The Skydive Office of Cultural Affairs Presents: An Exhibition of Proposals for a Socialist Colony

Autonomous Organization did some research and found that because a box of archives was lost during the Archive War of 1842, the land that Skydive’s gallery stands on is currently up for grabs by any group starting a Socialist colony on the property. Upon learning this, we formed the Skydive Office of Cultural Affairs to publicize this opportunity. The works in this project are responses; proposals for new systems, tools, communications, research, democratic gestures, public relations and reflections on past utopic experiments.

Sasha Dela and Elysa Lozano

Zanny Begg

I employed a somewhat subversive approach to revolutionary consciousness by utilizing capitalist marketing tools, which are, of course the antithesis of the socialist approach to developing revolutionary consciousness as traditionally understood (and yet are deeply embedded within the psyches of those who would be potential revolutionaries) to address the problems with "brand socialism". I have used market research questionnaires and focus groups with self-professed revolutionaries and enlisted the assistance of a range of marketing experts such as crisis management firms, viral marketing companies, PR gurus and spin doctors to come up with a marketing campaign for socialism. The work will be a tongue in cheek look at the possibilities of revolution in the twenty-first century: the joke a double edged sword – poking fun not only at the unmarketable nature of socialism but also the manipulative and coercive nature of marketing itself.

The work involves a looped video projection documenting the first leg of the Re-branding Socialism campaign in Sydney.

BAW

Salah Days