WR prompt #9: YOUR Authentic Act

In the section “Spring” Lasn provides an alternative to “living in the mediacy,” showing that there is a revolutionary legacy from which contemporary culture jammers, Situationalists, Meme Warriors, and other dissident groups have drawn both strength and example. The driving force to live as not the “object but as the subject of the story” may seem counteractive, ridiculous, and even hypocritical to some of you. To others these spontaneous acts of defiance represent courageous, righteous, and necessary mentality.

1) Present me with two examples of these authentic acts: one that you agree with, support, or could even imagine taking part in; another that you oppose, that doesn’t seem worth it to you, or are even offended by. Present each of these, referencing the page or section that discusses it, and give a thorough explanation of your choices. Support your arguments (your feelings) with evidence, (past examples from Lasn, or any other material from lecture, Diamond, Leopold, discussion, or your own lives).

2) Is there an authentic act you could imagine taking part of? What context/ issue/ conditions would you agree to and, more importantly, what outcome would you be aiming for?

3) Finally discuss briefly the need (if any) for defiant/ revolutionary/ protesting forces in society (whether or not it is you personally rebelling). What does these whistle blowers accomplish? Do we think more critically because of them? Do they contribute to our ‘education’? (Informing people of the ecological footprint of their consumer habits). Do they achieve justice? (uncovering or bringing to justice wrongs of the government, corporations, or other powerful entities)?

Jenny's World Changing Responses 1 - 5

1 - “Questioning Consumption”

This is a great way to open up this book. The writers put it on the line that our consumption is causing many of the other problems that our environment faces. As I began calculating how much “stuff” I have for the Stuff project, this is incredibly relevant to my life. We have so many things that we forget about. Even here at school, where I have taken an abbreviated amount of ‘stuff’ from what I have at home, there are still things I forget I have, or don’t use. Finding these things brings up the main point of this chapter. All of the extra stuff we have, and don’t use, causes clutter in our lives. We’ll save money, and energy, by being more conscious of what we have. Relating to this is ecological footprints. Everyone should calculate how much energy and natural resources they use, just to put their lives into perspective. Everyone forgets that we are the world… we are directly responsible for the help or harm that our world receives. What is a reasonable ‘footprint’? The average is 2.2 hectares per person. I do the best I can to keep up with the environment, especially after learning more through this class. I just think that everyone needs to consider the amount of stuff they are using and have. And when they go out to purchase more stuff, to consider “choice fatigue”. Too many choices, makes us think we need more stuff, because there are so many options. Maybe, if our society was a little more levelheaded, and conscious of their purchases, we could slowly make a big difference. I’m not sure. It is worth a try though.

2 - “Creating Healthy Homes”

The items that we are taught to rely on to clean our homes aren’t clean themselves. How can that be? The toxins in our cleaners, that we think are removing the grime and germs in our homes, are actually spreading, and getting back into our water and sewers. The cycle continues. Non-toxic items are available, but just may break the bank when it comes down to purchasing them. When will we make it affordable to live in a clean and safe home? Products like laundry detergent are awful for us. The additives seep into skin that can lead to cell damage. Hydrochloric acid from bathroom cleaners can burn the skin and eyes, and cause stomach issues and burning of the skin. People are not aware of this. If they were, they may take the other route and buy non-toxins to clean with. Maybe that would help stimulate our economy? It doesn’t seem like the worst idea. Paper products also. Though they are c convenient, they are extremely wasteful. Reusable material is the way to go. It’s a shame that people don’t know about these things. If people were more aware of this, they’d change. Even though it would take a while, I think they would. This book, World Changing, is making me much more aware of so many things. I think it is important people learn, so they don’t harm themselves and those they love. They need to know.

