Memorial of Alcatraz Occupation & Indigenous People's Arts & Health Community Center, an Improbable Monument

Improbable Monument

I. Introduction: The idea of an Improbable monument brought me to the idea of exploring an issue that I think is often ignored and overlooked in terms of US American history. I created a monument that is in dedication to the Indigenous Peoples of this country and their issues of community and health. They have been done wrong by the United States of America and in 1969-1971, the Indian peoples occupied Alcatraz Island as a way to demonstrate their rights as the original peoples of this land. My improbable monument is taking back the island and creating is as a representation of their rights that they deserve and using it as land to address their issues of health problems and community development.

II. Background: My idea for this project stemmed from the issues of Indigenous People’s in the United States and rights that were so horribly taken away from them. I felt that this issue is something that exists in so many locations all over the United States. The United States land was land of these people and it was taken away so wrongfully and now the populations of these people is so low that to have a place that is rightfully theirs to use.

III. Project Description: Alcatraz is a memorial State park and has information about it as a former high security prison and information about this occupation but, it is not enough. To be able to take back this land fully and rightfully as Indian land and for it to be used for Indian people and their community would be justified.

a. Detailed Description: The whole island of Alcatraz will be reconstructed for the Indian people. In my research I found a lot of their issues had to do with health and I envision this island to be a place of health and healing. I implemented art into their community center because art is a huge part of healing and preservation of their culture. There is also now a bridge that gives access to the island as well as a free boat for Indian people to use to get to the island.

b. Significance: The significance of this monument is that it is a representation of the land that is given back to these people that will be fully funded by the US Government and will be offered for free to the people that deserve it most. It will not just be for Indian people (but they get the highest priority) but for people who need it most get access to this island facility geared toward health, healing and preservation of their cultures.

c. Location: I chose Alcatraz because of the historical significance in terms of it as a monument of the Alcatraz Occupation during 1969-1971 and how this was essential in influencing the American government's decision to end its policy of Termination and Relocation and to pass the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975.

d. How is it improbable: It is improbably because it is so difficult for the United States government to admit so much wrongdoing for the Indian peoples and the costs would be so high that they would never do it because of the political implication and loss of power for US government. It challenges conventional monuments because it a working monument in terms of what is represents on an everyday working basis, not as a monument to just look at and take photos of.

IV. Benefits: The benefits of this Improbable Monument are the educational, community service-oriented goal, exposure of this injustice, all people are the audience for this monument and what is stands for, the health benefits for people who need it most, people gain knowledge of the fact that the US government can take responsibility for what they did in the past and how it has repercussions in the now, but do something about it. This is a monument in representation of healing for Indigenous people and the United States government and society to take steps toward a future for positive change.

V. Timeline of Tasks: It will take an estimated 15 years to have this monument fully working. The process of reconstructing the island and re-piping fresh water and amenities to house the amount of people visiting it and working on it daily would take a while. Also the bridge will take about the same amount of time (by watching the bridges being build here in the SF Bay Area) will take an equal amount of time.

Resources: Alcatraz is Not and Island documentary

Occupation of Alcatraz

Community Art Event #2 ZKM Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany

I was traveling through Europe, and I happened to travel through Germany with some friends of mine and I was lucky enough to see an exhibit that featured all art that has to do with technology, called the museum of media. It was a really fun museum because it was very interactive. There was a motion sensor bubble screen that uses your shadow or silhouette to interact with bubbles floating around. There were a series of exhibits that included a gallery of different video game consoles that displayed different ways that art is affected by video game programming. There was also a remarkable audio map that was on a world map that indicated sounds specific to the locations. For example, sounds from Africa included African drumming or sounds in the jungle and in New York, the sounds of traffic. Overall, I found this exhibit to be fun and very educational in terms of the media art presented.

ZKM Center for Art and Media

ZKM Museum of Media

"Stream to Freedom," a Monument Intervention

On the San Francisco State University Campus there is a monument that no one knows is a monument called, "Garden of Remembrance," it is a garden that is dedicated to the 19 Japanese American students who were part of the many Japanese Americans that were interned during WWII. This garden has 10 boulders that represent the 10 relocation aka internment camps that held many Japanese Americans who were so wrongfully imprisoned. There is a plaque that indicates this garden as the "Garden of Remembrance," but no one can see it because it is located across from it in the corner, covered with trees. My Monument Intervention project is about making this garden known and the remembrance of what happened to the Japanese American internees known. So I decided to create an impermanent chalk stream from the boulders to the plaque to lead people to read what the garden is really about. I designed the stream to include koi fish representing the people interned going toward freedom, and lead people to read about what happened to them. I also included writing the 10 names of the internment camps on the boulders themselves to indicate where these fish were swimming away from. Almost metaphorically, this garden with no one knowing its meaning is like the imprisonment of these people and now my intervention is giving them freedom by letting people know at least for a while what the meaning of this garden is.

Information about the Garden of Remembrance

"Facecrack," a Culture Jamming Project

My culture jamming project's premise was taking the new huge powerful social network, Facebook, and critiquing its power over people in terms of how it is taking people's time, energy, and time from reality and is addictive, it is living life through a social network vs. reality. I took the actual ad and used a different font that was closest as possible and put these in sticker form all over different places I could find such as bathrooms where people are in constant interaction and can focus on different places. I took the facebook's tagline of "Facebook helps you connect and share with the people in your life" and changed it to "Facecrack helps you waste time and stalk the people in your life." The overuse of facebook for people is phenomenal to the point of people's lack of interaction in real life vs. in the cyberworld. People live their lives on facebook from showing off their newborn's photos weekly to their depressive posts about breakups, and many other life updates. While this doesn't seem awful, it begins a lack of actual communication in real life like with people and referring to facebook as the only means of interaction.