FACEBOOK - the CIA conspiracy

READ HERE!

Google and the Patriot Act

How personal profiles can be used by devious governments!

READ ON!

Something To add a little touch to the wall posts....

Heres something to print out to go along with the walls. Maybe pictures can be glued in here?

Tried to get the fonts and all the crap right. I think it looks close enough. If it needs anything else, I can try and whip something up, but let me know soon.

I tried to make it the right (US letter) but I dont know how blogger uploads things... If not, let me know and Ill email it to you


Cheers,
Phil

Facebook wall template

Here's a quick wall template I whipped up if anyone wants to use it.

Anyone?

is anyone available before class on wednesday to help me De-virtualize facebook? I need a photographist.

Shiseido Culture Jam Update

We got blogged about.

The crazy thing is that somebody else did a culture jam on the same ad.

It's a small, frustrated world out there.

You've probably all seen this... it's pretty funny. Mass scale invisible theatre!

"Wafaa Bilal grabbed the attention of the media last year with his performance Domestic Tension. Bilal, born in Iraq and currently teaching at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, installed his living quarter at Chicago's Flatfile Gallery. Viewers could peep in on him anonymously 24/7 over a live webcam, chat with him online 24/7 over a live webcam. But the twist was that the camera was affixed to a rifle-sized paintball gun-and online visitors could therefore fire the gun and shoot at the artist, or anything else in his room. 24/7."

If only we could do something like this for our 'unbeknownst' project... hours of fun! I like how he manages to turn a virtual experience into a real, physical one.

http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/activism/

Call for help/ Invisible Theatre/ Fluxus and documentors

I need a squad of people thursday morning at 10:30 to cause De-virtualize Facebook. Actually one person with a camera will do. Also anyone photoshop a good "wall" printout that i can use?

Editable Signs are here

Through the wonder of technology, and hours and hours of toiling Editable signs are now available for consumption. I created editable versions of some common signs. There are 2 signs and a surgeon general's mark for now. More will come later. Write on em and print them. The two signs will each fit on an 8.5 x 11 sheet, the surgeon generals marks are a couple to a page.

Each file contains the sign in 2 formats

• Editable PDF Form (open, type in and print) <- Easiest option!
• Vector File (Adobe Illustrator) <- more flexible for thoes who know it

THE SIGNS (Click to download)

Using the PDF's

The signs in PDF format need to be opened with Adobe Acrobat (or Acrobat Viewer) APPLE PREVIEW WILL NOT WORK PROPERLY preferably the newest version. Once opened, there are yellow bubbles which explain where to type. Click on them and instructions will pop up. These wont show up when you print. Type in the text fields and print them off, and enioy. EACH FILE HAS ITS OWN "PRINT FORM" button, this should be used, If not the programs print function will work. You need to have "comments and forms" to be set to "Document".

Required Typefaces

These files require the following typefaces, school computers and most macs should have them. If you have any trouble let me know.

• Helvetica Standard
• Univers
  

Selling Out

14 American Apparel Models Freed In Daring Midnight Raid

I don't boycott much. In my whole life I've boycotted only three places. And AA is one of them. It's like Peta - sure, there might be good stuff about your organization or company, but you've sold out women, and I can't forgive you.

There are a lot of movements, actually, that take advantage of another form of oppression in order to fight their own. For example, Mary Shelley Wollstonecraft, one of the earliest feminists, fought for women's rights by arguing indignantly that white women are being treated as though they are black people.

It's sad that American Apparel is building their brand like this. I'm bringing this up because it gets at a particular activist issue - the struggle to "sell" a cause without resorting to tried-and-true sexist, racist and otherwise oppressive media techniques. There's a certain creativity required for this job...which makes for a powerful argument, methinks, of integrating art into activism.

"Rascals": smarter than the average machine?

Closer and Closer that the machine will trick us to believe that they are 'real-life' ..

"Rascals" AI with potential to pass Turing Test..

EETimes.com version..

Red Lights are working too good..

Extending yellow-light interval to allow more people to beat the red-light? Rotate operative roles for cameras to take or not-take pictures? This would all seem that at some point that one end of extreme would eventually migrate towards another stream.

