Culture Jamming / Ads & Adbusting
Fiji Water and its Discontents
Posted September 18, 2009 by roger_peet in In the News
Bottled water! Emblem of assholery. None more so than the Fiji Water brand, with its deceptively idiotic campaign to seem ecologically sound and socially responsible. This despite the fact that they exist to sell aquifer water, mined from a dirt-poor South Pacific nation, in super-thick plastic bottles, and under the supervision of a military dictatorship, to the effete snobs of the western celebrity elite and their lickspittle public. There was a great article in Mother Jones recently that tears the enterprise to pieces. In response, Fiji posted a rebuttal on their site that lamely managed to sound wounded and hard done by, only to have Mother Jones editor Clara Jeffrey respond and continue to widen the rift that had been made in their cleft. The comment thread that unspools below that provides further amusement, if only for the eerie automated quality of the respondents "Fiji Media Gal" and "Fiji Green Gal". This uncanny feeling- of being soothed by gentle zombie capitalist hippy P.R. robots- is what the Dead Kennedys were trying to evoke in "California Uber Alles". Zen fascists, 100% natural, indeed.
The People Suck
Posted September 9, 2009 by roger_peet in Inspiration
The world is over.
A goat with its throat slashed may buck against its bonds, but the blood will drain out and it will die. A gentle hand might give it a pill to ease the suffering. Like the goat, we've swallowed the pill, and so it comes to this. Buy an efficient lightbulb. Drive a "hybrid" car. We have eaten the host that was laid on our tongue, the host embossed "HOPE". We've supped from the poisoned chalice to wash it down.
Our sad flapping jaws will keep on hurking out positive affirmations like trained seals clapping for the ringmaster. Our prating of determination and principled struggle and positivity of all sorts sounds now as do the grunts of a dental patient turned loose to the street with a toothless gape and gums full of anaesthetic. For it's Hope that has killed us these many long years, and it will continue to kill us, though it will seem like famine, and it will seem like war. It's hope that strangles the life of the earth, hope that fills the land and water with poison, the hope that something might be better for our children, and the hope that our pestilential children might somehow impossibly behave other than humans have ever done. Hope places around our necks the thin, piano-wire garrotte of sustainability, and chuckles in syncopation with our breathless gasps. Hope throttles us with our efforts to bring "justice" and "peace", to fight "oppression", for we stand in the shadow of one hundred thousand years of world-rending growth and ecological annihilation and proclaim that without darkness, we would never have been able to understand the properties of light.
REVIEW: Street Art San Francisco
Posted September 2, 2009 by jmacphee in Review
Annice Jacoby for Precita Eyes Muralists, ed.
Street Art San Francisco: Mission Muralismo
Abrams, 2009
I gotta say, at the first crack of the spine of this book I was immediately nostalgic for San Francisco, strangely enough a city I've never even lived in! There was something extremely powerful about the streets of SF between 1997-2004, even for a visitor and outsider like me. Coming to the city, and the Mission District in particular, was like walking into a giant, explosive, exciting car crash of ideas, experiences, ideologies and people. The walls literally dripped with the shrapnel, covered with the remnants of 1970s & 80s murals, anti-gentrification screenprinted posters, art student graffiti, Latino gang markings, weirdo street artists, anarchist slogans, and billboards triumphantly announcing the dot-com and real estate booms. And for the most part this book does a great job of capturing that energy and feeling, carrying us through the blur.
Although Street Art SF is broken into sections, they are fairly hard to distinguish, which in many ways is a good thing, allowing the reader to flow from one style to another, fade between histories, jump between artists, just like a pedestrian on Valencia, Bryant or Mission streets would. Don't let the title fool you, this isn't just another edition pulled of the seemingly endless conveyor belt of dull "Street Art" book cash-ins. Likely a smart marketing move to put street art first in the title, this is really a mural book that understands and values the contributions that street art and graffiti have added to the brew of public expression.
Back to the Stone Age?
Posted August 20, 2009 by k_c_ in Culture Jamming / Ads & Adbusting
In The Know: Should Americans Return To A Simpler, Stone Age Lifestyle?
Not necessarily the misanthropic reasons why I think a "return" to the stone age might be a "good" thing. Funny nonetheless.
Persepolis 2.0
Posted July 5, 2009 by jmacphee in Culture Jamming / Ads & Adbusting
I just stumbled across this interesting site, a re-purposing of Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis in an attempt to discuss recent events in Iran. I can't say I agree with all the content (Not that I disagree, I'm still trying to figure out what's going on in Iran), but it's fascinating how activists have taken frames from the original comic, reordered them, changed the text, and generated an entirely new story, as if it is an extension of the original comic! Persepolis 2.0 is a relatively crude re-creation, but since the original comic is so graphic, it really works. An interesting attempt at open source creativity...
You can read the whole comic (12 pages so far) here. You can download a pdf from the site as well.
Defining Anarchist Art
Posted May 29, 2009 by k_c_ in Justseeds/Member Projects
I wanted to draw attention to AK Press' blog Revolution by the Book
there is a post about Josh MacPhee & Erik Ruin's book Realizing the Impossible called
Defining Anarchist Art:Gleanings from a Roundtable on Realizing the Impossible. There's a handful of links leading to some interesting stuff, if you like art, or anarchism.
History is written by the winners.
Posted May 20, 2009 by roger_peet in Culture Jamming / Ads & Adbusting
I ran into this over on the Information Clearinghouse site, a place I often go for news. This is part of an ad campaign being run in South Africa for the History Channel; other images in the series feature the war in Iraq and, perhaps most poignantly, demographic changes in Britain. Since I seldom post art-related material on this blog, I thought I'd take this opportunity. 
Click here to go to the article.
Fed Up with the Crisis in BCN
Posted May 13, 2009 by jmacphee in In the News
Some friends in Barcelona decided they were "fed up with the crisis, were tired of the fear that mass media communicate everyday, and sick of suffering in silence at home, [so they] decided... to go dancing at an unemployment office.":
Their statement (rough translation):
Today, Thursday April 30, we held the party Inem (Unemployment Office).
