Monday, December 10, 2007
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
New Orleans
I dunno- just in the middle of tonnes of work- so not much to say really, 'cept that it is ace that some folks are gonna go to New Orleans!!!
What better idea for a social activism class...
whose in?
good luck to all for exams and essays....
What better idea for a social activism class...
whose in?
good luck to all for exams and essays....
Friday, November 16, 2007
Evan Tapper's Work
Wow! Evan Tapper's work blew me away and really inspired me. I guess the first thing that is of interest to me is that he is a man doing so-called feminist work, which i have experienced only in the form of writing- male feminist essayist...and even so only in small chunks so that I am not sure how much of an interest is being taken...is it just a cusp relationship etc, but Tapper seriously takes up his position as a man doing doing feminist and explores it, asking himself why it resonates with him...
and from what I got from his work and his words was that he no longer feels unsure/questioning why he is drawn to this work- that is he feels that he has a 'right' to be in it...although involvement with the issues and ideas continues to be a process for him...and I guess he (and what i saw) is that for him is that it all comes down to being a citizen of planet earth/ human in this culture- that he "has to live in this world" too...
...anyhow, although I have never really met a man doing such focused feminist work, and feminist videography at that, what stands out to me really is Tapper's use of humour and self obsession/preoccupation and the fact that these two work together; i.e- he is largely making fun of himself, his position- both as an artist (that phone message film- the one where she is thanking him for coming to the circus and welcoming him back next year), and a man doing feminist work (the vagina monologue dream)---while at the same time taking up issues of depression and his mother's death... As is clear, and as Evan himself said, is that he uses humour to navigate and dig into 'denser, heavier' issues...
I guess another very obvious thing that I am always reminded of when i see such inspiring works is the fact that such tools such as humour and visual media can be so powerful in working out issues with oneself and sharing them with others- and also, of course, getting a message across...
...that is why stand up comedy is (has the potential to be) so revolutionary!
and from what I got from his work and his words was that he no longer feels unsure/questioning why he is drawn to this work- that is he feels that he has a 'right' to be in it...although involvement with the issues and ideas continues to be a process for him...and I guess he (and what i saw) is that for him is that it all comes down to being a citizen of planet earth/ human in this culture- that he "has to live in this world" too...
...anyhow, although I have never really met a man doing such focused feminist work, and feminist videography at that, what stands out to me really is Tapper's use of humour and self obsession/preoccupation and the fact that these two work together; i.e- he is largely making fun of himself, his position- both as an artist (that phone message film- the one where she is thanking him for coming to the circus and welcoming him back next year), and a man doing feminist work (the vagina monologue dream)---while at the same time taking up issues of depression and his mother's death... As is clear, and as Evan himself said, is that he uses humour to navigate and dig into 'denser, heavier' issues...
I guess another very obvious thing that I am always reminded of when i see such inspiring works is the fact that such tools such as humour and visual media can be so powerful in working out issues with oneself and sharing them with others- and also, of course, getting a message across...
...that is why stand up comedy is (has the potential to be) so revolutionary!
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Lonely, lonely that is me
I am surprised how much i enjoy doing a blog- tres weird...
the thing is no one ever visits ...well i think that people visit, but they are quiet maybe...
all i am saying is say hello!, checkout a clip- leave me a x or o or a really good song ....
L
the thing is no one ever visits ...well i think that people visit, but they are quiet maybe...
all i am saying is say hello!, checkout a clip- leave me a x or o or a really good song ....
L
Rendition Trailer
Thanks for telling me about this knapki--this seems like a very close approximation of what secret trials and safety certificates are all about...Locking suspected terrorists up without any explanation to themselves, their families or their lawyers because it would be a 'security risk'. I wonder how it all ends in the film? In real life it hasn't ended; the 5 men we know about in canada, after serving an average of 5-7 years each i believe- lots of it in solitary confinement (which is charged as being completely inhumane especially for periods that these men were sentenced to--some for over a year--but i guess there is not much humanity to be found in this whole policy) One man is still in (toronto detention centre), and 4 are under crazily strict house arrest....
thanks for showing me this film
L
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Street Theatre
Here is some street theatre we did this weekend. Check out the literature below and these websites that explain the certificates and secret trials in greater detail. The second link takes into account what is happening with new proposed legislation.
http://www.homesnotbombs.ca/quicklinkssecrettrials.htm
http://www.zerra.net/freemohamed/e107_files/downloads/statementSEP2007eng.pdf
This last link is a statement that has been drawn up that we are asking people to sign onto
http://www.gopetition.com/online/14744.html
Guerilla Theatre- Canada's Guantanamo Bay
Here is a report of some street theatre we did on the weekend. Youtube link to follow...
People waiting for the bus or just going to the market were confronted with a strange site in downtown Hamilton today. Average citizen "Lucy Gordon" who was minding her own business was taken away by authorities. Passers by were confused by screams of "Let me go! I have rights!" and shocked to see her being forced to the ground and a dark hood placed over her head.
Although we are used to seeing arbitrary detention like this in places like Afghanistan and Iraq, what happened in downtown Hamilton today was symbolic of similar occurrences here in Canada.
The Campaign to Stop Secret Trials – Hamilton decided to do some performance art before new "Security Certificate" legislation is introduced in the House of Commons.
Today is the National Day to Stop Secret Trials, and although the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled Security Certificates to be unconstitutional, the current government has decided that security certificates need only to be redrafted.
As surprised as people were that someone could just be taken off the street and held without charge, they would be even more surprised to learn that their government is locking people up without charging them, without giving them access to "evidence" against them, and attempting to deport them to countries that will torture them.
"Part of the message in our performance," said Chris Shannon one of the participants, "was to show that this can happen to anyone. There are fundamental principals of justice. Currently, under the Security Certificate process, people are not even getting a fair trail."
The Campaign to Stop Secret Trials – Hamilton joins everyone nation wide today who calls for the end of security certificate legislation, an end to deportations to torture, that everyone threatened under this legislation be charged or released unconditionally, and the closing of the Kingston holding facility that holds security certificate detainees.
People waiting for the bus or just going to the market were confronted with a strange site in downtown Hamilton today. Average citizen "Lucy Gordon" who was minding her own business was taken away by authorities. Passers by were confused by screams of "Let me go! I have rights!" and shocked to see her being forced to the ground and a dark hood placed over her head.
Although we are used to seeing arbitrary detention like this in places like Afghanistan and Iraq, what happened in downtown Hamilton today was symbolic of similar occurrences here in Canada.
The Campaign to Stop Secret Trials – Hamilton decided to do some performance art before new "Security Certificate" legislation is introduced in the House of Commons.
