Could beauty and art change political environments?

image from: http://tyandor.com/its-beautiful-its-safe/

Edi Rama was the Mayor of  Tirana, in Albania from 2000 to 2011. He transformed his city using colour.  Blogger Tyler Tyndor states that Rama's story draws attention to an under-recognized force for social change: the power of art and design.

Click on the link below to hear more....

link to Ted Talk http://video.ted.com/talk/podcast/2012X/None/EdiRama_2012X.mp4

Chris Jordan: intrepreting data using art

"Photographer Chris Jordan’s images take a wide open look at American culture and more specifically the current culture of consumerism. His most current series, Running the Numbers: An American Self Portrait makes an impact just by being able to visualize the data when the numbers are so staggeringly huge. "://blog.extensis.com/creative-fuel/chris-jordans-photos-and-statistical-representation.php

images below from:

http://www.dtdf.de/_site/seiten/merck/entscheidung2008.php

 

Link to Chris Jordan's TED talk

JR: Face to Face

JR makes some incredible statements about public art, so I hope you enjoy listening to his talks.

"In 2007, during the Face 2 Face project,
JR and Marco organize the largest illegal photography exhibition ever.

For this project, portraits of Israelis and Palestinians are pasted face to face, in monumental formats on both sides of the wall and in several Palestinian and Israeli cities."

Read more at the link below

http://www.jr-art.net/projects/face-2-face

or listen to JR's Talk by clicking on the link below: 

link to TED talk by JR on conflict and street art : http://video.ted.com/talk/podcast/2011/None/JR_2011.mp4

INSIDE OUT_Communities become the creators

link to Ted talk of JR's report on one_year_of_turning_the_world_inside_out

link to second clip on the inside out project

images from: http://www.fubiz.net/2011/07/22/jr-inside-out/

Link to JR's website