“Urgent”, “Past Due”, “Final Notice” are stamped on postcards typed from dictation of ordinary people and subsequently sent to the president. By listening to and transcribing people’s hopes, dreams, anger, and pleas, Sheryl Oring’s “I Wish to Say” is a performative speaking truth to power. This book beautifully presents this project and its participants, as well as provides insightful Sheryl Oring has activated democracy by stressing context and analysis of artists who are forging conversation over voting and reactivating a seemingly new pathways in ephemeral socially engaged art. abandoned, deeply gendered tool of communication: the Dread Scott typewriter. Her voice is inseparable from that of her Artist interlocutors, the many U.S. constituents participating in the project, as well as the co-authors and readers of this book. We have much to learn from her and the artists, Now that politics and performance art are one scholars, and activists included, as we all ask ourselves and the same, Sheryl Oring’s facilitation of public what we would say to the U.S. president. engagement through her performance art work, Pedro Lasch “I Wish to Say,” is a fitting and needed action. In Artist and Duke University Professor, Author of Art of the this 2016 election season, I expect many folks MOOC: Merging Public Art and Experimental Education will wish to say something to our presidential candidates! Driven by a powerful belief in the value of free expression, Martha Wilson Sheryl Oring has for more than a decade been helping Artist and Founding Director, American people across the country voice concerns about Franklin Furnace Archive, Inc. public affairs through her “I Wish to Say” project. This book uses that project as the starting point for an exploration of a The unhurried, heart-felt messages generated series of issues of public interest being addressed by artists by Sheryl Oring’s “I Wish to Say” project calmly today. It features essays by contributors ranging from testify to the significance of her rescue plan for art historians and practicing artists to creators working a society bedeviled by pixilated manias and the in literature, political science, and architecture. All the allure of electronic display screens. contributors offer a different approach, but they share Gregory Sholette a primary goal of sparking a dialogue not just among Author of Dark Matter: Art and Politics in the Age makers of art, but among viewers, readers, and the of Enterprise Culture concerned public at large. The resulting volume will be an essential resource for politically engaged contemporary artists searching for innovative, cross-disciplinary ways of making and sharing art. “I Wish to Say” exercises art’s muscles in the social practice of democracy. In the midst of America’s fractured body politic, the “I Wish to Sheryl Oring is Assistant Professor of Art at the Say” project invites us to talk back to power with University of North Carolina at Greensboro. the power of the wish. Cora Fisher ISBN 978-1-78320-671-1 Curator, 00 Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art 9 781783 206711 intellect | www.intellectbooks.com ACTIVATING DEMOCRACY The “I Wish to Say” Project ACTIVATING DEMOCRACY The “I Wish to Say” Project EDITED by Sheryl Oring intellect Bristol, UK / Chicago, USA For Shira First published in the UK in 2016 by Intellect, The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3JG, UK First published in the USA in 2016 by The University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, USA Copyright © 2016 Intellect Ltd All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Copy-editing: Sue Jarvis Cover Image: Courtesy of Damaso Reyes Layout Design and Typesetting: Emily Dann and Holly Rose Production Manager: Richard Kerr ISBN: 978-1-78320-671-1 epdf ISBN: 978-1-78320-672-8 epub ISBN: 978-1-78320-724-4 Printed & bound by Gwasg Gomer Cyf / Gomer Press Ltd, UK. CONTENTS Acknowledgments IX Preface Sheryl Oring XI Taking a Moment to Have a Say Corey Dzenko 01 “I WISH TO SAY:” 2004 07 PART I Ruminations: The Artist’s Perspective 31 Ruminations: The Artist’s Perspective, Sheryl Oring 33 The Typewriter: An Ode to Its Smells, Sounds, and Tactile Responses Sarah Shun-lien Bynum 37 The Look: Patty and Her Avatars Santiago Echeverry 41 The Question: The Door to What We Most Want to Know Chloë Bass 45 The Camera: Coming to Terms with Photographing People Dhanraj Emanuel 47 The Digital Archive: Maintaining Privacy by Giving It All Away Hasan Elahi 49 The Paper, the Game, and the City Park: Places for Things to Happen Lee Walton 55 The Street: Fleeting Situations and Doings Ed Woodham 61 The City: The Political