Tag: Make it participatory

D.C. Funk Rally

Objective:

To educate the public and advocate for a People’s Vaccine.

The Project:

A rally to mourn loss, celebrate life, and encourage our institutions to do better and provide a People’s Vaccine.

STRATEGIES:
TRY THIS:

Make it specific to your community.

Organize one where you live.

What worked?

Images from the Funk Rally made it into national and international news.

Other Notes:

We started with a New Orleans Jazz-style funeral to mourn the overwhelming loss of life and then transitioned to a festive rally inspired by DC-based Go-Go music and 1970s fashion.

    Original files can be provided for exhibition

Links:

Reflections from Tayyiaba Farooq

What was the process/journey of creating this work?

The Funk Rally came out a need to represent the grim seriousness of the campaign and Trump’s failure are president to adequately combat the pandemic while also painting a picture of hope for the future. At first organizers had wanted to keep the tone very serious and somber, but together with other ally organizations we can up with theming of Funk and imagery from the 70s. The rally was also adapted from a traditional New Orleans Jazz Funeral where they do not only mourn the end, but celebrate the very concept of life. The inspiration of this went in to the color of parade decorations, the lab coats with flowers and inspirational quotes, as well as the displaying local music culture. Altogether we were able to create something that was full of life and solidarity for our community. The approach we had taken to demanding action on ending the pandemic and ensuring an accessible vaccine was unique to our rally and was derived from the principles of creative activism. This out of the box approach had really gotten the attention of people that would have not otherwise cared. It was a great example of ally organizations coming together to make something positive, and from my perspective really launched the idea of vaccine accessibility at the University of Maryland.

What were some of the responses to this work?

People were able to dance in the street, create a beautiful mural at the end, and receive positive attention from onlookers and those who featured us in the press. The imagery produced from the campaign is still being used, and just goes to show the impact this one event has had on the campaign at large.

About this project
Creators:
  • Free the Vaccine for Covid-19

October, 2020

Image/graphic, Performance

United States, Washington

Varies

Creative Commons BY-NC-SA

Link to Original or High-Res file

Carnival March for a People’s Vaccine

Objective:

We’re asking the target universities to sign the Open Covid Pledge, to stop drug companies profiteering with publicly funded research. In the UK people are used to free healthcare, and unused to thinking about the injustice of health inequalities and the malign role of drug companies. Consequently the universities feel limited pressure. This action was a show of strength from the campaign, to increase pressure on the universities, as well as a public awareness raising effort, through the street presence to a limited extent, but mostly through the social and traditional media interest we generated.

The Project:

Activists in giant Covid-19 masks joined syringe wielding students in lab coats, beside neon pink dancing protestors, to call on London’s universities to pledge to make their healthcare research on Covid-19 available to the world. The Carnival March for a People’s Vaccine took place on July 27, 2020, from Kings College London (Guy’s Campus) to University College London, asking the universities to sign the Open Covid Pledge, to stop drug companies profiteering with publicly funded research.

STRATEGIES:
TRY THIS:

Organize one in your community.

Make it even bigger.

What worked?

The costumes! Despite a gray day in London, you couldn’t miss us in our neon pink and giant covid head costumes. There were lots of banners, and placards, and QR codes so that passers by and social media viewers could understand the action clearly.

About this project
Creators:

July, 2020

Installation/Intervention, Performance, Video

United Kingdom, London

1’40”

Public Domain

Link to Original or High-Res file

Other Notes:

It was a great collaboration between Free the Vaccine volunteers and volunteers from Universities Allied for Essential Medicines UK, Just Treatment, Stop AIDs, Act Up UK, and other access to healthcare activists.

    A set of instructions exists on how to make this work
  • An original object can be provided for exhibition
  • Original files can be provided for exhibition

Links:

157 registers:

Reflections from Rachel Reid

What was the process/journey of creating this work?

Lots of collaborative planning meetings interspersed with lots of glue and paint, following by lots of dancing and lots of walking!

What skills or perspectives did the collaborators bring to this?

