December 2011
A History of New Jewish Agenda
Posted December 31, 2011 by mary_tremonte in Books & Zines
Thread Makes Blanket Press is getting ready to publish their first book, on the New Jewish Agenda! Peep this link to see how you can help. From Ezra Nepon, the organizer of this project:
New Jewish Agenda was a national organization from 1980 to 1992. Their slogan was "a Jewish voice among progressives and a progressive voice among Jews." NJA practiced participatory grassroots democracy with over 45 local chapters. They organized a progressive Jewish voice for every political issue of their decade: working for peace and justice in the Middle East and Central America, Worldwide Nuclear Disarmament, Economic and Social Justice in the US, and they had a powerful Jewish Feminist Taskforce that included work on LGBT issues and the emergence of the AIDS pandemic.
Ghosts in the Machines
Posted December 28, 2011 by roger_peet in Film & Video
Adam Curtis, the BBC filmmaker behind a series of amazing documentaries like The Power of Nightmares and Machines of Loving Grace, has a great entry on his blog this week. He calls it a "ghost story for Christmas" and it's typical Curtis: insightful dissection of the weird realities that our spectacular culture creates and feeds to itself in strange ways. This entry in particular is about a BBC TV show called Ghostwatch, a fictional drama about poltergeists and ghost-hunters that provoked a massive reaction from the British public when it was shown in 1992: people thought it was real, just as happened with the War of the Worlds broadcast in 1938. Curtis breaks down the social psychology of this phenomenon in his inimitable way, demonstrating that the ghosts we fear now live inside our media, populating the fictions we build there, feeding our fear back to us like a shrieking amplifier.
Occupy Print from Denmark
Posted December 27, 2011 by mary_tremonte in Posters & Prints
In October, following the Justseeds installation in Slovenia, Shaun and I traveled on to Berlin and then Copenhagen. We had the opportunity to do artist talks at two art schools outside of Copenhagen, and ending up spending a morning with Nis Rømer's screenprinting class at Kunsthøjskolen i Holbæk, where Nis had his students designing and printing Occupy graphics. We did a quick rubylith demo, and designed and started cutting a poster design. Nis's students then finished cutting and then printed the poster. Here are some shots of us at work in the class, and the finished poster.
Many thanks to Nis, and to Brett Bloom for making the introduction!
You can check out Nis's work here:
www.field-work.dk
www.publik.dk
www.gaaafstand.blogspot.com
www.free-soil.org
JBbTC 90: Kronstadt pt.1
Posted December 26, 2011 by jmacphee in Judging Books by Their Covers
This week's post is inspired by the book to the right, which I came across on Alec's bookshelf during a recent visit to Pittsburgh. Emanuel Pollack's The Kronstadt Rebellion (New York: Philosophical Library, 1959) caught my eye, with the roughly drawn hand lettering—almost as if the title was graffiti painted with a broad brush—and the sketchy black drawing with bright white highlights on a red field. What's not to like? (Once again I apologize for the slightly blurry cell phone photo.) If it hasn't become abundantly clear, unlike most of the reading public in the U.S. I'm not a fan of straight photographic book covers. With the spread of digital pre-press in the late 90s/early 2000s, it became easier and easier (and cheaper) for publishers to run large 4-color process photographs on their covers, and the book trade very quickly became dominated by them. I would guess that about 65-75% of all covers are now graced with full color photographs, with that number being even higher for nonfiction books, likely upwards of 80%. This is all just to say that heavily illustrated and uniquely lettered covers like Pollack's are rarely produced these days.
Organizers sold out!
Posted December 21, 2011 by roger_peet in Justseeds Member Projects
Uh, the entire run of 2012 Justseeds/Eberhardt Press organizers has sold out. I'm sort of shocked. I sincerely apologize to anyone disappointed, the rate of movement was quite beyond what I expected. Thanks very much to everyone who bought them; this means we will have to print more next year!
Celebrate People's History Posters in London
Posted December 21, 2011 by jmacphee in Posters & Prints
CPH Poster veteran and street artist Lindsay/Pivo recently used a collection of Celebrate People's History posters in an installation she created inside an occupied investment bank in downtown London, dubbed The Bank of Ideas! You can see more photos and learn more about the installation and occupation on Lindsay's blog Glue, a Glove, and Some Plyers.
