THINK AGAIN

THINK AGAIN is an artist-activist collaborative founded in 1997 by David John Attyah (b. Los Angeles) and S.A. Bachman (b. Columbus, Ohio.) They create billboard and public art campaigns throughout the United States and have distributed tens of thousands of posters, books and postcards worldwide. Many of their projects privilege face-to-face interactions on the streets of Los Angeles, Boston and San Francisco. Their projects have explored a range of issues including international labor and the treatment of immigrants, gentrification and displacement, sexual expression, links between race activism and queer activism, the logic of militarization, the ways capitalism and misogyny impact women, economic injustice and free trade policies, and the representation of queers in the media.

Works
THINK AGAIN exhibitions include: “Antagonisms,” Museu d´Art Contemporani de Barcelona; “The Anti-War Show: US Interventions From Korea to Iraq,” Track 16 Gallery; “Reactions,” Exit Art; “The Culture of Class: Issues of Class in North American Culture,” Maryland Institute College of Art; “Not for Profit,” Loyola Marymount University Art Museum; “Democracy in America,” Arizona State University Art Museum; “A Brief History of Outrage,” 16:1 Gallery and “New Season,” Museum of New Art. They have received awards from the LEF Foundation, Massachusetts Cultural Council, Tanne Foundation and The Funding Exchange/Outfund. Their work has been widely published in books, magazines and journals (see selected bibliography). A monograph on THINK AGAIN entitled A Brief History of Outrage was published in 2003.

Selected recent projects
Unless noted otherwise, projects can be viewed at the THINK AGAIN archive.
 * The NAFTA Effect (2006-2007) was a series of public projections in Los Angeles addressing how free trade reshapes the lives of people on both sides of the United States–Mexico border border.
 * Hola/Hello (2002 and 2006) included postcard, installation and mobile billboard links the rape, sexualized violence, and murder of over three hundred unidentified women of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico to the structural effects of NAFTA and intergovernmental relations between the US and Mexico.
 * Protestgraphics (2001-2004) was one of the first websites to respond to the 9/11, U.S. military action in Iraq and Central Asia, violence against Arab and Muslim Americans, and to the Bush administration's War on Terrorism. In addition to the online archive, 500 sets of posters were distributed free of charge to organizations and activists internationally. Major campaign: “Act Like It's A Globe, Not An Empire.”
 * CIA.TV (2001-2003) included a mobile billboard in Los Angeles, California and a web debate inviting the public to think critically about the increasingly blurry lines between news and entertainment at a political moment when federal agencies want permission to withhold information from the public, seek expanded surveillance authority and increase their budgets.
 * Target Marketing Is Not A Social Movement (2001-2002) was a mobile billboard and postcard project that addressed target marketing and “Gay Chic.”
 * Popping The Question (2000) was a caravan of mobile billboards circulated throughout the cities of Boston, Massachusetts and San Francisco, California intended to inspire public debate about the topics of marriage and family.

Books

 * A Brief History of Outrage, THINK AGAIN (David John Attyah and S.A. Bachman), Distributed Art Publishers/D.A.P., 2003 The introduction can be read at www.agitart.org/press/OUTRAGEbookessay.pdf
 * Graphic Agitation 2, Liz McQuiston, Phaidon, London, 2004
 * Peace Signs: The Anti-War Movement Illustrated, James Mann, English, French, German edition; Edition Olms, and Posters Against A War, Spanish edition; Gustavo Gili, 2003/2004
 * We Shall Not Be Moved, Hass, Gilda and Strategic Actions For A Just Economy, 2004
 * Economic Apartheid In America: A Primer on Economic Inequality and Insecurity, Collins, Chuck and Yeskel, Felice, The New Press, 2000
 * White Men Challenging Racism, Thompson, Cooper, Schaefer, Emmett, Ford, Henry, Duke University Press, 2003

Articles

 * Los Angeles Times, “Drive-by Campaign to Project Points of View,” Mike Boehm, October 6, 2006
 * Social Text (#80 Technoscience,) Amy Villarejo, “Activist Technologies: THINK AGAIN,” Duke University Press, Durham, North Carolina, 2004
 * Interview with THINK AGAIN: Big, Red and Shiny, Issue #7, 2003