We benefited from some deep experience in the group, from the activists who thought to consult lawyers about our rights before the action, to people with wide media and communications experience, to artists.

What were some of the responses to this work?

For the giant covid head wearers it varied from Londoner indifference to laughter to lots of pictures. Generally people who approached us were sympathetic and interested.

If someone else were going to make/use/do something like this, what advice would you give them?

Have a sub-group working on communications, including traditional, not just social. There was lots still to do at the last minute (as ever!)

Jolene Vaccine Challenge

Objective:

We’re building on Dolly Parton’s $1million donation to support COVID-19 research at Vanderbilt University. To get their attention, to educate them on the Open Covid Pledge, and to add pressure for them to sign the pledge, we chose to produce a viral music video parody of the song “Jolene” by Dolly Parton.

We now want to encourage all universities to sign the Open Covid Pledge, so we are currently discussing the “next challenge”: how to create a full-length video in a way that inspires even more people to get involved and ask universities to make a meaningful change.

The Project:

The #JoleneVaccineChallenge is an interactive project, initially intended to target Dolly Parton and Vanderbilt University. However, with the success of the project, we are now targeting universities all over the world! (Read more under “Objective” below.)

We are making a music video parody of the song “Jolene” by Dolly Parton. Do you know the song? The chorus lyrics, “Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene…” have been adapted to “Vaccine, Vaccine, Vaccine, Vaccine.” Check out the video link to see how we rewrote ALL of the lyrics.

The challenge, i.e. the “interactive” element of this project, is twofold. First, we invited all members of the Free the Vaccine campaign to help us make a “trailer” for the music video. The video link here is the trailer, which consists of just the first chorus and verse to the song. At the end of the trailer, we challenge viewers to send videos of THEM lip-syncing/dancing to the song. We made a downloadable track and supplied the lyrics to the whole song for viewers.

STRATEGIES:
TRY THIS:

Record your own lip sync and share it on social media. #JoleneVaccineChallenge

Perform it in your own community.

What worked?

Without Occupy Democrats having shared our video on Facebook, we would have had a MUCH harder time going viral.

Other Notes:

Thousands of people across several social media platforms watched and shared our video. We are continuing to call and email Vanderbilt and Dolly Parton representatives to remind them of our video and its growing number of likes/views.

Based on the initial response to our trailer, we’ve decided that our full-length music video should now target universities all over the world. Our trailer features members of Free the Vaccine from many different countries, emphasizing Parton’s and Vanderbilt’s global impact. In continuing this theme, for the full-length music video, we plan to have a few singers/dancers wearing not only Parton costumes or Vanderbilt t-shirts, but also, for example, t-shirts from other universities.

    A set of instructions exists on how to make this work
  • Original files can be provided for exhibition
  • The work can be reproduced on site with instructions (provided)

Links:

Reflections from Dannie Snyder

What were some of the responses to this work?

We have gone viral! That in itself is a huge response to our work.

As far as viewers accepting the challenge and submitting videos… So far we have only received a handful of submissions. (It’s not too late to send one yourself!) We are currently outlining our schedule for releasing the full-length music video (probably during the first week of December) as well as three “promotional” videos between now and then; three videos (at least) to help boost our views/likes on social media.

Unfortunately, Dolly Parton and Vanderbilt representatives have not been responding to our emails and calls.

What would be your next steps, building on this idea, if you had a million dollars and all the time and skills in the world?

If we had a million dollars, we could probably think of a million ideas! Our team is always bustling around “what if we…?!” Off the top of my head, we would project the final full-length music video onto Dolly Parton’s house(s) and Vanderbilt’s buildings. We discussed the idea of – when COVID cases and social distancing measures relax – a march around Nashville in Dolly Parton costumes. But, why just in Nashville!? Why stop there?! And wouldn’t it be awesome to have the video produced in every language?! We have also discussed how to get famous people to lip-sync/dance for our full-length music video.

About this project
Creators:

July, 2020

Video

United States, Nashville

1920×1080

Public Domain

Link to Original or High-Res file

Stick Me.

