First off, thanks to everyone who checked out this blog! It was awesome to have so many people see it, especially so early in this process while Post It Politics is so newfangled and infantile.
So what has all occurred over these past three days? Well, truth is...*deep breath*...not much. Outside of a few people who heard about the launch of my project (YAY!) coming up and asking me if I had posted on anything, and me being sorta sheepish and responding like "...no" nothing has really taken place. Why is that you ask? The answer is quite simple really.
There has yet to be anything I can post on.
Now some of you might be like, shouldn't that be a good thing? Didn't you just use your last entry explaining how the stuff you want to post on is bad? The answer: no. My aim for this project is not to convince people to stop displaying their political selves. It's to take the ways we display, the things we display, and the areas where we display them and turn them into a place for political discussion. I want to add another dimension to propaganda.
So what do I mean there's nothing to post on? We all know it's campaign season. We've seen the bumper stickers. Why am I not hitting stuff up yet? Two reasons.
Reason number uno: There are some things that I, personally, am obligated not to post on.
As a representative of the University of Maryland, I cannot personally integrate interfering with private property into my project. I personally can't post on things like cars, clothing, and lawn signs (though I don't anticipate seeing many/any campaign signs on campus here at Maryland) for those things are an individuals private property, and interfering with said things violates Maryland state law. I basically have to limit myself to public spaces (i.e. chalking, posters, bulletin boards, etc.).
And as of yet, there has really been no public material around campus that I can post on. Students are just settling in. Politicians have yet to hold any events on campus. And political organizations on campus are more interested in recruiting members than in spreading their message. Which leads me to my second reason.
Reason number dos: There are some things that I can post on but probably shouldn't.
I'll start this one off with an example.
Exhibit A:
In a public space? Check. Propaganda for a cause/belief that people seek to debate? Check. A good way to get my project off on the right foot? Not so much.
There are tons of advertisements going up in every kind of way for every kind of student group/movement on campus right now, and I could technically be posting on them. However, since my project has everything to do with community involvement, I feel like in the chance that I get a tails on a coin flip and have to post a thumbs down, I would end up just working against my mission. This is why at the activity fair that happened today I didn't seek out the Campus Republicans or Campus Democrats to leave Post-it gifts at their tables. Also, even if I did just post thumbs up on something like, "Jesus is EverywHere," I feel that could get my project sidetracked. It is Post It Politics after all, not religion. Still, maybe somewhere down the road my project will expand to other debates, but perhaps not by my own doing.
In the mean time, I might find some old student made posters to post on now that Residence Hall Association election are done. No harm no foul, right ;)
@Post_It_2012
No comments:
Post a Comment