Q: What is The Pinky Show?
A: The Pinky Show is the original super lo-tech hand-drawn educational TV show. We focus on information & ideas that have been misrepresented, suppressed, ignored, or otherwise excluded from mainstream discussion. Pinky presents and analyzes the material in an informal, easy-to-understand way, with helpful illustrations that she draws herself. Episodes are available on the internet for free at www.PinkyShow.org.
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Q: What is the purpose of The Pinky Show?
A: The Pinky Show presents marginalized perspectives as a means of challenging individuals to consider realities that lie beyond their own lived experiences. We believe that positive social change becomes real when human beings learn how to critically engage 'the Other' with openness, honesty, and compassion.
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Q: What kind of things are discussed on The Pinky Show?
A: Pinky is curious about a wide range of subjects - little-known historical facts, critical analyses and interpretations of cultural texts (movies, art, advertisements, music, etc.), social and political commentary, issues of morality & ethics, and basically anything that people may not know or spend much time thinking about. The motivation for creating each show is simple - Pinky says: "All I want is to be able to understand things".
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Q: Who makes The Pinky Show?
A: The Pinky Show is a project of Associated Animals Inc., a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization based in the United States. We have four members - Pinky & Bunny (research/writing/episode production), Mimi (organizational paper-pushing), and Kim (...um?). Associated Animals Inc. has no board of directors; member cats are only guided by curiosity and a willingness to work and learn.
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Q: How did The Pinky Show get started?
A: Read the pre-history here.
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Q: How do students & teachers benefit from watching The Pinky Show?
A: Pinky is especially interested in the kind of learning that takes place (or doesn't take place) in schools, and frequently corresponds with teachers who use the show in many different ways:
- For personal viewing, simply to expand their range of perspectives, or as an easy way to introduce themselves to information that they'd otherwise never (or rarely) be exposed to.
- For classroom showing, especially as a starting point for a more complex, varied, and critical dialogue on a certain subject or issue (the short-form aspect makes classroom showing very flexible when time management is a concern).
- As a way to introduce students to the underlying structural and historial forces that influence what kinds of information are included in their classroom textbooks, newspapers, magazines, television news, films, etc., and conversely, what kind of perspectives tend to be left out. The Pinky Show thus aims to consistently present a useful 'counterset' of information in order to complicate the smooth and automatic (and ultimately uncritical) consumption of information. Pinky does this because she believes that reductive, absolutist, and otherwise dishonest ways of thinking ultimately culminate in the very real and tangible harming of individuals, relationships, communities, and society itself.
In short, Pinky believes in openness rather than closure. Likewise, open-minded teachers will find many uses for The Pinky Show.
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Q: What age level is The Pinky Show appropriate for?
A: Although the simplified visual style of the show recalls children's programming, The Pinky Show is in fact intended for an adult audience. The illustrations only look this way because Pinky has minimal talent for art.
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Q: Is making animated episodes the only kind of work you cats do?
A: No, actually we do lots of other things too, thank you for asking! The Pinky Show is a multi-aspect educational project - our activities also include the production of site-specific art, collaborating on community-based education and media activism projects, maintaining a fact sheet library, organizing online cultural programming, blogging, and some other stuff. Contrary to popular misconceptions, cats are really hard working! The form is always changing, but our goals remain the same (see above!).
[ see what some people have to say about The Pinky Show ]
