Final Script

[Matt - Slide 1 catch fish]
At a lake, you would except to be able to do recreational lake activities like swimming, fishing, boating, camping, or picnicking. [Slide 2 - fish dinner]. There is nothing like catching a nice big fish, then go home and have a nice big fish dinner. [Slide 3 - OL] But here at Onondaga Lake, you can not do all these normal recreational lake activities like fishing because of years of pollution. The Industrial Age has left the lake unusable for many recreation activities.

[Slide 4 - OL with smoke stack]
From 1917 to 1970, many company such as the Solvay Process Company, Metropolitan Syracuse Wastewater Treatment Plant, Honeywell International Inc, AlliedSignal, and many others contributed to the lakes outstanding pollution levels. The waste disposal caused abnormal bacterial levels along with many pollutants plaguing the waters. In the 1940’s, Onondaga Lake was declared unsafe to swim and in 1970’s there was a ban on fishing.

[Slide 5 - fish contaminant diagram by Rachael]
As a result of the Industrial Age, most of the area around the lake is polluted in some way. In the surface water there is PCBs, mercury, chromium, lead, benzene, pesticides, and more. In the ground water there is hexochlorobenzene, benezen, PBCs, phenol, toluene, and many more. In the sediment there is benzene, aroclor, mercury, lead, and hexachlorobenzene. In the soil there is lead, mercury, and PCBs. And the fish are rich in mercury.

[Justine Slide 6 - types of fish]
There are many species of fish in Onondaga lake including: Smallmouth Bass, Northern Pike, White Perch, Yellow Perch, Blue Gill and many more. In 1986, the fishing policy was changed to catch and release (1). People are not allowed to take the fish home to eat because of the high concentration of mercury in the fish. When small fish eat mercury in their food, it goes into their tissue. When the larger fish eat these smaller fish or other organisms, most of the mercury from the small fish is then stored in the bodies of these larger fish (2).

[Slide 7 - mercury effects on body]
Mercury can have a very negative effect on the body. It is one of the most poisonous substances on earth. Factories, such as Honeywell and AlliedSignal, that were located on the shores of Onondaga Lake contributed to the 165,000 pounds of mercury that entered the lake from 1946 to 1970. People who eat fish with large amounts of mercury develop permanent kidney, nervous system, and brain damage. Brain nervous system damage symptoms may include personality changes like irritability or nervousness, changes in vision, tremors, deafness, uncontrollable muscle twitching, difficulties with memory, and loss of sensation. Kidney damage symptoms may include nausea, diarrhea, and severe ulcers (2).

[Rachael Slide 8 - guy with light bulb]
But we have come up with a solution for this unfortunate situation of catch and release of mercury filled fish. [Slide 9 - stand] It is called the Onondaga Lake Fish Trade In. We rent out pole, bait, and holding bucket to keep the fish from dieing. But, most importantly, you can trade in your mercury filled, practically poisonous fish for a healthy, edible fish of equal size. [Slide 10- sketch of stand] In the back of the stand, we will have a pool of healthy, mercury free fish. After trading fishes, we will put the Onondaga Lake fish back into the lake so we are still following the catch and release policy.

[Slide 10 - wrapping paper]
The fish will be wrapped in this paper with our logo on it. The logo is the Mad Hatter at a tea party with fish h'ors d'oeuvres. The slogan is “Our Fish Wont Make You Mad”. For those who don’t know the story behind the Mad Hatter this may seem a bit vague but here is the story: [Slide 10 - paper close up] During the 19th century, felt hats were made with a mercury solution. The hat makers, or hatters as they were called, got mercury poisoning. As we have discussed, mercury attacks the nervous system causing the hatters symptoms like uncontrollable muscle twitching and difficulties talking and thinking. They hatter seemed to have gone mad (3). This is where the Mad Hatter character comes from.

