Events

Please join us for two NYC events curated by Dara Greenwald, with artists Waldemar Fydrych aka Major and Agnieszka Kubas of the Orange Alternative in Poland. This will be the first time they have presented this work in the US.

Each event will include a presentation, film/video screening, and discussion. Different films will be screened each night.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 7:00 pm
Bluestockings Bookstore
172 Allen Street @ Stanton, NY, NY

Films:
The Orange Alternative, 1989, Mirosław Dembiński (21 min.)
Dwarves go to Ukraine, 2005, Mirosław Dembińskim (on the OA action in the Orange Revolution in 2004)

Thursday, November 19, 2009, 7:30 pm
The Change You Want to See Gallery
http://thechangeyouwanttosee.org
84 Havemeyer Street @ Metropolitan Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11211

Films:
Major or the Revolution of Dwarves, 1989, Maria Zmarz-Koczanowicz (40 min.)
Dwarf for the Mayor, 2003, Mirosław Dembiński (36 min.) (on the OA's election campaign for the City Council in Warsaw)

About the Orange Alternative
The Orange Alternative is an underground anarchic movement, which was started in 1981 in Wroclaw, south-west Poland, by Waldemar Fydrych aka “Major.” Somewhat inspired by Provos, and strongly influenced by Dadaism and Surrealism, it painted absurd graffiti dwarfs on city walls, which became its symbol and organized massive happenings oftentimes with participation of thousands of people wearing dwarf hats. It was one of the more picturesque elements of Eastern European opposition against communism.

Monday, November 23, 7:30pm (free/by donation)
The Change You Want To See Gallery
84 Havemeyer St, at Metropolitan Ave, Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Branding is a complex communications system of signifiers that leverages psychoanalytical principals of irrationality and desire. While products are made in a factory, brands are created in our minds. A typical response to the persuasion industries on the part of the Left has been to reject them as manipulative, or servicing an unsustainable system of consumption.

Baudrillard defines consumption as “an active mode of relations…a systematic mode of activity and a global response on which our whole cultural system is founded.” This consumption refers not only to material goods in the classical sense, but also to concepts, images and messages. We are surrounded by systems of language and exchange.

In this series we’ve explored the history and mechanics of branding and advertising, multi-billion dollar industries that seek to expand influence over culture. We have also raised the question: are the tools the problem, or is it the ends to which they are employed? What might it look like to sell something beyond propaganda or products?

In this final installment, consultant Loid Der, former creative director of the world’s largest branding agency, will present the tricks of the trade. From research and design, branding briefs to implementation and analysis, Loid will walk us through the methodologies and processes he’s used in developing brands.

This is an A to Z curriculum, customized for our crowd (like a pro market researcher Loid has attended every event in the series). We’ll unpack case studies from corporations, non-profits, and the political world. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to peek under the hood and arm yourself with the tools of persuasion.

ABOUT LOID DER
Loid Der is creative consultant specializing in developing and managing strategic brand solutions for corporations and non-profit organizations. Until he began his own practice, he was a creative director at the world's largest branding agency, Interbrand for the last four years, leading creative teams from strategy, concept, design through implementation, and was responsible for creating the brand identities for AT&T, Microsoft and Xerox. His non-profit clients and projects include Feeding America (formerly America's Second Harvest), the Nelson Mandela Foundation, the Yes Men, Alternet and Not An Alternative. and He has collaborated with artists and writers on book and installation projects to explore issues of surveillance, security and seduction, female interrogation and torture techniques , kitsch and death. He has won numerous awards from Communication Arts, Graphis, Art Directors Club New York, Critique, Type Directors Club, and Idea Magazine. His work has been included in the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Design.

On the eve of the 10th anniversary of the Seattle World Trade Organization protests, please join us:

This Is What Democracy Looks Like (2000) and Battle in Seattle (2007)

Screenings, Drinking and Discussion
With Rick and Jacquie of Big Noise Films
Sunday, November 29, 6pm - 10pm

The Change You Want To See Gallery
http://www.thechangeyouwanttosee.org
84 Havemeyer St @ Metropolitan Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11211

Recommended reading: "Copenhagen: Seattle Grows Up" by Naomi Klein for The Nation

The early 90s were a low point for the Americas. NAFTA had passed, the guerrilla had been murdered in the mountains, the unions were being broken. . . history had ended.

But 10 years ago, we opened a tear in the fabric of that political reality. Suddenly it was possible to imagine futures that we had not allowed ourselves to see, and remember pasts we had been trained to forget.

On the 10th Anniversary of the protests that shut down the WTO in Seattle, join your friends from Big Noise Films and Not An Alternative as we reflect back and look forward. Celebrate the anniversary of our victory, hang out and play drinking games while we laugh at Ray Liotta playing Mayor Paul Schell with a bit too much eyeliner, and Andre 3000 cribbing lines from Hop Hopkins. Join Seattle vets and the Copenhagen-bound as we trace the trajectory from then to now, and beyond.

BYOB encouraged, popcorn provided.