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Art Threat - Political Art Journal

Art Threat - Political Art Journal
Art Threat is a journal of political art. We embrace art that confronts, interrogates, or even shrugs off the status quo, and explore pressing issues affecting art and culture, stimulating debate on the world around us and how it is interpreted.

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Articles

30 Ways To Fight the Digital Millenium Copyright Act
2007-12-31 14:33:00
The Canadian government is getting set to pass the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DCMA) into law. But most Canadians have never heard of the DCMA, let alone considered its implications for artists, educators and personal freedoms. Let's face it, copyright law is a confusing nest of fine print about rights and restrictions that give most non-lawyers a giant headache. The puppet masters at dotboom have produced a somewhat hilarious Rant Puppet video to help Canadians make some sense of the copyright confusion. In a charming froggish way, the video introduces some of the critical issues being addressed in the DCMA. For more information about getting involved in the campaign to stop the DCMA, check out the Campaign for Democratic Media and Michael Geist's website.
More About: Canada , Fight

Iraqi prisoner portraits, the US-Mexico Hyperborder, and wicked infographic
2007-12-29 22:38:00
It's time to clear out the mailbags and feedreaders before heading out to a hockey game. Philadelphia artist Daniel Heyman is exhibiting watercolours and dry point etchings made during interviews with prisoners of the infamous Abu Ghraib prison. The works recount their stories of abuse at the hands of American forces. (Via Signal Fire.) We Make Money Not Art reviews Hyper-Border: The Contemporary US-Mexico Border and Its Future by Fernando Romero. Armed with a provocative design and smart infographics galore, Hyper-border "provides the most nuanced portrait yet of this dynamic region." Speaking of infographics, HistoryShots produces beautiful prints of informational graphics, telling stories like the race to the moon, the history of France , and the internet country codes of the world.
More About: Iraq , Iraqi , Wicked

Everyone hates Hillary Clinton: a visualization
2007-12-29 19:06:00
The New York Times has published an interactive feature showing how often major presidential candidates refer to each other during debates. Each line in the graphic represents one candidate speaking the name of another, while the big arrows are the culmination of all references to a particular candidate. The most obvious conclusion? Everyone loves to talk about Hillary Clinton , and it's safe to say the sincere pleasantries are few and far between. (Via Information Aesthetics)
More About: United States , Visualization

Crafty consumerism-free fun with Readymech
2007-12-29 09:11:00
It might be a fortnight late for Christmas, but you can still embrace some fun free of consumerism with Readymech. These free, beautifully illustrated flatpack toys are designed by Fwis and can be printed on any old printer. All you need is some double-sided tape, 15 minutes, and the burning desire to embrace the arts-and-crafts kid in you.
More About: United States , Free , Consumerism , Dyme

? the War: iconic imagery for the anti-war movement
2007-12-29 08:00:00
Juxtapoz magazine's blog features a handful of images from the ? The War show, a one night only exhibit featuring works intended to create modern imagery for the anti-war movement. The Corey Helford Gallery produced 25,000 free posters of the works that were handed out at the event, and how I wish I was there to snag one. I forgot about how often Juxtapoz dishes out leads to good, political art—It's about time I renew my subscription. (Jealous? You should be. You can mosey on over here to grab one for yourself.) (Image: "Fatherless, Motherless, Pointless" by M. Mararian)
More About: United States , Global , Anti-War , Anti , Imagery

Negativland cuts up copyright on Our Favorite Things DVD
2007-12-28 06:40:00
You won't find any raindrops on roses, but Our Favorite Things , the latest DVD by Negativland, delivers the sound of music for mashup fans. The self-proclaimed Kulture Kut-up Kings have turned nearly three decades of "greatest hits" into a collaborative video project featuring 18 filmmakers from across the United States . I have not yet had an opportunity to watch the flick, but if you value Cory Doctorow's taste at all, it looks like we're in for a treat: "There's hours and and hours of mind-meltingly weird, funny and entirely illegal art here, video renditions of Disney's Little Mermaid spouting obscenities recorded from a phone conversation with an abusive entertainment exec, a blasphemous remix of The Passion of the Christ (The Mashin' of the Christ) and plenty of fun bonus material documenting the band's long history of media pranks and hoaxes." Our Favorite Things also comes with a bonus CD featuring the 180-Gs, a Detroit doo-wop group, performing Negativland trac...
More About: Copyright , Cuts

Suicycle animation show us how we kill the planet
2007-12-27 21:59:00
Even squirrels experience heartbreak when their lover is killed in a missile attack. This tragedy is but one brief chapter in Suicycle, a dark yet cute animation that looks at "what goes in, what goes out, and how everything we swallow gives the environment a case of indigestion". The short was created by Curiosity, a slick commercial marketing firm, specifically for the 2007 DesignPolitcs exhibition in Santiago, Chile. Suicycle plays as a never ending loop, and a fun counter keeps track of how many times you've seen the video repeat. I've watched it 27 times (and counting) while writing this post, and I'm still loving it. Via Drawn.
More About: Animation , United States , Planet , Show , Latin America

