Acts of Resistance Fall 2025: Memes as Resistance

DUE WEDNESDAY 11/26

READ: Chapter 8 Ethics and Chapter 9 Utopia, from our textbook, The Art of Activism: Your All-Purpose Guide to Making the Impossible Possible by Steve Duncombe and Steve Lambert
2 quotes and a short response for each chapter. Add the quotes and responses to your DRAFT project post

DRAFT PROJECT POST
Read the full project description below. Build up on your project idea and begin to flush out the project. What are you making? Research your ideas and TEST your plans. Research, plan and begin to implement your final project. Read carefully through the assignment below and begin to outline your written portion. List your research, inspiration projects and quotes on the draft post. List your research (thus far) in your DRAFT post. Read through the written portion assignment below carefully and be sure you are addressing these questions in your project. Post a DRAFT of your final written portion and any work you have done as tests, research and things you are building/making for the intervention. This is a work in progress or a detailed plan of what will be implemented as your final project.

Write up a 2 paragraph+ description or plan for your project. Include TESTS and materials you are using for the project. Be sure to include: symbols, research about your issue, historic connections, inspiration from performance art examples, the location and message of your intervention performance.
++Be sure to have your project idea/draft on the blog before class.

>>> INTERVENTION FINAL PROJECT DUE 12/3 on the blog <<<<

presentations will begin 12/3 and continue on 12/17 (reading day on 12/10)

PERFORMANCE INTERVENTION
PROJECT Drawing on all of the readings, projects, methods and issues we have discussed in class, design a performance art activism project <intervention> that addresses a socio-political topic you have chosen to focus on. These projects can be elaborations or extensions of your midterm interventions but must be worthy of a FINAL presentation! Your art and activism projects must use the methods and ideas we learned in class of engaging an audience to raise awareness about your chosen topic. Your projects must be performed in the world outside of our class in some way and be available to a larger audience. Your project can use any medium or method to augment the performance: photography, video, painting, zine, interactive installation, podcast, music, event, a workshop or any other forms we have discussed. Find artists from our readings (or elsewhere) that help inspire your project and include them in your research. Revisit our class textbooks to push your project.

WRITTEN POST project description on blog ~600 words, 4 quotes from the class readings, ~3 inspirational artists/projects and 5 resources (articles, books, essays, etc.) that informed the project.

Create a written POST for your final project on the class blog that explains your project and includes a link (embedded) to the project. Prepare a succinct and exciting summary of the project that is clear and makes the class want to look further at your project and potentially share the project, promote it and even get involved in it. You must connect your project to the class readings and include 3 quotes from the class readings with citations. Explain how these ideas connect to or inspired your project.

In your writing summary please be sure to answer these questions:
*What is your project? Why you have chosen this topic and form of outreach?
*What is your message for the audience?
*How did you reach an audience (ie "publish" the project)? How did the audience engage with the project? What feedback have you received?
*How does this project fit into your professional aspirations and your portfolio?
*What artists or other projects have influenced or inspired your own project? List 4+ artists that connect with your project with brief explanations of why they connect or inspired your own project.
*What research has helped you inform this project? List 5+ resources that informed or inspired your project in a resource list at the end of your project summary.

PRESENTATION in person in class Be prepared to present your projects to the class in ~3 minute presentations in the classroom VA B25. You will use the post you create to present to the class. You can also bring props and copies of your project to share with the students in class - if applicable. You can also re-create your performance in front of the class as your presentation!

YOU MUST post several images (screen shots etc) and/or video on the project post. You can show these images as part of your presentation. Please include a link to your project if online, be sure it is public so it can be accessed from the blog. For those who create videos, you can choose what section of videos you will play (if longer than 3 minutes) to try to stick to the 3min time limit. You may choose to create a short slide presentation to better explain your project during your presentation. These should be online and linked from the final project post (make sure you share them with prof). Remember you are ”pitching” the project to the class. Prepare a clear and exciting presentation. These must be edited and functioning before class begins. Practice what you will say!
GO BIG! Get outside your comfort zone. Do the research. Be creative. Be bold. Think about what you are passionate about. Make it connect to your goals. Make it for you! Make it awesome!

______________________

DUE WEDNESDAY 11/19

BE SURE to complete the PERFORMANCE ART ACTIVISM POST below. Add your quotes from chapter 6 to your post.

READING: Chapter 6 PERSUASION, from The Art of Activism, Your All-Purpose Guide to Making the Impossible Possible by Steve Duncombe and Steve Lambert

2 quotes and short response for each quote

"POP" QUIZ in class Be ready to answer a few questions based on Chapters 4, 5 and 6 from our textbook. Please review these chapters and know the key terms and themes.

