SHEDDING LIGHT ON POLICE BRUTALITY

An Honors Thesis Manuscript

Presented by

Colin James O’Brien

Completion Date: April, 2015

Approved By:

Annaliese Bischoff, Department of Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning

ABSTRACT

Title: Shedding Light on Police Brutality Author: Colin O’Brien Thesis/Project Type: Art Installation Approved By: Annaliese Bischoff

A white police officer killed a Black person almost two times a week during the seven years preceding 2012 in the United States (Hoyer 2014). America’s history and continuing trend of police brutality is unacceptable and must be stopped. Because police departments have failed to put an end to this trend the solution must come from U.S. citizens themselves. For this to happen there must first be a national discourse among U.S. citizens concerning these issues. This project outlines a plan to empower individuals and to contribute to the local discourse on police brutality through a public art installation. Ideally the project will be installed on the eastern side of the UMass parking garage to maximize its visibility to its target audience, members of the UMass community. The project takes the form of an 8’x4’x1’ dynamic display of LED lights controlled by an Arduino, a microcontroller. The LEDs display a series of curated pairs of phrases, juxtaposed. These phrases quote the voices of police brutality victims and non-victims to send a powerful message to the viewer. The entire system will be energetically self sufficient, powered using a solar panel. The system’s housing will be fabricated using a 3D printer. In planning this installation four simulations were run to test and analyze viewers’ responses. These simulations consisted of hour long public projections of the pairs of phrases to be displayed by the installation. Viewers’ responses to these simulations were positive in all respects.

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1 On Display, Joe O’Connell and Blessing Hancock……………………………….3

Figure 2 GreenPix Zero Energy Media Wall, Simone Giostra & Partners Architects………4

Figure 3 Desaparecen Primero Las Palabras, Thomas Charveriat and Miriam Llorens……4

Figure 4 Kind of Blue, Jenny Holzer………………………………………………………..5

Figure 5 Overpass Light Brigade, Lane Hall and Lisa Moline……………………………..6

Figure 6 The Illuminator……………………………………………………………………6

Figure 7 LilyPad Arduino…………………………………………………………………..9

Figure 8 Projecting at UMass Fine Arts Center……………………………………………11

QUOTATION ATTRIBUTIONS FROM VIDEO ARTIFACT

“I have a dream” - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr

“I can’t breathe” - Eric Garner

“Sweet land of liberty” - Samuel Francis Smith in My Country, 'Tis of Thee

“They had him like a deer, hunting him” - Maria Paniagua on Antonio Zambrano-Montes’ death

“From every mountainside let freedom ring” - Samuel Francis Smith in My Country, 'Tis of Thee

“I will put you on the ground” - Police assailants of Sureshbhai Patel

“Liberty and justice for all” - United States’ Pledge of Allegiance

“Why did you shoot me?” - Levar Jones, unarmed black man shot by South Carolina Police

“We serve and protect” - Chicago Police Department

“They’ll shoot you, they’ll kill you” - Bernard Ewing on Michael Brown’s death

"Land of the free and home of the brave” - United States’ National Anthem

“Hands up, don’t shoot” - Saying originating from the shooting of Michael Brown

“For black and for white, let’s stop all the fight” - John Lennon

“Badges don’t grant extra rights” - copblock.org

“I know I did my job right” - Darren Wilson

Statistic: Over 75% of Ferguson residents have open arrest warrants

- DOJ Police Report and city population statistics

“Unarmed African-American men are shot and killed by police at an alarming rate. This pattern must stop” - Jeffrey Mittman of the NAACP

