Creative Acts - magazine

Passport - Identify me

FRH — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 17:28:01 +0100

Identification papers are needed to cross borders. In Dutch, identificationpapers are, if translated literally, identitypapers. The translation is a bit weird. I see identity as something unique and me, and the governement makes it something standard and machinelike. Is the number the only thing that matters?

This piece of plastic should show you my identity, who I am and what I'm all about, I don't believe it. I want a card or booklet that shows my identity, that when identification is needed I can really show them me. That I'm fun, but grumpy in the mornings, that green is my favourite colour and that I like to eat icecream in winters. What I study is more relevant for who I am than what my adress is.

In the upcoming magazine I want to take the chance to have people experiment with the idea of a passport. Design one that would be unique and individual, what would it look like, how would you use it. Tell me the stories of bordercrossings and travelling.
Feel invited to act and think about this thing that is a passport. Send in your material before may 1st. It can be anything; pictures of artwork you did, an action report, a story, or a video we can place online.

All passengers please board now

Urban Repair Squad Video - DIY Bike Lane

URS — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 18:25:06 +0100

The Toronto Group Urban Repair Squad which painted several kilometers
of bike lanes in 2007 released a video as part of the Creative Activism Exhibition in Toronto, Canada. Fun.

More Info:
http://urbanrepairs.blogspot.com/
http://www.torontofreegallery.org/

room with a view

joep — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 18:53:58 +0100

An old, desolated factory in Berlin is taken over by street artists. Decorated to create a nice place, an accidental museum, for which the entrance fee is limited to a small act of climbing.

identity and activism

joep — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 16:25:49 +0100

What role has identity played in past and current activism?

Please post stories of how the struggle for social and/or political change has gone together with the formation of identity?

sans papiers

joep — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 17:17:47 +0100

I accidentily ran into the following site (while checking Frans' EYFA suggestion): http://www.art2stay.nl

A Dutch/English site about neo-Dutchies for whom authorities have not granted a legal status, and who produce art. Especially MUST is interesting:

MUST wrote:

I start doing graffity years ago, but mostly I got really interested in it, when I started living in Amsterdam. It was kind of difficult to live here without documents, and the making of graffiti was giving me the freedom I needed. When you draw something on the street, you still can keep your personal individuality, though nobody knows who you are, or where you come from. You have the freedom to draw what you like, there are no borders.

The idea to make the cats came here in Amsterdam. I thought, that if I start doing the cats all over the city, maybe the people will recognize them. The street is a very good place to show to everybody what you can draw, and is also a way to say to the people, that you are here and that you exist. The cats are my present to all people here. These are happy and positive cats, so that maybe somebody walking by could smile!

what is in a name?

joep — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 19:07:53 +0100

Name it, and it exists. What about assuming a new name? And, what could sharing a name bring? What possibilities could borrowing a reputation open?

Loesje, and Luther Blissett and, in another way, Spartacus.

I've found this nice explanation of Multiple Names at http://www.thing.de/projekte/7:9%23/multiple_names.html:

thing.de wrote:

Multiple Names are 'tags' that the avant-garde of the seventies and eighties proposed for a serial use. They have taken a number of forms, but are more commonly 'invented personal names' which, their proponents claim, anyone can take on as a 'context' or 'identity'. The idea is usually to create a collective body of artistic works using the 'invented identity'.

The first of these 'collective identities', 'Klaos Oldanburg', was propagated by the British mail artists Stefan Kukowski and Adam Czarnowski in the mid-seventies. A few years later, the American mail artist, David Zack, proposed 'Monty Cantsin' as the name of the 'first open pop-star', a name anybody could use. Factional differences between those using the 'Monty Cantsin' tag resulted in the 'rival' names of 'No Cantsin' and 'Karen Eliot', both of which emerged in the mid-eighties. A number of individuals and groups have independently 'originated' similar concepts. For example, a group centred around Sam Durrant in Boston (USA) proposed 'Bob Jones' as a multiple identity in the mid-eighties.

There have been multiple names for magazines ('Smile' originating in England in 1984) and pop groups ('White Colours' first proposed in England in 1982).