SHARE performance ideas from your posts. I was so excited to see many of your performance ideas in your assignments. We will be breaking off into groups and sharing these ideas with each other. We will perform some of these and give feedback as we prepare for our final presentations.

_________________________

DUE WEDNESDAY 11/12

READING: Chapter 5 COGNITION, from The Art of Activism, Your All-Purpose Guide to Making the Impossible Possible by Steve Duncombe and Steve Lambert

2 quotes and short response for each quote

PERFORMANCE ART ACTIVISM POST

Using the small instruction pieces we wrote and performed in class and the readings and videos for homework below, write a short performance art piece. Note some of the performances we watched in the videos and performances you have seen or read about. Then imagine and design a performance art piece of your own. Think about the audience, the setting and the message of your performance. Describe it in detail and write a short script or instructions for the performance. How might an audience participate? Sketch or include images if these can be helpful. Post your performance instructions and description to the blog with the quotes from the reading assignment for Chapter 5.

_____________________________

DUE WEDNESDAY 11/5 ***GO VOTE ON NOV 4th (or early voting by 11/2)

Chapter 3 HISTORY and Chapter 4 CULTURE, from The Art of Activism, Your All-Purpose Guide to Making the Impossible Possible by Steve Duncombe and Steve Lambert

2 quotes for each chapter and short response for each quote

Hispanic Executive | Interview with Shaun Leonardo - Performance, Pedagogy, and Philosophy

https://hispanicexecutive.com/shaun-leonardo/
2 quotes and a short response to each quote

WATCH:

Art as Activism: Diana Ocholla

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1iPX3eO3EA&ab_channel=OpenGlobalRights

Performance, Ethos and everyday activism| Ladies of Midnight Blue

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BfScWQIjwA&ab_channel=TEDxTalks

Shaun Leonardo | art21
https://art21.org/watch/new-york-close-up/shaun-leonardo-the-freedom-to-move/

An Introduction to Performance Art | TateShots

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z-YZ3A4mdk&t=2s

The Case For Performance Art PBS Art Assignment https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmMTKdUAokM

Yoko Ono

Who is Yoko Ono? | PBS Art Assignment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoU0E_ab36Q

Cut Piece performance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Sa1y-PAAzE

__________________________

DUE WEDNESDAY 10/22

MIDTERM INTERVENTION 1: In Real Life

Inspired by our readings from the Art and Activism textbook and the readings on art, photography and memes as well as the videos linked each week, think about a way that you can insert or use activism and art in your own communities that intersect with your professional journey. Choose an issue that you have been activated to participate in raising awareness. Look to current events for a clear example of something that needs to change. Choose something that you feel particularly passionate and knowledgable about. Think about a community you would like to create the intervention to support or motivate. Our own NJCU campus is a good start and should be considered as a good location for your intervention but you can create your intervention anywhere. Be sure to have research backing up your messages. What information do you want to share. Find other art projects that might help address your issue or use a strategy that you may want to use as well. This is part of your research.

Create an interactive installation, a physical poster(s) or painting, a wearable object, a series of flyers, a zine or a sculpture that acts as protest art. Use this object to engage in conversation/dialogue with others. Choose a place or an audience in which to SHARE your project. This is your intervention. Place your project in a public place, carry it as a sign of resistance and awareness, put it on your car, draw on the sidewalk, put it outside for others to read, etc. Record your intervention in a series of photos or in a video. Have a clear message and idea for how it will be seen by others. The project can also be interactive - as in an activity others can do with you or with your project. Test out your strategy. Show your results in the video/photos.

POST YOUR INTERVENTION ON THE BLOG:

-Take good video or images of your intervention and post it on the blog with a brief explanation of the project, your intentions and what happened when you engaged your audience (feedback).

-Write your full explanation of your project, your research and the message of your project. Connect your project to at least two art intervention or art projects you read about or found in your research. Use the readings to help you connect your intervention to the history of protest. Explain how your project works as an intervention. Include at least two quotes from the readings. You must include at least TWO images of your intervention in public.

~400+ words, 2+ quotes (with citation), 3+ images and/or video.

-Create a short (5 slides/3minutes!) presentation explaining your project that you will use to present your project to the class. Be sure to explain how you shared it as an intervention. Include your video/image documentation. You must include a summary of your project description and your research. Include a link to your presentation on the blog below your project post.

__________________________

DUE WEDNESDAY 10/15

READINGS:

No new readings. Use the readings for last week to help complete the assignment below.

ATOMIC COWBOY / TAKE IT HOME exhibition response (10%)

Please visit the DOUBLE exhibition at Visual Arts Gallery

Atomic Cowboy

and

Take it Home, For (_) Shall Not Repeat the Error

Please post both parts of the gallery response essay assignment to the blog with your images.