Today is the National Day to Stop Secret Trials, and although the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled Security Certificates to be unconstitutional, the current government has decided that security certificates need only to be redrafted.
As surprised as people were that someone could just be taken off the street and held without charge, they would be even more surprised to learn that their government is locking people up without charging them, without giving them access to "evidence" against them, and attempting to deport them to countries that will torture them.
"Part of the message in our performance," said Chris Shannon one of the participants, "was to show that this can happen to anyone. There are fundamental principals of justice. Currently, under the Security Certificate process, people are not even getting a fair trail."
The Campaign to Stop Secret Trials – Hamilton joins everyone nation wide today who calls for the end of security certificate legislation, an end to deportations to torture, that everyone threatened under this legislation be charged or released unconditionally, and the closing of the Kingston holding facility that holds security certificate detainees.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Poem- what do you think?
The Invitation
It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.
It doesn’t interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love for your dream for the adventure of being alive.It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon...I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shrivelled and closed from fear of further pain.I want to know if you can sit with painmine or your ownwithout moving to hide itor fade itor fix it.I want to know if you can be with joymine or your ownif you can dance with wildnessand let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toeswithout cautioning usto be carefulto be realisticto remember the limitations of being human.It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me is true.I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself.If you can bear the accusation of betrayaland not betray your own soul.If you can be faithlessand therefore trustworthy.I want to know if you can see Beautyeven when it is not prettyevery day.And if you can source your own life from its presence.I want to know if you can live with failureyours and mineand still stand at the edge of the lakeand shout to the silver of the full moon,“Yes.”It doesn’t interest meto know where you live or how much money you have.I want to know if you can get upafter the night of grief and despairweary and bruised to the boneand do what needs to be doneto feed the children.It doesn’t interest me who you knowor how you came to be here.I want to know if you will standin the centre of the firewith meand not shrink back.It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whomyou have studied.I want to know what sustains youfrom the insidewhen all else falls away.I want to know if you can be alone with yourselfand if you truly like the company you keepin the empty moments.
It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.
It doesn’t interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love for your dream for the adventure of being alive.It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon...I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shrivelled and closed from fear of further pain.I want to know if you can sit with painmine or your ownwithout moving to hide itor fade itor fix it.I want to know if you can be with joymine or your ownif you can dance with wildnessand let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toeswithout cautioning usto be carefulto be realisticto remember the limitations of being human.It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me is true.I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself.If you can bear the accusation of betrayaland not betray your own soul.If you can be faithlessand therefore trustworthy.I want to know if you can see Beautyeven when it is not prettyevery day.And if you can source your own life from its presence.I want to know if you can live with failureyours and mineand still stand at the edge of the lakeand shout to the silver of the full moon,“Yes.”It doesn’t interest meto know where you live or how much money you have.I want to know if you can get upafter the night of grief and despairweary and bruised to the boneand do what needs to be doneto feed the children.It doesn’t interest me who you knowor how you came to be here.I want to know if you will standin the centre of the firewith meand not shrink back.It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whomyou have studied.I want to know what sustains youfrom the insidewhen all else falls away.I want to know if you can be alone with yourselfand if you truly like the company you keepin the empty moments.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Smash II (Or What to do and how to survive)
Amongst other things- here is what I think activism is...beginning at around the 3 min mark, but just watch it all.
L
L
our guest speaker
'I couldn't stay until the end of class, so I don't know what happened later....
I found our speaker riveting (no surprise he is a motivational speaker), and tres inspiring,
Getting young folks to vote and get interested in policy is great- although i personally believe we are very much more beyond screwed than voting can ever rectify....but the thing about being so 'screwed' is that there is so much to do, so that their is a virtually unlimited number of ways to help rescue the planet, and our speaker picked what he is good at....
he is also a great example of the fact that it we are so screwed in fact, that I don't even care where your coming from- so long as your doing something,
he, himself describes himself as a "capitalist", and with that fits and does not fit that stereotype in my mind,
because he is doing something, with his time of youth project, that seems like it will give info and therefore power to some kids (from what i saw in class) , while at the same time holds these Dr. Phil-esque ideas of meritocracy and you can 'do-doo-doodley-do it if you tryyyy..' which just reeks of priviliedge no matter how you slice it- particularly as he responded to stephen's assertion of this privilege in such a flippant, disdainful way.....
but the reason that no one else did so sooner- challenge him that is- is because, as he himself noted, his personal politics were not what his presentation was consciously about---although on the flipside of that - he chose to get on the podium and show this side, but still I am not sure it really was his character or life view that was meant to be a point of discussion...
however since it was made one and i felt uneasy after leaving class as his flippant remarks about 'oh yeah- so people in sudan don't have the same opportunities' etc etc...
if that view is so tiresome to him, perhaps the problematic of the result of this thinking can be drawn out, as a life motto - you know 'try your best' type thing, fine. But this 'rags to riches', 'work hard, play harder' type thinking as a world view has the end result of viewing people as just not trying hard enough---which is exactly where so much crazy-making comes from, and is a very harmful view for people in less powerful positions to internalize---as my friend, Simon, who began the "Theatre of the Oppressed" which uses theatre as a mode of social transformation put it: " the poor people, and oppressed people of Hamilton don't even know that they are oppressed"----instead they hold the exact same view as our guest speaker--that you just got pull yourself up by the bootstraps-----which makes the result obvious when you have this thinking and also cannot feed your kids (etc)- that there is something wrong with you- that you are bad, lazy, worthless, stupid, unworthy....the list goes on...
of course, our speaker did not get his view from himself, but that is exactly what our oppressors-rich people that make decisions to 'benefit' (i use quote marks because how does ruining the one planet we live on benefit anyone?) rich people would like us to believe and continue to believe--their slogan? personalize it!
...for goodness sake, don't draw any wider social implications that would take your view of yourself and your own life....so if your poor and go hungry, you better believe you gotta look in the mirror and just get stuck there...
so - good, great for our speaker that this thinking benefits himself and people like him ---people with social networks - that give you free tickets to Octoberfest to get "very drunk", and money and education to access materials to tape "vlogs" whilst also drunk....a mobility in life that can obscure the fact that these liberties and freedoms go a long way to making you feel that you live in a world where you count, a world that on some level works for you- rather than against you,where you make a difference, where you have a voice and support.....and makes it hard to understand how the absence of these make it difficult/impossible for others to have a 'just do it' attitude.....
but a rant like this could go on for days, but amongst the many points, is the one mentioned earlier: I don't have to like you or your world view- after all making friends is not enough to help our situation--what matters is the end result- real world actions in the real world...everything else is secondary...
