Activism

This morning, a group of journalists and activists held a press conference to raise awareness of what they see as a frightening trend: police, in the run-up to the Republican National Convention, increasingly targeting journalists. I’ll have video of the conference later today, but here’s a quick video on Vlad Teichberg, a member of the Glass Bead Collective, a New York new-media art group. He and two colleagues were detained by Minneapolis police this week without charge and searched. Police confiscated notes, computers and videocameras, exposing the film in one camera and finally returning the equipment days later. He says we’re at a cultural tipping point: With so many citizens toting cameras to events like RNC protests, police have little choice but to follow strict police protocols — or run the risk of being outted on YouTube.

As a part of the UnConvention, a sideshow to the Republican National Convention, next week Miami artist Steven Gagnon will drive his sculptural contraption to the Twin Cities and park it in a public spot near Intermedia Arts, a sponsor of the festivities. Gagnon’s “border cruiser” calls attention to the experience of undocumented people in the U.S.

If the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York — or just about any other major coordinated protest effort — is any barometer, demonstrators in St. Paul this fall will surely be using cellphones and text-messaging to plan their protests. But a battle going on in New York now might have implications on whether those [...]

Halfway through installing a green roof on Wednesday night, May 2, Corrie Zoll stopped to take a slug from a bottle of Guinness. It wasn’t that he was tired out. Just three minutes into the demonstration, he was illustrating for the near-sellout crowd at the Southern Theater how easy it is to install a green [...]