Part 1 - Curatorial Activism defined
In a short essay use the readings in the class thus far to help form a response and analysis of the gallery exhibition and curatorial activism. Using the recent class readings: This Is What I Know About Art, by Kimberly Drew and the essay Towards Curatorial Activism by Dr. Maura Reilly answer the following questions: What are the main themes of the exhibition? Briefly describe the exhibition(s) and the works overall. Do you think the themes and messages of the work qualify as activist? How might the curator be seen as activist? How do these readings connect to the themes and issues in the exhibition(s) you visited? How can authors, historians and curators also be activist? Use two quotes or more from your readings in your answer. Cite the quotes (author, page) from the readings in your essay.

Part 2 - Art Examples
Choose two specific works in the exhibition that you feel can be seen as art activism. Describe the two artworks -be sure to include the details about the artist, title, medium and how these works can be seen as activist. What messages can these works be conveying that connect to our discussions thus far? Include at least two IMAGES of the works you selected in your essay.

Edit your work and be sure to include the sources at the bottom of your essay in a short works cited.

~500 words
3+ images with captions and 2+ quotes from class readings
Citation + works cited

Exhibition information:

PDF of ATOMIC COWBOY brochure

PDF of TAKE IT HOME brochure

Please see additional exhibition information on the NJCU GALLERIES webpage:

https://www.njcu.edu/community/center-arts/galleries

and the NJCU GALLERIES Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/njcugalleries/

MIDTERM PROJECT PROPOSAL

++Add an IMAGE or images of the artwork you chose and of any other sketches or inspiration for your project to your project proposal post.

_________________________

DUE WEDNESDAY 10/8

READ: Towards a Curatorial Activism | Dr. Maura Reilly
https://www.maurareilly.com/pdf/essays/CIAFessay.pdf
2 quotes and short response

What is Curatorial Activism? by Dr. Maura Reilly | ArtNews
https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/what-is-curatorial-activism-9271/
2 quotes and short response

(DRAFT) MIDTERM PROJECT PROPOSAL

Inspired by the artwork you selected for your post last week AND the idea you selected for a tumblr blog that you would like to research and write, THINK about an art intervention that you will create for your midterm project. Your midterm intervention must be inspired by the readings and projects we have reviewed so far and should take the form of an object (not just online). It can be a sculpture or installation, an interactive object or artwork, a zine that will be made into many copies, it can be a series of posters or flyers, a video or piece of music. Please use the coursework so far to inspire you but you must also do additional research!

For your draft proposal write down 1-3 ideas that you would like to explore for your midterm. The artwork you chose last week must inspire your brainstorm in some way. Explain as many details as possible for each idea. What is the message of the artwork, how will the audience see or interact with it, how will they be activated to understand the message?

Full details about your midterm will be posted next week. BRAINSTORM IDEAS! We will share these ideas in class.

+POST YOUR QUOTES FROM THE READINGS IN YOUR POST BELOW YOUR PROPOSAL.

++Add an IMAGE or images of the artwork you chose and of any other sketches or inspiration for your project.

________________________

DUE WEDNESDAY 10/1

READ:

The entire book This is What I Know About Art by Kimberly Drew

(available on Biblio in Blackboard)

Look through Kimberly Drew's blog: https://blackcontemporaryart.tumblr.com/

THIS IS WHAT I KNOW ABOUT ART POST

Choose 3 quotes from the book, This is What I Know About Art, and write a short response for each quote. Choose one artwork that you found either from reading the book or from Kimberly Drew's Tumblr blog (linked above) and explain why this artwork is interesting to you. Post an image of the artwork, your quotes and responses to the blog.

In one last step, propose a tumblr of your own that you would like to create to help yourself do research or share information with others.

WATCH:

NOW THIS | How Kimberly Drew Amplifies the Work of Black Artists
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7f0eug

Coffee With Kimberly Drew

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nm6AU71F9oQ

LISTEN (optional):

Kimberly Drew: Art and Activism | LGBTQ&A 30min

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrKmyKe8Otw

__________________________

DUE WEDNESDAY 9/24

WHAT IS ART ACTIVISM? post

Part 1- Activism in community. List the 3 examples of activism in your community we discussed in class. You can choose what you define as your community. (your university, your neighborhood, town, state.)

Part 2 - Defining art activism. What is Art Activism? Using the Chapter 1 reading from The Art of Activism textbook and the readings below, answer this question with a brief response. You can use quotes from the chapter and from the readings below to help answer the question.

Choose one artwork from the readings (textbook or the articles below). Research the artwork and explain who, what and why the work is an example of art activism. Include an image and information about this artwork in your short response on the blog.

+++ Add your quotes from the readings below to the blog post.