3 - “Art meets Technology”

Technology can be a huge asset to the arts. We (artists) can use the new mechanisms and ideas to strengthen our artistic outreach. Though this technology can be put to very good use, and create innovations that are beneficial to our world, it can also easily be taken advantage of, and misused. For example, the “Hug Shirt” is a shirt that creates the sensation of a hug when your body temperature and heartbeat permit it to. Have we come to the point where we have to synthesize emotion? This seems a bit ridiculous to me. Though an intriguing idea that technology can be used to do this, I feel that we could be putting it to much better use than creating shirts that are taking the place of human affection. On the other side of this, the “sonic city” headphones record information about the environment and map urban sounds to create a track of your experience. This use of technology is very intriguing, and can help us approach our environmental problems for a different standpoint. All in all, I believe that our technology can be used in positive ways, and negative ways. We just have to keep trying to point them in the positive direction so we don’t misuse our research.

4 - “Producer Responsibility”

When reading about this I thought it was extremely intriguing. Germany takes an innovative approach to keeping our world a little greener. Instead of leaving it to the car owner to dispose or give back their old cars, who’s materials are usually put to waste, the car company take responsibility for what happens to the car after it is done with its use. The “end-of-Life vehicle directive” was adopted by Europe after Germany’s approach, because in the long run it was saving money, and re using materials. Though difficult, these companies try to recover metals in products designed for utility. This encouraged companies to create vehicles that would fit this bill, and would cooperate when it came time to reuse the materials. This has inspired a wave of technology in which we don’t only think about its usage, but what happens after usage as well. An example being pop-apart cell phones that are quick to dissemble and just as efficient as cell phones. This is a great idea. This will encourage people to think about the after effects of everything that they do. Well, probably not everything, but it will at least help inspire a change. If we change, and think more about what happens after we waste, or what happens after we purchase a new big item, it may get us to think more about which item we are going to buy, and which items we are throwing to waste.

5 - “Green Homes”

World changing has many resources about the impact of green homes, and how to go about making your home green. I found this entire chapter very useful, being that I was unaware of many of the practices involved in creating an environmentally friendly home. One sector of this that I found particularly interesting is furniture and home décor. It is one thing to build an infrastructure of a home that is environmentally safe and structurally sound by using recycled materials, but once the structure is up you can make or break your green home by the furniture that is put inside. As it says in the book, it is important to think long term when approaching furniture purchases. Low cost furniture, though cheap, is often made from environmentally unsafe materials, and is short lasting, which means you’ll just have to buy a new one in a short amount of time. What’s the point in that? You might as well find furniture that will be good in the long run. It’s long lasting, and safe at the same time. Foam filled pillows and particleboard desks are not the way to go. Not to say that only cheap furniture uses these materials, but it is more commonly found along them than designer furniture. There is a market for environmental design though, which includes cork and bamboo, along with recycled waste products pulled from the dumpsters. These materials have been used to make ecofurniture that is sleek and beautiful. The only hurdle we have to get over, is how to produce this furniture without breaking the bank, so that people can afford them and get this movement rolling.

Ekta's Automatist Exercise

kristin adamczyk's automastic exercise

The relationship between my four squares is best realized when evaluating each separately. Given the boundary lines and ‘blank canvas’ feel, each drawing adds a new texture to the page, each drawing adds a new way of fitting into it’s space. How do you respond to solid black lines that act as a wall, keeping your drawing captured in a space? Each do a good job of balancing white space with our drawn responses. Each is a cluster of similar thoughts, a continuous stream of conciousness. Also, more than one square includes scratched out drawings or lines, as to suggest the person responding to the opt thought certain ideas weren’t accomplishing what they were trying to get across. So you have this aspect of unfinished thought that also plays a part, we weren’t given unlimited time to respond to each opt. And it becomes a response of limited material, we all just had scratchy pens and pencils. It brings a nice grayscale value to the overall composition of the activity. The different quality in pensmanship, between the two boxes with words, is very interesting. One feels rushed, or even as if the person was searching their mind for the best words to incorporate, while the other feels more organized, or thought out. The pill bottle full of candy is humorous in my opinion, but I can’t think of a way to symbolize it, I think the opt was “How many perscriptions do you take a day”, it’s just ironic if my fellow classmate was thinking “I eat those pills like candy!”
One of the most important things to notice about the overall composition of my response activity is the abstract difference in the right and left side: one captures quick gestural characteristics, while the other balances words, how they are used, and even the quality in their stroke.