- the real world- the earth - is primary - it is the main point.
lee
I found our speaker riveting (no surprise he is a motivational speaker), and tres inspiring,
Getting young folks to vote and get interested in policy is great- although i personally believe we are very much more beyond screwed than voting can ever rectify....but the thing about being so 'screwed' is that there is so much to do, so that their is a virtually unlimited number of ways to help rescue the planet, and our speaker picked what he is good at....
he is also a great example of the fact that it we are so screwed in fact, that I don't even care where your coming from- so long as your doing something,
he, himself describes himself as a "capitalist", and with that fits and does not fit that stereotype in my mind,
because he is doing something, with his time of youth project, that seems like it will give info and therefore power to some kids (from what i saw in class) , while at the same time holds these Dr. Phil-esque ideas of meritocracy and you can 'do-doo-doodley-do it if you tryyyy..' which just reeks of priviliedge no matter how you slice it- particularly as he responded to stephen's assertion of this privilege in such a flippant, disdainful way.....
but the reason that no one else did so sooner- challenge him that is- is because, as he himself noted, his personal politics were not what his presentation was consciously about---although on the flipside of that - he chose to get on the podium and show this side, but still I am not sure it really was his character or life view that was meant to be a point of discussion...
however since it was made one and i felt uneasy after leaving class as his flippant remarks about 'oh yeah- so people in sudan don't have the same opportunities' etc etc...
if that view is so tiresome to him, perhaps the problematic of the result of this thinking can be drawn out, as a life motto - you know 'try your best' type thing, fine. But this 'rags to riches', 'work hard, play harder' type thinking as a world view has the end result of viewing people as just not trying hard enough---which is exactly where so much crazy-making comes from, and is a very harmful view for people in less powerful positions to internalize---as my friend, Simon, who began the "Theatre of the Oppressed" which uses theatre as a mode of social transformation put it: " the poor people, and oppressed people of Hamilton don't even know that they are oppressed"----instead they hold the exact same view as our guest speaker--that you just got pull yourself up by the bootstraps-----which makes the result obvious when you have this thinking and also cannot feed your kids (etc)- that there is something wrong with you- that you are bad, lazy, worthless, stupid, unworthy....the list goes on...
of course, our speaker did not get his view from himself, but that is exactly what our oppressors-rich people that make decisions to 'benefit' (i use quote marks because how does ruining the one planet we live on benefit anyone?) rich people would like us to believe and continue to believe--their slogan? personalize it!
...for goodness sake, don't draw any wider social implications that would take your view of yourself and your own life....so if your poor and go hungry, you better believe you gotta look in the mirror and just get stuck there...
so - good, great for our speaker that this thinking benefits himself and people like him ---people with social networks - that give you free tickets to Octoberfest to get "very drunk", and money and education to access materials to tape "vlogs" whilst also drunk....a mobility in life that can obscure the fact that these liberties and freedoms go a long way to making you feel that you live in a world where you count, a world that on some level works for you- rather than against you,where you make a difference, where you have a voice and support.....and makes it hard to understand how the absence of these make it difficult/impossible for others to have a 'just do it' attitude.....
but a rant like this could go on for days, but amongst the many points, is the one mentioned earlier: I don't have to like you or your world view- after all making friends is not enough to help our situation--what matters is the end result- real world actions in the real world...everything else is secondary...
- the real world- the earth - is primary - it is the main point.
lee
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Artistes
One thing that last class got me to thinking was the way in which music artists, and artists in general are made into other-wordly idols. For me, videos that perpetuate this idolization over and above any kind of social activism/work are irresponsible and egotistical...
my sliding scale examples would have the "Muse" video on one end, and "Rage Against the Machine" on the other...
Rage know that they have an opportunity to get people thinking- to use the hyper-accessible vehicle of the music video to catalyze action/knowledge-building on the part of the (often young) viewer...for me this is the place of the artist in society....
the image of artist as a misunderstood, anti-social m misanthrope --or else (again, misunderstood) genius --although it may have its place, undercuts the more useful/ more 'true'? image or perception of the artist as social activist/ concerned citizen and everyday joan who has got a creative way of standing up and saying what she's got to say...
as Hamilton poet, David McFadden, suggests that the poet's 'job' is to put his finger on the global heartbeat, I believe that a music/ music videos/video artists need to actually do something useful for the world to even be worth a listen/view....
a bit rushed--maybe more elaboration later
L
my sliding scale examples would have the "Muse" video on one end, and "Rage Against the Machine" on the other...
Rage know that they have an opportunity to get people thinking- to use the hyper-accessible vehicle of the music video to catalyze action/knowledge-building on the part of the (often young) viewer...for me this is the place of the artist in society....
the image of artist as a misunderstood, anti-social m misanthrope --or else (again, misunderstood) genius --although it may have its place, undercuts the more useful/ more 'true'? image or perception of the artist as social activist/ concerned citizen and everyday joan who has got a creative way of standing up and saying what she's got to say...
as Hamilton poet, David McFadden, suggests that the poet's 'job' is to put his finger on the global heartbeat, I believe that a music/ music videos/video artists need to actually do something useful for the world to even be worth a listen/view....
a bit rushed--maybe more elaboration later
L
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
McLuhan and Music
ohh-back to McLuhan...I have such fond memories have that guy--not from real life, but from first year, and pr0bably more critical responses as well...because I suppose all that this article brought up for me was the importance of making your own art, your own music. Maybe class will draw out the points made it in the article, but for now I think that this is a good resting point. I believe that we are all meant to engage in the creative process just for the sake of it, and as a mode of being in the world!! but are taught through the commodification of music and other art forms, and moreover because of the glamorization of the artistes themselves- that art/being an artist is ________
a lifestyle, a calling, reserved for some, a freak etc etc- you fill in the blank. Then we end up completely idolizing regular folk to their detriment and our own.
Here is where I link my song, 'cept it is on a cassette and I don't know how to do that, but you should send me your stuff--link it here________
The End.
L
a lifestyle, a calling, reserved for some, a freak etc etc- you fill in the blank. Then we end up completely idolizing regular folk to their detriment and our own.
Here is where I link my song, 'cept it is on a cassette and I don't know how to do that, but you should send me your stuff--link it here________
The End.
L
The Guerilla Girls- Situationist Example-Check it!!!
http://www.guerrillagirls.com/
(Check out our interview for more Q and A)
Who are the Guerrilla Girls?
