We Are The International Union of Free Thinkers

The Black Bread Tag Invasion 2008

2008-10-07T17:03:00.010-07:00

The Bread Tag is an icon of our societies endless craving for nourishment; physical, emotional, or spiritual. The Bread Tag is also a tool to keep our nourishment fresh whilst we construct and devour the sandwich of life.

During recent IUFT missionary work in South East Asia, members conducted a social intervention project in several countries. The purpose was to pass on the strength and resourcefulness of the mighty Bread Tag to cultures that are unfamiliar with this foreign object.

Unlike our society, the indigenous people of these countries were well nourished; physically, emotionally, and spiritually, before our intervention, but unlike our society they do not endlessly crave the bread of life.

As a result, this powerful icon was placed on t-shirts and printed black; the colour that contains all colours, to represent the strength of the individual. The shirts were distributed to people who embrace each day and keep it fresh, despite of having no Bread Tags.

The intervention will last the lifetime of the shirts, but the Black Bread Tag invasion will be felt forever.

Click Here To See More

The Do Not Disconnect Audio Tour - Sept/Oct, 2007

2007-09-30T11:15:00.000-07:00

I'm in a group show called Do Not Disconnect with a group of fiber grad students, and my contribution to the show is not dissimilar with the works I did with the Free Thinkers, so I thought I could call this an IUFT intervention. Also, I'm posting the audio tracks here so people can load them onto their own media player when they visit the gallery.

The statement:
Yes, there is an audio tour for this exhibition. During the tour you will hear each artist talk about their artistic practice, everyday life, and the connection between the two. The purpose of this tour is to break down the barrier between the artist and the audience, and in turn promote communication in this earnest and generous gesture. The audio tracks consist of informal conversations rather than the traditional authoritative interview.

You, dear listeners, will be given unfiltered and unadulterated insights into the artists’ minds. Dig it!

This audio tour is an intervention facilitated by Chris Lin, who recorded everyone in the two weeks prior to the opening. The artworks may have changed since the conversation: this is just a natural by-product of documenting a specific time.

Tracks in alphabetical order:
(Right-click and save)
Alee Peoples
Chris Lin and Julie Boyer, collaborator
Eun Hyung Kim
Kim Jackson
Margarita Benitez
Michael Ruglio-Misurell
Rachel Moore and James Knittle, collaborator
Rana Siegel
Shannon Schmidt and Kim Jackson, performer

That is all.

Jimmy's Long Goodbye

2007-09-10T12:50:00.000-07:00

Jimmy had struggled with the loss of his dear friend Eerie. It took a year for Jimmy to succumb to his broken heart. We all could sense that the end was near for Jimmy; we all knew he had thrown in the towel. Jimmy was not going to check out without one last final hurrah, if not for himself then for Eerie. The cardboard community has taken another tragic blow. Our societies inability to accept those different from ourselves has claimed yet another life. You will be missed Jimmy, but not forgotten.

Green Telephones: An Intervention - November 2006

2006-11-10T08:21:00.000-08:00

Green payphones are functionless, similar to the now purposeless, obsolete payphones. I have been in Chicago for 3 months now, and I've seen 2 people used payphones. Green payphones only point out what is not there.

New statement:
If I have quick reflexes, I would commit every crime as a hobby, but I don’t. So for now, all I can do are petty crimes, obscure, insignificant crimes... I take one orange, nobody notices. I take another, nobody notices. Eventually the shelf is half empty and you realize it! But you don’t remember what I look like.

Good art shouldn’t look like art at all.
The unassuming things in life are not art, but the act of finding them is.
Therefore art materializes internally.
Inappropriate sounds.
Impromptu additions to architecture.
Green telephones.

If art is permanent, it won’t grow.
Performances are ephemeral, good films are open.
A seasoned killer acts slowly, plays a game,
rides the merry-go-around
flirts with his victim,
eats some popcorn,
gets on the boat,
waits for his chance.

