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အတိုချုံးပြောရရင်
With a clever image, a high-powered projector, and a little moxie, you can literally shine a spotlight on your opposition.
Guerrilla projection, pioneered by artists and advertisers, has been increasingly embraced by activists in recent years as a new medium for delivering messages. The advantages are obvious: With a single high-powered projector, you can turn the side of a building into a huge advertisement for your cause, plastering your message on a spot that would otherwise be out of reach. It’s legal, relatively cheap, and far less risky than, say, trespassing onto a building’s roof to hang a banner off of it. Most importantly, it’s visually powerful: You can literally shine a light on the opposition.
Seeing our own handwriting scrawled across a corporate headquarters upends the power dynamic.
Projections can be low-fi or hi-fi; mobile or stable. Two jerry-riggers can do one out of the back of their car to capture a quick hit-and-run photo op, or a professional VJ can project from a more stable plug-in location to entertain a crowd of thousands (see: STORY: 99% Bat Signal). They’re also a perfect tactic for rebranding your target. Greenpeace projected a huge cartoon “KABLOOM” onto the side of a nuclear reactor to remind people how dangerous nuclear power can be, and “We have nuclear weapons on board” onto a nuclear-equipped aircraft carrier that was refusing to acknowledge it. In 1993, the Academy Award-winning documentary, “Deadly Deception,” was projected directly onto the San Francisco TV station that was refusing to air it, while hundreds watched, eating popcorn. Under pressure, the station relented and aired the film.
Much of the power of projections is in the medium itself. Unlike hanging a banner, a projection can move and change, and even be interactive. With a medium so versatile, why limit yourself to static slogans? On the eve of the Great American Smokeout in 1994, INFACT hit the Philip Morris building in New York with a running count of the number of children addicted to cigarettes. With simple online tools, your projection can become interactive and crowd-sourced. Supporters on the street — or a continent away — can text, tweet, or email in their own messages to be projected in real time. With a laser pointer, people on the street can write messages to others inside a building, whether they’re friends and family in jail or a CEO in his corner office.
Projections help us upend the power dynamic. The buildings of the powerful can feel so big and our voices and protest signs so small. But when a huge “99%” bat signal lights up the night sky, or you see your own handwriting scrawled across a corporate headquarters in real time, it begins to level the playing field. Small voices are writ large.
Originally published in Beautiful Trouble.
အဓိကအခြေခံမူ
When designing your action, let your imagination range far and wide. Consider, in particular, its site-specific nature, and look for ways the medium itself can highlight your message. Consider all the artful elements at work in the 2008 Free Tibet projection on the Chinese consulate in New York: The persecuted Tibetan activist was at that moment literally in hiding a world away, yet was able to speak directly to — and literally on — a massive institution that was complicit in his repression. His handwriting splaying across the marble facade in real time was at once defiant and intimate. His private act of dissent had become not just public but beautiful.
အပြင်လောက ဥပမာများ
Using mobile projection units, activists projected “99%” and “Occupy Together” onto New York City buildings during street protests in 2011.
Peruvian dissidents use video projections in urban spaces to counter campaigning propaganda typical of the Fujimori regime.