Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Appropriation film- the S from Hell

The S from Hell by Rodney Ascher. Not political in itself, but it is a pretty interesting polemic about the power of the media to terrorize.
"Not an exhaustive historical documentary, THE S FROM HELL is a subjective film whose aim is make the audience feel the same fear and confusion as the children who were first confronted by the vexing, unfolding sights and mournful, dissonant sounds that hid in the cracks between their favorite TV shows."

Friday, March 23, 2012

Popular music and Consumption

HERE is a critique by the theorist Theodore Adorno who proposes that music used in protest makes horrendous acts more palatable and consumable.
The beginning is in German, but at 1:15 there are english subtitles.. do not be intimidated by not understanding the beginning!


What do you think? aGree or disagree?

Kleinau this week

March 22-24th, 2012 – Double Bill!
Where’s Queerdo? Disabling Perceptions!
Written and Performed by Julie Cosenza
Directed by Rick Jones
Meet Queerdo. A clown. A mime. A person. Combining physical theatre, video, music, and a wink ‘n’ a smile, Queerdo comes to life. With a little help from friends Alex and Julie, they challenge notions of ablebodiedness, sexuality, and the dreaded “normal.” This wacky tale, exploring avenues of queerness and disability, will complicate your perceptions of how different people move in different worlds.

The Real Housewives of Heather’s Head
Written and Performed by Heather Hull
Directed by Aubrey Huber
Tonight’s episode is brought to you by an insatiable affinity for pop/cultural portrayals of female social structures. You’re invited to the exclusive behind-the-scenes actions as our Personae negotiate the intersecting tensions of women’s relationships with self, other, and self-as-others. Special guests include intrapersonal identity constructions, critical-comedic sensibilities, performance of imagined reality, and mature themes.

With no language at all...

Some videos that are challenging my "Must have speech" rule.
Creativity rules instead!
These two are by Bryan Boyce- the first uses no text.


this next one using the mouth replacement technique that is probably familiar.. I think the first one is more effective as a message; while the second is more absurdist.

Protesting policy creation by a male dominated congress

from Male congressmen now being inundated with handmade vaginas.

this same site has reproductions of letters women are sending (via fb) to Rick Perry with questions that would ordinarily be directed to Planned Parenthood (about reproductive health problems).




Also, "Our Bodies Ourselves" at 40. Our Bodies, Ourselves was the kind of book that libraries banned and women stashed under their beds like pornography—a fixture of college dorm rooms that shocked conservatives with its candid discussion (and close-up drawings) of masturbation, contraception and the clitoris (spelled out as klit-o-ris). Pre-teen girls poured over it at slumber parties. Boys ran off with it, determined to learn its womanly secrets. The first season of The Wonder Years even had Kevin Arnold committing the ultimate sin when he swiped a copy from his mother’s bedroom. by Jessica Bennett -- more HERE

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Snatchel.. Just Wonderful

Here is a link to the Snatchel project that was discussed in class Thursday, March 22nd.  I found it and thought I would share.  I'm particularly fond of the "happy uterus" lol.

http://www.governmentfreevjj.com/

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Trayvon Martin- what is the situation?

Christopher Booker, an SIUC political science student, is posting a series of videos in which he follows through the bureaucratic tangles of law and justice to learn more about what happened to Trayvon Martin. Martin was a 17 year old African American male who was killed, unarmed, in Sanford, Florida last month.

Friday, March 9, 2012

anti-Kony Video - article

An article in the Guardian UK published today-- Kony 2012: what's the real story?
points out a number of discrepancies between the story about Kony as portrayed in the video and the reality on the ground. It is also an interesting article because of their use of letters from people on the ground; especially interesting to read the letter from someone in Uganda who says, like Steve Clair, "this is such an old story", Kony isn't even in Uganda anymore, and what we need now is development help-- versus a letter by a "mom" who feels it is moving kids to care. If Kony is definitely out of the country, and the children are generally safe, then is the Kony video hi production spam?

read the article
"A 28-minute film about the plight of children in Africa has been watched more than 21m times on YouTube. But the charity behind it is facing criticism for its Hollywood-style campaigning on the issue. Are the criticisms fair?"

State of Silence *(video by Husni Ashiku)

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

WEEK of March 8: additional resources on queer, aids and identity politics histories

A Call and an Offering; on Pilot TV Chicago - a four-day d.i.y. television studio built in October 2004.(Bordowitz at 12:40)

Greg Bordowitz Interview


CHRISTIANSEN AND HANSEN: COMEDY AS CURE FOR TRAGEDY:
ACT UP AND THE RHETORIC OF AIDS
Essay about Act UP. available as pdf here

New York Times: When Political Art Mattered


A couple more suggested readings by fellow students:


WITTIG, Monique. One is not Born a Woman
Linked:


McINTOSH: White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack







Gran Fury was a major part of the AIDS awareness movement, especially as the “propaganda” wing of legendary activist group ACT UP. A collective of artists, filmmakers and other visual types — including my former prof and mentor, director Tom Kalin! Shout out to Tom! — they first got famous for their incendiary, subversive posters, using the strategies of mass media and advertising to spread a message of tolerance, knowledge and anti-bigotry, all in an attempt to demystify and derail the prejudice and ignorance surrounding AIDS and HIV that came out of the 80s. Their work wasn’t obtuse or complicated, but still managed to touch upon the complexities of issues without flattening them. They, along with efforts of other major AIDS activist organizations, turned what many initially regarded as a marginal health concern into a major political issue that intersected queer and gay rights, public health, corporate greed, political indifference, sexuality and other taboos. It made AIDS an issue for everyone and took down a lot of homophobia at the same time.from: this website



Tuesday, March 6, 2012



Compelling Photo-Journalism from Syria.  Text below from NYT:


February 23, 2012, 4:12 PM

Photographer’s Video From Homs Shows Urban Warfare in Vivid Detail

Updated | 4:49 p.m. Using footage recorded by a French photographer who was in Homs this month, Britain’s Channel 4 News has produced a remarkable portrait of urban warfare in the Syrian city, between government forces and the lightly armed fighters of the Free Syrian Army.
The 11-minute video report broadcast on Wednesday night features scenes of everyday life in the city divided along sectarian lines, and shows a battle between the rebels and government snipers for control of a local headquarters of the mukhabarat, or secret police.
The photographer, who uses the assumed name Mani to shield his identity and make it possible for him to return to Syria to work again, was present when the current assault on districts of Homs under rebel control began on Feb. 3.
As Jonathan Miller of Channel 4 News observed, “While the world has become used to grainy shaky and gruesome footage and images from Homs fed through whatever Internet connection is available, Mani’s crystal clear and incredible footage gives perhaps the clearest and most frightening account of what Homs has been like for the past three weeks.”
The new portrait of life inside Homs offers a closer look at the activities of the army defectors and guerrilla fighters who are battling government forces in the city than most of the video posted online by opposition activists.
One brief piece of video posted online by activists on Thursday, does seem to show that the rebels in Homs have acquired at least some heavy weaponry.
In a recent analysis of the widening gyre in Syria, the International Crisis Group wrote that while “the regime strove to deny the existence of a deep-seated popular protest movement,” at first, choosing instead to claim it was battling foreign-backed armed gangs, “now that it faces an emerging insurgency coupled with a broad international coalition bent on its demise, it appears wholly unprepared to cope with the very enemy it initially fantasized and which its short-sighted behavior largely helped bring to life.”

Found this on the Facebook grapevine, thought it was worth a share.