The discussion on the contrast between sustained organizing versus responsive acts was also very interesting to me. I am in a class right now called the #Selfie, in which we discuss various movements that are started on social media through hashtags or selfies. One movement that we recently talked about was the Facebook profile picture overlays that become available in reaction to different things occurring in society. In particular, the ones we discussed in this class were the rainbow overlay that was available after the ruling that gay marriage was legalized, as well as the French flag overlay, which was available after the Paris attacks. These overlays were created as a way for people around the world to show their support and solidarity for certain movements or groups of people, in this case for gay people and the citizens of Paris. While this clearly is a nice gesture, my class discussion quickly turned more somber, as we learned that many people critiqued this act. People felt that this artistic statement wasn’t really doing anything. Instead, all it did was give people peace of mind that they were “doing their part” in some way to support others. Thus, these were clearly a responsive act to things happening in society. However, another point that came up in our discussion was at what point should people remove the overlay and return to their normal profile picture. I feel this greatly relates to sustained organizing. When do you know when it is acceptable or morally right to remove your overlay, or your “support?” Does returning your profile picture to normal signify that you no longer support these movements? Is this organized artistic movement no longer being sustained?
a wiki of socially engaged art