Dividing Tasks for CoCo website, etc.

I have set up two shared documents in google docs
> participatory photo programs - link
> coco website notes - link

I've started them so please take a look. There should be a good amount of links, text, questions, etc by next class (April 9.)

Jobs to be assigned next class:
- website coordinator - architecture of site, checking links, etc.
- webdesigner for front page - will suggest a few design possibilities for front page once we have determined our logo
- global links and templates for pages - will work with front page designer and groups to determine color scheme, etc.
- mission statement, project history
- Bio page, collect, proof, alphabetize, etc.
- text for our submission to http://onceuponaschool.org/
- put together webpage for "NYC programs for teens"
- postcard invitation design (including pdf for email circulation)
- acknowledgments, support, and misc pages
- blog?

ICP

Teen Academy Scholarship Applications

826 Valencia Writing Project (thanks Melanie)

Dave Eggers TED speech: listen

[Dave Eggers’ first book, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Since then he’s written two more novels and launched an independent publishing house, which publishes books, a quarterly literary journal (McSweeney’s), a DVD-based review of short films (Wholpin), a monthly magazine (The Believer) and the Voice of Witness project. In 1998 he launched 826 Valencia, a San Francisco-based writing and tutoring lab for young people, which has since opened six more chapters across the United States.]

Links:
http://www.826valencia.org/
http://www.826nyc.org/
http://onceuponaschool.org/

New Project from Photo Voice

Check this out:

Nothing Special
Inclusion from the outside: a photographic exhibition by Disabled Young People

This is the group from London whose handbook we have in the library. Let's discuss at next class.

I recommend signing up for the Photo Voice newletter.

crazy.

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/129

Sites.

Mayor Bloomberg just released the first "art in schools" report. The press release can be found here: NYCGOV

Another interesting project I found is a film project called "Reel Lives." It's a youth empowerment through film project based out of Los Angeles. Remedee: Empowerment Through Storytelling.

My Sites

The sites I found are linked below... the rest of my post can be found under the photostory post as "Comments"

Hope everyone is having a good weekend.

Mother Jones
LoveBryan: Broken Branches Word Stories

Also, ShootNations (link below) is an annual youth photography competition and traveling exhibition. This year's image competition involves youth and climate change:

"This year’s competition will open on Thursday 1st May 2008. The theme for this year’s competition is ‘YOUNG PEOPLE IN A CHANGING CLIMATE’.

We want to see the environmental issues affecting young people all around the world. Help us build a global picture of the reality of climate change.

The competition is open to anyone aged 11 – 24 from anywhere in the world. Last year we had over 1500 entries from 85 countries around the world – help us make this year even bigger and better!"

"The aim of Shoot Nations is to engage young people of all backgrounds from around the world to question the choices that govern their own lives. Using photography as a tool, Shoot Nations will allow young people to creatively express their views using a tangible and accessible format. The Shoot Nations exhibition will tour major global cities and facilitate a series of youth workshops on Governance and photography with young people."

SHOOT NATIONS

More projects to look at

Ghana Youth Photography Project

SF Camerawork First Exposures Mentoring Program

We Feel Fine

We Feel Fine is an interactive map of the internet blog network based on the phrase "I feel" or "I am feeling." When a feeling is selected, other related feelings cluster around it. This interface is currently beyond our ability to utilize, but it presents visual new way of bringing diverse sources together and drawing connections between many individuals, even if in this case it is without their direct knowledge.

Thousand Kites

I was looking around the Appalshop website and came across the Thousand Kites project which is collecting stories about prisons and the criminal justice system in the United States. On Monday, March 24, Nicholas Szuberla, a representative from the project is coming to speak in George Stoney's film class at the Tisch Center for Social Media. Those of you in Tisch may already know about this, but I thought it sounded quite interesting.

http://www.thousandkites.org/index.php

Listening for the Lexicon of Cultural Shift

Hi everybody,

Here is an article that I found to be really forward thinking in that it's a compilation of theory and thought from outside of traditional academia. It deals mainly with art, the artist, and the role of both in social change in the community and the larger cultural landscape. Please feel free to skip around to different subjects once you get through the introduction.

Here is the article link

Dreaming With Cameras

I really think what David has done is amazing. I am inspired by an NYU graduate so close in age giving back to the community through the arts. I really like the Gallery page as an idea of how we can introduce our students on our individual web pages. I think we could all learn something from him and he may be a good speaker to come into our class.

Cai Guo-Qiang @ the Guggenheim

hey everyone-
i think this would be a good show to take our students to- we were planning on going to a museum this week. this artist really extends what we can call installation art, while making really beautiful things. it's pretty powerful because his work is amazingly informed.
http://guggenheim.org/exhibitions/exhibition_pages/cai_overview.html

i'm also taking my other class to ICP tomorrow- to the archive fever show- and having been to that already with a college class, i'm not confident that they will enjoy it, but i'll let everyone know about that.
http://www.icp.org/site/c.dnJGKJNsFqG/b.3639335/

Reality from the Barrio

You all should check out this project: Reality from the Barrio, "the photography and prose of native Santa Fe youth - from censorship to survival." I think it's pretty well designed and there's a good amount of information about its history, which is all quite interesting. Its layout and clarity may certainly be helpful with regards to our own project. And the story is really enjoyable too.

There was another community outreach project that I came across almost in tandem - Al Rowwad: Palestinian Children's Theater Center, "an Independent Center for artistic, cultural, and theatre training for children in Aida Camp trying to provide a "safe" and healthy environment to help children creativity and discharge of stress in the war conditions they are forced to live in." While the site could look much better, I think it's worth viewing as an example of a more elaborate use of the web as a creative space.

PhotoStory

PhotoStoryProject


Hey Guys-
Photo Story is a project that blends story telling and photography, in an attempt to 'personalize our common human experience.'
Its pretty self-explanatory, and worth checking out. Also an example of web-organization of a project somewhat similar to ours (photos, text, stories, etc).

Alfredo Jaar

Hello all,

In our discussion in class last week about the complex relationship between social action and social embarrassment, I was reminded of Alfredo Jaar, an artist that discussed this extensively during his talk to one of my classes last semester. Jaar is actually an architect, but also a filmmaker and photographer (he doesn't identify with one medium). One aspect of his work is something he calls "public interventions," which are projects that are initiated by and have heavy involvement from various communities. One which he titled "Lights in the City," involved the homeless population of Montreal in raising awareness of their situation through a different form of visual representation (they did not want to be photographed, so he placed a button in each shelter that would light up a central dome in the city each time it was pressed). He also did a participatory photography project of sorts (though it is unfortunately not mentioned on his Web site) in which he gave 1,000 disposable cameras to the citizens of Caracas, Venezuela, asked them to fill the cameras and to choose their favorite photo, and displayed them in the city's new museum (this was a museum that the citizens were opposed to for various reasons, and it was a way to allow them to conquer the space and to speak out about the conditions in their community). Though not always specific to photography, his work provides some interesting examples of some of the themes we've discussed.

His Web site: http://www.alfredojaar.net


Another site containing photo galleries of pictures taken by the homeless:

http://www.homelesscamera.com/index.html