Flux at Arts & Labor Alternatives Fair

Date: Saturday, October 19th, 2:45pm – 3:45pm
Location: Eyebeam, 540 W 21st Street, NYC

Flux Factory is pleased to announce its participation in the Alternatives Fair at Eyebeam, organized by the Arts & Labor working group from OWS. The Alternatives Fair aims to connect and make visible groups and projects that provide alternative economic models for sustaining the livelihood of artists, art workers, and other populations based on mutual aid, cooperation, and other non-exploitative and non-oppressive practices. It is the first step in answering the question, What Do We Do Now?

In the Main Space at the Alternatives Fair Flux Factory will present “The Bridge,” a participatory workshop in which facilitators and audience members physically and symbolically face each other, our differences and similarities. “The Bridge” has simple rules: participants gather on one ‘line’. A facilitator asks a question, those who answer “yes” stay there while those who answer “no” cross the line and turn to face each other. Anyone can pose a follow up question, and participants continue to move to corresponding “yes” or “no” sides.

During this process decisions get made, both individually and collectively, regarding where to stand. In the end, we will discuss our varying experiences, discomfort with any questions, and surprises. Which questions were the most difficult to answer? Why? Were there moments you chose to stand in the middle?

For this workshop, Flux Factory is represented by Sara Arjona, Alejandro Botubol, Dylana Dillon, Kerry Downey, Douglas Paulson, and Christina Vassallo. We are a mix of artists, teachers, curators, arts administrators, hang gliders, bikers, tour guides, and …. While at the Alternatives Fair, the questions we’ll pose will focus on issues around: community, participation, economies, shared resources, and shared power.