Art salvos : aesthetics of figurative acts of war between the US and Cuba along Havana's Malecón

ART SALVOS:

aesthetics of figurative acts of war between the US and Cuba

along Havana's Malec6n

BY

LAURA SEREJO GENES

BACHELOR OF ARCHITECTURE

THE COOPER UNION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE & ART, 2014

SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE IN PARTIAL

FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF

MASTER OF SCIENCE IN ART, CULTURE & TECHNOLOGY

AT THE

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

JUNE 2018

02018 Laura Serejo Genes. All rights reserved.

The author hereby grants to MIT permission to reproduce

and to distribute publicly paper and electronic

copies of this thesis document in whole or in part

in any medium now known or hereafter created.

Signature red

P1

Certified by:

JUN 2

2

2018

acted

ogram in Art, CulturfanYechnolbgy, Department of Architecture

May 11, 2018

Signature redacted

Gediminas Urbonas

Associate Professor of Art, Culture and Technology

Thesis Supervisor

______Signature

redacted_

V

Professor of Ajchitecture

Chairperson, Department Committee for Graduate Students

ART SALVOS:

aesthetics of figurative acts of war between the US and Cuba

along Havana's Malec6n

BY

LAURA SEREJO GENES

Submitted to the Department of Architecture

on May 11, 2018 in Partial Fulfillment of the

Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science

in Art, Culture & Technology

ABSTRACT:

Laura Serejo Genes spent her last year in the Art Culture and Technology Program at MIT

obsessively researching the works of an American Foreign Service Agent working in the highest

office of the United States Interest Section in Cuba from 2002-2005. This character, Chief of

Mission James C. Cason, spearheaded many public diplomacy projects in Havana, the magnum

opus of which was a huge LED electronic ticker on the facade of the U.S. Embassy Building. The

ticker immediately calls to mind the work of artist Jenny Holzer. Laura traveled down to Florida

to ask the retired diplomat if he had ever heard of Jenny Holzer. He had not. But in her

conversations with him, and with Tomis Vicente Lara Franquis, the incredible Director of the

Monuments Commission in Cuba [CODEMA], Laura started to think about political leaders like

James C. Cason and his adversary, Fidel Castro, who inadvertently or not, personally authored

public projects so large and stimulating that they should be considered public works of art. She

puts forth the original term: art salvo, to describe precisely this type of intervention: a figurative

act of war. Fascinated by this particular situation in Cuba in the early 2000's, Laura outlines the

power of what she is calling: the agency of discretion. Politics are everywhere and discretion

operates at many scales, but discretion is most discernible when considering the amount of it

apportioned to leaders. Perhaps, she concludes: this form of political agency can be and is a fertile

ground for art production? However satisfying it may be to reach this conclusion, sometimes the

terrifying nature of the result outweighs the satisfaction of having arrived at it.

Thesis Supervisor: Gediminas Urbonas

Title: Associate Professor of Art, Culture and Technology, Department of Architecture

TABLES OF CONTENTS

0. METHODS...

05

1. ELECTRIC SIGN WITH MOVING LETTERS...08

2. THE CASE OF CASON...21

3. CONCLUSIONS OR COLLISIONS...

45

4. 8 YEARS A LADY...46

5.

EAGLES, EAGLES, EAGLES...50

6. TORCH, THE PLAZA...56

0. METHODS

From the explosion of the U.S.S. Maine to the latest accusation of sonic attacks, tensions have always run high between United States and Cuba. The site of the U.S. Embassy Building in Havana has been, since its inauguration in 1953, a physical epicenter of the manifestation of these tensions. Taking off from the installation of an Electronic Ticker along the fifth floor of the U.S. Embassy Building on Martin Luther King Day in 2006, this thesis analyzes the circumstances and resulting aesthetics of political gestures on the part of both nations: working back from the Monte de las Banderas (installed to block the United States Interest Section's electronic ticker), to billboards installed by Castro displaying American torture practices, to the Anti-Imperialist Plaza ITribuna Antiimperialista] designed in response to the Elian Gonzalez controversy and going as far back as the installation of the Monument to the Victims of the U.S.S.

Maine in 1925. As a working conclusion to this research and analysis, a public art sculpture is proposed as

an attempted synthesis of the project. The public art sculpture is to be proposed for installation for the XII Biennial of Havana, which has been delayed from 2018 to 2019.*

In order to adequately animate the concept of the art salvo I am putting forward for consideration,

I will limit my case study to the area surrounding and related to the United States Embassy Building in

Havana. I will delineate a site with boundaries of the United States Embassy Building to the west and the

Monument to the Victims of the US.S. Maine to the east, along Havana's historic seaside road, Avenida de

Maceo, best known as the Malec6n. These two totems to U.S. involvement in Cuba flank the Monte de las

Banderas and the Anti-Imperialist Plaza, which in themselves constitute an arcade of art salvos. I will

discuss the individual components of the Anti-Imperialist Plaza at length: a stage, an arcade dedicated to "Liberators of the World" and a sculpture of Jos6 Marti, commissioned directly in response to the Eliin Gonzdiez controversy. I will present these structures, monuments and temporary elements diagenetically, as opposed to in strictly chronological order, as to suggest a reading that prioritizes the relationship of the employed aesthetics of the art salvo to the particular political situation or circumstance to which the salvo responds.

One of the difficulties of describing this delineated site around the United States Embassy Building in Havana is that each element is its own black hole of history; days could spent describing the circumstances around the addition of a single structure or element. It becomes difficult in the process of these individual digressions to understand how these histories weave into one another. One tactic is to instead consider precise slices through time, similar to the methodology used by criminologists: the familiar phrase "Where were you on the night of May 1, 2018?" We either well-dig into the history of one element, or consider a slice of time across an entire site, but neither of these methods allow for realities that never physically existed concurrently to influence one another.

Although it is not the main theory put forth in this thesis, I am suggesting that the phenomena of diagenesis provides a new way to think about how structures like monuments and buildings can be considered adaptive and less stable then previous histories or analyses would suggest. The word diagenesis, literally means, "across generations" and is most often used in the field of geology to explain the changes rocks have undergone over time as nature and fluids circulate through materials we often perceive as solid and impermeable. Diagenesis takes into account "the cumulative physical, chemical and biological environment; these processes will modify an organic object's original chemical and/or structural

properties and will govern its ultimate fate, in terms of preservation or destruction."' If we consider the social and political environment as factors that can modify an object's original properties (and influence its ultimate fate) we can more fluidly consider a means by which marble can be malleable and monuments can be metamorphic.

