DIY: 2013 – Lucky Pierre ‘I Hate America! (I Love America)’

London

RETURN TO ALL PROJECTS

Lucky Pierre
I Hate America! (I Love America)
With Platform
An intensive workshop to explore the joining of performance/live art with social practice using collaboration, technology and activism to create a community-based 12 hour event.

Project Summary:
Everyone hates America. Everyone loves America. Or everyone both loves and hates America. America has caused wars, economic destruction, and environmental disaster. America has preserved democracy, generously given to others, elected a black president, come to the aid of Britain. In this project, we will create a forum for non-American presenters to research and dissect, explore, discuss, protest, celebrate, and/or argue about America.

With the American project as our subject matter – and using tools developed by Lucky Pierre – the core workshop group will research, discuss, and problematize the use of aesthetic techniques, activism, protest, and training/education to address complex issues through hybrid forms. We will explore ideas of collaboration, authorship, ownership, and moving from research to action – while using technology for organizing, outreach and distribution. This collaborative project will include monthly readings, presentations, and on-line meetings throughout the summer, a 2-day workshop in late August, and 3 evenings of informal work the week before the culminating event on Saturday, November 30th.

The culminating event, I Hate America! (I Love America), will be a 12-hour event – created, curated, performed, and organized by the core workshop group (including individual presentations/performances by core group members). The event will take place simultaneously in London and Chicago with a live video hook-up from London to Chicago. Each presentation in London will be followed by a response/discussion led by an American in Chicago. The Londoners will tell the Chicagoans what they think about America. The Chicagoans will respond. Former empire to crumbling empire, we will talk. Community may or may not be built. Action will be attempted.

Dates, times and location(s):

Workshop: Saturday 24 to Sunday 25 August, from 10am to 5pm. Location tbc

3 evenings of informal work the week before the culminating event on Saturday 30 November, from 9am to 9pm. Location tbc.

Application procedure:
Participation is open to all levels of experience – anyone with an interest in exploring collaborative genres, performance, technology, research and activism. Please be aware that due to the collaborative nature of this project, a high degree of commitment from participants is necessary (but we promise it will be fun).

• Applicants should send work samples (pdf or website link)
• One-paragraph bio
• Answers the following questions: 
o 1) Who is Margaret Thatcher?
o 2) Who is Ronald Reagan?
o 3) What event signalled the end of the American century?

This is NOT a test! Be as general, specific, abstract, or creative as you want. Your answers will be used to help generate content for the workshop. Thank you.

Please send your applications to [email protected] (cc’d to [email protected]) by Sunday 9 June. 

The artists: 
Lucky Pierre, based in Chicago, is a collaborative group working in performance, writing, activism, and visual forms. Lucky Pierre creates structures for engagement with various publics to explore complex issues and ideas (political, aesthetic, social) in ways that accommodate a wide range of experience, styles and approaches. Lucky Pierre has recently completed “What We Don’t Talk About: 13-hour Conversation on the War in Afghanistan” in which we invited artists, scholars, activists, friends, and strangers to work with us to create a conversation about America’s longest war; and “America/n” a 12-hour piece about the US Constitution presented on the day of the US presidential election 2012 and followed by a publication “America/n (the book)” released on presidential inauguration day 2013. Ongoing projects include “Final Meals” in which we prepare and videotape volunteers eating the final meal of a Texas death row inmate, and “Actions for Chicago Torture Justice,” in which we work with volunteers to create performative actions addressing the history of police torture in Chicago and the use of torture worldwide. Lucky Pierre’s work has been presented recently in Chicago, New York, London, Budapest, Portland and Hamburg.

Contact information:
Michael Thomas on [email protected]

This DIY project is supported by Platform