We had been preparing since the last few weeks. It was truly enjoyable! 40 people appeared at 12:00 on the Inem branch located in the street Sepúlveda de Barcelona. There we waited in the usual atmosphere of these places at this time: a mixture of stationary people (local and foreign), tired of waiting and wasting time, bored, angry and disgusted faces, full of fear created by the crisis. Less than five minutes of messing around and dancing have been required to change their crisis faces into smiling and cheerful faces. Some joined with us in the dance, and others applauded. All, without exception, have appreciated this wave of light and color, this outburst of joy and enjoy places where you least expect it: in an office job in crisis.
Billboard Gets Silly in Pittsburgh...
Posted May 12, 2009 by shaun in Culture Jamming / Ads & Adbusting
Dozens of these poorly designed McDonalds billboards have been popping up all over Pittsburgh this spring. I was surprised to come upon this decidedly ridiculous alteration at a busy intersection on my morning commute! In thinking about the billboard prior to the hand-rendered improvement, I'm starting to wonder if McDonalds uses computers to randomly generate graphics for their ad campaigns?
Artist Call: 101 Damnations
Posted March 29, 2009 by jmacphee in Artwork Needed
This just fell into the inbox:
angry artworks is looking for submissions from artists / visual creators for an exhibition/publication in 2010. 101 Damnations will be a collection of detourned/re-appropriated/subverted imagery based on logos, graphics and slogans which attacks, belittles, challenges, identifies, mocks, questions, satirises and generally scorns capitalism and neoliberal globalisation in its various forms - from greedy corporations, polluting industries and war profiteering enterprises to sweatshop encouraging companies, union busting businesses and media manipulating multinationals... etc! Although this project is about a visual reaction to the forces of capitalism it is also a resource for those trying to understand it and fight it - so it is hoped each image (or group of images) will have an accompanying weblink to a resource - e.g. an organisation, a solidarity campaign, reading materials, documentation of previous struggles or current direct actions...
Guidelines and Specifications
* This project is open to all artists / visual creators - students, self trained, 'professional' or 'amateur'.
* Work can be made in any medium, not necessarily computer generated - as long as it is submitted as a 2D still digital file - (i.e. a scan of a drawing).
* Images should be 300 dpi and no smaller than 100mm x 100mm.
* All artwork should be saved and sent as rgb or b+w digital files in one of the following file formats - jpeg, tiff, psd, pdf, eps.
* Work can be new or existing, previously exhibited or not.
* You can send multiple submissions - (If multiple images are to be viewed as a set please send as one submission, otherwise send as separate e-mails).
* Please indicate if you want the work to be attributed to your name, a pseudonym or for it to be marked as anonymous.
* All work should be marked as no copyright, anti-copyright, copyleft, creative commons or copyright of the artist.
* Each submission should have an accompanying URL - an up to date link to a web page - this resource link can be directly or indirectly linked to the image - (There are some samples below).
* There is no entry fee, no funding available and no prizes.
* First deadline - 31st August 2009.
* Send submissions to info@angryartworks.com - please put '101 damnations' in the subject to ensure e-mails are received.
* Angry artworks and invited selectors will decide the final artwork to be used in this project - this will be based on all the work submitted. As we are looking for a broad cross section of work covering the 101 Damnations theme we may not be able to use all work sent in. This does not necessarily have a bearing on the quality of the individual work submitted.
* All artists will be informed if work is going to be used or not.
* We regret we will not be able to enter into a dialogue with you regarding work which is not accepted.
* Initially all work accepted will form an online web exhibition.
* It is also planned to have a physical exhibition and/ or publication of the works sometime in 2010.
* All artists will be sent information regarding any exhibitions and a copy of any publications produced.
In Paris, an anti-ad insurgency
Posted February 7, 2009 by jmacphee in In the News
Dara passed along this LA Times story about organized attacks on advertising in Paris. It's reminiscent of the actions of StopPub from the early 2000's, where they would organize times to go into the Paris subway system and destroy all the adverts...
In Paris, an anti-ad insurgency
Activists opposed to billboards invite police to rallies where they tag the offending signs, seeking a day in court.
By Sebastian Rotella and Audrey Bastide
7:33 PM PST, January 31, 2009
Reporting from Paris -- Over the centuries, the French have cultivated the fine art of rebellion.
The list of targets encompasses tyrants, wars, colonialism and, above all, capitalism in its many manifestations. The latest enemy may seem unlikely: billboards.
The Dismantlers, as a nationwide group of anti-ad crusaders call themselves, aren't violent or loud or clandestine. In fact, they invite the police to protest rallies where they deface signs. With a copywriter's flair, one of their slogans warns: "Attention! Avert your eyes from ads: You risk being very strongly manipulated." The goal of the Dismantlers is to get arrested, argue the righteousness of their cause in court and, you guessed it, gain publicity.
"We challenge the mercantile society that destroys all human relationships, professional relationships, health, the environment," said Alexandre Baret, 35, a founder of the group. "It's a message that proposes to attack advertising as the fuel of this not very healthy society."
Despite the stick-it-to-the-man rhetoric, there wear neckties and briefcases in the crowd at an evening rally here a while back. Part-time insurgents had come from work for the gathering in the Place Malesherbes, an elegant, tree-lined plaza graced by statues of the author Alexandre Dumas and his musketeer hero D'Artagnan, one of literature's most irrepressible swashbucklers.
The 80-odd demonstrators, looking bohemian and stylish, listened to Baret set the ideological stage. The red-bearded schoolteacher and father of four explained that he doesn't want to abolish advertising, just limit signs to no more than 1.2 feet by 1.6 feet. The current wall-size dimensions are obtrusive and oppressive, he said.
Siamo tutti Palestinesi
Posted January 17, 2009 by jmacphee in Street Art / Graffiti
Our friend Marco delli Santi from Rome's House of Love and Dissent just sent over this design he created, he's planning on printing them out of mirror sticker paper and putting them up around Italy. If you're interested in doing that as well, you can download the file here.
