Does the OCCUPY ART project help de-legitimize the

[Pryderi]

OWS movement? The UC pepper spray photoshops are entertaining and some are powerful, but doesn't it eventually make it a negligible or dismissive event?

[Poll_Blind]

1. Don't be so worried about a thing which will have run its course in a few days.nt

PB

[H2O Man]

2. no

[Fire Walk With Me]

3. Some things are so outrageous that they must be re-contextualized,

the ugliness turned into something we can control. It's a healthy expression of something that would otherwise become very...ugly.

When life gives you pepper spray, make pepper candy.

[CreekDog]

4. It's ridicule and I don't think any police officer will want to be the next Pike

besides, you can't stop it.

it's all there and people are going to do with it what they will --hell, they have.

[EFerrari]

7. I showed my Mom L. Coyote's thread and she had a good laugh.

It is a way to take control of something pretty horrible and diffuse it.

[CreekDog]

9. What's so cool is that the artwork is having him spray innocuous or revered things

Jesus, people in the park, the cute critters in Disney movies, etc.

what is so impressive to me about this is how the parodies show how well people "get it".

their parodies show the unequal power, the unthinking, indiscriminate approach, the dehumanizing, just over and over again.

the collective still can do some good thinking. :D

[EFerrari]

12. Did you see this one, from FB?

[Luminous Animal]

13. This one...

[EFerrari]

14. That's a good one.

[JDPriestly]

18. Great post, Creekdog

[firehorse]

5. Ask Stephen Colbert if he thinks political satire is effective

Art history is full of this genre, its an American tradition.

[EFerrari]

6. No, because they send up a bully.

They don't belittle the victims or the event but the macho assholery of the perpetrator.

[uppityperson]

8. No. A good way to deal with bullies is ridicule.

[astral]

10. The "Don't Taze Me Bro" debaucle was an opposite extreme example

of what this OP means, or MIGHT mean. I was quite sickened by the use of the taser and the laughs it got at the expense of the victim. The reaction of the public to police brutality is not something we can count on.

[guitar man]

11. I don't think so

I know that black humor helps me through hard times and satire is often a powerful, biting weapon against oppressors.

Look at this piece in the Washington Post about the photoshops that have been done.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/arts-post/post/pepper-spray-cop-works-his-way-through-art-history/2011/11/21/gIQA4XBmhN_blog.html

The opening of the article is pretty powerful

"Lt. John Pike, the U.C. Davis campus police officer who pepper-sprayed passive student protesters, is popping up in some of the world’s most famous paintings as part of an Internet meme intended to shame him for his actions"

"pepper sprayed passive student protesters"

There's the truth in black and white and it was the photoshops that got the writers attention.

[Chan790]

15. I'd argue that history bears the contrary.

Both Art and Satire are brutal political weapons which cut through strident partisanship to universal truths. If anything, this raises the profile of the abuses...much in the same way the I Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die Rag by Country Joe & the Fish and Ohio by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young did.

[Fire Walk With Me]

16. So try to not laugh at this one shared by George Takei:

[rsmith6621]

17. I Dont Believe This Project Was Approved By Any OWS GA

This is a personal expression by individuals apart from the movement ....so how can it de-legit it???

[aquart]

19. Thank you for your concern.

Ridicule and parody are quite venerable protest tools. You might want to examine Chaplin's take on the yappy guy with the silly moustache.

[Pryderi]

20. Has anyone pepper-sprayed the Koch Brothers in the art? nt

[fascisthunter]

21. um... no

[piratefish08]

22. oh noooooes!1! laughter!

[FarLeftFist]

23. No. It's an intimidation factor. Fuck with us and get plastered all over the Net.

[LanternWaste]

24. I'd need to hear a precise and relevant premise

I'd first need to hear a precise and relevant premise as to how it indeed de-legitimizes the movement... :shrug:

[Pryderi]

25. I guess I should've said makes light of the spraying incident. Like it's funny and no big deal n/t