This thesis relies heavily on interviews I conducted with James C. Cason, the Chief of Mission of the United States Interest Section [USINT] in Havana from 2002-2005, the mastermind behind the USINT electronic ticker, and Tomds Vicente Lara Franquis, Director of CODEMA [The Cuban Advisory Board for Monumental Sculptures]. The reliance on these interviews hopes to highlight the importance of the creative agency of leaders, who inadvertently or not, rely on aesthetics to carry the messages of their policies. Email correspondence with Maikal Menendez, lead architect for the Anti-Imperialist Plaza, was also revelatory and convinced me that the topic was worth pursuing.

Because I received no information about the Electronic Ticker from the Department of States or the United States Embassy in Cuba, the sources for the content of the ticker are a variety of media outlets, mostly written in English, in addition to an interview with James C. Cason that clarified many questions I had about the creation of the content for the ticker. The choice to not include these statements in the language they were scrolled in has to do with the fact that, in almost all cases, I came across the phrases in English. The act of translating the phrases back into Spanish could be misleading as it would suggest that was how they were projected when it instead would simply represent my translation of the English back into Spanish. Also on the topic of language, there are different acronyms used for the abbreviation of the United States Interest Section. For consistency, I will use the American English acronym [USINT] but I would like to note that the Spanish acronym for the same United States Interest Section is SINA.

Throughout this research process people often inquired about "my connection to Cuba." Apart from being mistaken as someone of Cuban origin, my initial interest in Cuba was general curiosity to explore a place in Latin America that has actively tried to dispel the influence of the United States. My love for the Spanish language and looks that could be confused for Cuban were both useful assets throughout the process but my relationship to Cuba has only become more complicated as it has intensified. Trying to parse through both Cuban and American sources on the topics at the hand often led to a series of more unverifiable questions, including accusations linking the Americans involved in supporting Anti-Castro activity to the American alt-right or ultraderecha estadunidense.2

I do not take these or any accusations by the Americans towards the Castro Regime, lightly, especially as a first generation immigrant living through the Presidential term of Donald Trump. The purpose of this investigation was not to clarify any political speculations but to consider how aesthetics play into the methods of both sides. Please excuse the ability to temporarily see past these accusations for the purpose of analyzing the resulting aesthetic battleground that was made of the arena around the United States Embassy Building in Havana.

1 "Lithified." n.d. World Heritage Encyclopedia. Project Gutenbreg Self-Publishing Press. Accessed May 2, 2018.

http://self.gutenberg.org/artices/eng/Lithified.

2 "La mafia cubanoamericana de Miami vive del cuento." Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba, last modified November 07, 2012, http://www.minrex.gob.cu/es/la-mafia-cubanoamericana-de-miami-vive-del-cuento

How else can one write but of those things which one doesn't know, or knows badly? It is precisely there that we imagine having something to say. We write only at the frontiers of our knowledge, at the border which separates our knowledge from our ignorance and transforms one into the other. Only in this manner are we resolved to write.

1. ELECTRIC SIGN WITH MOVING LETTERS

"All the news is in the air and the sign is just pulling it in" -Edwin Schlossberg in Wired

On Tuesday, November 6, 1928, election day, thousands of incandescent bulbs flashed above Times Square. The choreographed series of 14,800 lights spelled out: "HERBERT HOOVER DEFEATS AL SMITH." Frank C. Reilly, the inventor of the "electric sign with moving letters" had just debuted what would come to be known as the "Zipper," a 38-foot-long, 5-foot-high grid of bulbs wrapping around the One Times Square Building. A couple of days later, the Times published a story titled, Huge Times Sign Will Flash News to describe the captivating new technology they had just introduced to the world. "Simple in principle, the machinery by which the news can be flashed is extraordinarily complex."3 _{They stressed the}

innovation that went into the creation of the new technology, like the fact that the appearance of a seamless stream of glowing letters required the coordination of an average of 261,925,664 lamp flashes per hour. Unlike anything that came before it, the Zipper produced a sequence of flashing lights that the brain could process as letters.

This succession of letters had the capacity to communicate phrases to enormous crowds of unsuspecting bystanders, while mesmerizing them in the process:

The loiterer in Times Square merely sees a word begin to spell itself out, starting at the northwest corner of the bulb-studded panel. The bulbs just eastward light up in the shape of the letter and behind it a second letter appears. Thus, a continuous flow ofwords....4

New York, New York. People watching the electrical news sign on the Times building at Times Square. Howard R. Hollem,

Mac

3 "Huge Sign Will Flash News," New York Times, November 8, 1928,

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=940DE7D8143EE73ABC4053DFB7678383639EDE.

This technology, like most, required operators, but this wasn't limited to technicians. The Zipper also created a demand for dedicated writers. "The apparatus is not merely an electronic sign but in one sense a newspaper as well, so the control room is also a news room and composing room,"3 the Times reported.

Report-Compose-Scroll was the new assembly line. And just like that, the Zipper's control room became a

place where the media transduced news into a modem, visual spectacle.

The debut of the Zipper introduced the world to would come to be known as the electronic ticker. The emergence of this technology at this particular moment in time, folds precisely into Guy Debord's critical theory concept of the spectacle. His 1967 book, The Society of the Spectacle, bashes society's complacency towards the ever-growing and all-consuming realm of mass media that, according to him, first took hold in the late 1920's. The electronic ticker has since propagated into a ubiquitous and ceaselessly dynamic technology that still holds it place next to high-definition screens. In keeping with the Marxist prophesy of Debord, the electronic ticker found a particularly prominent place in capitalist societies, reified by its serviceability to the Wall Street world of stocks and trading. And like the best of society's spectacles, we should think of it as "...not something added to the real world - not a decorative element, so to speak." On the contrary, "[t]he spectacle in general, as the concrete inversion of life, is the autonomous movement of the non-living."5 The electronic ticker does just that; it can make a crowd stand

still-the concrete inversion of

life-to

of the non-living.