DIYDPW (#3)
Posted December 21, 2011 by shaun in DIYDPW
Danger sign on electrical box, Mumbai, India
On The Ground
Posted December 20, 2011 by jmacphee in Books & Zines
I recently did a big design job for my friend Sean Stewart and PM Press, Sean's new book On The Ground: An Illustrated Anecdotal History of the Sixties Underground Press in the U.S. [I did the inside design, not the cover, which was created by Simon Benjamin.] Clocking in at over 200 full color pages with over 125 images and pieces of the dozens on interviews Sean did with underground press veterans, it's a fabulous collection that really captures the aesthetic, feel, and movement of the time in a way no other book on the subject has done.
I'm proud of my contribution, which has gotten some rave reviews, including this by Ron Jacobs in Counterpunch: "Like the papers his interviewees are remembering, the most striking thing about On the Ground is the layout. Even though I know the book was composed on a computer screen, the book looks as if it were laid out via the old cut and paste method by folks possibly stoned on weed and a day or two with minimal sleep—just like many issues of almost every paper Stewart discusses."
The Society for Publication Designers calls the book "a pure visual treat" and Steven Heller also had nice things to say on the InPrint blog HERE.
JBbTC 89: Cienfuegos Press pt.6
Posted December 19, 2011 by jmacphee in Judging Books by Their Covers
Some of you might have noticed I've shorted the name of these posts to JBbTC, but I've also re-sorted and organized them, as well as titled them by content, so they are much easier to find and read! Now you can easily scroll through all the book cover blogs by simply clicking HERE.
This week is another update post. Over the past couple years I've been posting all the covers of the British anarchist publisher Cienfuegos Press. I believe I've finally tracked down the last of their titles, and share them with you now. The earlier posts with additional background info can be found HERE.
One of Cienfuegos' flagship projects was it's Anarchist Review. It ran for six issues, from 1976 to 1982. The original goal was to publish is bi-annually, and it would be a definitive reader of all things anarchy, including news, historical research, and reviews of all of the anarchist publications over the time period of it's publication. Unfortunately it's budget never caught up to it's ambition, and it only came out roughly once a year, but the middle issues, numbers 3 through 5, were amazing thick almanacs, and a fabulous slice of what was going on in antiauthoritarian politics in the late 1970s.
Daniel Drennan Interview
Posted December 17, 2011 by jmacphee in Interviews
My friend Daniel Drennan in Beruit was recently interviewed on the Design Altruism Blog. He is a member of the artist/design collective Jamaa Al-Yad (who contributed a poster to the recent Occupied Wall Street Journal poster edition). The interview is a good read, so check it out HERE. Here is a taste:
NC: How do you view people’s enthusiasm for creating illustrative graphics for left-leaning causes today in Lebanon? I would think this has changed or calmed down over the last couple of years in Lebanon from the situation around 2001-2007, during the inner turmoil with political issues, and the effect of Bush, Iraq, and Sept. 11, 2001. How has it changed?DD: Lebanon is a very particular case; we have to examine it in terms of its political and economic history. There is no history to this country other than one framed along neo-liberal economic lines; meaning, the governmental, legal, educational, social, and cultural systems existing here work within an economic model that has always been purely capitalistic and serving comprador and foreign interests. Period.
Posters for the Port Shutdown
Posted December 17, 2011 by roger_peet in Justseeds Member Projects
Last Monday, people in cities up and down the West Coast came out to try to shut down the ports. My friend Chris and I put together some posters for the event here in Portland, which had pretty great turnout and succeeded in actually shutting down several terminals at the port for the day, as well as Schnitzer Steel. The call to shut down the port in Portland was directed primarily at SSA Marine, an unscrupulous union-busting subsidiary of Goldman Sachs that operates the terminals here in PDX. Tendrils of solidarity were also extended to ILWU workers struggling at the nearby port of Longview. While the local ILWU leadership eschewed any notion of endorsement of the shutdown, rank-and-file workers showed up with pizza for the occupiers.
