IFEP's FOUR CORE INITIATIVES WILL BE DEVELOPED BY INTERNATIONAL CROWD-SOURCING -- the Global Symbol of Free Expression, the Marketplace of Ideas, the invention of new, immersive educational tools and the commissioning of creative works. IFEP truly is an international project, one through which people around the world can express their ideas and exercise their imaginations.
1. ERECT THE FIRST GLOBAL SYMBOL OF FREE EXPRESSION This will be the world's first signature, iconic work of public art symbolizing free expression. It will stand at the one of the most beautiful and recognizable locations in America: The confluence of three rivers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It will employ cutting-edge technology so that it can appear as almost anything — from the Eiffel Tower to falling rain -- and be programmed and reprogrammed by artists living anywhere. It will produce energy, with the help of allied organizations such as the Land Art Generator Initiative. All of these capabilities are being explored by experts in energy innovation, smart materials, holographic technology, robotics, art technology and other fields. Most of them, to date, are affiliated with Carnegie Mellon University.
1. ERECT THE FIRST GLOBAL SYMBOL OF FREE EXPRESSION This will be the world's first signature, iconic work of public art symbolizing free expression. It will stand at the one of the most beautiful and recognizable locations in America: The confluence of three rivers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It will employ cutting-edge technology so that it can appear as almost anything — from the Eiffel Tower to falling rain -- and be programmed and reprogrammed by artists living anywhere. It will produce energy, with the help of allied organizations such as the Land Art Generator Initiative. All of these capabilities are being explored by experts in energy innovation, smart materials, holographic technology, robotics, art technology and other fields. Most of them, to date, are affiliated with Carnegie Mellon University.
2. BUILD A MARKETPLACE OF IDEAS in an historic, block-long, 40-foot-high former newspaper pressroom at the front entrance to Pittsburgh featuring a food hall, coffee stands, artisan stalls, artworks, musical and theatrical performances, art projections — an explosion of expression. Visitors could print any text or design on a towering, mid-20th century, metropolitan newspaper press. In this bustling Marketplace, they will encounter ...
3. INVENT NEW EDUCATIONAL TOOLS These would constitute the International Center for Free Expression, with its activities sprinkled throughout the Marketplace and consist of interactive displays, e-games and robots that entertain while driving home the elemental importance of free expression. Some will provide ways to immediately take action on behalf of writers, journalists, artists, musicians and filmmakers who are being threatened or persecuted. These newly invented educational tools will be road-tested in the Marketplace and then made available online for the use of teachers and advocacy organizations. Some already are under development at the Carnegie Mellon University CREATE Lab. For instance, the Lab is adding the capability to its EarthTime machine to map and graphically display attacks on free expression from the global, to the national, to the local and to the individual case level, plotting them over time.
4. SUPPORT ARTISTS BY COMMISSIONING THE CREATION OF ORIGINAL WORKS -- hundreds of which already have been realized — for display and sale in the Marketplace of Ideas, online, at popup displays and elsewhere. One goal is to make the Marketplace and International Center for Free Expression financially self-sustaining, with revenues from artwork and other retail sales, event rentals, performances, beverage and food sales, memberships and other sources.
