Public spaces and hybrid media

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301

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find out now

mili

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Title : we’r witty not cute / RTI : find out now Course: Public Spaces and Hybrid Media Facilitator: Zeenat Hasan

RTI 29/11/2010

find out now

Contents Course description Statement of intent

How the group project unfolded Phase II The soundscape Phase III My assumption Insights about myself Repeating it all What others did Specific questions My reflections Conclusion & Acknowledgements

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PSHM individual project review

Course description Course description according to me Being my first experience of a public space course I had no pre-conceived notions to colour my view of this one, but that being said it took me a while longer to fully understand the intentions of the course. this happened as the course unfolded.

In the beginning I was a little caught up in a sea of information, and the larger picture of the balance or the relationship between the RTI as a state initiated tool and activist organizations that make sure it function was neglected. While I knew what each was and did individually, I did not immediately facilitate a working connection between the two and the public in general. But about ten days into the course post reading seminars with Linda and Kristoffer and talks with Zeenat and the start of our group projects things became clearer for me.

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Section 2

Locating the the project within the course I worked with Mili Sethia (SAN 301) for the group project, locating it within the course is easily done as it was heavily dependent on resources and concepts provided by the course, such as Hactivism and DIY citizenship concepts that I personally was only vaguely familiar with before this course.

It also referred to texts such as Zielensky, Detournement, The theoretical implication of the RTI etc. and made assumptions based on them for creating/conceptualising and facilitating our interventions.

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Statement of intent.

Intention of the project according to me.

According to me the intent of the group project evolved over time to take shape in the three lines stated below: To create an awareness about the RTI. - to let people know they have right to access to information and they can exercise this right by filing an RTI. Using the namma metro project to do this.

- deciding to use an issue to convey the RTI to the public.

To tap the altruistic part of a person and in doing so making them participative / active citizens.

- this for me refers to getting a response in a public space from the people, activating their citizenship through responding to media, doing something that is not their regular pattern or habit‌this does not necessarily refer to people filing an RTI.

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Section 3

Individual motivation.

My motivation in being a part of this project is a strong interest in wanting to know how people react/ respond to media in its various forms. experimenting with or manipulating media to convey the message to the public.

Knowing how a public space influences the media (form and message) and the public (reaction).

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PSHM individual project review

How the group project unfolded Deciding what we wanted to say and who we wanted to say it to Our initial discussions were zeroing in on what the public or ‘a public’ is, deciding who to communicate to and using media to cause this connection between the RTI/Civil networks/Publics.

We decide to go with the urban youth as our target, we felt they had access to all the information and technology and all they needed was a push in the right direction to be made aware and participative citizens.

Acting on that In keeping with this we implemented Phase I and II of our project.

Phase I Tactical Media Interactive posters we created these posters, which people could write on and tell us what they felt about the metro. the centre of the poster employs hacktivism to get the message across, it uses the 8

Section 4

official metro colours and logo to lead people to think it’s a government sponsored poster, on closer inspection it has a december calender and asks the question ‘will the metro be running in december?’ with the campaign slogan ‘RTI-find out now’ in the bottom right.

Good or bad? True or false?

We put these up on various locations at church street, which is a hotspot for urban youth.

Tell us what you think.

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PSHM individual project review

Putting up the posters

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Section 4

Responses on the posters

we were hoping to get enough responses to make an opensource map of the opinions gathered, this however did not happen and we had to veto the idea of the opinion map.

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PSHM individual project review

Phase II Print campaign metro calendar posters As a continuation to the hactivist concept, we decided to distribute the metro calendar poster by sticking it up on metro construction sites near MG Road (reach I) guerilla style.

RTI posters While developing the print campaign, our primary intention was to develop the projection such that the reader felt intellectually satisfied. The posters are all suggestive and never direct, allowing the reader to make the connect in his head – giving him the feeling (illusion) that he thought of it mostly by himself.

We distributed these by sticking them up in places where people gather like bus stands, outside banks, along walk paths etc.

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Section 4

Leaving posters at the metro model,and construction sites

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PSHM individual project review

This poster takes a different tack, projecting suggestive sentiment on a statistic.

Meant to provoke thought if not action.

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Suggestive of the facebook interface, with fbk associated language, this poster encourages people to find out what they legally are entitled to know

Section 4

This poster has a strong cue for the audience to react to.

It refers to them personally, by mentioning their money

This is a take on the poem ‘Charge of the light brigade’ by Alfred Lord Tennyson that is a part of the state board syllabus. It being so will make it a familiar poem with a large number of people and create an intellectual satisfaction on recognition, However, on discussion we realised that this poster could work even for people not familiar with the poem if a few changes were implemented. (see horizontal).