12/16: Interference Archive Open House Tonight
Posted December 16, 2011 by jmacphee in Events
Open House
Friday December 16th, 6:30-9:30pm
Interference Archive
131 8th St. #4
Brooklyn, NY 11215 (Gowanus)
2 blocks from the F/G/R trains (4th ave. and 9th st.)
Dara Greenwald, Josh MacPhee, Molly Fair, and Kevin Caplicki (as well as all the other people that have helped) would like to introduce you to our space, which we have been working on building out all Fall and Winter. In addition, we have hung a collection of materials from the archive related to punk feminism (largely pulled from Dara’s personal collection) which is a nice introduction to some of the kinds of work we are archiving.
The Interference Archive explores the relationship between cultural production and social movements. The archive consists of many kinds of objects that are created as part of movements: posters, flyers, publications, photographs, t-shirts, moving images, audio recordings, and other printed matter. Through public exhibitions, a study center, talks, screenings, publications, workshops, and an on-line presence, we use this cultural ephemera to animate histories of people mobilizing for social transformation.
12/16: Justseeds Talk at Westmoreland Museum of Art
Posted December 15, 2011 by mary_tremonte in Events
Common Cause
Friday December 16, 2011 • Artists Discussion
7:30PM Cost : Free
Join Mary Tremonte and Shaun Slifer for a discussion about artist cooperatives at the Westmoreland Museum of American Art, as part of their current exhibit The Tides of Provincetown: Pivotal Years in America's Oldest Continuous Art Colony (1899-2011). Learn about the variety of print mediums and tactics used by the artist members of Justseeds and their current collaborative projects. They will discuss the collective process, addressing the challenges inherent in a decentralized group of artists with differing beliefs and levels of involvement in the group.
Westmoreland Museum of American Art
221 North Main Street
Greensburg, PA 15601
(about 45 minutes from Pittsburgh)
And website for more info: HERE
Occupy Our Homes- East New York
Posted December 14, 2011 by k_c_ in Inspiration
On December 6th a group of over 1,000 went on a tour of East New York, Brooklyn, a neighborhood immensely affected by predator lending and foreclosures. It was a powerful event that the community supported and neighbors came out to tell the stories of their own foreclosures and evictions. The following video illustrates the culmination of the day, occupying a new home for a previously houseless family!
Work Visit at the Interference Archive
Posted December 13, 2011 by mary_tremonte in Justseeds Member Projects
Alec "Icky" Dunn, Shaun Slifer and myself recently visited the NYC Justseeds crew to put in a work day at the Interference Archive. We designed and installed lighting, Shaun installed sweet vinyl on the door, and we prepped for the archive's first exhibition, highlighting Riot Grrrl and 90's feminist punk.
A project that grew out of the personal collections of Dara Greenwald and Josh MacPhee, the Interference Archive explores the relationship between cultural production and social movements. The archive consists of many kinds of objects that are created as part of movements: posters, flyers, publications, photographs, t-shirts, moving images, audio recordings, and other printed matter. Through public exhibitions, a study center, talks, screenings, publications, workshops, and an on-line presence, we use this cultural ephemera to animate histories of people mobilizing for social transformation.
Interference will be having an open house this Friday. Stay tuned for more info, and for more photos, see the set on our Flickr, HEREFor more information, interferencearchive.org
Justseeds at Milwaukee's Public House
Posted December 12, 2011 by nicolas_lampert in Inspiration
This past Sunday Justseeds tabled prints at Milwaukee's Public House - the best bar in the country. Why you might ask? Because the Public House is cooperatively owned and profits earned go to start up more cooperatively run business's in the Riverwest neighborhood. Second: no televisions(*). Third: amazing events. Fourth: weekend brunch by the Riverwest Food-Coop. Fifth: walls covered in radical art. Sixth: LED "Recall Walker" sign that hangs on the exterior. Seventh: monthly debates. Eighth: You get the point.
JBbTC 88: Updates
Posted December 12, 2011 by jmacphee in Judging Books by Their Covers
Every once in awhile I need to catch my breath from doing these covers, and that's a good moment to go back and fill in any missing pieces and odds and ends from earlier posts. This is one of those weeks.
