OAS Node #1 [9/14]: Audrey Snyder + Joe Riley - Parallel Cases

During the summer of 2012 Audrey Snyder and Joe Riley traveled through landscapes of abandoned railroads in California and Oregon atop bicycles adapted to run on railroad tracks. The railbikes were devised as a way to re-activate the railroads now lying in disuse in both rural and metropolitan areas of these western states. On Friday, September 14 from 7-9, Occupational Art School Node 1 at Bat Haus will host Audrey and Joe to share their amazing story.

[PROJECT SUMMARY]:
The project first emerged about a year and a half ago when Joe and Audrey became interested in exploring the parallel histories of the American railroads and the demise of commercial printing, specifically its shift from handset type to mechanized linotype and eventually to digital printing. A nearly forgotten – perhaps even abandoned – point of convergence for the histories of the railroad and printing lies in the Tramp Printers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Tramp Printers were itinerant printers who hopped trains across America to set type in the publishing houses and newspapers that had sprung up alongside the railroads. Inspired by the legacy and tradition of the tramp printers they restored a 3” by 5” Kelsey Excelsior hand operated letterpress that they will use to publish a chronicle of their travel in the forgotten right-of-way. Through Parallel Cases, they endeavored to take up the methods and means of the tramp printers as a way to both collect and distribute their findings. 

PROJECT URL: http://parallelcases.tumblr.com/

FACEBOOK EVENT: http://www.facebook.com/events/414933371901352/415164485211574/

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OAS Node #1: #TITMOTA Program 1 [August 9]

Bold Jez & anarchivists during the presentation "Recording Future History" at OAS Node #1 pre-launch #TITMOTA at BAT HAUS[LINK to photoset on the Bat Haus Tumblr]

Last night the Occupational Art School celebrated the Anarchives and their inventor Bold Jez, as the ghost of Peter Cooper floated monumental over our shoulders, invisible at times in the light. Special guests DAF encouraged rubbings and created a typological street intervention. We shared cookies, Etherpad, avocados, reflections on pre-9/17 Arts & Culture stunts, chronicles of Magic Mountain, QR Codes, artifacts of occupation [+]. An electrified hula dancer performed, and a poet. Bushwick passed by, asked questions, and we tried to provide true answers. The event was free.

OAS Imaginary Movie: #TITMOTA 1 & 2

BY PAUL McLEAN

The Occupational Art School commences its program auspiciously with "Time in the Mind of the Anarchive," a conversation-starter in two [2X∞] parts, #TITMOTA 1+2. The opening festivities slated for Thursday, August 9 at 7PM at Bat Haus in Bushwick include a presentation by Bold Jez, a/k/a Jez Bold, a/k/a Jeremy, a/k/a Jez3PREZ, etc., entitled "Recording Future History: Activist archivism in Occupy Wall Street." The actuality of our expo is N+1-oriented, so come prepared. It's a hot summer in Brooklyn, and 11 months after the first interventions in and around Wall Street popped up, the promise of occupation is a multi-faceted proposition, if not an outright seduction, to be fulfilled. #TITMOTA is therefore a beginning that looks behind us, over our shoulders. The movement, if that what it is and was, or will be, has never been subject to the embedded command of prediction. Although OWS has exclaimed its advocacy for the 99%, no 99% has embraced it. In America, at least, popular change is a spectator sport. For the vast silent masses of Americans, quasi-citizens, Occupy could have as well been the Olympics. OWS has been much more real for the 1%, who are so close to complete victory, their sphincters clang shut at the first sign of popular dissent.

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NYC Guerrilla Drive-In with Illuminator

WHAT: a 99% Guerrilla Drive-In street party (with The Illuminator!)
WHY: GE is being a "tax hole"
WHEN: 8pm, Tuesday, April 17, Tax Day
WHERE: GE's most famous subsidiary, NBC
(meet up @ the rink @ Rockefeller Center)

GE is possibly the worst corporate tax-dodger in the country. The've made billions off the 99%. In New York alone, GE's tax dodging has cost us $297 million. Money that could go to educating our children, keeping our neighborhoods safe, providing healthcare for our seniors, or creating good jobs in our communities. Instead it's all disappeared into the GE Tax Hole.

While we pay our fair share and play by the rules, GE sends an army of tax lawyers and lobbyists to Washington to write its own rules.

Well... Not. Any. More.

On Tax Day, Tuesday April 17, the 99% is heading to GE's most famous subsidiary, NBC, located at 30 Rock, in the heart of Manhattan, with a little surprise for GE, and a little party for ourselves.

