The Yes Men Say “No” to The WTO
For those of you who don’t know, The World Trade Organization (or WTO) is an international organization that was created with the intended purpose of liberizing international trade. They were created to allow companies from developed nations to open extensions of their corporations in underdeveloped nations in hope of bringing jobs and affluence to the underpriveleged communities of those nations. Instead of regulating the practices going on in these underdeveloped nations by these big-wig corporations, the WTO is allowing these corporations to exploit these impoverished communities and there has been no improvement to that nation’s economy as a result.
The Yes Men are a group of culture jamming artists/activists who have made it their goal to expose the outrageous hypocracy of the WTO and to bring to light the wrong-doings that have been done to these poor exploited people living in underdeveloped nations.
They’ll do things like pose as spokespeople for The World Trade Organization, McDonald’s, Dow Chemical, and the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development to do such things.
The two leading members of The Yes Men are known by a number of aliases, most recently, and in film, as Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno. Their experiences were documented in the film The Yes Men, distributed by United Artists, the film documentary info wars, and the book The Yes Men: The True Story of the End of the World Trade Organization.
Here’s part of the documentary film The Yes Men presented in two parts:
(There’s supposedly more to come… Until then, rent the video!)
We watched the full film in class last Thursday. I found it both funny and sad at the same time. This organization really is exploiting people and I find it wonderful that there’s someone out there trying to bring this crime to humanity to light. How does this relate to new media art? Well, their imitation WTO website and their corresponding impersonations and presentations are meant to send a message to their viewers. Their works incorporate the technologies of the Internet and other computer-based media.
These guys are using new media art to its fullest and actually reaching people to get results. They still haven’t reached enough (or maybe the right people) because the WTO has yet to disband or re-evaluate its activities. How do you think new media art could be incorporated further to reap even more drastic results from the WTO, the government, the media, the public, etc.?
For more information on The Yes Men and to learn more about their endeavors, visit: http://www.theyesmen.org/