Dallas' red light cameras may face changes as revenue estimate drops

the lost connection.

We live in a world - where it seems like everything we discover within in the world is about what we perceive through the media and with the dependence on the internet (ie. Facebook, messenger,etc.) we rarely have any human connection. Robin Howe is a UK designer and artist exploring multiple themes of dialogue, space, boundaries, commercialization and communication. Howe takes photos and transform the public landscape into a conversation. The photo above is from her series called A Dialogue with Public Space (only some of the links actually work).

Re: Restricted Freedom

I thought this artwork by Banksy speaks volumes about what we are trying achieve with our project. I thought I would just share this with my group members and the rest of the class. Here - it changed the perspective of the rules and regulations that we follow everyday while driving on the road and how much restrictions we face and Banksy brings that to light with this artwork!

More Facebook...

The line between consumer and businessperson is getting increasingly smaller... http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_20561.aspx

Re: War On Photography

Here is an example of our "terrorists" at work...


http://flash.popphoto.com/blog/2007/11/the-crime-of-ph.html

and another one here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_7200000/newsid_7203500/7203568.stm?bw=bb&mp=wm&news=1&ms3=6&ms_javascript=true&nol_storyid=7203568&bbcws=2

I find it interesting that with the technologies in building small cameras, it is always those using professional cameras getting targeted. If you are planning a massive attack, why not just go with something less suspicious like a cell phone?

But beware guys. If you see anybody taking pictures on campus, report it to security immediately...

(lil') Green Patch

Offer a friend a low resolution make believe plant (mushroom plant!?) so that they can grow it in their green patch and save the environment. If they ask how explain that by sending plant gifts to friends new plants will be unlocked for them to use and advertisers will pay for rainforest land to be saved. Corporations exploit and destroy the environment thus, logically, they must also be able to purchase the rainforest land to preserve it. Place vibrant green astro turf anywhere in the world and arrange the pictures of make believe plants upon it.

Join a Cause

Ask a friend to join your cause that is also a contest. Explain your Position. A sample cause: Take Action Against Hedonism. For Take Action Against Hedomism this is the Position:
1. Soften your heart and open your mind.
2. Puppy mill dogs often have health and behavior problems.
3. Using the best available science to solve complex conservation challenges
4. One hug can change someones life
List the amount of people joined and the money donated. If your friend joins encourage them to ask other people and donate money. Explain that top donators and contributors will be listed, so it's like a fun contest.

De-virtualize Facebook Directions

Add me!

Ask a complete stranger if they will be your friend. If they agree give them a copy of your personal information, list of interests, photo album, transcripts of conversations you had with friends and an address book of all your friends (feel free to share completely bogus information). Perhaps play a game with them by following another direction.


Friends for sale.

Ask a close friend, relative or complete stranger (first play add me as a friend) if they want to play a game called Friends for Sale. If they agree, tell them how much you think they are worth if they were on the slave market. Base this completely on appearance. Explain that people that are not purchased are "orphans" to encourage their participation. Then give them a low resolution picture of a gift like a gorilla or a coconut.


Wall Post

Tape a large piece of paper on any wall with your name (or alias), small photo, the current time and a message to one of your friends.

Shots and Drinks! For St. Patricks Day and more!

Offer your friend a shot or drink like Quick Fck, Love Potion no. 9, or Frozen Lips then give them a low res picture of it instead.

all about Anonymous

ABC news story

re. what we were talking about last class re. privacy, exemplified by this quote:

"Don't write anything in an e-mail or post anything on a website that you would not like to see on the front pages or in the broadcasts of the country's major media one day. "

The author might have added "...or in bathrooms across campuses."

The other main point of the article : "We know who you are and we can find you".

War on Photography: Bad news for Bird-watchers

If it looks odd, it's a terrorist..

Counter-Terrorism Ad-Campaign: War on Photography

why not have a nationhood watch?

err.. Message Tape?