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putting the posters up around the city.

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Section 4

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The soundscape These sounds were recorded candidly in an RTI hearing of about 2 hours.RTI hearings are open for attendence, and we took advantage of the fact by recording one without telling them.Later, on translating the Kannada, it was discovered that there were some normal bits and some scandalous ones. As a result, we mixed the sounds we thought were most telling or usable for story telling to recreate the story of KC Babu

Track list Hesaru Vilasa Kacheri Plan illa Do you have your documents KC Babu files an RTI Bribe ok sir

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these songs are short compositions using words picked up from the recording of the court hearing.

New album cover

Section 4

Deciding to use an image of a transparent bottle to emphasise transparency on the album cover.

Old album cover

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Phase III Actionising and Installation A map of the metro (the centrepiece of the installation)was laid out on the pavement to grab attention. With articles telling of the the issues that it has caused/ that are associated with it - like the felling of trees, no education/creche facilty provided for workers children, RTI protests connected to land acqusition, and reduction of carbon emmissions by using public transport etc stuck on it.

People were asked to complete the statement ‘i want to...’ through actionising ie: chalking out their response on the pavement using stencils provided the map it showed the stations, Where they were located (a landmark), the purple and green lines, the different reaches of the project, what was opening in December and news articles of the issues it had caused.

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Section 4

the stencils are/ represent the following: be part of a greener bangalore (tree stencil)help educate the poor children (pencil stencil)know where my tax money goes (rupee stencil)be responsible for my carbon footprint (footprint stencil)

Post - its the post its were the third part of the installation, if people had something they were more concerned about beyond the issues the stencils represented, they could write it on a post it which was stuck up on the stairs directly behind the actionising site.

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People actionising their opinion. location: outside blossoms book house, Church street

Time 12.30 p.m - 4.15 p.m

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Section 4

the range of audience was vast from young school kids to old men in retirement and transvestites to labour boys we had every sort of public category show an interest.

we got nearly a 100 responses

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PSHM individual project review

Concert cards an entry pass to the KIC These card designed like concert passes were actually card that said entry free to the KIC (Karnataka Information Commission) It was basically meant to encourage people to exercise their right to information and make use of the RTI. We handed out around 75 of these cards on church street at the same time that the actionising was happening.

The KIC website is given on the card.

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Section 1

Phase III Second level of investigation Connecting with the various civil networks dealing with the issues we identified, and putting people who volunteered information in touch with the respective organisation based on their interest. the organisations wev contacted are Hasire Usiru Hasiru Usiru (tree conservation) Citizen Matters (RTI activists) IYCN (climate control) Anubandhana (educating children) lady signing up to volunteer

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PSHM individual project review

My assumptions.

What assumptions did you make as the interventions unfolded.What events, things, responses made you realize things could have been differently planned or anticipated by you?

I made various assumptions at different stages of the project. at phase I - when we were working with the interactive posters, keeping in mind that we wanted to make an opinon map dependant on responses, I felt we needed something more to support this tool, but nevertheless went along with the assumption that people would respond to the posters. at phase II - I made an assumption of the public we were communicating to, that is an urban youth audience. All the communication was designed with this group of people in mind. I also assumed that they were technologically savy and had access to informa-

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Section 5

tion through the web, television, books etc. and all they required was to be informed about the RTI. This assumption i amended in part after discussions with Zeenat and Geetu. This was a positive choice, as I realised when we spent the day at church street while conducting phase III. at phase III - I assumed we would have no trouble setting up the installation at our planned for site on mg road (in public space), in clear view of the metro tracks.

I was wrong, we had to change location twice, before finally setting up on church street in front of Blossoms Book store.

I also never expected a significant response from the older public, who showed concer for the issue at hand. If I had anticipated this i could have been more inclusive when designing the communication at phase II.

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Insights about myself.

What insights did you gain about yourself with respect to the project?

The course has been a revelation in this sense.

- My immediate tendency to turn to print and posters and paper as a form of media it was only after Zeenat pointed out this lapse during a one on one touch point that I made a conscious effort to explore other forms of expression.

- A tendency to measure everything by effectiveness/ efficiency, it is only now that I realize this is not the aim of all activities and this can never be measured accurately if at all.

- Categorizing everything into terminology associated with marketing (eg: target audience), though early in the course was able to remedy this by beginning to use the words and associations introduced to us through the texts for reading seminars and presentations by Zeenat, Linda, Kristoffer etc. and thereby opening up a whole new perspective.

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Section 6

- An obsessive need to have a follow through or follow up.

