The Illuminator

The Illuminator is a collective political art project based in New York City that was initiated in March of 2012. The project emerged out of the Occupy Wall Street movement, in the wake of the original “OWS Bat Signal” projection-action of 17 November 2011. Since then the collective has staged hundreds of interventions in public spaces—both geographical and virtual—as acts of incitement and invitation. We transform the street from a site of transit to a space of engagement, conflict, and dialogue. The images we create circulate over the Internet as vivid talismans of trespass within the over-saturated and suffocating visual culture of commodity capitalism, provoking much needed dialogue concerning the issues of our time. By adopting a superhero persona we strive to communicate in a pop culture vernacular so that all may understand our mission. We call for heroism—for an insurgent broad based popular movement to challenge entrenched power and initiate the radical political, social, and economic transformations that the urgency of this moment demands.