How does the expression The Change You Want to See relate to the space in Brooklyn called The Change You Want to See Gallery and Convergence Stage?

The expression The Change You Want to See names something that The Gallery and Convergence Stage fails to, but would ideally, embody. In this sense the physical space functions as a kind of empty sign that doesn’t accurately name what its title suggests. There is another way of thinking about this however; The expression is an accurate description of what those who work in the space strive to make possible. When analyzed of from this second perspective the expression can be understood to describe a state not depended on the expectation that for something to be realized it must be constituted in a form that is fully actualized. For those who work in the space, The Change You Want to See is something that is made possible through the act of striving to produce it. (It is arguable that this is the only way an ideal can be realized.) So while it is true that the name The Change You Want to See does not represent the space itself, this fact might not be seen as a deficiency for the name does represent the space in the act of attempting to realize itself.

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In the production of The Change You Want to See who is Not An Alternative and what role to they play?

When entering The Gallery and Convergence Stage the first prop that visitors are presented with is a document that represents The Production Company’s official statement. It reads as follows:

"Not An Alternative is a not-for-profit cultural production company whose mission aims to facilitate and engage in the work of creating social change. Our practice is based on transforming popular understandings of key symbols associated with particular campaigns."

This description serves as a loose framework for an improvised all-volunteer produced production called The Change You Want to See. This is a story that follows a (partly) given-narrative. In the production of The Change You Want to See, Not An Alternative plays the role of a not-for-profit public relations and props production company that runs The Gallery and Convergence Stage and works with activists, community groups, artists and arts collectives. It is a work performed by a cast made up of an undefined and potentially infinite number of characters. There are no fixed roles or predetermined functions for actors. People perform as characters that they determine themselves and act in anyway they choose. Basically whoever works toward producing The Change You Want to See in the name of the Production Company become representative of Not An Alternative.

Visitors and would be producers are encouraged to come by The Gallery and Convergence Stage at 84 Havemeyer St. Williamsburg Brooklyn and check out The Change You Want to See for themselves or browse the performance in documented form online at thechangeyouwanttosee.org.

What form does the performance of The Change You Want to See take at The Gallery and Convergence Stage?

At the gallery and convergence stage the performance of The Change You Want to See takes many forms: There are meetings at night in part of the space that is used as an office during the day by open source programmers working for various online projects. There is usually an artist in residence staying in an empty room who presence connects the work of local organizers and artists to the international scene. There’s some extra space where many tools and props are stored. And then there’s the largest room where most everything happens. There are screenings, presentations, meetings, parties, brunches, dinners and also production. It’s a space that is constantly in use and being shifted around in preparation for one thing or another.

The main focus of Not An Alternative practical work as a Production Company is directed toward props production and organizing. They work with community groups and other arts collectives in the preparatory stages of political mobilizations. The social events that happen in the space, the screenings, brunches, meetings, screening etc are set up to bring an awareness to and prepare people for these mobilizations. As a non-profit they provide a service by providing assistance with the communication of messages and framing.

The production company has worked on a number of campaigns thus far, including The 2004 NYC Mobilization Against the Republican National Convention, The Williamsburg Greenpoint Rezoning and also on solidarity work associated with the popular uprising in Oaxaca.

How does the staging of The Change You Want to See as a fiction relate to the production of actual transformation outside the structure of the (partly) given narrative?

In the given narrative, the work of Not An Alternative Production Company consists of producing props and doing public relations work in collaboration with community groups and arts collectives as they work toward goals associated with the particular mobilizations they are involved in. If The Change You Want to See were a story that didn’t exceed this narrative it would simply describe a transformation that happens on a surface level. The definition of The Change You Want to See that the Production Company works to produce is not limited by these goals as ends in themselves however. Rather Not An Alternative’s goal, aims at the root of the problem. Not An Alternative works to produce The Change You Want to See in the act of ending capitalism. Toward this end Not An Alternative works to join the struggles of the different community groups and arts collectives and direct them toward a common goal. This common goal is based on shifting the understanding of the meaning of what “the end” represents in itself. Rather than being something that can be represented in any realized form, “the end” for the Production Company is defined as having to do with transforming people’s understanding of what “the end” means. Rather than being reducable to this or that win and as such elevated to symbolize a victory or realized goal, the realized “end” becomes that which cannot be reduced to something singular. The way Not An Alternative tries to do this is by shifting peoples understanding of the goals associated with particular campaigns so as to reflect their inherent character as something that exceeds them as being ends in themselves. Collaborations with community groups are constituted by performances that act out this transformed understanding.