Creative Activism - The Art of the Prank

February 3, 2012December 15, 2023

Museum of Sydney Spotlights Culture Jammers

Culture Jammers
Museum of Sydney
Sydney, Australia
February 11 – June 10, 2012

A subversive spotlight
by Karen Michelmore
abc.net.au
3 February, 2012

Sacred cows make the best hamburgers, says the activist who defaced an Australian icon.

It’s been eight years since David Burgess scaled up to the top of Sydney’s gleaming white Opera House and lashed it with bright red paint.

It took three coats before the act was complete. NO WAR screamed the sign.

The highly-visible protest against the looming Iraq war split the Australian community between those who were shocked at the wonton vandalism of the national icon, and those who applauded the message.

Ultimately, it landed Mr Burgess and his activist peer Will Saunders in jail for nine months’ weekend detention for malicious damage.

“I won’t say there were days I didn’t wake up feeling utterly miserable, but you couldn’t really regret what we’d done,” Burgess says. Continue reading “Museum of Sydney Spotlights Culture Jammers”

February 1, 2012December 15, 2023

East Haven Mayor Pranked with Tacos

Activists Send 400 Tacos To East Haven Mayor After Infamous Quip
CBS New York
January 26, 2012

Joseph Maturo Jr. In Serious Damage Control Mode Following Jest Gone Awry

EAST HAVEN, Conn. (CBSNewYork/AP) “” The office of East Haven”s mayor was blasted with prank phone calls and a delivery of hundreds of tacos Thursday after his now-famous quip that he would address accusations of anti-Latino bias by eating tacos, a remark that left emotions raw in the town”s large Hispanic community.

Mayor Joseph Maturo Jr. has apologized several times but resisted calls for his resignation over remarks he made to a television reporter following Tuesday”s arrests of four town police officers, men described by one FBI official as “bullies with badges.”

Maturo held regular meetings Thursday as Connecticut”s Latino and Puerto Rican Affairs Commission called on him to resign.

“The Latino community is upset and deeply wounded in what should have been a day of redemption for them,” the commission”s acting executive director, Werner Oyandel, said in a written statement, calling the comment “unprofessional and given in poor taste.”

Watch Maturo”s “˜Taco” interview below (YouTube)

An immigration rights group, Reform Immigration for America, delivered 400 tacos to his Town Hall office in protest, though Maturo had left shortly beforehand for a meeting. A soup kitchen picked up the tacos, but one was left symbolically for the mayor. Continue reading “East Haven Mayor Pranked with Tacos”

January 29, 2012December 15, 2023

In Protesting, Creativity Can Trump Violence

Thousands in anti-Putin protest
Belfast Telegraph
January 29, 2012

Thousands of cars flying white ribbons and white balloons have circled central Moscow in a protest against Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
The cars jammed the inner lanes all along the 10-mile Garden Ring, which has as many as 16 lanes of traffic at its widest points.

More protesters stood along the side of the road waving white ribbons and flags as the cars passed, their horns blaring. Continue reading “In Protesting, Creativity Can Trump Violence”

January 26, 2012December 15, 2023

Coventry University Open Class in Creative Activism Presents Guest Podcast with Joey Skaggs

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

Listen here:
The Art of the Prank and Culture Jamming with Joey Skaggs

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. Continue reading “Coventry University Open Class in Creative Activism Presents Guest Podcast with Joey Skaggs”

January 26, 2012December 15, 2023

Toying with Authority

Submitted by Deborah:

Doll ‘protesters’ present small problem for Russian police
by Miriam Elder
Guardian.co.uk
26 January 2012

Police in Siberian city ask prosecutors to investigate legality of protest involving display of toy figures holding miniature placards

Russian police don’t take kindly to opposition protesters – even if they’re 5cm high and made of plastic.

Police in the Siberian city of Barnaul have asked prosecutors to investigate the legality of a recent protest that saw dozens of small dolls – teddy bears, Lego men, South Park figurines – arranged to mimic a protest, complete with signs reading: “I’m for clean elections” and “A thief should sit in jail, not in the Kremlin”. Continue reading “Toying with Authority”