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

Billboard (advertising)

A billboard is a large outdoor advertising structure , typically found in high traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertisements to passing pedestrians and drivers...

 and public art

Public art

The term public art properly refers to works of art in any media that have been planned and executed with the specific intention of being sited or staged in the physical public domain, usually outside and accessible to all...

 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

Immigration to the United States

Immigration to the United States has been a major source of population growth and cultural change throughout much of the history of the United States. The economic, social, and political aspects of immigration have caused controversy regarding ethnicity, economic benefits, jobs for non-immigrants,...

, gentrification

Gentrification

Gentrification and urban gentrification refer to the changes that result when wealthier people acquire or rent property in low income and working class communities. Urban gentrification is associated with movement. Consequent to gentrification, the average income increases and average family size...

 and displacement, sexual expression, links between race activism and queer activism

LGBT movements in the United States

LGBT movements in the United States comprise an interwoven history of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender social and political movements in the United States of America, beginning in the early 20th century...

, the logic of militarization, the ways capitalism and misogyny impact women, economic injustice and free trade policies

Free trade debate

Free trade is one of the most debated topics in economics of the 19th, 20th, and 21st century. Arguments over free trade can be divided into economic, moral, and socio-political arguments. The academic debate among economists is currently settled in favor of free trade, with a consensus having...

, 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.

• Actions Speak (2008-2010) is a multi-media project examining political brutality and public policy, and reconsiders social problems like HIV/AIDS and violence against women. The project features a 17 x 67 foot interior wall mural and a concurrent outdoor projection. Debuting the week before the 2008 Presidential Election, Actions Speak promotes dialogue between art and public response, between global reality and local action. Commissioned by the Worcester Art Museum
  Worcester Art Museum
  The Worcester Art Museum, also known by its acronym WAM, houses over 35,000 works of art dating from antiquity to the present day, representing cultures from all over the world. The WAM opened in 1898 in Worcester, Massachusetts, and is the second largest art museum in New England...
  
  .
• The NAFTA Effect (2006-2007) was a series of public projections in Los Angeles addressing how free trade
  Free trade
  Under a free trade policy, prices emerge from supply and demand, and are the sole determinant of resource allocation. 'Free' trade differs from other forms of trade policy where the allocation of goods and services among trading countries are determined by price strategies that may differ from...
  
   reshapes the lives of people on both sides of the United States–Mexico border
  United States–Mexico border
  The United States–Mexico border is the international border between the United States and Mexico. It runs from Imperial Beach, California, and Tijuana, Baja California, in the west to Matamoros, Tamaulipas, and Brownsville, Texas, in the east, and traverses a variety of terrains, ranging from major...
  
   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
  Female homicides in Ciudad Juárez
  The phenomenon of the female homicides in Ciudad Juárez, called in Spanish the feminicidios and las muertas de Juárez , involves the violent deaths of hundreds of women since 1993 in the northern Mexican city of Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, a border city across the Rio Grande from the U.S. city of El...
  
   in Ciudad Juárez
  Ciudad Juárez
  Ciudad Juárez , officially known today as Heroica Ciudad Juárez, but abbreviated Juárez and formerly known as El Paso del Norte, is a city and seat of the municipality of Juárez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Juárez's estimated population is 1.5 million people. The city lies on the Rio Grande...
  
  , Chihuahua, to the structural effects of the North American Free Trade Agreement
  North American Free Trade Agreement
  The North American Free Trade Agreement or NAFTA is an agreement signed by the governments of Canada, Mexico, and the United States, creating a trilateral trade bloc in North America. The agreement came into force on January 1, 1994. It superseded the Canada – United States Free Trade Agreement...
  
   (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
  War on Terrorism
  The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...
  
  . 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
  Los Angeles, California
  Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern 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 market
  Target market
  A target market is a group of customers that the business has decided to aim its marketing efforts and ultimately its merchandise. A well-defined target market is the first element to a marketing strategy...
  
  ing and “Gay Chic.”
• Popping The Question (2000) was a caravan of mobile billboards circulated throughout the cities of Boston, Massachusetts and San Francisco, California
  San Francisco, California
  San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
  
  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

• Boston Globe, "Power meets vulnerability: Wall mural and exhibit at the Worcester Art Museum tackle social issues," Kate McQuaid, December 8, 2008
• 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