- I have always thought of myself as someone very uncomfortable with approaching and talking to strangers, but somehow this did not matter so much when we were conducting the installation on church street, I was pretty comfortable talking to people, explaining the project and asking them to participate.

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PSHM individual project review

Repeating it all.

How would you do things differently if you could?

To start with I’d pick another name for the group – witty not cute was an impromptu name that popped into Mili’s head when asked for a name by the panel (Geethu, Deepak, Zeenat) we both agree we would choose something more apt another time around. Though we did substitute this with our campaign slogan RTI: find out now for the interim presentations.

With the more evolved understanding of forms of media and protest art now, I’d structure our project a little differently with a couple of additions and some subtractions.

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Section 7

For instance I would like to consider using: - Wall murals on the street as a possible form of reaching out to people.

To experiment with the form by- Creating an installation with ribbons, like we did with chalk and stencil, this would take the form of different coloured ribbons that people can tie together choosing the colour depending on their opinion, this could then be left on the street for more lasting visual impact.

red to represent red tapism- used to express the opinion where do my taxes go? yellow to help educate labourers children green to say you want to plant a tree blue to take responsibilty for your carbon footprint.

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PSHM individual project review

With the existing tools – In order to make the opinion map a reality, I would re-design Phase I. the interactive poster contained more than one design flaw – they were in areas where people would see them, read them but not necessarily spend the time hunting for a pen to write on them. We could have left a pen but I still don’t think it would have made much of a difference.

I think a more pro-active approach was necessary – possibly interviewing people in an around the areas of reach I (due to open in dec) would have been more on the spot. We would at once reach the people who would be commuting by it and who have been affected by its construction whose opinions could bring valid concerns to light. We could have done this through one on one interviews or conducting a written survey asking a few basic questions, making it easier to map.

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Section 7

phase III was the most satisfying in our project - but if I could I would add in the wall mural here, maybe the wall painted with the metro map could have served as the perfect back drop to the actionising with the chalk and stencils, as it would act as the show stopper and grab peoples attention.

If we had the opinion map to work with the post it part of the installation would have had a space for display. wherin the concerns voiced by people could have been added to the map.

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PSHM individual project review

What others did.

Reviewing the other group projects.

Maptivism The fact that they did not involve the RTI directly in their project is interesting.

Their word association exercises that resulted in the crowdsourced twitter tool was simply super, this is an idea i wish i had thought of facilitating in place or in support of the initial idea to put together an opinion map in my project. the responses to basic questions like i am... and i wish i was... were unexpected and reflected the thinking of the urban public.

However it would hv been even more interesting if more people had access to the installation and the interactive space they had created on saturday the 27th of november, at old campus.

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Section 8

HIT Their sound clip of sampige road and its happenings was super, it was very well executed and captured the essence of the space.

Their concept of hitting the public with information is interesting. The form they chose of performance intervention was something I enjoyed watching, as I feel personally that may not have been a tool I would have used.

Their direct approach to the RTI is made clear by their slogan ‘you have the right to information use it’ and logo of a pistol with an RTI flag. It is a brave stance on a sensitive issue. But works beautifully in combination with their performance initiatives.

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PSHM individual project review

FYI The use of corrupt netas in their print campaign that informs the public, that RTI is an efficient way to stop corruption is particularly hard hitting in the light of the recent corruption scams that have been exposed.

The observation of how the posters were found embarassing when worn on their bodies, how it ceased to be just information and took on other charechteristics is intersting. their audio visual presentation was well thought out, choosing charachters from evryday life and banking on the ‘there’s nothing we can do’ attitude of the majority make it easy to relate to and the message is conveyed.

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Section 8

FYI

FYI

HIT

HIT

MAPTIVISM

MAPTIVISM

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PSHM individual project review

Specific questions.

Reflect on the following questions, SET 1 1. Did your project impact the way people think about themselves and others? If so, how?

Yes it did affect the way some people think about themselves. With the third phase of our project (actionising on church street) we were at liberty to observe people as they participated, some of them were hesitant to at first but hung around watched for a while and then decide to participate, this shows a conscious thinking, a process of deciding whether or not they would like to participate. This process in itself impacts the way people think about themselves, making them aware of wanting to do something more by participating.

2. Did your work show that public spaces serve pedagogical sites that people learn from? If so, how?

Yes it did. As people interacted with our posters, metro map and participated in ac38

Section 9

tionising their opinion via chalk and stencil they learnt about the RTI, the metro project the issues caused by it etc. all relevant to them as citizens of Bangalore. This information was not new, but portrayed in a way and place that made an impression on them enough to spend time questioning us about it, and leaving contact details so we can put them onto activist groups dealing with those issues.