On Monday, January 26, 2006 this "complicated process," now streamlined by LEDs and digital technologies, found itself on an unlikely fagade in a communist country. Eight-foot tall red capital letters ran right-to-left across the fifth-floor windows of what was once known as the United States Embassy Building in Havana. As Michael Parmly, Chief of the U.S. Interest Section in Havana [USINT] at the time, reveals in a 2014 interview with NPR:

"You know, we were interested in communicating with the Cuban people in any and every possible way. Some

in Washington had the idea of well, you know, let's try the Times Square billboard approach."6

5

6 "What Will Full Diplomatic Relations With Cuba Look Like?" narrated by Melissa Block, All Things

Considered, National Public Radio [NPR], December 18, 2014. https://www.npr.org/2014/12/18/371721075/what-will-full-diplomatic-relations-with-cuba-look-like.

That third Monday in January, as scheduled, was the national federal holiday of Martin Luther King Day, and, while 51 United States Interest Section [USINT] workers in Havana enjoyed a paid holiday out of the office, the electronic billboard spelled out words from Martin Luther King's IHave A Dream speech of 1963:

I HAVE A DREAM THAT ONE DAY THIS NATION WILL RISE UP...

Of course, the nation implied here is not the same nation implicated in King's original speech. In this

transposition, a public speech, originally delivered by a Black civil rights leader during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, is delivered silently, scrolling across the windows of the Embassy building, playing on the ambiguity of what "this nation" stands for when delivered in Cuba.

The letters did not go unnoticed. Parmly continues:

The night we put up the billboard, Fidel came by. And we heard what he was saying down in the parking lot 'cause the guards told us what he was saying down in the parking lot.'

The parking lot didn't stay a parking lot for long. After visiting the electronic ticker the first night it lit up, Fidel Castro began to stage his retaliation. First, he organized a million-man march; Parmly's people at the U.S. Interest Section at the time estimate it was 1.4 million. Castro had many bones to pick with the United States, so rather than acknowledge the brilliant provocation, he instead organized a march to protest the United States' refusal to extradite Luis Posada Carriles, a Cuban exile and former CIA agent convicted in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people. Led by former Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, the march was the one of the largest of past decade, lasting seven hours.

Jorge Rey/AP Photo

7 "What Will Full Diplomatic Relations With Cuba Look Like?"

8 The first words the electronic billboard scrolled through were from another march, the "March on Washington

for Jobs and Freedom" of 1963 which was followed up by what became known as the America's own "Million Man March" on October 16, 1995 organized by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, calling for "able-bodied African American men to come to the nation's capital to address the ills of the black communities and for unity and revitalization of African American communities.

j

o

As the story goes, just as Fidel, 79-years old at the time, positions himself in front of the building to speak to the masses, "American diplomats couldn't resist taking advantage of a captive audience and lit up the electronic ticker billboard"6

:-TO THOSE OF YOU WHO WANT :-TO BE HERE, WE RESPECT YOUR PROTEST. :-TO THOSE WHO DON'T WANT TO BE HERE, EXCUSE THE BOTHER. 9

The phrase, coined for this exact moment in history, took a direct jab at Fidel and the fact that it had been rumored that people attended his rallies not out of free-will but due to direct force. It is unconfirmed whether this was the first time the words of the USINT electronic ticker were not a quotation. It is also unclear if the quotes of the USINT electronic ticker were always or ever attributed. Regardless, this moment stands out as one in which the USINT electronic ticker debuted its own disembodied voice, ready not only to "communicate news" but to respond to it in real-time.

The electronic ticker on the facade of the USINT in Havana had officially strayed the New York

Times "Zipper" it claims as its progenitor. This ticker was not simply bringing news from the outside world

7 _{Robles, Frances, "U.S. Uses Billboard to Jab at Castro during Mass Protest," Knight Ridder Newspapers,}

to Cuba, or plainly reciting from the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the USINT ticker was speaking on behalf of the building, which, despite technically functioning as the Swiss Embassy at the time, held on its top three floors (one of which had windows completely occupied by LED lights), the only official agency on the island of Cuba of the American government.

No matter how loud he spoke into the microphone, there was an interference Castro could not fight, at least not immediately. A visual, written, scrolling spectacle was actively competing with his sonic spoken one-a literary battle of political pageantry. Although the USINT electronic ticker would return to its regular scheduled programming of quotes from people like Abraham Lincoln, George Orwell and Frank Zappa, the voice it had debuted behind Castro's back would resurface to contribute more apropos phrases like: HOW COME WE CAN ENTER YOUR HOTELS AND YOU CAN'T."

It is this disembodied voice of the American government in Cuba that brings to mind another lineage of electronic tickers, tickers not participating in the traditional world of mass media but squarely in the world of fine art. Prolific artist Jenny Holzer first used electronic LEDs in 1982, also in Times Square. Holzer was invited by fellow artist Jane Dickson, who while working as an ad designer and computer programmer for the advertising company Spectacolor Inc., conceived of a public art project that would run a series of artists' works created specifically for the "800-square-foot array of 8,000 red, blue and green 60-watt bulbs that dominate[d] the Times Square Vista."" For years, Holzer had already been composing a series of one-liners, or Truisms as she calls them. She used this opportunity to broadcast

Truisms in bright lights: ABUSE OF POWER COMES AS NO SURPRISE and TORTURE IS

BARBARIC were a couple that made the cut. Following the display of her static "one-liners" above the

Courtesy: Jenny H Courtesy: Jenny Holzer / Art Resource, NY

1 James C. Cason (U.S. State Department, [retired]), interviewed by author, Coral Gables, FL, March 26, 2018.

" "Public Art Fund: Messages to the Public -Holzer." Accessed April 19, 2018,

https://www.publicartfund.org/view/exhibitions/5545_messages-to-thepublic-holzer/5545 messages-to-the-pub lic - holzer.

original Times Square Zipper, Holzer whole-hearted adopted the form of the scrolling electronic ticker; this became her signature. The art world celebrated her use of this medium, generally reserved for mass media, garnering her a place in permanent collections of museums and galleries around the world, a practice she continues to this day with much success. As the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum wrote about the Truisms scrolling along the extended* helical tricolor LED ticker it commissioned as part of Holzer's 1989 survey, "If any consistent viewpoint emerges in the edgy, stream-of consciousness provocations it is that truth is relative and that each viewer must become an active participant in determining what is legitimate and what is not."' 2

It is exactly this same type of destabilizing provocation that the USINT chose to transmit to the people of Cuba with its own electronic ticker in year 2002. While Holzer's one-liners proclaim: YOU

MUST REMEMBER YOU HAVE FREEDOM OF CHOICE, the USINT electronic ticker translated these

words of Abraham Lincoln's into Spanish: NO MAN IS GOOD ENOUGH TO GOVERN ANOTHER

MAN WITHOUT THAT OTHER'S CONSENT. Jenny gave us: PEOPLE WON'T BEHAVE IF THEY HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE while the USINT electronic ticker asked questions like: IN A FREE

COUNTRY YOU DON'T NEED PERMISSION TO LEAVE THE COUNTRY. IS CUBA A FREE COUNTRY? This denunciative, disembodied voice of the USINT electronic ticker relates it more directly to the LED works of Jenny Holzer than the New York Times "Zipper" it claims as its forebear. People had come to expect straight-speaking news from electronic tickers, but these more renegade versions, disturb

124 "Untitled (Selections From Truisms, Inflammatory Essays, The Living Series, The Survival Series, Under A

Rock, Laments, And Child Text)." Guggenheim Collection Online, accessed March 18, 2018, https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/22064.

the peace not with news, but with provocative, inflammatory, and in Jenny Holzer's case, contradictory statements.

