Ghana Think Tank

Ghana ThinkTank at Queens Museum of Art

2011-05-29T06:15:00.000-07:00

After a fantastic launch with Creative Time at the New Museum's Festival of Ideas for a New City, the Ghana ThinkTank's Mobile Unit will be operating out of the Queens Museum of Art all summer long, focusing on the problems of Corona, Queens.

The Ghana ThinkTank in Corona involves a custom-built teardrop trailer designed to journey into different locales in the "First" world, collecting community and personal issues, and sending them to think tanks in Ghana, Cuba, El Salvador, Mexico, Serbia, Iran, Afghanistan, and others...

Once we receive the solutions, our trailer rolls back into the communities, this time as a mobile workstation, so that we can work with community members to apply the solutions we have received from our global network of think tanks.

The Ghana Think Tank operates in Corona May 21 - Aug 14.

Ghana ThinkTank in Corona is supported by the Queens Museum of Art, Creative Time, the Rockefeller Foundation, Lily Auchincloss Foundation, the Puffin Foundation, Black Rock Arts Foundation, and The Greenwall Foundation. Additional funding provided by New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and New York State Council on the Arts.

Ghana ThinkTank presented by CREATIVE TIME

2011-05-27T08:11:00.000-07:00

The Ghana ThinkTank Mobile Unit was presented by CREATIVE TIME at the New Museum’s Festival of Ideas for the New City on May 7, 2011. Our mobile unit, a custom-built teardrop trailer, was built to journey into different communities in the “First” world, collecting community (and personal) issues and sending them to think tanks in Ghana, Cuba, El Salvador, Mexico, Serbia, Iran, Afghanistan, and on…

Once we receive the solutions, our trailer rolls back into the communities, this time as a mobile workstation, so that we can implement their solutions, whether they strike us as brilliant or impractical…

Ghana Think Tank on Art 21 Blog

2010-06-07T20:14:00.000-07:00

Ghana Think Tank interview on the Art21 Blog | http://blog.art21.org/2010/06/06/pardon-this-brief-commercial-interruption-ghana-think-tank/

Ghana Think Tank at Eyebeam

2010-04-26T21:15:00.000-07:00

Eyebeam, in conjunction with Upgrade! NY, presents Re:Group: Beyond Models of Consensus.

Jun 10, 2010 - Aug 07, 2010
Eyebeam Atelier
540 W 21st St. New York, NY 10011

From the Eyebeam press release: "With participation now a dominant paradigm, structuring business models, creative and activist practice, the architecture of the city, and the economy, we are all integrated into structures of participation whether we want to be or not. The exhibition will examine models of participation and participation as a model, presenting work that encourages subversive participation, intervenes into existing systems, or envisions new alternatives."

Shortlisted for the Cartier Award

2010-04-16T17:08:00.000-07:00

The Ghana Think Tank has made the shortlist for the Frieze Foundation Cartier Award 2010.

wales actions video

2009-10-29T06:18:00.000-07:00

I just uploaded a video of some of the actions, and some installation shots, from the Ghana Think Tank in Wales.

serbia's solutions

2009-10-06T18:29:00.000-07:00

Here are the solutions to Cardiff's problems proposed by the think tank in Serbia:

Cardiff's Problems:

1. A large number of people have no concept of social interaction with
other passing strangers. They look through you, or worse at you like
you're something they've trodden in, with disgust and bitter
resentment.

2. There are too many empty shops on every street.

3. To many Liberals allowing immigrants to live and spunch of hard
working people kick them out.

4. The psychiatric system in Wales neglects its patients. The hospital
feels like a prison ‐ nobody ever invites patients to talk.

5. There seems to be a perception that older people are a burden to
society.

6. The pavements are very uneven which makes walking in high heels
very difficult.

Serbia's solutions:

1. The solution could be seminars on the subject ‘human relations’. You can use slogans like ‘ smile is not so hard thing to do’ or ‘its not so hard to be polite , giving flyers to people always with smile. You can also do short public performance related with the subject at the main squares .