3. Did your project show that you have any authority to contest public space and rearrange it? If so, how?

This is a tough question to answer, as we experienced both ends of it. We did not have the authority to contest one space and we did for another. I Think it depends on the space itself. Each space carries a certain meaning and implied association with it. The space may already have an existing authority structure. For example the watchmen of the store, the beggar in the corner etc. the key is to find or locate the space that will work for you/ your project depending 39

PSHM individual project review

on what implications you’d like it to have on you or your work.

4. How did your project involve challenging and reframing commonly held positions or constructions?

We had to deal with the extremes, some people were very unhappy with the metro for it had cut down all their loved trees, some were very excited about its coming and wanted to know when it was opening, for the most part however they were curious to kno when the metro would be functional as the work had been happening on it for ever so long, and all those that held that view were quite skeptical of it opening in december and also the need for time till 2012 for the whole metro to be functional. so for us to break this negative, do nothing stance and say there are tools at your disposal to respond / participate in any area that concerns you was a challenge.

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Section 9

5. What alternate viewpoints did you locate back in the public space as a pedagogical endeavour? the alternate viewpoints that I experienced in the public space was one half of the people were encouraging, telling us we were doing good work and wanting to know more, however there was another section that was irritated that wed taken up pavement space and yet another that was uncomfortable with being associated with what we were doing, even though they slowed down to see what was happening.

People have to slowly accustom themselves to the fact that a space can be used for anything and most especially for the spread of information, as at any random time or date there is always a wide mix of people in any given public space. If such spaces are used more regularly for these purposes then the public will accept it more easily.

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PSHM individual project review

SET 2 1. What conceptual reformulations did your group project activate in relation to (refer to at least 3 of the 6 papers) the reading seminar Archaeological Interventions?

Conceptual notes were taken primarily from these three papers Detournement, Zielensky and Theoretical implications of the RTI. Our project activated the basic concept of detournement - which takes form in hactivism or tactical media. This is with reference to our metro calendar posters and using the official colours and logo to influence people.

Zielensky helped us build our print campaign and what we wanted to project to the public. It also was the basis of our looking through approach to the RTI. That is using the metro project as a means of conveying awareness of the RTI as an informative tool.

Theoretical implications of the RTI was a mainstay, as it was the beginning step of our project, familiarizing us with the RTI and the civil networks that have popularized it like the MKSS. 42

Section 9

2. What approaches did your group project reconsider after having familiarised yourself with methods involved in the critical analysis of a context through the production of audio profiles?

The audio project deepened my understanding of the real working of the KIC and reflectively the RTI, recording a court hearing and being present to watch the motions of the court was a revelation of sorts. The mundane things like the teacups, case files, the typewriter took on new meaning. Each of these sounds told its own story. We tried very hard to produce this as a sound track and distribute it as a CD like the Paris Hilton video we were shown in class but unfortunately the quality of sound was not good enough for us to conduct this exercise.

The rethinks after this were to take a more participatory approach, and ask what the citizen would do as opposed to what the government should be doing. As it became clear that the system was mired in red tape and had to many processes to get simple things done. This led to meetings with activist networks like ‘citizen matters’ and ‘Civic Bangalore’.

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PSHM individual project review

My reflections.

Posturising The most striking thing about actionising was the unfamiliar postures (for a public space) it causes people to take when participating, above are a few illustrations of the postures made by people actionising on church street.

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Section 10

The map and its mysteries: While making the metro map, i found it extremely difficult to locate the staions mentioned in the map, as in the metro newsletters itself the stations each have a minimum of two names by which they are reffered to. This was quite a time taking exercise to draw with clarity a map that was already available, and add further information to it. for instance let us say to find out which reach a station belonged to, or to find swastik circle a major junction on the map on the metro website is not possible as its called something else. If the information available is so difficult to interpret, it negates the benefit of being available in the first place.

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PSHM individual project review

Conclusion & Acknowledgements.

and that is the end of my project.

mili alagu

m ala il gu i

mil alag i u

a short note to explain the squiggles above as a conclusion to the work. This represents how me and Mili found our way through the project, from starting of more or less by wanting to do the same things albeit differently to getting extremely confused to a slow unravellin the result of talks with Zeenat, to whom special thanks is due and to Deepak and Geetu who patiently listened to us when we were stuck thankyou, we finally ended up on even footing with what we hope is a succesfully concluded project.

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mili alagu

Section 11

There is a longer list to thank, beginning with all the facilitators and discussants, Rune, Nithya and the external panel, Blossoms Book Store for being a good friend and supporter of the project, The man who runs Variety book store for all the encouragement, the people of church street and the city of bangalore thankyou. and my classmates for making the whole ride fun.

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PSHM individual project review

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