Dozens of underwater homeowners from around the country and hundreds of allies took to the streets on May 20th, 2013 to confront the Department of Justice, demanding an end to their "too big to jail" policy. Despite rampant fraud, abuses, and illegal foreclosures, not a single bank has been prosecuted. The home defenders marched, stormed the door at the DOJ, blocked all building exits, set up street blockades and an encampment on the front lawn.

On the following day, home defenders occupied the lobby of Covington & Burling in DC, the law firm that defends Wall Street firms like Goldman Sachs, among others. It's where senior DOJ officials came from (and are expected to return). 8 underwater homeowners were arrested blockading the revolving door. Both actions were organized by Occupy Homes and Home Defenders League.

Not An Alternative produced all the visuals for the event, including mili-tents: tents emblazoned with messaging that could function as mobile protest signs or as sleeping tents, as well as 100-foot flexible mesh netting with messaging that could serve as a banner or as a street barricade.

We also created social media graphics during the action that were pushed via multiple Facebook pages and Twitter feeds, telling the story of the day as it unfolded in a form that was easy to share. Here they are in reverse chronological order.

May 20th: Day of Action
Homeowners VS. Banking Execs
Showdown at the Department of Justice

Too Big to Fail, Too Big to Jail?

Millions of underwater homeowners have paid the price for Wall Street's crimes. From mortgage fraud to predatory lending, it's time to put bankers in jail.

On Monday, May 20, at 1:00pm, dozens of home defenders and hundreds of allies will take action and risk arrest to Bring Justice to Justice – demanding an end to the “too big to jail” policy, and relief for families and communities devastated by the financial crisis and foreclosure epidemic.

Not An Alternative is seeking interns to assist with our current and upcoming projects. We’re looking for candidates who are detail-oriented, organized, and motivated. Solid communications skills and an interest in Not An Alternative’s mission are a must. A background in art, design, or previous experience working with activist mobilizations or community organizations is highly desirable. Positions are paid, and academic credit may be possible depending on the institution.

Location: Brooklyn, NY (Greenpoint)
Hours and Duration: Quarterly 2013; 20-30 hours per week
Application Deadline: Rolling until filled. STRONGLY ENCOURAGED TO APPLY BY APRIL 26TH.

1) Art Production Internship
Help realize the production of Not An Alternative projects. Work in a team with Not An Alternative’s Creative Director and Principal Designer. Responsibilities include sign-making, stencil cutting, vinyl cutting and sign-making, screen-printing, basic carpentry, and basic painting. You are dexterous, detail-oriented and have a precise hand. Photography, video, and graphic skills a plus.

2) Graphic Design Internship
Seeking a junior designer with experience in typography, imaging and photo touch-ups, and strong familiarity with Adobe programs (Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator). AfterEffects and HTML5 a plus. Design work to be featured online, in print publications, and in projects deployed within art institutions and in public space.

3) Social Media / Online Communications Internship
Polish your online communications, promotions, and community engagement chops using Hootsuite, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, and Pinterest. Get direct hands-on experience with social media outreach, organizing, and strategy development. Research and implement creative campaigns to boost the profile of art/activist projects. Additional responsibilities may include blogger engagement and maintaining the Not An Alternative website. Great skills development opportunity - work one on one with a senior online organizing and social media strategy consultant. Strong writing skills and comfort level with social media required.

4) Research and Development Internship
Not An Alternative is hiring a Research and Development intern to identify opportunities for our organization and further the development of our practice. “Socially engaged art”, “design for social innovation”, “art and politics” -- these fields are exploding and so is the discourse surrounding these practices. Dive into it with research and writing for grants, residency openings, and for the development of arguments and examples used in Not An Alternative presentations and programming.