In the Museum of Modem Art in New York City you can find The Photostat, Truisms, a neat list spelling out 86 of Holzer's maxims. This plotted artwork on paper, 40 inches wide and a whopping 8 feet long, is only a selection of the Truisms but in its sample we get a taste of her range and a snapshot of dedication to producing disquieting messages. No such equivalent list exists for the USINT electronic ticker.

In early Spring 2016, I inquired directly with the U.S. Cultural Attache to Cuba at the time, Karen

E. Huntress about the content of the now defunct ticker. I had met her by chance, on my first evening in

Havana, at an art opening hosted by the Norwegian Embassy, showcasing an impressive array of Cuban artists using their limited internet access to make new media art. I explained my MIT affiliation and she insisted she give me her business card in case she could be of service to me or my handful of classmates that had all come down as part of a graduate course on the topic of Public Art. We set a time to meet at the newly re-inaugurated U.S. Embassy Building and in a gesture I thought was considerate, but turned out to be naifve, I sent her an email outlining the inquiries I would make in person.

When I arrived at the security desk in the metal booth that straddles the fence that wraps all the way around the Embassy Building, I was asked to present my passport. Simple enough, I thought, but it turns out I would not be making it past that booth. The Cuban security guards, who spoke to me kindly in Spanish, offered me coffee while I waited for Ms. Huntress' assistant. Eventually her male assistant entered the booth and asked me to clarify my requests. I explained as simply as possible my curiosity concerning the statements of the ticker and he assured me she would be down shortly. She appeared, ushered me outside, past where the guards could hear. She told me she had no information for me and that she would reply to my email if anything came up. She did reply eventually, unable to "find anything comprehensive" but suggesting I speak to former ambassador James Cason, who at the time of her email, was serving as the Mayor of the affluent Miami suburb, Coral Gables. Eventually, a whole year later, I would make it to Coral Gables to speak to Cason in person, to ask him a series of questions, including if he had ever heard of the artist, Jenny Holzer. But that day, having been denied entry to my country's Embassy, I spent some time standing outside the majestic modern building. I looked up at the fifth floor windows the electronic ticker was once installed behind; no sign of them. What did remain on the site for me to explore were bones of Fidel Castro's retaliation onto what used to be the parking lot of the U.S. Embassy Building, over 100 flag poles, which on this day stood absolutely bare, no flag in sight, just the sounds of metal clasps banging against hollow metal poles.

Before analyzing the possible influence of a prolific, neo-conceptual artist on a public diplomacy project of the United States Interest Section in Cuba, it is worth describing this genius project of Castro in

detail. Castro's flagpoles, like the USINT electronic ticker it was a reaction to, also takes on properties of conceptual art. He did not consider this sculptural retaliation an official monument or work of art for thatmatter, despite it rising over hundreds of feet in the air, donning a declarative plaque and having every

intention of being a permanent installation. "

In another one of his many press conferences in regards to the electronic ticker's debut back in

2006, Michael Parmly, who had taken the post of Chief of Mission only four months earlier, says:

Yes, I've noticed that something is being built in the parking lot, what use to be the parking lot infront of the interest section. Looks rather massive, significant construction equipment.

I

fIiifhiIIUIUIIHEIII

IIIIIIuIIIIIIuuIuIIIIIv iiiIIIIIIIIIIIEIuUII

Image C U.S. Department of State. See parking lot.

The USINT electronic ticker also took the opportunity to comment in its signature style of scrolling red letters: THE FAST PACE OF CONSTRUCTION IS IMPRESSIVE. IT SHOWS THE POTENTIAL OF

CUBAN WORKERS and HAVANA RESIDENTS COMMENT THAT FUNDS WOULD BE BETTER SPENT ON WIDESPREAD REPAIRS'6

" Tomis Vicente Lara Franquis [CODEMA], interviewed by author, Havana, Cuba, March 29, 2017.

" _{"Biolgraphy: Michael Parmly," U.S. Department of State, September 22, 2005,}

https://web.archive.org/web/20070613023319/http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/53709.htm " "US enjoy says ticker will stay despite Cuban objections," YouTube, January 26, 2006, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8afWizUKwc0

16 Patrici, Grogg. "CUBA-US: Forest of Flag Poles Ratchets Up 'Billboard War'," Inter Press Service News

The construction taking place in the parking lot turned out to be an installation that Castro would

call Monte de las Banderas [Mountain of Flags/Forest of Flags]. On Monday, February 6, 2006, just a mere two weeks after the debut of the electronic ticker, Castro inaugurated his retaliatory solution: 138 flag poles of varying heights, up to 100 feet tall, standing just a few feet from one another, in such close succession as to obstruct the view of the electronic ticker on the fifth floor of the embassy building. It was an analog, flickering wall of flags physically censoring the electronic ticker, powered by the same trade winds that brought the first Imperialists to the New World nearly five centuries prior. Each of the 138 poles originally flew a black

base of the Monte states:

This forest offlags serves as a response from the people of Cuba to the clumsy arrogance of the U.S. government: 138 Cuban flags will wave with dignity in front of the eyes of the empire, to remind it, starting today, of every year that the Cuban people have struggled, since our founding fathers gave the cry for independence in 1868. Like then, before the shadow of this great mountain of flags, we continue fighting as free men and women.

flag adorned with a single, large, centered white star. The metal plaque at the

A

son a a

man a _{U ...} a

.

