ProvFlux 2007

public interventions

A Parade Yay!
Saturday July 14th 12 :: noon(ish) :: departs from Steel Yard Home Base
A colorful tribe of masquerading creatures, beasts, dragons, bike floats, doggies and other indigenous earth beings will shake through the thick mist to celebrate the day and each-other, awakening the sleeping spirits as we draw closer to the enchanted empire of realized dreams. Our route begins on Kinsley Ave and travels to Atwells Ave., Knight St., Broadway, Westminster St, and ends at FooFlux on Empire St. Costume Making, Float Decorating and Juicy Coffee Time will be happening inside the Free Store on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, from 9am-noon. Email me if you have any questions!

Art Riot :: Luther Blisset + friends
Friday, July 13 - Sunday, July 15 :: call (401) 486-6116 to join in
Continuing in the tradition of previous years, participants of the Art Riot will traverse the city for a full 48 hours, letting chance, happenstance, and inspiration guide the derive. Installations, alterations, and conversations will follow in their wake. Anyone can join in at anytime for as long as they'd like, just check in at either of our ProvFlux hubs to find out how to join in the fun.

Comment It :: Bingxia Yu
Ongoing :: inquire at ProvFlux Hubs
Comment It will be a project for people to express their psycho-geographic opinions right to the city. People always feel the need of saying something about a place, either a personal psycho-geographic story, or one simple line to express their like or dislike. At the same time, other people feel the need to hear about them so as to have an alternative understanding of a place, and then to form their own opinions, either positive or negative. These debates in a city by its inhabitants are important to everyone's urban experience. I will distribute stickers from the ProvFlux hubs with the words “I like it”, “I don’t like it”, or “Indifferent,” with several lines of blank space to the citizens of Providence. Participants can put their stickers anywhere around town on the places about which they have something to say.

Critical Ass a.k.a. The Naked City
8:30-ish :: depart from Firehouse 13
Hey PIPSters: Participate In Pornographic Sculpture! Why did Debord call it the naked city anyway? Who cares? We’ll make our own naked city with a naked bike ride through Providence! Let´s reclaim the streets with an I.U.D.! An Improvised Undressed Drift, that is. But Critical Ass will need to reach critical ass, which I estimate to be at least a dozen people. Date and time to be determined. Let one of the organizers know you are down and we´ll coordinate a time. If we don’t reach critical ass there will have to be an alternative ride: The Critical Pass a.k.a. the Partially Undressed City.

Didactic Walk :: Robby Herbst
Saturday, July 14 :: FooFlux
I am going to spend Saturday afternoon walking around Providence telling people what to do. Rather than cloud my aesthetics vision with “open ended” models of play and public creativity, I’m looking for outcomes. You may participate in this event only if you are willing to do as I say. While “possibilities” are great way to generate art and friendships, as for the end to war, poverty, global warming and capitalism are concerned, there are some relatively clear things to be done.

FlowerPot :: Laurencia Strauss + Kath Connolly
Ongoing :: throughout Providence
Potholes are born from a combination of traffic, water, and the illusion that we can pave to create controlled pathways. Potholes imprint our daily experiences of a place and are common metaphors for failures or flaws in public systems. FlowerPot reclaims these spaces throughout the city, emphasizing DIY repair as well as the friction between nature and constructed systems.

Progressive Runway Project IV :: Joan Wyand
Friday, July 13 :: WoollyFlux
Saturday, July 14 :: FooFlux
Sunday, July 15 :: after the Kickball Challenge :: Station Park (and beyond)
The Progressive Runway Project is a recycled materials fashion show, now in its fourth year at ProvFlux. This project promotes collecting old clothing from your closets, in dumpsters, and gutters and making them into something new. The goal for this year is to have as many people as possible wearing recycled fashions throughout Provflux weekend. There will be two scheduled fashion shows, one during Wooly-flux’s M. 2 ½ Cosmos Pageant and one during the kickball game. All participants are welcome to email me, or just talk to me at Provflux. The Progressive Runway Project IV encourages you to barrow recycled fashion from the collection, or make your own if you wish!

Searching Providence Solving Problems :: Sara Dierck + Michael Dodge
Friday, July 13 :: noon-3p at the Steel Yard Home Base :: 9-12p at WoollyFlux
Saturday, July 14 :: FooFlux
www.coasttocoastconstructions.com
We propose to solve the problems of five strangers. We will make ourselves available to people and ask about any nagging worry, daily nuisance, or hard-to-solve trouble. Towards the end of Provflux we will present each individual, chosen for variety and feasibility, with a personalized solution to his or her problem. Armed only with our skills, brains, and limited tools, we will set out into the neighborhoods of Providence and rely on the kindness of strangers as well as resources available to us to accomplish our tasks. With this project we hope to demonstrate an interconnectedness of cities and the wealth of information and possibility of ties to one another that super-cedes reliance on consumer culture, and quick, often empty, fixes. Our gesture is reliant on the friendly gestures of others, and our personal strengths are dependent on both personal knowledge and strengths of all the people we will meet.
Project funded in part by the Foundation for Contemporary Art.

Small Press Pedaller :: Meredith Younger + Ashley Mercado
Friday, July 13 :: noon-3p :: Steel Yard Home Base
Saturday, July 14 :: FooFlux
The Small Press Pedaller is a bike-powered mobile library cart featuring zines, newspapers, and other independently published items from around the globe. Participants can browse, read, and trade publications from the library. Temporary rentals can also be arranged, ask the librarians about how to obtain a SPP Library Card. As the ever-growing corporate conglomerations slowly suffocate outlets for free thought, and independent publishers struggle to keep the pages flowing from their presses, the SPP offers a small, localized, and autonomous solution in keeping the exchange of small press vital and relevant in our communities.

Take Back the Bench
Ongoing :: Throughout Providence
Benches aren’t what they used to be. Uncomfortable, ugly, abused, and disused. Skateboarding tried to reclaim the bench but cities started installing brackets, spikes, slabs, and other devices to stop skating. Transients tried to reclaim the bench but cities installed protrusions and other imediments to prevent sleeping. In response to these anti-social developments there are two responses: A) take the final step and render the bench fully uninhabitable by making your own addition to the city´s anti-chilling devices(literally and figuratively overturning the bench) or B) adopt a bench, make it cozy, with cushions, pillows, stuffed animals, ashtrays, beverage holders, coping for skate rats, footstools etc. It’s your call but either way, make sure to take back a bench while you are in Providence.