Starr Mignon with a selection of Discordia Culture Shop's travelling art toy wares
available exclusively to independent retailers through DKE Toys. Is your One Million Buttons For Digital Freedom campaign part of the Artist Series Button Displays or is it a completely different beast? What's the goal of One Million Buttons…? Why fundraise for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)? I'm assuming it is a cause that's important to you, so tell us why! Totally separate project. One Million Buttons For Digital Freedom was born of a burning desire to keep the internet open and free, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation seemed like the best way to assist in the fight. Digital Freedom is what we see as a core issue behind all other movements. Without it, independent media and art will be sidelined by corporate power. Of course we don't see that project as our only aspect of activism, rather everything we do is a form of activism. In a big-box corporate world, being and supporting independent artists is a revolutionary act in itself. Sure we make money in the marketplace; the more, the better to run the ticky-tack slinging bastards out of town. Frankly, we see the Designer Toy world being imitated daily
and that just hurts our souls. We bring the real stuff to the people any way we can. I'm very intrigued about your mobile vending & education campaigns. What exactly do you do? Discordia Culture Shop was a physical store from 2007 to 2011 and will be again one day. We decided that life on the Comic-Con circuit suited us better for now. We stick to an eight state, deep South territory where — as far as we know — there are no Designer Toy stores at all. With so many areas that don't have regular access to stores carrying designer toys, do you find lots of people that have never encountered them in-person before? In general, what's the reaction? It was never our intention to bring Designer Toys before the public for the first time but, yes, for the most part even comic book and anime fandoms [in these areas] have either never heard of Designer Toys or have never been lucky enough to see them in the flesh. What amazes us most is how surprised people are to find out that individual artists create goods without the involvement of some major company or studio making
it happen for them, as though the corporate method is the only way art happens. They seem to think that no artist ever does anything until they are hired to do so. What a sad world that would be if it were true. Independent creators will always come up with better quality, more elaborate goods, and cooler works of art than the corporate world ever will. The only thing I've seen in chain stores that has ever come close to the Designer Toy world is what McFarlane Toys did during the '90s: they proved that action figures are not the only thing that can sell off the big box racks. More and more nonarticulated sculptural objects are hitting the shelves more in the way of Japanese figure models and the like. But no matter what, the underground is where it will always stay real. No chain store wants to get into limited edition art objects with huge price points anyway, so Designer Toys will always stay underground where they belong.
For more information on Discordia Culture Shop and Discordia Merchandising, please visit: discordiacultureshop.com discordiamerchandising.com Clutter 23 | 49