Recent Iraq Veterans Against the War (LA Chapter) action at a gas station
Posted November 23, 2008 by nicolas_lampert in In the News
The IVAW website and the Groundswell Collective blog have a great post and video on a recent IVAW action who continue to amaze and inspire us with their incredible array of dissent, critique of war and power, visual resistance, street performance and tactical media. The action Operation W.A.N.T. (We Are Not Toys) took place on October 11th in the early morning where seven IVAW members of the LA Chapter placed 4,200 toy soldiers on the ground with a sign that read “The Price of Gas: 4171 US SOLDIERS”. The importance of these actions cannot be understated as they keep the unjust war and its terrible consequences in public view and memory and inspire us all to be more active in speaking out.
To view a You Tube clip of the action see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nnx2Wv4T1o
To learn more and support IVAW see:
http://ivaw.org/
To learn more about the Groundswell Collective see:
http://blog.groundswellcollective.com/
More from "Street With a View"
Posted November 14, 2008 by shaun in Culture Jamming / Ads & Adbusting
Robin Hewlett and Ben Kinsley's "Street With A View" Project just got a nice write up on the AP wire, picked up in all kinds of publications and web-based news sources. Don't forget to check out Justseeds artist Nicolas Lampert's chicken at the corner of Sampsonia and Arch St - imported from Milwaukee special for the Google re-shoot! I wrote about the experience of doing this shoot over the summer - it's great to finally see it online.
Not Here, but Now
Posted November 13, 2008 by meredith_stern in Culture Jamming / Ads & Adbusting
Not Here, but Now
Noel Douglas (2007) recently commented “When the demands of Neoliberalism play havoc with our lives, it is time to fight back, and designers wield the sharpest tools.” Not Here, but Now is an example of how sharp our designer tools can be. Not only for the fact this campaign is visually intelligent, but it was also a pro bono campaign, designed for Amnesty International (Switzerland), by Walker Werbeagentur.
http://osocio.org/message/its_not_happening_here_but_it_is_happening_now/
Keep it Slick: Infiltrating Capitalism with the Yes Men
Posted November 11, 2008 by mary_tremonte in Events
The Yes Men will be in Pittsburgh this week with a lecture and survey exhibition!
Keep an eye out for future activist art exhibitions at the Miller Gallery.
FRI. NOV. 14
KEEP IT SLICK:
Infiltrating Capitalism
with The Yes Men
Curated by Astria Suparak >>>
Nov. 14, 2008–Feb. 15, 2009
EVENTS
Nov. 14, 5pm:
How To Be A Yes Man Workshop + Film clips from their upcoming movie. Miller Gallery, 2nd floor.
Sponsored by the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry + School of Art Lecture Series.
6–8pm:
Business Casual Reception. Miller Gallery, 3rd floor.
Please bring offerings for the dearly departed Reggie the Janitor.
Gallery at Carnegie Mellon University
Purnell Center for the Arts
5000 Forbes Ave.
Pittsburgh Google Street View Project!
Posted November 5, 2008 by nicolas_lampert in In the News
How does one turn google street view upside down? Easy.... check out this link to A Street with View, a super creative performance / google street view re-enactment that took place in Pittsburgh last Spring that is finally posted on google steet view maps. To view it: follow the link on the Street with a View website or go to google street view and search under the Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh (that will take you to Sampsonia Way.) You might see mad scientists with a love laser, firefighters rescuing a pinata, and a very, very large chicken, among other things. Enjoy!
A description from the Street with a View website reads "On May 3rd 2008, artists Robin Hewlett and Ben Kinsley invited the Google Inc. Street View team and residents of Pittsburgh’s Northside to collaborate on a series of tableaux along Sampsonia Way. Neighbors, and other participants from around the city, staged scenes ranging from a parade and a marathon, to a garage band practice, a seventeenth century sword fight, a heroic rescue and much more...
Street View technicians captured 360-degree photographs of the street with the scenes in action and integrated the images into the Street View mapping platform. This first-ever artistic intervention in Google Street View made its debut on the web in November of 2008.
An incredible cast of real-life characters contributed their time, energy and talents to creating pseudo-street life on Sampsonia Way. "
BLF Strikes Again
Posted February 28, 2008 by jmacphee in Political Art
I've long thought that the Billboard Liberation Front, beyond being one of the longest running billboard alteration groups, is also one of the smartest. Rather than simply playing off corporate logos, they often are able to use billboards to create a critique that cuts a little deeper, and yesterday they put up a good one in San Francisco. Here is an extended excerpt from their press release:
The Billboard Liberation Front today announced a major new advertising improvement campaign executed on behalf of clients AT&T and the National Security Agency. Focusing on billboards in the San Francisco area, this improvement action is designed to promote and celebrate the innovative collaboration of these two global communications giants.“This campaign is an extraordinary rendition of a public-private partnership,” observed BLF spokesperson Blank DeCoverly. “These two titans of telecom have a long and intimate relationship, dating back to the age of the telegraph. In these dark days of Terrorism, that should be a comfort to every law-abiding citizen with nothing to hide.”
AT&T initially downplayed its heroic efforts in the War on Terror, preferring to serve in silence behind the scenes. “But then we realized we had a PR win on our hands,” noted AT&T V.P. of Homeland Security James Croppy. “Not only were we helping NSA cut through the cumbersome red tape of the FISA system, we were also helping our customers by handing over their e-mails and phone records to the government. Modern life is so hectic – who has time to cc the feds on every message? It’s a great example of how we anticipate our customers’ needs and act on them. And, it should be pointed out, we offered this service free of charge.”
Commenting on the action, and responding to questions about pending privacy litigation and the stalled Congressional effort to shield the telecoms from these lawsuits, NSA spokesperson [REDACTED] remarked: “[REDACTED] we [REDACTED] condone [REDACTED] warrantless [REDACTED], [REDACTED] SIGINT intercepts, [REDACTED] torture [REDACTED] information retrieval by [REDACTED] means necessary.”
