A World Map is an ongoing project which maps structures of power that determine political exclusion and inclusion, using soft pastel and chalk on chalkboard. The work is always generated through a collaborative effort; for OURS Democracy in the Age of Branding , it is created by Parsons students. By mapping concepts and discourses rather than specific geographies, the work traces how globalization as a supra-national system of economies, laws, and institutions, is built on the exclusion of certain persons—such as refugees or prisoners—and the inclusion of others.

Ashley Hunt uses image, object, word, performance, and collaborative strategies to engage the ideas of social movements, the writing of history, and the sensing of our political environment, our bodies, and possibilities within them. His primary subject has been the United States prison system, as it expresses the country’s racial and cultural histories. His current work, Degrees of Visibility, is a large body of landscape photographs that examines how prisons and jails sit within their physical and cultural surroundings, forming the aesthetic production of mass imprisonment. Ashley lives in Los Angeles, where he directs the Photography and Media Program at CalArts. He was a 2006-2007 Fellow at the Vera List Center for Art and Politics.

This charrette is hosted by Parsons faculty member Melissa Rachleff.

An open glossary reinforces the public aspect of A World Map: terms and ideas generated by the charrette are posted on the blackboard, available for editing, discussion, changing, erasing by any gallery visitors. Each week, the exhibition’s website is updated with the latest versions of the glossary.

With its large blackboard, A World Map is essentially a temporary classroom. At 6:30 p.m., a public presentation follows with the artist, teacher, and students.

3:00-5:30 p.m.
Charrette with artist and Parsons class

6:30-8:00 p.m.
Presentation 

This program has been made possible, in part, by a generous grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

This event is presented as part of the Vera List Center’s program cycle on “Branding Democracy,” and is presented in conjunction with the exhibition, OURS: Democracy in the Age of Branding, on view from October 15, 2008 to February 1, 2009.