Busting through Globalization: A Look at Adbusters One Flag competition

Adbusters, a not-for-profit organization, describes itself as “a global network of culture jammers and creatives working to change the way information flows, the way corporations wield power, and the way meaning is produced in our society.” With the want to change a capitalist driven world, this British Columbian based company has worked since 1988 to change the way we think about consumerism, and the impacts we make on our world.

            In a time where we are “faced with some of the most daunting global challenges in human history, ” (Adbusters.org) Adbusters is running its “One Flag Competition,” to find a flag that is representative of all cultures, all communities, and ultimately of the world as a global community. From over 1000 entries, the competition has been narrowed down to 32 flags, to vote from. Out of these 32 flags a common theme of unity, and globalization arises. Looking at just one of these flags, one can see how a piece of art can represent a host of ideas, and in turn make a stand for a world in which we are able to work together.

Flag Of Pop World by Andy Shawber

            Flag of the Pop World, a piece by Andy Shawber of Seattle, Washington, is representative of how “our national identities are increasingly becoming abstract,” because of the increase of globalization. We continue to live together in this world, the colours we create, being side by side in his flag.  This piece uses a range of colours across the spectrum, which “depicts the blend of national colors as kitschy and banal” (Shawber). By using all those colours that are seen in flags around the world and mashing them all together, to create something new, Shawber is able to disassociate these colours with what they originally have represented and instead create a new flag that shows the break down of each individual country to form a new global community.

            The idea of finding one flag that is able to represent the world coming together to survive, as a single nation seems to be an unattainable ideal. Yet when one takes a look at the rate of globalization, and the already increasing coming together, in this world, a flag to represent, and support the idea of working together as one, is changing. A flag such as the ones represented in this competition, shows an awareness of what is going on around us, and shows that we are not only living as individuals, but are a part of something bigger around us, something that is subject to change and always subject to improvement. A contest such as this brings awareness to a larger group of people, using art to create change and consciousness of what is going on in the world around us.

            This work as a piece of global art shows how expression through art, literature, etc… is able to create representational ideas, that can bring forth ideas with just one look. This contest is able to use the created images to bring up ideas of globalization with just one look at each flag.

By Heather Palmer

Related Reviews: Society, Global Art Database,Cyberspace

Dancing with Matt Harding at the Internet as a way to find happiness and global reliability

In 2006, Matt Harding embarked on a 6 month trip through 39 countries to dance in front of famous landmarks. This was because after seeing his 2003 dancing video Stride Gum Sponsored Matt to do the trip again, but of course in more countries this time. However, in 2007 now quasi-famous Harding realized that his bad dancing was not that interesting and that his overflowing inbox proved that there were thousands of others that could dance just as badly as he could. That being the case, Stride sent him on another trip. The big difference on this trip was that Harding would invite the people from the cities that he visited to dance with him.

This viral video, that is one that has gained worldwide popularity, is an excellent example of how easy it can be to transcend cultural boundaries. From Canada, to the United States to the continent of Africa the people in his videos are not only dancing but they are happy. Dancing is one of the only forms of expression that seems to “transcend political boundaries that exist in nearly all human societies” [1]. Harding realized that he could capture something that would be meaningful to a lot of people – a way for us to bound and forget about our differences for a moment. His video allows the people of the world to shed their anger towards one another and dance for the sake of dancing – let everything go and be silly for a few minutes of your life. 

 

 

Not everyone has been impressed or moved by his video. In fact, there is a following claming that his videos were Photoshopped. In another video, Matt Harding responds to these vicious rumours by sarcastically claiming that, yes indeed, the videos are fake. I think the whole rumour thing is ridiculous. There will always be individuals and groups that will try and destroy something that is not trying to hurt anyone. That being said, I believe that there are far more people that know what is real and will try and make a difference because of Harding’s videos.

 

These videos are some of the simplest examples proving how globalized and interconnected we have become. Regardless of whether we agree or disagree on things, we do share distinct commonalities and we can bond over the simplest of emotions and expressions. I believe that through dancing, Harding has managed to bring every single person all over the world together. Happiness is contagious; can you watch the video without smiling?

Tara Turley-Dean

Related Posts: Dance, Cyberspace, Global Art Database

The lip syncing web-celebrity: Numa Numa Guy

Arguably one of the most passionate lip syncing videos exploded onto the internet in December 2004. He is known as the Numa Numa Guy, who is actually an American that is lip syncing to a Moldavian song. The video reveals the webcam culture of expressing one’s passion or thoughts through video. The actions he puts together while lip syncing makes the video extremely hilarious and the song sound good. It shows how a random act could cross language barriers and can make laughter through a simple medium such as video. Even though the voice is not his, the visual actions you see are what grabs the attention of the audience. His video has been seen over 700,000,000 times worldwide, according to BBC in a article in 2006. He became instantly a web-celebrity and turned in a business what was just a silly fun amusement. Check a VH1 video on Numa’s success story below.

