Dedicated to clever and innovative trends of art and design in activism.

The Maine Civil Liberties Union, Maine’s branch of the ACLU, is hosting Civil Liberties Cinema every Wednesday.  This week they are watching “Beyond the Patriot Act,” which tells how a misguided law and other government reactions to 9/11 are restricting out most basic constitutional freedoms and threatening America’s checks and balances.

Relatedly, the national ACLU is hosting their third annual Stand Up for Freedom Contest: “We want you to get creative about defending your rights by producing a video PSA or an audio podcast about how the government is abusing its power. Make it funny, slam it, turn it into a documentary — for both PSA and podcast categories, any type of original work will be considered. This is your chance to win money AND make some noise about the news that bugs you, whether it’s government surveillance, illegal detentions, or censorship.”

The deadline is October 4, 2007, so hop to it!

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The latest issue of GOOD Magazine focuses on design and activism. On the cover is the catchphrase “Let’s make design a verb.” I couldn’t agree more. Thanks to Print Magazine for the free issue they sent me, which is where I found out about GOOD and many other new magazines like it!

GOOD Magazine has an online snippet about guerrilla horticulturalists in London, which is an amazing and inspiring idea!

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Who Knew is a self-described “information design network devoted to ‘difficult content’ - ideas and issues that are commonly misunderstood and censored. Every 3 months, students graphically communicate texts considered complex, confusing and/or controversial - things that make us go, “Who knew?”

It is a fascinating read, and deals with a lot of important issues, including our favorite, art and activism, especially the “interpretive power of graphics and typography in the access, efficiency and transparency of information.”  They’ve recently published a new edition of the magzine, check it out!

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I am obsessed with maps. I love the notion that space and our memory of it can be transferred to something that is tangible and accessible. That said, it was necessary that I post about the recent buzz I’ve noticed around the politics of cartography. There was a recent article in the New York Times on map makers and the influence that they allow politics to have over their craft. Cartography is an inherently political art, as it has to heed the changes in government that decide borders and topography.

Furthering this point, (and making further buzz) One Piece just highlighted Nova Rico, an Italian cartography company, whose co-director said “the problems of cartography are the same that exist in diplomatic relations.”

Recently, we wrote about a series of cartograms and the impact they can have as activist tools.  The Institute for Infinitely Small Things did a study of the Maine coast called 42 or 363 Definitions of Cartography wherein they explored the “existence of a complex dynamic historical relation between communities, both human and otherwise, that cross from land to sea and back [that] is at risk of being lost.”  Cartography is a powerful, conceptual, but largely unexplored activist tool.

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Three Minds @ Organic recently posted a few cartograms that the University of Michigan and the University of Sheffield created.  The idea behind a cartogram is that it displays information in map form without heeding spacial considerations.  So, if, as below, China consumes more alcohol than Australia does, it is made bigger.

The collection includes cartograms on military spending, housing prices, HIV prevalence, among other pressing issues.  It can be found at War Without End.

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