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What communication can happen outside of the internet? ZINES MURALS STREET ART ETC

Shala explained that while the internet is a useful tool for information, not everyone has access. but there's a lot of storytelling that happens in zines and street art. Jeffrey Vander Clute sees the work he does as connecting on-line world and real/off-line world.

Janelle is a student and is interested in any new developments in new media.

Carina's background is in journalism, but is grounded in community activism. She's interested in how media and art for storytelling and making change.

Jadine and Tracy are both from traditional media and don't have experience with street art, so are curious at the role street art can play.

Karen hears that print will go in the way of theatre in relationship with movies. People would have a much different experience with print materials -- and what they are willing to pay for it.

Are there Free Walls in Seattle where artists could paint? How can artists and property owners connect to make use of these empty walls.

Tracy: There was a convenience store in Delridge where youth from Youngstown Cultural Center worked with a group advocating for healthy foods, did a beautiful mural on healthy foods at the convenience store wall. Most people are enchanted when they see a new piece of artwork go up on an empty wall somewhere along the way of their daily commute. It is refreshing and thought-provoking.

In Chile and Argentina, street art is very much alive and vibrant. It is legal there to put up street art, even politically based, though simple tagging is not. What is it in our culture that doesn't allow space for art to infuse every day life?

Karen: When we have school budget cuts, the arts are the first to go in an attempt to focus on "the basics."

Carina reflected on what Mitsue said in the beginning about how we are taught to separate art and emotion from intellect. In Latin American countries, there is this long history of people expressing their political views through arts and culture.

Karen: how we could use electronic billboards to get information/messages out there, but others talked about how we take in hand-made, physical, tangible messages in a very different way.

What about funding for public art? It's great when there is allocation for public dollars, but then it becomes a politicized process. There is still a selection process for who and what gets funded. It usually goes to established artists rather than emerging ones. What the internet provides is open access. Whatever you write or produce can be posted and sent out into the universe. Artists have very limited access to ways to communicate and distribute their ideas. How do you preserve open, physical public space for free expression? ** access to distribution for print and visual mediums

Harold: We need to integrate art into all of our work, like they are doing at this conference with how we have an artist capturing the conversations that are going on. People understand things in different ways, but we are not teaching people in school the ability to use art and other tools to communicate.

The group agreed that there are some things that just can't be communicated in the virtual world, that there is still a need for art to happen in the real world. also physical space becomes more sacred with the advancement of technology and the internet

People shared different experiences with street/guerilla art, like wheat-pasted animal drawings in West Seattle, manequins staged in the street, enlarged portraits of a disenfranchised community posted as larger than life murals.

Tent cities are an example of a visual statement of the issue of homelessness.

Douglas: Can street art be used to communicate news? How can it be a more thorough media approach?

Street art is transitory. It's expected that what you put up will be painted over.

disturb the visual scene