Did you awake to find an anarchist hiding under your Christmas tree this morning? If so you might not be alone, as artist Packard Jennings shopdropped a batch of Anarchist action figures at Target and Wal-Mart stores across San Francisco, waiting for unsuspecting consumers to pick them up this holiday season.

“When better than Christmas to make a point about hyper-consumerism?” Jennings asked the New York Times in a recent interview. A stereotype to the max, his plastic black block buddy sports a gas mask, bolt cutters, a gerry can of petrol and two Molotov cocktails. And did I mention he looks very, very angry?

You can watch the confusion as cashiers attempt to ring in the toy, as Jennings sticks around and videotapes the interaction. Actual quote from store manager: "It actually looks like something that some anti G6 [sic] summit activist would just put on our shelf."

Check out more photos and video at Packard Jennings' website.

Annie Leonard became interested in the materials economy when she was attending college in NYC. During the daily six-block treks on 110th street she became fascinated with where the morning's piles of trash ended up as she walked home on the emptied sidewalks in the evenings.

Her interest in material accumulation and disposal has manifested into a new 20 minute web-released animated film, produced with Free Range Media, the folks who brought us The Meatrix.

The Story of Stuff is an engaging and extremely straightforward walk-through of the stages of the materials economy. From "Extraction" through to "Disposal" Leonard's narration is hard-hitting but not riddled with too many facts or technical jargon. The animation visually interprets much of what is spoken by Leonard, and it too is kept to a minimalist, simple presentation.

The end result is a film that is both and activist tool and a pedagogical resource. If you've ever wanted to explain what was wrong with the global economy (or just the economies of North America) and couldn't find the right words, it's time to press play.

The Story of Stuff brings complex economic data, theory and practice onto the screen in understandable, provocative and urgent language with animation that builds the narrative instead of distracting. In the end, the information is not dumbed down, and the message could not be more clear than an unpolluted lake: People made this system, and people can change it.

As the holidays approach for many in North America and elsewhere, it's good to be reminded of a story that needs telling over and over until the malls are empty: The Story of Stuff.

To watch the film and explore the site which is choc-bloc with all kinds of information for alternatives and interventions, visit: StoryofStuff.com.

Since the announcement Tuesday that the New York Philharmonic plans a 48 hr visit into the heart of North Korea, the world has been a buzz. Headlines praise and criticize the visit on February 26th, 2008 for both encouraging discourse between states and legitimizing the D.P.R.K.’s regime. This is not a first for cultural diplomacy; China, the Soviet Union and Iran have all had their methods of trying to befriend the North American powerhouse, but is the agenda behind them cultural, political or both?

Cultural diplomacy: a gentler type of carrot

It’s no secret that North Korea is a bothersome splinter impeding the far reaching grasp of the current Bush administration. As one of the founding members of the ‘Axis of Evil’, North Korea has been less than forthcoming with U.S. plans for its denuclearization.

The current Six-Party Talks (U.S., China, Russia, Japan, D.P.R.K and South Korea) have been attempting to deflate tensions between states and force a shutdown of D.P.R.K’s nuclear programs. But despite the recent headway made at the sixth round of Talks, progress is slow. The traditional methods of sticks and carrots (sanctions and concessions) have been largely inefficient. Both sides continue to have hostile relations, while the demonization of the D.P.R.K as sponsors of terrorism cannot help open channels for dialogue. Perhaps the back door use of cultural diplomacy will prove to be more fruitful.

The Institute of Cultural Diplomacy insists that cultural influences are very effective means of taking down barriers between hostile parties, and will be increasingly important as traditional methods of diplomacy begin to fail.

“The current issues within local, regional, national and international systems can not be resolved without effective change at the grassroots level…The global community currently finds itself in a situation where state governments are starting to realize the significant constraints of their traditional models for diplomacy as the neutrality and legitimacy of their respective initiatives are systematically being questioned.”

If this is so, then The New York Philharmonic might be on the right track. It seems that the trip they planned was one of musical appreciation, education and understanding. Unfortunately it seems to have been overshadowed by the Bush Administration’s zeal for political gain.

Artist, author and experimental geographer Trevor Paglen has created the ingenious project Terminal Air to spy on the spies. Developed in collaboration with the Institute for Applied Autonomy, the web-based work facilitates public visualization of flights known or suspected to be involved in the CIA's extraordinary rendition program.

Eluding national and international law, this governmental scheme involves kidnapping and relocating suspected terrorists to undocumented "dark prisons" where they can be held, interrogated, and tortured indefinitely. Under the guise of national security, US agents use these covert tactics to sidestep habeas corpus and basic human rights.

Terminal Air's flight-tracking software and database monitor specific CIA aircraft flights from 2001 to the present. Their daily routes are displayed in near real-time. Paglen and IAA have designed the flight viewer so that one can easily trace these extraordinary rendition routes around the globe.

To expedite this enterprise, the CIA regularly uses leased equipment and private contractors that often go through civilian airports; thus, their movements are subject to public record. If you're looking for details, down to the history of each plane's use for abductions, the project's data browser is the library for you.

Though the pages take a little time to load, exploring them is worth the wait. Visit IAA's webpage to discover their other tactical media projects, or check out Paglen's site to view his radical artwork and writings.

The United Nations rarely has a sense of humour, but yesterday, to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the coinciding Human Rights Day, the UN opened the tightly sealed doors of its headquarters to the public, offering an exhibit of editorial cartoons entitled Sketching Human Rights. The show appears in the Visitors’ Gallery and will last until mid-January before beginning its worldwide tour, with stops in Jerusalem, Berlin, Wellington and Istanbul.

