In case you have not noticed, there are lot of election posters in the capital which do not contain the usual political rhetoric, and Mr O'Brien and UpStart are to be thanked for adding some much-needed colour to the 2011 general election.
The reason behind the initiative, he says, is that “it seemed like such a cool idea and also because you can do it ... we did it for creativity and to promote creativity.”
Commenting on election campaigns in general, Mr O'Brien says they are “always such an eyesore … especially now, people just don’t like the mug shots of politicians, in their face for three weeks.”
According to Mr O'Brien, one can put up a poster as long as it is related to the general election. Therefore, he and his colleagues put up their own posters with themes that aim to promote creativity for the February 2011 election.
“Promising creativity in the 2011 election is written at the bottom of every poster - and the Upstart logo,” he said.
“It was pretty simple, we can do this, anybody can poster during this three weeks, the lampposts are open for business, so we decided to do it.”
Mr O'Brien said no special permission was required, “as long as you stay within the guidelines.”
He emphasised that UpStarts manifesto has a lot of references to what they are trying to achieve in relation to bringing art and creativity into the publics’ and the electorates’ mindset.
“We are trying to put something into the minds of people about the country; you couldn’t just put a product up there ... that would be considered litter then.”
The idea itself is an “evolution of ideas,” said Mr O’Brien, because a friend, Aaron Copeland, first suggested it to him when he saw it during the Lisbon treaty.
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“It has evolved into this through a celebration of thought,” he said, as the group includes many activists, event co-ordinators and artists who all came together to work on the project for free.
Artists, poets, writers and photographers were all asked to submit ideas to be considered for printing on election posters. The early election call caught the group on the hop, but regardless of this, over 1,000 submissions were received from 485 visual artists and 150 from writers.
“There has been a huge response, considering the amount of time that we had in the end ... everything had to be brought forward in the end; we are still printing posters and putting them up every other day.”
“We weren’t quite as prepared as the other parties because we did not know we were going to be doing this until a month ago.”
Later this month, all the submissions will become available to view on the group’s website, UpStart.ie. The site was a submissions guideline site up until recently, and now it is in the process of being updated with all the art work received.
“We have been putting them out on our facebook page and twitter,” said Mr O’Brien. They have also posted animation, film and over 50 music submissions on YouTube. ”We asked for submissions in all disciplines ... so Upstart.ie is where you can see and hear everything,” he said.
The man behind UpStart.ie has an interesting background. Once a professional golfer, he managed the group Rodrigo y Gabriella and he has also helped open Dartmouth Square to the public. He now organises outdoor cinema events, in Dartmouth square, Fitzwilliam Square, and Dublin castle. “I am generally involved in many different projects; I’m involved in so many different things, all to do with cultural shifting and changing,” claims Mr O'Brien.
The UpStart group are not 100 per cent sure what they will achieve with this project: their aim is to put art at the centre of the election, and then to watch the space to see what happens.
“Putting art at the centre of the election around the city centre, we don’t really have an agenda beyond that ... I suppose to spark creative thinking in others or in a very large group of people.”
Mr O'Brien thinks that this initiative shows the power of collaboration. All funds for the project were raised via fund-raisers. “Money was not in the middle of it in any way ... although money is part of society, it is not society.”
He said that the standing of money is also reflected in the government, where he believes it is considered to be a demotion to be made Minister for the Arts, whereas Minister for Finance is a more sought-after position.