2. Give the shops to the students who have creative and innovative ideas and who can make some own products and put them in the shops. Products should be interesting for the people and attract them, their attention. They can also try find more interesting way to sell them and make some money from which they can pay the (symbolic) rent.

3. Put the immigrants and domestic workers in the same working conditions. Find a same job for both immigrant and domestic workers, giving them the same things to do, the same salary, if its possible arrange that they spend most of the free time together

4. You can do several things here ; educate employees explaining to them the importance of conversation with patients with psychological disability, send psychiatrists who will try to find solutions for the problems or try to form a group( s) who will go once a week in the hospital(s) and talk with patients giving them small presents every time just to cheer them out.

5. Make public debate in which young people will give the flayers to all with the inscription 'I am old and you will be too'. Tell the people that they shouldn’t think only about the present but also about future. How will they react if they are in the same situation and other people think they are burden to society.

6.Put the sign on the payments like’ do not wear high heels on this pavement’ or make one side of the pavement (very even) in straight line which can be used by persons( women) with a high heels.

The Serbia Think Tank participants are: Ivica Mihajlovic, Kristina Maza, Jelena Antic, Dejan Trajkovic and Sandra Antanasijevic (and camera man Marija Djoric).

iran's solutions

2009-10-06T17:14:00.000-07:00

Photos by Poolad Javaher Haghighi. More here.

Here are the solutions that the Iran think tank provided:

Solving the problems of Wales

"Sazmanab Project" think-tank

1. To solve the communication problem of the Welsh, we came up with a couple of solutions. The main issue all these resolutions point to is that we should find the basic common interests between people. This will be act as a strong foundation for all the resolutions we have to offer.

We thought that the main reason why people are unable to communicate is their fear of being so much different from others. This led us to the idea of designing and making T-shirts all carrying the owners' smiling portraits. Imagine you're walking down the street, seeing a serious neighbor passing you by everyday. Everytime you see him/her you think to yourself "How on earth would I ever communicate with this frowny ol' face?" Now the next day, you see the same person wearing a T-shirt with his/her smiling face on it. This image will make it a lot easier for you to imagine the person in a casual easy mood. You'll definitely feel a lot more comfortable breaking the ice with him/her.

As the second resolution, we thought of a little social game in which a small sign –a wristband or a small piece of body language- in one passenger invokes a certain social interaction in the other passenger. This could be a smile, a simple "Hi!" or such.

2. To encourage people to fill up the empty shops, we thought of the following solutions:
Adding a little bonus feature to that certain shop. Imagine a shop selling clothes, which offers a unique little refreshment on the side. This will be like the old saying "Come for the clothes, stay for the lemonade".
We also came up with a discount system that does not necessarily rely on purchase, but it relies on frequent visits of citizens. The system works like this: we create a chain of shops each offering a discount card on each visit. If you collect cards from Shop A, B, and C, you will get a discount in Shop D.

3. The question was very vague, so we could not offer any solutions.

4. The basic concept for the solutions in this section is to encourage the patients to express their inner thoughts. So we thought of:

Putting up a blackboard in the hallway of the hospital which functions as a message board. On this board all the patients and staff can write what they want weather it's their present status or a sentence they like. Other patients and the staff will possibly reply to what the former person has written and then this will turn into a dialogue between the patients and the patients. The nurses will face the thoughts of their patients and possibly respond to them. This type of communication could also be made virtually through Twitter.

A group of artists can talk to the patients about different matters whether public or personal and then create a piece of art using the views of different patients mixed with their owns. The art form (whatever the media is) can be presented to the staff and other patients and possibly out of the hospital.

5. What connects people with the elderly is to understand that they were once young and did what the young generation do or maybe worse. So we could invite a group of elderly to write their memories of the past , focusing on their sexual memories. We call it "Funny Dirty Memories" and this could be shared with others through the internet and on a web log.

6.
We could create a red carpet path at some pavements with a "High Heels Only" sign at it in intervals.

We could also put up some "No High Heels Passing" signs at very uneven pavements.

Anita Esfandiari, Bijan Moosavi, Makan Ashkwari, Mani Nilchiani, Sohrab M. Kashani and Tara Fatehi Irani from Tehran, Iran.

