art not ads

This via MetaFilter:

“The city of Sao Paulo passed an ordinance last year banning outdoor advertising; photographer Tony de Marco has been documenting the skeletal remains of the advertising infrastructure throughout the city; the impact looks like the aftermath of a new type of atomic weapon that targets marketing but leaves buildings & people unscathed.”

The MetaFilter post has lots of interesting comments and some links to other equally fascinating stuff.

Art Not Ads International!

Thanks - Andy.

Collecting contributions

As announced on the front page of the site, we are collecting contributions! The original pledge asked for a donation of �10 per person, but we’ll happily accept any amount. The easiest way to contribute is to go directly to the PayPal.com payment page . As PayPal states, the transaction is secure, and ArtNotAds don’t get any details about you at all .
We’re using Chipin.com to collect the funds. They have been very helpful in answering questions about how their service would work, and it seems to be the most suitable way of doing things. You will not be billed until the Chipin pledge is closed, and of course we’ll be letting everyone know about that at the time. You should be able to see a counter just below here (if not, don’t worry, you can simply visit the ANA page on Chipin.com for more information). You can also help us out by placing the Chipin counter on your website if you have one. They provide full instructions, and it’s very simple, especially if you have a blog.

Some graffiti

Spotted on flickr.com:

Mark Thomas , comedian, author, activist and dissident (nice CV) has been busy organising a series of “lone protests” in Parliament Square. The Guardian describes this as “designed to subvert the government’s widely criticised ban on taking part in protests within a kilometre of parliament without prior police authorisation. Each participant is being encouraged to apply to the police for a ‘lone protest’ licence (one demonstrator holding one placard)… The police cannot refuse an application made at least six days in advance… Mark Thomas, said: ‘What we hope to achieve is to put a sense of fun and play into protest. We want the police and the politicians to know that these laws preventing us from peaceful protest are ridiculous. The government needs to know that it has passed bad law.’ But he warned that any protester without a licence could face a �5,000 fine and even prison.”

And so last month (yes I really should update this blog more promptly) I joined around 100 other like-minded individuals to register my protest at Charring Cross police station. The day itself was good fun, and the police were patient and amused, if a little annoyed at people filming and taking photographs inside the station. One week later, on the 31st of August, I turned up to Parliament Square, to make my lone protest, and to join the throng. And quite a throng it was. There were probably 200 people, although I’m not very good at estimating crowd sizes. A token police force of 3 luminously-clad coppers ambled about on the other side of the square. Mark himself looked characteristically pissed off, or maybe he just hadn’t had enough sleep, it’s hard to tell.

There were all sorts of protests going on, and the atmosphere was one of mischievous fun and cameradery. A lot of people didn’t know each other, and it was great to meet new people and talk to them about their causes. I even bumped into two people who have signed the Art Not Ads pledge!

The last I heard, Mark Thomas is busy organising more of these protests, so check out his site for more info. I took a few photos of the event, so here they are:

From the registration day at Charring Cross police station:

And on the day itself:

First, apologies for the lack of activity on this blog in recent weeks. Yet again, “real life” has intruded into the diminishing spare time that is available to run and contribute to this project. Hopefully we shall see more activity!

Flying adverts

A few weeks ago I was wandering through Regent’s Park . It was a pleasant spring day, the traffic hum had faded into the background, and life was good. Then, in a distant patch of grey sky, I noticed a little plane dragging one of those huge banners behind it. It was distant enough that I couldn’t read it, so I can’t pass on the advertising message, boo hoo. It saddened me that in the middle of this beautiful park, advertising could still reach me. In one of the few secluded and green spots in London, a relative haven of quiet and relaxation, it was still impossible for me to prevent advertising from being poked into my eyes.

The Royal Parks are apparently governed by the Royal Parks Agency . They receive funding from a central government grant, but supplement it with “commercial activities such as concerts”. It seems that “commerical activities” also includes allowing advertising. Or maybe it doesn’t? Maybe the plane and banner were actually targetted at eyeballs elsewhere. If that’s the case, I wonder how the law regulates this? Provided planning permission isn’t required, is it okay to erect something that can be seen from 5 miles away? 10 miles? 100? It’s time we found out!

Hijacking Spaces

The good people at Space Hijackers have been in touch, and at least one of them has been kind enough to sign up to the Art Not Ads pledge . These are the people responsible for London to Brighton Crazy Golf, National Siesta Day, and Midnight Cricket, among a great many other things. Wonderful. There’s nothing quite like rattling the bars on the cage once in a while.

This one hove into view a few days ago as I was walking to the shops in Hampstead. The ad was a typical football related piece of pap: logo and name of bank on top, and “COME ON ENGLAND!” underneath. Inspired indeed. I’m sure the advertising gurus will be praising that one for weeks. But of course the question has to be asked again: who’s selling our skies??? And who gave them permission? I don’t remember anyone asking.

Apologies for the terrible picture, I only had my mobile phone at the time. It’s not really clear from this photo how enormous these banner adverts are, although you can compare it with the size of the helicopter, which is visible as a small black blob to the top right of the banner.