For Eerie - 09/22/2006

2006-09-24T15:27:00.000-07:00

For Eerie... An IUFT Laundry Installation
1442 Haultain Street, Victoria BC
Sept 22-28, Opening Friday the 22nd

On July 19th, 2006 the IUFT cremated one of our fearless comrades. Eerie Humming was a pioneer and martyr. Eerie struggled to find his place in our world, he attempted to carve himself a niche, but despite his endless efforts, he failed. Eerie was found dead from excessive disappointment. His greatest disappointment was society’s inability to accept him as an equal. Eerie faced discrimination at every turn. He tried to assimilate into our cultural consumption machine, but was spat out.

Eerie just wanted to enjoy the mundane ‘chores’ that we all take for granted. The simple task of washing his clothes brought such joy to Eerie. However, the Laundry facilities were not welcoming to our cardboard friends and refused to serve them.

Eerie’s only wish was to fit in, to wash his clothes in peace. The IUFT failed to save Eerie, but our hope is to avoid further fatalities in the cardboard community. We constructed a place for our buddies to feel accepted, even if is only until their laundry is finished.

Two Chicago Projects

2006-09-16T15:27:00.000-07:00

Chris’s Funeral / Saddest Song You've Ever Heard
Chicago, IL
Date Unknown

During the data-retrieval phase of my funeral project, I’ve received several responses about the interviewees’ song choices at their funerals. “Free Bird” and “Wind Beneath My Wings” are some of the most common choices out there. Is it a coincidence that we think dying is heavily connected with flying, as if dying is an act of thrusting upwards and severing any connection with the earthly world? But that’s not important at the moment.

What I’m investigating is what makes a song funeral-friendly? Although I have pretty much settled on my song choice (“Free Bird” with extended organ solo!), I am wondering whether or not the song decides the mood of the whole event. But a funeral is a sad event, and maybe even if a uplifting song is played people will still feel sad. What are the criteria?

On this day: September 16, 2006, my answer would be that choice wholly depends on the memory. The song may not even be about dying, but it may recall some memory with friends and families. Another guess would be that the song has to be a description of the deceased.

On the same note, I’ve come to think about the saddest song I’ve ever heard, and I’m collecting data from people that I know. Those songs might not make it to my funeral, but I’m interested to see what are people’s criteria for sad songs, as well as their choices for the saddest song ever. Eventually I plan to make an audiobook with the responses.

The funeral will take place when the planning phase is done. At this stage I plan to feature a few objects in the intervention, including photographs and paintings of myself, a small monument, and costumes. The main event will be the reading of eulogies by the people in attendance. The entire process is highly collaborative to the point that I’m not sure whether it’s my work or not anymore. But the work is ABOUT me, and for that’s a different challenge than having the work done BY me.

Please send me some writings, whether it’s an eulogy/elegy or your saddest song you’ve ever heard. There are no deadlines, but the sooner the better. I’m open for discussion and suggestion as well. And if you think you don’t know me well enough, we should start hanging out more!

ahcri@yahoo.com

Eerie's Funeral - 07/19/2006

2006-07-24T23:07:00.000-07:00

Eerie Humming, a visionary, a revolutionary, and most importantly, a friend, was found dead from excessive disappointment. This is a man who is reserved but passionate about his ideal. This is a man who would rather eat crackers than soup. On July 19, we sent him on his way in an intimate funeral where he was cremated. To us, he is still alive: He's still here in my heart, and my heart will go on and on.

E Awards - 02/28/2006

2006-07-24T17:40:00.000-07:00

Eerie Humming shows the Victoria art community how could someone so obscure be a runner-up in the Best Art Installation category at the 2006 M Awards: He does so by showing up in all of his glorious awesomeness. On February 28th, Eerie, Chris and Stephen attended the M Awards ceremony (and lost). Nevertheless, there is a good chance you may catch Eerie and Chris on the streets of Victoria in the upcoming months. Say hello, don't spit. Cardboard wrinkles.