We're a bunch of anonymous females who take the names of dead women artists as pseudonyms and appear in public wearing gorilla masks. We have produced posters, stickers, books, printed projects, and actions that expose sexism and racism in politics, the art world, film and the culture at large. We use humor to convey information, provoke discussion, and show that feminists can be funny. We wear gorilla masks to focus on the issues rather than our personalities. Dubbing ourselves the conscience of culture, we declare ourselves feminist counterparts to the mostly male tradition of anonymous do-gooders like Robin Hood, Batman, and the Lone Ranger. Our work has been passed around the world by kindred spirits who we are proud to have as supporters. It has also appeared in The New York Times, The Nation, Bitch and Bust; on TV and radio, including NPR,, the BBC and CBC; and in countless art and feminist texts. The mystery surrounding our identities has attracted attention. We could be anyone; we are everywhere.
How did your group get started? Why do you call yourselves Guerrillas? Why girls? Why the gorilla masks? Why the pseudonyms?
That is ancient history....you can read all about it in our interview.
Do you wear those masks all the time? How about in airplanes?
Early on we would wear masks when we put up posters, but it was really hard to see what we were doing. We ended up pasting ourselves to some walls in New York. Truth be told, we only wear those masks when we appear in public as GGs. We travel as our real life selves, with our masks in our carry-ons, looking for the nearest telephone booth, alley or elevator to use as a changing room.
Does anyone know who you really are?
We have moles all over the world who pass us inside information and who might know one or two of us, but never the whole group. Some of our mothers know, some of our partners know, but only our hairdressers know for sure!
You use the “f” word a lot. Are you feminists? Do women need to be feminists?
Ohhhh, the "f" word. We have never understood why anyone wouldn't want to call herself—or himself—a feminist!!!!! Let's get real here: the same people who say they are not feminists support feminist issues. We believe feminism is a fundamental way of looking at the world and recognizing that half of us are female and all of us should be equal. It's a fact of history that for centuries women have not had the rights and privileges of men and it's time for that to end. Despite the tremendous gains of women over the last hundred years, misogyny— the hatred or hostility towards women as a whole— is still rampant throughout our culture and in the larger world. We think that is the #1 reason women need feminism. By the way, we think there are many feminisms, and we support most of them.
How many Guerrilla Girls are there? Has your group changed over the years? Are there groups in other cities?
Because of our anonymity, we never say exactly how many we are. Many women have come in and out of the group over the years, but we've always been fairly small at any one time. Two of us, Kathe Kollwitz and Frida Kahlo, have been in the group since the beginning and, with other terrific members, have worked on almost every poster, book and project that has come out under the GG name. Read more of our herstory here.
How can I join the Guerrilla Girls? How can I help?
We can't tell you how much we appreciate the support of so many of you around the world. As a small, anonymous group, we are usually not open to new members, but there are lots of ways you can participate and help. First, we would love you to download our stickers and posters and put them up in your city. Second, we ask that you use us as a model: think up your own name and your own outrageous identity and put up a couple of posters about an issue that is important to you. If it works, do it again. If it doesn't, do it again anyway. Third, please email us and ask to join our mailing list for news of future actions. (We promise not to send stuff very often.)
What keeps you Girls going? When are you Girls going to retire and take those masks off?
We have our brilliant supporters to blame for our longevity. Every time we think it's time to hang up our masks and get back to our other lives, another opportunity comes along to do a book or a billboard or a comic book or go on tour to talk about our history and we just can't say no. What started out as a lark has become an ongoing responsibility, a mission. We just can't abandon our masked duty! It's been a lot of fun, too!
What is your philosophy for making activist art?
We try to be different from the kind of political art that is angry and points to something and says “This is bad.” That's preaching to the converted. We want to be subversive, to transform our audience, to confront them with some disarming statements, backed up by facts—and great visuals—and hopefully convert them. We carefully craft everything we do. We try to twist an issue around and present it in a way that hasn't been seen before. We usually test-drive a project by showing it to a few people beforehand to gauge their response. We've also learned that focusing on one aspect of an issue is better than trying the change the whole world in a single work.
What role does humor play in your work? How does it spin your message?
We've discovered that ridicule and humiliation, backed up by irrefutable information, can disarm the powers that be, put them on the spot, and force them to examine themselves. A few years ago, some new members joined who were impressed by our reputation but disagreed with our sense of humor. They wanted us to start organizing seminars and writing position papers. They lived out the stereotype of feminists with no sense of humor. We had to kiss them goodbye.
Has your work made a difference?
We never imagined that we would become a model for feminist activists and would become part of women's and gender studies curriculums all over the world! Museums we once fingered for discrimination (and still do) have our posters in their collections. Libraries preserve portfolios of our posters in their archives. Our art history book, The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art, has sold tens of thousands of copies and is still going strong! It's used as a textbook in colleges all over the world and has been translated into several languages. We've been included in hundreds of art and feminist anthologies and even the latest edition of Gardner's Art Through the Ages, a standard art history text. It's our honest hope that all this attention to our work and the issues we raise adds up to changes for women artists and artists of color.
So, are things ok for women in the art world now?
Things are better now than they ever have been for women and artists of color and we have helped effect that change. Right now there is decent representation of women and artists of color at the beginning and emerging levels of the art world. At the institutional level however, in museums, major collections and auctions sales, things are still pretty dismal for all but white guys. We believe that the economics of the art market is responsible for this. As long as art costs a lot of money and can be owned and controlled by individual collectors, it will represent the values of those people, not the larger art audience or the culture at large. We are still condemning the art world for its lack of ethics, tokenism and other bad behavior.
Why did you stray from the art world into the worlds of politics, Hollywood and other issues?
Almost from the beginning, we did campaigns about homelessness, abortion, and war, among many other issues. We've never been systematic, we just go after one target after another. (There are plenty to choose from.) Recently, we've been attacking the film industry for the pathetically low numbers of women and people of color behind the scenes. We're also working on more political posters, a body image campaign and an attack on the music industry.
Female stereotypes drive most women crazy. Is that why you wrote a book about them?
One day we were sitting around our secret clubhouse and we started listing all the female stereotypes we could think of. It was hilarious and liberating...and the list was endless! To be fair, we started a list of male stereotypes. When we had trouble filling a single column, we knew we were on to something! Maybe we could disempower stereotypes by examining them through our own special GG lens. Two years later we put the finishing touches on Bitches, Bimbos and Ballbreakers, the Guerrilla Girls' Illustrated Guide to Female Stereotypes.
Why did you write the Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art? Aren't there already lots of books out there about women artists?