Photo documentation of the project was done by Poolad Javaher Haghighi.

Sazmanab Project / September 2009
www.sazmanab.com

iran think tank

2009-10-06T15:52:00.001-07:00

Photographs by Poolad Javaher Haghighi. More here.

Greetings to our think tank from Iran!

Our Iran think tank is the Sazmanab Project composed of Anita Esfandiari, Bijan Moosavi, Makan Ashkwari, Mani Nilchiani, Sohrab M. Kashani and Tara Fatehi Irani from Tehran, Iran.

"Sazmanab Project is an independent art space based in Tehran, Iran. This artist-run space is founded by the artist, Sohrab M. Kashani with the aim of creating a productive environment for young and talented art enthusiasts, helping them realize their ideas and projects in the proper space with the necessary tools. Sazmanab Project is basically a studio that conducts various artistic projects – both local and international - along with a show room that has the capacity to provide artists with the opportunity of hosting their own shows, holding workshops, performances and such. Sazmanab seeks to create an interdisciplinary collaboration between the new generations of artists."
-via Sazmanab Project's Facebook group

You can see Sazmanab Project's photos at their flickr account, and follow their tweets here. You can also see the photos taken by Poolad Javaher Haghighi of their September 2009 deliberations about the problems of Cardiff.

Most of our Ffotogallery install revolves around the solutions provided by Iran. You'll see photos of that once we're in Wales and actually have a chance to install it, but I can tell you it will involve columns of hanging t-shirts sporting the smiling faces of Cardiff, a reception/ t-shirt collection evening, teddy bears loaded with the funny naughty stories of Cardiff's elderly community, and brightly colored panels scratched with comments from people living in health institutions. There may even be a video "chandelier."

wales' problems

2009-10-06T15:37:00.000-07:00

We will soon be traveling to Wales for shows at the National Museum of Wales, Ffotogallery, and the May You Live in Interesting Times festival, where we will be putting into action the solutions we've received from our think tanks. We sent problems collected in Wales to think tanks in Ghana, Mexico, Serbia, Iran, and a group of incarcerated girls in the Massachusetts penal system.

We received several dozen problems from Wales, and these are the six problems we settled on for the think tanks to solve:

HELP US SOLVE THESE WALES PROBLEMS
1. A large number of people have no concept of social interaction with other passing strangers. They look through you, or worse at you like you're something they've trodden in, with disgust and bitter resentment.

2. There are too many empty shops on every street.

3. To many Liberals allowing immigrants to live and spunch of hard working people kick them out.

4. The psychiatric system in Wales neglects its patients. The hospital feels like a prison ‐ nobody ever invites patients to talk.

5. There seems to be a perception that older people are a burden to society.

6. The pavements are very uneven which makes walking in high heels very difficult.

Ghana Think Tank Wales

2009-08-31T10:00:00.000-07:00

The Ghana Think Tank will be going to Wales to be part of the May You Live in Interesting Times, Festival of Creative Technology, Cardiff, 22 - 24 October 2009.

Technology is now firmly placed in the everyday. In response to this, the Festival will look at ‘do-it-yourself’ through a range of commissions, projects, exhibitions, discussions and artist-led events across all art forms.

The three-day programme is a celebration of the latest intriguing uses of everyday technology and social innovation, enabled through shared ideas.

We'll have an installation at the National Museum of Wales and Ffotogallery from Oct 22 - Dec 10, 2009, as well as a series of actions on the streets of Wales as proposed by our network of think tanks:

As part of an upcoming exhibit at Ffotogallery, the Ghana Think Tank - a collective of international think tanks will set out to solve the problems of Wales.

We are currently putting together our international team of think tanks for this edition, and will potentially have think tanks from Iran, Ethiopia, Mexico, India, and Serbia, as well as Ghana.

more than the beatles

2009-07-22T22:54:00.000-07:00

All photos by Tracey Dunn

As part of the Ghana Think Tank project in Liverpool, Tracey Dunn has finished the More Than The Beatles page of the FACT Climate for Change Wiki. As part of an effort to help people learn that Liverpool has more than just the Beatles going on, Tracy talked with children from all parts of Liverpool, asking them about their favourite things about Liverpool.