UPIIDD - ONGOING

2006-07-24T17:36:00.000-07:00

UPIIDD stands for Unauthorized Public Instalation and Internet Display and Distribution. The project is an experiment in the crossover between the virtual space and the analogue world. Ideas that begin in the analogue imagination, get created and disseminated in virtual space, then recreated for the "real" world in the form of toys and merchandise. I take that by-product, and re-establish it into an appropriate context in the analogue world, then redistribute via the virtual.

Another project from our Ottawa-bureau is Peoples, which involves gluing photographic portraits of peoples at random places. It is a way of capturing a moment in someones virtual echo, and letting it resonate a little more. It is also comforting to know, as any respectable free-thinker should, that everyone can participate the Peoples project, all you need to do is to request a kit by via the IUFT mail hub and start gluing!

Puppet City - 10/11/2005

2006-07-24T17:21:00.000-07:00

... and Eerie said: "We must construct a new city far away from this dreaded town." Puppet City will be defined by its inhabitants, who will never be alone as they will always be accompanied by their Cardboard Buddies . No new buildings will be built, insteads new personae will emerge in a preexisting city (AKA New Smyrna Beach, Florida), as "the 'nuclear units' of new politics must be the citizen... it embodies the ideal of philia, autonomy, rationality, and above all, civil committment." [Clark: Municipal Dreams] The audiences and participants' ears and minds will be "educated unconsciously." [Leavis: Fictions and the Reading Public] Are we just a bunch of Utopian Socialists with delusions of grandeur?

Fuck no! After three weeks of intense transformation, we have proved that a cardboard community will work in today's society. Here are some photographic evidence in case you don't believe me.

Related readings: Buddy Manual, Atlantic Center for the Arts

Firearms - 07/29/2005

2006-07-24T17:11:00.000-07:00

Who rules the world? Who has the utility belt? IUFT's first "formal" "art show" Firearms is taking place from July 29th to August 8th at Fifty Fifty Arts Collective (2516 Doulas St. Victoria BC). This show will feature works by Chris Lin and Stephen Strutynski, whose works reflect their defiance against the secret chief of the world - the Cardboard Kaiser. Under the Kaiser's rule, goods will be mass produced and sent out into the world, infiltrating and exploiting our values - becoming invisible soldiers for the mind. Opening night is Friday July 29th at 8:00PM.

IUFT says: "Don't be yourself", you are truly unique when you break free from the monoculture's mind control and abandon the values that were planted into your head. You are truly free when you see a box for its potential, not just for its original form and function.

Related readings: Modern Firearms

Cardboard Buddies! - ONGOING

2006-07-24T17:02:00.000-07:00

Too lonely to bear? You've got Cardboard Buddies! Our second cloning-related community project is based on Chris Lin's previous cardboard puppet project. We encourage you to obtain a copy of buddy-building instructions, build it, and give it lots of love. You can always count on your buddy, and now you can build one! The instruction pamphlet is now available! Download the PDF file HERE (1.3Mb / Adobe Acrobat Reader required.

Related readings: Buddy Manual, DIY Survival - C6

Vote Naked Day - 05/17/2005

2006-07-24T16:58:00.000-07:00

May 17th is Vote Naked Day! If you are able to participate in this year's poll in BC, please wear your favorite politically-affiliated T-shirt and buttons. The auditor-pimps at your local polling stations will kindly ask you to remove your clothes, do so. Remember, every vote counts, unless you draw on it.

Grandma Cookie - 05/03/2005

2006-07-24T16:24:00.000-07:00

On May 3rd, 2005, the IUFT put together Grandma Cookie, a project inspired by our cumilated feeling towards human cloning. Born in the beginning of the 20th Century, grandmothers are symbols of revolution to us. Having been through the woman's rights movement and futuristic house-keeping trends, our grandmothers remind us not to forget about the advances made in the past. As we eat the cloned grandma, we absorbed her essense, and thereby becoming revolutionary.