So if you were to eat the fish in Onondaga Lake you would show similar symptoms and seemed to have gone mad. So our slogan, “Our Fish Wont Make You Mad” incorporates the fact that eating the fish would make you show symptoms similar to madness just as the mad hatters did in the 19th century. All of this madness is due to mercury.

So in the end we hope that our project would let the people of Syracuse more fully enjoy what the lake has to offer. We also are pointing out the fact that it is ridiculous that a lake cannot be used for recreational activities that are available at most other lakes. We want to bring more awareness and attention to the excessive pollution problem.

(1) http://translation.turbulence.org/Works/superfund/index.php?offset=77
(2) http://atsdr.cdc.gov/to profiles/tp46-cl-b.pdf
(3) http://www.seagrant.uconn.edu/HATTER.HTML
Mad Hatter Picture from http://www.alice-in-wonderland.net/pictures/mad-hatter-pictures.html

Creative Brief

1. Our project is about informing the public about the quality of water of Onondaga Lake, while at the same time bringing a recreational activity back to masses.

2. To do so we will set up a stand where one can trade in a polluted fish they have caught at Onondaga Lake in return for a non-polluted fish or a fish meal of some kind to take home. By doing so, the excitement of being able to take home the “prized catch of the day” will be returned to the public. To inform the public, the warping paper of the non-polluted fish will contain facts regarding all of the pollutants contained in the lake itself.

3. Onondaga is a great place to perform such an activity because of the fact that it has so much history, is so open and natural, and it has the potential to be a great recreational environment.

4. “The Onondaga Lake area was the center of the Iroquois Confederacy prior to exploration and settlement by Europeans. The completion of the Erie Canal in the early 1800s led to increased settlement of the area,” (Onondaga Lake Partnership). It was also a popular tourist attraction, which was destroyed by the heavy pollution that came with the industrialization of the area during the late 19^th and 20^th centuries.

5. Being that our project deals with the fact that fishing in Onondaga Lake requires the catch and throw back approach towards fishing due to the high pollutants in the water, locating our project on the shores on the lake seems to be the only logical place for it.

6. Our project is more of an integration because we are adding a new dimension to catching fish, an activity already located at the Lake. By adding the ability to take the fish home, we are looking to further the fishing experience while shedding light on the polluted nature of the lake.

7. In order to produce our project, we will need to get permission from the municipalities in which the lake is located.

8. This project does not disrupt the surroundings of the lake. If anything, it should be considered a beneficial addition to the surrounding are because it will promote recreational activity and cleanup of the lake.

9. Damali Ayo and the Yes Men are two of the artists that inspired our project. Seeing how they interacted with the public while bringing attention to a greater cause is what we tried to accomplish as well.

10. The two simple goals for our project are informing the public about the pollutants contained in Onondaga Lake, while beneficially adding to the recreational activity of the area.

11. Success for this project would be if at least one person traded in a polluted fish for a non-polluted one. In doing so the informative wrapping paper would be read, informing someone who can potentially share his new found knowledge with others.

12. The target audience for our project will be any person who happens to visit Onondaga Lake for recreational purposes. Because they come to the lake to have a good time, our project will help them have a good time while at the same time it will inform them about the lake. At first our idea of trading in a fish for another fish might seem crazy to them, but by putting up info signs and handing out pamphlets, we can change their minds.

13. The ideal interaction with our audience would be if they traded in their fish for a non-polluted one, which would allow them to read the informative wrapping paper.

essay 3

Matt Conte

11/4/07

Panhandling for Reparations

Artist Damali Ayo has never been afraid to show off her so called, “Now Art.” Looking to generate social change and awareness about oppression that still lives in society, Ayo crafts artwork that puts viewers in the roles of participants. It is in this unique approach towards artwork that Ayo hopes to produce dialogue which brings to light key social problems. However, while most of Ayo’s pieces are cleverly conceived and produced, one piece of Ayo’s “Now Art” was extremely unsuccessful at furthering its social message. In this piece, titled, “Panhandling for Reparations,” Ayo tried unabashed to bring to light the tragedies that once tormented black society. Yet the only thing this piece of art achieved was creating more tension between whites and people of color.

