1. Researching other people’s points of view

For the first part of todays workshop we want you to go out into the streets with a camera and ask people some questions related to your creative activism work so far. The aim of this is to get to understand other people’s point of views, so that they can help to shape the way you need to construct your messages in order for them to be listened to.

You should aim to ask at least 5 people about their view on a particular topic related to your Creative Activism work that you have carried out so far. If possible it would be good to ask a diverse group of people so that you can get a range of viewpoints.

We will work on these questions during the workshop.

2. Creating Empathy- Putting yourself into your work

For the second part of the workshop we will be exploring how you can use empathy in your work.

Many filmmakers, in order to tell their stories in more compelling ways, understand the importance of empathy in their work- the capacity to recognize and share feelings that are being experienced by others. This can be a very powerful tool for filmmakers to tell stories with, experiencing the point of view of another person (or being) as a means to encourage audiences to feel compassion with a particular subject position. This can also an important part of your research- as being embodied in a subject, and putting yourself into someone else’s shoes, can help to shape your perspective on it. Lets look at a few examples:

Super Size Me (2004) – Morgan Spurlock uses his own body as a part of his research in this award winning documentary examining the fast-food industry. Also see ’30 Days’ (where he spent 30 days living in someone elses shoes exploring issues such as: the minimum wage, being in prison, a christian living as a muslim)

Erasing David (2010) – David Bond uses a similar technique in this film that examines privacy, surveillance and the database state

Living Without Money (2011) shows the life of 68 year old Heidemarie Schwermer, a German woman who made a deliberate choice to stop using money 14 years ago (and here’s a similar article on Mark Boyle, an environmental journalist, who carried out a similar experiment on himself in 2009).

A similar documentary was ‘No Impact Man’ (2009) – following Colin Beavan and Michelle Conlin as they plan to live a year creating as little ecological impact as possible:

Other films that use these techniques include Living with the Amish (Channel 4) – where UK teens live the lives of Amish people in the states.  and Superskinny Me: The Race to Size Zero (Channel 4) – where the filmmakers went on a range of crash diets over 6 weeks.

For the rest of this workshop we want you to consider how you can use point of view and empathy to create a short documentary project on one of the subject areas you are pursuing as part of your creative activism work. You should consider the following questions:

1. How could documentary be used to enlighten people about my area of creative activism?
2. What points of view/subject positions could I take to tell my story in an empathetic way?
3. Could I use myself, by carrying out an action/experimenting/embodying someone elses perspective, to enlighten people about an issue I am trying to promote.

This weeks workshop is based around coming up with your ideas for your Chellenge 4 Remix and Subversion.

Three useful words to think about during this workshop, and for your task, are:

Allegory a representation of an abstract or spiritual meaning through concrete or material forms; figurative treatment of one subject under the guise of another.

Metaphor a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance. Or something used, or regarded as being used, to represent something else; emblem; symbol.

Juxtaposition an act or instance of placing close together or side by side,especially for comparison or contrast.

Here’s some links to get you thinking around what you could do. If you find any more good ones please add the links in the comments below:

Subversive and Political Remix Video Blog has some great inspiration

I am not moving – Hilary Clinton/Obama Speech about the Arab Spring Mashup

Imagine This – Bush Singing Imagine by John Lennon

Apple Phone Story, Also see this request from Duke Students asking Apple to make their products conflict free and this Guardian Article on Making a Conflict Free iPhone. Further links about Apple include this recent report on their manufacturing in China and this on a groups criticism on their environmental record . Here’s a response to some of this on the Apple Site and check out The Darkside of the iPhone

Tesco Sausage ad pulled after complaints -

Wikileaks Mastercard Parody - In protest of mastercard effectively setting up a financial blockade to the site

the Chevrolet Tahoe campaign that got remixed - and here’s some examples of the videos (Example One, Example Two , Example Three )

VW Darkside Campaign and Competition by Greenpeace

Kentucky Fried Cruelty

McSpotlight McDonalds Parody Game

GoogleWatch Google Beast File

Info on the Mouse liberation front Fairy Use tale Disney Remix

An interesting Media Hoax on Urban Foxhunting 

Reading:

Here are some useful articles on Remix and Political Protest

Playboy Stationery – Case Study Workshop by creativact

What’s this?

