Ursa Freedom Project began on March 20 (Vernal Equinox) when, in the evening sky, the constellation Ursa Major rises up from the NorthEastern horizon (Northern Hemisphere).
The campaign builds through a series of monthly posters and activities that catapult the whole world into action on June 21 (Summer Solstice).
WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW!!! (AND HOPEFULLY KEEP DOING THEM 'TIL THE BEARS ARE FREE)
Below are are some of the artistic contributions so far.... show the world what a pro-active group of concerned artists can do to raise awareness to ALL people...
You all have your audience...
You all have your style...
You all have influence...
You all have hearts...
and...
I am sure...
You all have CONTACT LISTS...
Although I don't encourage spammmmmm.... telling a few people would be great too!
ACTION MAIL FEBRUARY 12, 2009 VICTORIAN BUSHFIRE APPEAL ...
This weekend just passed, Victoria in Australia has seen the most horrible and horrific of disasters, one not experienced here in modern times . It is hard to identify with what has been happening because to identify with the lessons to be learned from this experience, we need to delve into a situation of which it is easy to run and hide from. In our humble modern humanity there are those of us who still find it difficult to accept our vulnerability against the fury of the elements. And the flames were furious and many lives were lost. There are fires still burning.
Fingers are being pointed and many people want answers that may never come, but I guess from this singular perspective, I can only pray that if there was criminal intent, justice will be served.
For another perspective, Miranda Divine writes opinion for the Sydney Morning Herald and has raised the questions environmentalists will cringe to read, may indignantly defend or may pray that a balance can be found where we are not choosing between populations and vegetation density or our habitat. Particularly when we have been, and are from that habitat and many of our peers have now gone back to it's Earth element through those fires of havoc.
Lots of us have already given all the spare funds that we can, but if you can give still... here is the donation link for the Red Cross, you can also donate blood to help if you can (thnx bites)...
There are also many other items and general living things that may be called for such as:
The latest request for the bush fire victims We have had an extremely sombre request today. Wallan Community Centre has put out an urgent request for suits. These suits are for families who have lost relatives, and also their homes, and need them to attend their relatives’ funerals. Any shape and size of suit is fine. If you have anything you would like to donate – please let me know. Kind regards, Kristin Flanagan Events and Communications Coordinator / Special Projects E: flanagank@missionaustralia.com.au | P:(03) 8615 2266 | M: 0458 372 765 A: Level 2, 398 Lonsdale St, Melbourne, VIC, 3000 | W: http://www.missionaustralia.com.au (thnx Melinda)
The good artists at RedBubble have also organised The Phoenix Appeal to raise more funds for the many many families and communities that require rebuilding...
Victoria's bushland and wildlife will feel the effects of these fires for the remainder of the century.
The Art Action Union extends it's thoughts and hopes to the victims and heroes, peace and love.
BY CONTRAST ...
The entire north of Queensland has officially 'plunged' into flooding disaster status. Raining since January and with cyclones and king tides, it's been described as a downpour of "biblical proportions".
HUMAN RIGHTS POETRY SUBMISSIONS ...
New Internationalist is a magazine with the bi-line, 'The people, the ideas, the action in the fight for global justice'.
Their website footer states: "New Internationalist (NI) workers' co-operative exists to report on issues of world poverty and inequality; to focus attention on the unjust relationship between the powerful and the powerless worldwide; to debate and campaign for the radical changes necessary to meet the basic needs of all; and to bring to life the people, the ideas and the action in the fight for global justice."
It has a passionate feel and a definite yet subtle 'angstyness' about it, including aesthetic and appropriate design that is balanced by the obvious intelligence of the data encapsulated in the immediately recognisable stories of appeal.
The extra creatively activist angle is that they are currently looking for poetry to highlight the constant vigilance we keep for the prevalence of human rights around the world.