“It’s a win-win-win situation,” noted the BLF’s DeCoverly. “NSA gets the data it needs to keep America safe, telecom customers get free services, and AT&T makes a fortune. That kind of cooperation between the public and private sectors should serve as a model to all of us, and a harbinger of things to come.”
The Insurection Internationale Is In Full Swing
Posted April 23, 2007 by in Political Art
Version Fest Hits Chicago Once Again...
:: VERSION>07 THE INSURECTION INTERNATIONALE ::An unconventional network of creators, workers, musicians, organizations, artists, activists, producers and organizers are collectively waging asymmetrical warfare on the established systems of control in our cultural, political and art worlds.
The Insurrection Intenationale is a moment. It is a point of confluence between various networks and subcultures that believe in the solidarity of our multitudes. Together we are waging a revolt against established systems and authority to create new worlds to inhabit. We are creating alternate realities, independent economies, developing alliances and infrastructures to support our beliefs. We are engaging in a culture war against the establishments in all their guises.
This year Version will explore the various networks undermining the forces of stagnation, decay and business as usual. Individuals and groups involved in creating alternative modes of operations, communications and networks of cooperation are gathering at our annual convergence this spring to discover the plausible worlds we can create together.
We hope you can join us in enjoying the confluence of now and planning the community of future.
“ This is the final struggle/Let us join together and tomorrow/ The International/Will be the human race”
Check out the Flickr page of opening night photos...
Paradise Remixed
Posted April 21, 2007 by in Political Art
Paradise Remixed- a neighborhood wide art event opened this weekend in the Riverwest neighborhood of Milwaukee. Ten different arts spaces and local businesses in the neighborhood are showing work and participating in the event. Collectively there are over 50 artists participating using a wide range of media and approaches- from installation and video, to book arts, painting and drawing, and recycled or detourned work.
As stated by the organizers:
"Paradise Remixed" asks local artists and curators to reinterpret popular visions of paradise. Visions of paradise have always found bizarre & beautiful representations in our everyday pop culture objects and experiences. Reworking mass-produced objects, recycled materials, & popular conceptions, artists will present us with everything from sanguine utopias to portentous dystopias. "Paradise Remixed" weaves together a diversity of artists, curators, and art spaces in the Riverwest neighborhood, which, on some bright days can feel like our own little earthly paradise.
The idea for the show came from Mark Lawson, gallery director at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. When a tenant left him 20 pieces of mass-produced art, Lawson didn't have the heart to throw them away. "I thought the show would be a good use for them," he said.Adding the neighborhood to the mix was born out of a conversation with Polina Malikin. "We have some of the most cutting-edge art in the whole city . . . but we never do anything together. . . . our main goal was that everyone acquainted with each other would get to work together."
Participating spaces include:
Cream City Collectives, Neighbors Gallery, Hot Cakes Gallery, Green Gallery, Riverwest Film & Video, Feed Shop, Vision Eye Center, Woodland Pattern, Art Bar, and the Riverwest Food Co-op
Participating Artists include:
Archaeology of the recent Future Association, Sam Augustine, Brandon Bauer, Anne Bisone, Jeff Bogartte, Noah Brehmer, Jessie Brown, Ray Chi, Santiago Cucullu, Mary DiBiasio, Matt Fink, John Gatti, Peggy Haubert, Steve Hough, Oluwabukola Harrison Idowu, Juliet Jaeger, Darryl Jensen, Jeremiah Ketner, Paul Kjelland, Laura Klein, Caroline Knueppel, Sue Kriofsky, Nicolas Lampert, Mark Lawson, Xav Leplae, Kathryn Martin, Chris Miller, Darota Biczel Nelson, Keith Nelson, Josie Osborne, Annuska Peck, Melissa Dorn Richards, Michael Roberts, Naomi Shersty, Jeana Sohn, The Sparkle Dancers, and Merle Wind
"Business Day" by Brandon Bauer
The NAFTA Effect
Posted November 22, 2006 by in Inspirations
In October members of THINK AGAIN did some large-scale projections in Los Angeles for a project was called "The NAFTA Effect" organized by Outpost for Contemporary Art. THINK AGAIN's mobile projectors roamed the streets of Los Angeles after dark emblazoning giant projections on building facades. This project acknowledges the contribution and participation of immigrant laborers in the life of Los Angeles. On the level of policy, The NAFTA Effect highlights how international treaties like NAFTA, in concert with national anti-immigration efforts, reshape the ways that families live and work on both sides of the border as well as challenging the proposed 700-mile border fence, and the criminalization of undocumented workers.
To see a slide show, and for more information on the project visit: http://www.saltinthewound.org/
Tio Zapata in Troy, NY
Posted November 20, 2006 by in Culture Jamming / Ads & Adbusting
In solidarity with the EZLN's call for a general strike throughout Mexico today, a few activists in upstate New York reclaimed a rather hideous statue of Uncle Sam in downtown Troy:
UNCLE SAM WANTS YOU TO STAND IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE PEOPLE OF OAXACA
(Troy, NY) November 20, 2006
Who: Concerned People's of Troy and the Tio Zapata Brigada
Where: The Uncle Sam Monument, River and Front Street, Troy, NY
What: Uncle Sam stands for freedom and democracy and people in the southern state of Oaxaca in Mexico are being violently repressed by corrupt government and paramilitary forces. In solidarity with freedom for the peoples of Mexico and on the anniversary of the Mexican Revolution, Uncle Sam choose to honor another hero of freedom, Emiliano Zapata, by dressing up in his iconic garb. HE WANTS YOU to take action in support of the people's popular movement in Oaxaca.
