Creative Resistance is a special edition podcast mini-series in affiliation with the Center for Artistic Activism and is hosted by Research Fellow, Sarah J Halford.

In this episode, we meet Diana Arce, who is an artist, researcher, and activist based in Berlin.

Diana’s also the creator of Politaoke, a karaoke-style participatory performance in which audience members are invited to step into the shoes of politicians from their region by delivering portions of political speeches.

You’ll hear more from Diana in the coming episodes, but you can read her full interview with the Center for Artistic Activism here. If you want to know more, Diana and others are featured in our great Artist-Activist Interviews as well. And be sure to check out her website for more of her incredible works of artistic activism!

Art activists in this episode:.

Diana Arce

Diana Arce Full Interview Transcript

Major takeaways from episode 1:

  • No matter if you’re an artist who wants to use your work for the greater good, an activist who wants to get creative, or someone with zero experience in either area but is really concerned about an issue – artistic activism is for you because it’s for everyone.
  • Artistic activism utilizes the affect/effect relationship. Affect, as in feelings, effect as in results. So, people see the art and they feel something that motivates them to do something.
  • Objectives are the smaller, more attainable accomplishments that are necessary steps toward goals, the bigger accomplishments. So, we can start thinking about what overall goals we want the work to accomplish (i.e. stop systemic racism! Make feminism intersectional!, etc.), and then figure out the necessary objectives that we need to reach before that can happen.
  • And, artistic activism has been used for years and years by people from all types of actions and movements, so creating this work is actually a continuation of efforts from activists of prior generations.

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Credits

An additional art activist in this episode:

Avram Finkelstein

Avram Finkelstein Full Interview Transcript

Music By (in order of appearance):
Theme: “Drum Flute Loop in G Minor” by Enoe
“Sepia” by Podington Bear
“Adventure Darling” by Gillicuddy
“Please Listen Carefully” by Jahzzar

Music courtesy of freemusicarchive.org

Special thanks to Professor Stephen Duncombe.

Listen to more C4AA podcasts here.