The unique flags, which I am led to believe were designed for this specific purpose, are meant to memorialize the 3,47817 fallen in terrorist attacks committed by imperial powers against Cuba and to more directly symbolize the 138 years since 186818: 138 years of uninterrupted fighting. On October 10, 1868

17 Division de La Agencia de Informacion Nacional (AIN), "Banderas cubanas mis enhiestas que nunca frente al

imperio." A CN [Agencia Cubana de Noticias], February 26, 2006, http://www.acn.cu/2006/febrero/24cmacto.htm. 18 EcuRed, "Monte de Las Banderas," accessed February 15, 2018, https://www.ecured.cu/MontedeLasBanderas.

Carlos Manuelde C6spedes'9 made a declaration that came to be known as the Grito de Yara. That morning, Landowner and lawyer C6spedes rang his slave bell at the usual time, but instead of giving orders for work, he announced that everyone was free and invited to join in the fight for Cuban independence against the Spanish government. It was this moment that Castro chose to memorialize in his act of revenge.

[This is the often-reproduced historical illustration of the Grito de Yara. I haven't yet found more information about this image but the flag pictured may have been a reference point for the black flag with a single white star.]

As spoken by Hassan Perez Casabona, the second in command of the Uni6n de J6venes Comunistas [UJC] at the inauguration [regarding the flags]:

"...they will not be lowered, they will not fold, _{Agencia Cubana de Noticias (AIN) 2006} they will remain serene, proud, vigilant... "20

Despite the silence of U.S. Cultural Attach6 to Cuba, I found people in Havana who were willing to talk. I directed my questions concerning the Monte to CODEMA, Consejo Asesor para el Desarrollo de la

Escultura Monumentaria [the Advisory Board for Monumental Sculptures]. CODEMA's Director Tomis

Vicente Lara Franquis agreed to meet with me but immediately dispelled any link between his department and that undertaking. He insisted that they do oversee the commission, construction, maintenance and preservation of all official, government sanctioned monuments and memorials in Cuba, but clarified that

the Monte de las Banderas was spearheaded by Castro himself, and classified as a "political gesture ",

bypassing the usual due process of installing an enormous sculpture on such a high-profile site.

Castro's classification of the Monte as a "Political Gesture " is the inspiration for what I call an Art Salvo. An Art Salvo is a figurative act of war that is characterized by its provocative aesthetics. As opposed

to propaganda, think of an art salvo as metaphorical shot fired directly from a leader's gun. Governmental propaganda, at least since WWI, has called for the dedication of entire sectors of the government; consider the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda of Nazi Germany, the British Political Warfare

'9 By 1869 Carlos Manuelde Cespedes would become the chosen President of the Republic of Cuba in Arms.

Executive or the U.S. Office of War Information. These offices, working in support of their respective leaders, were the brainchildren of people who dedicated their lives to converting public opinion. Take for example, Joseph Goebbels, Reich Minister of Propaganda of Nazi Germany, who, while serving as an appointed district leader, committed nearly all his time and energy to the Propaganda Ministry, which he considered his most meaningful contribution to the cause. Perhaps, not quite as controversial a figure is Edward Bernays, "the father of public relations," who was hired by the U.S. Committee on Public Information and later worked on publicity for the Paris Peace Conference. In 1928, the same year as the debut of the New York Times' Zipper, Bernays published his seminal work, Propaganda, in which he describes the power of these behind-the-scenes figures, "We are governed, our mind molded, our tastes formed, and our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of... It is they who pull the wires that control the public mind.",2t These "men we have never heard of' made significant contributions to the fields of public relations and propaganda, which became industries thanks to their dedication. This was

not at all the case in Cuba during the early 2000's. In Cuba it was the men in the highest office that were

calling the shots on all decisions: even those that would otherwise be reserved for experts in the fields of the aesthetics.

The USINT electronic ticker and the Monte de las Banderas are only two episodes of a so-called "billboard war" saga that took place around the United States Embassy Building in Havana in this first decade of the 2 1st century. Leaders on both sides of this billboard war personally authored public art

projects at the civic scale, which, although not without historical precedent, was and is still unheard of in the modern, hyper-specialized world of politics that exists today. Although there were always experts on hand-no doubt, Castro and his American adversary and contemporary James C. Cason, the Chief of the United States Interest Section in Cuba, were making conceptual and aesthetic decisions far from their areas of expertise. James C. Cason, who has been revealed as the mastermind behind the projects that sparked and perpetuated the billboard war, was not even taking any direct orders from Washington. As he loves to reiterate, "I was not at a mission [reference to the USINT] but on a mission." Although Washington would consistently defend his controversial, large-scale public diplomacy projects, they were only ever looped in after-the-fact. This was in part due to a technology reality; although having traces of internet access, the

USINT did not have as immediate a line of digital communication, as would be expected anywhere else

in the world at that time. Perhaps more relevant was the severe agenda of the Bush administration, especially when it came to their position on the dictatorship in Cuba. It may be obvious to some, but it worth noting here that anti-Castro Cuban-Americans make up a significant portion of the Republican voter

base, especially in the swing state of Florida. Cason, as Bush appointee, was given orders to rock the boat and to do so at his own discretion.

Castro, as an elected dictator, naturally enjoyed all these privileges, and arguable more, on his home turf. He ordered the construction of the Monte de las Banderas without the oversight of any local or national arts agency, and with such speed: 138 flagpoles in under 14 days, an astonishing rate of 10 flagpoles a day and that's if we assume work did not break on Saturdays or Sundays. This single project may very well have doubled the number of overall state-sanctioned flagpoles in all of Havana in the course of less than a month. A dictator's orders are almighty and industries will flex to make sure they are met, even when the project in question is a work of art, simply a figurative act of war.

The functionality of the art salvo is predicated on its use of aesthetics as opposed to physical violence. Although the rate of construction of the Monte de las Banderas is best described as vehement, the resulting phenomenon was as figurative as it is functional. Castro wanted to block the electronic billboard the United States put up, but he wanted to do so in style, in a manner that underlined the infallibility and persistence of the Cuban Communist cause in the face of American subterfuge. Although the fury of this determination is most obviously paralleled in preparations for or in acts of war, it is significant that regardless of the physicality of these public projects undertaken by both sides, their results were rhetorical in nature.

Another distinguishing aspect worth underlining is that while an art salvo is a figurative act of war, it has more in common with conceptual art than with figurative artwork. Many of the more obvious observations about the aesthetics of propaganda are preoccupied with design; this is most evident when considering that propaganda's most recognized contribution to the world of art is in the graphic arts. The art salvos of Castro and Cason in and around the United States Embassy Building in Havana are not noteworthy because of their technical skill or craft; in most cases those elegances are missing altogether. Instead, these projects are significant on two counts: the clarity of the intention that comes through the form of the work and the ability of the work to promote the policies and concerns of the politicians that created them.