Anarchist action figure is spot on Target for Christmas
2007-12-25 20:23:00
Did you awake to find an anarchist hiding under your Christmas tree this morning? If so you might not be alone, as artist Packard Jennings shopdropped a batch of Anarchist action figures at Target and Wal-Mart stores across San Francisco, waiting for unsuspecting consumers to pick them up this holiday season. ???When better than Christmas to make a point about hyper-consumerism???? Jennings asked the New York Times in a recent interview. A stereotype to the max, his plastic black block buddy sports a gas mask, bolt cutters, a gerry can of petrol and two Molotov cocktails. And did I mention he looks very, very angry? You can watch the confusion as cashiers attempt to ring in the toy, as Jennings sticks around and videotapes the interaction. Actual quote from store manager: "It actually looks like something that some anti G6 [sic] summit activist would just put on our shelf." Check out more photos and video at Packard Jennings' website.
More About: United States , Action , Spot

Anarchist action figure is spot on Target for Christmas
2007-12-25 20:23:00
Did you awake to find an anarchist hiding under your Christmas tree this morning? If so you might not be alone, as artist Packard Jennings shopdropped a batch of Anarchist action figures at Target and Wal-Mart stores across San Francisco, waiting for unsuspecting consumers to pick them up this holiday season. ?When better than Christmas to make a point about hyper-consumerism?? Jennings asked the New York Times in a recent interview. A stereotype to the max, his plastic black block buddy sports a gas mask, bolt cutters, a gerry can of petrol and two Molotov cocktails. And did I mention he looks very, very angry? You can watch the confusion as cashiers attempt to ring in the toy, as Jennings sticks around and videotapes the interaction. Actual quote from store manager: "It actually looks like something that some anti G6 [sic] summit activist would just put on our shelf." Check out more photos and video at Packard Jennings' website.
More About: United States , Action , Spot

Alter and swap your greeting cards with shopdropping.net
2007-12-25 06:01:00
Do you have some extra greeting cards kicking around this holiday season? Put them to good use by participating in this collaborative project by Shopdropping.net: SHOPDROPPING.NET is now calling on artists, designers, media makers, and creative folks to purchase or "regift" greeting cards and alter them in any way they see fit in order to create a new and unique card. Any form of commercial card, from wedding to graduation to birthday to bereavement, is eligible. But clever and witty will be given preference over easy and distasteful. Please submit JPEG reproductions of the altered greeting cards to submissions@shopdropping.net with GREETINGS as the subject line. All files must be sized to 1024 x 768 at 72 dpi. Each altered card must include the text "www.shopdropping.net" somewhere in the new design. It can be discreet, on the back of the card, and unobtrusive but it must be present. When submitting the cover and inside of the same card please indicate this clearly in the file ...
More About: Cards , Swap , Greeting Cards , Alter , Greeting

Short Webfilm Tells the Story of Stuff in Time for Stuff-filled Holidays
2007-12-21 17:33:00
Annie Leonard became interested in the materials economy when she was attending college in NYC. During the daily six-block treks on 110th street she became fascinated with where the morning's piles of trash ended up as she walked home on the emptied sidewalks in the evenings. Her interest in material accumulation and disposal has manifested into a new 20 minute web-released animated film, produced with Free Range Media, the folks who brought us The Meatrix. The Story of Stuff is an engaging and extremely straightforward walk-through of the stages of the materials economy. From "Extraction" through to "Disposal" Leonard's narration is hard-hitting but not riddled with too many facts or technical jargon. The animation visually interprets much of what is spoken by Leonard, and it too is kept to a minimalist, simple presentation. The end result is a film that is both and activist tool and a pedagogical resource. If you've ever wanted to explain what was wrong with the global economy ...
More About: Holidays , United States , Time , Global

Short webfilm tells the story of stuff in time for stuff-filled holidays
2007-12-21 17:33:00
Annie Leonard became interested in the materials economy when she was attending college in NYC. During the daily six-block treks on 110th street she became fascinated with where the morning's piles of trash ended up as she walked home on the emptied sidewalks in the evenings. Her interest in material accumulation and disposal has manifested into a new 20 minute web-released animated film, produced with Free Range Media, the folks who brought us The Meatrix. The Story of Stuff is an engaging and extremely straightforward walk-through of the stages of the materials economy. From "Extraction" through to "Disposal" Leonard's narration is hard-hitting but not riddled with too many facts or technical jargon. The animation visually interprets much of what is spoken by Leonard, and it too is kept to a minimalist, simple presentation. The end result is a film that is both and activist tool and a pedagogical resource. If you've ever wanted to explain what was wrong with the global economy ...
More About: Holidays , United States , Time , Global

