Rose Colored Retrospectacle
Thursday, August 12, 2004
Campaign Jamming
I can only assume that this is the inevitable outcome of increased access to technology as well as the opening of the American mind to the idea that DIY doesn't just mean bad garage punkrock (or even good garage punkrock). Adbusters showed us how to control or at least affect our "mental environment" and while there are still things out of reach, technology has placed in our hands the ability to make or change almost anything we can imagine. I suppose that, given the current state of planned obsolescence, this is in part because so many manufactured things are rarely much better than home-made. (And this is a large part what's inspiring my addiction to All Things Steam: because the eras leading up until WWI, for all the bad politics and policies, was also the last time we had industrial economy committed to producing lasting and beautiful goods of many uses, some still unknown!)
I'm talking too broadly. Let me specify:
In the 80s, Apple Computers gave us the Macintosh, which gave aspiring printers and publishers the ability to do things on their desktop that previously had required a full print shop to do. At the same time, printing quality has come down to the same level, because almost no publishers or producers of printed material both with real print anymore -- the computer-based print shop is cheaper and easier and takes up less space. So, while amateur techniques are rising in scale from the type-written and photocopied chapbooks of the 1980s, professional techniques are falling, until they meet. Now how do you know if that magazine you're reading is even real? Right now, we can't easily or cheaply make a fake Newsweek, but give it time. The main thing holding us back isn't technology, it's just time and effort and the fact that organizing anarchists is like herding cats. No, like feeding an entire army of cats their medication. One is bad enough!
Today, this revolution has quietly turned your local Office Max into an urban anarchist's warehouse of subversive goods. Give me a decent inkjet printer, some sticker paper, an Exacto knife, and enough time, and I can convert anything with print on it -- advertisements, books, magazines, menus, packaging, most of the items you see on a city block -- into a subversive message. All it takes is the will and the willingness to turn one's entire portion of free time into scouting locations, matching fonts, measuring ads, checking Pantene colors. This is not a job for the meek, it's a pursuit of the geek.
I'm a geek, and I'm proud of my culture-jamming activities. They aren't all about high-ground political statements -- the 2002 Olympics Art Jam was purely for the fun of it. My targets -- from VISA to the GAP and Old Navy to the military to the What Would Jesus Do campaign -- all deserve to be jammed, and they all maintain enough power that my flea-bites are certainly beneath their notice.
However, I must bow and give credit to the pioneers of Election 04 jammers who are heads and shoulders, leaps and bounds, beyond anything I will ever come up with.
Bikes Against Bush -- an emerging-technology artist and activist based in New York City, Joshua Kinberg will be riding around NYC during the Republican National Convention on his modified bike that squirts environmentally safe, non-toxic field-marking spray chalk into anti-Bush sentiments.
The NO RNC Poster Project: Visual Resistance to the Republican National Convention -- a group of graphic artists providing and (with permission) hanging anti-Bush posters around the city throughout the summer.
Wednesday, August 11, 2004
Turning back midnight, one second at a time.
I have to always have a project, or two, or ten. I have theories about this, but the most likely one is that I take on projects in a vain attempt to fill a deep, scorching, dry hole in my soul. I can report, with the knowledge gained over the years, that it's not working, but it does keep me busy, off the streets (mostly), and out of the mental ward. If I wasn't staying this busy, I'd probably sink into a dark pit of darkness, and cry until I died of dehydration, which would be just about the most gothic way to go (particularly if paired with a ghost and maybe some crazy lady running around upstairs and also a weird old uncle who locks me up at night because he's actually a transforming monster -- oops, now that's just cliched!). Weepy and miserable is not how I want to spend my life, and while I'm still not really spending my life the way I'd like to, at least this path is more proactive, more useful, and less damp than the other. So, projects it is! (And look: 3 posts in and I'm already sinking into the ennui-ridden whimpering whines I long to escape. Is there no end to it? If I make fun of myself, will I suddenly decide it's all okay, after all? I think I may not be onto anything here.)
Anyway, this year's main project is political in nature. I've turned most of my attentions to the electing of John Kerry and some local campaigns. Of course, this means the usual stuff -- passing out literature, being able to run the gamut of talking points for my chosen campaigns, answering questions, and being charmingly annoying to everyone who knows me. I hope I get the appropriate level of "charm" going; it can be a fine line between informative and pedantic, interesting and over the top, and I've always skated pretty close to the edge, and gone right over more than once. I want to impress, to influence, and you can't hold back in those pursuits, but you can come on too strong and end up doing as much harm as good.