Equator and the Radicalization of the Local Teddy Cruz 67 The Road: Stories From the Navajo Nation Stephanie Elizondo Griest 71 Dissent: American Style Ricardo Dominguez 75 “I WISH TO SAY:” 2008 79 ACTIVATING DEMOCRACY PART II Frameworks: Scholarly Views 99 Frameworks: Scholarly Views Sheryl Oring 101 Toward a Sociability of Objects Edward Sterrett 103 Socially Engaged Art, Photography, and Art History Bill Anthes 111 Activism’s Art: A (Very) Brief History of Social Practice and Artist Books Miriam Schaer 115 Free Speech in a Digital Era David Greene 121 Efficacy, Trust, and the Future of Civic Engagement David B. Holian 127 “I WISH TO SAY:” 2010 TO 2016 133 PART III Conclusion: Listening and the Power of Small Acts 159 Conclusion: Listening and the Power of Small Acts Sheryl Oring 161 Turning Strangers into Neighbors Kemi Ilesanmi 163 Let It Linger George Scheer 167 Small Acts, Forlorn Practices Radhika Subramaniam 171 PART IV Postscript: An Activist’s Discourse 177 Postscript: An Activist’s Discourse Sheryl Oring 179 Q&A: Sheryl Oring and Svetlana Mintcheva 181 “I WISH TO SAY:” SequelS 193 “I WISH TO SAY:” Chronology and Credits 207 Endnotes 213 Bibliography 215 About the Contributors 219 VIII ACKNOWLEDGMENTS “I Wish to Say” was made possible first and foremost by the more than 2,500 people I have had the pleasure of meeting and typing for in dozens of locations across the United States over the past decade. My sincere thanks for sharing your thoughts, comments, and stories. A grant from the New York Foundation for the Arts came at a critical time near the beginning of this project, and the tremendous support from Creative Capital over the life of the project and, more recently, the Franklin Furnace Fund, has allowed this work to grow and thrive. Arts organizations such as these play an important role in supporting unconventional works and bringing them to a nation- al audience. Hats off to these organizations and leaders such as Ruby Lerner and Martha Wilson. Nonprofits such as the First Amendment Project, the National Coalition Against Censor- ship, the Free Expression Network, Bryant Park in New York, and the College Art Association have also played key roles in supporting this work. And a big thanks to the dozens of universities across the country that hosted shows on their campuses, from a 2004 show at Georgia State Uni- versity organized by curator Cathy Byrd, to 2008 shows at the Claremont Colleges in Southern California, Wichita State University, and many other campuses thanks to the efforts of Jennifer Baumgardner at Soapbox Inc: Speakers Who Speak Out. The project has received a tremendous response from the press, with reports appearing in The New York Times; the Los Angeles Times; on National Public Radio; and on ABC News, and in dozens of other newspapers and media outlets. Thanks to Patrick Kowalczyk at PKPR in New York; Sascha Freudenheim at PAVE Communications & Consulting in New York; and Barbara DeLollis in Washington, D.C., for your savvy communications strategies. Thanks to Neil Katz and Ajmal Aqtash, who designed the “I Wish to Say” exhibition held at the McCormick Freedom Museum in Chicago in 2008. I met Neil and Ajmal while working at Skidmore, Owings and Merrill in New York and the entire architectural team I worked with there provided a tremendous amount of encouragement, support, and inspiration over the years. IX ACTIVATING DEMOCRACY Thanks to Jeff Holmes, Ken Lewis, Dan Weaver, Michael Kim, Sang Won Lee, Sophie Cha, and the rest of the team. This project has relied on help from so many volunteers, whose enthusiasm and belief in the project have kept me going. Thanks to Kate Carpenter Bernier, who provided tremendous support in Florida and Washington, D.C., in 2004, and the many others who helped make each show run smoothly. A special thanks to the typists who joined me in the typing pool: the very first shows with additional typists were with Jessica Sledge and Stephanie Lie in 2010. Thanks to Polly Adkins, Corey Dzenko, Joanna Hardman, and Caitlen Nelis Masters, who joined me in Charlotte in 2012. And to Amy Sayre Baptista, Jessica Kearney, Caroline Macon, Nora Sharp, and Shane Zim- mer, who did a fantastic job during the shows at the Out of Site festival in Chicago in Summer 2015, organized by the amazing Carron Little. Ethan Lercher, the events director at Bryant Park in New York, has worked with me on sev- eral versions of the show, including the largest to date held in Spring 2016 in conjunction with the PEN World Voices Festival. I am grateful for the years of support and advice from Ethan, who has allowed me to show this work in my favorite park time after time.