Note: Not appropriate for school setting due to government guidelines disallowing ‘political’ teaching.
Age Groups: 5+
No. Staff per children necessary: 1 adult per 10 children
Approximated time: Any
Required Materials: Reclaimed advertisements, glue, tape, scissors. If infrastructure has sinks available: paint, brushes, cups for water.
Overview:
This simple workshop invites people of all ages to engage with and gain the power to change advertising. The supporting infrastructure of late capitalism encourages us to overlook advertising, to assume the unrelenting onslaught as a natural and expected part of our public environment. By a) actively noticing and b) using craft to change advertising, we can reclaim our right to community oriented, beautiful public spaces that foster relationships rather than consumers.

This workshop communicates its message effectively through medium of disruption and thus doesn’t require a briefing. Thus, this workshop is ideal for collaborative work, drip feed style events that do not have strict session times, and all age groups from very young kids to adults.
Once the work is completed, the disrupted advertisements will be put back up in public spaces in place of their corporate counterparts. This offers the art back to the community, encouraging the public to question the intention of advertisers, and why so much of public space is dedicated to encouraging consumerism.

Workshop Plan:
Advertisements will be sourced from bus stops, underground trains, and banners (when possible) prior to the workshop. One advertisement will be placed on each table available, with a stock of advertisements on the side for participants to cut up. Participants will be encouraged to alter these in any way they want to, with no pressure on artistic intention, and encouraging collaboration. If the space has sinks available, paint will also be provided for participants to work with. They can spend as little or as much time on the piece as they want to. Once the advertisement is full/fully recontextualised, it will be hung to dry, and another paced on the table.
Intended Impact:
Foremost, this workshop aims to embed its participants with a sense of agency and affect in their environment. By taking something that has been intentionally naturalised to hide its violent intention, and identifying it as unnatural, exercising our ability to change it, participants are greatly empowered. Beyond this, the workshop encourages participants, and the general public upon viewing the work, to rethink how we allow our public spaces to be treated. Questioning whether we want it to be full of corporate propaganda, or public, communal art.

Supporting Texts: