Culture Jamming: Hacking, Slashing and Sniping in the Empire of Signs by Mark Dery
Marc Dery wrote what is to me a very comprehensive guide to culture jamming. First he describes the problem with culture: "The effects of television are most deleterious in the realms of journalism and politics" because television is an outlet for corporate interest. Everything there, is manipulated and private, there is no transparency but there is not even content and "because this whole notion of freedom of the press becomes a contradiction when the people who own the media are the same people who need to be reported on."
He starts his article with a critic of TV but really addresses advertisement, which might have been so well developed because of TV.
Then he explains jamming. He surveys many different types of jamming. To me one sentence stood out: "Culture jamming,[...], is directed against an ever more intrusive, instrumental technoculture whose operant mode is the manufacture of consent through the manipulation of symbols." From a member of Negativland collage band who first used the term culture jamming.
Ideally Cluture Jamming "directs the public viewer to a consideration of the original corporate strategy"
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Interventionists... here they come.
The Biotic Cooking Brigade
"What do Bill Gates, Milton Freidman, William F. Buckley, San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, Sylvester Stallone, Canadian Premier Jean Chretien, Swedish King Carl Gustaf, Ronald McDonald, Timothy Leary, Eldridge Cleaver, Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling, World Trade Organization Director Renato Ruggiero and Andy Warhol have in common?
They've all been pied by the Biotic Baking Brigade or its cohorts around the world. The fine art of landing a freshly-baked delicacy in the face of the reactionary, pompous, and otherwise deserving has a long and venerable tradition. As a way of highlighting a particular cause, gaining often spectacular media attention, or merely bringing the lofty down a crust or two, there is nothing quite so fine as a cream pie.
This anthology cooks up an intoxicating mélanges of history, analysis, tactics, and recipes for this most edible of the political direct action techniques.
Tips from experienced pie-ers on the best ways to slip into a shareholders meeting unobserved—ammunition in hand—and on blending deliciously tried and tested recipes of delectable vegan pastries (perfect for launching, or dining upon). Generously sprinkled with some of the punchiest, wittiest communiqués explaining just why those responsible for environmental destruction might be in line for their just desserts and the theory behind why pie-ing—why now.
"The BBB is a movement that actually moves—a network of political pranksters who literally practice in-your-face politics. They target assorted greedheads, hitting them right in the smacker...with pies! But it is worthy work. The BBB's pies are the Boston Tea Party of our modern day, sending a serious message to the corporate oligarchy." —Jim Hightower
"It's an assault on public officials. It's an assault on government. It should not be condoned." —Michael Yaki, San Francisco Supervisor
"Is well placed humor one of the best protest tactics there is? The proof is in the pudding! Or should I say—pie cream." —Jello Biafra". Exerpt from the AK press ordering page of the book titled Pie Any Mean Necessary.
YOMANGO
MANGO is a popular brand in europe, yo mango is spanish slang for "I steal" and YOMANGO is a movement that considers shoplifting as a social commentary. One of their intervention was to steal clothes and to have a fashion show with those back at the store.
At the bottom of all of their website's pages is a notice:
"ATENCIÓN, ADVERTENCIA: Si te fijas con atención y miras los contenidos de esta página verás que YOMANGO no va de robar, ni es apología de ningún delito y ni siquiera trata de mangar nada, YOMANGO visibiliza una realidad muy concreta: la gente manga, e intenta entender porqué. Algunas hipótesis ya han empezado a aparcer: la precariedad en la que la mayoría de las personas hoy nos encontramos sería una de ella, otra sin duda, son las políticas abusivas de las multinacionales que gobiernan el mercado y el mundo, por eso desde YOMANGO decimos: YOMANGO NO ES ROBO, LA PROPIEDAD ES EL ROBO."
ATTENTION, CAUTION: If you pay close attention to the content of this page you will see that YOMANGO is not going to steal, nor does it apologize for any offence and it is not even looking for things to steal. Yomango is making something very concrete visible: people steal and we try to understand why.
Few hypothesis emerged and one stood up: the precarity in which the majority of people we meet is, is caused without doubt, by the abusive politic of the multinationals governing the market and the world. Therefore YOMANGO says YOMANGO IS NOT STEALING, PROPERTY IS STEALING.
"What do Bill Gates, Milton Freidman, William F. Buckley, San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, Sylvester Stallone, Canadian Premier Jean Chretien, Swedish King Carl Gustaf, Ronald McDonald, Timothy Leary, Eldridge Cleaver, Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling, World Trade Organization Director Renato Ruggiero and Andy Warhol have in common?
