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				FOCUS: Product-Testing the Progressive Campaign
		For this JEFF & GORDON project, we responded to an invitation to create a piece about "participation in the political process" by emulating one of the most ubiquitous forums for participation our society has to offer – the focus group. We conducted three groups, first with staff members of the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, then with friends and colleagues of the Los Angeles-based artist Kim Abeles, and finally with the general public at the Pasadena Armory Center for the Arts.
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	This was a time obviously with a lot at stake for the Left. But rather than rally the troops, we chose to create a platform for a conversation about progressive rhetoric, and the relationship of that rhetoric to the discourse of contemporary art. Our overarching strategy to facilitate this conversation was to conflate grassroots organizing with market research. In addition, we re-created the political process in microcosm, confronting the participants with power dynamics directly, rather than on the more comfortable abstract level. We then took the subsequent video documentation and distilled it into a one hour, power-point based disclosure of findings.