In the end, she came up with an unofficial guide to Liverpool that includes a Bucket Fountain, a farm in the city, an ice cream shop and The Yellow Sub.

Finalist for Rhizome Commissions 2010

2009-05-29T09:02:00.000-07:00

The Ghana Think Tank is a Finalist for Rhizome Commissions 2010. If you are a Rhizome member, and you support our project, vote now to rank Ghana Think Tank number 1 for the Member awards. View our proposal here.

liverpool problems pdf

2009-05-23T20:09:00.000-07:00

I've compiled a big pile of the hand-written liverpool problems submitted to the Ghana Think Tank in one LiverpoolProblems.pdf

more than the beatles

2009-05-23T19:52:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Tracey hit the streets of Liverpool in pursuit of Ghana Think Tanks' solutions, and brought us back a bevy of Liverpool kids' suggestions for things to do in Liverpool that have nothing to do with the Beatles. Plus she got some people to sing in the rain with our sun-speckled umbrellas. Next rainy day will be frisbee.

liverpool summary video

2009-05-19T17:53:00.000-07:00

Here is a video of the Ghana Think Tank's first few actions in Liverpool at FACT, the Foundation for Art and Creative Technology:

dog shit update

2009-03-27T09:28:00.001-07:00

Turns out the bollards disappeared a day after their painstaking install, but it looks like the dog toilet is actually working! Just got this message from Tracy:

Chris,
I've been emptying the sand pit regularly...people are throwing their 'doggy bags' in there.

The front page of our local paper ran a headline about young offenders having to clear up the dog shit off the pavements.We've set something in motion here.(excuse the pun)...

dogs mess

2009-03-19T06:27:00.001-07:00

Tracy, a tenant in Tenantspin, complained that "the dogs use the pavements as a toilet, and it has gotten worse lately." Mexico suggested that she "make sandboxes for the dogs with the right odor in them, put a sign up that says 'go here, not there' and go by every morning to collect the shit."

So, we did.

This was the most humiliating moment so far in the Ghana Think Tank. There was a group of guys in the park with a pitbull, and when they saw what we were building, immediately starting taunting us "Hey, you want my dog to shit on that?" When we responded that, "yes, please, that would be great," they softened up a bit, and started asking more questions, "Why are you doing this?"

And that's when it got really embarassing:

"You mean, you came all the way from America to build a bloody dog toilet!? What a waste of fucking

time!"

Saw this painted on the pavement nearby:

making an instrument

2009-03-19T05:38:00.001-07:00

Kenny wanted to make an African instrument. Specifically, he wanted to teach drug addicted peole in Liverpool how to make African instruments from materials they could find on the street, so they could play on the street and make a few quid while gouching , "you know, instead a robbin' people."

Serbia recommended we get some Ghanaian people to teach how to make their instruments. So, in our search for Ghanaian people in Liverpool, we first met with Chief Angus, a Nigerian man who is well-connected to the West African Diaspora in Liverpool.

He had his own ideas about what kind of African instruments to make, and how to use them:

But Kenny was steadfast, he wanted a Kora, and drew a sketch of a version he thought we could make:

So, we walked Liverpool for a few hours with him, collecting some wooden fruit crates and other material, and Kenny even talked a local music store into selling some guitar strings for cheap. He did some Internet research, spoke with some local instrument-makers, and had a go.

In the end, he said the instrument didn't do what he had hoped, so now we need to look a litter deeper, find some African people living in Liverpool (or abroad) to specify the materials and techniques necessary to build a proper Kora.

The one we made together, he said "works as art, you know, but not really as an instrument." He thought it could work to show that the drug addicted people were at least putting in the effort, and so might get some sympathy donations that way. He told us the story of an old addict who used to pretend to play on a guitar he drew with marker on cardboard.