“Why do we let this continue? How many more must die?” - Obiora Embry

“Be the change you want to see in the world” - Mahatma Gandhi

CONTENTS

Chapter I: Introduction………………………………………………………………………….…1

Chapter II: Inspiration……………………………………………………………………………..2

A. Case Studies on Art Using Light……………………………………………………….3

B. Case Studies on Art Using Text……………………………..…….……………………4

C. Case Studies on Art Integrating Light and/or Text for Activism….……………………5

Chapter III: Methods………………………………………………………………………………7

A. Original Conception of LED Sculpture………………………………………………..7

B. My Introduction to Learning Arduino…………….…………….………………..…….8

C. Quotation Curation………………….……………………………………….………..10

D. Simulation Projection…………………………………………………………………11

Chapter IV: Results………………………………………………………………………………13

A. Analysis of Reactions to the Projected Simulation……………………..……………13

B. Next Steps: Constructing the LED Sculpture…………………………………………14

Chapter V: Conclusion……………………………………………………………….…………..16

Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………………..…17

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Chapter I: Introduction

For as long as our communities have employed police officers, some of these officers

have abused their power. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century several incidents of

police brutality occurred on the site of labor strikes. A number of these incidents are even

reported to have been sanctioned by officials. Since then the issue has only grown worse: Cases

of police brutality have increased in number and have been predominantly aimed at minorities,

specifically Blacks. In 1943 a New York City police officer fatally shot Robert Bandy, a Black

man. This incident incited a two day long riot during which six people were killed (Wikipedia).

In 1964 a New York City police officer fatally shot James Powell, a 15 year old Black boy. This

killing sparked a series of riots beginning in Harlem where Powell was shot. These riots in turn

became sites for further police brutality aimed against Blacks (New York Race Riots 2013).

Similar riots rooted in race and police brutality occurred in Los Angeles in 1965 as well as in

Detroit and over one hundred other communities in America during 1967. Following the Civil

Rights Movement era surprisingly little changed in terms of police brutality. In 1991 five Los

Angeles police officers brutally beat Rodney King, an unarmed Black man, and were not

prosecuted. This injustice was the cause of a riot in 1992 Los Angeles during which 53 people

were killed (Bach 2014).

Sadly atrocities such as these are still occurring today. This year in Ferguson, Missouri,

police officer Darren Wilson fatally shot Michael Brown, an 18 year old Black man. This killing

and the subsequent failure to indict officer Wilson sparked riots and protests nation wide.

Another case of police brutality occurred this year when a New York City police officer used an

illegal choking technique to subdue Eric Garner, eventually killing him (Murdock 2014). These

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incidents barely scratch the surface of the multitude of cases in which police have brutalized and

killed innocent United States citizens.

America’s history and continuing trend of police brutality and abuse of power is

unacceptable and must be stopped. It seems the solution to this problem will not come from

within police departments for they have failed to put an end to this awful trend thus far. I believe

the solution must therefor come from the outside, from the citizens of the U.S.. In order for this

to happen there must be a discourse about these issues among citizens on a national level. This

discourse can generally begin at a local level and expand nationally over time. Only after

awareness is spread will change be possible.

The objective of my thesis is twofold: I intend to empower members of the UMass

Amherst community and to contribute to the discourse about police brutality and abuse of power

in the U.S.. This objective is based upon my hypothesis that local thought and discourse

regarding police brutality can lead to national change in the way that U.S. police officers treat the

citizens they are sworn to protect. My project is a local one, intended to empower, be viewed by

and add to the discourse among members of the UMass Amherst community and the

communities surrounding it. My thesis outlines a plan to accomplish this goal through the

medium of a public art installation on the UMass Amherst campus.

Chapter II: From the State of the Art

The form of my project is inspired by several artists who use light and/or text to create

visually engaging pieces, some of which promote activism. In this section I will discuss several

of the art pieces that particularly inspired and guided me in making this project.