Castro versus Cason: these feuding politicians were each able to devise commissions for public projects no artist could ever dream of. In the case of the USINT electronic billboard, Cason even fundraised. By the time 2005 rolled around, three years into his position in office, Cason had already successfully produced a range of aesthetically powerful, public diplomacy projects of increasing scale and scope. The last one produced under his watch included a 37 foot-tall Statue of Liberty replica in lights to celebrate his last Fourth of July on the Island and in residence in one the most lavish buildings in all of Havana, the 35,000 square foot American ambassador's residence he called his home. Proving he was

capable of thinking big, Cason began a fundraising campaign for an undisclosed project that The Center

for a Free Cuba2 2

could blindly pitch to its supporters.

I would raise money from the Cuban community. I couldn't tell them what it was, and they had to send the money to the State Department, no more than $500. Ijust said, "you '11 like it but I can't tell you what it is. "23 With the help of The Centerfor a Free Cuba, Cason raised $250,000 in support of his magnum opus, the

USINT electronic ticker, and even partnered with the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company to make it

happen.

Michael Parmly, who took over the United States Interest Section in the second half of 2005, was relatively new to Havana when he green-lighted the launch of the electronic ticker on Martin Luther King Day, 2006. He stood behind the initiative saying in a Press Conference held in the American Ambassador's residence, "the billboard is an effort to dialogue with the Cuban people. Only in totalitarian societies do governments talk and talk at their people and never listen." Those exact word uttered by Parmly, and also written in his email to the Miami Herald in the form of a comment (unattributed as a quote), would also eventually scroll across the ticker, joining phrases by Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, Frank Zappa and George Orwell. The phrase, attributed to Polish President Lech Walesa , was translated from Polish to English, making its way into Parmly's official statement and then again into Spanish to scroll across the ticker. Parmly held his position stoically as a huge construction project took hold of the contested area in front of the United States Interest Section, taking over the entire parking lot in front of the building.

Despite his defense of the project, Parmly cannot be given credit for its conception. The electronic ticker was a project previous Chief of Mission, James Cason, conceived of before he even began his stint in 2002. He left it behind as his parting gift to Havana. This masterwork by Cason was the largest he undertook during his three-year tenure and by far the most audacious and visible public diplomacy work ever undertaken by the Americans in Havana. In order to put into perspective how the electronic ticker was a perfect finale to the earlier art salvos by career diplomat James Cason, let us analyze the projects that led up to the lit, scrolling letters.

22 From their website: "Founded in 1997, The Center for a Free Cuba (CFC) is an independent, nonpartisan

advocacy organization, made up of professionals and human rights volunteers, to put more resources in the hands of Cubans."

23 James C. Cason (U.S. State Department, [retired]), interviewed by author, Coral Gables, FL, March 26, 2018.

24 Paolo Spadoni, "The Castro Fixation: Bush's Pandering Hard Line on Fidel and Raul Won't Free Cuba. " Los

2. THE CASE OF CASON

When James Cason, arrived on Cuban soil on September 10, 2002 he was already surrounded by a certain level of controversy. Cason had been preparing for the difficult assignment of Chief of Mission of the United States Interest Section in Cuba for over a year. "Cuba is one of few countries where we have a presence but not relations", he notes. And with 51 American employees and up to 300 Cuban employees [rented out by the Cuban Government] to oversee, the United States Interest Section, despite not operating as an embassy, had more employees than any other embassy in Havana at the time. The Bush Administration, early in its first term, had a very strong position to put forth, and they saw Cason as the man to do it. Cason was pep-talked to make sure he could broadcast the position and given absolute free reign to do so.

The interesting thing is that I was never really given any marching orders. Otto [Reich, Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs at the State Department] simply said one day over lunch, "You're not at a mission, you'll be on a mission. Your mission is to tell the Cubans about the world and support them morally and logistically." He left it up to me to decide what to do.1

The rocky start began stateside; when Cason's visa request was held in consideration for 50 days, he decided to begin to play hardball. Per his suggestion, Washington denied entry to his Cuban equivalent, who was in Havana at the time and scheduled to return to work at the Cuban interests section in Washington. "I said, 'Look, why don't we tell him that he can't come back to the United States unless I get my visa."'26 _{Cason's visa arrived the next day. That didn't ward off rumors; Miami's Spanish-language}

talk radios feasted on the gossip that the New Jersey-native would be taking his 24-foot motorboat to Cuba and parking it in the Hemingway Marina.2' Before even officially taking office, the State Department officials had to go on record to dispel the rumors orbiting Cason.

But Cason fed off the controversy. "Since Cuba made me wait 50 days, I did not call on the Foreign Ministry for 50 days." he recalls with a sense of satisfaction that he derived from the simple one-to-one retaliation that would come to set the tone for his entire stint. But those 50 days did not go to waste, quite

25 James C. Cason, interview by Charles Stuart Kennedy, The Associationfor Diplomatic Studies and Training

Foreign Affairs Oral History Project AMBASSADOR JAMES C. CASON, Association for Diplomatic Studies and

Training, November 13, 2009, https://adst.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Cason-James-C..pdf.

26 James C. Cason, interview by Charles Stuart Kennedy.

27 Daniel P. Erikson, The Cuba Wars: Fidel Castro, the United States, and the Next Revolution, (Bloomsbury Press, 2008), 41.

the contrary, from his first day addressing the press from the steps of the USINT, Cason articulated his fervent commitment to supporting Cuban dissidents.

And then I asked our human rights people to invite all the leaders of the Cuban opposition to the residence about a week after I got there. I said "You're the experts on Cuba, I'm here to learn and I'm here to support you, I can't give you any money because the Cuban Government would then say you were mercenaries." They said it any way, but it wasn't true. I asked them to tell me how best I could support them? I would be willing to help them get information about what was going on in the rest of the world and help them get information out about what they were doing. I would help them communicate. I would give them books. I could give them short way radios and cameras so they could take pictures. "Tell me what it is I can do to help. .8

At least initially, this unprecedented assistance was not limited to those who were commuting distance from the American Residence in Havana. During his first three months in office Cason travelled 7,000, all around the island of Cuba, providing assistance to areas of the countryside that had a difficult time believing a United States representative would visit an area so remote. 29 He would take with him: books, short-wave radios and "a message of moral support for the island's beleaguered oppositional figures". This early work was not too far from the path blazed by his predecessor, Vicki Huddleston, for whom handing out a short-wave radio became her signature. These radios were intended to expand the network of Cubans tuning into Radio Marti, the Miami-based anti-Castro station openly financed by the United States Government.