…and what does it represent?

It’s Playboy, you’ve heard of Playboy right?

“Entertainment for Men” The Website states… ‘Find hundreds of sexy girls posing nude for Playboy including Playmates. AccessPlayboy magazine articles, sexy women and hot girls in photo galleries.‘

The bunny brand and it’s playful logo has been breading like… oh what’s the phrase?  Dunno, an over sexed mammal though. What do we think about Playboy?

And what’s the link with…

…The nations favourite High Street Newsagent and Stationers.

WH Smith hit the headlines in June 2005 for stocking Playboy branded Stationary. Such as this stylish pencil case.

And these delightful notepads…

Back to school…

…at the Playboy Mansion But not just WHSmith and not just Stationary.

pricerighthome.com

Kelly. T from Portsmouth on 11/02/2011

Thanks for that Kelly from Portsmouth.  Stylish?  Tasteful?  www.playboy.com real tasteful…

The Playboy strap-line is “Entertainment for Men”  But the Bunny Logo is being sold to girls and young women.  On the High Street, in Smiths.

But it’s just a logo, a symbol.  There’s nothing pornographic about a bunny in a bow-tie.

        But what does the logo symbolise?

Here’s how to draw the bunny.

In an interview in 1967, Hugh Hefner, founder of the Playboy empire, explained the ways in which women were like rabbits. The bunny “has a sexual meaning”, he said, “because it’s a fresh animal, shy, vivacious, jumping – sexy.  First it smells you, then it escapes, then it comes back, and you feel like caressing it, playing with it.  A girl resembles a bunny. “

Not to forget the phrase “At it like rabbits.” 

Back to the High Street Stationers.

In June 2005 Schoolgirls in Croydon staged a protest outside the Smiths on Croydon High St asking passers by to sign a petition calling for all Playboy branded items to bebanned.

 ”The protesters, ranging in age from 11-15, from Coloma convent girls’ school”. - Guardian Aug ’05 Teacher ”Eleanor Kirwan saw the Playboy stationery range next to Disney and Winnie the Pooh in WHSmith and in her classroom, she reckoned her pupils deserved to know exactly what they’d been sold.  Companies must take social responsibility into account as well. Our argument is that they are simply prioritising financial gain over the moral offensiveness of using children to sell sex. I merely accompanied the pupils to their picket. They were present because they had made an informed and passionate choice.”

By placing the bunny logo on school equipment, underage children are seduced into buying into the pornographic brand – an adult, top-shelf brand that sells women as sexual commodities. But WHSmith denies that Playboy means porn.

“Playboy is probably one of the most popular ranges we’ve ever sold,” says head of media relations for WHSmith, Louise Evans. “It outsells all the other big brands in stationery, like Withit [a range of cute cartoon animals], by a staggering amount. That should give you an idea of how popular the brand is. We offer customers choice. We’re not here to act as a moral censor.”   - Guardian Aug ’05

So at who’s feet does the responsibility fall?

• Children for purchasing the pencil case?
• Their parents for not properly informing them about Playboy?
• WH Smiths for supplying and promoting the product?
• Society for making the range ‘Fashionable’?
• Playboy for producing the product in the first place?

The pressure group Object,  also campaigned against the WHSmith’s promotion of the Playboy brand to children, says:

“Playboy’s logo clearly represents pornography. The magazine routinely features sexualised and full-frontal images of naked young women. It also promotes pornographic videos and strip shows. Playboy is about men buying women and presents this as natural and normal male behaviour. WHSmith is therefore endorsing pornography to young, impressionable and possibly underage girls.”

There’s a fear that this steers society towards a growing acceptance of the sexualisation of children.  Like this.

The campaign against WH Smiths  and other retailers stocking the stationary continued.

Vicars were getting involved, taking ‘direct action‘ – he cleared the shelf of all the Playboy products, moving them to another part of the store.

 The Reverend Tim Jones accused the soft porn empire of “cynical and wicked commercial exploitation”.

