David Cox writes: "Images are themselves a lens on the culture which makes them. Walter
Benjamin was both right and wrong about art in the age of mechanical
reproduction. He was correct in stating that as images proliferate, their
overall commercial value in depreciates. He was wrong in assuming that
manufactured images are worth less than their 'real world' referent.



As manufactured goods accelerate away from the decade in which they were
made, they themselves gain a kind of new cultural value. Some commodities
seem to accrue more cultural gravitas than others. The dodgiest of global
trade in junk, the antique market bears testimony to the ways in which
even the most trivial of manufactured items can become obscure objects of
desire once made to enter the domain commodity relations.
manufactured images are worth less than their 'real world' referent.



Read the whole essay athttp://www.netspace.net.au/~dcox/lens.html"

Anonymous Comrade writes: "The purpose of a Shadow Economy is to create a
viable alternative to the existing economic systems in
place. Capitalism is the predominant system in place,
therefore any alternative would be said to exist in
the shadows only. It is important that we do not
directly attack Capitalism but create something that
is real, visible, and like a shadow, cannot be gotten
rid of easily; it does not exist in the same sense
that Capitalism does. Nor does it exist in opposition
because it is not a negation of Capitalism, but an
entirely different creature altogether. It is no
secret among the critics of Capitalism that most of
the voices raised call for its destruction but lack a
cry for something constructive." -Ted Goldenberg,
Shadow Economies



The Purpose of this group is to produce and critque
works around the theme of the Shadow Economy so that
it may later be distributed to a variety of media
sources (be it internet media, independent newspapers,
infoshops, flyering, etc.) and help promote the idea
of the shadow economy."



http://groups.yahoo.com/group/shadoweconomy"

Anonymous Comrade writes: "crimedawg.com is a really crappy website. But it does provide some examples of cop culture at it's best, brightest, and most sophisticated. See for yourself at http://www.crimedawg.com/designs."