Drowning NYC

Describe your idea and concept of your work in relation to the festival outlines:

http://www.drowning-nyc.net
http://www.paolocirio.net/work/drowning_nyc/drowning-nyc.php

Drowning NYC is a cross-media story; an experimental pilot that is told by actors and through narrative devices that are staged over the Internet and in the public spaces of a few chosen New York City neighborhoods. The genre and the art type are theorized by the artist as being Recombinant Fiction, a political and pervasive form of cross-media fiction.
This project proposes new pedagogical instruments, innovative activist strategies, elaborate media experiments, cutting-edge forms of theatre and cinema, questions about reality perception and construction and, above all, a new form of conceptual art.

Synopsis:
The CEO of "Future Water Proof Corporation" plans to economically exploit the rising sea level around New York City. A young man, Jason Gompers, thinks that the people of his neighborhood will be forced to leave because of gentrification caused by the corporation’s new developments to adapt to rising sea levels. He starts to investigate the corporation and decides to form “Future Climate Change Fighters” cells that oppose the CEO’s plans.
The drama inquires into how adapting and/or stopping global warming effects may affect the future of the city, especially in the gentrified and poor neighborhoods. The end of the story is open and intentionally unfinished, allowing audiences to think through and tackle the drama themselves.
Future Water Proof Corporation:
www.futurewaterproofcorp.com
Future Climate Change Fighters:
www.facebook.com/pages/Climate-Change-Fighters-NYC/116705608386337

What kind of communication approach do you use?

Development: The fiction brings into existence two fictional NYC characters. Characters speak directly to the audience in first person through media that fit their own personality. The fiction is staged in some of the poorest neighborhoods of Manhattan (Lower East Side Waterfront) and one of the most controversially gentrified (Stuyvesant Town). These areas of Manhattan will be some of the first to be flooded as sea levels rise. The fiction informs the audiences about potential sea level rising in NYC with factual data from official documents released by the city's administration and scientific research (Section ‘What’ of the Future Water Proof Corp's website). Most of the project has been developed in Europe where the artist could infiltrate the Infosphere of the concerned region of NYC by using his laptop to orchestrate all of the media and crew involved in this project. Engagement: The characters of the fiction encourage the people of the neighborhoods to react and participate in the story through public interventions, local media advertising and in the social network groups of the local population. In particular, students of a local high school (BHSEC) have become integrated subjects in the fiction by communicating with the characters. Jason Gompers (the hero) entered the school's network on Facebook as a fictional classmate asking their help to save the school from flooding and from Michael Meyer's plans. Jason's plea to the students of the high school: www.drowning-nyc.net/pdf/Drowning-NYC_msg_help_Jason.pdf Manifesto of Future Climate Change Fighters with practical suggestions about stopping Global Warming: www.facebook.com/notes/climate-change-fighters-nyc/manifesto-of-future-climate-change-fighters/163563873671571 Meanwhile, Future Water Proof Corp. engaged the relevant communities by interviewing people about their feelings concerning the sea level rise, informing them that the district will be the first to be submerged and the company is taking care of the situation. Furthermore, Michael Meyer's company has been promoted through posters and postcards left all over the area and in advertisements in local newspapers such as Town & Village and The Villager. www.flickr.com/photos/futurewaterproofcorp News about redevelopment exploitations to adapt to rising sea levels: twitter.com/fwpcorp

What are in your opinion concrete benefits to the society because of your communication?

The story informs the audiences about rising sea levels in NYC, and argues that instead of speculating on disasters or trying to adapt to climate change, we should prevent it with concrete shifts to stop the global warming.

What did you personally learn from creating your submitted work?

to communicate to people usually not politically engaged is much more difficult than engage people that already know the issues of the subject.
but it's much more important than auto-referential political works.

Why is your work, GOOD communication WORK?

Extract from:
http://www.paolocirio.net/press/recombinant-fiction.php

Tactical functions of the fiction.

Over the course of human history, stories have always been used to understand and interpret reality, from religions to ideologies, beliefs and identifications in large narratives defined civilizations. However it is in our mediated society that stories replace realities in creating fragmented artificial worlds and capturing people’s minds and imaginations within them. Reality continues to be redefined not only by its narrated image as fabricated by the entertainment and media industries, but recently also by the single individual who thinks and produces his/her own image to fit the artificial worlds.

Only by dramatizing the artificial reality of the Infosphere can audiences understand and then change their physical reality, over which they have recently lost control. Recombinant Fiction is about staging a drama inside the Hyperreality and Spectacularization of society to engage participants in a process as political agents.

The endeavor toward an efficient modern drama with effective outcomes requires strategy on stages and mediums as well as the employment of a language and aesthetic that speaks to the mindset of an individualized audience. The educational, informative and transformative purposes of the dramatic actions should be developed for motivating and transforming audiences usually indifferent to social issues and for mobilizing victims of oppression. This can be accomplished by infiltrating the audience’s language and environments with stories and characters that tempt the attention and interest of the target. Through identification with the characters’ dilemmas and public claims, Recombinant Fiction becomes a useful tool to reach new and large audiences whilst creating concern for social issues.

Tactical Recombinant Fiction is a powerful art form to exchange in or manipulate human consciousness, demystify absurd beliefs, undermining unethical powers and informing on social problems.

Where and how do you intent do implement your work?

i'd implement my work through mixed media installations:
http://www.paolocirio.net/work/drowning_nyc/drowning-nyc.php

Did your intervention had an effect on other Media. If yes, describe the effect? (Has other media reported on it- how? Were you able to change other media with your work- how?)