[Imc-london] Re: political art on indymedia newswires: Bansky

[Anarcho Babe]

Agree with ionnek, and totally subjectively like Bansky's graffiti, they  
seem beautifull and sometimes thoughtfull and clever to me.
I don't think the new found trend and mass appeal of Bansky art is a  
reason to hide the article.
And as there is some Bansky graffiti on the Israel-Palestine wall and  
siding with murals in Chiapas, it is hopefully regarded as political  
enough to be on Indymedia?

Though it is maybe not an issue anymore, which is neglected by the  
mainstream media.
But we do sometimes share the same topics as mainstream media, but from a  
different point of view. And people can add their comments under the  
article, say what they think about Bansky, which might also make it  
worthwhile to have the article up.

Also thought the link to the website was quite good, had a look around  
there, too, was quite informative and haven't visited the website before.

But I don't agree with him painting on animals, though most of the animals  
actually won't care as long as it is not too uncomfortable and not  
covering too much of their body surface, at least not about the paint, but  
especially sheep might be frightened of too many visitors as they are  
quite shy.
Maybe we should also tick the animal rights box? (grin)
bye for now
Ulla


On Fri, 09 Sep 2005 17:53:52 +0100, ionnek <ionnek at aktivix.org> wrote:

> Hi features and imc-london,

>
> And Euan asked on imc-london what to do whith the banksy article on the  
> imc london newswire.
>
> I have re-ticked UK and London on 322807, that's the Banksy article. It  
> seems that things like the Banksy political protests are becoming  
> unacceptable for some of us, and I don't understand why. Doesn't  
> indymedia, well maybe the entire global movement, owe a lot to the messy  
> recombination of different social movements and political articulations?  
> Isn't that messyness the beauty of it all? Do we have a problem with  
> creative, artistic and musical means of protest? Are we trying to ban  
> everything that doesn't fit into the narrow box of "grassroots political  
> activism" from the general newswire? Are we trying to turn the general  
> UK newswire into a specialised grassroots-direct-action newsletter? Are  
> we closing down, are we on the way to become a small, parochial  
> leaflet-type website for the internal news of one part of the movement?  
> We say we are an "open publishing platform", and I acknowledge that the  
> banksy post was left on the culture newswire. But shouldn't the general  
> UK newswire be just that, general? Shouldn't it give an impression of  
> how varied this movement still is?
>
> There seems to be a desire to make the general uk newswire more  
> consistent (and in a slightly different way, the london one as well).  
> Having an edited web-magazine would be another worthwhile project,  but  
> I don't think the UK newswire is the place where this could be  
> achieved.  If we are too heavy-handed on the UK newswire, we might loose  
> the backbone of the entire project - the variety of people that use the  
> open publishing. I believe that the topic pages could go a long way for  
> consistent thematic collaborative websites - we have the technology! To  
> make it work, I think that more than hiding is needed. Basically teams  
> who want to look after topic pages and are not afraid of discussions.
>
> I also reticked London on the Banksy post, for an additional reason.  
> Banksy's work, whatever people might think about his big show some time  
> ago, is very very very London, and the posting included a link to his  
> website. Much of the material on this website is as london as you get,  
> graffities in recognisable London public spaces, reclaiming them for  
> those of us who imagine that "another world is possible", still. Even if  
> Banksy is now doing stuff abroad, he is still a kind of London figure,  
> and I for one am interested in what he is doing. Kind of a correspondent  
> type of thing.
>
> I hope you don't read this post not as an attack on those who are  
> cleaning the newswire, but as a contribution to an ongoing debate. I  
> have this fear that we are closing down and I don't like it. What do  
> others think - am I a very small minority with my unease?
>
> best
> ionnek
>
>


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