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A. Case Studies on Art Using Light

One of the first pieces that inspired my design, On Display, is by Joe O’Connell and

Blessing Hancock, two artists who work primarily on large public art installations defined by

light and color. Commissioned by Denver Arts & Venues, On Display is a series of illuminated,

life sized enclosures. Each piece in the series is uniquely shaped, made out of acrylic and

stainless steel and illuminated using colored LED lights. Viewers are encouraged to step inside

the seven foot tall structures and bathe in the LED glow. Touch sensors on the surfaces of the

pieces allow viewers to interact with them directly. The pieces in this series are meant to

represent shop windows. Window shoppers are usually separated from the

items on display by a glass barrier and this piece attempts to break down

that boundary. By inviting viewers to step inside and interact with the

pieces the artists explore the idea of public viewing, questioning “who is

the participant and who is the audience” (O’Connell 2015). Instead of

viewing items on display from the outside the viewers themselves are

displayed as if in a shop window. I attribute a great deal of my inspiration

to use light in my project to this piece, along with other similar works by

O’Connell and Hancock.

Another art installation that I found inspirational to my project is the GreenPix Zero

Energy Media Wall made by Simone Giostra & Partners Architects. Commissioned by the

Chinese Jingya Corporation, this façade converts the front of the Xicui Entertainment Center in

Beijing into a 2,000 square meter interactive display of color changing LEDs, the largest in the

world. The media wall is made up of 2,922 color changing LED lights housed behind glass. It is

On Display, Joe O’Connell and

Blessing Hancock

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energetically self sufficient, generating its own power using polycrystalline photovoltaic cells

that are located behind the screen. Solar power charges the screen during the day and provides

enough energy to illuminate it during the night. It is purposefully low

resolution in order to conserve energy and make it stand out from other

large scale LED screens. Giostra states the design was inspired by “the

flickering light on an ocean’s undulating surface” (Simone Giostra &

Partners Architects 2008). It displays abstracted images reminiscent of

the ocean, meant to bring life to the original plain exterior of the building

upon which it is installed. This piece inspired me to increase the size

of my LED sculpture and to incorporate a solar panel into my

design, making my sculpture energetically self sufficient as well.

B. Case Studies on Art Using Text

Another source of my inspiration is Desaparecen Primero las

Palabras, an installation created by Thomas Charveriat and Miriam

Lloréns. This piece is particularly important to me because of its

incorporation of both text and LED lights. It consists of an interactive

LED sculpture which displays a poem. Artists Charveriat and Lloréns

base their work on the question “how can a word appear or

disappear?” (Charveriat 2005). When a viewer waves their hand in

front of the piece the words of the poem begin to disappear,

reappearing with another wave of the hand. The entire sculpture

measures 324” x 18” x 5”. It is made up of 160 alphanumeric LED displays and 160 infrared

GreenPix Zero Energy Media Wall, Simone Giostra

& Partners Architects

Desaparecen Primero las Palabras, Thomas Charveriat

and Miriam Lloréns

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sensors, all held inside an aluminum housing (Charveriat 2005). The infrared sensors detect the

viewer’s hand motion and the LEDs display the poem. This piece served as a great inspiration for

my design; The similarities between it and my planned LED sculpture are apparent. I would be

interested in learning how Charveriat and Lloréns control their LED displays and infrared

sensors. In my project I plan to use an Arduino to do this and I wouldn't be surprised if their

piece uses a similar microcontroller.

Jenny Holzer’s art has been an essential source of inspiration

for my design. Renowned across the globe for her installation pieces,

Holzer has been creating art out of text for decades using a variety of

media including posters, projections, clothing and of course, LED

displays. Holzer’s installation Kind of Blue consists of seven dynamic

blue LED displays. These displays take the form of long strips in the

floor of a room at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas.

Holzer’s LEDs show the words of a poem continuously scrolling

across museum floor at various speeds. The room housing Kind of Blue faces a pond which, at

night, reflects the words of the LED poem a second time ("The Weight of Words” 2013). This

installation, along with others made by Holzer, inspires me to incorporate text in my LED

sculpture and serves as a guide to my design process.

C. Case Studies on Art Integrating Light and/or Text for Activism

The Overpass Light Brigade is a public art initiative focusing on activism. The project

was originally started in 2011 by Lane Hall and Lisa Moline. These two Wisconsin artists were

interested in raising awareness for the campaign to recall newly elected Governor Scott Walker.

