August 19, 2003                                                Contact:
Luther Blisset (312) 515-7364  dtucke@artic.edu
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Counter Productive Industries presents COLLECTIVE PRANKS, PROTEST GRAPHICS, AND
SPACE RECLAMATION

Where/When:
August 20, 7pm @ Arts in Action, Los Angeles; 1919 W 7th St (4th Floor)
artsinactionla.org
August 21, 7:30 @ C-Level, Los Angeles 963 N. Hill Street (back alley entrance)
in
     Chinatown  www.c-level.cc/

Why/Who/What:
Counterproductiveindustries.com presents COLLECTIVE PRANKS, PROTEST GRAPHICS,
AND SPACE RECLAMATION, a west coast tour of Retooling Dissent, the video
documenting creative resistance projects from protests against the World
Economic Forum.  It features collaborations and tactical media by The Institute
for Applied Autonomy, The Bikewriters, StreetRec, and Spain’s Las Agencias/New
Kids On The Black Block.

Accompanying the video is a series of presentations drawing on a network of
critical art projects and activism from Chicago.  These projects range from
large-scale political actions, spontaneous events, flexible collaborations, and
temporary collectives.

One of the projects presented is the Department of Space and Land Reclamation
(DSLR), an ambitious three-day campaign which sought to reclaim all the space,
land, and visual culture of Chicago back to its public citizens.  DSLR brought
hundreds of artists, activists, and community groups together for a weekend of
interventions, presentations, graffiti, trespassing, pirate radio, community
meals, loitering, hacking, guerrilla gardening, public performances, parties,
and discussions.

The infectious energy of DSLR catalyzed a number of other initiatives such as
the utopian festival of local community groups, The Autonomous Territories of
Chicago.  These growing critiques of economic globalization and its familiar
relative, gentrification, spawned the construction and installation of a fake
affordable housing development Daley Village and another project involving the
critical marketing of a real property by a our very own real estate agency
Pioneer Renewal Trust.

Other tactical media organized around Israel/Palestine, 9/11, Chicago’s
graffiti abatement policy, the "war on terror", and the Trans-Atlantic Business
Dialogue (TABD) will be shared, as well as video and discussion of the wild,
spontaneous street occupation and direct actions against MTV’s The Real World
Chicago.  These projects represent a unique strain of activist cultural
practice which should be of interest to artists, activists, and students
alike.  Project organizers and participants will be available for discussion.

For more information about the tour see: http://
www.counterproductiveindustries.com/tour .

Retooling Dissent is distributed by AKPress and has been showing around the
world at venues like the IMPAKT Festival (Utrecht, The Netherlands), Version>03
Digital Arts Convergence at the Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago) and
Artists Television Access/Other Cinema (San Francisco). Retooling Dissent has
continued to serve as a useful tool for organizing actions as well as
highlighting alternative and creative tactics that various radical arts
collectives have been pursuing. For more info, see: http://
www.counterproductiveindustries.com/retoolingdissent .

Great event. Come to the c-level event tomorow if you missed tonights.