ZuckerbergSpring.com Artwork - Limited Edition of 1

On June 6, 2010 a computer programmer in Alexandria named Khaled Saeed was pulled out of a cybercafe and beaten to death by Egyptian police. It was a display of state brutality that went viral on Facebook. In Tunisia, political organizers used Facebook to organize events circumventing surveillance of the country’s internal security services. Online activities quickly blossomed to assist the offline protest movements, helping people across the region topple their governments in what was known as the Arab Spring. “Zuckerberg Spring” explores the usage of social media in political movements that change the fabric of societies across the world. In the artwork, Zuckerberg poses as a rebellious rock-thrower, poised to hurl his weapon at an oncoming army tank. Instead of a rock, the viewer sees a smartphone with an open Facebook app. Zuckerberg himself has the colors of the Egyptian flag and what could be the straps of his backpack. To the top and right of Zuckerberg, there is a compendium of characters representing the people of the Arab-speaking states — their faces filled with anger and fear — facing the state apparatus and its security services depicted to the left. Rage and fear are depicted through the other characters in the piece, questioning the sharp distress felt by the populace of each country undergoing a significant revolution. To Zuckerberg’s middle right and left, the viewer sees the faces of revolutionaries wearing balaclavas, with one revolutionary throwing their fist in the air. Pulling back from the piece, an added layer of expression is explored as the piece itself incorporates 60′s San Francisco psychedelic imagery with the entire piece looking like a face, with two eyes and a mouth at the bottom. It is up to the viewer to assess if the face is smiling in joy, snickering with evil, or both. Either way, the piece discusses how a Harvard student created a social media site from scratch and would have never believed how his invention could catalyze worldwide change. When the piece jumps from the wall CGIF portion to the interactive, an entire new world is opened where the direct impact of technology’s impact on human society is felt in the fictitious Middle Eastern nation of Calibrian and the path of Kaleet Leura — inspired by Egyptian revolutionary martyr Khaled Saeed — helping move his country toward democracy. Interactive 1) http://ZuckerbergSpring.com Venturing to this website shows the hacked emails unveiling intimate conversations between the dictator of the country of Calibria, Ali Zaziri, and his Director of the Department of State Security, Rafeeq Shadim about an anti-government social media movement created by Kaleet Leura. 2) https://www.facebook.com/pages/Resist-Revolt/1374711502764934 Kaleet Leura’s “Resist-Revolt” page, which is meant to create awareness and understanding of the inequities felt by the Calibrian people, such as torture by the secret police and corruption in the government. 3) http://ZuckerbergSpring.com/kaleet1.html A friend question’s Kaleet’s necessity for his social media campaign. 4) http://ZuckerbergSpring.com/kaleet2.html Kaleet Leura believes that social media is meant to create transparency and “shine a light” on the injustice of dictator Ali Zaziri’s regime and bringing it out to the open. 5) http://RashidaLeura.wordpress.com Kaleet’s cousin Rashida in the United States posts a video of Kaleet asking for help from people outside Calibria. This explores how social media can spark awareness of a particular cause across borders. 6) http://StopZaziri.com Kaleet Leura and the growing movement of anti-Zaziri revolutionaries created the website http://StopZaziri.com in order to educate the rest of the world on Zaziri’s brutal Calibrian regime. Furthermore, this portion of the interactive art enables the viewer to interact with not only the artwork, but with famous individuals on social media, urging people like Bill Clinton and Oprah via Twitter through pre-created @reply tweets to help Calibrians stop Zaziri. 7) http://ZuckerbergSpring.com/twittermouth.html An interactive face designed with a Twitter feed for a mouth explores social media interaction as the primary communication tool in reaching large niche audiences, or more seriously, political movements within the country. Before, mainstream media had to pick up a story regarding a revolution — which was particularly hard when the state runs the media. With social media, the people are the content creators, empowering legions of individuals to band together electronically and fight for their cause. 8) http://CalibrianFreedomForum.com A private forum for revolutionaries, the viewer can read the interactions between freedom-fighters and their counterparts, getting a fly-on-the-wall look at what revolution looks like in Calibria. The notion that the viewer can not interact with the posters in the forum opens the discussion of the role of the outside public that can see and hear news of revolution in other countries, but do not necessarily feel what it is like to set foot in the melee caused by a revolution. 9) http://ZuckerbergSpring.com/intelligence.html An intelligence report from the Calibria’s Department of State Security (DSS), shows state involvement in the harassment and murder of its own citizens, bringing to light a discussion on the lengths at which a state and its leaders will go to in order to preserve their power. This is evidenced in Syria at the moment. 10) http://on.fb.me/1bg06Y5 The young Kaleet Leura is killed during a protest, presumably by DSS agents who had a shoot-to-kill order against him. Thus, the protagonist in the interactive artwork that helped spark an online and offline revolution. However, his spirit lives on both in the digital world and in the streets of Calibria. 11) https://www.facebook.com/pages/We-Are-All-Kaleet-Leura/614278331928347 Calibrian Revolutionaries turn Kaleet into the “face” of the revolution. Kaleet’s murder by Calibrian police sparks further outrage throughout the country. Every person standing against the government also “stands” with Kaleet in spirit, thus the catchphrase: “We are all Kaleet Leura.” 12) http://ZuckerbergSpring.com/protest.html The revolution reaches epic proportions as hundreds of thousands clamor in front of the Calibrian presidential palace, demanding the resignation of the dictator Ali Zaziri. This portion of the artwork discusses the potential for one person’s idea to swell to a change in government. Technology has helped spur a renaissance in communication. 13) http://CalibriaTimes.com Zaziri is ultimately captured by revolutionaries. The former dictator is paraded out of the presidential palace and caught on camera by a photographer reporting for Calibria’s newspaper of record, The Calibria Times. 14) http://ZuckerbergSpring.com/calibriaremembers.html The cost of the Calibrian revolution was heavy. An online memorial to the dead was created by in order to bring forth the real cost of revolution, the people who lose their lives during such social upheaval. 15) http://ZuckerbergSpring.com/wow.html Mark Zuckerberg, sitting at his desk at Facebook, ponders what he created. He had no idea that his creation could help people topple sovereign governments. Even Zuckerberg is impressed. 16) http://Facebook.com The story comes full circle to where protesters could make their voices heard online: Facebook. ZuckerbergSpring.com 36 x 46.5 inches 91.4 x 118.1 cm One-of-a-kind CGIF on aluminum, Websites, Facebook, Twitter pages

Mixed Media:Vector on Aluminium

Artist Produced Limited Edition of:1

Size:36 W x 45 H x 3 D in

Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.