Transcript:
Should you smile on the picture? Is it a portrait? an activist direct action? A festival? A march? Are you the joker? What’s the purpose, the theme, the message, the audience, the emotional outcome you want to create? This is a theme I’ve wanted to cover for a while: joyful activism & the psychology of smiling, for those of you who are directing, organizing, campaigning... Say cheese!
My name is Camille, you’re listening to Cosmic Dynamics, 5 minutes of exploration on art, change & the music of the universe.
Personally, I am all for joyful activism. There are several tools in the activist toolkit obviously, from direct action, frontline resistance to all kinds of backline support. But in general, one main benefit of activism, if not ‘the main benefit’ is that it brings people together around one issue that they feel strongly about, and although the themes are often quite heavy to deal with from so close, the process can / should be joyful... I think. The more joyful, the more engagement. It’s not about holding the weight of the world on our shoulders. Now, if the goal is to create the buzz from an action, to send a message on a very serious and urgent issue, and pictures or videos are being taken to eventually appear in some form of mass media channel, the smile topic becomes a very… serious issue.
In my experience this is so commonly underestimated...Weeks of preparation, months sometimes, can go to waste if the wrong image gets picked: people having fun with a banner in their hand. Or all on the people doing the drama face and just here in the corner, there is a dude cracking a joke. Or it could be that people look bored…that’s quite common as well. It sounds very obvious / basic stuff I know but I feel this is the number one reason why these campaigns fail to create the emotional outcome they are shooting for.
First, did you ensure the whole preparation process is joyful and federating? Then, did you brief participants on social media posting. Does everyone understand this is actually performance arts? What’s the message and tone of voice you want to convey? To what audience? In what format? What’s the expression? At what time? Do you trust the press you called to come cover the action? Do you have a coordinated process for the photo moment? What mechanisms do you have in place to moderate what images get picked?
Or maybe you want to pick a completely different approach, artistic expressions, music, sounds, dance, creativity all around, and let these expressions be the message! You might want to question your format because the devil is in the lack of consistency, what’s written on the banner vs. the beer in hand and joyful smile, or the selfie at the climate march while there is an alarming speech going on in the background... A genuine joyful smile will always be perceived as a genuine joyful smile by others human beings, those watching on TV or reading the newspaper. And it’s the first thing we connect with cognitively, it takes over the rest of the story. Is the campaign message about pleasure and happiness? Or is the format of the action broken? Let me know your thoughts!
Last year, one movie starring a big smile took us to the universe of street riots and revolutions. Joker is what I am featuring as art piece of the day. Cheese
A genuine joyful smile will always be perceived as a genuine joyful smile by other human beings. A threat to joyful activism?
Featured illustration by @rikwilkinsonartist
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Thank you for tuning in.
Camille