They've all been pied by the Biotic Baking Brigade or its cohorts around the world. The fine art of landing a freshly-baked delicacy in the face of the reactionary, pompous, and otherwise deserving has a long and venerable tradition. As a way of highlighting a particular cause, gaining often spectacular media attention, or merely bringing the lofty down a crust or two, there is nothing quite so fine as a cream pie.
This anthology cooks up an intoxicating mélanges of history, analysis, tactics, and recipes for this most edible of the political direct action techniques.
Tips from experienced pie-ers on the best ways to slip into a shareholders meeting unobserved—ammunition in hand—and on blending deliciously tried and tested recipes of delectable vegan pastries (perfect for launching, or dining upon). Generously sprinkled with some of the punchiest, wittiest communiqués explaining just why those responsible for environmental destruction might be in line for their just desserts and the theory behind why pie-ing—why now.
"The BBB is a movement that actually moves—a network of political pranksters who literally practice in-your-face politics. They target assorted greedheads, hitting them right in the smacker...with pies! But it is worthy work. The BBB's pies are the Boston Tea Party of our modern day, sending a serious message to the corporate oligarchy." —Jim Hightower
"It's an assault on public officials. It's an assault on government. It should not be condoned." —Michael Yaki, San Francisco Supervisor
"Is well placed humor one of the best protest tactics there is? The proof is in the pudding! Or should I say—pie cream." —Jello Biafra". Exerpt from the AK press ordering page of the book titled Pie Any Mean Necessary.
YOMANGO
MANGO is a popular brand in europe, yo mango is spanish slang for "I steal" and YOMANGO is a movement that considers shoplifting as a social commentary. One of their intervention was to steal clothes and to have a fashion show with those back at the store.
At the bottom of all of their website's pages is a notice:
"ATENCIÓN, ADVERTENCIA: Si te fijas con atención y miras los contenidos de esta página verás que YOMANGO no va de robar, ni es apología de ningún delito y ni siquiera trata de mangar nada, YOMANGO visibiliza una realidad muy concreta: la gente manga, e intenta entender porqué. Algunas hipótesis ya han empezado a aparcer: la precariedad en la que la mayoría de las personas hoy nos encontramos sería una de ella, otra sin duda, son las políticas abusivas de las multinacionales que gobiernan el mercado y el mundo, por eso desde YOMANGO decimos: YOMANGO NO ES ROBO, LA PROPIEDAD ES EL ROBO."
ATTENTION, CAUTION: If you pay close attention to the content of this page you will see that YOMANGO is not going to steal, nor does it apologize for any offence and it is not even looking for things to steal. Yomango is making something very concrete visible: people steal and we try to understand why.
Few hypothesis emerged and one stood up: the precarity in which the majority of people we meet is, is caused without doubt, by the abusive politic of the multinationals governing the market and the world. Therefore YOMANGO says YOMANGO IS NOT STEALING, PROPERTY IS STEALING.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Chance Operation
The Recipe :
- cooking randomly: (after Rirkrit Tiravanija)
go to your grocery store. photograph the outside.
go to isle 3. halfway down the isle on the right side, pick a food item.
(if isle is not food items, go to the next isle up that is food, 4 then 5...)
do the same on isle 6.
if your grocery store is teeny, (under 6 isles) get something 5 feet down the 1st isle and 2 feet down the second.
go to the produce section. starting at the very left of the produce, pick the 2nd, and 6th items in the middle-height section, and the 8th thing over high up.
photograph each item in its spot in the store, and all together on your kitchen table.
make a meal that includes all of the random ingredients, photograph it and share it with your friends.
I shared it on a very new blog that I created for me and some friends to share recipes.
I randomly got kamut pasta, watermelon spiced seeds, savoy cabbage, sunchokes and daikon.
So I sautéed sunchoke and cabbage in butter, served over the pasta with grated parmesan followed by grated daikon served in yoghurt with coarse salt and pepper. I used the watermelon seeds as a garnish for the daikon side dish. It was yummy
- cooking randomly: (after Rirkrit Tiravanija)
go to your grocery store. photograph the outside.
go to isle 3. halfway down the isle on the right side, pick a food item.
(if isle is not food items, go to the next isle up that is food, 4 then 5...)
do the same on isle 6.
if your grocery store is teeny, (under 6 isles) get something 5 feet down the 1st isle and 2 feet down the second.
go to the produce section. starting at the very left of the produce, pick the 2nd, and 6th items in the middle-height section, and the 8th thing over high up.
photograph each item in its spot in the store, and all together on your kitchen table.
make a meal that includes all of the random ingredients, photograph it and share it with your friends.
I shared it on a very new blog that I created for me and some friends to share recipes.
I randomly got kamut pasta, watermelon spiced seeds, savoy cabbage, sunchokes and daikon.
So I sautéed sunchoke and cabbage in butter, served over the pasta with grated parmesan followed by grated daikon served in yoghurt with coarse salt and pepper. I used the watermelon seeds as a garnish for the daikon side dish. It was yummy
Sunday, March 8, 2009
free vector file of corporate logos
We have to find a corporate logo for this week's class and this website is just awesome.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
White Skin, White Mask
I had a very good time working on a project using Google Earth. I previously enjoyed Google Earth to "fly" to France or other places when subject to nostalgia attacks. This time I had an assignment in which I was asked to create an autobiography, or a narrative, using video, pictures or any other multimedia.
View Larger Map
I decided to concentrate this story on some places I traveled to that shaped my mental, political and social inner-landscape. Ultimately what came up was the issues of identity and physical reality. I became very aware of myself when I traveled to far places where all the cultural codes I embraced while growing up became then meaningless. The way I had to describe myself was much more complex than back home where the way I dressed and the way I talked was just enough to show to which group I belonged. But in other places my subculture was not relevant to the local way of life, in fact it did not mean anything to them because they were simply not familiar with these codes. For example In Burkina-Fasso (West Africa) the fact that my clothes were not expensive, that I had tattoos and piercings and that I worked as a dishwasher to pay for my trip was not very meaningful; I was from Europe and what people thought of Europeans was that they were rich. Their idea of Europeans is right because even with my “poorman job’s” income from France, there I was able to have a very comfortable life for few months. What I understood is that abroad, issues of economic and social status are intricately related to ethnic issues. My skin is white but my dad’s skin is brown. I never understood that my skin color gave me access to a particular status until my traveling experiences. Indeed I come from an under-privileged background on both sides of my family as for example none of my parents have a high-school degree. So even though at home I had all the tools and codes to resemble that who I am, once in a foreign place all these codes became obsolete, I had to make myself all over again.
I decided to call my exploration of Google Earth White Skin, White Mask in homage to Frantz Fanon who wrote Black Skin, White Masks in 1952. He was a black man born in a French colony of the Caribbean. When he traveled to France he studied psychoanalysis and worked in mental health clinics. He was then sent to work in Algeria, another French colony at the time. He became a very important voice in the independence movement of African colonies and an important thinker in the psychology of colonization. The white mask Fanon refers to in his book is the colonized mind of the colonized black man. Fanon described the phenomena of assimilation of the colonizer’s cultural codes and the inferiority complex inherent to it.
I believe that I use the term white mask in a more literate sense than Fanon does because I do not address the colonized mind as much as the perception others have of me due to my white skin despite my brown heritage. On the contrary, I have to say that my mind is well on its way in term of decolonization.
View Larger Map
I decided to concentrate this story on some places I traveled to that shaped my mental, political and social inner-landscape. Ultimately what came up was the issues of identity and physical reality. I became very aware of myself when I traveled to far places where all the cultural codes I embraced while growing up became then meaningless. The way I had to describe myself was much more complex than back home where the way I dressed and the way I talked was just enough to show to which group I belonged. But in other places my subculture was not relevant to the local way of life, in fact it did not mean anything to them because they were simply not familiar with these codes. For example In Burkina-Fasso (West Africa) the fact that my clothes were not expensive, that I had tattoos and piercings and that I worked as a dishwasher to pay for my trip was not very meaningful; I was from Europe and what people thought of Europeans was that they were rich. Their idea of Europeans is right because even with my “poorman job’s” income from France, there I was able to have a very comfortable life for few months. What I understood is that abroad, issues of economic and social status are intricately related to ethnic issues. My skin is white but my dad’s skin is brown. I never understood that my skin color gave me access to a particular status until my traveling experiences. Indeed I come from an under-privileged background on both sides of my family as for example none of my parents have a high-school degree. So even though at home I had all the tools and codes to resemble that who I am, once in a foreign place all these codes became obsolete, I had to make myself all over again.
I decided to call my exploration of Google Earth White Skin, White Mask in homage to Frantz Fanon who wrote Black Skin, White Masks in 1952. He was a black man born in a French colony of the Caribbean. When he traveled to France he studied psychoanalysis and worked in mental health clinics. He was then sent to work in Algeria, another French colony at the time. He became a very important voice in the independence movement of African colonies and an important thinker in the psychology of colonization. The white mask Fanon refers to in his book is the colonized mind of the colonized black man. Fanon described the phenomena of assimilation of the colonizer’s cultural codes and the inferiority complex inherent to it.
I believe that I use the term white mask in a more literate sense than Fanon does because I do not address the colonized mind as much as the perception others have of me due to my white skin despite my brown heritage. On the contrary, I have to say that my mind is well on its way in term of decolonization.
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