Now any club affiliated is artist is welcome to participate in any operation from our latest project, inspired by critical engagement with American clandestine government actions. In May we self-sorted into Corps, each with an associated project.
Propaganda Corps
Operation PsyOp
Clandestinely produce in your audience a particular mental state / idea, or inflect thought or opinion, towards your own ends, using the tools of art.
Intelligence Corps
Operation Reconnaissance (Get it? It's a pun!)
Select a target or collection of targets which you will observe / research, and use your findings to generate a piece in any medium.
Operations Corps
Operation Double Agent
Create art out in the world, while obscuring the fact that you are an artist, the fact that what you have created is art, and the fact that what an observer is experiencing is art.
How does it work?
The above three operations require you to complete the objective, and document it in A5 sized pages for issue 6 of the PHAC Zine. Submissions should not contain identifying details.
We have many submissions in already, and are hoping to close out the project sometime in approx a month at a big ol' party, broadcast event, and zine release.
We've also launched our grand finale project...
Radio Free Prospect Heights
We're launching a pirate radio station. Create a recorded or live piece and send it out into the world in a one-night-only live broadcast from a secret location and potentially some reruns depending on if y'all come through or if its just my weird old-timey radio play.
Some Background
I did a long custom letter to each corps for everyone who originally signed up in the original round, but here's the TLDR:
Our project is inspired jointly by the book The Free World: Art and Thought In The Cold War by Louis Menand, which in part details the CIA's hand in influencing the global artistic / cultural landscape. This, in turn, inspired Not All Propaganda Is Art by Benjamin Walker. Both of which are inspired by the larger, not-that-secret history of clandestine actions by the American government.
Go read a book, or listen to a podcast or, just like, sit on the toilet on wikipedia for a spell as a pre-req to contributing your brilliant and informed work.
Weekly Project Meetup
For the duration of the project folks can drop in on Saturdays at Aura Coffee in Prospect Heights at Noon to find collaborators, discuss, or just sip tea and enjoy the sun.
