campaign poster was created during the AIDS crisis by Avram Finkelstein, Brian Howard, Oliver Johnston, Charles Kreloff, Chris Lione and Jorge Socarrás while meeting up privately to talk about their experiences with AIDS- related losses. The poster purpose was a form of a call to action due to the silence of government figures, especially the silence of ex-president Ronald Regean. The poster uses the a pink triangle that was used by nazis to identify gay men. This poster uses art activism that are described in the book by using symbols and slogans to convey an powerful message.