NEWS FLASH

This weekend Occupy Campaign takes place in the Jan van Gaalen neighborhood in Amsterdam. The auditorium of Smart Project Space is taken over by the base camp of this campaign. In 48 hours we work with artists, writers, theoreticians, musicians and others on a new step in the Occupy movement. By using the strategies of an American election campaign, we want to bring politics back into the street in 'de Baarsjes' - a neighborhood where more than 90% didn't vote for the current government.

Untill Saturday evening you are very welcome to see the work in full swing in Smart Project Space.
http://www.smartprojectspace.net/

For months, artists, academics, writers and economists gathered on Beursplein in Amsterdam to help visualize, theorize, imagine and act upon the worldwide demand for radical democratization that was being put forward in the Occupy movement. Now that the tent-camps are disappearing, the movement is seeking new and effective ways to share its agenda in favour of a democratization of our politics, of our economy, our ecology and our public domain.

With the aid of members of the group that have prior experience with political processes, such as the 'grass-roots' campaigns in the US, Smart Project Space will be used as a temporary headquarters for the continuation of the Occupy manifestation. The aim is to translate the principles of Occupy into a professional political campaign, whilst continuing to honour the principles of a leaderless movement without a fixed programme. The campaign focuses on contrasting different forms of political activity – namely those of parliamentary politics and street politics – as well as being an experiment to develop new strategies in a continuation of the Occupy protests.

Occupy believes in presentation, as opposed to representation. The local grass-roots campaigns in the US, on which our campaign will be modelled, use many strategies that simulate active 'present' involvement of citizens, but in actual fact only utilizes them in a political process that is resolutely based on extreme representation. We aim to reverse the situation – by simulating the same campaign strategies we will reclaim these them whilst also experimenting with a renewed politics of presence.

The campaign will be centred on the Jan van Galen neighbourhood. According to our data analysis, in this area a mere 7.5% of potential voters are represented by the current Dutch government. This statistic provides an incentive for democratic reform – by way of engaging the residents directly in the campaign, rather than of asking them to become voters in a passive political process. The Occupy group will engage with the residents of the Jan van Galen neighbourhood via groundwork teams and phone-banks, and by creating the conditions for an active political domain. Not to simply get people's vote, but by facilitating the conditions for the community to represent itself.

Visitors to Smart Project Space will be asked to join and support the campaign, rather than to 'consume' the Occupy experience. They will be put to work on the campaign in the neighbourhood, on the phone-bank or in other activities at the campaign headquarters, and through this experience, gain an understanding of the significance of the Occupy movement so far.

Friday, 2 March 2012 at 12:00 until Saturday, 3 March 2012 at 23:30

https://www.facebook.com/events/171374892975700/

http://www.occupycampaign.nl/

Katja van Driel (currently studying at the DAI) and  DAI alumni Jimini Hignett and Doris Denekamp are members of Occupy Campaign.