Campus buzz
Wednesday
Fine arts exhibit (painting, ceramics, pho
tography), 10a.m.-5 p.m., LaVerne Krause
Gallery, Lawrence Hall, free.
"We're Not Widget Workers: Sexuality
and Class in the Unionization of North
west AIDS Foundation, 1985-1995" (talk by
Christa Orth sponsored by the Center for
the Study of Women in Society), noon-1
p.m., 330 Hendricks, free, 346-5015.
Copyright Online Workshop (spon
sored by the UO Libraries), 2-3:20 p.m.,
Media Services Studio A, Knight Library,
free, 346-1746.
"The Creation of a Federal Aviation Ad
ministration" (talk by FAA Airworthy Safe
ty Program manager Cordan Reed),
2-3:20 p.m., 216 Allen, free, 484-4032
YWCA Open Flouse, 4-6 p.m., 841 E. 18th
Ave., free, 346-4439.
Johnson
continued from page 1
“I would love for students to
leave my class with a different set
of priorities that they are prepared
to honor or validate,” he said.
Johnson’s own love for design
was born out of political posters.
Growing up in South Africa during
the apartheid era, Johnson, 43,
was mesmerized by how posters
challenged government authority
and white privilege.
“It was through the political
poster that I wanted to be a design
er,” he explained. “It was through
my experience in designing that I
wanted to become a teacher.”
The professor’s teaching is cen
tered around themes and concepts
which he said are not usually con
sidered by most designers. In one
visual continuity class, titled “The
Gift,” students created a restaurant
in Lawrence Hall and fed people for
free for a week. In another themed
“Third Geography,” his students ad
dressed dominant images of mas
culinity and femininity in society
and explored identities that didn’t
fit in with either camp. In his cur
rent class, “Home,” Johnson said he
hopes his students will explore their
own personal conceptions of the do
mestic setting.
He said his teaching style is “rest
less, rooted in pleasurable inquiry.”
In Johnson’s class, ideas are not
static. The teacher starts with an
outline and then allows the class to
find a direction of its own over time.
“I find it hard to invite them to
play and experiment if I have a very
secure, clearly defined template.”
Johnson’s teaching earned him
the Ersted Award for Distin
guished Teaching in 1998 and the
University’s William’s Fellowship
for Distinguished Undergraduate
teaching. His commitment as a
teacher is what makes him so en
dearing to his students and those
who know him.
“There’s a presence to him,”
senior Wayne Bund said. “When
you hear him speak, he has an ar
ticulate passion for speaking.”
Bund said the most important
lesson he learned from Johnson
was how to connect art with daily
life. He added that Johnson main
tains the same intimacy in a class
of 80 people that he has in one-on
one interactions.
Third-year graduate student
Daniel Peabody, who was a grad
uate teaching fellow for John
son’s class, said Johnson gives
students the ability to find their
own voices and create the work
they want to create.
“For a lot of people, his basic
design class is where people stop
being artsy and start being
artists,” Peabody said. He said
the professor is not afraid of con
troversy or stating what he be
lieves, adding that Johnson is
probably the only faculty mem
ber who can wear leather pants
to class and get away with it.
Many of Johnson’s colleagues
also are inspired by his work.
Art department Chairwoman
Kate Wagle said Johnson has the
ability to motivate students to ex
ceed their own expectations with
energy and spirit and embrace
their work with passion and vigor.
“Professor Johnson is the ‘rare’
individual and artist sought by
most academic institutions,” Wagle
said in an e-mail interview. “He is
gifted, prolific and ambitious. The
breadth and complexity of his own
practice is seamlessly connected to
strongly related teaching.”
Yet, school is just one part of
Johnson’s life; he said he is dedi
cated to his “happy, precocious”
sons as well as his partner. He is
also working on several projects,
including a series of paintings, a
film, a pamphlet and preparations
for a performance piece in London
later this year called Remember
ing Wilde, a collaboration with
music Professor Jeffrey Stolet and
theater Professor John Schmor.
“I would hope that I’ve provided
students opportunities to play, to
experiment, to scrutinize, to criti
cize and, most of all, to decon
struct less as a critique than in the
spirit of inquiry,” he said.
