September 2006

Russian and Soviet posters, 1917-1991. Massive collection of 1,469 images of propaganda and advertising art on Flickr. (via)
>  30 September 2006 | LINK | Filed in ,
The Best Public Services in the World. The BBC’s Newsnight looks at health care in Cuba, trasport in Oregon, education in Qatar, and prisons in Denmark. Click the photos to watch the clips. It raises the obvious question: if there’s no shortage of best practices and models that work... why can’t we do it here?
>  23 September 2006 | LINK | Filed in

Redacted

Around 3,500 antiwar protesters rallied outside the United Nations in New York City today while President Bush delivered his speech inside. A decent turnout for a business hours on a weekday, and a very last minute call to action.

The organizers asked me to design a flyer to hand out at the march. I took it as an opportunity to do something a little different from a typical flyer. The goal here was not to grab the viewer and turn them out to the event, but to make something interesting for them to read while attending the event itself. The front is a statement by the organizers, the back lists upcoming events.

In the end UfPJ wanted something simpler — and something more like a typical flyer — which I delivered. But I like the way this version came out. The text is styled in the form of a redacted government document. It creates a parallel text that plays on themes of secrecy, coverup, and suppression of dissent, as well as seeing through the lies and reading what is erased.

Flyer Front Flyer Back
Download 200 Kb PDF
>  19 September 2006 | LINK | Filed in , , , ,

Mapping the “War on Terror,” 3

Selected CIA Aircraft Routes and Rendition Flights 2001-2006

A billboard I designed is up on display in Los Angeles. It’s part of a series of public art installations about the war, and will be on view until October 8, 2006.

The image is a map of Selected CIA Aircraft Routes and Rendition Flights 2001-2006, some of which transported prisoners to foreign countries to be interrogated and tortured. After years of silence and denial, the administration publicly acknowledged the flights in the last few weeks.

I worked with artist and geographer Trevor Paglen who provided the data. Trevor spent several years tracking down the flight information, and has a book out this month on his investigations, Torture Taxi: On the Trail of the CIA’s Rendition Flights. See this interview with him on Democracy Now! with co-author, journalist A.C. Thompson.

The billboard is located at 6150 Wilshire Boulevard, near South Fairfax Ave, between Beverly Hills and West Hollywood. Here’s a Google Map.

Clockshop, a public arts organization in Los Angeles, funded the display. You can read more about the project at http://clockshop.org/here.php

A few images, below:

Billboard during the day

Billboard at night

>  17 September 2006 | LINK | Filed in , , ,
Amici di Social Design Zine. Friends of Social Design Zine, an Italian equivalent of Social Design Notes, are meeting in Venice on September 30, 2006.
>  13 September 2006 | LINK | Filed in

Mapping the “War on Terror,” 2

pmc_map.png

The Privatization of War: Colombia as Laboratory and Iraq as Large-Scale Application is a mapping project by artist Lize Mogel and writer Dario Azzellini, on display at the Gwangju Bienniale in South Korea.

The 50 foot long mural diagrams the relationships between the United States and private military contractors and their activities in Colombia and Iraq. These corporations are less accountable to Congress and the public, and provide “products” and services including:

“risk advisory, training of local forces, armed site security, cash transport, intelligence services, workplace and building security, war zone security needs, weapons procurement, personnel and budget vetting, armed support, air support, logistical support, maritime security, cyber security, weapons destruction, prisons, surveillance, psychological warfare, propaganda tactics, covert operations, close protection and investigations.” [source]

Read more about the project and see a larger image of the map here.

>  12 September 2006 | LINK | Filed in , , , ,
Top 25 Censored Stories of 2006. Halliburton Charged with Selling Nuclear Technologies to Iran... The World Bank Funds Israel-Palestine Wall... “Stories of social significance that have been overlooked, under-reported or self-censored by the country’s major national news media.” From Project Censored, a group of 250 student researchers and faculty out of Sonoma State University.
>  9 September 2006 | LINK | Filed in , ,

Mapping the “War on Terror,” 1

The NYC Guide to War Profiteers

First blogged here in August 2004, the NYC Guide to War Profiteers has fallen off the Web. The site of the March 27 Coalition that quckly came together in 2003 has since lapsed into the hands of domain squatters.

A friend recently inquired about the map, so I scanned my hard copy and am posting it here.

Map of War Profiteers in NYC, Front
Front, 787 Kb PNG, 150 dpi
Map of War Profiteers in NYC, Back
Back, 681 Kb PNG, 150 dpi

The map was assembled by the “mutual support network” and rushed to press just before the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

The map has a low-tech, DIY aesthetic, designed to be reproduced by photocopy on the front and back of a standard sheet paper. The icons are composed of cut paper, arranged on a found map. The map was available at progressive bookstores around town, and was distributed at organizing meetings for various protest events.

The list of weapons makers, media companies, and military recruiters helped locate the discussion around the March 27, 2003 direct action. Rockefeller Center ultimately was chosen for its proximity to several points on the map.

Three years later, the map has not lost its relevance.

>  9 September 2006 | LINK | Filed in , ,
Recycle Art Design. Reza Hashemi breathes new life into discarded objects. There’s a beautiful post-industrial quality to some of them. I love the lightbulbs turned oil lamps, and the old PC scanners turned into jewlery showcases.
>  4 September 2006 | LINK | Filed in
Landing the Perfect Pitch: Six Guerilla Media Relations Tips. (580 Kb PDF.) A brief guide for activists full of good basic tips. Published under Creative Commons by a CBC veteran.
>  3 September 2006 | LINK | Filed in


On to October.
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