“Panhandling for Reparations” was Damali Ayo’s attempt to inform the public about the reparations owed to African Americans as a result of slavery. To do so, Ayo created a video that consists of her dressed as a bum while asking white people to give reparations. In the words of the Associated Press, "It was panhandling, it was performance art, and it was a political statement about the legacy of slavery and reparations for black people," (Associated Press). In some scenes Ayo has her mouth taped so she cannot speak while she holds a sign that simply reads, “Reparations accepted here.” In another, she can be seen sitting on the steps of what appears to be an office building of some kind as a sign hangs on her chest that has the words, “200+ Years of Slavery,” written on it as she repeatedly begs white people to pay reparations. Although most of the video consists of her sparsely interacting with Caucasians, (excluding the announcement that she is accepting reparations) when Ayo does encounter a person of the African American race she becomes much more personable and conversational. She tells them that they are entitled to receive reparations because their ancestors were slaves and in some cases even gives them cash.

However, these extreme acts are way too radical and liberal to be considered successful ways of informing the public about a racially-fueled subject. In today’s society speaking of race relations has almost become a taboo subject. Thus, the social activism by Ayo in “Panhandling for Reparations is almost too much for most of the white people in the movie to handle. In the book, One Place After Another, Miwon Kwon describes social activists like Ayo by saying, “The liberal left is characterized as dangerously radical and oppressively dogmatic, either too sentimental and idealistic, thus irrational, or too corrupt and unreliable to offer any satisfactory solutions to deal with many of today's social problems," (Kwon 114). In other words, many social activists, like Ayo, are so passionate and stubborn regarding spreading their message to the masses that they appear ridiculous to the common man. Therefore, these passionate preachers cannot offer satisfactory solution to social problems. This idea of being too liberal and radical can be easily seen in the reparations movie. Most of the white people to whom Ayo is begging for repatriations take one look at her and continue to walk right past her in hopes of avoiding a confrontation based upon a racial subject. Others do pay the reparations, but one cannot be sure that they are paying because they feel as though they owe it to black society. It is very likely that they are paying for the simple fact that they do not want to appear as racists, which they would if they did not pay. Thus, the social message that Ayo is trying to convey comes off to the people in the movie and the viewers of the movie as not a message about slavery, but as a rekindled racial tension that results when Ayo approaches white people while begging for reparations.

With many prominent black people in society today, Ayo would have been much more successful at conveying her message if she were to appear more dignified in the video as opposed to appearing as a bum. Regardless of Ayo’s taboo subject matter, one is naturally inclined to stay away from those who appear to be bum-like beggars on the street. Therefore, by appearing as a panhandler, white people were even more likely to try to avoid her. Those that did avoid her for such a reason appeared in the video to be sort of racist because they were walking right by Ayo’s reparation bucket. If Ayo wanted to get their attention however, she could have ditched the signs and simple bucket in favor of a nice, informative stand. By creating a stand Ayo could have informed the public without being intrusive because people would have come up to her instead of her begging them. This stand would also have alleviate the tension that was created as a result of begging white individuals who did not want to be bothered with Ayo’s message. Instead, the stand would have attracted those who were really interested in the message of reparations.

On the other hand, according to Grant Kester, who wrote the book Conversation Pieces, “The motive behind avant-garde rhetoric of shock and disruption is complex: to make the viewer more sensitive and receptive to the natural world, other beings, and other forms of existence," (Kester 27).” Kester is saying that modern artists like Ayo rely on the aspect of shock in order to make the viewers of their pieces more emotionally sensitive and receptive towards their messages. This accounts for Ayo’s bum like appearance in the video because she was trying to shock the white people into becoming emotionally sensitive to the act of paying reparations. Also, “Many artists are using performance art to create a broader dialogue and bring more attention to social issues.” By performing, like Ayo was as a bum, she was attempting to bring attention to herself in order to make her message of reparations known. Yet when it comes to racial matters, shocking the public is not the best way to inform them because the subject matter can become so emotional. As a result, Ayo’s bum like appearance was unsuccessful at relaying her reparations message because many people avoided her because of her scruffy appearance and racially-fueled message. If she were to appear more dignified, people would have had less of a problem coming up to her to find out what she was all about.

