This Social Method project was located at a public university in California listed on the US National Register of Historic Places as the site of the birthplace of a California Indian Religion.
Founded in 1949, the school mascot is “Prospector Pete” and the sports teams are the “49ers,” referring to the date of the arrival of the Gold Rush Prospectors (some 300,000) seeking gold in 1849 following the “discovery” of gold in 1848, an event that stimulated the Genocide of California Indians (from 150,000 in 1849 to 15,000 by 1900).
Because the university is located in the largest urban American Indian population in the United States with an active indigenous sacred-site on campus, the “Prospector” mascot generates tension that is symbolically located at the juxtaposition of a large bronze sculpture of “Prospector Pete” adjacent to the entrance to the building housing the American Indian Studies Program.
This large bronze realistic statue is located in a small plaza and “Prospector Pete” is looking directly at a sign indicating the location of History Department that simply says “History”.
The disorientation/critical agitation/displacement involves a 49er T-Shirt purchased from the 49er Shops Bookstore on campus. The T-Shirt was shaped into a blindfold and placed over the eyes of the statue. The second element is a temporary plaque the same size as the current plaque on the base of the sculpture that reads “Blind to History” followed by the dates of the California’s Native American Genocide, 1846 – 1873. A search of these dates on-line locates the book, Murder State, by Brendan Lindsay.
We elected to include a flash mob project to supplement this project working with the American Indian Student Council, the American Indian Science and Engineering Society, and the CSULB Community Drum to assist in organizing a “flash mob round dance” to take place around the statue. Cooperating with these groups we also composed a round dance song that includes English words:
Walking around blind to History, Open your Eyes, Open your Mind.
This Flash Mob Round Dance took place on October 29, 2015, two days after the first assignment is due.
The art of the Mooc course assignment prompts were utilized as a template for the activities of the collaborative events produced on campus with the American Indian Student Council, American Indian Studies, American Indian Science and Engeneering Society, staff, faculty and community members. However, we were not able to submit all of our activities in time to have them posted in the course. The projects did however generate local press and generate awareness about the issues raised with the individual projects.
Project Assignment Connections
1) Public Sculptures/Monuments sited in a plaza that are/were contested (Richard Serra)
2) Construction of a counter memorial to an existing memorial — Vietnam Memorial and Counter Memorial (Maya Lin)
3) Ephemeral quality of temporary projects specific to one point in time that live in documentation (Cai Guo-Qiang)
4) Notion of reenacting a previous event. Blindfold piece is a reenactment of previous piece prior to the recent interest in the California Indian Genocide on campus.
5) Related to Francis Alys green line project that attempted to locate the geographic separation between Palestine and Israel. Piece attempts to locate area between the statue and the entrance to the American Indian Studies building by having people line up and dance on this line/point of tension.
6) Relates to earlier Civic Monuments and Public Artworks that overtime reveals histories of a site from the perspective of an earlier time and a previous demographic perspective, in contrast to, a new demographic that has replaced the previous one. This change in demographic is from an entirely white student population in 1949, to one of the most diverse student populations in the United States in 2015. (Tom Finkelpearl)
7) Process for co-sponsoring the flash mob round dance requires the cooperation of different groups to accomplish the action. (Tom Finkelpearl)
8) Relates to focus on Architecture and Urbanism to create a project that reveals a point of tension in the place where I live. (Flash mob prompt)
9) Project was cooperative in the flash mob component and was approved by cooperating parties to be used in this course. (Tom Finkelpearl)
10) Notion of common strategic approaches in art in the public sphere using disorientations/critical agitations /displacements. (Claire Doherty)
11) Project reinforces the notion that “Public Art is the Art of Making Places Public” (Jack Mackie) to create public spaces where people from different segments of society will interact, debate, dance, hold hands and embrace — to make public places more democratic. (Enrique Penaloza)
12) The planning process included meetings with Facilities, AISC, AISES, MCC, Jewish Studies, History, American Studies, American Indian Studies and others. These discussions have stimulated the production of another public artwork on campus and a public lecture about the California Indian Genocide in early November. The “Blind to History” piece has stimulated some viewers to goggle the dates and engage in conversation about the piece with each other in the plaza.
Context:
During this semester the high school AP (Advanced Placement) Exam for American History in the United States was revised and has been characterized by American Indian Studies Scholars and Historians as “perpetuating lies about American Indian Peoples”.
http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/09/08/new-ap-us-history-exam-perpetuates-lies-about-native-americans-161628
During this semester an American Indian Student at CSU Sacramento was told by her History Professor that she was dropped/disenrolled from his course for questioning his refusal to use the term Genocide to refer to the lived experience of American Indians. While she was not dropped and continues to take his course, the question still lingers. http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/09/06/history-professor-denies-native-genocide-native-student-disagrees-gets-expelled-course
http://fox40.com/2015/09/08/sac-state-student-clashes-with-professor-over-native-american-genocide/
Recently, California became the first state to ban the use of a name for school mascots that denigrates American Indian People, when Governor Brown recently signed Assembly Bill 30. http://abc30.com/politics/redskins-mascot-now-banned-at-california-schools/1030019/
http://thinkprogress.org/sports/2015/10/12/3711585/california-bans-offensive-slur-from-schools/