Rhymes for Rights - New Internationalist Magazine Our Publications Team are busy compiling a human rights based poetry anthology with poets from around the world. The aim is to have a hundred poems from a hundred different poets. And we need your help! If you have a favourite poet or poem that you think might fit the bill, please email us your suggestions. Interpret human rights in the broadest possible sense; we're not just after poetry of protest; affirmations are as valuable (and much harder to find) as complaints; translations are fine; poets should be fairly contemporary (ie 20th century to ones still alive); established names and unknowns equally welcome. Please email your suggestions to: rightspoetry@newint.org
WHY THE ART ACTION UNION LOVES ARTISTS THAT LOVE THE WORLD ...
+ to empower and gather activist artists together to broaden the appeal of communication of messages regarding important issues in society.
+ to promote and market our activities with a critical mass wherever possible to strengthen voice and communication of the message.
+ to ACTION issues as they arrive and when needed, but to also continually create awareness about social justice and topics that are always under scrutiny or are concerning to the artists.
+ to forge links with larger and more influential socially active community networks, in order to get exposure to coordinate with whatever we are needed for and to hopefully gain artists opportunities to get their ideas into the public arena through print, internet and ultimately traditional events such as exhibitions.
+ to stimulate awareness amongst our communities by actively acting collectively and artistically.
ART ACTION UNION LINKS DIRECTORY ... Visiting this page will take you to a list of Art Action Union directory links, this page is intended to be a quick guide to all the pages and networks and affiliations and groups where the Art Action Union (or I as your spokesperson) have a presence. There are still more to add but I would love to hear of more networks where art and activism are a major topic. If you know of any sites that we could sign up to with a view to awareness of the work that activist artists do, and that they need support with promotion (and yes financially too), please send me an email.
The AAU is many things, it can be a place of venting, a place of healing, an art gallery, a discussion forum. It is a collaboration in itself, and all the sites we add and spread our peace dove wings to, become part of that collaboration and the internet, be it an art site, a social networking site or whatever, is not only our canvas, but our voice and our medium for public ethics and morality to be called on in a continuous and diverse and fun and accessible way.
AND NOW FOR SOME ENTERTAINMENT ...
The artists of this collective are BRILLIANT!!! We have already accumulated a vast amount of intelligence and perspective and it just makes a big beautiful bowl of news and arts for me to write about. So for this section of our bumper news mail today - sit back and relax while I unearth some of the passionate people of our experiment.
Visual Fusion Collations:
shanghaiwu - is a digital fusion artist who is heavily influenced by her personal experiences in China and Japan, she lives in Australia.
Curious Comic Collations:
Mark Brumfield's eclectic and creative comic commentaries are inspiring, check out the shapes and vividness of colour contrasted with age old characters with quirky texts.
Victoria Morphy recently shared with us the experience of her first hand encounter with the momentous event that is known in Australia as "Sorry Day" with the Art Action Union. I thought it a cool idea on the Anniversary, to contrast the wonderful art that many members of the Art Action Union Group on Redubble shared with their audiences back on the 13th of February. It was an awareness campaign that was launched on the eve of the eve of the day, but brought forth a pouring of emotion and healing. Particularly for many people who haven't had the chance to express their regret in any other way previously. This is the blog article link, as we were in such infancy then, I don't have the collection I wished in the back catalogue, but I thought it right to retrospectively draw attention to the effort.
ARTS GRANTS FOR GROWING ...
The JB Seed Arts Grants Program is taking submissions NOW! They have also started a forum ... oh look on Ning too... quite like ours for sharing and planting and cross-pollinating ... oh they are good with the Music stuff. :-)
WE ARE HAVING A POLL-ACHE ...
Only 8 votes in our little crappy poll-for-fun, please join in the mayhem and click for a chance to push the boundaries of the universal institution that is collective consciousness ... for each click we receive your soul ... for keeping safe of course!!!
A conversation I had on our Facebook Group not very long ago ...
Post #1 Bissan (Palestine) wrote on January 14, 2009 at 1:52am What is your stand on Gaza and what is going on there.