Most devastating to the message about reparations that Ayo was trying to convey during her movie “Panhandling for Reparations” is the fact that the issue of slavery is extremely old and outdated in the eyes of today’s society. With the exception of history class, many people do not encounter the issue of slavery at all. For over three generations, slavery has been abolished in this country. As a result, the idea of having to pay reparations for slavery is a bit absurd. Those alive today are not responsible for what happened almost 200 years ago, and should not have to pay for what they did not take part in. Most people in fact, did not even have ancestors that lived in the United States during the eighteen hundreds. Many new immigrants came to America during the early 1900 hundreds, during a time when slavery was already abolished. Also, even if people’s ancestors lived back in the 1800’s how do we know that they were slave owners? For all we know they could have been part of the underground railroad that helped many slaves escape. On the flip side, if one is even the slightest percentage African American does that mean that they get reparations as well? For if they do, the mass hysteria to receive reparations would be overwhelming because people would rush to get their hands on the “free” money.

Also, unlike other pieces that Ayo created, “Panhandling for Reparations” comes across much more cynical and revenge filled than her other works. Take Ayo’s rent-a-negro website for example. This piece consists of a website created for a faux business that makes its money off of renting out black people. Although it contains an extremely important message regarding the racial interaction between white people and black people, the website conveys this message in an extremely satirical and humorous way. By claiming services such as "Will You Tell Them I'm Not a Racist?" and testimonials like, “I took her to the country club for lunch...all heads turned!” the website cleverly and unobtrusively gets its message across in an assimilation sort of way. Yet “Panhandling for Reparations” on the other hand, contains no humor whatsoever. Instead it consists of what appears to be an extremely saddened and intense Ayo who is begging annoyed white citizens for reparation payments. Out of this intrusive atmosphere, one gets a sense of great tension permeating from the encounter between Ayo and the white people. Because of this tension, the message Ayo is trying to send regarding the payment of reparations, takes a back seat to the apparent racial segregation Ayo is churning up by begging white people for reparations. Even when she speaks in the video, Ayo’s voice sounds almost revenge filled. It has a tone to it that seems very invasive, as if she is trying to make the white people feel as though they need to pay the reparations. In fact, after watching the video in its entirety the only real thing that will be taken away from it is the lingering question of “How does this help society?” The reason for this question is because of the fact that Ayo creates tension that does not need to created in her attempt to preach the message that white people should pay reparations to black people.

Damali Ayo's “Panhandling for Reparations” was unsuccessful at conveying the message she intended to preach. Instead, it was a prime example of socially stepping backwards because it created more angst between people of color and whites. Although Ayo’s so called, “Now Art” looks to generate social change and awareness about oppression that still lives in society, “Panhandling for Reparations” consisted of a tragically flawed approach towards spreading the message of reparations. Because of the fact that the subject deals with racial relations, which has become one of taboo lately, Ayo’s intrusive approach regarding spreading a social message only created tension that needed not to be created.

Essay 3 Outline

Intro Para.
Thesis- In Panhandling for Reparations, Ayo tried unabashed to bring to light the tragedies that once tormented black society. Yet the only things this piece of art achieved were creating more tension between whites and people of color and portraying blacks negatively.

Para. 1
Topic sentence- By pretending to be a bum on the street and begging white people for reparations, Ayo attempted to make today's white society aware of the atrocities black people faced during slavery.

Para. 2
Topic sentence- By looking at the reactions of most of the white people in the movie, the act of panhandling for reparations only brought about more tension between the two races.