The work of feminist art historians over the last 30 years has shown how the means of art production in western cultures was denied to all but white male artists until well into the 20th century. Still there have always been creative and adventurous women who bucked the system and lived creative lives of their own invention. Some achieved success while alive, only to later be written out the history books. Others were unacknowledged in their own lifetime, only to be discovered after death. In Bedside Companion we wanted to tell the stories of these courageous women artists and also to make fun of the standard art history canon for ignoring them. Another goal was to write the first humorous art history book, mean to be read in the bathroom, and intended to make readers laugh, not put them to sleep. It's also thin, with sharp edges and can be used as a weapon!
Are you male bashers? If you don't have any men in your group, isn't that discrimination? How can men help you?
We realize that times have changed since 1985. Many more men now call themselves feminists (probably because they had mothers who were!) But we started out as a female empowerment group and we needed to be all-female for that. We have arguments all the time now about accepting males and the jury's still out on it. But we have found some ways for guys to help us during our appearances. Come to one and see it!
Why bother to criticize the film industry?
There are lots of luscious babes on the screen in movies and TV, but those are about the only women to be found in the entertainment industry. Behind the scenes there are a few tokens, but nowhere enough cinematographers, screenwriters, directors, camera operators, etc., who are female and of color. We believe that any mass art form that discriminates to that degree should take a long, hard look at itself. We also think that moviegoers should start a rebellion at the box office, or at the very least, download our stickers and put them up in movie theater bathrooms!
What happens when you go to film festivals? What was it like to raid Sundance?
Is was a real rush to work behind the scenes at Sundance, putting up our stickers on bulletin boards, in bathrooms and on movie posters. Then we'd hurry back to our hotel rooms and log on to Indie Wire to read what they were saying about our caper, then check our email for press responses. Our stickers went all the way to New Zealand and we got an angry letter from a theater owner claiming that the film industry there wasn't nearly as bad as Hollywood. Great to snag him into the discourse!
How were you able to put up those billboards in Hollywood? What did people say about them?
Back in 1999, The Nation asked us to contribute something to a special issue on film and culture. We came up with The Anatomically Correct Oscar. We redesigned the golden boy to make him look more like the white guys who usually win. In 2002, a bunch of female film makers joined us to raise the money to do it as a billboard at Melrose and Highland, a few blocks from the Academy Award ceremony. It got a lot of press and was a great way to annoy Hollywood in it's own backyard. We followed it up at Oscar time in 2003 with another redesign of the Golden Boy as The Trent L'Ottscar, comparing Hollywood to the ultimate Old Boys Club, the US Senate. Statistically speaking.... the Senate wins! In 2006 we unveiled our third billborad in Hollywood.
Your movie poster for The Birth of Feminism makes everyone laugh out loud. Did the women you featured have anything to say about it?
Film producers are always coming to us saying they want to make a film about the history of feminism. Looking at the endless movie posters of undressed actresses, we realized that maybe feminists everywhere should be thankful that Hollywood hasn't made that film. To prove it, we made a poster for the film that we hope never gets made the Hollywood way, The Birth of Feminism Movie Poster. We sent a copy to our old friend, Gloria Steinem. She was really annoyed when she first opened it cause she thought it was an authorized film about her. After she saw our name, she had a good chuckle!
You girls have been all over the place? What have you observed in your travels?
We've been in every state in the union except Alaska and Arkansas, all over Europe, in Australia and Brazil. We're planning trips to Mexico, Guatemala and New Zealand. We've met brilliant artists and activists all over and heard their stories and issues. Conditions are different in each place and there's lots of work to be done. We're thrilled to be models for activism and love to see women to confronting injustices on their own turf with their own strategies. What works in Toledo might not work in Rio! We encourage women, and men, to form their own groups, with their own names and identities, and dream up outrageous actions to foment change.
Anything planned for the next year? The next decade? The next millennium?
We're planning more political posters, a new billboard in Hollywood for the 2006 Oscars, a body image campaign and an attack on the music industry. Then, who knows!
(Check out our interview for more Q and A)
Who are the Guerrilla Girls?
We're a bunch of anonymous females who take the names of dead women artists as pseudonyms and appear in public wearing gorilla masks. We have produced posters, stickers, books, printed projects, and actions that expose sexism and racism in politics, the art world, film and the culture at large. We use humor to convey information, provoke discussion, and show that feminists can be funny. We wear gorilla masks to focus on the issues rather than our personalities. Dubbing ourselves the conscience of culture, we declare ourselves feminist counterparts to the mostly male tradition of anonymous do-gooders like Robin Hood, Batman, and the Lone Ranger. Our work has been passed around the world by kindred spirits who we are proud to have as supporters. It has also appeared in The New York Times, The Nation, Bitch and Bust; on TV and radio, including NPR,, the BBC and CBC; and in countless art and feminist texts. The mystery surrounding our identities has attracted attention. We could be anyone; we are everywhere.
How did your group get started? Why do you call yourselves Guerrillas? Why girls? Why the gorilla masks? Why the pseudonyms?
That is ancient history....you can read all about it in our interview.
Do you wear those masks all the time? How about in airplanes?
Early on we would wear masks when we put up posters, but it was really hard to see what we were doing. We ended up pasting ourselves to some walls in New York. Truth be told, we only wear those masks when we appear in public as GGs. We travel as our real life selves, with our masks in our carry-ons, looking for the nearest telephone booth, alley or elevator to use as a changing room.
Does anyone know who you really are?
We have moles all over the world who pass us inside information and who might know one or two of us, but never the whole group. Some of our mothers know, some of our partners know, but only our hairdressers know for sure!
You use the “f” word a lot. Are you feminists? Do women need to be feminists?
Ohhhh, the "f" word. We have never understood why anyone wouldn't want to call herself—or himself—a feminist!!!!! Let's get real here: the same people who say they are not feminists support feminist issues. We believe feminism is a fundamental way of looking at the world and recognizing that half of us are female and all of us should be equal. It's a fact of history that for centuries women have not had the rights and privileges of men and it's time for that to end. Despite the tremendous gains of women over the last hundred years, misogyny— the hatred or hostility towards women as a whole— is still rampant throughout our culture and in the larger world. We think that is the #1 reason women need feminism. By the way, we think there are many feminisms, and we support most of them.
How many Guerrilla Girls are there? Has your group changed over the years? Are there groups in other cities?
Because of our anonymity, we never say exactly how many we are. Many women have come in and out of the group over the years, but we've always been fairly small at any one time. Two of us, Kathe Kollwitz and Frida Kahlo, have been in the group since the beginning and, with other terrific members, have worked on almost every poster, book and project that has come out under the GG name. Read more of our herstory here.
How can I join the Guerrilla Girls? How can I help?