Post #2 Kath wrote on January 14, 2009 at 9:17am Hi Bissan, I think that the Israelies are not following any mandate of tolerance ...
it is a very messy war and i can't see resolution... my view is that israel should not invade their neighbours... and should take heed of the international pressure for them to STOP killing people... no matter who backs them...
my understanding is not overly comprehensive but it seems that after world war 2 simply carving out a nation by dividing up a number of existing borders in the middle of a tribal and ancient land was always a bad idea.
there are many displaced people's of the world... they didn't 'make' a country for the Kurds after Sadam invaded Kuwait in the Gulf Conflict...
however, Israel I believe must also act like the rest of the world when it comes to responsible immigration policy... if they haven't got the room people can't live there, jew or not!
We can work together Bissan and create and art project to bring awareness about this topic if you like...
The only other thing I can do is post links for petitions from Amnesty International, of which I was planning to do at some stage today.
Post #3 Bissan (Palestine) wrote on January 14, 2009 at 10:38am I am very impressed and happy with your perspective.. it made my day. The point I am going to make is It is not a war about religion...
Palestine is a country for Jews, Muslims and Christians, it is the site for their holy locations.. so I will ask this: How can Zionists make it a Jewish country?? It is not just offensive to Muslims, it is also offensive to Christians and Jews themselves.
The Zionists have been ignoring the UN resolutions and etc for centuries, who do they think they are.. It is time the time to wake up.
Bissan Nohra is a young Palastinian woman who is studying in the US, she is deeply and personally passionate about raising awareness for the issues that are happening on the Gaza Strip. The conflict between Israel and Palastine which is ancient and difficult to fully interpret, but those living there understand it - they understand that they are innocent and they are being killed.
Palastina II
Let "US" Play War
We can support her by participating in the Gaza Awareness Campaign which will be launched soon ... watch out for a RedBubble Challenge and basically channeled campaigning ... you need to join with us and promote your work to your audiences, promote other people's work and generally talk about Gaza however and wherever you can. I know you will all put on your protest pants and be the Armchair Activists we all are. Won't ya!
Start thinking NOW about art, songs, videos, poetry, stories, articles, posters, pamphlets, t-shirts ... everything and anything to POSITIVELY promote a peaceful move forward for the families and children that are having their existence destroyed by this craziness.
MEGAHERZZZ ... THIS NEXT INSTALLMENT IS LOVVVVEEEELLLLYYYYY ...
Well Saturday's show is on Valentines day soooo ... being the women we are it's about love. That's LOVE not LUST (if we can separate the two) from as many angles as we can cover in the short time we've got!
Be serenaded by Jesse, Tian and moi (if you're lucky I will sing too) on Saturday in Brisbane between 2-3pm on 4zZz 102.1 fm Megaherzzz... it's a show by chicks about women's issues (of course, it's hard NOT to gossip about the blokes though ... ahem ... or complain ... or ... celebrate ... depends on the mood really ... and that's OUR prerogative right!)
***
GAWWWWDDDD.... WHAT A MOUTHFUL THAT WAS ... hope you got it all, and wrote notes ... now go forth and create!!!
NEW ADDITIONS TO OUR COLLECTIVE... WELCOME AND INVITE!
The more the merrier and the more bizarre and informative minds we get to mingle with...
Our community collective has had members join from lots of diverse places recently and the new year has brought new thoughts and perspectives for the education and awareness of any who happen by the spaces the Art Action Union Inhabits. We now are up to 97 members, can we kick in past ONE HUNDRED with a sprint? INVITE INVITE INVITE people... go nuts...
Our facebook group has swelled to 168 members... feel free to intercept and network through us there also.
On RedBubble.com the Art Action Union Creative Activism Group is at 470 likeminded folks who make and post provoking pieces of art and writing pretty much constantly... a activist art feast... We also are affiliated with other groups and have a moderating presence on the panel for Current Issues and Anti-Consumerism...