Why: On November 20th, allies of the EZLN will shut down Mexico in a general strike in protest of repression and recent murders in Oaxaca. For the past six months, the people of Oaxaca have staged an encampment and led a social movement to oust their governor, Ulises Ruiz and have faced arrests, attacks, and killings by paramilitary groups connected to the PRI government of Oaxaca. After the murders on October 27th (including that of New York journalist, Brad Will) federal police moved into Oaxaca and attacked the people's encampment and the University. Oaxaca students, teachers, and APPO are resisting the police attacks, and on Monday, students and activists are demanding the removal of police forces, the removal of the illegitimate governor Ulises Ruiz, and the recognition of APPO's (People's Popular Assembly of Oaxaca) right to form their own direct democracy.
FOR MORE INFO ON THE SITUATION:
Impeach
Posted May 17, 2006 by in Culture Jamming / Ads & Adbusting
So simple you wonder why it hasn't been done before. Oakland, CA. (Photos by Zack W.)
Brilliant Adbust in California
Posted April 21, 2006 by in Culture Jamming / Ads & Adbusting
Via the invaluable Eyeteeth comes word of a great billboard liberation in California:
This was done by the California Department of Corrections. Although the CDC is unaffiliated with the original Billboard Liberation Front, the BLF has given this one the thumbs-up.
Vallone Subway Ads
Posted February 2, 2006 by in Culture Jamming / Ads & Adbusting
Don't know how we missed this one, but NY1 had a funny story about some parody subway ads that take a shot at Peter Vallone:
They look like the real thing, but these aren't subway service advisories, they're fakes. They’re a sort of prank, in this case, at the expense of City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr., whose reputation as an anti-graffiti crusader has made him unpopular among graffiti aficionados, some of whom are apparently now trying to get under his skin by mocking him in phony subway notices that look surprisingly real.
Link. Related: Peter Vallone's Vendetta / Fuck Vallone.
DIY Park
Posted December 12, 2005 by in Culture Jamming / Ads & Adbusting
Speaking of badass non-confrontational temporary street art, San Francisco art collective Rebar pulled off an incredible intervention last month by turning a parking space into a park. Armed with rolls of sod, a shade tree, a bench, and nickels for the meter, they created an oasis of greenspace in the middle of downtown. Their explanation is smart as hell and worth reading in full:
The initial PARK(ing) intervention occurred on November 16, 2005 from noon until 2 p.m., without incident or interference from any level of institutional authority. Sort of makes you wonder what else you can do in a parking space . . .
Providing temporary public open space in a privatized part of town.One of the more critical issues facing outdoor urban human habitat is the increasing paucity of space for humans to rest, relax, or just do nothing.
For example, more than 70% of San Francisco's downtown outdoor space is dedicated to the private vehicle, while only a fraction of that space is allocated to the public realm.
Feeding the meter of a parking space enables one to rent precious downtown real estate, typically on a 1/2 hour to 2 hour basis. What is the range of possible occupancy activities for this short-term lease?
Full description here. These kinds of imaginative interventions are really powerful --- we could use similar efforts here in New York!
Similar: Heavy Trash confronts gated communities & Chicago artists flip the script on Housing Authority. Found via Eyeteeth and Stay Free!, two excellent sites well worth reading every day.
Another fake graffiti ad campaign
Posted December 3, 2005 by in Culture Jamming / Ads & Adbusting
Seems every other month another ad agency hires another street artist to push another useless product on behalf another billionaire corporation. And each time, this causes an online controversy about the intersection of art and commerce. The latest centers around a campaign for some video game doodad, where writers in cities across the country were hired to paint a series zombie-eyed children holding said doodad. The ads appeared with accompanying text in a faux-graffiti style, and this has convinced some people that the ads are somehow interesting or worthy of attention.
Maybe it's just the headache talking, but I find the discussion about these ads as tiring as the ads themselves, and as uninteresting as the product they're pushing. The ads are generating some press about local anger over corporations sponsoring vandalism, and WoosterCollective had a series of posts a few weeks back debating the pros and cons of the campaign. Marc from Wooster --- himself an ad agency executive --- rode the fence:
The ads are open for interpretation. And we like this a lot. They don't hit you over the head with a two-by-four.... And most importantly, the characters are cute and infectuous. The ads are what you want them to be.But here's the big problem with them:
At the end of the day - being deceptive never fucking works. Ever. Doesn't [the company] know that there's something called the Internet? The real lack of restraint is that the ads have been popping up all over the country. Because of sites like the Internet, the campaign gets exposed as a fraud by the same people they are trying to appeal to.
I think this is misguided for two reasons. First, no advertisement is "what you want it to be." Ads are, and can only be, what their sponsors want them to be. Ads have no purpose besides selling you something --- usually something you don't need --- and they have absolutely no meaning or message besides promoting a product. None.
Second, does anyone seriously think that the company cares about being "exposed as a fraud"? As long as you mention the name of the product, I doubt they care what you say about it. And the company isn't trying to appeal to graffiti artists or street art afficionados, they're trying to harness the energy and mystique of street art in order to appeal to people --- kids and their parents --- who know very little about the movement and sell them something that has nothing to do with the values or practices of that movement.
One of the most tiring arguments within this whole controversy is this one:
Whats so wrong with someone making a little dough to pay the rent or to buy a drink or some paint with their profit
Nothing. Fine. Go ahead. I work a shitty job too, but that's not the point. The point is, for every single artist that is paid big money to lend edginess to a boring product, there are hundreds of kids who do graffiti for free and put themselves at major risk every time they go out. The NYPD has made 2,230 graffiti arrests this year alone, almost double last year's number. Any discussion of the "mainstreaming" of street art or the ability of a few artists to get paid has to take that reality into account.
Picture at top from GammaBlaBlog's flickr photostream. Second picture: Corporate Vandals Not Welcome.
