Susan Smith: Activist artist working in socially engaged projects focused on issues of dispossession. Smith is a member of the graduate faculty in the Intermedia MFA program at the University of Maine, and currently pursuing an interdisciplinary doctoral degree researching collaborative practice, activist art, and critical theory. Susan holds an MFA in Intermedia from the university, as well as a BFA in Studio Art. Currently working on using maker lab technology to create large scale woodblock prints to be used for political propaganda, Smith will be coordinating a series of projects #uprooted: the right to be here, with the initial performance at the Women’s March on Washington, Jan. 21, and The House Project, in part funded by the SCOPE Grant, which will be a community sourced participatory project focusing on our sense of home. Her work focuses on unconventional materials sourced from the landscape around us to address environmental issues, and to speak to a balance of technology and slow more sustainable practices. A former landscape designer, Smith also practices guerilla gardening, and believes planting is a form of protest.
Derek Smith: Derek Smith is the chair of English at Foxcroft Academy, holds an interdisciplinary doctoral degree in English and philosophy, and is currently pursuing an MFA in Intermedia from the University of Maine, with an interest in book arts. Smith is an avid gardener, believing that the practice is a fundamentally revolutionary act. He is a member of the #uprooted collective, which produces socially engaged activist art events. For the Flow event, he will be part of the #uprooted pop-up printmaking studio, which “hacks” the printing press by the use of a lawn roller.