Political Artivism Collection

New media technology is a very potent tool for political expression.  David Silver coined the term ‘political artivism’ to refer to activism possible through hypermedia.  This is a haphazard, sometimes annotated collection of websites that have been sent to me by colleagues as interesting artifacts for those of us doing research into new media and society.  I do not always subscribe to the messages of these overtly political art projects, but I always respect the ingenuity and freedom of expression that these projects represent. 

Most of these require the latest plug-ins and a fast connection. Each time you visit a website make sure you play with right and left mouse buttons often there are interactive features that are not well explained (and I don’t list them all here).

URL

www.sojo.net/video - campaign to take faith back from political parties

http://www.preparingforemergencies.co.uk/ - British farce alert preparation

http://69.93.11.34/mirror.html - Kerry and Bush duel through “This Land Is Your Land”

http://www.rightwingeye.com/ - right wing eye for the straight couple.

Link 1, original spot on Letterman

Link 2, reporting the fallout.

David Letterman did a comedy piece on Monday that showed a bored,

fidgety child behind Bush as he was giving a speech. Apparently the

White House called CNN and asked them attack the piece. Amazingly

enough they did. CNN rolls over for the White House about a comedy

piece! Letterman tells the story in detail, including CNN's denial that they

ever recieved a call from the White House, and Dave's discovery that

indeed they did. Thanks be to Steve Warren in NYC for ripping.

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0407/fiore.php - gay agenda, digital voting technology flaws, and flash on other issues.

http://www.theyrule.net/, Map out board members of companies, build your own power maps.

http://flash.bushrecall.org/, Lord of the Right Wings

http://www.themeatrix.com/, against agribusiness

http://votearianna.com/movie/, Ariana v. Arnold (hybrid v. hummer) internet film.

http://www.jibjab.com/, A FABULOUS collection of political cartoons, some interactive, others just fun to watch.  Multiple political targets.  Political characters that rap and battle.

http://www.batemania.com/animation/films/kucinichpatriotactfinal.swf, hHere is Scott Bateman's animation on the "Patriot Act." It's a shockwave file.

http://www.foulds2000.freeserve.co.uk/bushv6.htm, tThis site is interactive – move the cursor across the screen.  Buttons down the bottom for different political characters.  After you finish with the leaders of the free world, click on the small buttons at the bottom of the image.  “Dancing Blair,” “Curse of Enron,” “Military industrial complex redrawing the world with blood and bombs,” build your own mutating picture app.

http://www.coxar.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/, http://www.coxar.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/blair.html, alright, no flash here, just simple and beautiful

http://www.freerangegraphics.com/ go through flash, gallery, then flash movies. They are very creative and usually humorous flash animation movies used to drive viewers to take action via the web.

http://bannerart.org/, Banner Art Collective - has huge collection of static banner art

http://yonkis.ya.com/mediaflash/bombsaddam.swf, “It’s time to bomb Saddam.” Catchy tune.

http://www.democrats.org/scotus/bushenstein.html, Democrat “Bushenstein”

http://someonebetter.home.attbi.com/, edited speeches & songs

http://www.opensorcery.net/velvet-strike/, Digital graffiti contest.

http://www.lemonbovril.co.uk/bushspeech/ build your own presidential speeches with single-word clips of presidential voices.

http://www.amnestyusa.org/diamonds/d4.html, Amnesty International flash app on “conflict” or “blood” diamonds.

http://www.amnestyusa.org/countries/guatemala/actions/peace_accords/emp.html, Amnesty flash animation outlines the history of the EMP in Guatemala.

http://www.atmo.se/zino.aspx?pageID=12&documentID=97,Bush/Blair love duet

http://www.idleworm.com/nws/2002/11/iraq2.shtml, gulf War 2 (aka World War 2.5)

http://www.moveon.org/technicaldifficulties/, MoveOn apologists

http://www.dancingbush.com/, not much more to this, Dancing President

http://www.bushflash.com/thanks.html, alternative history of Saddam to the tune of Bing Crosby’s “Thanks for the Memories.”

http://www.ralphdontrun.net/, does the math on Nader’s impact in the 2000 voting distribution. Perfect for people who can’t think beyond a two-party system.

http://www.ericblumrich.com/gta.html, flash documentary on Florida voter rolls.

http://ww11.e-tractions.com/truemajority/run/oreo, flash appeal to join

http://www.musicforamerica.org/bushad, spoof official bush ad