Submissions are now closed.

I am now accepting submissions of audio material to be played in my car, a 1998 Light Green Ford Escort Wagon, in the event that I pick up a Hitch Hiker.  Material can be in the form of audio art, music (mixed tape), monologue, silence, audio love letter, radio dramas, etc. Anything is possible.  You be the DJ.

NOTE: I will not listen to the material before I pick up a hitcher.

Please make sure all submissions are in the form of a standard audio-cassette, cds cannot be played. Please also give some consideration to my safety and that of the stranger/new friend sitting next to me.  Participants will receive payment in the form of one surprise item by mail.

All submissions would ideally be mailed to me by March 31st, 2012.

In the event of a Hitch-Hiker
c/o Zachary Gough, Misc Gallery Intern
312 Gillespie, Sherbrooke, QC
J1H 4X4

 August 8, 2013 and August 15, 2013

Under the auspices of Parallel University, Francesca Frattaroli, Zachary Gough, Laurel Kurtz, and Sandy Sampson conducted a two-part participatory discursive research project during Emerging Tactics: Public Schools at PNCA. They facilitated two discussions stemming from a well known 1971 debate entitled Human Nature: Justice vs. Power between linguist, political theorist and activist, Noam Chomsky and philosopher, social theorist and historian, Michel Foucault.

In the first event, they explored Foucault’s insistence of the necessity to understand the complex systems of oppression in our society. Taking on a performative facilitatory role, Parallel University attempted to dupe the audience by providing an overly authoritative and alienating experience. Due to the complexity of questions, and their icy and condescending demeanor as they read from a purposely lackluster and hard-to-follow Power Point, Gough and Sampson asserted their power and attempted to place participants in a disempowered and subordinate role. Kurtz, visible to the group and wearing security cop blues, sat expressionless and watched the event unfold through a video camera that was placed in front of a surveillance camera. Frattaroli, who stood unseen above the crowd while documenting the discussion, yelled, “TIME!” on cue, signifying that the jig was up. Parallel University then revealed the game, and initiated a conversation about how the model they had presented, though exaggerated, was reminiscent of what one might typically experience. The conversation continued through the second half of the first event, but in a more natural way.

In the second week, Parallel Universtiy followed Chomsky’s assertion that we need to envision better systems, while unearthing current injustices. They invited special guests who had particular experiences using decision making models to explore different power structures, from top-down decision making to consensus models. These special guests were invited to share their experience using these group decision making models, as well as some successes and failures of these models. From this, a discussion ensued, where all in attendance added to the conversation to get a deeper understanding of this topic.

Special guests included:
Alex Rempel (www.westmyfriend.com)
Ali Sadiq (OHSU) 
Ally Drozd 
Andre Fortes (CTCR Ma @ PNCA) 
Charlie Foster (Project Grow)
Chloe Womack (Recess Gallery)
Eden Oliver (www.westmyfriend.com)
Jeff Poyner(www.westmyfriend.com)
Kimi (Recess Gallery) 
Kurtiss Lofstrom (artist profile) 
Lynda Wysong (PNCA)
Marco Frataroli (Bastas, Cibo)
Mark Jondahl (Spherelab, Legendary Map) 
Nicholas Perrin (Lower Mainland Painting Company)
Rosemary Sotta
Rachel Mulder (Project Grow)
Sky 
Tori Abernathy (Recess Gallery) 

Participants were invited to join the conversation, and watch the video ahead of time
Part 1: http://www.youtube. com/watch?v=8tQRoUS8Plk

and

Part 2: http://www. youtube.com/watch?v=QOb3cVBGXC4

Charles Hale’s article “What is Activist Research?” and other texts were available to participants in the Emerging Tactics Reader.

A project and exhibition by drawing students at Jefferson High School, Portland Community College and Portland State University, in Oregon USA. Students were given the following assignment: Using a selection of skills and techniques covered in class along with those you came with, design and draw a currency that represents your own value system. Come to class on November 26th with at least 50 pieces of currency. These could be individual drawings or photocopies of one drawing, or printouts of something you draw, scan and print. 

On November 26th, 2014, in the afternoon Amy’s class from Jefferson came to Sandy’s class at PCC in room 221, and in the evening Sandy’s Drawing class joined Zach’s drawing class in room 285 Neuberger Hall at PSU for a currency viewing, exchange, conversation and celebration. Each student made 50 units of their own currency and went home with a unit of each class mate's currency. 

http://currencyswapproject.tumblr.com/

This year in the PSU Art and Social Practice MFA program, I'm helping to organize and produce a weekly radio show. The show evolved out of the weekly conversation series. Everyweek on the show students in the program interview people who's work, usually connected in some way to PSU, relates to Social Practice in some way. For the very first episode I had the privilege to interview radical pedagog Rozzell Medina. 

Rozzell Medina dropped out of high school at 17 because he was tired of being told what to learn about and how. He earned a liberal arts degree from Portland State University almost 14 years later. In 2009, he became interested in how people can come together to form independent, self-organizing learning communities that improve the quality of participants' lives and their abilities to co-create equitable and liberated societies. Since 2009, he has been working, creatively and collaboratively, to nurture these kinds of learning communities. 

In 2009, he became co-director of Public Social University with Judy Fleming, creating over a dozen free, all-ages learning events in art galleries, museums, and public parks. In 2010, he became the coordinator and committee chair of Chiron Studies at Portland State University, a unique program that makes it possible for  graduate students and upper-division undergraduates to design and instruct official 4-credit classes that the university does not already offer. 

He is currently collaborating with others to establish People's Social Learning Collaborative, a nonprofit organization that will nurture diverse face-to-face learning opportunities that are not dependent on institutions and which do not create burdens of debt. He is also completing his master's degree in Educational Leadership and Policy with an emphasis on Leadership for Sustainability Education. 

Interested folks can listen to the show almost every week at 12noon PST on kpsu.org. 

I spent much of the summer working with Roya Amirsoleymani at the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art putting together a symposium that finally happened this past weekend. Friday was a Think Tank of local and national experts convened surrounding Holcombe Waller's piece LGBT Requiem Mass (working title). Queer clergy, liturgical experts, performing artists, musicians, socially engaged practitioners, community engagement arts administrators, scholars brainstormed opportunities and directions for Holcombe's piece. Saturday, the program shown above, had a roundtable public presentation by Holcombe and the Think tankers, a large community forum facilitated by Ruth Wikler-Luker, a Q&A conversation with Ariana Jacob and Darren O'Donnell of Mammalian Diving Reflex, and respondent remarks and public conversation with the amazing Kate Duffly and Joel Tan.

I was Happy to host a Flash Field Guide session with friend and collaborator Grace Hwang at the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art's Time Based Arts Festival on Thursday, Sept. 18th 2014. The conversation explored Mammalian Diving Reflex's piece All the Sex I've Ever Had. It was an opportunity for audience members to engage around the issues and forms hat the piece brought up, and share a bit about our own experiences with sexuality. We also did and talked about a couple exercises that the participants in the piece did as part of the process of ATSIEH: Tell us about your first, last, best and worst sexual experiences. On your own in public, find someone who is 'out of your league' and approach them, tell them that you think that they are 'out of your league' and ask them if they agree.