A screening and discussion of tactics exploring the relationship between direct action and movement building.

With a high-powered projector mounted atop a Ford Econoline cargo van, The Illuminator collective have supported and spearheaded semiotic guerilla warfare on contested spaces across North America. Working with a diverse array of activist causes, the group facilitates direct action by transforming institutional facades like The Guggenheim and the United Nations building into screens for critical messaging. Designing a variety of approaches to protest projection, the collective has crafted a high-tech mouthpiece for disenfranchised communities to speak to exploitative landlords, malfeasant CEOs, and cynical cultural institutions. In this screening of work and discussion of tactics, the collective will address collaborating with community organizations, new forms of protest offered by technology and programming, and the horizon of activism, protest, and direct action.

Programmed in conjunction with World Records, Volume I: The Documentary Camera with Editor Jason Fox. Thanks to Urban Omnibus for their support of this program. Urban Omnibus is The Architectural League’s online publication dedicated to observing, understanding, and shaping New York City.

Special thanks to World Records Volume 1 sponsors Hunter IMA MFA ,The MDOCS Storytellers’ Institute at Skidmore College,  and for the generous support provided by The Ford Foundation.

During a prolonged garbage collector’s strike in New York City, members of the group ‘Up Against the Wall Motherfucker’ from the Lower East Side of Manhattan decide to use the situation to make a political statement. They collect garbage from the streets of their community and deposit piles of it on the grounds of Lincoln Center, “The Establishment’s” cultural showcase.

On 06/01/2012 Idrissa Diallo, a Guinean citizen dies at the Inmigrant Detention Center of Zona Franca in Barcelona after the refusal of the National Police to provide him health care. The same day I went to the IDC and burned my Spanish passport.

A street artist alters the urbanscape with images of guns as he paints his way toward peace.  Courtesy of Harry Gamboa, Jr. and the UCLA Chicano Research Studies Center.

The Illuminator Collective is an art-activist collective comprised of visual artists, educators, filmmakers, and technologists living and working in New York City. The collective has staged hundreds of projection-interventions in public spaces, transforming the street from a space of passive consumption and transit into a site of engagement, conflict, and dialogue. Our work calls attention to the many urgent crises that confront us, in support of the ongoing struggle for a more just, peaceful and sustainable world.

Current members include Emily Andersen, Todd Anderson, Zoe Bachman, Rachel Brown, Kyle Depew, Grayson Earle, Anna Ozbek, and Chris Rogy.

Eli Horwatt has worked as the International Programmer at the Hot Docs International Documentary Film Festival and as a programmer at The Toronto International Film Festival. He is a visiting assistant professor of Film and Media studies at Colgate University.

Jason Fox is a filmmaker and professor based in New York City. He has taught at Vassar College, Cooper Union and at CUNY Hunter College. As well, he has worked as a documentary programmer in conjunction with The American Museum of Natural History, The Flaherty Seminar, and Maysles Cinema, among others. He also serves on the Board of Organization for Visual Progression, an organization that partners with social justice organizations to provide training on using visual media in their advocacy efforts. He holds an MA from New York University and and MFA from CUNY Hunter College.