the status corp

Afro-American Express, 2004Part of Hank Willis Thomas’s Branded series.
Via Bezembinder.

Originally from we make money not art [...]

A few years back, I bought ad space in magazines for Matador. To place an ad, I’d call an ad rep, reserve the space, and send them artwork. Shortly after the ad came out, they’d send me a copy of the ad along with a bill. So I was psyched to see someone making creative use of this system: A guy in Switzerland, pretending to be a representative from Gucci, called up a weekly paper and reserved a two-page spread. He then sent in a fake ad of himself naked from the waist up, flanked by a bottle of Gucci…

Originally
from Stay Free! Daily

by Carrie McLaren

reBlogged

by the status corporation

on Mar 22, 2007, 1:12AM

Stitch for Senate, launched on the day of the 4th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq, invites knit hobbyists to craft helmet liners for every US Senator in an effort to encourage the politicians to support the troops by bringing them home.

The helmet liner pattern was adapted from a support-the-troops initiative for soldiers stationed in Iraq. Once they receive their helmet, senators can opt to send it to a soldier in Iraq or Afghanistan. Charitable knitting during wartime has been a tradition since the American Revolution. During WWII in particular, women, men and even school-age children were invited to Knit for Defense and keep troops warm.

The aim of Stitch for Senate is to start a dialogue between both sides of the Iraq war debate. “I would like people to be thinking and talking about the war a little more, and this may be one way of doing it,” explains Catherine Mazza, founder of microRevolt and adjunct professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

The website will compile testimonies from knitters seeking to understand what knitters express through wartime knitting: charity, allegiance, patriotism, resistance, radicalism, etc. and use the tradition of political organizing within knitting circles as a space for storytelling, discussion, exchange and protest.

Related: Victory Gardens, one of Amy Franceschini’s most recent projects re-imagines the Victory Gardens of World Wars I and II for the present political and ecological situation.

Via networked_performance and Orlando Sentinel.

More knitting stories: Follow the flocks, Pyuupiru’s costumes, Burrower knitwear, Shocking crochet, Delirious knitting show at Craft Council, Subversive knitting, Guerrilla knitters, etc.

Originally
from we make money not art

by Regine

reBlogged

by the status corporation

on Mar 20, 2007, 8:18PM

Cory Doctorow:

Sticker Nation: The Big Book of Subversive Stickers Volume 1 is a new book from Srini Kumar and Disinformation. Srini is the creator of Unamerican.com whose stickers (i.e., I WORSHIP SATAN HA HA HA and BOY DOES HIGH SCHOOL EVER SUCK) are classic Internet schwag. Srini is incredibly prolific, coming up with sticker designs at a prodigious rate — he also operates Sticker Nation, where you can roll your own Unamerican-style stickers.

The book is something I’ve never seen before: 400+ vinyl paper bumper stickers, in sheets, in alphabetical order, bound in a big trade paperback. You get hundreds of Unamerican stickers for $15, ready to peel and stick (along with the hilarious back-cover disclaimer: “Please don’t sticker up public spaces or other people’s property without permission. Use this book with respect for other people’s property or you might get into trouble. We are not going to be held liable for your zany vandalism schemes and you are not a freak property damage robot. Use this book correctly for maximum effect. Thanks for reading, we’re on your side.”)

The Volume 1 in the title suggests that there are more editions to come — I eagerly await them. However, I’d prefer if future editions contained some sheets of small stickers, appropriately sized for laptops, phones, etc — how many bumpers does the average stickerer own?

Link

See also:
New book on kooky counterculture stickers by Srini Kumar

Originally
from Boing Boing

by Cory Doctorow

reBlogged

by the status corporation

on Mar 21, 2007, 5:04PM

Originally
from Culture Jamming IMA

by Laura Chipley

reBlogged

by the status corporation

on Dec 22, 2006, 2:08PM

Xeni Jardin:

Here is a series of ads from Amnesty International (in Spanish) asking why prolific American serial killers such as John Wayne Gacy, Ted Bundy and Pee Wee Gaskins received due process, but Guantánamo detainees have not. All three ads are made to look as if they were written in blood.

Originally
from Boing Boing

by Xeni Jardin

reBlogged

by the status corporation

on Mar 16, 2007, 7:45PM

Dear subscribers, blog readers, and friends: After over a decade of running Stay Free!, I’m sad to say that I’ve decided to stop publishing the magazine. We’re going to do one more issue and then publish more-or-less exclusively on the web. There are a number of reasons, but the over-arching theme is burnout — burnout coupled with financial woes. Selling ads has gotten all but impossible. Indie record labels and small book publishers — our bread-and-butter — are in the toilet. Ditto newsstand sales. No one goes to book stores looking for zines anymore; the nerds are all online. And…

Originally
from Stay Free! Daily

by Carrie McLaren

reBlogged

by the status corporation

on Mar 9, 2007, 9:16PM

I recently had the greatest night of Texas Style drinks with the Eyebeam fellows. Steve Lambert introduced me to his project Anti-Advertising Agency - and I am an instant fan/supporter/hopeful future collaborator! A great resource, inspiring projects and smart commentary. I know I’ve already added the feed….

ok so after some months of neglect I hope to begin posting here again, creating some resources, reblogging and commenting on what i find out there in the world of anti advertising and creating interventions and fun projects to share in the commoddities page…

It’s been five years, but Troy, NY was the birthplace of Whirl-Mart. Prompted by a call for foolishness on April Fool’s Day, Andrew Lynn came up with the idea: a group of strangers enter a superstore at a predetermined time and silently walk through the store pushing empty carts. Through this “ritual of [...]