Chapters: 5 "Cognition" & 6 "Persuasion"

 The Art of Activism

Chapter 5: "Cognition"

1. "To understand the mind, then, is to understand how artistic activism is a particularly effective approach to challenging and changing the way people make sense of the world as it is, and think of new worlds that could be" (page 171).
1. In order for artistic activism to fully be effective, the activist has to learn to cognitively understand their audience. If you do not know how to visually present the problems the world has and the possibilities that the world can be, no one will really understand or be inspired to change as well.
2. "We think in stories. Stories are simply data that is woven together in ways we find meaningful, and they are the way we effectively process and retain larger amounts of information" (page 177).
1. Sometimes just showing statistics or presenting a formal slideshow just won't do it for an audience. You need to pull at their heart strings in order to get their attention and promote change.
3. "So, to sum up: 1) our political belief systems are soft-wired into our brains, 2) presenting new facts won't change what someone thinks, and 3) the chance of people changing their minds decreases with age" (185).
1. The older one is, the harder it is to "change their mind." Maybe the goal isn't to shift the perspective, but to get someone to actually think and question the topic at hand.

Chapter 6: "Persuasion"

1. "Breaking the process of behavioral change down into stages allows us to focus on where we can be most effective, where the most work is needed, or where we have the most leverage" (233).
1. Simplifying and breaking up the process allows us to gain more clarity on where should we start, continue and conclude our attempts to shift the minds of our audience.
2. "These are the people we hope our message will reach, and whose behavior we think of. While we might envisage the things our pieces will make people feel, think, and do, the identity of our audience often remains elusive" (page 235).
1. Behavioral change has to be inclusive. There might be a goal that needs to be met, but your activist art has to have abilities to spark interest in everyone, not just the interest group. In theory, it sounds easier than it sounds, but it requires a lot of planning and drafting and trials.
3. " . . . try and understand why people think what they think and do what they do, and to then use this to build a better world together. Instead of dismissing people's decisions as ignorant, or nonsensical, we can learn to make sense of the thinking can learn to think more like them" (page 241).
1. If you want someone to understand you, you need to be able to be open to understand others. Taking the time to be talk and get to know the "where, how, why and what" of an opposite mindset even gives you the chance to gain ideas on how to appeal to a bigger, broader audience.