What community-based art can do

Sophie Hope draws on her recent experience as an NHS patient to explore the histories, economics and significance of the bedpan in acute care settings.
Taking the title from a 1951 article in the Canadian Medical Journal, Sophie embarks on an enquiry into why, despite protestations over 70 years ago that “the use of a bedpan is a horrid, humiliating business” it remains in usage today.
With the help of Stuart Hall’s circuit of culture method Sophie spends time contemplating this embarrassing, awkward object from different angles.

According to the Preemptive Love website “Jason ‘Propaganda’ Petty works as a poet, political activist, husband, father, academic & emcee. With LA flowing through his veins & armed with a bold message, Propaganda has assembled a body of work that challenges and guides. Propaganda’s ideas stem from where he sits at the intersection. He sees how cultures cross and inspire one another, and can see the oneness of us all. Propaganda will cause you to nod your head, but more importantly, he will stretch your mind & heart.”
In 2021 HarperOne published his book Terraform: Building a Better World. This operates across many different boundaries as it includes academic argument, history lessons, poetry, polemic, rap, stories and traditional wisdom. It also enumerates and contextualises the Black Panthers’ Ten Points, which Propaganda ties back to his upbringing as the child of Black Panthers.
The webpage for this deliberately short episode at miaaw.net includes many more links and references than usual because Owen Kelly argues that, beyond a basic introduction to the book, you would learn much more from listening to, reading and watching Propaganda himself than from any second-hand description.
Please spend some time following up the references.

Sophie Hope returns to talk to Marc Herbst about cultural movements and their crossover with political movements, “post-migrant” studies, precarious research and cultural methods for working with possibly traumatized people.
Marc has recently carried out Always Coming Home: A precarious worker’s inquiry into “creative work” in refugee homes in Saxony, Germany that looks into the relationship between art workers and refugee children and the conditions of labouring together around German concepts for cultural integration.
Marc works as an independent artist, curator and co-editor of the Journal of Aesthetics & Protest.

This month Arlene Goldbard and François Mattarasso talk with Beverly Naidus about her life and work. Beverly’s art projects focus on environmental crises that create problems for humans. Her works address social issues such as racism, consumerism, body image, nuclear threats, cultural identity.
Beverly has written several artist books including One Size Does Not Fit All (1993) and What Kinda Name is That? (1996) which has been discussed by academics in the field including Paul Von Blum, Lucy R. Lippard, and reviewed by contemporary journals.

You may or may not have heard of Nick Bostrom, but he recently issued an sort-of-apology for something he wrote twenty years ago. His sort-of-apology did not receive the applause he might have expected, but instead elicited a number of sharp responses asking what purpose he thought his sort-of-apology served.
On the other hand, you may well have heard of Harry Styles and The Maroon 5, one of whom apologised recently and one of whom didn’t.
Using these and other examples Owen Kelly inquiries into the nature of apology in an age of instant opinion and social media. How can we tell a genuine apology from hollow PR, and why and when do we feel the need to insist on apologies, or to apologise ourselves?

According to Wikipedia, David Moscow “is an American actor, producer and activist. He is best known for his role as the young Josh Baskin in the 1988 film Big and as David in the 1992 musical film Newsies”. He managed Bernie Sanders media campaigns during the 2016 US election.
In this episode he talks with Owen Kelly about how he moved from the media campaign to writing the television series and book From Scratch: Adventures in Harvesting, Hunting, Fishing and Foraging on a Fragile Planet, and what he learned from the journeys he went on.
He discusses the relationship between tradition and community, and the importance of both in different cultures from Finland to Peru.

According to the Pixelache website, Pixelache in Helsinki “is a transdisciplinary platform for emerging art, design, research and activism. It is an association of artists, cultural producers, thinkers and activists involved in the creation of emerging cultural activities. Amongst our fields of interest are: experimental interaction and electronics, code-based art and culture, grassroot organising & networks, renewable energy production/use, participatory art, open-source cultures, bioarts and art-science culture, alternative economy cultures, politics and economics of media/technology, audiovisual culture, media literacy & ecology and engaging environmental issues”.
Owen Kelly has been a member of Pixelache for ten or more years and, in fact, the original idea to develop the series of podcasts that became Miaaw grew out of a Pixelache event in which, among many other things, Owen Kelly and Sophie Hope met for the third time and plotted a series of podcasts.
Pixelache ran a series of events and initiatives throughout 2022 to celebrate its 20th birthday, and in this month’s Common Practice Owen Kelly and Irina Mutt look at the 20th anniversary celebrations through the words of Antti Ahonen, one of the founding members.

In Episode 25 of A Culture of Possibility, François Matarasso and Arlene Goldbard talk with Jasmina Ibrahimovic, director of the Rotterdams Wijktheater and the International Community Arts Festival that it hosts.
Jasmina is also a dynamic force of nature who has amazing stories to tell about her journey from the former Yugoslavia to a refugee camp in the Netherlands, remarkably powerful community-based work, and much more. The festival will happen in March/April for the first time post-pandemic. Join us to learn all about it.
Moreover, we have plans to attend ICAF and (among other things) record a series of podcasts that we will broadcast almost live during the period of the festival. Stand by for news of this in the next two Miaaw Monthly newsletters.