Description:

The Stick Me. sticker is for people to stick on each other, like playing tag. If stuck with a sticker, they have to come to the table to find out why. Once someone is ‘stuck’ and find out about signing on to the Open Covid Pledge as an individual they will ideally sign it, get a sticker that says ‘I stuck it to _______’ and fill in the blank and add to a poster to visually represent those that have signed the Open Covid Pledge. The last step is a selfie prop where they can fill the university or org they stuck it to and share on social media and tag the university and others to encourage them to sign on. They can take some ‘stick me for free’ stickers to put around different places to encourage people to go to the website and see what it’s all about.

Objective:

This could be for a physical action, a series of stickers and posters that encourage people to interact with each other. Great for a tabling event.

About this project
Creators:
  • Stacy Early

July, 2020

Image/graphic, Installation/Intervention, Print

United States, Memphis

Varies

Creative Commons BY-NC-SA

Download Original/High-Resolution File:

What worked?

Ideally the success of this would be people having fun, being included, and feeling like they have the power to make a difference by signing the pledge.

Other Notes:

This work had input from the Free the Vaccine for COVID-19 group in general, and C4AA for their inspirational how to get people to act videos!

Reflections from Stacy Early

What was the process/journey of creating this work?

This one took me a little bit to get to. I had tried another interactive piece, but was a bit too involved. After stepping back, watching the C4AA videos, this just kind of came to me. Being able to bounce ideas off others in the group helped, hearing what was needed and wanted allowed me to think more creatively, I wasn’t thinking about this just for me.

Interpretive Statement

User Instructions

Print it and use it! 

Make a version for social media.

FTV Tattoos

Objective:

We’re hoping to create a massive collage of tattooed people from the McGill community (or another university). It’s a fun way to show the admin that people support the FTV mission. We find the faces to say a lot more than a list of signatures on a petition.

The Project:

We asked our friends to send photos of their skin and gave them FTV tattoos.

STRATEGIES:
TRY THIS:

Make it specific to your community.

What worked?

It’s really easy to scale this action!

About this project
Creators:
  • Isabel Levine, Syndey Stevenson, Marilou Binder, Olivia Bonardi

May, 2020

Image/graphic

Canada, Montreal

462 x 600 pixels

Public Domain

Download Original/High-Resolution File: FTV-Tattoo.jpg

Other Notes:

  • Original files can be provided for exhibition

Reflections from Olivia Bonardi

What was the process/journey of creating this work?

This was a collaboration between multiple labs!

What would be your next steps, building on this idea, if you had a million dollars and all the time and skills in the world?

Make this become a trend- actual tattoos, sell them on tattly, etc.

Barrel of Vaccines Game Prototype

Objective:

The hopeful objective would be to show how just one university (or person at a university) cannot do this alone. It takes everyone to work together to solve a global problem. By sending this to the university they can see this in a fun and engaging way that will hopefully start a conversation about signing on to the Open Covid Pledge.

The Project:

A game similar to A Barrel of Monkeys.
The game pieces are the logos of different universities that alone will not reach to free the vaccine from the ‘barrel’.

STRATEGIES:
TRY THIS:

Make one.

Workshop it with friends and revise!

What worked?

I think a surprising element of this is the nostalgia of the game for some people, and hopefully just bring a smile to their face and know this is a serious issue but it can be discussed with an open mind.

About this project
Creators:
  • Stacy Early

May, 2020

Installation/Intervention

United States, Memphis

Varies

Creative Commons BY-NC

Other Notes:

Reflections from Stacy Early

What would be your next steps, building on this idea, if you had a million dollars and all the time and skills in the world?

Creating this and sending to all the universities/people we have talked to so they are all ‘linked’ together would be amazing. Sharing on social media and tagging the universities to play virtually and encouraging others to sign on as them being the missing link to freeing the vaccine.