Contact the freelance editor
at ayishayahya@dailyemerald.com
‘Guerrilla Video Primer’
offers alt-media advice
A how-to film produced by the
Cascadia Media Collective has
garnered attention across the
United States and Canada
Aaron Shakra
Pulse Reporter
There are subtle hints in “Guerril
la Video Primer” — a film released
by the local Cascadia Media Collec
tive last November — that their goals
are nothing less than revolutionary.
One example: the little anarchy “A”
written over their logo on the back of
the box’s cover art.
Much of the footage contained in
the sixty-minute film is scenes of riots,
demonstrations and other activist
events. Nevertheless, the tactics pro
posed in the video are entirely legal.
Its content ranges from technical in
structions for selecting and using a
digital camera to reporting and legal
advice for those who will be involved
in high-risk situations. Scenes from
the Cascadia Media Collective’s own
films are interspersed with these in
structions and serve as examples for
potential filmmakers.
University student and UO Sur
vival Center Co-director Marshall
Kirkpatrick has worked with the col
lective for two years. He provided
technical assistance for the film and
said it shows the thinking behind a
part of the activism movement
where people usually only see the
end product.
“We want to use the video as a tool
for organizing and empowerment; to
widen the field of activist videogra
phers,” Kirkpatrick said.
Collective founding member
Randy Shadowalker, who directed
and edited the video, said that the
group made it so other people
could have the skills to create their
own media.
“We’re hoping to take the mystery
out of the process,” he said. “If an
eighth grade kid wants to start using
a video record, we want that infor
mation to be there.”
The collective officially started in
summer 2000, but Shadowalker
and others had been producing a
“Cascadia Alive!” television series
since August 1996. That program
still airs every Wednesday on pub
lic access television.
Shadowalker said the decision to
create the collective came from a de
sire “to do more than just be a com
munity forum.” There are five core
members in the group, and it has an
other eight or nine extra volunteers.
The collective has a non-hierarchi
cal power structure and is a not-for
profit organization; it relies on dona
tions of time and money to allow
group members to work on projects.
Since its release, “Guerrilla Video
Primer” has been shown around the
country, in places such as New York,
Washington, Denver and Arizona.
There have also been screenings in
Canada. Shadowalker called the
feedback “amazing” and said Free
Speech TV wants to provide the
video to its subscribers as an incen
tive to join its organization. He
added that Witness, a group that
trains and equips social activists, co
founded by musician Peter Gabriel,
also might start including the film
with its video equipment.
The next public screening for the
film will take place at the University
during the Public Interest Environ
mental Law Conference, Mar. 6
through Mar. 9.
Shadowalker said the motivation
behind the collective calling the
video “guerilla” was to subvert tradi
tional media outlets.
“Mainstream media tends to call
itself independent,” he said. “It’s had
a strong use as propaganda by the
powers that be. Alternative media
can have a chilling effect on the rap
id propaganda machine that legit
imizes itself. Corporate media will
never turn its back on corporate
sponsors to any significant degree.
When it is confronted with the pow
er of an alternative media, they’re
going to change the way they look at
journalism in the future; they’re go
ing to be out of date. These move
ments are growing.”
Local ABC affiliate KEZI-9 news
Courtesy
Contact the Pulse reporter
at aaronshakra@daiiyemerald.com.
anchor Rick Dancer said he had
heard of the Gascadia Media Collec
tive but was not aware of the motiva
tions behind their group. He said he
had no problem with guerrilla media,
but his only concern regarded poten
tial biases in the reporting process.
“What would concern me is
‘Where are you coming from?’
You’ve got to report both sides of the
issues fairly,” Dancer said. “We’re
here to educate people with informa
tion, we’re not here to persuade
them to our opinion.”
However, Dancer said he wel
comes competition from the group,
and that its effect is positive overall.
“You’ve got to have people who
disagree with you,” he said. “If
they’re here to give me more compe
tition, I say good, let’s go. That’s what
we’re here for.”
hiprwill get you through your math class,
get a family of four through the whole day
_ will provide si* pounds of
food to the fight against hunger in Lane County.
You can help fight hunger in Lane County by donating even
one dollar to the Governor’s Food Drive until February 28.
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