Related readings: Cloning fact sheet, Gingerbread Recipe - Joy of Baking

Links

2006-07-23T23:00:00.000-07:00

Victoria:
Fifty Fifty Arts Collective
Ministry of Casual Living
Fan Tan Studios
Lauren Marsden
Chris Lin Side Project
Open Space Gallery

Elsewhere:
Artspeak (Vancouver)
Contemporary Art Gallery (Vancouver)
Western Front Gallery (Vancouver)
State Gallery (Vancouver)
Art Metropole (Toronto)
Consolidated Works (Seattle)
The Shooting Gallery (San Francisco)
Yerba Buena (San Francisco)
StartSOMA (San Francisco)
Southern Exposure (San Francisco)
Reversible Eye (Chicago)
Mess Hall (Chicago)
Gallery Two (Chicago)

Boredom:
Pirate Cat Radio
Perfect Sound Forever
Crying While Eating
Gorilla vs. Bear
Situationalist International Archives
Bureau of Public Secrets
Grant Morrison's The Invisibles
Metaphilm
Not Coming to a Theatre Near You
Reverse shot
Han Hoogerbrugge
The Hard Way
Found Magazine
Rhetorical Voice Demo

Join

2006-07-23T22:58:00.000-07:00

Although the concept of a free-thinking union is an oxymoron, the members of the International Union of Free-Thinkers only existed to provide moral and technical support for other members while focusing on their own independent projects (for which they can also expect support from the union). To join the union, you must possess the following qualities:

(A) Have a high level of awareness.
(B) Able to withstand the attack of popular opinion.
(C) Able to think critically.
(D) Show some esteem for the human race.

Some of the things you should do if you wish to become a member:

(A) Promote free-thinking under the IUFT banner.
(B) Form a cell in your area, or join a cell if there is already one in your vicinity.
(C) Start your own site-specific IUFT project in your area, or suggest a site-unspecific, wide-ranging activity for remote members to participate in.
(D) Participate in a pre-existing site-unspecific, wide-ranging IUFT activity (e.g. Cardboard Buddies)

There are some texts we expect you to read eventually once you become a member:

Umberto Eco, Apocalypse Postponed (Indiana University Press, 1994; or equivalent)
Guy Debord, Society of the Spectacle (Black & Red, 1983; or equivalent)
Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy (Penguin Books, 1999; or equivalent)
Jerry Rubin, Do It! (Ballantine Books, 1970)
IUFT and You: An Introduction (International Union of Free-Thinkers Press, 2005)

We are not an art collective and we are not an anarchist group! We are a group of like-minded people who wishes to grind through life the hard way! Contact us if you wish to become a member.

Mandate

2006-07-23T22:47:00.000-07:00

"The most pertinent revolutionary experiments in culture have sought to break the spectator’s psychological identification with the hero so as to draw him into activity by provoking his capacities to revolutionises his own life.”
--- Guy Debord

"When the paint is taken from the artists, and when all the guns are confiscated from criminals, then we will wet our brushes in the bullshit and charge."
--- Jerry Rubin

Mandate/Mission Statement:

To promote free-thinking at any cost.

To challenge all opposition, and defeating them with our free-thinking minds.

To boycutt the artistic, social, and moral elite and spread the gospel to the disfranchised and anyone who are willing to listen.

A free-thinking mind is the most advance type of mind and the most dangerous weapon in the world.

The members of IUFT will be praised as Gods, but we will reject this because idol worship does not promote free-thinking.

The members of IUFT will assume free-flowing roles. We embrace tenderness just as much as we do rigorousness. We celebrate physical action just as much as we do ontological reflections.

When successful, the world will be turned into a permanent state of free- thought.

The free-thought state will bring about fear and confusion; this fear and confusion will help further cultivate free minds.

We recognise and celebrate the fact that nothing stays the same forever, and a free-thinking mind is the tool that moves the world forward.

Active Cells:

The IUFT network is built upon a number of locally-operated, self-contained cells. Here is a list of cells that are currently active.

