UK’s Coventry University Department of Media and Communication presents this Creative Activism Guest Podcast.

From the CreativeActivism.com website:

Welcome to the Creative Activism Open Class – Now in Session

This class, presented by the Coventry University Department of Media and Communication, is exploring the potentials of creative media activism through encouraging ‘live’ creative interventions and participation in cultural, political and social debates.

Throughout the 10 week class we will be exploring how media activists and campaigners have used their media knowledge, connections and skills to ask difficult questions, provoke debate and raise awareness of important issues and problems in their local, national and international communities. We will be putting up a number of lectures, tasks, podcasts and other resources online to help you.

It is an activity-led class where participants will be choosing an issue that is important to them and working on a series of real and situated tasks that will aim to provide them with a number of and skills and abilities. (more…)

From Reverend Al of the Cacophony Society:

The new year will bring us many strange things, among them a museum exhibition on the history of Cacophony and the Suicide Club, opening on February 4 — in Orange County of all places (along with sneak preview of Jon Alloway’s documentary on our group).

SHOW INFO:

Details follow… (more…)

Hackers Threaten Zetas Drug Cartel
Huffington Post
October 31, 2011

Veracruz, Mexico — An Internet video is threatening Mexico’s Zetas drug cartel with exposure of its allies in the local police and news media this week unless the gang frees a kidnapped member of the international hacker movement known as “Anonymous.”

The YouTube message, which claims to be from Anonymous “Veracruz, Mexico and the world,” says it is “tired of the criminal group the Zetas, which is dedicated to kidnapping, stealing and extortion,” and threatens to fight back with information instead of weapons.

It said it knows of police officers, journalists, taxi drivers and others working with the Zetas.

The video refers to an unidentified person kidnapped in the coastal city of Veracruz, and says: “You have made a great mistake by taking one of us. Free him.”

English version of the video (Original Spanish version here):

(more…)

Anonymous Hackers Targeted By FBI, Homeland Security For Potential National Security Threat
by Paul Elias
Huffington Post
September 11, 2011

San Francisco — Anonymous is not so anonymous anymore.

The computer hackers, chat room denizens and young people who comprise the loosely affiliated Internet collective have increasingly turned to questionable tactics, drawing the attention of the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and other federal investigators.

What was once a small group of pranksters has become a potential national security threat, federal officials say.

The FBI has carried out more than 75 raids and arrested 16 people this year in connection with illegal hacking jobs claimed by Anonymous.

Since June, the Department of Homeland Security has issued three “bulletins” warning cyber-security professionals of hacking successes and future threats by Anonymous and related groups, including a call to physically occupy Manhattan’s Wall Street on Sept. 17 in protest of various U.S. government policies. (more…)

Watch Banksy’s debut television special, The Antics Roadshow here. Broadcast in the UK on Saturday, August 13, 2011, it’s not yet available in the U.S.. The Joey Skaggs interview starts at 28:45…

Related link:

Joey Skaggs was interviewed for Banksy’s upcoming television documentary The Antics Roadshow set to air on Channel 4 in the UK this Saturday, August 13 at 10:45 pm, following the television premiere of “Exit Through the Gift Shop.” Directed by Banksy and Jaimie D’Cruz, produced by Melody Howse.

Quoted from Channel 4:

“Banksy’s ‘incomplete guide to total anarchy’ provides a greatest hits of wayward behaviour, sedition and sabotage.

“The Antics Roadshow is a celebration of the pranksters, hoaxers, jokers, activists and stunt merchants who use public space for their own unauthorised ends. This film brings together a wide range of individuals with all sorts of motivations: but they have all hijacked the public arena to make a noise, be it for comedic, artistic or political ends, and they have all done so using a variety of illicit, and eccentric methods which an audience should probably not try at home.

“Explaining his reasoning behind the show, Banksy said: ‘Basically I just thought it was a good name for a TV programme and I’ve been working back from there’.

“Narrated by Kathy Burke, The Antics Roadshow examines the stories behind some of the most audacious stunts of recent times and what motivates the perpetrators, from mindless boredom to heartfelt political beliefs.”

Osaka tries to find out who dressed statues
The Japan Times
Aug. 9, 2011

Osaka — Sculptures adorning the sidewalks along Osaka’s Midosuji street were found clad in red one morning in July, sparking speculation as to who did it and why.

Osaka City Hall received dozens of phone calls, including some from the Tokyo metropolitan area, a city official said. One caller even half-jokingly criticized the city after staff removed the colorful attire, saying, “You guys don’t understand a joke.”

The mystery also took a twist after footage from a security video was released that purportedly showed the person who may have decorated the figures, which include works by such artists as Kotaro Takamura and Auguste Rodin.

