L.M. Bogad (Associate Professor, University of California at Davis) is an author, performer, and activist. His book Electoral Guerrilla Theatre: Radical Ridicule and Social Movements, is an international study of performance artists who run for public office as a prank. Bogad works on the intersection between art and activism, and on the role of humor and imagination in organizing social movements.
Bogad’s darkly humorous plays and one person shows have covered topics such as the Haymarket Square Confrontation of 1886-7, the FBI’s COINTELPRO activities and the PATRIOT ACT, and global climate chaos. He is a veteran of the Lincoln Center Theatre Director’s Laboratory and the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army. He has performed in film, theatre, and street theatre across North America and the UK.His writings have appeared in TDR: The Drama Review, Contemporary Theatre Review, Research In Drama Education, Red Pepper, Fifth Estate, Radical Society, The Journal of Aesthetics and Protest, International Brecht Society’s Communications, and the collections Place and Performance, A Boal Companion, The Art and Cultural Politics of Carnival, and Images of Mental Illness Through Text and Performance.
EYEBEAM Art & Technology Center, July 2009 - Workshop Participant/Contributor: College of Tactical Culture, and lecturer - Copyright and the Creator: Who Cares What's Fair? A discussion on fair use and appropriation within activist and creative practice moderated by Creative Commons product manager and Eyebeam research associate Fred Benenson; with Eyebeam resident Jon Cohrs, artist/activist Larry Bogad, audio-visual remix artist Jonny Wilson (Eclectic Method), and Postmaster's gallery director Magdalena Sawon.
International Herald Tribune Prank, June 2009 - Writer/Editor-in-Mischief - In a front-page ad in the International Herald Tribune, the leaders of the European Union thank the European public for having engaged in months of civil disobedience leading up to the Copenhagen climate conference that will be held this December. There was only one catch: the paper was fake. Looking exactly like the real thing, but dated December 19th, 2009, a million copies of the fake paper were distributed worldwide by thousands of volunteers in order to show what could be achieved at the Copenhagen climate conference that is scheduled for Dec. 7-18, 2009. See the online version of the paper here.
Arizona State University's Institute for Humanities Research Fellowship, Spring 2009 - ASU’s Institute for Humanities Research offers two related fellowship programs that encourage the cross-disciplinary activity necessary to address socially significant issues. Organized around an annual theme – this year it was “Humanities and Political Conflict.”
New York Times Prank, November 2008 - Contributing Writer/Editor - An elaborate hoax, printing and distributing 1.2 million copies of a newspaper that looks, smells, and feels just like the NY Times. See the online version of the paper here.
CONFLUX 2009 Festival
SEPT 17-20: The art and technology festival for the creative exploration of urban public space.
Fantastic Politics: Art as Political Campaign
SAT September 19th, 2PM
Conventionally art is symbolic and politics are applied, but can art transgress the symbolic via the guise of political campaign? Or reversely can the absurdity of politics be made transparent through artistic intervention? The panel will present a series of works that creatively intervene upon politics through diverse forms of tactical engagement that surpass the representative tradition of political art by direct action in public spheres.
L.M. Bogad will present his escapades through the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army as well as case studies from his book Electoral Guerrilla Theatre: Radical Ridicule and Social Movements, is an international study of performance artists who run for public office as a prank.
Carnegie Mellon University’s Center for the Arts In Society
Appearing as “Distinguished Lecturer in Performance and Politics,” Bogad will give a “pre-game analysis” on September 23, the day before the G-20 Summit begins in Pittsburgh (9/24-9/25), discussing the recent history of creative protest at policed events (such as world summits), with many examples to share.
COINTELSHOW: A Patriot Act
September 26th, The Waffle Shop, Pittsburgh, PA
Inform yourself! Inform on your neighbor!
Follow Special Agent Christian White (Bogad) on a cheerfully creepy tour of declassified government surveillance documents. White probes the redacted (blacked-out) texts of the FBI's notorious Counterintelligence Programs, searching for the words erased in the name of the Freedom of Information Act.
Learn fun techniques for the infiltration of activist groups, how to earn benefits and a pension as an agent provocateur, and how to "expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit or otherwise neutralize" your neighbors!
Electoral Guerrilla Theatre: Radical Ridicule and Social Movements (Paperback)
Across the globe, in liberal democracies where the right to vote is framed as both civil right and civic duty, disillusioned creative activists run for public office on sarcastic, ironic and iconoclastic platforms. With little intention of "winning" in the conventional sense, they use drag, camp and stand-up comedy to undermine the legitimacy of their opponents and sometimes the electoral system itself. Electoral Guerrilla Theatre explores the recent phenomenon of the satirical election campaign .