Para. 3
Topic sentence- With many prominent black people in society today, Ayo would have been much more successful at conveying her message if she were to appear well dressed and dignified as opposed to appearing as a bum.

Para 4.
Topic sentence- Ayo's issue of reparations for slavery is quite outdated considering slavery was done away with more than three generations ago.

Conclusion
2nd Thesis- Damali Ayo's Panhandling for Reparations was unsuccessful at conveying the message she intended to preach. Instead, it was a prime example of socially stepping backwards because it created more angst between people of color and whites while doing nothing to further black society as a whole.

Quotes:
"The liberal left is characterized as dangerously radical and oppressively dogmatic, either too sentimental and idealistic, thus irrational, or too corrupt and unreliable to offer any satisfactory solutions to deal with many of today's social problems," (Kwon 114).

"The motive behind avant-garde rhetoric of shock and disruption is complex: to make the viewer more sensitive and receptive to the natural world, other beings, and other forms of existence," (Kester 27).

"It was panhandling, it was performance art, and it was a political statement about the legacy of slavery and reparations for black people," (Associated Press).

"However, many artists are using performance art to create a broader dialogue and bring more attention to social issues. It is an attempt to disrupt the monopolies on "legitimate" discussions and where they can take place," (Wiretap Magazine).

Essay 3

My topic for Essay 3 will be Damali Ayo's "Panhandling for Reparation."

1. How does this piece of art further African Americans in today's society?

2. Why is Damali dressed as a bum?

Resources:

1. Black Performance [Special issue]. Theatre Journal v. 57 no. 4 (December 2005) p. VIII-XVI, 571-714

2. Wiretap magazine, Kameelah Rasheed, October 3, 2007 "Panhandling for Reparations"

3. Associated press, Oct 11, 2007, "Group Panhandles for Slavery Reparations"

4. Seattle times, July 25, 2005, Florangela Davila, "Outspoken artist, author wants to make us think deeply about race"

"Culture in Action"

One of the projects contained in the "Culture in Action" exhibit was Haha and Flood. For this project its creators, "Formed a volunteer group called Flood, dedicated to the building to the building and maintenance of a hydroponic garden for the production and distribution of foods for AIDS patients," (Kwon 130). In other words, a volunteer group grew food for AIDS patients in a garden that was dependant on nutrient solutions rather than soil. Yet, to me this does not seem like a piece of art. It seems more like a good deed aimed at helping out the less fortunate. If one considers this to be a piece of art does that mean that all other groups looking to help the less fortunate are "works of art" as well? Are the many walks for various diseases art? Is the wearing of tiny, yellow, cancer bracelets on your wrist art? For me, this is not art. However, to the author of the book "One Place After Another", Miwon Kwon, this is art. It is an art form known as "Culture in Action"; art that is dependant on residents of societies for the creation of the artworks.

"Video and Resistance: Against Documentary"

"Video and Resistance: Against Documentary" begins by refering to photography as an invention that could unquestionable capture an event as fact, opposed to relying on memory to recall the event. From the invention of photograph many artists began trying to replicate both nature and society. When film came around the idea of replication was presented in the form of documentaries. However, documentaries were and still are a complete disaster because the facts get distorted in order to tell a compelling story (like in Nanook of the North pictured to the right). To counteract this problem these films should announce that the image as shown in the documentary are only a "version" of the subject matter.

Just like Susan Sontag, "Video and Resistance: Against Documentary" speaks of photographs as "traces" of events that actually occurred. Sontag goes on to say that, "At one end of the spectum, photogrpahs are objective data; at the other end, they are items of psycological science fiction." This fits right in to the "Video and Resistance: Against Documentary" article because in it the discussion of taking images in the form of a documentary and distorting them as a sort of fiction in order to tell a story is quite prevalent. One such example is the Nanook of the North documentary in which the filmmaker had Nanook hunt a walrus using harpoons although he always used a gun. This was done becuase it was more appealing to the telling of the story.