The Corporate Free Speech Project:

(aka My Wife's Dripping Wet PUSSY)

Corporate influences are rapidly eroding the notion of free speech in the commons as we know it. The very nature of First Amendment rights to free speech are being challenged as private spaces are replacing the public. The prevailing perception is that speech, in an Orwellian fashion, can be controlled in private (commercial or other) spaces through the use of security, human resource and corporate cultural tactics.

For example, protesters can be arrested for tresspassing at shopping malls. What is the role of free speech and dissent where public spaces are increasingly coopted by corporate interests? What are the differences between 'thought policing' and the reservation of publicly-accessible private spaces which, by market standards, must contain content which is the least offensive for the largest number of demographics, otherwise known as being 'Family-Friendly'.

In the spring of 2000, I sought to auction off collections of comics and Playboy magazines I had collected in my teens. Upon placing the items on EBay, an online auction service, I noticed that in many cases, the non-risque or softcore publications were transferred from the "Books/Magazines - Men" placed into the "Adult-Everything Else" (read: tapes like 'Quadruple Anal Gang Bang Sluts') category. Upon examining the Men's magazines category, I noticed that many publications, such as Swank, Cheri, and others remained in this category in many cases. It seemed that EBay's adult policies were being enforced in a highly erratic and uneven fashion.

This series of three installations, which will show one per week, will explore online agendas of free speech in the market, such as adult policies of the EBay online auction, to make visible some of the issues of expression that private companies are inscribing upon the public commons.

Each consists of a series of unoffensive images (or an item) that plays with ambiguous language phrased in ways designed to trigger possible EBay keyword-based obscenity searches, using words like 'ass', or 'dick'. The goal is to see if sufficienf attention can be focused on these policies in the media and whether EBay will choose to take these installations offline, and if so, how long it will take. In so doing, it is my hope to create dialogue in the media regarding the issues of free speech and big capital.

The auctions are legitmate art installations, and the winner will recieve the item or signed copies of the images along with this documentation as a media work.

Voice your opinion!
Letters/Comments
	WEEK 1: "Buy My Hairy Little ASS!" enter
	WEEK 2 "My Big, Hot, Spotted Dick!"
	WEEK 3 "My Wife's Dripping Wet PUSSY"

Disclaimer:
This work is a critical artwork by Patrick Lichty. All images are property of the artist or accurately represent concepts/items used in the piece. All mention of trademarks and copyrighted materialis protected by parody and academic uses under United States Fair Use copyright law. No animals were harmed (but they were royally annoyed) in the creation of this work.