ideas and pol comp

Hi guys,
I thought i'd just follow on from bradens suggestion. i think all of us doing the political compass is a great idea, i used it for my different histories as well. i think it also shows where we are coming from to show that we know we are being subjective, and perhaps not looking at both sides of the story. but i guess thats our role as dissenters.

here is my compass and a compass showing world leaders:


a couple of readings which i think are important to our research and ideas are no logo by naomi klein (http://www.nologo.org/) and pro logo, which was an article written in response. i will try and find a copy of this article, but the book is at the swanston library. there are 5 copies which are all out, but you can reserve them for when they are due, all some time in july.

scratch that - the article, pro logo is available at http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=770992
also, a write up of a debate between naomi klein and the author of pro logo is available at http://www.wnyc.org/news/articles/4390

i think the nature of our point of view as dissenters on corporations means we should do something radical. i think it is more important for us to make a big statement in something like the form of a protest, installation or something inspiring and challenging. I like the analogy of humans living like Barbies with the same clothes, same cars and houses, in identical lego streets. Maybe we could set something up to be something like that American suburban look, where everything is homogenous, because we’re all buying the same things. But perhaps that’s getting too far away from the corporation and more towards the brands. Though I guess its still the effect of the corporation on the community.

Another installation-ey idea could be to make a 3d map of how the companies are related, like a big 3d tree diagram. Well that’s my dream anyway.

I think the t-shirt thing will go down well.

One last thing. a major content of street or stencil art is anti corporation, such as this design which mocks coca cola (amatil). Perhaps we could collect samples of anti-corporation art into some sort of book or exhibition?
And just on the coca-cola note, amatil might be a good example of a corporation. We could examine the effect of the takeover of SPC Ardmona and its impact on the area surrounding (is that Shepparton?)

Anyway, let me know what you think!
ben

ps. my photos aren't working so i will put them in the photo bucket