'Aphrodite' shoes for sex workers - an interesting 'art' project/ initiative by artist Norene Leddy

that I stumbled upon in surfing for content related to Violence Against women. I found this to be a sort of .. charming idea for a serious issue - the safety of women in the streets.

The shoe is armed:

• with a piercing audio alarm to draw attention and scare off rapists and muggers. Unlike mace or knives, it can’t be used against you.
• Hidden Safety Compartmentsfor storing cash, house keys, and condoms.
• Problem Client Blogwhere you can post information online about ‘problem clients’ that is searchable by date, city and street address. Check it before you head off to work, or use it to warn your fellow workers of possible trouble.
• A customized version of Rave Wireless's Rave Guardian and a GPS system.
- With the press of a button, you can send an emergency signal to sex workers rights groups and/or the police with your location.- This helps to eliminate the “consensual” argument - if it was consensual, you wouldn’t have pressed the emergency button.- Sending the signal to sex workers rights groups allows them to monitor the police.- If the police don’t show up, both you and the sex workers rights group have a record of your call, and police negligence.- You choose who gets to see the signal and who doesn’t, and you can turn the tracking off at any time.- It’s not just for help -- you can also use the GPS system to locate your friends and co-workers.- This technology is gaining widespread acceptance on college campuses across the country. Rave Wireless's Rave Guardian, allows students that feel unsafe to use their mobile phone as a personal alarm device. Students initiate a timer on their mobile phone. If the timer expires before the student turns it off, Rave Guardian uses the e911 infrastructure to locate the phone and let local authorities know to check on the student. Learn more about Rave Wireless at www.ravewireless.com or email info@ravewireless.com.

• Audible Alarm Systemwith a piercing audio alarm to draw attention and scare off rapists and muggers. Unlike mace or knives, it can’t be used against you.
• Hidden Safety Compartmentsfor storing cash, house keys, and condoms.<
• Problem Client Blogwhere you can post information online about ‘problem clients’ that is searchable by date, city and street address. Check it before you head off to work, or use it to warn your fellow workers of possible trouble.
• A customized version of Rave Wireless's Rave Guardian and a GPS system.

- With the press of a button, you can send an emergency signal to sex workers rights groups and/or the police with your location.- This helps to eliminate the “consensual” argument - if it was consensual, you wouldn’t have pressed the emergency button.- Sending the signal to sex workers rights groups allows them to monitor the police.- If the police don’t show up, both you and the sex workers rights group have a record of your call, and police negligence.- You choose who gets to see the signal and who doesn’t, and you can turn the tracking off at any time.- It’s not just for help -- you can also use the GPS system to locate your friends and co-workers.- This technology is gaining widespread acceptance on college campuses across the country. Rave Wireless's Rave Guardian, allows students that feel unsafe to use their mobile phone as a personal alarm device. Students initiate a timer on their mobile phone. If the timer expires before the student turns it off, Rave Guardian uses the e911 infrastructure to locate the phone and let local authorities know to check on the student. Learn more about Rave Wireless at or email info@ravewireless.com.

link: The Aphrodite Project

technorati tags: takebackthetech

Hope and Onions: Ka-BLOG Day 10: Recognizing online activism in Canada

Hope and Onions: Ka-BLOG Day 10: Recognizing online activism in Canada

violence against women + art

Our upcoming dossier on CitizenShift is on FEMICIDE. Femicide, the systematic killing of women has and is happening all over the world. The cases that will be highlighted through film on the site are in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Canada (Native women) and in Guatemala where thousands of women have been killed over the past few years.

What do these cases have in common. In all cases, it is marginalized women who go missing because the killers are able to get away with it. This is the sad truth.

In doing research, I found it extremely difficult to digest alot of the stories, and statistics. Again, it is only with hope and optimism that I think we must take action. Some of the things that I found inspiring out in the cyberworld were acts of artistic and creative reactions.

The image above is from the Creative Commons site, is from an installation that a woman named Irene Simmons helped to create - I believe she travels to different schools and gives workshops on making dresses as a tribute to the women who have gone missing in Mexico.

Another art installation that I found to be quite lovely was instigated by a Norweigian artist, Lise Bjorne


the artist asked women from around the world to embroider the names of missing women and to send them back to her - these are on display at the Station Museum along with other artists in the exhibition called Frontera 450. Here is a description: "This exhibition consists of works by l3 artists and filmmakers who have been deeply concerned about this horrendous cycle of of unsolved murders. Each of the artists has created work that addresses various aspects ofthis tragic situation: misogyny, las maquilas, globalization, the mother’s movement for justice, los desaparecidos, and the role of the Mexican government and media as well as the involvement of United States. This issue has become an world-wide concern of artists and activists and is a microcosm of the serious events taking place all along the U.S. - Mexico border."

technorati tags: takebackthetech

BLANK NOISE PROJECT: the spill

BLANK NOISE PROJECT: the spill

film fest saturation

went to this small but extremely well-programmed world community traveling film fest (http://www.codev.org/filmfest/films.cfm) here in van-city & saw half a dozen films:

favela rising
bloqueo
broken limbs
a panel on our food & our future
stolen spirits of haida gwaii
oil on ice
call from a coast

b/c i'm sleepy and saturated i'm not going to go into all the details.

stolen spirits of haida gwaii:
tremendously moving film about the repatriation of Haida Gwaii ancestors that had been taken away from their place, land & people in the early 20th century. through the film you see the pain, beauty and strength of these people and their perseverence to keep their culture and heritage alive. beautifully touching.

oil on ice
would be a great double feature with being caribou (http://citizen.nfb.ca)
explores the implications of drilling for oil in the artic national wildlife refuge (http://www.anwr.org/)
environmental, biological (caribou & other wildlife), cultural, and how it affects local communities that have subsisted off the land for centuries (the Gwich'in Athabascan Indainas & Inupiat of the north...) stunning scenery - quite contrary to one of the american congressmen(?) 's opinions of it being not more than a blank white board in aesthetic measurement & a stamp on the congressroom floor in terms of the effects of drilling (HA).

call from a coast
sigh. another REALLY depressing film to end the day with. all about the ridiculous need to create fish farms in places that are naturally abundant w/ fish.. too tired to go into it now.

nighnight.

nightime nostalgia

how very exciting to be starting a new blog... it is a rather sweet noctural activity. enjoyable while others are sleeping, drinking, roaming in the darkness... there are no distractions indoors, and there is a quietness left to just sit, and think, and write in peace. anonymously for now.

just moved out to vancouver. from montreal. i miss the romance of quebec. here is a beautiful memory from quebec city to explain what i mean:


i am looking forward to writing here on a regular basis...