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First things first: According to WNBC, the NYPD says that NYC marketing firm Interference Inc. gave them a list of 41 locations where the Aqua Teen Hunger Force LED devices were hung (38 in Manhattan, including the Meatpacking District, Greenwich Village, LES, and 3 in Brooklyn). The NYPD only found two which were at 33rd Street and the West Side Highway, which can only mean that everyone who passed by these things and heard the news last night must have taken them! And does anyone know what the other locations were? Gothamist is curious to know where Interference thinks ATHF fans are. Let us know in the comments!
Also important to know: "Based on their conversations with Interference, police said it did not appear that the company targeted any landmarks such as the subway, Empire State Building or Brooklyn Bridge." Get that everyone - Ignignokt can co-exist with New Yorkers until outed. No one from Interference has commented, probably realizing that reporters and photographers are staking out its Broadway-just-north-of-Houston office. Chicago's police commissioner actually held a press conference, with the suspicious devices as a backdrop, so we're waiting for Commissioner Kelly to discuss the dangers of a procession of LED devices.
In Boston, Peter Berdovsky and Sean Stevens pleaded not guilty to placing hoax devices and disorderly conduct. They were released on $2,500 bond each after a court appearance at their supporters waited outside the court. Berdovsky and Stevens jumped down courthouse stairs and gave a memorable press conference about hairstyles.
Aside from the bizarre part, Berdovsky said, "We need some time to really sort things out and, you know, figure out our response to this situation in other ways than talking about hair. So if you could just give us some privacy for a little bit. ... I will be trying to make sense of all it real soon."
However, their friends tell ABC News that Interference told the Berdovsky to keep quiet. Toshi Hoo said, "Peter's a poor artist and he does jobs like this for money and Sean…is primarily an artist as well. This was considered an art project. Peter and Sean are both video artists and community-oriented artists at that."
Hmm. Let's go to the last line of The Anti-Advertising Agency's editorial: "Berdovsky is claiming it’s art. When someone from an advertising firm is paying you to do something that is their idea, it’s not art." The Graffiti Research Lab also says that this ploy is not their work: "It’s Just more mindless corporate vandalism from a guerilla marketer who got busted. Interference Inc, welcome to the world of being misunderstood, scapegoated, demonized and wanted by the law. Still wanna be a graffiti artist?"
Top and bottom photographs of supporters and Berdovsky and Stevens in Boston by Bizuayehu Tesfaye/AP; inset photograph of Interference's door by John Marhsall Matnel/AP
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nice cameltoe, aqua teen hunger force geek.
I must find out where I can download a copy of that "Never Forget" poster - that is priceless. It would be fun to bust out 45,000 copies of that poster the next time the Red Sox come to Yankee Stadium.
these people are vandals, pure and simple.
Give me a break. If the Boston police are so incredibly clueless that they can't tell the difference between a battery powered neon sign and a bomb, than maybe they should consider another career. One of the police claimed the light 'resembled and explosive device'. Ummm yeah....whatever. If their only criteria for a bomb includes batteries and a circuit board (and no visible explosives), then leaving an broken transistor radio on the street would be 'planting a hoax device'.
This was the most moronic press interview I've ever watched. I guess these two have never heard of the phrase "no comment". Perhaps a little institutional time will take that smirk off their faces.
Jeez. Gothamist has been taken over by fascists! All of you criticizing these guys are blind to the fact that you have been indoctrinated by fear and the irrational behavior used to justify the War on Terror. Please, move back to Texas and get a clue.
there is a copy of the poster here - although I don't know if there is a higher res somewhere:
http://vjarmy.com/archives/2007/01/athf_boston.php
Thanks neps that's all I need to further humiliate Boston.
I love how Gothamist chooses who and who not to hate. I need to get out my glasses, the lines are oh so blurry.
Heh.
#1 It's Aqua TEEN Hunger Force. Not Team.
#2 This was a great idea - were it not for the stupidity of the people running the city of Boston, this whole situation would have never happened. Besides, life would get boring without guerrilla anarchisto-intellectuals doing crazy things like this.
#3 This is probably the best marketing that [adult swim] could ever possibly hope for. I can't wait to see the ratings reports.
Boston is run by a bunch of pussies.
I noticed a couple of well known street art bloggers have taken a quick vacation immediately following this whole fiasco.....what did they say their day jobs were??????
re: 10
"guerilla anarchisto-intellectuals" ??? it was a MARKETING CAMPAIGN.
AquaTeenHungerForce huh? Thing is this: I think the "tagging" was inteteresting. Sure those bright lights under some overpass, very different. But this is probably the most explicit and blatent example of the COMMODIFICATION of "artistic" expression.
Look, Wether you are officially contracted or not...you have been and will be commodified. This is what I can't stand: "revolutionaries" who subsist using the froms of absolute commodification. Andre The Giant: 7'4" Has a posse, and it iz YOU you fucking bastards!!!!!!!!!!
"The Splasher" like it or not was RIGHT. All you stupid, delusional, self-important artists are WRONG. Revolution does not come from the fetishization of the self, it requires a self realization that we are all in this quest together...
