Culture Jamming

 
This is an image referencing the Barbie Liberation Organization. I had found it on the site Creative Tools 4 Critical Times. There, they describe it thusly:

The Barbie Liberation Organization's (B.L.O.) Barbie Liberation (1993) was an artistic prank in which the voice boxes of 300 talking Barbie and G.I. Joe dolls were switched. The modified dolls were then secretly returned to stores to be purchased by unsuspecting consumers. The B.L.O. was founded by Mike Bonanno of the Yes Men.

 GI Joes and Barbie dolls tend to be very gendered toys for children, and this is often reinforced by voice recordings that the dolls play. By switching the voiceboxes of the two dolls, you end up with toys that end up saying things that contrast very strongly with the gendered roles that are being portrayed by the appearance of the dolls. That dissonance can be a way to bring issues of gender performance into focus when they might otherwise go unnoticed and unquestioned.

Art Exhibition

There are a couple art exhibits I planned on seeing if I had the chance. The first I had been looking into was the fifth installment of the Peekskill Project. The event is essentially a long series of exhibitions by contemporary artists in the Hudson Valley, done in lots of different types of mediums in on and offsite venues. The event takes place from September to July on the second and third Sundays of the month. Due to the drive, this was not my first choice.


What ended up drawing my attention more was the Dia in Beacon.

 

 

The Dia has a very spacious venue that hosts various exhibits. What I ended up eventually deciding on observing was the Sol LeWitt Drawing Series. It was a series of conceptual drawings done under the direction of Sol LeWitt. I visited the Dia after class on a Friday, as the Dia is open on weekends and Fridays.