Ecoartivismo

Animal Confusion

dirtybomb — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 22:58:14 +0000

The french publisher “Circonflexe” has published a book named “Play of Images” that combines images of real wild animals with illustrations and logotypes for Peugeot, Lacoste, Nestle and Sheba — all companies that use animals for their corporate identities. This kind of children’s book contributes to the confusion between representations of the real, on the one hand, and virtual avatars for corporations on the other. The book is devoid of critical intelligence regarding this type of epistemological question, which is increasingly important as habitats are rapidly disappearing for many animals. It’s important to lead children into some knowledge of these realities rather than obfuscating and ignoring them. The alternative would be to foster another generation of children as blindly insensitive to the realities of ecology as today’s adults. Kids must learn that companies are exploiting species on the verge of extinction. They should not be led to confuse the representation with the original.

Project Free Cetacea

adamsan — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 15:05:44 +0000

Proyecto Gran Simio ( proyectogransimio.org ) just launched a new project called “Proyecto Cetaceo Libre” you can find it on their website. We were happy to make the design of the logotype ! .-)

Sticking Gorilla Coffee

adamsan — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 11:26:03 +0000

“Gorilla Coffee” is one of many products that leverages the unique identity of a wild animal in its marketing. We don’t know if the coffee is good. As a company perhaps it is no better or worse than average. But in the interest of the animals represented in branding like this, Transnational Temps is advancing a campaign that brings both the company and the consumer into a dialogue about the real situation faced by endangered species like the one pictured on this bag of coffee.

We invite Gorilla Coffee to paste information about the mountain gorilla on its packaging. Did you know that only approximately 750 mountain gorillas remain in the wild? When images of wild animals are duplicated endless in entertainment, and product packaging, it can be easy not to notice that the habitats these animals need to survive are disappearing.

This picture is a simulation of the Gorilla Coffee product, improved by ecoartivistic intervention. This is an invitation for the company to contribute to the growth of consciousness about the ecological distress of endangered species.

EcoArte in Brazil

dirtybomb — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 16:44:25 +0000

EcoScope é uma ferramenta colaborativa online que possibilita a troca de informações relacionadas aos problemas ambientais. Criada pelo coletivo Transnational Temps, a ferramenta é uma forma de manter o assunto em voga, com grupos de cientistas e artistas discutindo soluções para esses problemas. A atual concentração de propriedades e informações nas mãos de poucos acaba por impedir o desenvolvimento de discussões cujas soluções para os problemas ambientais não agradariam as grandes corporações. O coletivo busca compartilhar o conhecimento e tratar do tema não de forma trivial como a grande mídia faz. Isso é uma forma de manter as discussões constantes, contribuindo para a formação de soluções para o problema.

O Transnational Temps é um coletivo de artes que reúne artistas e ex-artistas em torno de um mesmo assunto : os problemas globais, com uma orientação global e midiática. O site do EcoScope (www.eco-scope.org) é dividido em alguns canais que servem como pano de fundo para fomentar discussões, como o canal do ozônio, da água e do desmatamento. O usuário pode navegar pelos canais e colaborar deixando uma mensagem.

Reblogged from Igor’s post at ecoarte.info

Ecoartivismo on the Net

dirtybomb — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 23:09:48 +0000

The title ‘ecoartivismo’ expresses the union of ecologically-themed art and ecological activism. It invokes the term ‘artivismo’ while attaching it to environmental themes like sustainability, extinction, climate change, and ecology. The site will be increasingly multi-lingual, incorporating the native spanish, french, and english of Transnational Temps co-founders Verónica Perales, Fred Adam, and Andy Deck.

Visit it on the ‘net at ecoartivismo.net.

Exxon’s Astroturfing

dirtybomb — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 06:42:47 +0000

Exxon corporate citizenship? Yeah, right. This is the same company that has worked tirelessly and spent freely to obfuscate the global warming science issues and convince people through bogus science that the process of warming is a natural occurrence. And what about this idea of “corporate citizenship”? The idea is clear enough, but in reality corporations are not citizens and it has been due in no small degree to this confusion that corporate power has gotten so out of control.

Exxon has also been found to be guilty of astroturfing – simulating grass roots activities for the purposes of public relations or industrial persuasion. The Wall Street Journal and ABC News nailed Exxon for producing an anti-Al Gore video and using a front to distance itself from it.

* http://www.youtube.com/v/IZSqXUSwHRI
* http://www.bloggersblog.com/cgi-bin/bloggersblog.pl?bblog=806062
* http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=2273111&page=1

Earth Art Mobile

adamsan — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 08:14:04 +0000

Transnational Temps is working on a new section called Earth Art Mobile, starting with a series of works called “urban safari” that locates species in public spaces and documents them directly using mobile phones. The aim is to work in situ and find interesting and intuitive ways for eco-activism to share information online. If you want to access these mobile bloggings directly, please type: mobile.ecoartivismo.net You can even view it on your mobile phone!

Simio Mobile

dirtybomb — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 03:32:24 +0000

Transnational Temps has launched an initiative relating telephony and the stressed habitats that mobile phone manufacturing affects in Africa.

Partnering with various environmental organizations, the Simio Mobile seeks to spread awareness of coltan’s malign effects using fun and pop sensibilities aimed at youth culture.

simiomobile.com

VIDA Redux

dirtybomb — Sun, 04 May 2008 17:08:33 +0000

Nell Tenhaaf summarizes the best of the VIDA competition, including an early work from Transnational Temps.

From Spain, Novus Extinctus (2001, VIDA 4.0) by Transnational Temps (Andy Deck, Fred Adam and Verónica Perales), is an Internet artwork whose central message is that the expansion of human presence on the World Wide Web, measured via the number of domain names registered daily, climbs in a deadly parallel with the number of species that go extinct. The site has a strong element of marketing spoof as well, linking Latin species names to commercial sites such as TigerDirect that use the names of exotic animals. Source

First Prize for Greenwashing Project

dirtybomb — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 04:11:23 +0000

Transnational Temps entered and won the Shift Space Commission Program’s competition for the best ‘trail.’ The Transnational Temps entry pulled together a variety of websites that address or exemplify ‘greenwashing’: the use of misleading PR and advertising to cleanse a corporation’s image with respect to its environmental impact. In recent years, and especially after the release of An Inconvenient Truth, the public perception of global warming has changed. But the tremendous increase of feel-good PR on the part of some of the most environmentally abusive corporations on earth leads us to wonder who will hold greenwashers accountable for their deceptions.

Shift Space is a browser add-on that enables its users to superimpose comments above existing websites. The ‘trail’ paradigm is a thematic series of pages that are part of the Shift Space network of annotated sites.

Transnational Temps would like to acknowledge the participation of several students who contributed to a class project that got the greenwashing ball rolling. Elise, Dara, Sheena and Hye Seung: thank you for helping to make the project a success.