"He was an entertainer," and left us with this analogy for playing music while gouching, "well, you might not be able to make high art, but you can put out a reasonable facsimile of a Pollock or Rothko, can't ya?"

sunny umbrellas

2009-03-19T04:45:00.000-07:00

J had complained that the weather in Liverpool is miserable:

"All the fun things I want to do involve it being sunny and nice outside, and its not, its miserable all the time here in England. Can you think of anything you'd like to do if it were rainy and cold. Maybe some inventive ideas..."

Serbia responded with what has become their trademark boot-strap approach: "if it's raining you can do pretty much the same things when it is not raining but with umbrella. You can also make big sun... painting it in yellow..."

So, Tenantspin helped us collect umbrellas to paint sunshine onto, and, amazingly enough, it did not rain the entire time we were in Liverpool, so the action part of that action will be done in our absence, once the promised rain finally falls.

bollards

2009-03-16T07:37:00.000-07:00

All photos in this post by Jennifer Welch

Tim, a lecturer in Popular Music at JMU, had
complained about cars always parking on the pavement (sidewalk) by his work. When we met with him, he said that when the nursery is letting out, tons of pedestrians (including parents with their tots in pushchairs [strollers]) have to walk around the cars and into the street.

Serbia recommended we build blocks to stop cars from parking on the sidewalk ("bollards" in UK), like they have in Vranje, so we set out to make it so. We built a plywood form, mixed our cement, poured ourselves some Bollards, and painted them with bright yellow high vis stripes.

And then, this afternoon, we delivered them to their desired location, in very official high-vis FACT vests and helmets (John got the dorky one).

We'll check in with Tim to see how Serbia's solution is working out in a few weeks. Thanks, Serbia! (and Ed and Brian and Jen and Tracy, of course).

All photos in this post by Jennifer Welch

First solutions for Liverpool

2009-03-07T11:03:00.000-08:00

The Thinktank in Serbia at work in the Generator NGO, Vranje, Serbia.

The first batch of solutions came in for the first batch of Liverpool problems:

Paint the undersides of people's umbrellas with sunny scapes, then organize activities in the rain, holding these umbrellas, that would normally only be done in the sun. For example, soccer, sun bathing, etc. (with Jay)
make some plywood forms, fill with concrete, and set these out along sidewalks on places where cars are often parking (with Tracy)
find some Ghanaian people in Liverpool, and get them to run instrument making worshops. It doesn't have to be traditional: it could be a sort of DIY/hack with what you have workshop (with Kenny)
promote the Royal Liver Building, the Cunard Building and the Port of Liverpool Building. (with Rachie B)

make sandboxes for the dogs with the right odor in them, put a sign up that says "go here, not there" and you go by every morning to collect the shit.
getting to know liverpool through kids who show us the least known places in liverpool then we publish it on the internet

John and I fly to Liverpool tomorrow, to begin the action!

Ghana Think Tank in Liverpool, UK

2009-02-17T07:47:00.000-08:00

The Ghana Think Tank is coming to Liverpool, to be part of the Climate for Change show at FACT, the Foundation for Art and Creative Technology.

Tenant Spin has generously provided the Ghana Think Tank with use of their 12 second booth for the recording of liverpool problems.

Here are the first to come out:

From the Tenantspin 12-second videos:

Tracy of Tenantspin: The dogs use the pavements as a toilet, and it has gotten worse lately.

Tracy of Tenantspin: Epedemic of young people harming each other with knives and guns.

Tim: Motorcars park on the pavements (sidewalks), so it is hard for pedestrians.

Jen: I'd like some advice on how to grow potatoes on a east-facing terrace, please.

J: All the fun things I want to do involve it being sunny and nice outside, and its not, its miserable all the time here in England. Can you think of anything you'd like to do if it were rainy and cold. Maybe some inventive ideas...

J: Just in case there's a chance of solving that problem, I'd like to do a swap. I live where you live and you can live here in the miserable weather for a little while... do a little bit of a swap for awhile.

Kenny: Can you explain a way that people from liverpool can make musical instruments rather than being charged extortianate prices for instruments from Ghana.

