Kalle Lasn was born in
Tallinn,
Estonia during the middle of
World War II, and spent his
childhood in a
German displaced persons camp. At the age of seven, his family
immigrated to
Australia, where he later earned a
Bachelor of Science in pure and applied
mathematics from the
University of Adelaide. In
1970, he
immigrated to
Vancouver,
British Columbia in
Canada where he currently resides with his wife
Masako.
Since
1989, after being refused
airtime for a TV spot about the disappearing
old-growth forests of the
Pacific Northwest, Lasn has been fighting a
human rights battle for our rights to
communicate through any
media. His realization that "
there is no democracy on the airwaves" led to the
foundation of The
Media Foundation,
Adbusters magazine,
Powershift Advertising Agency and the
Culture Jammers Network, organizations that lead a fight to decontruct
advertising culture and reveal the
media trance that
television and other
American cultural symbols hold on its
populace. Lasn is a
culture jammer, part of a
loose global network of
media activists who aim to change the way
information flows, the way institutions wield power, the way
television stations are run and the way the
food,
fashion,
automobile,
sports,
music and
culture industries set their agendas.
Lasn's documentaries have won him fifteen international awards, and have been
broadcast internationally on such networks as
PBS and
CBC. He is also the author of
Culture Jam: The Uncooling of AmericaTM, where he explains the essence of
culture jamming and
media activism.
See also:
Adbusters
Culture Jam
Culture Jamming