Kind of a late post but I went to the first night of the SF CounterCorp film festival last week and saw a documentary on Monsanto called, “The World According to Monsanto.”I was a little disappointed in the production quality and research methods that went into making the film but never the less learned more than I already knew about this truly evil corporation.
Just watched Idiocracy this evening. A pretty fun (could have been better written) movie about where the human race is heading. Over all though it’s a decent futuristic comedy about the dumbing down of the population and has some great commentary about modern entertainment, corporate domination and the state of democracy.
I just watched Chicago 10, with a friend of mine. It’s a movie / documentary about the protests and trial (of the Chicago 10) that took place during the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. It centers around several young activists / leaders who opposed The Vietnam War, including Jerry Rubin, Abbie Hoffman and others. What struck me most was the intensity of the documentary footage used through this half animated half real footage film. Actually seeing someone get bludgeoned with a night stick or hit with tear gas was surreal to say the least. It was also fascinating to watch the dynamics of the protector /authorities face-offs play out.
Though some of the animation seemed a sub-par at times (the court scenes) I’d definitely recommend this one.
This past weekend I was down in San Diego and ended up randomly going to swap meet. I found some great stuff including some manuals from the 70’s and early 40’s. One is a small manual entitled, “The United States Marine… Essential Subjects,” and covers everything from uniform specification and measurements, to types of shelters good for weathering out a nuclear attack. The other one (pictured here) is a little booklet called, “Miscellaneous Chemical Munitions,” and gives a detailed run-down on all the chemical munitions available to soldiers, covering what they are made of, how to use them and when to use them. Both are packed with some great instructional illustrations.
This week over a short flight to San Diego I started reading Kalle Lasn’s Culture Jam. Though its not particularly research heavy, most of his rants about the state of American consumer culture and its effects on all of us carry a lot of truth. One such bit in a chapter about the emergence of modern advertising and how we’ve come to experience the world not as it is, but as it is seen through commercial messaging goes as follow: “(Modern Advertising) marks the end of the authentic experience, and therefore the end of the authentic self.”
This made me think of another bit of related genius I read recently in a magazine: “When you cut off arterial blood to an organ, the organ dies. When you cut the flow of nature into people’s lives, their spirit dies. It’s as simple as that.”
Both of these made me think about how living in a large urban area, exposed to almost constant commercial messaging can sometimes feel like slow death. I think I’ll join a small farming community when I finish grad school. : )
Wanted to re-post some good reading that I’ve recently been tipped off to. An instructor of mine recently reminded me of Naomi Klien’s new book The Shock Doctrine, in which the author “explodes the myth that the global free market triumphed democratically.” If you are not familiar with the author, I highly recommend her first book No Logo.
Another book I just ordered by Rob Walker is entitled, Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are. Once again I’ve heard some great things about this one. A quick excerpt to get your attention, “Brands are dead. Advertising no longer works. Weaned on TiVo, the Internet, and other emerging technologies, the short-attention-span generation has become immune to marketing. Consumers are “in control.” Or so we’re told.”
I was thinking more today about what form my final project will take and how I’ll tie all of this material together. One idea I was throwing around with my advisor last semester was to have an “Anarkon Walk,” In which I would wheat paste a series of sets of posters up around the city that introduced an audience to different elements of the company (history, goals, brand guidelines, products, philosophy, etc.) and then hand out maps that would direct people in a order to the specific sites.
Another idea I had for the final presentation was to gather everything up in a “New Affiliates” package. I was thinking of finding one of those James Bond style silver briefcases that would have all of my stuff in it including…
Just watched War Inc. and it was pretty amazing. The film is a fictional forecast of the future of “Brand America,” in a country called Turaqistan which is occupied by an American private corporation run by a former US Vice-President. In an effort to monopolize the opportunities the war-torn nation offers, the corporation’s CEO hires a hit man, to kill a Middle East oil minister.
Just watched the McDonald’s health documentary “Super Size Me,” for the first time. Though I had been putting it off for some time it’s actually a pretty amazing and well done documentary. Recommended viewing for all.
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The Story of Stuff sent to me by a good friend and definitely worth a look. I think this is directed towards a younger audience and can get pretty preachy but it definately gets the big picture across.
