Mike Bonanno
Acting
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Igor Vamos, born April 15, 1968, is an internationally known multimedia artist, leading member of The Yes Men (using the alias Mike Bonanno), and an associate professor of media arts at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.[1] He is also a co-founder of RTmark and the recipient of a 2003 Guggenheim Fellowship, granted for a project that used Global Positioning System (GPS) and other wireless technology to create a new medium with which to "view" his documentary Grounded, about an abandoned military base in Wendover, Utah. Vamos earned an undergraduate degree in Studio Art from Reed College and an MFA in Visual Arts from the University of California, San Diego. While at Reed, Vamos organized a student group called Guerrilla Theater of the Absurd. They performed and documented "culture jamming" acts of protest, including Reverse Peristalsis Painters, where 24 people in suits stood outside the downtown venue of Dan Quayle's fundraiser for Oregon senator Bob Packwood and drank ipecac, forcing themselves to vomit the red, white and blue remains of the mashed potatoes and food coloring they had consumed earlier; and a middle of the night contribution to the debate over re-naming Portland's Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard, wherein the city awoke to find that all of the street signs and freeway exits for another major boulevard had been changed to read "Malcolm X Street." Another successful early project was the "Barbie Liberation Organization," where Vamos and his cohorts purchased three hundred Barbie and G.I. Joe dolls, exchanged their electronic voice boxes, and then returned them to the stores; the soldiers ended up saying things like "Let's go shopping!", while the Barbies exclaimed "Vengeance is mine!". It was a small-scale project and few people actually found themselves in possession of the switched dolls, but the stunt nevertheless attracted national media attention. Description above from the Wikipedia article Igor Vamos, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known For
Activist-pranksters Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonnano pull the rug out from under mega-corporations, government officials and a complacent media in a series of outrageous stunts designed to draw awareness to the issue of climate change.
The Yes Men Are Revolting
THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD is a screwball true story about two gonzo political activists who, posing as top executives of giant corporations, lie their way into big business conferences and pull off the world's most outrageous pranks.
The Yes Men Fix the World
A comic, biting and revelatory documentary following a small group of prankster activists as they gain worldwide notoriety for impersonating the World Trade Organization (WTO) on television and at business conferences around the world.
The Yes Men
A documentary & cross-media project about the creativity of non-violent resistance and modern forms of civil disobedience.
Everyday Rebellion
Under the stage name "Le Petomane," Joseph Pujol was the toast of turn-of-the-century Paris. Audiences at the Moulin Rouge where first shocked, then won over, by this tall, mustachioed man in a red velvet suit...a suite with a hole cut in the derriere to release his remarkable talent. Pujol was a skilled musician in his own right, but his greatest instrument was his own rectum, with which he could produce an astounding variety of musical tones. Through a combination of historical documents, photographs, archival films, and interviews, this video reclaims Pujol's place in history and, in the process, opens up a veritable Pandora's box of contemporary debate over the meaning, impact, and value of this unusual master flatulator.
Le petomane: Fin de siècle fartiste
The Antics Roadshow is a celebration of the pranksters, hoaxers, jokers, activists and stunt merchants who use public space for their own unauthorised ends. This film brings together a wide range of individuals with all sorts of motivations, who have all hijacked the public arena to make a noise, be it for comedic, artistic or political ends, and have all done so using a variety of illicit and eccentric methods, which the audience should probably not try at home.
The Antics Roadshow
®™ark is an organization dedicated to bringing anti-corporate subversion and sabotage into the public marketplace. This updated video compilation includes a glitzy promotion for the ®™ark system (Bringing It All to You!); a behind-the-scenes look at some ®™ark propaganda efforts; an ®™ark PowerPoint presentation concerning "the Y2K bug”; a Danish television report about ®™ark and Hitler; a Boston news report about ®™ark; and, finally, the grand prize winner of ®™ark 1998 Corporate Poetry Contest, reading his winning entry. This updated version also includes a segment on www.gwbush.com and eToys news stories. This compilation is highly recommended for anyone who wishes to get a more complete picture of how ®™ark intervenes in and disrupts corporate logic.
Bringing it All to You!
Find out the nitty-gritty about the folks who brought you GWBush.com, YesRudy.com and Gatt.org, and who sponsored the Barbie Liberation Organization, the Simcopter boys, the etoy Fund and Deconstructing Beck. Since 1886, when the U.S. Supreme Court gave them full constitutional rights, corporations have used their wealth and power to subvert democracy and its processes. In this “industrial video,” ®™ark explains how it uses its own inalienable corporate rights to bring anti-corporate sabotage into the public marketplace.
®™ark: Bringing IT to YOU!
The Yes Men impersonate the National Rifle Association and launche their "buy a gun, give a gun program" at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Antics ensue.