Solidarivir – a first-line treatment against Covid-19

Objective:

Solidarivir was a a tatic that integrates the strategy planned by students in Brazil to invite the top #1 university that requests biotech patents in the country. Inside it’s box, a letter to UFMG was delivered. The idea was to symbolize that more than 350 people within UFMG’s community were offering the university an opportunity to unlock its solidarity – the first line treatment for a pandemic.

The Project:

A box that was covered with paper and painted to resemble a generic drug package according to Brazilian specifications. Solidarivir is the name of the drug. The dosage is 19mg. Where we would see “oral use” on an official generic package, we see “uso colaborativo” – which means “collaborative use”. Where we would see “generic drug”, we see “acesso garantido”, which means “access guaranteed”. Where we would see the name of the manufacturer, we see “UFMG” – the name of the university solidarivir was given to as an invitation. We can see solidarivir is locked with a padlock made of paper and glitter. In order to open solidarivir’s box, you need to damage the padlock. Solidarivir comes with a big key made of paper, where you can see “UFMG” and 350 signatures. These signatures represent more than 350 people who signed a letter to UFMG inviting the university to sign the share its knowledge widely to end the pandemic. The letter was delivered inside solidarivir’s box.

https://www.facebook.com/304854539581236/videos/1156385578044457/
STRATEGIES:
TRY THIS:

Make a version for your target.

Make it specific to your community.

What worked?

Solidarivir’s simbology was really interesting. Its pictures helped us publishing a text about the initiative in the local news. It was also published in Le Monde Diplomatique Brasil to illustrate a text about the role of public universities in ending the pandemic.

About this project
Creators:
  • Luciana Lopes
  • Lucas Magno
  • Alicia Moreira
  • Gean Araújo
  • Daniela Pena

May, 2020

Installation/Intervention

Brazil, Belo Horizonte

30cmx22cmx15cm

Public Domain

Download Original/High-Resolution File: WhatsApp-Image-2020-05-08-at-12.50.59.jpeg, WhatsApp-Image-2020-05-06-at-22.54.09.jpeg

Other Notes:

  • Original files can be provided for exhibition

Links:

Reflections from Luciana Lopes

What would be your next steps, building on this idea, if you had a million dollars and all the time and skills in the world?

I would send solidarivirs to all public universities in Brazil! But I would make the boxes way bigger to get a lot of attention.

If someone else were going to make/use/do something like this, what advice would you give them?

Take care when using glitter. IT GETS EVERYWHERE. Three months later, I can still find glitter around.

Plants for Covid Research Champions

Objective:

Two things – firstly it provides a strong physical and visual way to create a movement of appreciation, that is easy to share, easy to participate in, and ethical in its design (both environmentally and for social distancing / shielding).
Secondly, it is a positive and celebratory way to get the attention of scientists and researchers, building awareness at multiple levels of an institution about the Open Covid Pledge (not just the TTO offices, but the scientists who might be more sympathetic). This helps put more pressure on the institutions as we build supporters.

The Project:

In appreciation of those researching treatments, diagnostics and vaccines for Covid-19, we dedicated plants to Covid Research Champions. Anyone could join in with a plant dedication, and as long as they tagged us on twitter or insta, we made sure the scientist was aware of it.

STRATEGIES:
TRY THIS:

Dedicate a plant.

What worked?

The positivity of it was what worked best – as seen in the responses from scientists.

About this project
Creators:

April, 2020

Image/graphic

United Kingdom, London

490 × 874 534KB

Other Notes:

If there was a flaw, it was that there were perhaps too many steps to be simple – we were open about which researchers to target, perhaps we should have focused more on just one or two and bombarded them with flowers and dedications.

  • A set of instructions exists on how to make this work
  • An original object can be provided for exhibition
  • Original files can be provided for exhibition
  • The work can be reproduced on site with instructions (provided)

Links:

Reflections from Rachel Reid

What were some of the responses to this work?

Nice responses from scientists thanking us for the dedications
Positive engagement from colleagues outside our team within Free the Vaccine, and friends with their kids, who did their own dedications.

What would be your next steps, building on this idea, if you had a million dollars and all the time and skills in the world?

More targeted on individuals, more sharing to get a real movement going on. More planting!