Follow the movements of the Art Action Union on Twitter by clicking FOLLOW KAOSKYANE
And I have just joined MySpace where I will also be gathering souls for promoting our wears... spread the word, use all your resources and become our army of advertisements... add our badges or logos or banners...
This year too, i will be revisiting our artactionunion.org portal to hopefully get it up... as time, life and resources allow :-)
CALL FOR COLLABORATIONS - THE TAR SANDS AND THE LEPUFOLOGY PROJECT
The Art Action Union are very glad to be associated with this great effort from a group of activists in Quebec Canada. Do you know what Tar Sands are? Do you know why they are important and why if they are 'used' for dirty energy it will be a bad thing? Well... find out, educate and make art to spread awareness. What goes around comes around contribute and your heart will find further repose... or at best, good karma will come to you.
The Lepufology Project is a not-for-profit collaborative art project which aims mainly to raise public awareness of the issues and impacts of the non-consensual development of oil sands in Alberta, of the various organizations taking action against it, and of alternative energy sources.
The Alberta tar sands development project has been described as “the largest industrial project in human history and likely also the most destructive.” It raises numerous social, environmental, and economic issues such as declining human health in many communities, the second fastest rate of deforestation on the planet behind the Amazon Rainforest Basin, fragmentation and devastation of bird and wildlife habitat, species loss, atmospheric pollution, acid rain, greenhouse gases, climate change, water pollution, degradation of water quality, contamination and sickening of wildlife and residents, lack of proper consultation and accommodation of First Nations interests, and loss of fishing grounds and traditional hunting and trapping territory.
Because of its sheer scale, the development of tar sands in Alberta impacts all of us, no matter where we are located on the planet.
Artists and artistically inclined people are invited to participate by creating digital art inspired by the cause or by the accompanying sci-fi short story and soundtrack. Then they are asked to submit their artwork to the project, spread it around, and link back to the project's website. Already existing pieces of art are also accepted, and so is art which is related to the cause even if not directly inspired by the story. All forms of art are accepted, as long as they are submitted in digital format easily shareable on the world wide web.
Unfortunately there is no podcast but ideas for awareness are encouraged and welcome from all parts of the globe. Contact me directly or post to the group if you are not Facebook shy.
SHE IS AMAZING ... AND SO IS THE ARTIST WHO CAPTURED HER STRENGTH ...
Art Action Union member Angelique Price has been copping some great press lately for her beautiful portraits, most recently from Juxtopoz Magazine... and with damn good reason... she is one of the most awesome portrait poster print-makers with a pantone! or sharpie... ever!
What is extra awesome however, enhancing the beauty that emanates from her work, is that she has a gift in bringing out the most vulnerable aspects of political and social leaders through bright, almost psychedelic, hand-drawn and coloured posterisations.
Angelique's portrait of Barack Obama shows not just his strength of character, but she has chosen a pose for him that is less than confident in feel but more the confident looking for counsel. Seemingly a leader who is looking to the people for advice.
But it is her portrayal of strong and courageous women that I love the most ...
Particularly Angelique's tribute to Benazir Bhutto, this artwork brought the knowledge of this woman's strength and untimely demise at the hands of the corrupt and intolerant.
ART BLOG FOR PEACE REDBUBBLE CHALLENGE RESULTS
Congratulations to rubyred for gaining the voting advantage for the Peace knot tshirt - buy it now by clicking the image below.
Action Mail 29.12.08 Between Christmas and New Year... what to do?
Hey y'all...
I realise that many are most likely at the summer festivals or dodging the blustery northern chills... most likely trying to forget that which makes us vigilant.
Never the less...
Here's some stuff to read and do and listen to...
ACTIVE MUSICIANS Click on the Music player on the homepage of our community site to listen to some fine compositions from passionate artists from the world over.
or... for something totally weird... listen to this composition (track 16) by spidergoatal... then follow the weirdness and learn about her interest in the moral dilemma of genetically engineering animals.