Our beautiful secret weapon, The Iluminator, will be there to shine a light on GE's misdeeds. And the Tax Dodgers will take the plaza in their high-styling baseball duds and "go to bat for the 1%."

Later this month thousands of 99%ers are planning to swarm GE's shareholder meeting in Detroit, and they're looking to us to set the tone. Let's not disappoint!

Come on out Tuesday night and lets close down GE's tax hole. Popcorn will be served.

WS2MS: Saturday [#m31] - The ILLUMINATOR & Elizabeth Blum!

Wall Street to Main Street programming for this weekend:

Saturday, March 31, 7:45 PM Mark Read’s shape-shifting van, The Illuminator lights up Catskill’s Main Street. This mobile activist tool converts to an Occupy Wall Street library and cinema with hot cocoa and popcorn served while viewing short documentaries and cartoons about the Occupy movement. Pocket park at 355 Main Street, Catskill.   Also, meet guest artist, Elizabeth Blum, activating her streaming light projection installation at 365 Main Street, 9 PM.

Concept sketch for Liz Blum's installation at WS2MS

• More info on WS2MS at greenearts.org
• More about Illuminator actions earlier this week!

The Illuminator debuts March 3, during Low Lives: Occupy!

[From Thomas]

IT LIVES! The Illuminator debuts Saturday [#m3] @LL:O!

Sketch by Isaac Moylan

Occupiers, 99%-ers, Fellow Insurgents,

The rumors are true.  Deep in the bowels of Brooklyn the plans were hatched, the forces gathered, the dream made real. The Illuminator has been given form and will ride out on its maiden voyage this Saturday night as part of Low Lives: Occupy!  Its mission:  To smash the myths of the information industry so that people might see for themselves what the 99% movement is fighting for.  The Illuminator is a tactical media tool and spectacularization machine, a beautiful and useful instrument to be used to grow and strengthen the movement in New York City and around the country.  We've got big plans.  Go to the website, follow us on the social media outlet of your choice, and stay tuned.

To catch us on Livestream on Saturday night at 7:28, 8:26, or 9:24pm, check in on the Low Lives channel: http://www.occupywithart.com/llo-live-channel/

To catch us live, follow us on one of those aforementioned outlets. 

See you in the Streets,

The Illuminator Team

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The Illuminator [Colored Version]

Sketch by Isaac Moylan

Debuting at Low Lives: Occupy, March 3!

Check back for details...

The Illuminator

Updated on Sunday, February 26, 2012 at 04:10PM by admin

(Concept sketch by Isaac Moylan)

[NOTE: Below is the BETA/Draft text for Mark Read's (99% Bat Signal) Illuminator project, which will debut at Low Lives: Occupy on March 3, 2012. The Illuminator promises to be one of the coolest things to emerge from OWS arts & culture, yet! Stay tuned for more exciting Illuminator updates from OwA. We will be creating a special section for Mark on our site soon.]

The Illuminator
Description and Mission Statement
By Mark Read

I am currently overseeing the design, fabrication, and deployment of The Illuminator, a mobile video projection system and library/info shop.  Its primary function will be to serve as an outreach tool for Occupy Wall Street and the #occupy movement as a whole.  I hope to shortly form an ad-hoc group comprised of representatives from various working groups that will ultimately decide how to use this powerful new tool.  Working groups to be initially included on that Ad-Hoc committee will be Arts and Culture, Movement Building, Outreach, The People’s Library, Media, and PR.  If other working groups feel they should be included they should let me know.

In design terms, The Illuminator is a modified Ford Econoline cargo van in which a video projector, soundsystem, and magazine racks have been installed.  The projector and speakers rise out of the roof on a periscoping platform.  The side doors of the van open up to create an infoshop alcove, with shelves or racks, mounted on the doors, and a bookshelf between the doors inside the van bolted to the van floor.  The exterior of the van is un-modified so as to allow it to travel in “stealth mode.” When desired, large magnetic decals of the "99% bat signal" (white circle with 99% in the middle) are placed on the exterior of the van to announce its presence, and a banner can be attached to the outside.  The Illuminator is, in essence, a shapeshifter and a transformer of public space.  When it parks it becomes (1) a cinema, and (2) a library/infoshop.  
 
Illuminator Cinema:  The hatch opens, and a platform with a projector and speakers is raised.  Instantly, a cinema setting is created.

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