Multiple names are connected to radical theories of play. The idea is to create an 'open situation' for which no one in particular is responsible. Some proponents of the concept also claim that it is a way to 'practically examine, and break down, western philosophic notions of identity, individuality, value and truth'.

identity politics

joep — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 15:42:56 +0100

In the fifth chapter of Naomi Klein's "No Logo," "Patriarchy gets funky, The triumph of Identity Marketing," a strong and interesting stance is taken over the role of identity in activism and advertising. I can recommend you to read this, to get some fresh ideas and questions starting.

You can find it here.

As a teaser, this quote:

"But for many of the activists who had, at one point not so long ago, believed that better media representation would make for a more just world, one thing had become abundantly clear: identity politics weren’t fighting the system, or even subverting it. When it came to the vast new industry of corporate branding, they were feeding it."

Questions for me, after (re)reading this, include:

Is Diversity still a common, subversive dream, as the text claims it was in the American nineties? How does this relate to the aftermath of the explosions over Manhattan?
How are diversity and identity related?
What kind of role could or should identity play in activism?

I welcome your thoughts.

Do we still need a drive these days

FRH — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 17:42:30 +0200

It seems to be unnessesary these days to have a personal drive. Or to come up with a common drive. It's being made up for you.
The common drives are created by the media and de governments. The rage against terrorism, enivorment etc are all common drives of which we are aware in our everyday life, and of wich others are trying to keep us aware every day. Is there still space for your own common drive, aka ideal, that you can life after, and inspire your friends with?

And how about personal drives? I feel like it is a career more and more, a consiousnes that is filled up with moral by others. And at points that you yourself don't see it all that clear anymore, there is a bunch of people around you to keep you focused on acting normal.

What are your opinions about these things. Is your opinion still yours, still personal, or is it fed by the everyday influences of media?
What all is media? What kind of medium is a Loesje poster?
I would like to start an active discussion here, about our drives, and our personal mind belongings.
Please react and enjoy eachothers responses

poem , my somebody

sajju — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 22:28:02 +0100

“MY SOME BODY”
Music is always around
But right now I don’t feel the vibe..
Right now am alone.. Dedicating a side …
This is hidden inside ….
Might sound I am insane
But this is my actual lane..
Am trying to match the rhythm.
You made me able to enjoy my freedom..
What u said was just A little thing….
But it gave me a ring..
That ring had no digital number
This feeling is wonderful
I don’t blame you …
That moment I had a reason to be there
Now I am here ….

I live in a virtual world
World of worlds
World of me and world of others
Every day I meet different people
With different attitude
I would like to find
Someway of expressing my GRATITUDE.

You were different from different
Somebody who is somebody
Somebody who made somebody
Feel somebody
And now I am lost in my
World of somebody

FREE YOUR CULTURE

Franz — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 12:28:33 +0100

Imaginary manifesto for a playfull society

‘Es wird wieder’ was sprayed on sidewalks and streets all over Berlin some time ago, it is going to be again. This promising text made me wonder who left the fraces behind. Was it a marketing trick or was it really some crazy people spreading this mysterious omen through town? Later I met the guys who did it, and I was happy that they did it just for the sake of itself. No marketing trick, no spreading of names or fames, just making people wonder.

Somehow this incident raised important questions: is creativity becoming occupied by economic influence and commercialization, or is creativity becoming the new central value in our society? Is the economy taking over the human sphere, or is creativity taking over the economy? I believe we are aproaching a more creative and playful society, and we are really closer than one would think. Creativity as at our side.

The concept of the Homo Ludens (playful men) is raised by the dutch historian Johan Huizinga in 1938. Huizinga stated that playing is a serious matters. According to him, the Homo Ludens is an important element of a vital culture, and if playing is less present in a culture, this culture will go down. Playing is having spirit, it frees us from being just a mechanism in the weels of progress. Our ability to play proves that we are more than just reasonable people, because the essence of playing is not reasonable.
The concept of play is put in contrast with processes of mechanization and instrumentalization in modern societies. In example Herbert Marcuse recognized that in industrialized societies there is a minimalization of life and culture, with no space for personal development and autonomy. A revalualization of the eastetic and playfulness would create a free space for a more human development of our societies.

