Theory Archives - Occupy Toronto

TIDAL #3

Tidal is a crucial self-organized intellectual platform for OWS, which is founded on the principle that there can be no radical thought without radical action–and vice versa. Since the appearance of the first issue in December 2011, Tidal has helped to shape the major directions and conversations of the movement. Distinct from either a journalistic outlet or an academic journal, Tidal is groundbreaking in the way in combines timely, specially commissioned articles by widely recognized scholarly voices such as Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and Judith Butler with a rich variety of theoretical and artistic materials from younger, on-the-ground OWS participants. occupytheory.org/read/ Read issue #3...

Beyond Zuccotti Park

Occupy Toronto 13 August 2012 by Michael Holloway New Book takes a hard Look at Public Space Freedoms in the Wake of Occupy With the book’s release the authors are planning a travelling series of happenings, “A parallel exhibition as live participatory experience—Beyond Zuccotti Park: Exhibition as Occupation…” – one or which will undoubtedly be organized in Toronto – and in cities across Canada. Stay tuned here for updates. More on the project in this video form the Kickstarter page (Funded)– http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/303382230/beyond-zuccotti-park via New Village Press: New Book Takes Hard Look at Public Space Freedoms in the Wake of Occupy New York, NY – August 7, 2012 “Beyond Zuccotti Park: Freedom of Assembly and the Occupation of Public Space”, to be released on September 11, 2012, examines the importance of public space as a community forum for citizen expression. Actions against Occupy Wall Street demonstrations have spotlighted US Constitutional rights to freedom of assembly. The book puts issues of democracy and civic engagement into the center of built environment dialogue by addressing where and how people can congregate publicly today, whose voices are heard, and the factors that limit the participation of minorities. It also gives fresh attention to the planning, design, and programming of public space. Beyond Zuccotti Park was conceived in response to the forced clearance of Occupy activities from public plazas throughout the country. Its distinguished editors are advocates of participatory civic process: Ron Shiffman, FAICP, Hon. AIA, Director Emeritus, Pratt Center for Community Development and Professor, Pratt Institute Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment; Rick Bell, Executive Director, American Institute of Architects, New York; Lance Jay Brown, FAIA, ACSA Distinguished Professor, School of Architecture, City College of New York, CUNY; Lynne Elizabeth, Director, New Village Press; Anastassia Fisyak, Urban Planning Fellow, Pratt Center for Community Development; and Anusha Venkataraman, Assistant Director, El Puente Green Light District. Beyond Zuccotti Park’s foreword was penned by Michael Kimmelman, chief architecture critic of the New York Times, and Pulitzer Prize finalist. The AIANY Center for Architecture will hold multiple events in celebration of Beyond Zuccotti Park: • Exhibit Opening – September 6 (runs thru 9/22) – Beyond Zuccotti Park: Exhibition as Occupation • Book Launch – September 10 – presenters: Peter Marcuse, professor emeritus of Urban Planning at Columbia University, and Nikki Stern, political, social, and cultural commentator. • Public Workshops – September 16 – Democracy, Equity, and Public Space, celebrating the anniversary of Occupy Wall Street “This book, like Zuccotti [Park] itself, is a site of vigorous conversation, hard thinking, and bold proposals.” —Mike Wallace, coauthor of Pulitzer Prize-winning Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 New Village Press – August 7, 2012 ___________ “.. A parallel exhibition as live participatory experience—Beyond Zuccotti Park: Exhibition as Occupation—is slated to open at the Center for Architecture on September 6 and will run through September 22, with fresh posters from Occuprint, broadcasts from May Day Radio, workshops from Occupy Town Square, and flashmob performances spilling onto adjacent sidewalks, La Guardia Place, and Washington Square Park. The book and exhibition are a collaborative partnership of the Center for Architecture New York, City College of New York School of Architecture, the Pratt Graduate Center for Planning and the Environment, and Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility. …” Sean Gleason – New Village Press ...

Analysis of Occupy movement (three articles)

Three very good articles – two specifically about Occupy and an old article from the women’s movement: A Movement Without Demands? by Marco Deseriis and Jodi Dean “The question of demands infused the initial weeks and months of Occupy Wall Street with the endless opening of desire. Nearly unbearable, the absence of demands concentrated interest, fear, expectation, and hope in the movement. What did they want? What could they want? Commentators have been nearly hysterical in their demand for demands.” Three Complaints About OWS by Charles Lenchner “We can’t accuse ourselves of being well organized. And this lack of organization, championed by so many as a key ingredient of Occupy Wall Street’s success, continues to trip us up.” The Tyranny of Structurelessness by Jo Freeman “During the years in which the women’s liberation movement has been taking shape, a great emphasis has been placed on what are called leaderless, structureless groups as the main — if not sole — organizational form of the movement. The source of this idea was a natural reaction against the over-structured society in which most of us found ourselves, and the inevitable control this gave others over our lives, and the continual elitism of the Left and similar groups among those who were supposedly fighting this overstructuredness.”...