The only part of this activity that really makes me think about Lasn’s ideas of consumerism, is the pill bottle, the general idea of consuming many thoughts and collecting a lot of junk also pops into my mind. Each box is like a messy room, some of the contents more important than the others. But when you’re rushing how can you make well thought out decisions on what is important, you are just trying to invoke a certain feeling or idea in the strongest way possible.

7 and 8

At a glance the four squares I received appear separated down the middle, drawings on the left, text on the right. If read like a book the words would describe the pictures. Top left: A crown floating in a space. The box next to it read, “When my heart broke and I couldn’t fix it.” No obvious relation. The text about the broken heart reveals a time when there person who wrote this experienced pain. What does a crown have to do with pain? A crown is a symbol of power. Monarchs use it as a sign literally above their heads. Gangs use it in their graffiti to mark their territory. Along with power usually comes pain. Corporations are very powerful and have the potential to inflict pain. Lasn would argue that corporations inflict pain with every commercial they produce since they are manipulating us conform.
Below the picture of the crown is a drawing on a large pill, an unmarked bottle, four little pills, a safety pin, and a spoon with a liquid in it. This box comes across as an add for a drug store. Next to this box is a list of words: Magnet, Pineapple, Toothbrush, Darts, and clover. I have a hard time relating these five things to each other, let alone the whole exercise. Where can you buy these items. If its the right time of year, say around St. Patrick's Day, these five things could be found at a CVS or Walgreens. Coincidentally all the drugs and medicines in the panel over can be bought there too.
Medication is a weird thing. Its something that people often keep to themselves. Yet when watching TV, numerous amounts of medication commercials come on the screen. These ads are produced by giant corporations that own the drugs. Something that is meant to heal is trying to manipulate us into buying their products.
All of these squares can be related back to consumerism, as done above. The only concrete image of production/ consumption is the spoon in the drug scene. The medicine is ready to go, ready to be consumed.

Chris’s automatist exercise

Yu-Jen(Chris),Tsai
ADP III
Discussion Sec 005



When we were first explained what and how the exercise was going to be, the idea of “draw or write out the first thing that pops from your head” had me expected that some of the squares would definitely be filled by interesting shapes. There are two ways of expression in this experiment; ones through words and the other one is images. And usually if a person is use to one of those two mediums would found one to be abundantly clear and easier for he or she as a tool. However, by observing the befuddled look from the person on my left, I could tell that no one felt better about either one of those two mediums than the other. Sometimes when an individual was told to express himself or herself in an instant matter, the reaction time differs depending on the theme of the subject and its relationship with the individual; if the theme or the particular word clicked with the “thinker”, the person with the pen and a sheet of paper, something extremely expressive would appear. On the other hand, if I had no any type of connection with the theme or subject, I had absolutely nothing; as a result, some crazy nonsense images would probably appear since I was forced to at least write or draw anything. And so I found it interesting that I was able to guess and sort of figure what was going on in the person’s mind just by analyzing the illustrations and texts in the cubes.
When we start to think of Lasn’s idea of that we, as humans, have been in a “cult” for decades, we realize that it was us who did this to ourselves. What inputted to our minds was all the information that ultimately turned into beliefs, and that information are delivered through mainly televisions and newspapers. This links up with the MEDIA VIRUS chapter in Culture Jam where Kalle emphasizes children and adults nowadays are so abundantly exposed to televisions and advertisings that it seems like we are brainwashed somehow by the media without noticing. We buy what most people want to buy, eat what we think we should eat and think how the books and articles wanted us to think. Whatever appeared on the four cubes didn’t seem random to me at all while I think of Lasn’s interpretation of the word “cult” that is formed by us, the brainwashed consumers.