I stumbled across this so called: 'Message Tape' .. looks like some spiffy duct tape with 2 decorated flavors, digits and dots.. add sharpie and there you have it.. Thought I brought this up for those interested in applying some use for your project or method..

Message Tape from Uncrate..

Restricted Freedom

Hey group members... lets start a post here. It will be easier to communicate with eachother.

Facebook and your friendly academic freedom officers

Thinking of starting that Facebook study group?

Think again!

blog groups

If you want to have a discussion via the blog for projects and presentations - which is a good idea - all you have to do is initiate with one posting - that posting then is assigned its own URL - discussion can ensue via comments - that will enable us to keep monitoring each other's groups at the same time.

ex the "restricted freedom" page:

http://tacticalcells.blogspot.com/2008/02/restricted-freedom.html

a proliferation of hoaxes

Found this in the "business" section (!):

abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=4387116&page=1

these things seem to be increasing in frequency for some reason - perhaps an increasing inability on the part of editors to distinguish between the real and the hyperreal?

There's Orson Welles' War of the Worlds, and the Autobiography of Howard Hughes by Clifford Irving - check out Orson Welles "F is for Fake" as well...

Out of Order

I have finally arrived! Late coming is better then never showing up. Sorry for the delay. My project's concept is out of order where simple paper and text signs will be posted in order to stop normal functionality of everday lives. These signs thus far have been envisioned at VIVA ticket booths, bathroom stalls, computer stations and vending/ATM machines. More suggestions are welcomed. The signs should be dispersed equally and in discrete numbers so as not to reveal its own disguise.

Facebook advertising

It's worth checking out the http://www.facebook.com/ads/ process. Pretty interesting. And, as with the example I whipped up here...problematic.

anarchist / disobedience related

some useful links:

The Civil Disobedience Index , courtesy of Act Up

Practical Anarchy - great, now defunct journal of anarchist ideas + practices - archive somewhat flaky but worth searching out...

Activism at the Disinformation site

Articles from the Black Panther newspaper

Steal this Book by Abbie Hoffman

The Realist archive project

The Chicago Seven Trial transcripts

and of course all the wonderful crimethinc links posted here a while back...

guerilla communication

I've been doing a bit of research so I can understand more of the idea of what I can do with the project and stumbled upon a couple of groups I found interesting and would be useful to look for inspiration. With the idea of restricting the freedom, per say, I started looking at these groups, we all know about Banksy, the pseudo graffiti artist who vandals many walls in an attempt to have public awareness of politics, culture, and ethics.



Another group is monochrom - it is an international art-technology-philosophy group; one of their projects I found quite interesting is when they created a fake country named Soviet Unterzoegersdorf and wrote a history about it and afterwards creating a game which allowed many to direct the many questions monochrom had about representation and relevance of "history" and stories.

Subvertising refers to the practice of making spoofs or parodies of corporate and political advertisements in order to make a statement.

summary of projects and possible cells

OK, here are the projects so far summarized, with possible cell members as either "main" or "other contributors"...please add comments to the post, or start new project-specific threads so we can finally define clearly what everyone is doing...

Everyone needs a main project and other intersections with other projects to which you can contribute some technical or theoretical expertise. Some of these will involve culture jamming at large, others will involve physical interventions of various kinds.

I've combined a few of the project ideas that seemed to share basic motivations.

1. Strategies to curtail activist fatigue / sharing knowledge – how to properly articulate the problems and possible solutions without betraying the complexity of any social situation - setting up two rooms, one for disaffected activists, the other for those who have spent too much time in academia (out of touch with the real world), how does one articulate the situation and stimulate action in both contexts?

Main: Melissa
Other contributors:

2. Restricted freedom – physicalizing the virtual could be part of this – we’re talking about culture jamming, design of signage, hacks, graffiti, détourned billboards, "out-of-order" signs - could also be combined with "concerted physical viral alteration of advertisements" and "viral marketing campaign to stop the spread of spam" (a strategy used to draw attention to its own mechanisms) - this could be combined with other types of viral campaigns...

