Who Responded to the Monopoly of Their Day?: Lessons Learned from Ten Artists Who Used a Range of Creative Techniques for Policy Change between the Years 1500-2025

Abstract

What do an artist, board game designer, data visualizer, economist, filmmaker, investigative journalist, inventor, photographer, poet, sociologist, satirist, and writer all have in common? This paper explicates how ten creatives from 1500 to 2025 have responded to innovative mechanisms and emerging technology employed of their day. These expansive creatives studied up and maneuvered away from solely problematizing. These creative souls used their creative decision-making abilities to provide economic and social critiques in publicly accessible ways that could be shared and understood for policy change. This study shows why and how artists were able to question the dominant powers of their day by visually annotating their semantic meaning, syntactic prose, and semiotic narratives. While also contrasting to what degree they and their projects were met with resistance. By unearthing their artistic approach and distribution strategies; this research shows how learning lessons from these creative makers could give the tools to shore up and inspire students, peers, and colleagues to respond in the near future with timely praxis.

Presenters

Christopher Lange
Instructor, Design, OCAD University, Ontario, Canada

Details

Presentation Type

Paper Presentation in a Themed Session

Theme

New Media, Technology and the Arts

KEYWORDS

Emerging Technologies, Creative Labour, Access, Praxis, Strategy, Artistic Tactics, Policy