We can't tell you how much we appreciate the support of so many of you around the world. As a small, anonymous group, we are usually not open to new members, but there are lots of ways you can participate and help. First, we would love you to download our stickers and posters and put them up in your city. Second, we ask that you use us as a model: think up your own name and your own outrageous identity and put up a couple of posters about an issue that is important to you. If it works, do it again. If it doesn't, do it again anyway. Third, please email us and ask to join our mailing list for news of future actions. (We promise not to send stuff very often.)
What keeps you Girls going? When are you Girls going to retire and take those masks off?
We have our brilliant supporters to blame for our longevity. Every time we think it's time to hang up our masks and get back to our other lives, another opportunity comes along to do a book or a billboard or a comic book or go on tour to talk about our history and we just can't say no. What started out as a lark has become an ongoing responsibility, a mission. We just can't abandon our masked duty! It's been a lot of fun, too!
What is your philosophy for making activist art?
We try to be different from the kind of political art that is angry and points to something and says “This is bad.” That's preaching to the converted. We want to be subversive, to transform our audience, to confront them with some disarming statements, backed up by facts—and great visuals—and hopefully convert them. We carefully craft everything we do. We try to twist an issue around and present it in a way that hasn't been seen before. We usually test-drive a project by showing it to a few people beforehand to gauge their response. We've also learned that focusing on one aspect of an issue is better than trying the change the whole world in a single work.
What role does humor play in your work? How does it spin your message?
We've discovered that ridicule and humiliation, backed up by irrefutable information, can disarm the powers that be, put them on the spot, and force them to examine themselves. A few years ago, some new members joined who were impressed by our reputation but disagreed with our sense of humor. They wanted us to start organizing seminars and writing position papers. They lived out the stereotype of feminists with no sense of humor. We had to kiss them goodbye.
Has your work made a difference?
We never imagined that we would become a model for feminist activists and would become part of women's and gender studies curriculums all over the world! Museums we once fingered for discrimination (and still do) have our posters in their collections. Libraries preserve portfolios of our posters in their archives. Our art history book, The Guerrilla Girls' Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art, has sold tens of thousands of copies and is still going strong! It's used as a textbook in colleges all over the world and has been translated into several languages. We've been included in hundreds of art and feminist anthologies and even the latest edition of Gardner's Art Through the Ages, a standard art history text. It's our honest hope that all this attention to our work and the issues we raise adds up to changes for women artists and artists of color.
So, are things ok for women in the art world now?
Things are better now than they ever have been for women and artists of color and we have helped effect that change. Right now there is decent representation of women and artists of color at the beginning and emerging levels of the art world. At the institutional level however, in museums, major collections and auctions sales, things are still pretty dismal for all but white guys. We believe that the economics of the art market is responsible for this. As long as art costs a lot of money and can be owned and controlled by individual collectors, it will represent the values of those people, not the larger art audience or the culture at large. We are still condemning the art world for its lack of ethics, tokenism and other bad behavior.
Why did you stray from the art world into the worlds of politics, Hollywood and other issues?
Almost from the beginning, we did campaigns about homelessness, abortion, and war, among many other issues. We've never been systematic, we just go after one target after another. (There are plenty to choose from.) Recently, we've been attacking the film industry for the pathetically low numbers of women and people of color behind the scenes. We're also working on more political posters, a body image campaign and an attack on the music industry.
Female stereotypes drive most women crazy. Is that why you wrote a book about them?
One day we were sitting around our secret clubhouse and we started listing all the female stereotypes we could think of. It was hilarious and liberating...and the list was endless! To be fair, we started a list of male stereotypes. When we had trouble filling a single column, we knew we were on to something! Maybe we could disempower stereotypes by examining them through our own special GG lens. Two years later we put the finishing touches on Bitches, Bimbos and Ballbreakers, the Guerrilla Girls' Illustrated Guide to Female Stereotypes.
Why did you write the Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art? Aren't there already lots of books out there about women artists?
The work of feminist art historians over the last 30 years has shown how the means of art production in western cultures was denied to all but white male artists until well into the 20th century. Still there have always been creative and adventurous women who bucked the system and lived creative lives of their own invention. Some achieved success while alive, only to later be written out the history books. Others were unacknowledged in their own lifetime, only to be discovered after death. In Bedside Companion we wanted to tell the stories of these courageous women artists and also to make fun of the standard art history canon for ignoring them. Another goal was to write the first humorous art history book, mean to be read in the bathroom, and intended to make readers laugh, not put them to sleep. It's also thin, with sharp edges and can be used as a weapon!
Are you male bashers? If you don't have any men in your group, isn't that discrimination? How can men help you?
We realize that times have changed since 1985. Many more men now call themselves feminists (probably because they had mothers who were!) But we started out as a female empowerment group and we needed to be all-female for that. We have arguments all the time now about accepting males and the jury's still out on it. But we have found some ways for guys to help us during our appearances. Come to one and see it!
Why bother to criticize the film industry?
There are lots of luscious babes on the screen in movies and TV, but those are about the only women to be found in the entertainment industry. Behind the scenes there are a few tokens, but nowhere enough cinematographers, screenwriters, directors, camera operators, etc., who are female and of color. We believe that any mass art form that discriminates to that degree should take a long, hard look at itself. We also think that moviegoers should start a rebellion at the box office, or at the very least, download our stickers and put them up in movie theater bathrooms!
What happens when you go to film festivals? What was it like to raid Sundance?
Is was a real rush to work behind the scenes at Sundance, putting up our stickers on bulletin boards, in bathrooms and on movie posters. Then we'd hurry back to our hotel rooms and log on to Indie Wire to read what they were saying about our caper, then check our email for press responses. Our stickers went all the way to New Zealand and we got an angry letter from a theater owner claiming that the film industry there wasn't nearly as bad as Hollywood. Great to snag him into the discourse!
How were you able to put up those billboards in Hollywood? What did people say about them?
Back in 1999, The Nation asked us to contribute something to a special issue on film and culture. We came up with The Anatomically Correct Oscar. We redesigned the golden boy to make him look more like the white guys who usually win. In 2002, a bunch of female film makers joined us to raise the money to do it as a billboard at Melrose and Highland, a few blocks from the Academy Award ceremony. It got a lot of press and was a great way to annoy Hollywood in it's own backyard. We followed it up at Oscar time in 2003 with another redesign of the Golden Boy as The Trent L'Ottscar, comparing Hollywood to the ultimate Old Boys Club, the US Senate. Statistically speaking.... the Senate wins! In 2006 we unveiled our third billborad in Hollywood.
Your movie poster for The Birth of Feminism makes everyone laugh out loud. Did the women you featured have anything to say about it?
