Creative Activism - The Art of the Prank

December 5, 2009December 15, 2023

Prostitutes to Protest with Free Sex

Submitted by W.J. Elvin III”

Prostitutes protest with free sex
The Copenhagen Post Online
04 December 2009

As a response to the city council”s efforts to curb prostitution during COP15, sex workers offer free service

kommune against climate sex_200 A group of prostitutes has decided to offer free sex to delegates taking part in UN Climate Change Conference (COP15) in protest against the city”s attempt to dissuade conference participants from visiting brothels.

The city council has contacted 160 hotels asking them not to arrange prostitutes for guests, reports Avisen.dk.

In collaboration with The Nest International – an anti-trafficking organisation – and tourist organisation Wonderful Copenhagen, postcards with the slogan “˜Be sustainable – don”t buy sex” have been distributed to hotels as part of the campaign.

“˜As mayor I have a duty over which image of Copenhagen will be shown during the summit and I think it”s deplorable that you can buy a woman for sex,” said Copenhagen Mayor Ritt Bjerregaard, who is hosting her own climate conference for mayors.

But sex workers interest organisation SIO is outraged by the unfounded claims that sex tourism increases during high-level summits, and a group of prostitutes are offering free sex to counteract the council”s efforts. Continue reading “Prostitutes to Protest with Free Sex”

December 2, 2009December 15, 2023

Tales of Two Broken Cities

Fixing a Broken City
by Nate Berg
MetropolisMag.com
November 24, 2009

Windsor

Just across the river from Detroit sits a city forgotten. Battered by the fall of the auto industry and struggling to keep its economy running, Windsor, Ontario, has seen some tough times in recent years, and things aren”t likely to improve any time soon. It has the highest unemployment rate in Canada, a plummeting population, and the empty storefronts and foreclosed homes that have come to define this generation”s Great Recession.

Though geographically south, Windsor”s been called the Detroit of the North. For some locals, it”s simply a broken city. But there”s a growing movement that believes Windsor is a city that can be fixed.

Read the rest of this article about the work of the Broken City Lab here.

Welcome to Detroit
by Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson
MetropolisMag.com
September 3, 2009

sorryweredead-200 Within hours of arriving in Detroit, nearly $14,000 worth of computers, iPods, cameras, and art supplies went missing from the backseat of a car. The robbery was surprisingly quick, executed in the few minutes the vehicle was left unguarded on the street. The two victims knew better than to leave valuables in plain site, yet they hadn”t quite expected the crime. Neither had they backed up their hard drives properly, so the loss was more than just monetary.

Welcome to Detroit. Continue reading “Tales of Two Broken Cities”

November 24, 2009December 15, 2023

PETA Promises a Furless Muff Protest

Nude on ice
New York Post, Page Six
November 23, 2009

nude_on_ice There will be no sequined costume for champion figure skater Tai Babilonia tomorrow — in fact, there will be no costume at all. As part of PETA’s iconic “Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur” campaign, the two-time Olympian will skate on the ice rink at Rockefeller Center wearing just a tiny flesh-colored thong, and carrying a sign across her chest. The champion skater is stripping off to encourage shoppers to cross fur off their Black Friday shopping lists.

November 20, 2009December 15, 2023

Veiled Threat: The Guerrilla Graffiti of Princess Hijab

Veiled Threat: The guerrilla graffiti of Princess Hijab
Bitch Magazine
by Arwa Aburawa
November 19, 2009

princesshijab1

Since 2006, the elusive guerrilla artist known as Princess Hijab has been subverting Parisian billboards, to a mixed reception. Her anonymity irritates her critics, many of whom denounce her as extremist and antifeminist; when she recently conceded, in the pages of a German newspaper, that she wasn”t a Muslim, it opened the floodgates to avid speculation in the blogosphere. If her claim of being a 21-year-old Muslim girl was only partially true, some wondered what the real message was behind her self-described “artistic jihad.” Continue reading “Veiled Threat: The Guerrilla Graffiti of Princess Hijab”

November 17, 2009December 15, 2023

The Monkey-Wrench Prank

The Monkey-Wrench Prank: An Interview With Tim DeChristopher
by Bryan Farrell
Mother Jones
November 13, 2009

How the Yes Men inspired a climate activist to impersonate an oil speculator””and derail a multimillion-dollar federal land giveaway.

tim-dechristopher200 During the final days of the Bush administration, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) scheduled a controversial auction of oil and gas leases on federal lands, including areas bordering national parks and monuments in Utah. While environmental organizations launched a round of protests and lawsuits, Tim DeChristopher, a 27-year-old econ major at the University of Utah, decided he had to try to stop the sale by himself. Not knowing exactly how he’d do it, DeChristopher walked into the auction in Salt Lake City on December 19, 2008, and had a sneaky idea handed to him in the form of a bidder’s paddle. Simply by raising it again and again and pretending to bid on the leases, he proceeded to drive up their prices and outbid the real speculators on 13 parcels covering more than 22,000 acres and worth $1.7 million dollars.

When it became clear that bidder No. 70 was an impostor with no intention of paying for his purchases, federal agents removed him from the auction. But the damage was done. DeChristopher’s monkey-wrenching tainted the sale, forcing BLM to offer the other buyers the option of withdrawing their bids. That effectively postponed any final decision on the leases until February 2009, when the Obama administration would be in office. Soon after taking office, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar canceled the results of the chaotic auction and criticized the previous administration for allowing it in the first place. Continue reading “The Monkey-Wrench Prank”