Main: Charisse, Phil, Anahita (Kristen)
Other contributors: Melissa, Jared, Ryan

3. Corporate reactions to activist resistance / bad press , developing causes that corporations can endorse / analysis of the way "good causes" are conceptualized / framed (i.e. rent-a-negro) --- Can this be applied to the creation of political parties as well?

Main: Owen, Simon, Melissa
Other contributors: ?

4. Facebook infiltration / analysis / exposure - setting up a fake site, creating the manipulations of content, then bringing these things to the surface (de-virtualizing them?). Invisible theatre closed loop will be one of the possible physical embodiments of this project.

Main: Jared, Phil, Kristen
Other contributors: Owen, Rebecca

5. Cell phone manipulations/hacks. Possibilities: scrambling cell phone signals, sending text messages when the phone user enters a certain zone (mall store?) – can be blended with theatrical elements – somewhat related to the flash mob idea – probably adopted a localized approach (to avoid easy detection by authorities). Some in charge of technical research, others to implement these strategies in real locations (via an invisible theatre (Boal) kind of strategy).

Main: Oskar (technical)
Other contributors: Anahita, Jared, Simon, Nicole, Phil?

6. "unbeknownst" - using internet stream of surveillance cameras as material - invasion of privacy - society of the panopticon...

Main: Braydon
Other contributors:

7. The aestheticization of the non-aesthetic (turning reviews into art) - the re-appropriation of everyday life as a locus for creative action

8. Viral logo campaign highlighting Canadian intervention into Afghanistan (Anahita)

9. Modifying the spectacular space of the internet (shift-space) - creating filters superimposed on corporate websites (Owen)

10. Deconstructing linkages between homelessness and advertising (Simon)

presentations - central hub

Here's what I have so far - please add to this in comments. I've added a few side topics to some of the items and will follow up individually with each group on Wednesday, so have your topics and groupings ready by then.

1. Techno-utopianism / luddism (Oskar + ...)

2. Oversaturation of advertising – PowerShift – alternative media – PR industry, lobby groups (Charisse, Kristen, Antonietta)

3. Documenting the reality of marginalized people through various media – appropriation of voice vs. empowerment (Melissa + ...)

more topics?

Project idea : unbeknownst

As a project I would like to destroy the privacy of the public through an interactive piece tentatively called

"unbeknownst: A global invasion of privacy"

Thousands of cameras, millions of actors.

Recently the internet has been buzzing with new knowledge that revealed interesting security flaws in security cameras that broadcast their feed online (to let the owner view it from abroad). Google of all things can be used to "hack" through passworded cameras or discover unlisted cameras online. Now anyone can quite easily stare anonymously into offices, skating rinks, theme parks, robotics laboratories and a myriad of other locations. These people have no idea that not only are they being watched, they're being watched by someone who has absolutely no affiliation with the location their in, and absolutely no purpose but to be completely and shamelessly voyeuristic. The issue of surveylance has been constantly spoken about, but now that these feeds are so readily available it has transcended classic issues. The internet voyeur has been born, the digital peeping tom. With sites like camhacker.com you can search for freely open cams, and semi private cams and a variety of other cams. This type of voyerism has never existed before, especially on this scale.

I was thinking a piece using live webcam feeds as artistic elements would be both a fascinating and constantly changing piece, but also quite abrasive because it uses actors that have no idea they're participating. I think the piece would open up discussion about the impact of surveylance and the implications and concerns surrounding internet privacy.

Here are some interesting links

Camhacker Search engine
http://www.camhacker.com

using google I found the following cameras

Traffic Camera (the arrows are used to decide which lights to trigger)
http://trafficcams.cet.unomaha.edu/view/index.shtml

The lowly security guard (he can often be seen with his feet up doing nothing)
http://203.81.32.125/indexFrame.shtml?newstyle=One&cam=2

The Asian highway
http://218.224.242.126/indexFrame.shtml?newstyle=Quad

The skating rink
http://vs1-73418.highspeedoffice.net/indexFrame.shtml?newstyle=Quad

The transport hub
http://200.54.180.74/indexFrame.shtml?newstyle=Quad

More OBAY photos

OBAY

I'm sure some of you have seen this. They're all over the ttc, in the subway and at bus stops. They're pretty awesome and I felt quite inspired. Keep an eye out for these, its pretty cool that this group actually got the money together to buy all this adspace. Sorry I couldnt be in class today, I had a dangerous weekend with my job and have been forced into working tonight. But I'm behind so many of the ideas posted i will happily jump into what commitments are made in todays class. See you all soon.