In an article in the Home and Garden Section of the New York Times, published on July 4th, 2002, Ms. Huddleston is described as a career diplomat who, for the third year in a row, gathered 500 selected guests to celebrate Independence Day in her Ambassador's mansion, where, the "radios is gift bags will be festooned with red, white and blue ribbons"30 In response to the fact that the Cuban government berated her the year prior, calling her gift-bag tradition a "violation of Cuban sovereignty", Ms. Huddleston is quoted saying, "Giving a party for 500 is hard enough without Cuban officials trying to spoil the fun." Ms. Huddleston played with the idea of "using the art of gentle home entertaining to send a political message"

28 James C. Cason, interview by Charles Stuart Kennedy, 91-92

29 Cason's travel would eventually be limited to Havana.

30 _{Fred Berstein, "Lighting Matches in Cuba on the 4th." New York Times, 4 July 2002,}

but Cason took that three steps further.3 1

At his own crafted 4th of July celebration, Cason, hosting a wide-range of dissidents, their family members and other national dignitaries, hosted mock-elections.

We came up with everything

from

32

US

ifyou

Huddleston, who had been lauded for her competence during the Elian Gonzalez negotiations, managed to maintain ties with both opposition leaders in Cuba as well as Cuban government officials, much to the pleasure of the Clinton administration that appointed her. Cason, with the support of new Latin American Policy team under Bush and the anti-Castro camp that made up a significant portion of the Republican party's voter base, was not interested in walking this fine line. Instead he began a high-profile campaign to support pro-democratic movements on the Island. At the same time, in Cuban national politics, the rejection of the Varela Project, a dissident-sponsored and supported reform proposal enraged local opposition leaders and led the government to initiate their own internal war on dissidents that took advantage of Cason's actions as a means of identifying perpetrators. 3 The proposed "war on drugs" that followed was a perfect veil for increased monitoring of all economic activities happening outside the grips of the communist system. After the defeat of the Varela Project Cuban dissidents began organizing events, private meetings to form their position and open events to publicize their views. One of these such events was held by and outspoken dissident, Economist Marta Beatriz Roque in her Havana apartment. Cason not only attended the meeting but did so brazenly, even speaking openly with the Press. The words he said on the record to a reporter present at the event were later repeated by Castro himself during his lengthy address on March 6th to celebrate his reelection to a sixth term as President of Cuba. Castro was not only listening but willing to prove that he was not above doing so.

3 Fred Berstein, "Lighting Matches in Cuba on the 4th." New York Times.

32 James C. Cason (U.S. State Department, [retired]), interviewed by author, Coral Gables, FL, March 26, 2018.

33 David Gonzales, "A Cuban Dissident Is Defiant After Crackdown Nets Dozens" New York Times, 26 March,

This past February 24... a gentlemen named James Cason, head of the United States Interest Section in Cuba, met in an apartment in Havana with a group of counterrevolutionaries paid by the U.S. government... 'I am not afriad' [Cason] answered simply in response to a question from another reporter, as to whether his presence at the opposition's activities could not be taken as an unfriendly gesture toward the Cuban government, which denounces dissidents as subversive

groups.3 4

That fated February night Cason had gone even further than the words Castro chose to recite, never imagining he would hear his exact words uttered back at him and to the entire Cuban population by the newly re-elected Castro.

Sadly, the Cuban government is afraid, afraid offreedom of consciousness, afraid offreedom of expression, afraid of human rights. This group is demonstrating that there Cubans who are not afraid They know that the transition to democracy is already under way. We want them to know that they are not alone, that the whole world supports them. We as a country support democracy, and people who fight for a better life and forjustice."

Cason denied all allegations that the Interest Section paid dissidents and actively dismissed Castro's use of the word "mercenaries". Cason was always very upfront about the fact that he could not offer any direct funding and intentionally began an robust program to come up with a variety of forms of in-kind support instead. For a while Cason gave every Cuban who was denied a visa to the United States a short-wave radio. In Cason's own words, "'We would say, 'Sorry we can't give you a visa but here's a shortwave radio'. 'Oh Great!' they would say. They would back to where they lived in the countryside where they were now able to listen to the world." To committed independent journalists and writers he would give out digital cameras and fax machines. He even orchestrated an Argentinian journalism professor to conduct courses over the telephone-lines on topics like, "what is evidence?" and the ethics of journalism.

Cason's bold behavior was strengthened because he was confident that all of Castro's threats to close the United States Interest Section were empty. The United States had made it very clear than any such demand to shut down the interest section would result in an immediate retaliation by the Americans,

" Fidel Castro, "SPECIAL PRESENTATION BY DR. FIDEL CASTRO RUZ, PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF CUBA, AT THE TELEVISED ROUNDTABLE ON RECENT EVENTS IN THE COUNTRY AND THE INCREASE

OF AGGRESSIVE ACTIONS BY THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT AGAINST THE CUBAN PEOPLE. APRIL 25, 2003," accessed May 1, 2018, http://www.cuba.cu/gobierno/discursos/2003/ing/f250403i.html

1 Fidel Castro, "SPECIAL PRESENTATION BY DR. FIDEL...",

with the immediate expulsion all Cuban officials from Washington. Cuba could not risk losing their presence in Washington and Cason initially found solace in this apparent stalemate. While this consoled Cason, what the Castro resorted to instead was far more transgressive and ultimately more disruptive to Cason's plan than shutting down the Interest Section would be.

