But the role of the monarchy in Harper’s Canada goes beyond ceremonial niceties like swearing allegiance to the Crown. It is part of an aggressive, muscular campaign to force a narrative (back) into the Canadian mainstream, one that exalts Commonwealth heritage over that of Francophone or multicultural society. It presents the pot into which the Harper Conservatives expect new Canadians to melt, and the template for patriotism—along with other jingoistic talking points—that landed Canadians are expected to embrace.
Excerpts from Theatre, Disguised Up as Real Journalism.
I take his point, but I’m more concerned about the suggestion that you have to cheat to come up with remarkable journalism that tilts the rink.
Jason Russell, the producer of a video titled “Kony 2012” that went viral on Twitter, YouTube and elsewhere — about Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda — had come under criticism for cutting some corners as well.
The easy lesson might be that journalism is not a game of bean bag, and it would be best left to professionals. But we are in a pro-am informational world where news comes from all directions.
But there is another word for news and information that comes from advocates with a vested interest: propaganda.
David Carr, Theatre, Disguised Up as Real Journalism.
Russell implicitly acknowledges the simplicity of the narrative with his filmmaking. Much of his short film features him explaining to his young son that Kony is a bad guy, and that dad’s job is capturing the bad guy. We are asked to join the campaign against Kony literally by being spoken to as a five year old. It’s not surprising that a five year old vision of a problem – a single bad guy, a single threat to eliminate – leads to an unworkable solution. Nor is it a surprise that this extremely simple narrative is compelling and easily disseminated.
“In 2003, Japanese artist Isao Hashimoto created a time-lapse video map of every nuclear bomb explosion in the world between 1945 and 1998. There were 2053 explosions in that time, including the tests that the United States made during the “Manhattan Project” and the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki that ostensibly ended World War II. The 14-minute long video [above] is a beautiful and terrifying look at the nuclear era that defined world politics, warfare and humanity for more than half a century.”
“This piece of work is a bird’s eye view of the history by scaling down a month length of time into one second. No letter is used for equal messaging to all viewers without language barrier. The blinking light, sound and the numbers on the world map show when, where and how many experiments each country have conducted. I created this work for the means of an interface to the people who are yet to know of the extremely grave, but present problem of the world.”
(via Warren Ellis & ReadWriteWeb)
Capitalism Works For Me! True/False is a beautiful interactive art piece by Steve Lambert designed to spark conversation around a difficult subject. It was made after a successful kickstarter campaign and is now touring the country.
From the project description:
Start a conversation about capitalism and friends edge away slowly, and strangers even faster. This is what art is for. This is what art does well. It creates a space where new ideas and perspectives can be explored. A space unlike any other.
Sandbag Shelters. Cost effective, fast and eco-friendly. Video Report. See more pictures and the final product here.
A Jie warrior with scars designed to look like AK-47s. Previous generations had scars representing wild animals and abstract symbols of power. Now, guns and satellite phones are common showing how deeply guns have become a symbol and tool for holding onto power.
(via churchofindustry)
Source: malformalady
“Politicians are under suspicion, not only by the citizens that we see as being astonished by their manouevers to curb a crisis for which they do not stop trying to put the blame on us.
But in reality, those that truly keep them under strict surveillance, are the markets, loaded with unlimited power which allows them to overthrow legitimate governments, imposing in their place a race of technocrats of suspect past, in the service of the crisis.”
Street Art. Madrid. Luzinterruptu.
“What, if anything does this have to do with the future perfect? The function and meaning of logos? For whom? The extent to which the logo ‘degrades’ with everyday wear and tear – in this instance bullet impacts hitting the caveirµes armoured car. The extent to which its meaning changes with wear and tear.”
Batalhão de Operações Policiais Especiais logo. Brazil. via (Jan Chip)