This exhibit was launched concurrently in Rome, as the UN-backed touring show Cartooning for Human Rights, a spin-off of the year-long tour Cartooning for Peace. As a project founded by Jean Plantu, one of France’s foremost editorial cartoonists, these shows have become a movement of sorts, reacting to the anger and riots that stemmed from the editorial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad early in 2006.

"There has to be a response to the condemnations launched by some Imams, but it had to be done tactfully so as not to fall into the trap of a too frontal attack, which would have been seen as blasphemous in the Arab world. A reaction was called for," Plantu writes of the origins of Cartooning for Peace. "I do think that somehow there is a way to continue being critical, forceful and penetrating without hatred and, above all, without such a marked disrespect for the religious convictions of believers and non-believers alike."

The first edition of Cartooning for Peace was shown in April of 2007 in Paris, now at Rome’s Archeological Museum, it is in its sixth edition. The exhibit features artists from Italy, Turkey, Kenya, Japan, and France. Boasting the great cartoonists American, Jeff Danziger; and Iranian, Hassan Karimzadeh, who is no stranger to the political power of cartoons having been imprisoned for his drawings in 1993.

Both exhibits are hoping to achieve similar ends—create awareness and dialogue about human rights issues around the globe, and examine the relationship between political satire and political power. For both shows, no subjects are off limits with Darfur, Iraq, racial discrimination and women’s rights being some of the topics presented.

The buzz around the movement and this exhibit in particular is simple: pictures are worth a thousand words. "We make drawings without knowing that we practice human rights every day. Our language is the cartoon. My first language is not English, it is not French. My first language is drawing," said Plantu.

It has been decades since John Travolta first blessed our cinema screens with his tight, white, polyester pants. Saturday Night Fever celebrates its thirtieth anniversary this month, and while the leisure suits may be passe, the film's politics are as relevant as ever.

In an article for the Washington Post, Bruce J. Schulman discusses how little has changed since the days when Travolta's Tony Manero worked a dead-end job and daydreamed of dancing. It seems we still have much to learn from the dark days of disco.

"Lapels aside, the film seems strangely prescient—a road map to the income inequality, the ethnic and racial politics, and the lure of celebrity that we see today. Culturally speaking, the '70s are back. As we grapple with soaring gasoline prices, tune in to "Dancing With the Stars" and work through a new kind of national malaise, we would do well to heed the cautionary lessons of the young man in polyester."

Long-time activist artist Vibiana Aparicio-Chamberlin was given a life-time achievement award by the city of Los Angeles last week. Aparicio-Chamberlin started her career in the 1970s doing street theater in East LA, and has spent most of her life teaching and continuing to use art to address social injustice. She is a painter, print-maker and mural artist.

Most recently, Aparicio-Chamberlin has focused her attention on the immigrant community in the US. In February, she conducted workshops for immigrant children, many who live in trailer camps, introducing them to the works of Frida Kahlo and Matisse. In late August, Aparicio-Chamberlin joined other activists in a march in support of Elvira Arellano, an illegal immigrant with an 8 year old (US born) son who was recently arrested by immigration officials. She also recently coordinated an art auction for conscientious objector Augustin Aguayo, a US Army paramedic who refused a second deployment to Iraq.

At the awards ceremony, after thanking the mayor, Aparicio-Chamberlin then asked the council to stop the war – at which point, they took the mic away from her.

To see more of Aparicio-Vibiana's work, go here.

Image of Aparicio-Chamberlin's painting "Women of Iraq: No War for Oil"

Ever wondered if villains get their inboxes filled with spam, too? Now you can play a hand in your favourite villain's e-fate. PleaseSpam.Us promises to put the emails of the most popularly unpopular people in a prominent place on their website (i.e. homepage) specifically designed to attract spambots. Here's the democratic catch. Not just any email will get posted. It must receive enough votes from the general public before the webmaster will make the email address spambot bait.

PleaseSpam.Us is yet another clever intervention by Johnah Brucker-Cohen who works out of Eyebeam Gallery in New York. The intention, according to artist Brucker-Cohen, is to critically re-examine the proliferation of electronic communications systems such as email as well as to question the advent of collaborative filtering (used by sites like DIGG and all of the "DIGG copycat sites" and "Reputation Systems" (as found on many commercial and community oriented sites). The ultimate intention with the project is to explore the tensions of utilizing spam as a cultural and social tool to encourage the debate of how these social systems often work to polarize opinions and pigeonhole debate into specified channels.

So far, George W. Bush's email – president@whitehouse.gov – has the most number of votes ...

Three floors of artwork exploring connected themes around protest and confrontation are on exhibit at Washington's Katzen Art Centre. From DCist:

In an audacious presentation of political and protest art, the Katzen Arts Center’s Art of CONFRONTation showcases three separate exhibitions that share a confident outspokenness. Whether it’s the poignant reenactments of torture of Abu Ghraib by Fernando Botero, or the surreal depictions of the city-dominated human condition by Irving Norman in Dark Metropolis, or the multifaceted collection of some of the 1970s most important feminist art in Claiming Space, these works are united by a passionate and irrepressible yearning to speak and be heard.

Despite their similarities, each exhibit has its own floor in the Katzen Arts Center—whose curved walls and pointed hallways make it a perfect venue for such a dynamic collection—so viewers are able to see each one independent of the others.

Read the whole article here.
Visit the Centre's website here.