Film producers are always coming to us saying they want to make a film about the history of feminism. Looking at the endless movie posters of undressed actresses, we realized that maybe feminists everywhere should be thankful that Hollywood hasn't made that film. To prove it, we made a poster for the film that we hope never gets made the Hollywood way, The Birth of Feminism Movie Poster. We sent a copy to our old friend, Gloria Steinem. She was really annoyed when she first opened it cause she thought it was an authorized film about her. After she saw our name, she had a good chuckle!
You girls have been all over the place? What have you observed in your travels?
We've been in every state in the union except Alaska and Arkansas, all over Europe, in Australia and Brazil. We're planning trips to Mexico, Guatemala and New Zealand. We've met brilliant artists and activists all over and heard their stories and issues. Conditions are different in each place and there's lots of work to be done. We're thrilled to be models for activism and love to see women to confronting injustices on their own turf with their own strategies. What works in Toledo might not work in Rio! We encourage women, and men, to form their own groups, with their own names and identities, and dream up outrageous actions to foment change.
Anything planned for the next year? The next decade? The next millennium?
We're planning more political posters, a new billboard in Hollywood for the 2006 Oscars, a body image campaign and an attack on the music industry. Then, who knows!
Monday, September 24, 2007
Reply to Downs' "Up and Down with the 'Issue-Attention Cycle."
While glamorization and framing are often spoken about when discussing the media, the fact that "public interest rarely remains sharply focused upon any one ( ) issue for very long" or more accurately, the fact that audience focus climaxes and wanes, is not accounted for as often. Which is what Downs is interested in. While the article was informative, I couldn't help but think that the issue of fragmentation might have been mentioned, as the splicing-up of an event/topic into consumable news size chunks plays a role in this waxing and waning. Fragmentation makes following an event extremely difficult and I'd say even dangerous.
The violence being inflicted upon Native Caledonians, and the splicing of this story into unintelligeable (?) bits by the Hamilton Spectator is a good case in point. The past few weeks the Spectator has had covers which bolster sympathy for white/non-native Caledonians, while at the same time are anti-Native. It is an enraging situation to say the least, while hearing anti-Native/pro "development" opinions from 'regular folk' is even worse.
Inevitably it gets you (and by 'you', I mean....err..me) thinking about how difficult it is to get an entire (accurate?) story, as opposed to one that is c-sectioned to fit the doctor's clock. This past Saturday's Spec shows a picture of a middle-aged, white, hetero couple standing stony-faced in front of their Caledonian home with the headline reading: 496 Days of Hell, while last Saturday's featured a close-up of a man (also a "developer") who was injured by Natives. The only images of the Natives on the cover (2) are much smaller and work together with headlines to perpetuate anti-Native sentiment: one shows the roadblockers in army camo, and the other shows an overweight man in disarray (half-toppled over, shirt raising with belly exposed) being led away by two white police officers. All the headlines mention apologies on the part of the Six Nation's chief for the violence taken upon the developer.
How one could piece together a two-sides story from this paper is not only difficult, but impossible...which is not news to anyone. But I wonder if people could even reliably string together any narrative of this issue with only resourcing the Spec....
but of course, that is not what we do...next post: intertextuality, racism and mythologies/semiotics.....
The violence being inflicted upon Native Caledonians, and the splicing of this story into unintelligeable (?) bits by the Hamilton Spectator is a good case in point. The past few weeks the Spectator has had covers which bolster sympathy for white/non-native Caledonians, while at the same time are anti-Native. It is an enraging situation to say the least, while hearing anti-Native/pro "development" opinions from 'regular folk' is even worse.
Inevitably it gets you (and by 'you', I mean....err..me) thinking about how difficult it is to get an entire (accurate?) story, as opposed to one that is c-sectioned to fit the doctor's clock. This past Saturday's Spec shows a picture of a middle-aged, white, hetero couple standing stony-faced in front of their Caledonian home with the headline reading: 496 Days of Hell, while last Saturday's featured a close-up of a man (also a "developer") who was injured by Natives. The only images of the Natives on the cover (2) are much smaller and work together with headlines to perpetuate anti-Native sentiment: one shows the roadblockers in army camo, and the other shows an overweight man in disarray (half-toppled over, shirt raising with belly exposed) being led away by two white police officers. All the headlines mention apologies on the part of the Six Nation's chief for the violence taken upon the developer.
How one could piece together a two-sides story from this paper is not only difficult, but impossible...which is not news to anyone. But I wonder if people could even reliably string together any narrative of this issue with only resourcing the Spec....
but of course, that is not what we do...next post: intertextuality, racism and mythologies/semiotics.....
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Apres lecture- Augustinian Theodicy/ Good Link
We spoke today about Dr. Svenson's idea of "Theodyssey" as incorporating three aspects,
theodicy, pilgrimage and tourism, wherein pilgrimage is the new mission...
he related his theory to the conception of hurricane katrina, and mentioned two types of theodicy linked to it...that is the religious frame through which the event was conceived,
and one of this was 'Augustinian theodicy' wherein those who suffer are seen to deserve it as a punishment (sent from God) for being 'bad' (ungodly, decadant, immoral) people....
we also spoke about the idea of blame - as a narrative and journalistic structure, as well as perhaps a human phenomenon/'need', and it brought to mind a documentary about a religious group operating in the U.S who who seem to embody all of this.....
http://www.tv-links.co.uk/ -then click on documentaries, then 'Louis Theroux', then "The Most Hated Family in America"
...it is a riveting documentary--just trust me and watch 5 minutes of it, and see if your not hooked.....and let me know what you think...
L
theodicy, pilgrimage and tourism, wherein pilgrimage is the new mission...
he related his theory to the conception of hurricane katrina, and mentioned two types of theodicy linked to it...that is the religious frame through which the event was conceived,
and one of this was 'Augustinian theodicy' wherein those who suffer are seen to deserve it as a punishment (sent from God) for being 'bad' (ungodly, decadant, immoral) people....
we also spoke about the idea of blame - as a narrative and journalistic structure, as well as perhaps a human phenomenon/'need', and it brought to mind a documentary about a religious group operating in the U.S who who seem to embody all of this.....
http://www.tv-links.co.uk/ -then click on documentaries, then 'Louis Theroux', then "The Most Hated Family in America"
...it is a riveting documentary--just trust me and watch 5 minutes of it, and see if your not hooked.....and let me know what you think...
