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

The title “Artists At War” might lead you to believe that this is a militant group, but quite to the contrary, it’s an effort to describe and creatively participate in a culture of resistance in a society engaged in permanent war.

Featuring artists and their work regularly (roughly monthly), Artists At War provides shelter and exposure for work that defies a market that tends to be anesthetized and distracted. We encourage artists to share work here regardless of whether the thrust of the work is didactically “Anti-War.” Artists At War aims to demonstrate and record what we as creative actors do and say during these tumultuous times.

A Los Angeles based collaboration between activists Thomas McKenzie and Steven L. Anderson, artists who participate are featured on their website and in the GYST Newsletter.  They also maintain a blog and an incredible list of arts and activism resources.

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As part of Ryan’s community organizing for participatory media in Newfoundland, he produced this poster for last week’s Ryakuga broadcast:

We’ve made it available as a print-ready PDF [3.4MB], sized 11×17″ for those of you who might like it enough to print yourselves a copy. Download the poster here.

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From Social Design Notes comes the story of photographer Zoriah Miller, whose publishing of photos depicting American and Iraqi casualties has inspired the commander of the U.S. Marines in Iraq to call for Zoriah’s banishment from U.S. military bases worldwide.

John Emerson, who runs Social Design Notes, was reading about Zoriah’s story in the New York Times, and turned to the photographer’s portfolio online, where he found the picture below.

He published his reaction online a few days ago:

It has a Banksy-like irony to it: juxtaposing tools of authoritarian force with the values they are rhetorically professed to deliver — and with a faint whiff of commercialism. The vehicle above is a Iraqi Soviet-model MT-LB multi-purpose armored personnel carrier, most likely tagged, I suspect, by a U.S. soldier. But paint that slogan on an U.S. Abrams, and it makes a good stencil idea.

He’s made the stencil available for download from his website.  Nice work, John!

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Groundswell co-founder Ryan Hermens has been working to develop community media in Newfoundland, where he currently lives.  From a dial-up connection last week, he helped Ryakuga, a local nonprofit that creates participatory, grassroots media, simulcast the Fish Fun and Folk Festival.

We participate in projects with rural communities; indigenous peoples; environmental organizations; women’s groups; youth, and senior citizens.

You can download their e-zine, which describes their project work, read their history, or check out their website for more info.

Photo credit.

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Another Limited Rebellion says:

Another Protest Song asks “What does a 21st century protest song sound like?” Created by audio activists Angel Nevarez and Valerie Tevere of NeuroTransmitter, the site encourage musicians to add to a Creative Commons licensed database of political songs and share in the debate of what the power of music can do for today’s political climate. Check out recent entries or share your own works HERE.

It’s inspired me to finally mix my cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s “7 O’Clock News / Silent Night” and submit it.  I’ll also make the MP3 available here on Groundswell when it’s ready.  In the meantime, the song War Cry featured on Another Protest Song is well worth the listen - can anybody identify who the artist is?

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