Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Action 1: Rebel Alliance Postcards... with Science!

I. The postcards I made to write my senators, per 10 Actions/100 Days
 I paisley-upped the Star Wars Rebel Alliance logo, and I cut the sentences from an old kids' Q&A book. 

"Almost any substance may be a catalyst."



 "What causes the molecules to dash about is heat. 
But there is motion even in a piece of ice!"
 
II. Welcome to Night Vale
 
I made these while listening to the funny, creepy podcast Welcome to Night Vale: [links to their youtube channel where you can listen to all 100+ news reports from the freaky town of Night Vale, where surreality is normal--the likable newscaster talks about, for instance, the color of the helicopters of the sheriff's secret police.

Not only good company while making art, but sadly apropos of the freaky place we find ourselves. Who knew we'd be defending science? Geez. What's happening, guys?

These are watercolor, so I'll have to send them in an envelope. My senators (Al Franken & Amy Klobuchar) are good, so I'll just say, "Thanks--keep it up!"

Speaking of fandom, the all-audio Welcome to Night Vale inspires some great art! It's like a prompt-generator.
by Starlock ^

The rest of Starlock's WTNV comix: 
14180.work/tagged/welcome+to+night+vale

(Just to note, I haven't deserted Star Trek, but it doesn't much lend itself to resistance art, since Kirk & Co. reflect creator Gene Roddenberry's idea of a near-utopian future--you can easily punch holes in it now, but they serve a [mostly, supposedly] benign interplanetary government. Actually, yeah, you can punch holes in it, but there are some solid ideas there too.)

III. Hello? The Internet exists now.

Here's a surprisingly clueless article from Vox: "The Women’s March shows how intertwined pop culture and politics have become" Jan 24, 2017. 

It starts fine: "Judging by the Women’s Marches that took place around the world on Saturday, January 21, the revolution will be pop cultural," and posts signs that use pop culture. (Like I did.)
But then it quotes some Expert:
“The consumer of popular culture is an isolated individual. There is nothing that binds the consumer with his or her fellow citizens other than the act of consumption."
? ? ?
Where's this guy from? The '70s? 
Oh! He's a philosophy professor. Maybe he doesn't even know about the internet & fandom.

Counter-Example: This fanartist on Tumblr sharing with others about making art while living with depression:
"I also always wanted to aggressively demystify the artistic myth as much as possible. It’s easy to assume artists got where they are because they figured out some sort of shortcut you didn’t. The opposite is often true. "
To the extent that the philosophy guy is right, the same thing could be said about politics:
Many people just "consume" politics, reading all the news sources, as if knowing what's going on is the same as being involved, as if watching sports were the same thing as playing sports.


I think the 10 Actions is smart to start with such a simple--and physical--action as sending a postcard, to encourage people to step across the threshold between observing and acting. 
Worked for me.

1 comment:

Frex said...

The rest of Starlock's WTNV comix:
http://14180.work/tagged/welcome+to+night+vale