Criminal for Art?

I woke in the morning to say goodbye to my mom who was in the for weekend and to run to finish my LAST assignment of my college career--a performance at Government Center for my performance art class.

Took the T to GC with a big bag of paper chains we had made the last time we met. Our concept: paper--paper and humanity. Having filled 5 large garbage bags with paper chains, we would interveave them on what we called "the midgets" of government center. We would stand on the "midget" (which is actually a thigh-high cylindrical cement stump which are dispursed throughout the large steps of city plaza) decorated with social security cards, (most photoshopped for security reasons), birth certificates, high school diplomas, resumes and other pieces of paper comprising of our paper identity. Why does humanity need paper to make its existance official?

We began setting up our project in the beating sun: interweaving the chains, posting the documents onto the cement... we're 85% done when an angry security official approaches... "What do you think you're doing?!" he assertively barks at us. He then proceed to say that we will each be fined $200 each if we don't get out of here this instant.

I'm saving up for my summer and The SeekExploreCreate project--I cannot afford to spare $200 plus jail bailout if I were arrested. So, I start cleaning up and telling my group that we'll just relocate. Then one kid from my group, quite adverse to anything but his own ideas that he can vaguely justify, says "dude, let's just do this, what're they gunna do? " "Uhm--arrest us, get off the damn midget" I say. The cop: "you guys don't seem to be moving fast enough, who's in charge?" Another guy in our group asks "why can't we do this for 5 minutes?" Cop: "and what if someone trips on it and then it's our fault?" groupmate "it's paper!"

Ahh: and then the question ensues. Are the cops doing this because they honestly want to preserve our safety? Or, are they doing this because they are afraid of getting a law-suit if something did go wrong?

Was it seriously necessary for the cop to be that forceful? Then again, there was a car bomb in NY last week--cops are on high alert. With the high security measures in this country, what happened to free speech in our Constitution?

But, what if the cop let it go and our project, hypothetically speaking, did turn out to some kind of set-up for a terrorist action?

The cops told us that next time we needed to get a permit. Okay, we can do it with a permit but it would take weeks to get a permit for a project like this nontheless find someone to contact.

Our professors said, "we would be breaking the tradition if the police didn't come at some point this class year." Apparently police visits have happened at least once every year for this class. We're artists--we like to break boundaries.

Where was the art in that project?
We relocated to the common to discuss the project. Though we couldn't do the project, OUR STATEMENT WAS MADE--we needed a permit--a piece of paper--to create this project on the countries obsession/necessity for paper.

The art exists in the contradictions of society. Where's the dramatic question if we just say "screw the cops!" do it anyway, and get arrested over it? Okay, that's a statement and ballsy but, to be honest about myself, that wasn't a battle that I had the umph to choose. Given that I did not plan on this project being a life on the limb endeavor but rather a class-project with a cool/thoughtful conecpt. So, am I a sell-out? I want answers.

You go extreme, you bomb countries. Questioning leads to thoughtful discussion that makes people think about their actions and both sides of the equation.

It's much easier to say"to hell with them," close your ears, cut the connection...
than
"I have opposing ideals but...." listen, engage, and build a connection...

Which is more effective?