I was working on yet another one of my professor's abstract demands in regards to writing a paper, and as always her topics always lead me off on a tangent I become mildly obsessed with. First, it was my two-week Nietzsche obsession and now it is the concept of "culture jamming".
In my quest for books in the FGCU library, I came across a book by Kalle Lasn titled "Culture Jam". The topic of my paper was "my generation" and my generation is very culturally connected, so I figured I would give it a shot.
Despite the dated references to President Clinton and "eventually in the year 2003", it was a still very relevent book to 2009.
I did some googling (I love how "googling" doesn't come up on my macbook's system-wide spell check) on the author, and I found Lasn's Canadian based website Adbusters.org. Basically, it is a network of creative, and, dare I say, liberals who have a passion for "culture jamming".
Let me define.
Culture jamming is best defined more as an art movement. A group of
people who poke fun at popular culture and promote civic engagement.Basically, get your True Religion Jeans wearing butt off the couch, away from your 50" Sony plasma screen TV, turn off the latest episode of The Hills(I love making fun of that show), and go stand up for something you believe in.
The thought of culture jammers is that America has evolved into a brand, overcome by capitalism and its citizens are grossly consuming anything corporate America shoves down their throats. (They call televisions "idiot boxes"... love it!)
I personally enjoy the corporate flag they sell in their online store, pictured above. Instead of "stars & stripes" they call it "brands & bands".
Don't get me wrong, I'm just as guilty of falling into the corporate cult as anyone else. It is incredibly difficult to find your way out of the superficially obsessed society that most of us grew up in.
Take a look at what they have to say, its interesting.
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