This is a funny comic strip that I found recently that deals with my idea for the project. Advertising agencies overlooking ethics and morality in search for profits and ratings. It's nice to see this type of opition out there in the media, even if it is satirical... it still makes a strong point.

restricted freedom

With keeping in my mind of what we had discuss in our first class - about our first realisation of social awareness. I looked back and started to take bits of pieces of how my emotions were at that time - Restricted. Confined. Suffocating. Enclosed. Limited. compared to how they are now - Free. Liberated. Uncramped. Open. And then I started to think about how we live in Canada and when would we feel the most restriction - there I started to think about laws, rules and regulations which inevitably led to road signs. With doing this I hope to show that we should be glad and happy that we live in a life with little restriction on our life. So with this idea I talked to Kristen and we started to draw ideas up of how we could this... we were planning to create real signage and have it posted around campus and taking note of the responses we get from passerby who aren't used to this restriction - we haven't really thought of what we want to write but for example one sign could say 'no listening to music at this point.'

class tomorrow

Well, I'm still in Chicago and my flight tonight was cancelled - I still hope to make class tomorrow at 3:30, but at the moment I can't guarantee it...

As I was planning to use the entire class to finalize presentations + projects, I would appreciate it greatly if you all showed up at the regular class time and discussed / finalized groupings for both these components.

Please post the results of your discussions on the blog under the project and presentation topics. I can't stress enough the importance of finalizing these things quickly - the sooner I know what everyone is working on, the sooner I can offer guidance...

See you all very soon (if not tomorrow)
Marc

alternative radio

I've posted a number of shows from the great Alternative Radio series - all downloadable as MP3s - something to listen to during breakfast or before packing it in for the day.

Noam CHOMSKY - Propaganda and Control of the Public Mind - Part I

Noam CHOMSKY - Propaganda and Control of the Public Mind - Part II

Michael PARENTI - The Hidden Ideology of the Mass Media

Sut JHALLY - Media Coverage of the Middle East

Robert MCCHESNEY - Write What We Say, Not What We Do

Ben BAGDIKIAN - Media Concentration - Peril to Democracy

Norman SOLOMON - Orwellian Media

Enjoy
M

crimethinc collective

A site of great interest:

Crimethinc. Ex-Workers' Collective

They are a decentralized anarchist collective composed of many cells... (sound familiar?)...

They host a great BLOG

and also offer a bunch of great downloads

Of note especially the DIY guides #1 + #2 which include useful tips for activists (distinct from those proposed in the Infiltration handout), the Civilian's Guide to Direct Action, Dropping Out (for students) and a great overview of the Seattle 1999 protests: N30...

Check them out!
M

Bill Monroe

Meet Bill Monroe, totally bogus Facebook cyber entity that is 2 days old with already over 10 friends and rising. Everything I post is plagerized from other facebook pages. People send me messages I forward them to other random friends. I've stolen photos, interests, favourite quotes from friends of friends that leave open their pages. It's a blast! Things are always happening. I am suspicious that a few of my friends are like me, bogus manifests, others are just desperate, its a dark underbelly out there. I think maybe some people are strippers or marketing bots. Please don't add me to your real facebook account, I want to stay underground.

Project Ideas...

So I've been thinking a lot about my project and am pretty much still at the beginning stages. I've been going through the readings and have so far found them very inspiring. There's so much information and avenues out there to explore, I'm having trouble narrowing down the options.

Anyway, these are 2 ideas I'm playing with...

-launch an online viral marketing campaign to petition to stop the spread of spam
-take the words of a music/movie/book review from a critic and turn them into their respective artform, i.e... lyrics, a script, prose etc.

If anyone has any ideas to help me develop or expand on these further, feel free.

call for activism - Shisheido makes you a white girl!