TO APPLY: Please send cover letter, CV, design portfolio or work samples (if applicable), and contact information for two references to info@notanalternative.net. Be sure to indicate which position(s) you are interested in. Please use the subject line “INTERN Application Spring/Summer 2013”

VOLUNTEERING
Volunteer opportunities are available for a number of Not An Alternative projects. Volunteers can assist with art production, design, research, social media outreach, and more. Interested applicants should send an email to info@notanalternative.net with "VOLUNTEER" in the subject line. Applicants will be contacted as opportunities arise.

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ABOUT NOT AN ALTERNATIVE
Not An Alternative is a hybrid arts collective and non-profit organization with a mission to affect popular understandings of events, symbols, and history. The group curates and produces interventions on immaterial and material space, leveraging the tools of architecture, exhibit design, branding, and public relations.

Not An Alternative's actions, installations, and presentations have been featured within art institutions around the world, and in the public sphere, where they collaborate with community organizations and activist mobilizations. They host programs at a variety of venues, including their Brooklyn-based gallery No-Space (formerly known as The Change You Want to See Gallery).

Artist John Hawke presents at Not An Alternative's Occupied Real Estate installation in Exit Art on May 12, 2012. The installation was featured in Collective/Performative, the final exhibition of Exit Art’s influential 30 years as a non-profit gallery and cultural center.

John has since moved to Portugal. We miss John, and we miss Exit Art!

62% of bankruptcies are linked to medical debt. Over 75% of those driven to bankruptcy had health insurance when they incurred those bills.

How do we avoid medical debt?

STRIKE DEBT.

http://rollingjubilee.org
http://strikedebt.org

Video produced by Hidden Driver + Animation by Not An Alternative
Thanks to Heather McIntosh + Ange Tran

Not An Alternative is pleased to participate in Art X Detroit, a 5-day multi-disciplinary art festival at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit. We will be presenting on April 11th on the Intersections Panel at MOCAD and on April 12th at the College of Creative Studies.

Intersections explores creative practices that seek to engage communities by working at the scale of neighborhoods and cities. These practices can amplify issues of social change through the design of spaces, events and experiences that cross cultural boundaries, inspire grassroots innovation, and encourage creative experimentation.

Moderated by Cezanne Charles of ArtServe Michigan. Panelists are Steve Dietz of Northern Lights.mn, Jon Brumit of MOCAD, and Not An Alternative.

Occupy Sandy organizers, hurricane victims, and volunteers joined 350.org, Occupy The Pipeline, and other environmental groups in DC on February 17th for the largest climate rally the U.S. has seen to date.

Not An Alternative provided placards featuring portraits of Sandy victims and volunteers making the gesture of the international symbol for shelter. The portraits were inspired by an identical project by En Medio, an art/activist collective in Barcelona that has been working with families under threat of displacement through eviction by the banks.

Not An Alternative spent the weekend at the People's Recovery Summit, a 3-day gathering of workshops, panels, strategy discussions, and performances to build solidarity around long-term Sandy recovery efforts.

Not An Alternative is pleased to participate in "The Politics of the Social in Contemporary Art" at the Tate Modern in London. Organized by Tate Modern, Adventures of Seeing, and the Visual and Material Culture Research Centre, Kingston University.

Can art intervene in social relations? What are the implications of involving art and its audiences in an ethical problem? And how do such practices relate to art’s social institutions? This symposium examines the turn towards participatory and collaborative art forms and the ethical questions that such practices raise.

Featuring a keynote by Professor Shannon Jackson and contributions from Wafaa Bilal, Emma Dowling, Grupo Etcétera, Gavin Grindon, Anja Kanngieser, Fran Lloyd, Renzo Martens, Not an Alternative, Luke Skrebowski, Wochenklausur and Ztohoven.

The symposium will be followed by film screenings by the day’s speakers.

It's been a busy few months! The Occupy movement is making international headlines once again, like here, and here.

Here's a sampling of production shots and props we've produced for Occupy Sandy, Strike Debt's Rolling Jubilee telethon, and the national Occupy Homes day of action (materials made and shipped to 10 cities doing foreclosure court disruptions, eviction defense, and vacant home occupations).