Kind of Blue, Jenny Holzer

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To accomplish this Hall and Moline created a series of illuminated LED signs to be held by

activists at night on overpasses above highways. Each of these signs displays one letter, spelling

out a word or phrase when held together in formation by several individuals. The LED signs

were so successful that Hall and Moline continued the project online by posting a simple guide to

creating the signs and by creating an online community, self described as “a loose and inclusive

affiliation of people dedicated to the power of peaceful

protest and artful activism” (Hall 2013). This project

demonstrates the power and visibility achieved by

combining light and text in public art. Recognizing the

similarities between the Overpass Light Brigade’s signs

and my idea of an LED sculpture inspires me to take my

project in a similar direction, combining light and text to

accomplish goals rooted in activism.

The Illuminator is a collective of anonymous public artists

which originally formed as part of the Occupy Wall Street movement

in New York City. This collective operates mainly by using a van

equipped with audio and video projection capabilities to transform

public spaces in ways that encourage education and dialogue about

the grievances that the Occupy movement is focused on. According

to the ‘Statement’ page of their website The Illuminator has “staged

hundreds of interventions in public spaces both geographical and

virtual, as acts of incitement and invitation” since its formation (“The Illuminator” 2015). One of

Overpass Light Brigade, Lane Hall

and Lisa Moline

The Illuminator

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The Illuminator’s recent spectacles was the projection of Edward Snowden’s bust on top of a

monument to American prisoners of war in New York City’s Fort Greene Park. Days before this

projection a separate group of anonymous artists created a cast metal bust of Snowden which

they erected on top of the same New York City monument. The metal bust was of course taken

down soon after by city officials. In response to the removal of the metal bust The Illuminator

projected a 3D hologram of Snowden’s bust on top of the monument from which the metal bust

was removed (Goldstein 2015). The Illuminator’s projection of Snowden plays an important role

in my design process, serving as my inspiration to use a projector for the public simulation of my

LED sculpture.

Chapter III: Methods

A. Original Conception of LED Sculpture

My planned public art installation will take the form of an eight foot long, four foot wide

and one foot deep dynamic display of LED lights. This display of LEDs will be controlled by a

microcontroller called an Arduino. Both the Arduino and the LEDs will be enclosed in a housing

which will be fabricated using a 3D printer. This LED array will display a series of paired,

juxtaposed phrases. These phrases pertain to police brutality, quoting the voices of police

brutality victims in addition those of non-victims such as protesters and commentators. The

entire system of the Arduino and LEDs will be energetically self sufficient. This will be

accomplished by using a solar panel to charge an attached battery during the day. This battery

will power the Arduino and LEDs, illuminating them during the night.

I wanted to install my LED sculpture in a highly trafficked area of campus. My first

choice location was above the western entrance to the UMass Campus Center. In order to have

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an art piece installed anywhere on campus, one must first receive approval from the Public Arts

Committee. I met with this committee early on in the stages of my plan. I explained to them my

idea for an installation and told them where I wanted to located it. The Public Arts Committee

informed me of a school rule that no art installation may modify the exterior of a UMass

building. The Committee also mentioned that the hotel and dining areas inside the Campus

Center would likely not welcome an art installation on my chosen topic of police brutality.

Although this was discouraging, the committee did suggest a location for my project that would

not involve modifying the exterior of any building. If I installed the piece on top of the eastern

outer wall of an upper level of the campus parking garage I would avoid having to modify the

building and would achieve almost the same level of visibility as if I had installed the piece

above the western entrance to the Campus Center. This became my new planned installation site.