The city was first alerted to the gag around 9 a.m. on July 25. On a roughly 1 km stretch of Midosuji, starting just across the river from City Hall, 19 sculptures were found to have been dressed in red.

Whoever carried out the deed apparently bought the costumes in a shop and then dyed them. Some also had color-coordinated belts around their waists. A 39-year-old man who saw some of the statues said, “They matched perfectly!” (more…)

Submitted by David Strom:

‘Gay Girl In Damascus’ Turns Out To Be An American Man
by Eyder Peralta and Andy Carvin
NPR
June 12, 2011

Over the last several months, Amina Arraf, a blogger who said she was Syrian-American and went by the name Gay Girl In Damascus, captured the world’s attention. Her blog caught on just as the protests against President Bashar al-Assad of Syria became widespread and the crackdowns more violent.

On June 6, it all came to a screeching halt when Amina’s cousin declared on the blog that Amina had met the fate of many bloggers in authoritarian regimes: Assad’s police had taken her into custody. Whether she was alive or dead, no one knew.

As soon as “Free Amina” groups popped up on Facebook and the State Department began looking for her, the story began to seem a lot like fiction. No one had ever talked to Amina. The Guardian published a profile of her June 7 that included a picture they soon found out wasn’t Amina but of a Londoner called Jelena Lecic. The biographical details in her blog posts did not check out. Amina Arraf couldn’t be found in any public records in Georgia or Virginia and the names of her father and mother also turned up nothing. (more…)

April Fools’ Day 2011
Metro.co.uk
March 31, 2011

April Fools’ Day: Top five April Fools’ Day jokes in sport ever: For some, April Fools’ Day is all fun and high jinx, but for others it’s just those with no sense of humour playing along with the rest of the human race. At Metro we thought we’d celebrate five of the best sporting April Fools’ jokes of all time.

Top 5 YouTube pranks: To celebrate April Fools’ Day this year, we’ve had a look back at some of the best YouTube pranks to cross our jape-loving paths.

April Fools’ Day: Joke ideas to play on your work colleagues and friends: It’s April Fools’ Day and once again workers around the country will be playing a host of tricks on their colleagues and friends. If you’re short on prank ideas, read on for Metro’s guide to the best jokes to play.

April Fools’ Day movie special: Top 5 ill-advised film pranks: It’s the week of April Fools’ Day and innocent pranks are very much the order of the day. We bring you our five best film pranks.

Submitted by Nick: Over the last few days we have been working on an infographic entitled, April Fools 2011: Pranks Around The Web. We stayed up late so we could get first peek at 2011 pranks online this morning, which allowed us to quickly add them to our infographic. Needless to say were a bit tired, but very happy with the infographic we created.

We will be updating this post throughout the day with any new and exciting April Fools’ Day pranks of 2011. Keep your eyes peeled and… enjoy the below April Fools infographic which includes the top pranks of today as well as the past.

[Editor's note: We added the links. They probably won't work after today]

Top April Fools 2011 Pranks Online

Google – Motion gaming has become extremely popular over the past few years with the Wii, Move, and Kinect. Now Google wants to make Gmail motion controlled, thus launching Gmail Motion. No keyboard or mouse needed, hand and body gestures will control everything for you. All of this is detailed on the custom site Google launched for April Fools day. The motion functionality even looks to extend to Google docs, for which Google also created a custom site experience. Another Google prank you will notice when typing in a search today is a job open for autocompleters, and you only need to type 32,000 words per minute to apply.

YouTube – In honor of April Fools, YouTube decided to go retro and give users a feel for what it would have been like for the business in 1911. They even have 1911 logos on all YouTube videos, and when you click it, the video will transform into a vintage, silent, motion picture. Everything will turn to a dirty and grainy yellow accompanied by old-school piano music, looking something like a Charlie Chaplin film. (more…)

From Joey Skaggs:

The 26th Annual April Fools’ Day Parade will begin at Fifth Avenue and 59th Street at 12 noon, Friday, April 1, 2011. Rain or shine, the parade will march down Fifth Avenue to Washington Square Park for the post-parade festivities and selection of the King or Queen of Fools from the costumed marching look-alikes.

The theme for this year’s parade is “If It Wasn’t For Bad Luck I’d Have No Luck At All.” The parade will kick off with a Bob Dylan classic “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” sung by the very vocal WTF! Chorus including General Stanley McChrystal, ex-Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele, actors Lindsay Lohan and Charlie Sheen, Representative Charlie Rangel, and deposed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarek look-alikes. Color commentary will be provided by Governor Mike Huckabee. It may be inaccurate but it will be colorful.