RADIO
For those who ignored me last time, I have become involved in community radio... so if you have any ideas that you think should be discussed, the show centres on women's stuff... read more send any ideas to me or better yet, put them in the AAU forums for all to see...
In short, how can we get you to actually do more in this group... I watch and hype but generally voting on challenges tends to be low, IF that is an indication, and participation in forums is negligible...
the GOOD news is that we do see LOTS of F@#%&G (ahem, sometimes the word is good for emphasis) AWESOME ART THAT IS EXTREME AND PASSIONATE...
We all gotta cleanse somehow, art is good for that...
SPECIAL THANKS TO HELEN TOO FOR OFTEN HOLDING THE FORT... CAN'T YOU SEE HER WITH HER TIN HAT AND BAZOOKA!
AGAIN... I THINK YOU ROCK HELEN!!! (btw can you add your attention seeking animated Christmas boobies to the AAU forums somewhere... they are so flashy!)
This interesting challenge just came through my Queensland Environmental Activist Network Group List... All dues go to the author:
The World Toilet Day web site went live this week. Check out www.insanitation.org
In 2001 the World Toilet Organisation in Singapore declared its founding day – 19th November as "World Toilet Day".
This is now being celebrated by members all over the world. We celebrate the humble, yet vitally important toilet and raise awareness of the global sanitation crisis.
It is not about white porcelain shiny things. The majority of toilets are just a hole in the ground. It is about making the connections between malnutrition and dysentery.
A toilet in a school provides the dignity and privacy for young women to continue their education beyond puberty.
2.6 billion people in the world do not have access to a sustainable, designated place to poo.
A key objective of World Toilet Day is to provoke discussion of toilets and sanitation in everyday conversations.
Event in Brisbane organised by Rowan Barber
TO CELEBRATE SUCH PRECIOUS AWARENESS...
THE ART ACTION UNION...
PRESENTS...
THE WORLD TOILET DAY CHALLENGE
The theme is simple...
A toilet capture of the most political of kind...
Artwork centred around the toilet (aka. loo, crapper, shit-house, poo room, WC, out-house, john, bathroom etc.) as a celebration of the ability to manage our personal waste is a systematic way... a personal thanks to Mr. Thomas Crapper (sp.?)
Give thought in your description to the masses of people who have been denied access to such fundamental sanitary needs...
Be funny, be serious, be gross, be active and aware...
Well, there was a little controversy surrounding our first ever redbubble group challenge... we had issues with the launch first up... thanks for your patience in that one... then we had some tough lessons learned... none too major but had to rethink things a little...
Nevertheless... we are not scared to keep it going...
Participation is not exactly in the high echelon of the spectrum... so we would love to see more entries but also, more importantly more VOTING...
I will endeavour to be more proactive in hypin' them up... but it's important for this group to show their concerns are acted ... of course... I don't wish to force people to participate... but rather inspire you to!
We currently have the following challenge live...
OXFAM CANVAS FOR CHANGE REDBUBBLE CHALLENGE Taking entries still for quite a few days and frankly... there aren't many there - so come on guys... you most likely have something you can enter already - if not, human rights and the environment are very linked... this challenge is only a redbubble challenge, but if you ARE inspired, send your canvas to OXFAM by following the links on the challenge page...
Coming VERY soon to a REDBUBBLE challenge feed near you...
+ to empower and gather activist artists together to broaden the appeal of communication of messages regarding important issues in society.
+ to promote and market our activities with a critical mass wherever possible to strengthen voice and communication of the message.
+ to ACTION issues as they arrive and when needed, but to also continually create awareness about social justice and topics that are always under scrutiny or are concerning to the artists.
+ to forge links with larger and more influential socially active community networks, in order to get exposure to coordinate with whatever we are needed for and to hopefully gain artists opportunities to get their ideas into the public arena through print, internet and ultimately traditional events such as exhibitions.
+ to stimulate awareness amongst our communities by actively acting collectively and artistically.
+ aspire to inspire.