And from the Tenantspin chat:

Rachie B: i think it's important that Liverpool is known for more than just the beatles

You can view the videos yourself. Go to http://www.mogulus.com/tenantspin, then into the 'On demand' feature at the bottom of the player. There is a folder in the 'On Demand' Player called 'Ghana Think tank Questions'.

Ghana Think Tank at the Arsenal

2009-02-17T07:34:00.000-08:00

The Ghana Think Tank was part of the 2009 RISD New England Almuni Biennial at the Arsenal Center for the Arts.

Ghana Think Tank in Westport, CT

2009-02-17T06:53:00.000-08:00

During the Autumn of 2008, the Ghana Think Tank came to Westport, CT, as part of the Optimism show at the Westport Art Center, curated by Michael Connor. Using "man on the street" interviews and anonymous mailboxes distributed throughout town, we collected problems form the residents of Westport, CT, and sent them to think tanks we established in Ghana, Cuba, El Salvador, Mexico, Ethiopia, and Serbia. These problems included pesticide use, barking dogs, lack of diversity, and speeding traffic.

Actions included renaming a dog “love”, dog-tags and all; hiring immigrants to attend social functions in a wealthy Connecticut suburb; combating pesticide use through a dandelion promotion campaign including dandelion recipe-books and replanting workshops; taking families to meet their neighbors, and projecting slides of local traffic accidents caused by speeding, onto public structures.

You can see tons more photos here.

photos from the installation

2006-05-25T09:15:00.000-07:00

Some photos of the Ghana Think Tank installation for our presentation at RISD on May 24, 2006.

socio drama vs. powerpoint

2006-05-16T07:19:00.000-07:00

To resolve our disgust with Powerpoint as an art-discussing technology, the Salvadoran think tank suggested we perform socio dramas instead of powerpoints, so we developed a sociodrama based on the imaginary world of TheySaySmall as it related to the films and theory of Trinh T. Minh-ha. Classmates adopted the roles of characters engaged in disembodied time-travel...

Watch the video, read the "script", and check out the clickable flowchart.

playing chess with JWU

2006-05-16T07:13:00.000-07:00

On the advice of our Ghanaian and Cuban counterparts, we set up a chess and checkers table at the JWU quad, and invited passersbsy to sit down for a game. Turns out JWU didn't even realize the building across the street was full of RISD students!

Watch a video or check out the flowchart here.

photos and audio from ghana

2006-05-16T06:48:00.000-07:00

We have received photos and audio from our Ghana Think Tank that is actually based in Ghana. Eb will need to translate this so we can edit into something comprehensible to Americans, but there are already some gems: "They have the best cars and houses and still they complain?"

may 10 reflections

2006-05-15T18:28:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

We have gotten back replies from all three sites. Each of them are interesting in some way and each disappointed in some aspects. Luis from Cuba was the first to arrive. He intercepted an e-mail targeted to his grandson and has been going to town on it. He speaks perfect English and is very intellectual, and very pro-cuban/socialist, although it should be noted that he would have to be, given he is corresponding on e-mail to someone in the united states.

we struggled this week trying to put the solutions into prazctice b/c none of them seemed particularly exciting, to us. After discussing with each other and Tad and Seth and Catherine, i personally see 3 things that we could change to move forward.
1) Ask the right question -- ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer! We sent out a variety of questions to see which ones would generate interesting responses. None of us cares passionately about the relationship between JWU and RISD. Homelessness is apt to receive cliche answers. On the other hand we have to establish what is the interest of those who we are asking to do the work?

2) define your process more -- what is the process for choosing solutions? We commited to doing whatever they said, but obviously we're not going to, what is our process and criteria for selecting a solution to execute.

3) have faith in the process, maybe the "boring" solutions are doors into more interesting avenues, or maybe they will open up a dialogue with the think tanks. Don't get caught up in judging the project based on each individual solution.

4)find a way to document the process, our expectations, the miscommunications , etc , etc
posted by John Ewing at 9:18 AM 0 comments

The Roots of Ghana Think Tank

2006-05-15T14:07:00.000-07:00

I am going to post this immediately I switch computers to my mac which has some images I want to share.