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What is a Whirl-Mart?
The action is comprised of a group of anti-shoppers ranging in size from 1 to 50 members. The ritual consists of activists/actors arriving at a Wal-Mart, Toys-R-Us or another chain superstore at 12-noon on the first Saturday or Sunday of the month and proceeding to push empty shopping carts slowly and silently through the aisles. Eventually, all of the participants locate one another and form a single-file chain of anti-shoppers which weaves, wanders, and whirls throughout the store for about an hour. It is a collective reclamation of space that is otherwise only used for buying and selling. It is a symbolic display of the will to resist the capitalist ideology.
'Whirl-Mart' is an experiment that can be approached from several different angles. As a work of art, it examines and blurs the boundaries that have been established between performance art, protest, living sculpture, and direct action. As an action of resistance, it utilizes the power of silence in occupying private consumer-dominated space with a symbolic spectacle. As a ceremony, it is a counter-ritual to shopping that transforms the super-store and its wall-to-wall array of products into a surreal and colorful cathedral. And what the heck-- it's just darned fun!
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National & Worldwide
Whirl-Mart Ritual Resistance International Whirl-Mart HQ World Changing Models, Tools, and Ideas for Building a Bright Green Future Critical Mass Critical Mass is not an organization, it's an unorganized
coincidence. It's a movement ... of bicycles, in the streets. Rev Billy's Church of Stop Shopping Lots of great scripts from/for performance interventions
with a heavy focus on Starbucks. Commerce
Jamming Commerce Jamming source page. AdBusters A global network of those who want to advance the new social
activist movement of the information age. Commercial Alert wants to keep commercial culture within
its proper sphere, and to prevent it from exploiting children and subverting
the higher values of family, community, environmental integrity and
democracy. No Media Kings Jim Munroe's guide to doin' it for yourself Booksense.com Internet book search that sends your order to your nearest
independent bookstore. Starbucks Delocator Search that helps you locate locally owned alternatives to Starbucks
Media
The Independent Media Center is a network of collectively run media
outlets for the creation of radical, accurate, and passionate tellings of the truth Project of the Independent Media Institute, a nonprofit
organization dedicated to strengthening and supporting independent and
alternative journalism. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the first to identify
threats to our basic rights online and to advocate on behalf of free expression
in the digital age. Declan
McCullagh's Politech Politech is the moderated mailing list of politics and technology.
Topics include privacy, free speech, the role of government and corporations,
antitrust, and more. MediaChannel.org The global network for democratic media.
PLUS the News Dissector's Weblog. CorpWatch.org counters corporate-led globalization through education,
network-building and activism.
"But now it seems as if being germaphobic, even to the point of
OCD-like symptoms, or being diagnosed with OCD, is almost in style and
hip. And I don't think it's because of the tv series Monk, I think the
existence and popularity of the show reflects the widespread openness
about these things. As perhaps does the recent popularity of the film
The Aviator.
People like Howard Hughs, or the fictional character of Adrian Monk,
are, of course, extreme examples. But the behaviours and feelings do
seem more popular, more widespread, or at least more & more out in
the open.
And this is demonstrated by the popularity of all the 'antibacterial'
products on the market today. From antibacterial hand soap,
antibacterial waterless hand washing lotion, antibacterial everything,
and a plethora of disinfectant products.
There's more than just the basic Lysol products of my childhood.
And I was getting ready to watch a movie, and before I got the dvd
player on, the commercial I saw seemed the very epitome of this target
marketing.
It was a commercial for the new Dawn with Bleach Alternative, which is
being touted as a breakthrough formula for removing what they called
'Unseen Food Residue', whatever that might be.
Actually, they explain on their web page that though dishes might
'appear to be clean', 'often there is food residue that is still left
on the item'.
Well, damn, and all this time I should've been examining my dishes under a microscope!"
MediaChannel.org