Meeting the Committee made me realize that the mere nature of my project may be

unappealing to potential hosts, making it difficult to find a suitable location. After some thought,

I came up with several alternative options for my LED sculpture’s location, in case those in

charge of the parking garage declined. Some local organizations that I think would be

worthwhile to ask to host my sculpture include the Unitarian Universalist Society of Amherst,

the Jewish Community of Amherst, the Wesley United Methodist Church, the neighboring

Northampton Friends Meeting as well as the Bartlett or Herter buildings on the UMass campus,

as these house mainly social science departments.

B. My Introduction to Learning Arduino

It became clear early on in my research that in order to construct my LED sculpture I

would have to achieve a certain level of skill in programming Arduinos and basic electronic

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circuitry. I began this learning online, finding several indispensable resources for Arduino

programming such as an Arduino simulator and several user-generated guides to its use. I used

these guides to gain a basic knowledge of Arduino programming.

However my true introduction to Arduinos came later at a workshop I attended. This

workshop was presented by Ayliffe Brown, a student at

Hampshire College. It was one component of Ayliffe’s

Div III project, a project similar to a thesis. I was lucky to

find out about her workshop early on. When I realized the

huge parallel between my plan and her project, I

contacted her and reserved a spot at her workshop.

Ayliffe’s workshop focused on creating wearable technology using Arduinos. She had

recently interned at a company that produces Arduinos and accessories called SparkFun, and had

decided to focus the remainder of her studies in this area. During her several hour long workshop

she taught how Arduinos can be used to create wearable technology. I was happy to find that

these skills applied directly to my intended use of the Arduino as well. Ayliffe had arranged a

grant with the Hampshire College Library which allowed her to purchase ten LilyPad Arduinos,

all of which she gave to the attendants of her workshop to take home. Ayliffe and her workshop

were a very lucky discovery for me because the workshop served as my first hands-on

introduction to a real Arduino. I left her workshop with my new LilyPad Arduino in my hand and

with a great deal of knowledge and inspiration in my head. Perhaps the most important thing I

learned at her workshop was the ease with which one can program an Arduino and make it

LilyPad Arduino

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control LED lights in the way that I wanted to. I knew right away that a platform as simple as

this would be accessible to almost anybody interested in building the LED sculpture.

C. Quotation Curation

I began my curation of the pairs of phrases to be displayed by researching past and

present instances of police brutality. I collected much of the information on recent instances of

police brutality from news articles while older information on police brutality in the U.S. was

gathered from historical accounts. My resources for this research included the UMass Library, a

U.S. Department of Justice report titled “Investigation of the Ferguson Police Department” and

several informative websites and news outlets.

Some of the most powerful words that have been said regarding past and present police

brutality came from the mouths of the victims themselves. I curated the series of juxtaposed

phrases intending to send a powerful message against police brutality to the viewer. I chose these

pairs of phrases with deliberation. I intended to impress upon viewers the vast gap between the

way in which America and its police force portray themselves and the disgusting truth of their

actions.

Many of the pairs of phrases follow a common theme. Often one phrase is an easily

recognizable saying pertaining to American freedom such as “Liberty and justice for all” from

the United States’ Pledge of Allegiance or the motto of a police force such as the Chicago Police

Department’s “We serve and protect”. The other phrase quotes the words of victims of police

brutality such as the last words of Eric Garner, “I can’t breathe” or the words of witnesses of

police brutality such as Bernard Ewing, saying “They’ll shoot you. They’ll kill you.”

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In addition to many pairs of such phrases, and near the end of their display, I included

staggering statistics about the police state in the U.S. and a call to action: “You see, but what will

you do?” In the last phrase I quote Mahatma Gandhi, requesting that we “Be the change that you

wish to see in the world.” I believe that ending with this call to action makes the series of phrases

all the more powerful. I hope that this arrangement of quotations empowers viewers and

contributes to the local discourse about police brutality.

D. Simulation Projection

One component in planning this installation was running a public simulation of the text to

be displayed. I wanted to see the range of viewers’ responses to the pairs of quotations and

analyze them before submitting the final plan for my installation. This simulation took the form

of a video displaying the pairs of quotations I had curated. I have included the video as an

artifact accompanying this thesis.

