Activist Applied Linguistics

$PEAK OUT

Putting your message where your money is

image of dollar bills with messages laser cut out of the paper

Vision

  • Create a public art project that engages the community, challenges cultural assumptions, and inspires action
  • Gather voices of diverse personal histories, languages, experiences, and perspectives
  • Present them in a powerful unified message to end violence and injustice

Doers

Diane Jacobs and Janet Cowal combined their passions of art, language, and community empowerment to develop this public art project.

Process

In 2018, Diane and Janet put out a call for volunteers to share their voices in the $peak Out project.

Volunteers crafted their messages in response to this prompt, created by Janet and Diane:
“Think about your message in regards to ending violence and injustice or promoting peace and equity. Your message might be expressed as a statement, a chant, a personal story, a drawing, a secret, a poem, a wish, a scream, a demand, a truth…”

Diane then laser cut their words onto real currencies and displayed the bills in arrays to inspire dialogue and community action against oppression.

Inspiration Behind it All

In 2014, inspired by the One Billion Rising movement, Diane collected and laser cut messages for $PEAK OUT to end violence against women and girls around the world. However, increased climates of hate towards marginalized groups such as People of Color and LGBTQ communities created urgency for Diane and Janet to join forces and widen the focus of $PEAK OUT beyond women and girls.

In Portland, OR, non-dominant languages and minority communities are often rendered invisible, with dominant cultures unaware of embedded racism in their city. In other words: you don’t see what you don’t see. $PEAK OUT uses the negative space within something we expect to be whole to draw attention to what has been missing in public dialogue.

Influences & Ideas

Three of Diane’s major influences include Mona Hatoum, Ann Hamilton, and David Hammons; artists who weave powerful social commentary while exploring unique materials embedded with metaphor.

Janet’s influences include:

  • Critical applied linguistics
  • Work on the co-construction of identity like that of Norton, Toohey, Coulthard, and Bahktin
  • Lakoff’s work on the ways narratives create reality
  • Gene Yang’s graphic novel American Born Chinese, and other explorations combining art and language that communicate beyond either medium in isolation