Bloggers produced campaign resources, intended for more direct action.

playboycompliments

playboy_leaflet

“I like the brand because it’s posh,” explains 14-year-old Tatiana. “It makes you feel like you’re worth something.” When I ask her if she knows what the bunny logo means, she giggles and says, “It’s porn innit? But people don’t think it’s porn. They think it looks nice.”   - Guardian Aug ’05

Three and a half years after that protest on the Croydon High Street WH Smith ditch the Playboy stationary, as reported with glee by the Daily Mail in Feb 2009.

“WH Smith would not be drawn on whether the decision to withdraw the Playboy merchandise was because of pressure.  A company spokesman said: ‘We continually review and update our range to offer our customers a wide range of products.  Each spring we renew our range of fashion stationery and as part of this update we have chosen to discontinue the Playboy range.’ ”  - Daily Mail Feb 09

It’s never good for a public limited company to admit to backing down to pressuregroups.

David Cameron threatens curbs on sexualisation of childhood as the ‘Bailey Review is published’. – June 2011

What better proof of success for a campaign than the newly elected PM commissioning reports around the related issues?  Those school girls must be proud.

…or did the bunny brand simply go out of fashion?

The moral crusade against childhood sexualisation isn’t top of most parents’ agenda

Another article in The Guardian – this time questioning who’s agenda the anti bunny logo campaign served.

Remember what 14-year-old Tatiana said.  ”It’s porn innit? But people don’t think it’s porn. They think it looks nice.”

word-whores.blogspot.com

It’s not symbolic of pornography or the sexualisation of childhood to the children we’re so keen to speak up for on their behalf – because of course they don’t know any better.

Does the school girl buying this think…

I want to be a lap dancer when I grow up?                  or

I can’t believe I’ve been co-opted into the mainstreaming of soft porn?

Are they in fact active, knowledgeable and nuanced consumers, aware of the brands connotations, choosing to following a fashion trend the appeal of which has more to do with rebellion than sexualisation or sexism.

“(parents) have legitimate concerns regarding the connection between the omnipresent cultural wallpaper of sex and children’s wellbeing.” but what about the views of the child

Very little work has been done that takes into account young people’s views – and when they are included it’s usually in a limited fashion, responding to an adult-set agenda.

But didn’t the playboy campaign start with School Girls?  Well actually if you remember it was their Teacher ”Eleanor Kirwan who saw the Playboy stationery range next to Disney and Winnie the Pooh in WHSmith.  “I merely accompanied the pupils to their picket. They were present because they had made an informed and passionate choice.”  Informed by the teacher at Coloma convent girls’ school.  A highly selective Catholic school which has recently been criticised about the way it selects its students.  The more Catholic you can prove you are the better your chances.  So guess the demographic of the students and teachers.

The logo enhanced products had their time in the sun and moved from being ‘fashionable‘ to being ‘tacky‘ and ‘chavy‘.  Ironically, it became childish, not ‘adult’.

Playboy returns to focus on its good old-fashioned routes.  Magazines and clubs.

As for WH Smiths???

They’re much more High Brow these days.

A starting point of the above lecture was from this RSA debate on Advertising in Society.

A key phrase that stuck with me which succinctly describes the trick advertisers pull is ‘Put value in your things not in yourself.’

Other links

Playboy founder uses social media site to tell the world his wedding with is off

Object cover up Ladmags in WH Smiths Paddington

OBJECT vs Former lads mags editor

The Wright Stuff on Lad Mags

Two feminists chew up an inarticulate WH Smith Manager

‘Sexualised children’ – is it always the media’s fault?

During this weeks workshop you will be exploring the issues that matter to you and thinking about how you could make a difference to these with your creative skills. These might be issues that impact on you, a family member or friend, your community, your country or even worldwide issues.

We will start by doing a simple mind-mapping in your sketch books.

You should think about the following questions and start to write down your ideas that you would like to develop and explore over the course of the class:

• What things would you like to see changed in the world?
• What issues are important in the world right now?
• What people/or community would you like to help for your project and why?
• What things make you angry and why?
• Do you know about any issues that you feel people need to know more about?