This year’s floats will be lead by Grand Marshall Tony Heyward, whose Lap Pool float filled with crude oil will feature BP, Halliburton and Trans Ocean executives bobbing in the muck. Parade attendees are encouraged to bring stuffed birds, animals and fish to toss into the pool as the float passes. Next will be the corporate-sponsored Supreme Court float featuring justices completely covered with corporate logos waving banners proclaiming “Corporations Are People Too!” They will be followed by the Congressional Marionnette Show float with lobbyists pulling the strings of dancing elected officials. Next is the giant Royal Wedding Cake Piggy Bank driven by Elton John, featuring Prince William and Kate Middleton on top. Uniformed royal guards will be asking for spare change from the crowd to help pay for the wedding. And then there will be the Middle-Class Backyard Russian Spy float equipped with lawn chairs, a barbecue, and an above-ground pool. The beautiful sexy Russian spy Ana Chapman will be handing out hot dogs to the crowd. Next is the State of Arizona float driven by Governor Jan Brewer as a wall is being constructed by illegal Mexican immigrants. This will be followed by a motorized 30-foot miniature of the USS Enterprise commanded by Captain Honor projecting lewd and lascivious videos for the crowd to see. The Pope will make an appearance in his new decked-out Pimpmobile tossing colored condoms Mardi Gras–style to the crowd. Throughout the parade fleeing Arab Dictators and Tyrants will dash along carrying bulging suitcases overstuffed with American dollars. The Topeka Westborough Baptist Church float will bring up the rear protesting everything and damning everyone to Hell. (more…)

Wisconsin legislature pushing for prank call ban
by Laura Donovan
The Daily Caller
March 2, 2011

A week after Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker received a prank call from blogger Ian Murphy, who posed as conservative billionaire David Koch, two Wisconsin legislators introduced a bill Monday that would ban prank calls, reports the Badger Herald.

Republican state Sen. Mary Lazich and Republican state Rep. Mark Honadel said their measure would forbid deceiving the call’s recipient into believing the caller is someone he or she is not.

“While use of spoofing is said to have some legitimate uses, it can also be used to frighten, harass and potentially defraud,” Lazich and Honadel told the Badger Herald. (more…)

Submitted by Tiannah Viechweg of Gallowgate TV:

Contact:
takepart@gallowgatetv.com
0207 297 9814
Please include full details of your wish and a contact phone number

“Shark” Eating Cardiff Surfer Statute is Removed
San Diego 6
July 27, 2010

Cardiff-by the-Sea – Encinitas city workers removed an artist’s addition to the city’s famed surfer statue Tuesday.

A bronze surfer statue has been the target of many gags.

Unknown predawn pranksters on Saturday surrounded the roadside statue in Cardiff-by-the-Sea with a papier mache model of a great white shark that appeared to be swallowing it whole.

Crowds of gawkers and photographers gathered around the 16-foot creation after the sun rose.

San Diego County sheriff’s Lt. Tony Ray said no criminal report was filed because there was no damage to the statue.

The $120,000 sculpture called “Magic Carpet Ride” was commissioned by the Cardiff Botanical Society in 2007.

The statue has been bedecked with bras, skirts and witch hats so many times that locals have come to call it “The Cardiff Kook.”

City workers showed up shortly before 8:00 Tuesday morning and started tearing down the shark addition.

photo: Chromotive

An attempt to intellectualize the institutionalization of interactive performance art, or… how to make a Lincoln log.

Double Play
by Nikki Columbus
Artforum.com
June 1, 2010

In April, the Kitchen presented The Juvenal Players by Pablo Helguera, which theatricalized a panel discussion between a curator, a collector, a critic, an artist, and an arts administrator. Helguera, an artist and the Museum of Modern Art’s director of adult and academic programs, has written extensively on performance, pedagogy, and art-world etiquette (see The Pablo Helguera Manual of Contemporary Art Style), even once complaining: “In my role as programmer, I have frequently been frustrated by the low or nonexistent public-speaking skills of those who lecture and participate in academic discussions.” He clearly relished the chance to create a full cast of panelists speaking eloquently and behaving badly.

It was therefore with some anticipation that I attended a recent forum organized by Helguera, “Audience Experiments: Contemporary Art in the Age of Spectacle,” held at MoMA on May 18. The program was structured in three “acts”: a presentation by artist Andrea Fraser; a roundtable featuring theater and performance practitioners, curator RoseLee Goldberg, and UC Berkeley professor Shannon Jackson; and a performance by artist David Levine. Would the participants turn on one another and reveal their deepest, darkest secrets? Or this time, given the program’s title, would the audience take the lead?

Read the rest of this article here.