Brigitte Schmidt, Corporate University International, manager
This fund contains projects that address the changing ways
that education is conceived, distributed, and perceived in the 'global
marketplace,' particularly focusing on the corporatization of the
educational system.
One example already done! See microsoftedu.com! "Create a website to show the effects of the corporatization of education by making explicit a large corporation's unspoken policies. The website should highlight the way in which corporations pervert education for their own purposes, until it is no longer recognizable as such."
"Place stickers or flyers on machines that say things like 'Brought to you by Corporate America.' Distribute to school kids to stick everywhere in schools where privatization is occurring."
"Switch the voice recordings in the animatronic American history figures at Disney's EPCOT center. The new recordings should reveal the not-so-self-evident truths about these 'forefathers,' such as their slave ownership, hemp growing, elections fixing, etc."
"'College Barbie' dolls, which come dressed as cheerleaders and are accompanied by a cheerleading tape, will be modified into 'Activist Barbie' dolls, which will come equipped with protest gear, including a sign upon which to put magnetic slogans; the tape will be modified so that Barbie's bubbly voice can be heard educating children about various social issues and teaching them how to protest. Estimated costs for the improvement and distribution of 100 Activist Barbies is $1449."
"Campaign for Student Council office in a public high school on the Communist Party platform. Establish a website where interested persons can learn more about your positions toward such vital issues as school lunch and senior parking. Plaster the school with your colorful campaign posters, and receive media coverage."
"We will produce a series of anti-souvenirs that will educate tourists to Hawaii about social injustice here and raise funds for Hawaiian activists. We will need about $2,000 to replicate the prototypes which are already made. We could also use more volunteers to help assemble the product, and more souvenir dealers who might be interested in purchasing them."
"I will lead historical tours that include all the usual sight-seeing places like Carpenter's Hall, Betsy Ross's House, etc. But in place of the usual representation of US history, it will be very factual and disturbing."
"Five individuals should dress in theme park mascot outfits of their own design, enter Disneyland or Disney World, play with children and give them leaflets describing, in terms comprehensible to children, what is wrong with the revisionist history presented in these parks. Extra points to someone who gets into a loud altercation with Mickey."
"Make and send out accurate college literature to the entire prospective student list of any university. For example, in the case of SUNY Albany, the literature could explain why athletic facilities have Key Bank before the name, why the book store is run by Barnes & Noble and why food service concessions go to the highest bidder rather than the one with the healthiest food."
"$1000 needed to subvert an audiobook leasing company (they distribute latest bestsellers, including a heavy list of corporate/conservative titles to hundreds of truckstops and public libraries across the country) by recording over every cassette of a certain highly anticipated right-wing title with Noam Chomsky, Ralph Nader, or Michael Parenti, etc. Worker will keep log of where these tapes are going, and local monitoring of infected racks can be administered. Get media attention in all cities where 'discoveries' are reported, and interview the 'victims'."
"Create an interactive Web site that can reveal ownership of the media. For example, someone watching a CNN news program might spy a personality piece about Rosie O'Donnell and decide to research a possible connection between them. The SIXD Web site could respond: CNN is owned by Turner Broadcasting, which is a division of Time Warner, which owns a majority of Time Warner Entertainment Company LP, a division of which is Warner Bros. TV, which produces the Rosie O'Donnell show. The Web site should graphically depict the hierarchy of the connections it finds." (See this site for inspiration.)
"Fight privatization of the rails by changing messages on the digital message boards of London Underground trains so that they support the drivers and staff instead of the Labor Government fuckups who are trying to swindle the public out of our fundamental right to decent public transportation."
"Create a new map or globe of the world that shows multinational corporate borders, vectors and free trade zones instead of national boundaries. Map must make it into a grade-school geography textbook, or globes must be sent to several elementary schools nation-wide; either event must be reported upon extensively in the mainstream press." (See this site for inspiration.)
"Investments needed to publish vocabulary trading cards. The cards take the place of pokemon, sports, or sci-fi cards, with the understanding that knowledge of language enriches people instead of enriching markets."