Soft Machine³ - Arts Tech and Other

Note: From the archives: June, 2006

UPDATE: September, 2009

Survivaball gets reprised

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 24, 2009

YES MEN HONCHO SPRUNG FROM CLINK
“Balls Across America” direct-action campaign launched
NYPD abuse of authority big factor in arrest

Contact: The Yes Men <mailto:event@theyesmen.org>

Andy Bichlbaum, co-founder of activist group the Yes Men, emerged after 26 hours
in New York City’s central lockup with all charges against him dismissed.

“The judge just laughed,” said Bichlbaum. “The police had a less well-developed
sense of humor - and, it turned out, much less regard for the law. But all in all,
I’m ecstatic that they arrested me.”

At 10am Tuesday, Bichlbaum was arrested and charged with trespassing, after he and
21 “Survivaballs” gathered on New York City’s East River and announced they
were to going to “take the UN by storm” from the water, since all the land
approaches were sealed. Once at the UN, they would supposedly use the Survivaballs
to blockade the negotiations and refuse to let world leaders leave the room until
they’d agreed on sweeping cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, as Secretary-General
Ban Ki-Moon has demanded.

The Yes Men, Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonano, struck again this week, exposing some of the world?s biggest corporate criminals and showing that maybe profits shouldn’t be our only goal. Today they share the insider stories behind their latest pranks and discuss the question that drives their new movie: is the free market the only solution to solving our problems?via http://blip.tv/file/2642413

UPDATE: November, 2008 

This is not to be confused with the apparently for-reals Bouncy House and Life Cube.

 

The Yes Men were contacted to address the “Catastrophic Loss” conference at the Ritz-Carlton in Amelia Island, Florida, in May of 2006. They were contacted via their (now defunct) spoof website halliburton-contracts.com.

They attended, posing as representatives from Halliburton, and announced a revolutionary product called SurvivaBall™. 

More photos, video animations, and the presentation transcript are available here (it’s hard to find.)

The Yes Men website

Democracy Now! coverage of SurvivaBall from Friday, May 12, 2006

The Yes Men on Democracy Now! (2006) - Watch more Videos at Vodpod.