Before publicly displaying the simulation, I visited the Fine Arts Center to perform a test

run. I borrowed my friend’s projector, and used it in conjunction with a long extension cord and

my laptop to project my simulation onto the chosen outside wall. I projected the simulation over

the course of the evening’s sunset, and concluded that it was only worthwhile to project at night.

The ambient light before night was too bright, making it impossible to see my projection.

In order to draw attention and viewers to my public projected simulations I created a

promotional Facebook event. This Facebook event

included excerpts from my abstract as a description,

and detailed the location and time of the projected

simulations.

Projecting at UMass Fine Arts Center

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I projected this video simulation publicly on three occasions. These three public

projections took place outdoors for about an hour beginning once the sun had set at eight

o’clock. I chose to project the simulation onto the largest concrete outside wall of the Fine Arts

Center at UMass to maximize visibility to passers by. I arrived ten minutes before eight and

found a nearby outdoor wall outlet. I plugged in and ran my extension cord from there to a spot

in front of the wall I chose to project onto. I set up the projector I had borrowed, connected it to

my laptop and played the video on a repeating loop for an hour.

During these three hour long public projections I had a video camera set up on a tripod

several feet behind the projector in order to record both the projection and the reactions of

passers by. I kept an audio recording device with me in order to record any important

conversations I might have with passers by. Many friends who I had invited showed up to watch

and support me. Even more importantly for me, many passers by stopped, took an interest and

spoke with me about the project. Everyone who stopped and watched the projection reacted to it

positively.

In addition to these three public projections, I projected my simulation privately on one

occasion. This private projection took place at EquaRox, a music and art event in Holyoke with a

focus on social justice and equality. I was invited to run my projection EquaRox by a friend of a

friend who had seen the Facebook event I made and decided my projection would fit the event’s

theme perfectly. This private projection was also a success. I was able to talk with many more

people about my project and everyone I spoke with appreciated it. These simulations were very

encouraging to me. People reacted so well to the projections that I was confident my choice of

pairs of quotations had been successful.

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Chapter IV: Results

A. Analysis of Reactions to the Projected Simulation

The only negative response that my project received came shortly after I created the

Facebook event promoting my simulation projections. I had not yet projected the simulations, I

had only made an event on Facebook. An acquaintance of mine messaged me soon after I created

the event. Her message, littered with harsh words and swears, essentially called me insensitive

and indeed racist for taking on this project against police brutality, a phenomenon that affects

primarily people of color. She reasoned that because I am white I cannot ever truly know what it

is like to be a person of color living in the U.S., constantly threatened by the possibility of police

brutality. Because of this, she said, it was not my place to create such a project.

My immediate reaction was one of defense. How could my project, aiming to empower

residents of the UMass Amherst area and to contribute to the local discourse about the horrors of

police brutality, be racist? This accusation represented, literally, the antithesis of my project’s

intent. The only comforting thought I had was that this was a reaction not to my simulation itself

but to the Facebook event I posted. If my acquaintance saw my projection, surely she would

think differently.

After thinking for some time I calmed myself and came to the personal conclusion that

my project is appropriate and hopefully will be effective, regardless of my race. It certainly is in

no way racist. I agree wholeheartedly with her statement that I can never truly know what it is

like to be a person of color living in the U.S., but I do not believe that this fact precludes me

from creating a project to empower people and contribute to the discourse about police brutality.

I believe that the more this issue is discussed, debated, written about and portrayed through the

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medium of art the more quickly national change will come about in the way police officers treat

U.S. citizens. Needless to say, this reaction caused me to be a bit nervous during my public

simulation projections.