READINGS:
1. WHY ARTISTIC ACTIVISM? | Center for Artistic Activism
https://c4aa.org/2018/04/why-artistic-activism
2 quotes and short response

2. An Introduction to Activist Art | The Collector | by Stefanie Graf
https://www.thecollector.com/introduction-to-activist-art/
2 quotes and short response

3. The 25 Most Influential Works of American Protest Art Since World War II
The New York Times Style Magazine
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/15/t-magazine/most-influential-protest-art.html
2 quotes and short response

*PLEASE GET ACCESS TO A DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION FOR NYTIMES (either free/student access or $1 a week) if you REALLY cannot access the NYTimes article above please read this one below instead.

(alternative for article #3)
Artists Using Their Creativity to Drive Activism | Global Citizen
https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/artists-activists-using-creativity-for-change/
2 quotes and short response

WATCH:
Cases for Political Art | The Art Assignment | PBS Digital Studios
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfXad3HVox4&list=RDCMUCmQThz1OLYt8mb2PU540LOA&start_radio=1&rv=RfXad3HVox4&t=30

What Do Art and Activism Have in Common? | Felicia Henry, Behind the Walls | TEDx
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaTNC66txFw&ab_channel=TEDxTalks

____________________

DUE WEDNESDAY 9/17

>>Reminder for 9/17 to take a break at 11:30am and wrap at 12:30pm! :)

READING DUE: Chapter 1 from our textbook, The Art of Activism: Your All-Purpose Guide to Making the Impossible Possible by Steve Duncombe and Steve Lambert
2quotes and a short response

MEME AS RESISTANCE POST
How can memes act as a form of resistance and advocacy? Use the articles from last week to create a response to this question using the memes that you made in class with your group. Consider the memes that you made together, and then create one meme you made on your own to help illustrate ways that memes can express complaints, calls to action and advocacy for real political change. Express how these short critiques might make way for larger action and awareness. Use this short post to make an argument for memes as a form or part of resistance.

1- How can memes act as a form of resistance and advocacy? Post the 1 meme YOU MADE with a short description of your meme and 1-2 paragraphs explaining how memes can function as part of protest and resistance. You can use your quotes and responses to the articles in your answer.

2- What is patriarchy? Below your meme post a definition of patriarchy and a definition of activism. Explain how systems of power act on our lives and rights.

3- Post your 2 quotes and short response from the Chapter 1 reading.

___________________________

DUE WEDNESDAY 9/10

READINGS DUE: Choose 2 quotes from each reading below (6 quotes total for the three readings) and write a short reaction/response to each quote

1- Understanding Patriarchy by bell hooks (linked below and available as a pdf on Blackboard)

https://archive.org/details/UnderstandingPatriarchy

2 quotes and short response

2- What Memes Owe to Art History | Artsy https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-memes-owe-art-history

2 quotes and short response

3- Memes Are Our Generation's Protest Art | VICE https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/mbzxa3/memes-are-our-generations-protest-art

2 quotes and short response

SELF INTRODUCTION POST (on the blog)

Part 1 Introduce yourself: Who are you? Are you an activist? Share a short description of yourself, your ambitions, and your artistic adventures. Post it to the blog. Be sure to share art, design, social justice, political causes and creative practices that you may already be exploring. Include one selfie or other photograph (you made) that helps introduce you.

Part 2 Add the 6 quotes and responses from the assigned readings to your blog post below your introduction.

WATCH:

Art As Activism: Statements of Democracy | Untold History

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6jDZaREk74&ab_channel=UntoldHistory

Guerrilla Girls – 'You Have to Question What You See' | Artist Interview | TateShots

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uKg7hb2yoo

Complain creatively. | The Guerrilla Girls | The Art Assignment | PBS Digital Studios https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5i5cEhd6Vt8

GET THE BOOKS *They are available in Biblio in BB as ebooks*

The Art of Activism, Your All-Purpose Guide to Making the Impossible Possible by Steve Duncombe and Steve Lambert, OR Books, New York 2021

This Is What I Know About Art by Kimberly Drew, Penguin Workshop, New York 2020

_____________________

RESOURCES/LINKS

Actipedia Creative tactics that help bring about change.

https://actipedia.org

Art 21 short art profiles

https://art21.org/watch/

Center for Artistic Activism C4AA helps people use their creativity and culture to effect power.

https://c4aa.org

Guerrilla Girls anonymous artist activists
https://www.guerrillagirls.com

_________________________

LINK TO SYLLABUS

The course material and discussions can often be provocative and challenging. We must therefore be careful to be respectful of each other and of our viewpoints.

Discussion guidelines We must come to class prepared and ready to discuss the readings. Please keep discussions focused on the readings and class materials and keep examples rlevant and appropriate. If you have not done the readings you are not to participate in the discussion.

Acts of Resistance Fall 2025

Wednesday, September 17, 2025

Memes as Resistance - Dio Stanfill-Evans

No comments:

Post a Comment

Final Intervention Project