Professionals in corporate sabotage, ®™ark (pronounced "artmark") sponsors pranks designed to overturn the dominant social paradigm. Each of the escapades appears to be the work of a mysterious underground network of activists. Some of the more famous pranks have included... The Barbie Liberation Front, which switched the voice boxes in Barbie and G.I.Joe dolls and then returned them to the shops. As a result, the icon of "femininity" for girls was saying "Let's go get 'em" while the poster boy for steroid use started saying "Let's go shopping!" ..."Deconstructing Beck", a CD compilation in which the famous rock star's work is re-assembled with electronic cutting and pasting ...a hack on the SimCopter computer game such that a "win" was represented by boys in swimsuits kissing instead of scantily clad women rubbing up against the computer screen ... Here is an article on their antics from the Boston Phoenix.
This fun site provides spoof ads and "uncommercials" in the spirit of situationist détournement. Adbusters also sponsors campaigns like "Turn Off Your TV Week" and "Buy Nothing Day".
This is a page from a group called Abrupt that specializes in publishing pamphlets that parody and disrupt the ridiculous and the status quo. Their work includes: a broadside entitled "Break Your Fucking Chains!", a satirical piece on Richard Nixon and Kurt Cobain that made it into the NY Times, and a series of détourned cereal boxes. Their list of inspirational reading material includes works by Paolo Soleri, William S. Burroughs, Lewis Carroll, Hunter S. Thompson, Antonin Artaud, Abbie Hoffman, Teilhard de Chardin, Arthur C. Clarke, Sun Tzu, Aung San Suu Kyi, R. Buckminster Fuller, Gore Vidal and many others.
Steal This Website!: The Yippie Free Store
This website is devoted to the life and work of Abbie Hoffman and the Yippie! movement. Includes lots of resources on how to get stuff for free and some advice on how to wage Internet Monkey Warfare. Has links to sites about 60s cultural icons like Bob Dylan and Jim Morrison, as well as more modern yipsters like Pieman.
Radcial webzine that focuses on cultural issues. Feature sections include: The Revolution, Orgasmatron, Police State and Headshop. Covers interesting stories like: establishment efforts to disrupt anti-war and anti-WTO websites, African-American cinema at the crossroads, and the consipracy to build only gas-guzzling cars.
A satirical newspaper that plumbs the weird and celebrates the mundane. All-in-all a brilliant reduction of the senselessness of everyday life in a consumerist society. Highly recommended. Lots of fun stuff like "The Cultural Idiocy Quiz" and clever twists on the news. For example, a headline blares " Acne Medication May Cause Dizziness, Nausea, Loss Of Hearing, Insomnia, Blood Clotting, Difficulty Breathing" and then goes on to quote from the TV advertisement for the medication. Has some interesting links and original interviews as well.
Idiosyntactix Strategic Arts and Sciences Alliance
Authors of the Incidentalist Manifesto, which states: "Incidentalism is rooted in the idea that art is not an object, but rather art happens in the incident. Art happens when the actions of artists bring expressions into a state where they can be perceived and thereby can enlighten, art is in the moment of expression. It is not our purpose to use art as a tool to demonstrate our own skill and/or knowledge, rather to use art as an apparatus to provoke the incident to incite expressions that are beyond our own preconceptions. The incidentalist's goal is to express that which is beyond their skill and or knowledge, not to educate through their work but be enlightened by it and allow these enlightening expressions to resonate unhindered."
A tongue-in-cheek declaration of the refoundation of the USSR, this site has lots of fun stuff like a section on "ideologically correct insults for enemies of the people", "Da zdravstvuet I.V. Stalin!" (a selection of ideologically correct flattery for "the brilliant genius of humanity") and a page commemorating Pavlik Morozov, who denounced his parents to the secret police. Also provides some interesting resources like links to the Internationale in several languages, Soviet songs and films, and more.
This absurdist group has been wreaking havoc in the cultural space for quite a while now. Publishers of the newsletter The Stark Fist of Removal, the Church of the Sub-Genius recommends substituting the iconic 50's image of "Bob Dobbs" for standard representations of power and authority and to follow the principles of "slack". There are tons of "Sub-Genius", "Bob Dobbs" and "Slack" oriented websites out there, but this one is as good a place to start as any.
Includes fascinating links to things like the "Panic Encyclopedia: The Definitive Guide to the Post-Modern Scene" as well as brilliant bits likes "Rats to Cats!" and Suck. , a cartoon 'zine, written by Bertolt Blecht, that reports on events from the point of view that life in the USA can really suck.
Hothead Paisan, Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist
"Avenger of scum and patron saint of freaks and misfits." By Diane DiMassa and Giant Ass Publishing.
A radical penguin takes on global consumerism. By Tom Tomorrow.