L
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Reply to Taylor's "Modern Social Imaginaries"
The part of Taylor's piece that grabbed MY own imagination was near the end where transforming the social imaginary is disussed. He writes;
"What I'm calling the long march is a process whereby new practices, or modifications
of old ones, either developed through improvisation among certain groups and strata
of the population [ ], or else were launched by elites in such a way as to recruit a larger
and larger base [ ]. Alternatively, in the course of their slow development and
ramification, a set of practices gradually changed their meaning for people, and hence
helped to constitute a new social imaginary ( the "economy" for example). The result in
all these cases was a profound transformation of the social imaginary in Western societies
, and thus of the world in which we live (30)"
This got me thinking of how the mainstream has/is beginning to now think in terms of the globe; now it is not only the upside of the so-called 'global village' that is in public consciousness, but also the oft-disavowed underside. Indeed in my class, "The Optical Unconscious; Aesthetics in the Age of Photography", we are going to be talking about the postmodern critique of landscape photography- the valorization of panoramic nature photographs over those that show 'nature' as both a beautiful, BUT ALSO a industry-abused entity, or more accurately, these critiques want to explore the fact that nature is overwhelmingly thought of/treated in terms of RESOURCES.
Although my teacher did not see her project as a form of anti-civ activism ( I asked), it nonetheless is a potent form of activism. For the project, my professors, Maria Whiteman and Imre Szeman took the Trans-Siberian express (which crosses Siberia, Mongolia and China), "a journey that fits the genre of adventure travel," traversing "spaces of great natural beauty across two continents." It is also a journey through a zone of intense factory production, and it is this human imprint within nature that they are interested in within their photography and analysis. When I spoke informally with Whiteman, she was interested in showing the side of production we don't always see or think about. She wanted to look at the relationship between product and its origin. Where does this enter human thoughts?
This is a connection that people are making more and more these days, and we are currently seeing people begin to think about the origins of their food. We don't just eat eggs anymore (free range? organic? etc) and hardly anyone can honestly tell themselves that their bbg burgers came from a happy, pasture-roving cow. Indeed, one milestone of such thought happened not in food, but in clothing, as Kathy Lee Gifford and her K-mart clothing line made foreign slave labout, and child slave labour common knowledge. Corporate accountability both at home and overseas was made an issue, as we continued to see with outcries with Coke, Nike, McDonalds and their brethren. And we are currently seeing this accountability continue on to food: 'Eat Local!' and 'Buy Organic!' are no longer only the cries of the dreaded, but slogans you can see at Fortinos and on greasy spoon menus. I forecast that the next issue in this ongoing food thought will be GMO's (genetically modified organisms), which are brought to us by Monsanto- who like to do things like put fish genes in our tomatoes.
Anyhow, all this is an example of how questioning where our food and our products come from, AND how they are produced, both of which have been thought of for awhile now, has entered what Taylor would call a 'transformation', where we rarely think of the former without the latter, and have almost even entered the realm of the "taken-for-granted shape of things too obvious to mention" (31).
"What I'm calling the long march is a process whereby new practices, or modifications
of old ones, either developed through improvisation among certain groups and strata
of the population [ ], or else were launched by elites in such a way as to recruit a larger
and larger base [ ]. Alternatively, in the course of their slow development and
ramification, a set of practices gradually changed their meaning for people, and hence
helped to constitute a new social imaginary ( the "economy" for example). The result in
all these cases was a profound transformation of the social imaginary in Western societies
, and thus of the world in which we live (30)"
This got me thinking of how the mainstream has/is beginning to now think in terms of the globe; now it is not only the upside of the so-called 'global village' that is in public consciousness, but also the oft-disavowed underside. Indeed in my class, "The Optical Unconscious; Aesthetics in the Age of Photography", we are going to be talking about the postmodern critique of landscape photography- the valorization of panoramic nature photographs over those that show 'nature' as both a beautiful, BUT ALSO a industry-abused entity, or more accurately, these critiques want to explore the fact that nature is overwhelmingly thought of/treated in terms of RESOURCES.
Although my teacher did not see her project as a form of anti-civ activism ( I asked), it nonetheless is a potent form of activism. For the project, my professors, Maria Whiteman and Imre Szeman took the Trans-Siberian express (which crosses Siberia, Mongolia and China), "a journey that fits the genre of adventure travel," traversing "spaces of great natural beauty across two continents." It is also a journey through a zone of intense factory production, and it is this human imprint within nature that they are interested in within their photography and analysis. When I spoke informally with Whiteman, she was interested in showing the side of production we don't always see or think about. She wanted to look at the relationship between product and its origin. Where does this enter human thoughts?
This is a connection that people are making more and more these days, and we are currently seeing people begin to think about the origins of their food. We don't just eat eggs anymore (free range? organic? etc) and hardly anyone can honestly tell themselves that their bbg burgers came from a happy, pasture-roving cow. Indeed, one milestone of such thought happened not in food, but in clothing, as Kathy Lee Gifford and her K-mart clothing line made foreign slave labout, and child slave labour common knowledge. Corporate accountability both at home and overseas was made an issue, as we continued to see with outcries with Coke, Nike, McDonalds and their brethren. And we are currently seeing this accountability continue on to food: 'Eat Local!' and 'Buy Organic!' are no longer only the cries of the dreaded, but slogans you can see at Fortinos and on greasy spoon menus. I forecast that the next issue in this ongoing food thought will be GMO's (genetically modified organisms), which are brought to us by Monsanto- who like to do things like put fish genes in our tomatoes.
Anyhow, all this is an example of how questioning where our food and our products come from, AND how they are produced, both of which have been thought of for awhile now, has entered what Taylor would call a 'transformation', where we rarely think of the former without the latter, and have almost even entered the realm of the "taken-for-granted shape of things too obvious to mention" (31).
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Research Assignment Proposition
Hello,
So far I have thought that I'd like to do a project about some of my activist friends experiences, which could be general, or case-studied, and pretty much run the gamut..... and would like to link up with a person interested in that---possibly someone interested in having a multimedia component to the project--if anyone has experience with that. My own background includes visual art and zine-making....video might be good----music???
.....however this is the first thing to pop in my head , mostly i 'd just like to brainstorm with someone dynamic, who wants to go beyond the typical write up stuff--if that is possible, so i am flexible and interested in other folks ideas.
L
So far I have thought that I'd like to do a project about some of my activist friends experiences, which could be general, or case-studied, and pretty much run the gamut..... and would like to link up with a person interested in that---possibly someone interested in having a multimedia component to the project--if anyone has experience with that. My own background includes visual art and zine-making....video might be good----music???
.....however this is the first thing to pop in my head , mostly i 'd just like to brainstorm with someone dynamic, who wants to go beyond the typical write up stuff--if that is possible, so i am flexible and interested in other folks ideas.
L
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