Because this initial negative reaction was so unexpected, I wasn’t sure what to expect in

terms of other viewers’ reactions. Devoid of any prior expectations, I was pleasantly surprised by

the reactions I received at the simulation projections themselves. As I discussed previously many

passers by who saw my projection stopped to take a closer look. Some even came to talk with me

about the project. I received comments and questions such as “When will you be doing this

again?”, “It’s great that someone is promoting a discussion about these issues” and even “Good

job for doing this.” People were enthusiastic about it, seemingly encouraged by the fact that I

took this topic on for my public art project. These positive reactions to my simulation projections

informed me that the quotation pairs I chose had been effective. These would be the words

displayed by my completed LED sculpture.

B. Next Steps: Constructing the LED Sculpture

The plan I have outlined in this project must become a reality. In order for this to happen,

the constructor of the LED sculpture must have a certain level of skill and knowledge. The

constructor will need to have a basic knowledge of electrical circuitry, the ability to assemble the

small components of the Arduino and LEDs and the programming skills to make the Arduino

control the LEDs and display the appropriate text. Ideally I would like this project to be

accessible to as many people as possible. To ensure that anybody interested in constructing the

LED sculpture is able to do so I have collected a number of essential resources which aid in

learning these requisite skills. These are the same resources with which I began learning to

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program the Arduino. Although I gained a large portion of my skill and knowledge of Arduinos

from Ayliffe’s workshop I am confident that these online resources are sufficient for anyone

interested in learning how to use an Arduino for the purpose of this LED sculpture.

Autodesk’s website 123d.circuits.io offers several tools that make learning how to use the

Arduino an easy endeavor. One of these is a tool that simulates, builds and tests electronic

circuits. Another is an Arduino simulator that allows users to program and test prospective code

for an Arduino. These tools are essential for anyone unfamiliar with Arduinos.

I have also collected three online guides to learning about the Arduino that I found to be

especially helpful as a beginner. These guides are hosted on the websites arduino.cc,

learn.adafruit.com and instructables.com. Arduino.cc is the official website of Arduino and offers

multiple guides explaining how to program it for various purposes. Learn.adafruit.com is a third

party website that sells Arduinos and other electronic components in addition to providing

tutorials for their use. Autodesk’s project Instructibles.com offers a collection of in-depth

tutorials made by its community members. These tutorials cover a broad range of topics

including programming Arduinos to control the action of LEDs. Luckily for the prospective

Arduino user there is a strong online community of Arduino enthusiasts. Members of this

community are often more than happy to help newcomers learn about Arduinos. Sometimes they

are even willing to oversee the construction of projects such as my LED sculpture. They try to

make it as easy as possible for newcomers to learn the skills they need.

These are the resources with which I began to learn about Arduinos. These tools, guides

and community members helped me gain the basic skills of Arduino programming. My true

introduction to Arduinos came later at Ayliffe’s workshop, but as I mentioned earlier, one of the

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most important things that I learned at her workshop was that Arduinos are easy to use and

accessible to almost anyone. I know firsthand that these resources teach the skills required to

build this LED sculpture.

Chapter V: Conclusion

The Boston Museum of Fine Arts’ newly hired director Matthew Teitelbaum recently

stated that “artists are the most courageous people… because they put themselves in the firing

line and in the public eye over and over again, with uncertainty” (Bowen 2015). I’ve come to

agree with Teitelbaum. While carrying out this project I have gained a better understanding of the

role of the artist in the world of activism. It seems that in general activism takes place among

large groups of people. Whether it’s a march, a riot or a peaceful protest, most cases of activism

involve the greater community. It is this matter of belonging to a community that separates the

activist-artist from other activists. While the majority of activists are backed by a crowd of

supporters activist-artists usually are not. Activist-artists take a much more personal approach,

reflecting their inner thoughts and feelings pertaining to their cause. In doing so, activist-artists

open themselves up to criticisms from all directions. I learned this firsthand when I received the

message accusing me of racism. I have always believed that making art necessarily involves

taking risks; I now know that making activist art involves even greater risks.

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United States. Department of Justice. Civil Rights Division. Investigation of the Ferguson Police

Department. N.p.: n.p., 2015. Print.