This isn't necessarily for the class but if anyone could do me a favour and put some activism on the Shisheido "White Lucent" makeup ads in the subway, I'd really appreciate it. I can't hit them all. You could replace "Lucent" with "Power" for example.

I'm seeing an advertising trend that is increasingly less subtle, such as calling low-fat drinks "skinny drinks" (like at Second Cup), low-fat snacks "thins" (like Cadbury Thins) and, in this case, "brightening" skincare (if that's what care is, I guess) called "White Lucent". The danger with this kind of "blunt marketing" is that it implies that there's nothing problematic about the end goal (skinniness, whiteness, etc), which is a different approach than what's been used in the last several years - namely, disguising the end goal as something else (fitness, skin luminosity).

The product line claims to remove spots and "discoloration" using various vitamins and acids and mysterious "Asian plant extracts" (!). It's certainly not as bad as L'Oreal's "White Perfect" skin whitening line, which isn't marketed in Canada or the US, but it's not far off.

I can donate Sharpies to this cause.

When Activists Attack

Hey all,
So I've been toying with this idea of starting a group that reimburses companies that have suffered financial losses due to activists. It would be a company that stands behind big business, that believes that these companies have earned their millions (or billions) and should not be harassed because they are talented capitalists. This group would go around calculating how much certain companies have lost to certain activist groups and their actions and then tries to raise money to give back to the companies. One of the most important things about this is how exactly the money gets raised, and i think that this should depend on what company it is for and what group of activists damaged their evil money vacuum.
I am going to keep looking into this by checking out what big companies have reported losses which are directly as a result of activists. While searching I found this article. It speaks for itself.

http://www.continuitycentral.com/feature0174.htm

Cheers,
Simon

ART / NON-ART / ANTI-ART

A couple of sound art links pursuant to our conversation re. blurred boundaries between art / non-art / anti-art and the Allan Kaprow text The Education of the Un-Artist Parts I + III...

The Artaud is a notorious radio play putting the Theatre of Cruelty into action - this extreme, scatological enterprise was naturally banned at the time. Radical theatrics to the service of radical politics. The Cage Empty Words was a lecture delivered in 1977 in Italy, disrupted by young political radicals - here the highly radical work of an experimental artist is disrupted by political radicals (many useful contradictions here...). Whitehouse is a controversial UK band known for its "power electronics" - lyrics often adopt mysogynistic / racist perspectives in order to shock the listener into action (others have noted that WH tactics are often too convincing and not very ambiguous). Cage's comments about Branca's work are interesting - here is a radical artist known for his "openness" critiquing a musical work as a harbinger of fascism - can art itself be fascist? Finally, some excerpts from a get-together of the Church Universal and Triumphant (led by Clare Prophet), which employ theatrical / musical strategies to disseminate its disturbing, but very real message...

Lines are being crossed here... Please post other examples where the lines between art + life, art + politics are blurred...

(These links will soon be active...stay tuned)

Antonin ARTAUD - Pour en Finir avec le Jugement de Dieu (1948)
Opening text
Sound effects

John CAGE - Empty Words Part III (1977)
Parts3 + 4

WHITEHOUSE - New Britain (1982), Cruise (2000)
New Britain
Will to Power (from New Britain)
Cruise

John CAGE - Comments about Glenn Branca's Indeterminate Activity of Resultant Masses (1982)

CHURCH UNIVERSAL AND TRIUMPHANT - The Sounds of American Doomsday Cults (1984)
Invocation For Judgement Against and Destruction of Rock Music
Call for Protection
Decree

PLAGIARISM

A couple of really good links to texts on / around plagiarism, from the magnificent PhotoStatic archive:

Plagiarism issue
Cultural Property
Detournement issue
Copy culture
Festival of Plagiarism
Negativland case etc...

as well as the work of the
Copyright Violation Squad

all these are links to pages which contain PDF downloads of the various issues...

Up and running...

The blog is up and running - I considered WordPress briefly, but I would have had to rely on - again - the shaky server here at school, so I quickly gave up on that idea... Let's see how far we can take this experiment.