To start with I found one more cover for the magazine Sha’un Falastinya, featured in JBbTC 82. To the left is issue #198, from 1989. The watercolor cover is subdued, but buoyant. It appears to be half day, half night (or maybe the sun in the top left is simply a huge moon), and the women are holding up not only large pots and baskets, but act as architectural pillars, holding up the community itself. In addition, my entire post was translated in French and reposted on Info-Palestine.net! (You can check it out HERE.)
12/10-12/11: Justseeds at Crafty Wonderland
Posted December 10, 2011 by roger_peet in Events
If you're in Portland, Oregon this weekend: Justseeds will be tabling at Crafty Wonderland, the giant craft fair in the convention center. Lots of prints, cards, stickers, and organizers will be there! Come by and say hi.
CRAFTY WONDERLAND HOLIDAY SALE
Saturday + Sunday, December 10th + 11th, 2011
11am – 6pm both days
At the Oregon Convention Center – HALL C
777 NE MLK Jr. Blvd in Portland
Dec: Super Presse Club - Print sale in Montreal
Posted December 9, 2011 by Jesse_Purcell in Events
If you are in Montreal come come check out the SUPER PRESSE CLUB Pop-up-shop at Casa del Popolo (4873 St-Laurent) Montreal.
There will be a great selection of Justseeds prints and a dizzying array of work by 13 awesome Montreal print makers
Opening Hours:
12-5pm Thursday – Sunday for the first three weeks of December
and Tuesday – Friday the 20th-23rd of December.
Morning Crush: "Immigrants Know Your Rights" Poster Pack
Posted December 8, 2011 by colin_matthes in Justseeds Member Projects
I really like these two posters and this seems like a cool project. 
English Translation:
Neither Discrimination Nor Abuse, We have Rights, Rights to a Lawyer.
For Decoration and Agitation
Posted December 7, 2011 by jmacphee in Events
I just got a notice that myself and four other Justseeds' artists (Roger Peet, Shaun Slifer, Chris Stain, and Swoon) are including in this new historical stencil exhibition at the Newark Public Library. It looks to be a great historical retrospective of stencil art, from Soviet-era use, to cubism and surrealism, to it's more recent use in artists' books. I've always wanted to be in an exhibition with Mayakovsky!
For Decoration and Agitation: An Exhibition of Stencil and Pochoir Books and Art
Newark Public Library, Newark NJ
Curated by Jared Ash, Special Collections Division
On view: Nov. 16, 2011 – Jan. 21, 2012
Main Library, Third Floor Gallery
More info HERE
DIYDPW (#1)
Posted December 7, 2011 by shaun in DIYDPW
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
This is the first installment of what I hope will be a regular, weekly blog post highlighting global examples of Do It Yourself Department of Public Works (DIYDPW) projects (I wish I had come up with that acronym, but I owe the idea idea to a friend)....
TODAY: #OccupyHomes National Day of Action
Posted December 6, 2011 by Favianna_Rodriguez in Events
Are you ready for the #OccupyHomes Day of Action?
Find an event here: http://bit.ly/uA4evF
Today, courageous people around the country are taking a stand to keep their homes, and fight big banks and foreclosures. Meet a Los Angeles mother who is protecting her home – Rosa Gudiel.
Rosa’s bank refused to negotiate to keep her in her home. They were coming for her house, no excuses. But Rose refused to give in. Joined by her family, allies in her community and Occupy LA, Rose took the fight to her bank by refusing to leave her home. And she won – her bank came to the table to negotiate a modification which will keep her in her home.