What is this world coming to when a 'light bright' toy is mistaken for a bomb?!!? Do any of these cops or politicians have children who used to play with these things? So sad America...
I think where these two Boston guys went awry was in their placement of the light brights...near bridges and stuff. Not smart. It could've been a good marketing ploy, and it still might pay off for the show.
Personally I don't understand the argument about art and commodification, blah blah...People can use their creativity to make money if they want, but don't try to hide behind the guerilla-artist moniker.
And Grafitti Reserach Lab? Get over yourselves guys. You can draw on walls all you want...if you OWN them! Otherwise you're just making life hard for everyone else. You all assume that because you like grafitti art that everyone else you subject to it should like it as well. You're "scapegoated" because you destroy public and private property...Doi.
Please, let's not pretend the corporatization of art is a new thing. From Henry XIV all the way through the major music labels of today, artists have until very recently relied almost exclusively on wealthy benefactors for their funding.
That not really the issue though, as this probably wasn't even the Bordovsky and Steven's idea.
Are we really in a period of such massive hysteria that we're going to use lite-brites that in no way resemble a bomb to any reasonable person to "wipe the smirks off the face" of a couple wannabe bohemians who didn't do anything wrong except be smartasses?
Are we really in a period of such massive hysteria that we're going to use lite-brites that in no way resemble a bomb to any reasonable person to "wipe the smirks off the face" of a couple wannabe bohemians who didn't do anything wrong except be smartasses?
please. Look at those retards. They are clearly dumbasses.
hahaha Right on!
Boston needs to change it's diapers.
retards ("Artists") vs. retards (Boston PD)
Seriously, it was a lighted sign, not a beeping black box. Boston PD is Stupid.
However, you are deep shit and need to make a serious statement, "Only taking comments on hair"?, thats pretty stupid and lost an oppetunity to come out on top
Just look at these two retards, the one guy's hair is enough to lock him up. Bust all hipster artists now, and all those ATHF dweebs! BPD should be as tough on these dumbasses as NYPD is on the Critical Massers.
It looks to be fairly simple. Someone panicked and it all got out of control.
Is it grafitti? No. It can be easily removed.
Are they right for doing it? No. They did not pay for AD space, they should not get it on public grounds.
Are they artists? Maybe, but this aint art. It is like a cheap cut-paste of a simple computer icon.
Is it Advertising? Duh yeah. And it follows many of the same rules.
What should be done in a case like this is admission of state authorities that they blew it WAY out of proportion (a little egg on the face) and charge these guys with things like defacement or some other minor charge.
They should also issue a warning to Turner Broadcasting and let them know that any further attempt like this (posting of graphic advertisments on unlicensed sites) will be met with stiff financial penalties.
In the meantime we all need to get lives and stop posting on a blog about a crappy cheap-arse CN AS cartoon.
Just a thought ;)
um... how do you get the balls to misuse municipal and private property for your monetary gain and call it art?! Unapproved signage is not only traffic danger, but a pedestrian danger. what type of adhesive did they laborers use? did Interference inc have engineer reports for wind gusts and other weather issues? who's responsible if one of these signs had fallen and injured a bystander? Most importantly how did Interference Inc. ever get insurance for such a campaign?!
Why are these two guys in trouble, but not the corporation who hired them to do it?
I want to slap people in boston. Seriously you do not call the bomb squad when you pass a neon sign. Oh and nice dreds.
Why are these two guys in trouble, but not the corporation who hired them to do it?
_______________
Because the politician in Boston are wimpy weasels.
Apparently, people don't understand this is an axiological issue. It seems the idiots here whom I call idiots for using genetic fallacies (ironic, ain't it?), have no clue when things come to value theory.
America uses that war on terror bullshit for social justification for taking just about anyone, and they used that bullshit during Vietnam to kill tons of innocent people and force them against their will into the military. It also forced them out of the country if they didn't want to fight. Or else it forced them into the prison system, which keeps increasing and making America more and more revenue.
Apparently, this website has no fucking clue, like most of America, about how to express its views during an argumentative rant.
Sure, it was an freedom of speech / art deal vs. political ideals. I'm sure as hell not going to let my government tell me what is good art and what is bad art. The government says, "This is bad art! It scares the youth!"
Know what else scares people of all ages? The government and politics. It kills and destroys more peoples' lives than anything else out there. So if you really want to evaluate what the hell is going on, then know this:
It's good art inside of a bad political system. People attack America because it's filled with bad politicans. They don't attack it because it's filled with good artist.
If something went wrong, if something ever does go wrong, it's only the political system's fault.
Is it not often we see incompetence showcased so perfectly than when we watch Boston authorities dig their own grave with each press release concerning these signs. How totally sad :( I am sure most citizens of Boston are not so paranoid. Despite the fact Turner agreed to pay the costs, Boston and Mass. continue to look foolish. To Boston residents - The very fact your elected representatives asked for reimbursement for their own overreactions is all the rest of the country needs to constantly laugh at you. Keep running your mouth Mayor Menino and Attorney General Martha Coakley. We are listening...
umm..i think the "bombs" are soo cute.!! like seriously why would they think its a like bomb? its like totally weird
~lisa marie dawner
Age 28 LA,CA