Levester's Automatist Exercise

Levester Williams
Reed Esslinger-Payet
ADP III

Automatist Exercise

All boxes contain constituents specifically alluding to deep connection to consumerism, whether it is conspicuous or not by the drawings and writings. The rectilinear and curvilinear lines found in the upper left box show unconscious representations of what our minds configure everyday as we process our daily lives. As one notices, there are more rectilinear lines than curvilinear; thus, it seems the processing of the world is mostly derived from “living in a natural world to living in a manufactured world” (Lasn 4). These shapes in these boxes seem to convey the bare elements of consumerism with its labeling—as seen in the squares—and the array of lines—mostly depicting lives of a barcodes. Due to its ambiguous forms, the curvilinear shapes seem to be indistinguishable figures of the natural world being slowly integrated into the world of technological. The natural world no longer exists by itself but with the invasive technological environment caused by consumerism.
Next, the box in the upper right corner contains words that simulate a time and space of a person and its environment. The words have hardly any grammatical structure: it conveys fragments of memory being submerged into the technological components of the person’s life. With words such as plastic, train, and car, the viewer quickly connects with the material aspect of our environment. Plastic reminds the viewer of the plastic bottles consumed and tossed aside. Train and car enable the viewer to envision a time of mobility and the recollection of the various prices of the tickets and gas. Moreover, these inventions pronounce the ability to move across the material environment freely. It and me suggest the relationship the person has with its material environment. Since the word it comes first, it suggests that the person must situate products at high priority to have a sense of time and place in the space.
Then, the box in the lower right corner contains shapes of various medicines. Each shape represents a name-brand medicine. Even if the shapes themselves do not do justice to the actual forms of these products, the inclusions of the name do. The identities of the products lie within the brand. The shapes become the background for the brand name. The most interesting element in this box is the phrase “and so on.” Medicine is consumed so much in our daily lives that the list runs continuously. The name brands only agglomerate into a mass of unconscious addiction. If one feels sick, find a name brand of a medicine that will provide a relief to the situation.
In the lower left square, names of various objects are found. As seen in the first square mentioned, there is a mixture of elements that pertain to consumerism while one element at least suggests the natural world. Horseshoe, Zelda, and bull’s eye all pertain to entertainment while aurora borealis exemplifies a natural phenomenon that stimulates our emotions. Yet, we are now stimulated by entertainment from the media, depriving us from our enjoyment of nature.
When considering the squares as whole, aspects of consumerism are embedded in each one. Through the narrative of these squares, the viewers sense strange connection to these abstract drawings. He senses that he is an emulator that “[looks[ for products that make [him] feel like somebody else—someone more important” (Lasn 102). For example, each square pertains particularly to the blind devotion of a consumer. The plethora of medicines he consume continuously—knowing the brand name but not the ingredients within them—the stimulation of media entertainment depriving him from his natural sense, and his awareness of time and space being congruent with the presence of technological world. The concrete evidence of consumerism is particularly found in the lower right square.
The immanent consumption of products such as medicines are due to the “first commandment of a cult: Thou shalt not think” (Lasn 54). We indulge ourselves into purchasing brand name items without questioning it. The Savage in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World has a choice to submit himself into the self-indulging elements of his utopian society, or to question and revolt it. He asked this question to the “individuals [of his society] devoted to the pursuit of happiness” (Huxley ix): “But do you like being slaves…do you like being babies” (Huxley 144)? The Dadaism supports such questioning the order of how societies work. They reject reason and logic and express irrationality and chaos to enable people to question their society, particularly consumerism in this case (“Dada”. This question needs to an urge of wanting the truth.

Works Cited
"Dada." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Web. 09 Nov. 2009. .
Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. New York: Harper & Row, 1969. Print.
Lasn, Kalle. Culture Jam: The Uncooling of America. New York: Eagle Brook, 1999. Print.