Call for Art: Guernica Project
Posted October 21, 2005 by in Artwork Needed
Got an email a few days ago from artist John Unger with an ambitious call for an "open source" campaign:
I'd like to invite any interested groups or individuals to help plaster the USA with billboard size reproductions of Picasso's Guernica. Ideally, the work would stand without any text or headlines or additional commentary: if the painting is all that's seen, it forces the viewer to make an interpretation instead of being told what to think. Being told what to think is exactly what got Americans in trouble in the first place, no?The following paragraph is not what inspired the idea, but I think it explains relatively well what one might hope to accomplish in this project:
"A tapestry copy of Picasso's Guernica is displayed on the wall of the United Nations building in New York City, at the entrance to the Security Council room. It was placed there as a reminder of the horrors of war. Commissioned and donated by Nelson Rockefeller, it is not quite as monochromatic as the original, using several shades of brown. On February 5, 2003, a large blue curtain was placed to cover this work, so that it would not be visible in the background when Colin Powell and John Negroponte gave press conferences at the United Nations. On the following day, it was claimed that the curtain was placed there at the request of television news crews, who had complained that the wild lines and screaming figures made for a bad backdrop, and that a horse's hindquarters appeared just above the faces of any speakers. Diplomats, however, told journalists that the Bush Administration leaned on UN officials to cover the tapestry, rather than have it in the background while Powell or other U.S. diplomats argued for war on Iraq." -- quoted from wikipedia
If the painting intimidates warmongers into covering it, then why not make sure that it goes up in as many public spaces as possible?
Full call here. The Powell incident sparked outrage among artists and civil libertarians, and inspired Word War 3 Arts in Action to create Guernica-themed placards for the March 22, 2003 antiwar march in NYC. It also led me to create my first stencil. Anyone who would like to get involved in this project can find a source image of Picasso's Guernica here. Contact us at visual.resistance@gmail.com and John at johntunger.typepad.com if you'd like to work on this.
Corporate vandals not welcome: a followup
Posted September 29, 2005 by in Culture Jamming / Ads & Adbusting
A few weeks back we wrote about a new sticker campaign called Corporate Vandals Not Welcome. The stickers target advertisers who use techniques cribbed from street art in order to brand themselves as hip, underground, and edgy. We got an email from the person who's been putting the stickers up and he's got a smart, critical take on advertising as well as the current street art scene in NYC:
that's my sticker. glad you appreciated it. I am also responsible for several other political stickers that are conspicuously absent from the various "street art" sites. seems to me that much of what is being touted as street art plays into the existing codes of gallery elitism: visually "pleasing" design, cheap "cleverness," and usually a desperate attempt NOT to have a clear message that anyone can understand. most of this work is simply too comfortable and "nice" to be meaningful (in my opinion). in addition, a lot of it seems to exist more on the internet or on guided tours than it does in reality, on the street, in your face, for the public.ultimately, it appears that many of these "street artists" are using the streets as a self-promotion platform towards networking, gallery shows and mainstream success and acceptance. nearly all of the thousands of graffiti writers who have come and gone never asked for more than to say "I exist. I was here. this is my name. this is my style." street artists should neither bastardize nor belittle this tradition.
I fully recognize and support that there are no rules on the street: everybody should be doing whatever they want to do, that's the whole point. but that does not mean I cannot critique what is being done and how it is being promoted. I love graffiti and any sort of public expression on the streets. cumulatively, it is a beautiful and important thing. I just hope that all of the creators, promoters and fans start to ask a little more of themselves and each other.
by the way, I am in no way affiliated with streetartblows.com
The only reason I compared this project to streetartblows.com is because they're both interventions into what's going on in the streets. In their own way, they're both calling bullshit and asking for some dialogue. The big difference, of course, is that the Corporate Vandals Not Welcome stickers are targetted at advertising companies who are hired by giant corporations with no redeeming social value at all, whereas the s.a.b. stickers are aimed at individual artists and their work, for which he's been criticized.
I think there's a lot to criticize about the state of the scene and the shallowness of a lot of work going up, but having "Keep Your Art To Yourself" as a tagline is basically the opposite of what VR believes. The whole point of our zine is that anyone can make art --- art should be accesible, free, and everywhere. But in taking over public space, street artists should be aware of their surroundings and should be willing to put some thought and effort into respecting their city, their neighbors, and their own artwork. More dialogue towards this end is sorely needed.
Corporate vandals not welcome
Posted September 14, 2005 by in Culture Jamming / Ads & Adbusting
Following up on previous entries about corporate incursions into the street art world, there's a new sticker campaign we've been noticing around downtown NYC. The stickers, reading "corporate vandals not welcome" are usually stuck over advertising stickers for a small circle of companies that are use the "hip" cachet of street art to try to brand their products as edgy or underground.
These companies --- and more importantly the ad agencies that design their marketing campaigns --- are parasitic and useless. They ride the wave of energy produced by thousands of artists working anonymously for no or little gain, and they drain that energy by cannibalizing its forms to sell products and values that have nothing to do with the movement they're ripping off. And, what's worse, the unchallenged co-existence of art & commerce in the street art movement cultivates and reinforces the worst tendencies amongst artists: self-promotion, slick & heartless design, a complete lack of content, easy outs & cookie-cutter derivatives, smug hipness.
Lots of folks are talking these days and no one's saying all that much. Thumbs up to whoever's putting these stickers up, just for calling bullshit. If you know who's behind these, drop us a line at visual.resistance[at]gmail.com. Thanks.
Update: Momo writes in to alert us to something so wrong-headed and stupid it just makes my head spin. Ekosystem has a link to a new music video that uses clips of skateboarding street artists putting up stickers, all to the sounds of that pinnacle of streetwise urban rebellion: Bon Jovi. You know what? If you had told me a year ago that the words "Bon Jovi" would appear on this website, I would have burned my computer, moved to the mountains, and learned Esperanto.
Anyway: check out the Ekosystem board for link to the mind-boggling wrongness, and to join the ongoing discussion on street art & ads.
Adbusting Grand Theft Auto
Posted August 31, 2005 by in Culture Jamming / Ads & Adbusting
Speaking of DIY space reclamation, reader Susan engaged in a little counter-guerilla marketing project recently, taking on the seemingly ubiquitous Grand Theft Auto ads. She writes:
Grand Theft Auto, the video game that has drawn so much criticism for allegedly including sexually explicit scenes and for, in general promoting criminal behavior and sexist ideas (read more here) has been engaging in a bit of "guerilla marketing" in New York.
