What Will It Take to End the Policing Crisis? Against the Technological Fix

Lecture on Monday, 11/18 from 4-6PM @ 950 South Raymond, The Wind Tunnel Graduate Center for Critical Practice

The last five years of popular protests have advanced numerous solutions to the intertwined problems of over-policing and mass incarceration, from mandatory body cameras and civilian oversight boards to 'e-carceration' or the increased use of home detention. Drawn from Dr. Johnson’s upcoming book, tentatively titled, “Policing and the Class Struggle,” this lecture critiques the view that the policing crisis and broader problem of mass incarceration can be resolved exclusively through technical solutions. Instead, Johnson argues that such technological remedies sidestep the crux of the matter—the class relations that contemporary policing was designed to manage.

To Hell with Good Intentions?

Part 1. Dinner on Tuesday, 11/19 from 6-9PM @ 870 South Raymond, Fine Art Building Lobby

Part 2. Workshop on Wednesday, 11/20 from 2-5PM @ 950 South Raymond, Room M51

Across many realms of art, media, and design, some practices are distinguished as fundamentally “good.” Humanitarian design, design for social good, design for social innovation, social impact design, socially engaged art, and social practice art: These distinctions set both the practices, projects, and creatives they describe apart as ones that privilege the common good and/or prioritize benefits over profit. But, what constitutes “goodness?” Is good intent good enough? How might a project’s process or outcomes outweigh its good intentions? Throughout these two workshops, participants will explore these questions; critically examine art, media, and design projects that describe themselves as benefiting the greater good; and collectively rethink these approaches in light of their critiques.

Over dinner, participants will discuss what constitutes the “goodness” of design for social good and social practice art and help select projects to focus on in the following day’s workshop. During the workshop, participants will collaborate to dissect various projects described as socially “good” art or design and collaboratively respond to that critique through discussion and making.

Making Consumers and Criminals: The Postwar Urban Transformation and the Origins of Policing as We Know It

Seminar on Thursday, 11/21 from 1-4PM @ 950 South Raymond, Room 136

Arden Stern’s Critical Histories seminar will open to the wider campus community for a more detailed discussion of a draft chapter from Dr. Johnson’s upcoming book, “Policing and the Class Struggle: The American Left After Black Lives Matter,” with Johnson in attendance.