Photos From War Is Trauma Opening at Booklyn
Posted December 6, 2011 by k_c_ in Justseeds Collective Projects
Booklyn has posted some photos of the War Is Trauma opening on their Booklyn Flickrpage. Pictured above is the portfolio cover, made by the Combat Paper Project, out of uniforms from active-duty soldiers. It was a really fortunate weekend to have the opening since the IVAW Board of Directors were in town for a meeting, and attended the opening! Come out and see:
War is Trauma: Justseeds & IVAW Dec. 3–Jan. 8. 2012 @ Booklyn Art Gallery
JBbTC 87: Boni Paper Books pt.3
Posted December 5, 2011 by jmacphee in Judging Books by Their Covers
OK, I couldn't help myself. Even though I went through the eight Boni Paper Books I actually have over the past two weeks (HERE and HERE), I started getting so curious about what the others looked like that I tracked down (online) covers for a bunch of them. Few of the images are as nice as my scans, and I don't have any of the back covers or endpapers, but here are some of the other Boni covers. Where possible I've attributed the designer (unfortunately not very often).
Get Your Art Degree Online (?)
Posted December 5, 2011 by shaun in Street Art & Graffiti
Over the weekend here in Pittsburgh, someone tacked up quite a few of these "bandit signs" in some of the "transitional" art-themed neighborhoods. It's hard, at first, to tell how serious the gimmick is - but the website, www.30dayMFA.biz - is live! More images after the cut below...
photos from the Justseeds-IVAW "War is Trauma" portfolio shows in Chicago
Posted December 3, 2011 by nicolas_lampert in Justseeds Collective Projects
The Justseeds-IVAW portfolio "War is Trauma" has yet to be officially released (expect this to happen in late December) but that has not stopped a number of preview exhibitions from taking place. In Chicago, two exhibitions recently were staged including a show in Rogers Park that coincided with the finale of the IVAW residency at Mess Hall and a Warrior Writers reading. This was a special night that included a critique of graphics and a great overall discussion on the project and the issues at end. Here are a couple of photos of IVAW members Peter Sullivan and Aaron Hughes presenting.
Overpass Light Brigade
Posted December 2, 2011 by nicolas_lampert in Art & Politics
Signs of visual resistance matter. Wisconsin is a battle-ground state, a battle between anti-Walker and pro-Walker supporters. Over the past week the Recall Walker movement received a huge boost when nearly double the expected number of signatures were gathered during the first week of the signature drive, demonstrating just how disliked Walker is in the Badger state. Not surprisingly, Walker is countering with a host of threats and "rules" to make gathering signatures and mass protests more difficult. Things are tense but that should be expected. Bullies become more repressive when they realize that their grasp on power is crumbling.
Still a chance for the Occupy Movement to Party with the Ruling Class!!
Posted December 2, 2011 by k_c_ in Art & Politics
I am kicking myself for not taking the chance to express my disdainful sentiments on my favorite themes until now.
The party has started at Art Basel Miami Beach, and many people I know will glean off the decadence of the members of ruling class that the festival caters to. I have little judgement towards them, many of them spending their time opening crates and hanging work.
I want there to be some clarity for the duration of the weekend. And I want everyone to be honest about the intentions behind Art Basel-Miami Beach. The originating event, in Basel, Switzerland displayed an estimated $1.75 Billion worth of artwork last July. Miami Beach is allegedly almost twice as much, $2.5 Billion.
(I can) read the writing on the wall-18
Posted December 2, 2011 by k_c_ in Justseeds Member Projects
Pepper spraying cop on the Bowery, November 2011, NYC, NY
Look at Pepper Spraying Cop for more.
DJ Mary Mack/Queers Against Deportation
Posted December 2, 2011 by mary_tremonte in Events
This weekend, I am traveling to Philadelphia and Providence, RI, to visit friends and fellow Justseeds members, and to DJ two queer danceparties.
The Philly Event, Queers Against Deportation, is co-organized by Marissa Johnson-Valenzuela, (aka DJ Halfbreed), founder of Thread Makes Blanket Press, and Caitlin Barry, my former cohort with the Projet Mobilivre-Bookmobile Project (which other Justseeds member Jesse Purcell was also a part of). Caitlin is a now an immigration lawyer. Small, rad world!
Here are details of the Philly event:
"Oakland, October 25" by David Colagiovanni
Posted December 2, 2011 by shaun in Film & Video
Jerstin Crosby over at Acid Rain Productions sent me this jarring and amazing rotoscope animation by David Colagiovanni from their upcoming cable access TV episode (which will run only this short video on a loop for half an hour).