Putting these stickers on the gritty telephone poles of the city gives the product instant street cred.... Since I find the game pretty sexist, and since I hate it when corporate interests invade street art I decided to take a little guerilla counter action....
I’m just angry to see and AD dressed up like street art. Street artists give away art for free—they spend their money and time making art and making the streets a fun exciting place and don’t get a penny in return. These people want you to buy something and I resent having my mental space invaded by advertising when I’m walking around looking for interesting street art. If you want to put up an ad PAY someone for the space like everyone else. Otherwise I will mock you. And other people might too. It’s a jungle out there.
Low-tech DIY campaigns like this one are small acts of refusal. Although folks might argue about how "effective" they are, they at least help transform the person who does them from a consumer/spectator to a producer and participant, and that's worth a lot. Thanks Susan! Full story and downloadable image file here.
Adbusting
Posted July 20, 2005 by in Culture Jamming / Ads & Adbusting
On the way from my apartment to the subway every morning, I come across a small battlefield in the war for control of public space. That may seem like a melodramatic way to describe some cardboard boxes taped over a payphone advertisement, but fuck it. This little ad display has been scratched, smashed, spraypainted, graffiti'd, and, most often, covered with cardboard boxes and wood boards (picture at right). Every morning, someone covers it up, someone else comes and cleans it up, and the next morning it's covered again.
The ad is one of three for beer companies on my morning route. One is a billboard obviously targeting young African-American males, the other two are generic payphone displays. This one is in front of the local mosque, smack in the middle of the sidewalk hangout spot for the neighborhood's Muslim community. Since the Quran calls alcohol "Satan's handiwork" it's not surprising that this ad's arrival was probably viewed as an unwelcome intrusion.
I don't want to read too much into this, but after the recent controversies over Hummer and Time magazine's street art ad campaigns, passing by this one every day made me think about all the tiny ways that art, public space, and commercialism are contested day to day. Just thought I'd share.
Altered Signs in Occupied Palestine
Posted July 11, 2005 by in Culture Jamming / Ads & Adbusting
This happened some time ago, but is totally worth mentioning.
On June 4th, 2005,Signs of Truth, a group of Israeli and international activists acting in solidarity with local Palestinians, altered signs in the West Bank. The day was the 38th anniversary of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Activists changed a sign to the largest settlement in the northern West Bank, Ariel, to say "stolen land" in Hebrew, Arabic and English.
Al Jazeera reports:
"Another sign that indicates the distance to Ariel from an Israeli checkpoint 12km away reminds drivers of the ongoing occupation and of the separation wall being built around Palestinian towns. "1967: Occupation; 2005: Apartheid Wall in Salfit" read the signs."
Its really inspiring and impressive to see these tactics being used in such a clever way. Some of the signs were pulled off so well, which must have invoked such an emotional reaction with the people who saw them. Its moments like these that have some potential to jolt people out of an ordinary routine and experience, which can (hopefully) change how the occupation of Palestine is spoken about.
Corporate Graff
Posted June 18, 2005 by in Culture Jamming / Ads & Adbusting
Founders and long standing members of TATS CRU got their start painting trains in the Bronx over twenty years ago. Today, TATS CRU has established itself as a legally legitimate company of professional muralists. They paint murals for small businesses and organizations throughout New York City. However, TATS CRU also accepts business from more shady corporate clients.
In 1996, TATS CRU was contracted to paint a series of advertisements for Coca-Cola. Click here to read about Coca-Cola’s international human rights abuses. Click here and here to check out some anti-Coke street art.
A recent Hummer advertisements painted by TATS CRU has aroused some interesting controversy on the street. Two identical Hummer ads were painted in Williamsburg (North 8th and Bedford) and the West Village (Avenue A and 2nd Street). Here is a picture of the Williamsburg ad, which has been tagged over with comments such as “No Blood For Oil,” “Cars kill,” and “Ride a bike.” The Hummer logo has also been crossed out. I also coulden't help but notice the GoreB painting installed near the Hummer ad.
Check out Wooster’s picture of the West Village advertisement, which has also been defaced.
Considering the city’s unhealthy levels of smog, it’s not hard to understand why New Yorker’s would react negatively to these ads, which peddle an off road vehicle that gets an estimated 13 miles to the gallon. (it’s hard to get an accurate understanding of the Hummer’s gas mileage because its uncanny weight exempts it from mileage-reporting requirements) The Hummer is the epitome of America’s environmentally deadly SUV fetish.
The mural pictured below, painted by students at El Puente High School, reflects serious community concerns about smog and environmental justice issues.
Members of TATS CRU might want to take these concerns into consideration before accepting future commissions that impose negative images on communities that have sponsored their art and livelihoods for years.
Saying Good-bye to #9
Posted June 9, 2005 by in Events
As some of you know already the 9 train's final departure occured on May 31st. We all know that sometimes saying good-bye is hard to do. So why not come out with friends and family "1 more time for the 9." Gospel music, story-telling, dancing, surprises, and of course 9's! Not convinced? Check out pics from the Q's final day. Also read the Gothamist post.
Meet at Chambers St. Station Uptown 1 train--last car. 9pm sharp. Tonight June 9th!
Stencilists take on Wal-Mart
Posted June 2, 2005 by in Posters
A group of activists hit Fayetteville, Arkansas with stencils, spraypaint, and posters to protest Wal-Mart's annual shareholders' meeting. The good news is that the posters look great, and the action made the local news. The bad news... they got caught:
Police said five men and one woman used glue early Wednesday to stick posters that criticized Wal-Mart on several campus buildings. One of the posters said "Everyday Low Wages," and the other said "I Will Eat Your Town and Smile."Officers said the group also spray-painted anti-Wal-Mart slogans on campus. University police spokesman Gary Crain said he is used to seeing small problems in the past during the annual Wal-Mart shareholders meeting, as well as and during other events on campus.