Austria's Prix Ars Electronica ? Call for Submissions
2007-12-19 15:52:00
The 22nd Prix Ars Electronica - International Competition for CyberArts is open for entries. Online Submission Deadline: March 7, 2008. Entries are organized by category: INTERACTIVE ART - dedicated to interactive works in all forms and formats, from installations to performances. At the top of the agenda is artistic quality in the development and design of the interaction as well as a harmonious dialog between the content level and the interaction level. Of particular interest is the sociopolitical relevance of the interaction as manifested by its innate potential to expand the scope of human action. ANIMATION / FILM / VX - recognizes excellence in independent work in the arts and sciences as well as in high-end commercial productions in the film, advertising and entertainment industries. In this category, artistic originality counts just as much as masterful technical achievement. DIGITAL SOUND & MUSIC - Contemporary digital sound productions from the broad spectrum of "...
More About: Austria , Call , Prix Ars Electronica , Missi

New York Philharmonic in Pyongyang: cultural diplomacy or state sponsored p
2007-12-18 04:56:00
Since the announcement Tuesday that the New York Philharmonic plans a 48 hr visit into the heart of North Korea , the world has been a buzz. Headlines praise and criticize the visit on February 26th, 2008 for both encouraging discourse between states and legitimizing the D.P.R.K.?s regime. This is not a first for cultural diplomacy; China, the Soviet Union and Iran have all had their methods of trying to befriend the North American powerhouse, but is the agenda behind them cultural, political or both? Cultural diplomacy: a gentler type of carrot It?s no secret that North Korea is a bothersome splinter impeding the far reaching grasp of the current Bush administration. As one of the founding members of the ?Axis of Evil?, North Korea has been less than forthcoming with U.S. plans for its denuclearization. The current Six-Party Talks (U.S., China, Russia, Japan, D.P.R.K and South Korea) have been attempting to deflate tensions between states and force a shutdown of D.P.R.K?s nuclear...
More About: United States , Asia , Sponsored

Follow spies in the skies with Terminal Air
2007-12-17 01:49:00
Artist, author and experimental geographer Trevor Paglen has created the ingenious project Terminal Air to spy on the spies. Developed in collaboration with the Institute for Applied Autonomy, the web-based work facilitates public visualization of flights known or suspected to be involved in the CIA's extraordinary rendition program. Eluding national and international law, this governmental scheme involves kidnapping and relocating suspected terrorists to undocumented "dark prisons" where they can be held, interrogated, and tortured indefinitely. Under the guise of national security, US agents use these covert tactics to sidestep habeas corpus and basic human rights. Terminal Air's flight-tracking software and database monitor specific CIA aircraft flights from 2001 to the present. Their daily routes are displayed in near real-time. Paglen and IAA have designed the flight viewer so that one can easily trace these extraordinary rendition routes around the globe. To expedite this en...
More About: United States , Spies

TankTV Seeking Submissions of Your 'Best Lists' for the Whole Wide World
2007-12-14 03:28:00
tank.tv is looking for lists! Top 100s, 50s, 1000s! Lists of people, animals, minerals, vegetables! Good lists, bad lists and mediocre lists.Lists of anything and everything. tank.tv is inviting submissions to its forthcoming show, The Whole World , curated by Ian White. The Whole World is a list of lists: a programme of artists' film and video and an interactive online exhibition. Both a formal device and a political strategy, film and video that deploys a list as part of its structure often does so with political intent: to subvert hierarchies, to undermine rationalism or to reveal contradiction. In contemporary culture the pop chart's Top 10 has been replaced by an ever-expanding craze for "Top 100s" of everything from Hollywood genres to celebrity gaffes. The Whole World attempts to wrestle back the initiative? The Whole World is situated somewhere between the absurd and obsessive enterprises of Flaubert's eponymous characters Bouvard and Pecuchet (they hopelessly collect and ...
More About: Europe , Britain , Wide

Cartooning for Human Rights brings humour to the UN
2007-12-11 18:25:00
The United Nations rarely has a sense of humour, but yesterday, to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the coinciding Human Rights Day, the UN opened the tightly sealed doors of its headquarters to the public, offering an exhibit of editorial cartoons entitled Sketching Human Rights. The show appears in the Visitors? Gallery and will last until mid-January before beginning its worldwide tour, with stops in Jerusalem, Berlin, Wellington and Istanbul. This exhibit was launched concurrently in Rome, as the UN-backed touring show Cartooning for Human Rights, a spin-off of the year-long tour Cartooning for Peace. As a project founded by Jean Plantu, one of France?s foremost editorial cartoonists, these shows have become a movement of sorts, reacting to the anger and riots that stemmed from the editorial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad early in 2006. "There has to be a response to the condemnations launched by some Imams, but it had to be done ...
More About: United States , Humour , Iran , Israel , Turkey