Jen Lee

 

A sexman film!

Pruane2Forever

YouTube user Pruane2Forever, might not be the next “Paris Hilton” internet sensation, but this pre-pubescent Port Coquitlam local is well-known among hundreds of thousands youtube viewers as the creator and star of his self-branded “Sexman film[s].” He is consistently listed as one of the top 50 viewed Canadian YouTube directors. Best known for his 5/5 star review of Rambo, Pruane2Forever receives an incredible amount of cyber criticism concerning his web-cam film reviews, home videos of him fighting his father, as well as his notoriously whiny voice. Like it or not, Pruane2Forever is an internet celebrity. This term “internet celebrity” differs from other well-known individuals in that many of these people are recognized for their existence in a virtual reality (a computer screen) before their success in a physical one. On the web, their widely published aliases precede their birth names. Pruane2Forever is best recognized (and ridiculed) for his work behind his web cam, with little known about his personal life as a physical, real life boy.  

Bryce Brentlinger

Multiple Cyber Identity

This video project visually gives the definition of cyber culture. It opens with a statement from Peter Steiner, “On the internet nobody knows you are a dog.” On the background it shows what kind of website it is and one girl (same girl throughout this clip) is presented transparently in the middle of the screen dressed according to the website. She starts from the desktop background and an ordinary young woman in the centre, representing her own self. As she wanders into cyber world, she has 5 different identities. For example, on the website called “Yonja”, and by just looking at the background it’s hard to tell what kind of website it is, but the way she presents herself with long hair with a flirty gaze hints the spectators it’s a dating site. Then the next scene shows a quick transformation of her wearing darker make-up and clothes and the black backdrop says, “VampireFreaks.com”.  She has transformed herself to a complete different person. In a real world having more than one personality and identity is not considered as norm, however, in a cyber world one can have an alter personality and have multiple identities.

Jen Lee

Related Reviews: Cyberspace, Screen Culture Database

Serial Experiments Lain: A vision of digital realities

Serial Experiments Lain is an animated television show that tells the story of a junior high school-girl named Lain who gets an email from a dead student saying that she has left her physical body and now exists on the Wired (the show’s version of the Internet), claiming that God lives there as well. Lain begins experiencing strange phenomena including dislocations of space and time, visions of other people’s experiences, and as she becomes more familiar with the Wired discovers another version of herself existing independently in the real and virtual worlds. Eventually, Lain and her doppelganger turn out to be an omniscient being generated by the Wired, which government agents are attempting to control – her cold, uncaring family is a set of actors and the “reality” that she knows is entirely fake. 

The series focuses on the collapsing of distinctions between the Internet and the real world, the Internet as a catalyst for coming-of-age, fragmentation of identity, and the disjointed social networks that emphasize technologically enhanced connection but never truly achieve it. Relationships are mediated and interrupted by screens, or, like Lain’s classmate, people attempt to bypass the screen to achieve total unity on the Wired, which the series ultimately rejects as a futile solution. True integration of worlds is achievable only by the digital god Lain, at the cost of her real-world identity and meaningful human relationships. While the show is intermedial in that the animation portrays digital effects (like the “snowy” screen), it is more interesting in the way it engages the ubiquity of screens and interrogates our relationships and obsessions with them.

Amelia Pitt-Brooke

 

Was that ‘viral video’ you just watched really an ad?

When watching a video online most assume that, unless clearly stated, they are watching content created, and added or uploaded by other everyday users of the site, but this isn’t always the case. Advertisers have now discovered an extremely effective new form of spreading their commercials and products: viral marketing. By now, most have heard the term as it is being employed more frequently by companies, but with the advent of YouTube, now many viewers aren’t even aware that they are watching commercials anymore. There are now companies forming who specialize in commercials so stylized, they appear to have no style (or budget for that matter) at all. Ad companies such as Illegal Advertising and Unbuttoned Films have found their niche in creating ads that rely on users to spread word of their products, rather than company-bought air time or ad space.

Ruby Tuesday’s

Check it out these other examples:

Levis 1

Levis 2

Carlsberg

Nintendo

Casio EX-F1 Camera 

Aaron Kelsh

When one gets addicted to virtual games…

Whether the games are done on TV screen, or online, games stimulate one’s senses by involving intermediality. One gets so caught up in the realness of virtual games through abilities of interacting with other players, creating new personas (avatars), establishing goals faster than real-life time, and so on, that s/he becomes unaware of what is real and what is not. In Japan, this newspaper article, “Angry online ‘divorcee’ kills virtual husband in cyber revenge,” reports an incident where a 43-year-old woman was charged with murder in a virtual online game called Maple Story. Japan is a well-known country, as well as well-established, in terms of culture in video games however this incident is a good eye opening for many players out there to be aware of the powerfulness of virtual games. Intermediality and virtuality are becoming part of our society and culture more each day that it is hard to recognize unless someone gets trapped in it and do something surreal like this incident.

Aska Okamura