An account from one of the arrested is on up on Austin Indymedia:
At approximately 4 in the morning, 2 nights before the Wal Mart Shareholders Convention, some associates and I were working on an art project around Bud Walton Arena, site of the upcoming Walmart Orgy. We were stopped by some “Walmart-Loss-Prevention Officers” and UAPD, who proceeded to question us about our activities, which might have included some wheatpasting and graffitti in Walmart territory....As the UAPD made clear to me and my comrades, “if you are ever on the UA again, especially when Walmart is here, we will take you immediately to jail.” What good neighbors...Always.
Protests against Wal-Mart's shareholders' meeting are being coordinated by Against the Wal Coalition. Wal-Mart's labor practices --- notably sexual discrimination, union busting, and low wages --- and it's creeping threat to local communities are well documented.
See the news report about the action here. Wal-Mart Watch is the best place to start getting information on Wal-Mart; perhaps the most exciting activist project I found through their resources page is the Los Angeles Superstore Ordinance, and there are many more.
Great job to the people who made the posters --- next time, don't get caught!
Chicago street artists flip the script on Housing Authority
Posted May 29, 2005 by in Culture Jamming / Ads & Adbusting
A friend in Chicago emails us with news of an audacious action by a group of street artists against the Chicago Housing Authority:
Yesterday a group of cunning criminals who wanted to correct the record about Chicago's public housing changed out over 12 large size bus shelter ads, put up hundreds of advertisements on the trains, released a newspaper of information and reproductions of the bus shelter designs, and launched a mock/mirror site about public housing at chicagohousingauthority.netThe action was in response to a sinister and cynical ad campaign the real Chicago Housing Authority launched with the help of corporate ad scum Leo Burnett and public space privatizers JC Decauex (who own all the ad-laden bus shelters).
The public intervention they pulled off is impressive as hell, and the website has a ton of great information. In addition to the posters themselves, definitely check out Resident Voices and the list of resources directing the site's visitors to grassroots organizations working on housing issues in Chicago.
Tip of the Iceberg
Posted May 4, 2005 by in Culture Jamming / Ads & Adbusting
The NY City Council recently closed a "loophole" that allowed over 1,000 illegal advertising billboards to spring up around the city. Closing the loophole is a small (tiny, miniscule) step in the right direction. The New York Press puts it in perspective:
Billboards in Times Square are one thing—they've always been part of the landscape. But in recent years, they've spread like the mange across the rest of the city, adorning every street, the side of every building, blocking the sky with yet one more advertisement for underpants or flavored vodka. You can't look in any direction these days, it seems, without being assaulted by another giant ad.Over 1000 of those billboards, it turns out, have been put up illegally, without being properly registered with the Buildings Department. But last Thursday, City Council announced that they'd finally closed a massive loophole in a 2001 law, and will now be able to get on with the business of getting these billboards removed.
For just a second there it sounded like good news. At last we'd once again be able to let our eyes drift upward without being told to buy something we didn't need.
Then that second passed, and we remembered where we were, who was mayor, and that when those illegal billboards are removed, they'll be replaced in a matter of minutes by legal billboards, probably for the Olympics.
Photo taken from Billboard Liberation Front.
A good week for public art
Posted April 29, 2005 by in Culture Jamming / Ads & Adbusting
Last weekend, Los Angeles art collective Heavy Trash installed giant orange "viewing platforms" near the entrances to gated communities:
On April 24, 2005, Heavy Trash volunteers deposited bright orange viewing platforms in front of three Los Angeles gated communities; Brentwood Circle, Park La Brea and Laughlin Park. The purpose of these viewing platforms is to draw attention to the phenomenon of gated communities --- the fastest growing form of housing in the United States. "There are now more than 1 million homes behind such walls in the greater Los Angeles area alone," according to Setha Low, a professor at the City University of New York....WHY VIEWING PLATFORMS?
Like the historic viewing platforms at the Berlin Wall that allowed Westerners to see into East Berlin, the Heavy Trash viewing platforms call attention to the walls of gated communities and provide visual access to parts of the city that have been cut off from the public domain.
Check out their site here. Their past projects are equally smart and impressive, and the bibliography they've compiled on gated communities is super useful for people nervous about the mall-ing of Brooklyn (and beyond). (Thanks to Zack for the tip).
Speaking of public art and gated communities, VR members rancor & gravel wrote a wonderful short essay on The Gates that touched on similar themes a while back, tying these threads together better than I could do justice to in a short summary. Check it out here.
Meanwhile, 3,000 miles closer to home, photographer Fred Askew brings us the story of one person who put his body on the line to protest the war. From NYC Indymedia:
On Tuesday I came across an anti-war activist standing on traffic signal pole in Astor Place. A sign attached to the pole read, "WAR?" and on his chest was written "All American." The "ONE WAY" signs were changed to read, "NO WAR."
I haven't been able to find any more information on the action or the artist. Anyone with info --- especially regarding charges and legal support --- drop a line in the comments below. UPDATE: Emilio has more pictures on Flickr. Thanks!
Banksy
Posted March 24, 2005 by in Culture Jamming / Ads & Adbusting
If you read nothing else today, don't miss Wooster's post on Banky's escapades in New York. The New York Times article is full of the condescending elitism you'd expect, but Banksy's succinct explanation on Wooster is perfect:
Were the works you installed all paintings on canvas?Two of the works were fine oil paintings. I vandalised them so they had some actual meaning. In the Natural History museum I installed a real dead beetle but with model missiles and satellite dishes stuck to it. A bug in the true American spirit [...].
What message, if any, were you trying to convey by putting up these works?
I've wandered round a lot of art galleries thinking 'I could have done that' so it seemed only right that I should try.
These Galleries are just trophy cabinets for a handful of millionaires. The public never has any real say in what art they see. Its good to screw with the selection process sometimes. 'Comfort the disturbed, and disturb the comfortable' as Eleanor Roosevelt once said.
The gas mask painting is about how fear of terror is disfiguring society.
The military officer painting is dedicated to all those who joined the forces to fight honorable and just wars, and ended up feeling like maybe they should have stayed home and been peace activists instead.
