Week 4: Dorit Cypis Response

A Brave New World (remix) Response

I thought this piece was particularly interesting because of the way Cypis was addressing people occupying and using shared communal space as a way of engaging one another in conversation about difficult social and political issues. This really resonated with me because daily we are occupying the same spaces together, but fail to engage each other beyond daily pleasantries. How is it only in formal protesting and events do we take the time to tackle the issues? Cypis brought up that a lot of people were demanding change and voicing ideas about a better future, without understanding the necessary steps to achieve action or start momentum. Is there a way to prompt people before the protests and occupations to outline actions and goals? Would this make things more efficient? Would it make daily conversation and engagement better too?

The other brief thing I wanted to mention was the use of metaphor in the artwork Cypis choose. I thought this was really successful because each speak to a human state of tolling and communal structure. There was also the image of the 4th layer of hell which mimics the Sisyphus myth. It felt that people trying to start social change were pushing a rock up a hill only to have it roll back down to restart. I think this is because people aren’t declaring actions and steps for change. They just demand change or only one step in a bigger battle.This really lead me to reflect on the women’s march, and though voices were starting to be heard, I feel I wanted more than catchy slogans and personal empowerment. I feel with 750,000 people we could have put heads together to propose real change. We could have written materials together or something to continue this togetherness and empowerment.