Think Again

THINK AGAIN is an artist-activist collaborative founded in 1997 by David John Attyah (b. Los Angeles) and S.A. Bachman (b. Columbus, Ohio.) They produce interventions that recruit art-making in the service of public address. Their work—digital murals, billboards and wallscapes, exterior projections, and viral poster campaigns –- links the global to the local and combines cultural theory, sociological research, and activism to create a visual language for engaging civic dialogue. THINK AGAIN projects have explored a unique range of issues including the logic of militarization; international labor and the treatment of immigrants; gentrification and displacement; representations of queers in the media; and the ways capitalism and misogyny conspire to jeopardize women. website: http://www.agitart.org

Exhibitions, Awards, and Publications

THINK AGAIN exhibitions include: “Antagonisms,” Museu d´Art Contemporani de Barcelona; “The Anti-War Show: US Interventions From Korea to Iraq,” Track 16 Gallery; “Reactions,” Exit Art; “The Culture of Class: Issues of Class in North American Culture,” Maryland Institute College of Art; “Not for Profit,” Loyola Marymount University Art Museum; “Democracy in America,” Arizona State University Art Museum; “A Brief History of Outrage,” 16:1 Gallery and “New Season,” Museum of New Art. They have received awards from the LEF Foundation, Massachusetts Cultural Council, Tanne Foundation and The Funding Exchange/Outfund. Their work has been widely published in books, magazines and journals (see selected bibliography). A monograph on THINK AGAIN entitled A Brief History of Outrage was published in 2003.

Selected Projects

Unless noted otherwise, projects can be viewed at the THINK AGAIN archive.

• Actions Speak (2008-2010) is a multi-media project examining political brutality and public policy, and reconsiders social problems like HIV/AIDS and violence against women. The project features a 17 x 67 foot interior wall mural and a concurrent outdoor projection. Debuting the week before the 2008 Presidential Election, Actions Speak promotes dialogue between art and public response, between global reality and local action. Commissioned by the Worcester Art Museum.^[1][2][3]
• The NAFTA Effect (2006-2007) was a series of public projections in Los Angeles addressing how free trade reshapes the lives of people on both sides of the United States–Mexico border border.^[4]
• Hola/Hello (2002 and 2006) included postcard, installation and mobile billboard links the rape, sexualized violence, and murder of over three hundred unidentified women in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, to the structural effects of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and intergovernmental relations between the US and Mexico.
• Protestgraphics (2001-2004) was one of the first websites to respond to the 9/11, U.S. military action in Iraq and Central Asia, violence against Arab and Muslim Americans, and to the Bush administration's War on Terrorism. In addition to the online archive, 500 sets of posters were distributed free of charge to organizations and activists internationally. Major campaign: “Act Like It's A Globe, Not An Empire.”^[5]
• CIA.TV (2001-2003) included a mobile billboard in Los Angeles, California, and a web debate inviting the public to think critically about the increasingly blurry lines between news and entertainment at a political moment when federal agencies want permission to withhold information from the public, seek expanded surveillance authority and increase their budgets.^[6]
• Target Marketing Is Not A Social Movement (2001-2002) was a mobile billboard and postcard project that addressed target marketing and “Gay Chic.”
• Popping The Question (2000) was a caravan of mobile billboards circulated throughout the cities of Boston, Massachusetts and San Francisco, California intended to inspire public debate about the topics of marriage and family.

References

1. www.agitart.org/actionsspeak
2. www.c-m-l.org/?q=node/171
3. AFTERIMAGE Vol. 38 No. 2
4. www.saltinthewound.org
5. www.protestgraphics.org
6. www.ciatv.net

Further reading

Books

• A Brief History of Outrage, THINK AGAIN (David John Attyah and S.A. Bachman), Distributed Art Publishers, 2003. The introduction can be read at www.agitart.org/press/OUTRAGEbookessay.pdf
• Graphic Agitation 2, Liz McQuiston, Phaidon, London, 2004
• Peace Signs: The Anti-War Movement Illustrated, James Mann, English, French, German edition; Edition Olms, and Posters Against A War, Spanish edition; Gustavo Gili, 2003/2004
• We Shall Not Be Moved, Hass, Gilda and Strategic Actions For A Just Economy, 2004
• Economic Apartheid In America: A Primer on Economic Inequality and Insecurity, Collins, Chuck and Yeskel, Felice, The New Press, 2000
• White Men Challenging Racism, Thompson, Cooper, Schaefer, Emmett, Ford, Henry, Duke University Press, 2003

Articles

• Boston Globe, "Power meets vulnerability: Wall mural and exhibit at the Worcester Art Museum tackle social issues," Kate McQuaid, December 8, 2008
• Los Angeles Times, “Drive-by Campaign to Project Points of View,” Mike Boehm, October 6, 2006
• Social Text (#80 Technoscience,) Amy Villarejo, “Activist Technologies: THINK AGAIN,” Duke University Press, Durham, North Carolina, 2004
• Interview with THINK AGAIN: Big, Red and Shiny, Issue #7, 2003

External links

• Organization's website