The ideas of a ‘homo ludens’and playfulness influenced a various spectre of avant garde artists, intellectuals and creative activists from the sixties and on, starting with the situationist international and the provo movement. Their playful actions and tactics have been a source of inspiration for other actists across the planet, finding a broader public through reclaim the streets and the antiglobalization movement. Meanwhile these ideas of play became adapted in the professional fields of education and in play theories.

The paradox is that the concept of play has become instrumentalized itself as a means to reach certain goals. In the idea of Huizinga, playfulness would be the solution to the rising instrumentalization in our society. Creativity and playfulness are nowadays used as effective means to create markets and gain economical power in all fragments of the public sphere, from commercials, entertainment industries, mass-events, festivals, arts, media and all cultural spaces. The so called ‘creative industries’ are becoming pretty central in economic bussiness. This development is made clear by Richard Florida’s idea of a rising ‘creative class’. This creative class is a group of people who are a driving force for economic development of post industrial areas. They are people who’s job it is to create meaningful new forms. With the rise of this creative class, creativity is becoming a central value in today’s global society. In city areas where artists reside, a rich cultural life will develop, and this will attract people with more money to work, live and consume there, which results in higher rents and often in coprorated, clean city areas. This process has been recognized by sociologists as ‘gentrification’.
If Richard Florida is right or wrong, creativity is boom ing bussiness. The effect is that econmic power is gaining a greater and greater influence on the terrains of art and culture, instrumentalizing creativity for its own purposes. More and more city governments and corporations are recognizing the economic power of creativity and trying to use it as a means in order to gain more economic power.

The positive effect of this developments is that you can find more and more contemporary art and cultural events in the public sphere. On the contrary these are more and more occupied by economical players. Most cultural events and art exhibitions are sponsored, more and more art and artists are used as a marketing tool. An old nightmare of dadaists, surrealists and situationists comes alive in a new, spectacular form, occupying the human sphere as a whole. The described avantgardists declared art dead, or stated that only life itself could be art. With these radical statements they opposed against the rising commercialization and misusage of creativity and arts. For them art and creativity should be part of the human sphere and not just be a toy of economic power. But how to cope with todays occupation of creativity and the cultural sphere to be used as economic means?
This process of occupation of the creative, cultural and even personal spheres is intense and all present. If you think about cars it is not posible to not be influenced somehow by what commercials have been showing you for years. You cannot walk thourgh the streets without the presence of commercial images, and meanwhile almost all parts of human life have become instrumentalized as tools to increase influence on the human mind.

On the contrary, the cultural, creative and human spheres are concuering terrain inside the economical and political spheres. As creativity is the new economic fuel, economical interests are changing their focus. The economical world is getting under greater influence of human values, etihical and estatical ideas and spiritual thinking. If creativity becomes central in our economy, this will change economy itself. It will include more space for human development, for cultural values, and social and environmental awareness.

Playing managers are just one of the preludes of what is happening. Quite some people at power are starting to recognize the changes, and understand that if they do not play with the game of this creative revolution, they will be the dinosours. But as creativity is not a source of order, control, and instrumentalization, but a source of inspiration, chaos, expression and playfulness connected to the human soul, our society expects big changes. This creative shift will set accounts with the instrumentalization of creativity and culture, it will de-instrumentalize society and take over economy itself. It will provoke more social awareness and responsibility, and this mental change is our greatest change for a truly sustainable living on our planet. These are preludes of a human play jard, with space for free expression and personal growth. We are expecting a playful society where the children are our greatest teachers. It is somehow happening now, and it is just up to us to realize it.

Literature:
- Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure and Everyday Life. (Basic Books, 2002)
- Johan Huizinga, Homo Ludens, proeve eener bepaling van het spel-element der cultuur (1938)
- Greil Marcus, Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the 20th Century (1989)
- Herbert Marcuse, One Dimensional Man (1964)

* THE ABOVE TEXT IS STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION; FEEDBACK IS WELCOME *