PSA Wednesday, September 30, 5-7 pm

PSA is a two-part project that will create a series of Public Service Announcement-style videos about the mechanisms of government and public knowledge.

Join artist Paul Pescador in an online workshop that will focus on gaining a better understanding of how government operates and the disconnection that exists for the public. Through an open discussion: educators, government representatives and individuals who work in a variety of related fields will answer community members’ questions. Though this workshop takes place around the election season, the conversations will focus on larger aspects of civic understanding.

To develop a productive discussion generated from community interests and concerns, we encourage the public to submit questions directly to the panel in advance. Please submit questions to learning@theicala.org by Sunday, September 27. Questions may also be asked live at the workshop event.

Information gathered in this workshop will be part of a series of short PSA videos by Pescador to be screened at ICA LA and online.

Paul Pescador creates installation, performance, and videos that incorporate a variety of animation strategies—from hand-drawing to puppetry. Their video narratives are created through a process of inquiry that includes both research and interviews.

Panelists: Dr. Robert Banks, Helen Campbell, York Chang, Vyki Englert, and Hunter Owens.

Dr. Robert Banks Dr. Robert Banks joined the United States Foreign Servicein 1983. During his 28-year career as a Public Diplomacy practitioner, he served as Assistant Executive Officer in Bonn, West Germany; Deputy Public Affairs Officer (PAO) in Nicosia, Cyprus; Assistant Press Attaché in Seoul, Korea; East Asia Policy Officer in USIA’s Worldnet TV service; Press Attaché in Managua, Nicaragua; Cultural Affairs Officer in Seoul; Examiner for the Foreign Service oral entrance exam in the Bureau of Human Resources; Planning and Coordination Officer in the Office of Public Diplomacy in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs; PAO in Buenos Aires, Argentina; State Department Chair on the faculty of the Marine Corps War College in Quantico, VA., where he taught regional studies; and U.S. Public Diplomat in Residence at the USC Center on Public Diplomacy at the Annenberg School. He is currently Clinical Associate Professor of Public Diplomacy and Co-Director of USC’s Masters in Public Diplomacy Program.

Helen Campbell As a Senior Planner at the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research, Helen works on a variety of planning and land use policies in the advancement of the state’s planning priorities. She provides planning related guidance and technical assistance to the public with a focus on land use, housing, and equity. Prior to joining OPR, Helen worked as a planner for the City of Los Angeles for ten years and as a housing policy planner for community-based non-profit organizations for four years. She holds an M.A. degree in Urban and Regional Planning from UCLA.

York Chang York Chang works as both a labor lawyer and an artist. While studying at UCLA in the 1990’s, he founded a coalition of progressive underrepresented student organizations which coordinated local, state and national campaigns for educational access, immigrant rights, and affirmative action. The coalition also organized and established the first graduate student and academic employee union at UCLA. As an attorney, Chang served as Chief Counsel of SEIU Local 1000, California’s largest public sector labor union, which led Fight for 15, the national campaign for a $15 minimum wage. He is now a staff attorney at the California Teachers Association, representing teachers unions.

As an artist, York Chang makes conceptually driven work which considers how collective action is influenced by ambiguity, disorientation, and propaganda. Chang has exhibited his work at various institutions, galleries, and art fairs in Los Angeles and internationally, including concurrent solo exhibitions this year at the Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA) and the Vincent Price Art Museum (VPAM). He served as President of the Los Angeles City Cultural Affairs Commission for four years, and is a recipient of the California Community Foundation Artist Fellowship, and VPAM’s Thomas Silliman Vanguard Award.

Vyki Englert
Vyki Englert is Principal and Co-Founder of Compiler LA, a software agency dedicated to building a better Los Angeles. Through Compiler her work has included serving as an ambassador for the state’s open data program, developing web applications for clients such as City of Los Angeles, State of California Health and Human Services, and CalTrans, and hosting the popular Data and Donuts and School of Data events in Los Angeles. By night she’s a co-founder of Policy Club, a small group of volunteers publishing data analysis and advocating for smarter CA state policy. She previously served as a member of Code for America’s National Advisory Council, and is an advisor to govtech startup CityGrows.

Hunter Owens Hunter Owens is a programmer analyst IV doing data science for the City of Los Angeles. Prior to that, Owens worked at Impact Lab, the Center for Data Science and Public Policy, and Obama for America. Owens spends a lot of time thinking about cities, data pipelines and tacos.