Among other things, I am applying my energies to making t-shirts and online logos for the One Nation Under Goth (a goth / industrial / punk / underground 'get out the vote' effort over on LiveJournal), for now; buttons and stickers, perhaps, later.
I spent last night at a show, signing up voters and getting signatures on the Don't Amend petition. It doesn't feel like much, when I look a the numbers -- 7 new or re-registered voters, and 23 signers -- but it was a lot of work. By 1am, I felt like I was going to fall asleep on the sound board where Paul was doing sound for the band, and my eyes wouldn't stop watering. There's no good reason for this sort of thing to be as exhausting as all that, but something about going up to people one does not know, or whom do not like one overly much, and giving them a whole song-and-dance about one's latest "scheme" is really tiring.
One guy actually stopped me mid-sentence and said, "You're always up to something, aren't you?" Well, yes. He then soundly insulted my work and sent me on my way.
Another guy, some aging hippy type, got me into some kind of strange historical discussion. I only talked to him because I didn't want to only approach the young punks and freaks, but he gave me the willies and I should have paid attention to that. I believe he was testing me. He kept asking me to fill in the blanks, various questions about the founding fathers, their religions, their quotations. He was of the opinion that Abraham Lincoln actually originated the quotation about "An it harm none, do what ye will." I have some concerns about aligning Lincoln and Gardner, but what they hey, the Republicans incorrectly like to claim him (Lincoln, not Gardner, but that would be funny!), so why shouldn't the Wiccans and related folks claim Lincoln, too? Anyway, it was a bit aggravating to be schooled by an aging hippy; I realize I still look, dress, and generally act like I'm not a day over 23 (amazing what sun avoidance will do for you), but regardless of my appearance, I'm an educated and intelligent woman, and I don't need someone's stamp of approval to do my part for my state or my party (which is frankly up in the air at the moment, since I am not following the Socialists' party lines with regards to dumping the democrats. After dominating my time for 20 minutes or more, he then announced he "believe[s] in what [I'm] doing," but that he was "not gonna sign any of [my] damn papers." Well, hell. Freemasons! Bah! (This gentleman claimed that Freemasonry was his political party as well as that of the founding fathers, although he made this claim in a roundabout fashion, forcing ME to make the claim so he could smile benignly and nod coolly.)
Nevertheless, except for those two, and one person who asked me what use his vote was in Utah, especially after the fiasco that was the 2000 election -- one of the reasons that it pisses me off so much, because how can we not feel disenfranchised? -- the general response was good. A couple of my acquaintances are too anarchist to vote -- I think they just don't want to get called to jury duty -- but I can accept that. Paul was getting a bit overzealous with one person about registering, but I don't see any reason to do so. I will ask if they are registered, and offer to get them registered if not, and I will give my opinion of why they should be if they ask or demure a little, but as far as I'm concerned, after that, if they still say no, then the answer is no, and that's just fine. I don't have time to argue; it's 11:51pm, and I for one, do not want to see permanent, inescapable midnight. (We need a new doomsday clock, to track the state of our Civil Liberties... and I see I'm not alone in this opinion!)
I still have another Gothic Rap Project show and a few Tragic Black shows to sign people up; both bands are willing to give me a plug, and with their messages, they should! We have until about October 10 to register people in this state. I have so much work ahead of me.
On November 3, regardless of what has happened the night before: I am sleeping in!
Tuesday, August 10, 2004
Statements, Purposes, Missions, Justifications
So, with that in mind, I'm VERY iffy about this whole blogspot system, which doesn't seem to have the connectivity of Live Journal, the dedication to community that I'm used to. It also doesn't seem to have the security level abilities that Live Journal -- with friends-only posts, private pots, and configurable groups for, say, all your friends interested in politics or just the people with whom you feel sharing recipes -- does so well. It just seems so new, so green, perhaps because I didn't know it even existed until a couple of weeks ago. Also, it doesn't have icons and moods and "Current Music" settings -- and vanity and pretention are half the fun on Live Journal.
On the other hand, my Live Journal (in use since early September 2001 when I finally gave in to my friend Donya's requests) is now overrun by stupid memes, furious explosions of angst, and far too much ennui-ridden whimpering and whining (not even confined to the aforementioned friends-only setting, sadly) to ever be of any use to anyone, so I'm going to use this blog to relocate the interesting things I've written (after editing them into reasonable format), and add things in similar vein.
Also, because mystery is fun, I am not going to tell anyone it's here, and well see if anyone wanders in.
Sunday, August 08, 2004
Matter Transference?
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