This is one of the favorite brief exercises in our artistic activism trainings, and a great place to start.
Step 1
Imagine that you are a superhero. Yes, a superhero. Like all superheroes you have special powers – we’ll get to that soon. You also have an outfit. You are very strong and powerful. The wind is blowing through your hair as you look off into the distance like superheroes do. Close you eyes for a moment and imagine what you look like.
As a superhero, you have super powers. Your superpower is that you can transmit your thoughts. You put brief thoughts or ideas into people’s minds. You can do this with any number of people you like – from everyone in the world, to just your friends or family, and everywhere inbetween. But all superheroes have weaknesses, and your weakness is you can only transmit thoughts three times before you have to leave the planet to recharge. So….
Step 2
Imagine what three brief thoughts you would communicate, and to what group of people. These thoughts can be personal and intimate, or political and public, or someplace in between. What matters are that these are ideas you want to get out there in the world. Write them down.
Done?
When you’re done, scroll down.
No peeking.
Here’s your superpower: Art.
Art is your superpower. Through art we can transmit ideas and put thoughts into people’s minds. And because of the special ways in which art works (more on the this later) we can also move people to act. Art is a special form of communication. We can use it to convey ideas to, and conjure emotions within, many different audiences. It may be an audience of a few dozen people at a fancy gallery, a few hundred people on a train, or millions through TV or the Internet, all depending on what media we use and the venues the work appears within.
Look at the three things you have written. You have a valuable piece of paper in front of you. This is the starting point for what you care about and what you want to communicate to the world.
So what next?
Learn how to turn these ideas into effective campaigns. We’re so excited to be able to share this series of free online trainings to help people like you use your creativity to create real change: C4AA Fundamentals webinars online.
We have a version of this curriculum written for teachers by Steve Lambert, if you like.
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