http://www.theyesmen.org/video/heritagetoast.mp4
http://www.dowethics.com/risk/video/acceptable_risk_launch.mov
http://www.theyesmen.org/politicsprime-small.mp4
their web site is
www.theyesmen.org
These guys impersonate World Trade Organization spokesmen and speak total non-sense at world conferneces and business meetings. They fake their way to those conferences, TV, publish phony press releases, come up with provocative campaigns.
watch the video. listen closely, lol!!
The corporate people are watching these what I consider art performances in their corporate environments and don't have a clue. These guys are some major tricksters. Art can be fun.
They pretend, have fun and come up with silly products but present them simulating typical business behavior and talk. They even create powerpoint presentations and animations to communicate their insane ideas. By assuming business manners they perfectly camouflage and this might show how the business world and politics might be like the Emperor's new clothes. Nobody has a clue or even cares, and everybody just follows the leaders. They managed to infiltrate into corporate environments through creativity and might make you question these environments and instuitutions that are part of our society and allow certain people to have certain identities and roles in society :)
Aren't we all just choosing and assuming a character and a stage to act it out? When we recognize that all titles, institutions, personas, jobs, roles in society we identify with are all just a construct that we might use to avoid looking at the unfiltered truth of who we really are.
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i saw the feature documentary on them a couple years back. they rock! i was so inspired i tracked down their real names and where they teach, though off the top of my head can't remember their names at the moment. the shorter guy was on faculty at Rensellear Polytechnic (RPI) and the taller guy was actually almost hired on as faculty at Mills College in Oakland in their relatively new Intermedia Arts Department.
the type of work they do is often referred to as tactical intervention. something i'm very interested in and closely aligned with in my own artistic values, as it offers a powerful combination of potential for raising consciousness, exposing the structures of dominance hidden behind the apparent naturalness of everyday social relations, and great entertainment at the same time.
and if it wasn't entertaining, it wouldn't have nearly the artistic value/quality as it does. once again, the role of the trickster/joker.
they must have good lawyers though!
as for your point about identity, i'm in partial agreement but have more to say, will post soon . . .
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