March 18, 2003, less than two weeks after Castro's recitation of Cason's in his election victory speech, the Cuban government began a sweep of arrests. More than 80 dissidents; independent journalists, economists, librarians, writers, and doctors were arrested and awaited sentencing "for acting against and threatening national security."36 said the spokesman, Juan Hernindez Acen. An official statement released

by the Cuban government accused the arrested of conspiring with Cason. Denouncing the "shameful and

repeated attitude by the chief of Washington's diplomatic mission in Havana, James Cason, to foment the internal counterrevolution."37 As beautifully recounted by Daniel P. Erikson in his comprehensive book,

The Cuba Wars, "Fidel Castro had orchestrated his latest wave of repression with a masterful sense of

timing: News from Iraq simply dominated everything else that was happening around the globe. By the time the video of the euphoric Iraqis pulling down a statue of Saddam Hussein swept across the world several weeks later, 75 Cubans had been sentenced to prison terms ranging from fifteen to twenty-five years-collectively totaling more than 1400 years in prison."38 This 2003 crackdown would come to be known as "Primavera Negra [Black Spring]" and would force Cason to create an entirely new style of "diplomacy" to support dissidents that were now all in the custody of the Cuban government.

Research reveals this very clear link between James Cason and the arrest of the 75 dissidents during the Black Spring of 2003. Conspiring with Cason was clearly listed in the official statement by the Cuban Government as one of the central and common offenses incriminating the dissidents rounded up in the sweep. This statement was even read aloud on state television's regular evening news program.39 Although

I have found no evidence that Cason did anything more illicit than providing in-kind support for what the

Cuban government deemed, "anti-revolutionary activities", clearly, for Cubans, associating with Cason could be deemed criminal.

I first met James C. Cason at the Liberty Caf6 in Coral Gables, the affluent city outside Miami,

where he lives and recently served a term as mayor. He picked the spot, citing its convenience, just down

36 David Gonzales, "A Cuban Dissident Is Defiant After Crackdown Nets Dozens" New York Times.

" The Wall Street Journal, "Cuban Government Rounds Up Dozens of Dissidents," March 18, 2003, https://cryptome.org/cu-85+.htm.

38 Daniel P. Erikson, The Cuba Wars, 48.

the road from his house. In spite of, or thanks to, my nerves, I arrived a few minutes early, only to find Cason taking his first bite out of a bagel stuffed with lox and cream cheese. He wore a polo with an embroidered golfer on the placket, his skin healthily sun kissed. Cason had very casually accepted my request for an interview and had not inquired about why a graduate student in the field of art would have any interest in his foreign service work. I had read a very long interview with Cason conducted by the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training where he referred to his public diplomacy works not as works of art but as "audio/visual" works completely geared towards hooking the press to cover the human rights violations in Cuba he wanted to draw attention to. I certainly couldn't argue with his classification; the projects, such as the electronic ticker, were, by definition, audio-visual, possessing both a sound and visual component. But the ticker also took a page out of the book of conceptual art. The Tate Modem, Britain's national gallery of international modern art, explains that "conceptual art can be-and look like-almost anything." Their wonderfully unfettered definition of conceptual art from their website goes on to note that unlike painters and sculptures who consider how to best express their idea through their respective medium, the conceptual artists uses "whatever material and whatever form is most appropriate" to get their point across. The Tate demonstrates that range citing that conceptual art can take the form of "anything from a performance to a written description". Conceptual art is what comes closest to defining the range of public diplomacy works by James C. Cason in Havana. Absolutely fed up with the lack of press coverage of the imprisonment of the 75 dissidents and other human rights atrocities in Cuba, Cason decided he would give the press something they simply could not ignore. Considering the demand of the press to provide them with the hook they claimed the story lacked, Cason thought "during my three years, I will try to find things to graphically illustrate what it is we are trying to do.'40 But Cason did one better, he didn't just stick to graphics, he worked in the wide world of aesthetics.

Heidegger defines for us the task of art as bringing truth into being, but art's means of doing so is aesthetics, perception in the widest sense, making use and employing all the senses necessary to get the point across. And in the case of conceptual art, the point is key, the concept is king. Cason uses the word graphic, but as we will see in the description of his works, he worked in whatever medium he best able to communicate; that includes electronic tickers, Christmas lights, collage, video installation and even through the form of the bureaucratic memo. Cason was clearly working conceptually.

Leading up to the electronic ticker in 2006, Cason's signature for his public diplomacy projects was the repetition of the number "75". Cason recalls, "Everything I did had 75, even in my bursar reports, we had to give 20,000 visas a year; I always gave 20,075, for the 75 that couldn't leave, who were imprisoned." Statistics don't seem like the obvious place for poetry, but when you are a leader making the

shots of +/- 100 visas, why not program the numbers to say something more? For more reasons than I am able to fully describe in this text, I have become obsessed with this move by Cason. In this act of imbedding the loaded number 75 into the quantity of visas issued by the United States Government to Cuban we see an example of what I am calling the agency of discretion. As the top man at the USINT in Havana, with only limited communication with Washington, Cason had a lot of discretion to play with. The memo is a worthy medium for conceptual art and Cason used it to make his point. And in the case of Cason's art, the text was not only symbolic but given his political power, literally involved the lives of 75 Cuban citizens. The statement he was making through his memos is as literal as it was symbolic. This piece of conceptual work is not simply political art but politics as art.

In my interview with Cason I took the opportunity to ask him plainly about his relationship to art. Cason responded, "Art... I don't know anything about art. I am not an artist. I can't even draw a circle." Cason rescinds my suggestion of his artistry on the account of his absence of training and lack of traditional craftsmanship. Rather than discredit him as an artist, this position simply supports the hypothesis that Cason's methods are categorically conceptual. As offered to us by seminal conceptual art figure Sol Lewitt, "In conceptual art the idea of concept is the most important aspect of the word. When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair."4 1

In his paper, Portrait ofthe Manager as an Artist, French scholar Vincent D6got wrote a definition

of artistry that applies to managers working beyond the "pursuit of purely economic criteria." By his newly formed standard, managers could attain "the status of 'artist' by going beyond the boundaries of [their] profession and putting their whole being into fulfilling an aspiration."42 Although the second part of the statement seems subjective, the clarity of the first part is worth reiterating. By D6got's definition, artistry is available to anyone willing to go beyond the traditional precipice of their profession. Artistry is achieved when one transcends [and perhaps transgresses] the implied limits of one's duties. He makes the useful distinction between a "managerial decision" and a "managerial work". The managerial decision is based on an undistinguished application of rules and procedures while a managerial work "consists in the adaptation if the latter to a local context, in a new and successful way meriting the description of a personal creative act."43 By this criteria, Cason qualifies on many counts.

41 Sol LeWitt, "Paragraphs on Conceptual Art," Arforum, Summer 1967, 79-83.

42 Vincent Degot, "Portrait of the Manager as an Artist," Aesthesis: International Journal ofArt and Aesthetics in

Management and Organizational Life, Volume

1,