Cell 01 - Victoria, BC, Canada
Cell 71 - Taipei, Taiwan
Cell 83 - El Salvador
Cell 283 - Beijing, China
Cell 4758 - Banff, AB, Canada
Cell 4761 - Ottawa, ON, Canada
Cell 4762 - New Jersey, USA
Cell 4801 - Chicago, IL, USA
Cell 6070 - Calgary, AB, Canada

Members

2006-07-23T19:03:00.000-07:00

Active Members:

Stephen E. Strutynski in his former life was a mailman for Canada Post®. His current incarnation’s freethinking was obstructed until 1996, and with the assistance of an invasive neurological procedure, was enabled to have enhanced freethinking abilities. It is also rumored that he played a key role in the killing of witnesses in the free thinking garbage man case, and the instigator of the 119th precinct riot. (Victoria Cell)

Christopher D.H. Lin currently studies and works in Chicago, making trouble and interventions everywhere he goes. He takes some time getting used to, like a nervous tic. But unlike a nervous tic, Chris is not totally random. His current mission: to gain as many title as possible. So far, he has 43 titles. (Chicago-Victoria Cell)

Maureen R. Manning became a free-thinker in 1978. She has since become an expert in undercover surveillance and information retrieval. With the keen ability to blend into the crowd, she provides the IUFT with current data on all of our cells activities. There are few known photos of her due to her expertise in her field. (Victoria Cell)

Tyler Wied was sewn together in Sault ste. Marie, his parents gave him the name Tyler, but it never fit. In his adolecense he began refering to himself as Monkey Monkey, and identified with that title for quite sometime, getting himself into a great deal of trouble. It was not untill he met with the IUFT, joined the OCPD and was given the name Frankie T. Mahoney did he find his true voice. Mr. Mahoney is greatfull to the IUFT for helping him put his life into perspective, and giving him reason to soldier on. (Halifax Cell)

Lauren "Lolo" Marsden (Vancouver Cell)
A sense of duty to the refinement of interruptive potential in public and corporate spaces has caused her to excel in the field of performative role transformation. You may encounter her as a City Worker, a First-Time Home Buyer/Shopaholic, Craft Nerd, Cop Lover, Corporate Go-Getter, Interior Decorator...whatever your situational needs.

Noe Kidder lives in chicago with her partner Mark Gallay. she is a filmmaker and an art teacher. she enjoys free-thinking, walks, movies, music, going to bed and getting up early. right she wishes she could adopt a dog and live someplace warm. (Brooklyn Cell)

Karen Leo (AKA: The Silver Tongued Devil, Cock of the Walk, Dingus O'Feenyhan) is a rogue plastic detective and monkey protector from Creep City, Maine. She's been a free fucking thinker since the day she was born. She has a camera in her eye (placed there by the government) and has appeared on the Maury Povich Show, episode "Paternity Tests!!!!" (Jersey City Cell)

Kristina M. West is truly self-contained, like all IUFT members should be. Therefore she has no bio. (London Cell)

Auxiliary/Former Members:

Piezo Mendez is the public relations officer for the IUFT. A native to El Salvador, he came to Canada as a political exile after he ciphered important top-secret documents foiling a government plan to crush the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) resistance in 1981. In 1992, after the Peace Accords were signed, Mendez was able to return to his homeland and now spends his time freethinking, surfing, and enjoying various ethnic foods.

Johnny Sespool was a fierce freedom fighter for the 119th Precinct of the OCPD. After Sespool received his beard implant, he became more aggressive and uncontrollable.He and fellow detective Frankie T. Mahoney’s interrogation tactics quickly became suspect. Sespool was involved in the Case of the Freethinking Garbage Man, and was viciously murdered in the 119th precinct riot because of his hard earned legs.

Dickie LeBlanc is a renegade judge, motherfucker!

Pierce S. Stark went through 4 years of business school in the early 1970s, acquired a job at the marketing department of Mason Corp. upon graduation. In the 1990s, he returned to school to study economics in the University of British Columbia. After a failed attempt at taking over the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Pierce settled for a job, unhappily, at the newly formed Authoritarian Bank of Canada as expansion coordinator.