Class war and ethnic conflict: the lessons of Saturday Night Fever
2007-12-11 17:49:00
It has been decades since John Travolta first blessed our cinema screens with his tight, white, polyester pants. Saturday Night Fever celebrates its thirtieth anniversary this month, and while the leisure suits may be passe, the film's politics are as relevant as ever. In an article for the Washington Post, Bruce J. Schulman discusses how little has changed since the days when Travolta's Tony Manero worked a dead-end job and daydreamed of dancing. It seems we still have much to learn from the dark days of disco. "Lapels aside, the film seems strangely prescient—a road map to the income inequality, the ethnic and racial politics, and the lure of celebrity that we see today. Culturally speaking, the '70s are back. As we grapple with soaring gasoline prices, tune in to "Dancing With the Stars" and work through a new kind of national malaise, we would do well to heed the cautionary lessons of the young man in polyester."
More About: United States , Conflict , Ethnic

New Comic "Extraction!" Takes on Canadian Mining Companies
2007-12-05 05:49:00
Cumulus Press has published a 128 page comic book/graphic novel that combines investigative journalism, comic art, and the politics of mining and resistance to mining. Extraction! is divided up into four stories and four extracted elements of the earth. Whether its gold in Guatemala or oil in Canada (Alberta to be specific), this book delivers some excellent critical analysis of plundering while offering up some excellent art-driven narratives. The book was inspired by other political comix producers such as Joe Sacco, and of course the ongoing malfeasance of Canadian mining companies who continue to ignore domestic populations the world over as they dig and strip the earth for precious stones, industry staples and fuel. Four journalists teamed up with four artists to dig up the dirt (excuse the pun) on the activities of some of these companies and the result is a great bed-time read. To find out more or to purchase (for $20), visit the cumulus press site.
More About: Comic , Companies , Mining , North America

Bethlehem banks on Banksy to boost tourism
2007-12-04 00:55:00
In a creative bid to boost Bethlehem's sagging economy, Banks y has brought his seasonal "Santa's Ghetto" exhibition to this Palestinian town that has seen few tourists in recent years. The infamous stencil artist joined several others in creating over a dozen works on the concrete wall surrounding the town, turning a hated symbol of Israeli occupation into an massive open air art gallery. Another dozen or so works are on display in a former chicken shop in Manger Square. In more peaceful years more than 100,000 tourists would pour into Bethlehem during the holidays. Last year the town saw a mere tenth of the traffic. Having visited Bethlehem in December a few years back I can personally attest to the recent drought of visitors. With over 70 percent of the workforce depending on tourism, signs of a wounded economy are everywhere. ?You wouldn?t worry about Christmas becoming too commercial in Bethlehem ? they couldn?t afford it. There?s more festive lights in the window of your ...
More About: Middle East , Tourism , Palestine , Banksy

Pakistani Political Artist Harassed by Military / New Group Show Opens in L
2007-12-03 15:51:00
Figurative Pakistan is a group show opening at the Aicon Gallery in London, UK featuring four prominent Pakistani artists, Ijaz ul Hassan, Naiza Khan, Sana Arjumand, and Ahmed Ali Manganhar. Ijaz ul Hassan is a long-time activist and dissident who came to prominence as a political artist in the 1970s when he was jailed for his public condemnation of martial law under General Zia-ul-Haq. Hassan was arrested, held in solitary confinement for four weeks and endured threats to his life and to the lives of his family and friends. Hassan's artwork was deemed so dangerous that is was removed from galleries and refused entrance into group exhibitions after his release from jail. During the worst of the political repression under General Zia-ul-Haq, Hassan painted messages on handbills and posters and distributed them by hand. Even today some of his paintings remain “classified”, although many have been declassified, some of which were shown in a recent retrospective at the Canvas Ga...
More About: Military , Political , Artist , Show

Pivot Journal: 2nd Call for Submissions!
2007-11-30 00:07:00
Calling all graduate student artists and academics... Pivot Journal is calling out for your work! A centre point. A counter point. Pivot provides the space from which to respond to the shared and divided scholarly territories of visual culture. Concordia's new peer-reviewed graduate academic interdisciplinary journal brings together the Departments of Art History, Studio Arts and Communication Studies in a forum for graduate scholarship working towards the exploration of relationships among diverse forms of art practice and production, as well as among art historical scholarship, visual studies, theory, and criticism. Currently Pivot is an online journal with a small print run. Pivot accepts submissions from graduate students across many disciplines within Canada and internationally. As a journal of visual culture recognizing art production as a site for scholarly exploration, Pivot accepts content in the form of academic papers, artist project descriptions, short texts by a...
More About: Call , Missi

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