Hacktivism, laugtivism, culture jamming & retail poisoning
Hacktivism combines "hacking" and "activism," referring to the use of hacking techniques to promote political agendas, social causes, or disrupt oppressive systems. Hacktivists often seek to expose injustice or force transparency from powerful institutions by using technology to disrupt websites, share classified information, or alter digital content. Their actions aim to challenge censorship, expose corruption, or empower marginalized voices. Hacktivism can include activities like DDoS attacks (A Distributed Denial-of-Service, a type of cyberattack where an attacker overwhelms a website, server, or network with malicious traffic, causing it to crash or become unavailable to legitimate users), digital graffiti, or leaks of information intended to mobilize public opinion and encourage political action.
Laughtivism a form of activism that employs humor, satire, and absurdity to highlight social or political issues. By using wit and laughter, laughtivists make serious or taboo topics more approachable, encouraging people to engage with them in a non-confrontational way. Laughtivism aims to disarm authority figures, disrupt power structures, and provoke reflection on cultural norms, often making use of street performances, memes, pranks, and mockery. This form of activism is effective in drawing attention to issues while diffusing defensiveness and making difficult subjects easier to discuss.
Culture Jamming is the practice of subverting mainstream media, advertising, or cultural symbols to challenge or critique consumerism, corporate control, and societal norms. It often involves altering advertisements, slogans, or symbols in ways that expose the underlying messages or implications, encouraging viewers to question the influence of corporations and media on their lives. Examples include parody ads, satirical artworks, or "subvertising" (subversive advertising) that twists familiar logos or brand imagery. The goal is to "jam" or disrupt the smooth operation of cultural narratives and provoke people to reflect on the effects of consumer culture and propaganda.
Retail Poisoning involves the disruption or subversion of retail environments, typically to protest consumerism, labor practices, or environmental harm by corporations. This tactic might include inserting misleading or provocative messages within stores, altering products or signage, or staging symbolic actions that disrupt the shopping experience. The intent is to cause discomfort or unease, making shoppers reconsider the ethics behind the products they buy or the practices of the corporations they support. Retail poisoning is a way to confront and critique the effects of consumerism and corporate influence directly in the spaces where consumption happens.
These terms share a common theme: they are methods of reframing and critiquing societal power dynamics by disrupting or reinterpreting accepted norms, often in unexpected and engaging ways.
disruptive - humorous - parody - performative - subversive - prank - risk - innovative - provocative - community oriented - anonymous - temporary - symbolic - accessible
sometimes well thought out & organized
sometimes impulsive unorganized & chaotic
sometimes criminal or pushing the boundaries of ethics
often done
to draw attention to something
to induce thought & emotion
to criticize
to expose the truth,
to damage perceived enemies
and possibly...
----> to change the world!!<----
Cult of the Dead Cow
"Cult of the Dead Cow is the tale of the oldest, most respected, and most famous American hacking group of all time. Though until now it has remained mostly anonymous, its members invented the concept of hacktivism, released the top tool for testing password security, and created what was for years the best technique for controlling computers from afar, forcing giant companies to work harder to protect customers." --Perhaps the earliest ethical hacking
They also contributed to the development of Tor, the most important privacy tool on the net, and helped build cyberweapons that advanced U.S. security without injuring anyone. With its origins in the earliest days of the Internet, the Cult of the Dead Cow (cDc) is full of oddball characters — activists, artists, even future politicians. Many of these hackers have become top executives and advisors walking the corridors of power in Washington and Silicon Valley.
"The most famous is former Texas Congressman and current presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke, whose time in the cDc set him up to found a tech business, launch an alternative publication in El Paso, and make long-shot bets on unconventional campaigns. Today, the group and its followers are battling electoral misinformation, making personal data safer, and battling to keep technology a force for good instead of for surveillance and oppression. Cult of the Dead Cow shows how governments, corporations, and criminals came to hold immense power over individuals and how we can fight back against them."
Anonymous
Trolling, lulz, justice porn, criminality.... Anonymous is a cyper-activist movement created in 2003 on the 4chan platform: an anonymous image-sharing forum. It basically started with people messing around, trolling and trying to get a laugh (lulz), but it haphazardly evolved into something that had a (possibly) more important, heavier purpose:
Anonymous has fought on behalf of many causes including: Black Lives Matter, Occupy Wall Street, WikiLeaks, and defend first and foremost, freedom online.
Anonymous has many targets including Donald Trump, the Klu Klux Klan, Church of Scientology, companies like Mastercard & PayPal, authoritarian regimes, terrorist organizations like ISIS.
Anonymous is somewhat fractured, chaotic, imperfect, but they are definitely a powerful force and have had a huge impact on the web and on the world.
Some people from the movement have been arrested and some have spent hard time for very real crimes.
They have a logo, a mask, and a motto...
But... everyone can claim to be Anonymous because Anonymous is not an organization, but a decentralized and non-hierarchical movement. It's built of self-initiative so whoever wants to create a video under the name of anonymous, can do so.
What are your thoughts?
What problems do you think can arise with a platform that is so open?
Yes Men
One of the most well known examples of hacktivists are the Yes Men, "a culture jamming activist duo and network of supporters created by Jacques Servin and Igor Vamos." They use tactical media as an art practice, but more importantly as a tool for political, social and cultural change. The Yes Men's main goal is to bring attention and make people more aware of social and political problems and corruptions. In order to accomplish this goal, they use performance as a medium to impersonate people who they perceive to be harmful or who participate in morally questionable behavior. Specifically, the Yes Men target corporate leaders and government figures who they perceive to act in "dehumanizing ways toward the public". They have come to call these performances "identity corrections". "The Yes Men operate under the mission statement that lies can expose truth."
"EAT SHIT AND LIVE" this is a cut from the first YES MEN documentary of a performance
The whole process begins with the creation of parody websites intentionally similar to the sites getting spoofed. The sites are similar enough to attract emails requesting interviews, offers to speak at conferences, and even on television. The video posted above is a scene from the first Yes Men movie. Through the entire performance the actors never break character and by the end of the whole ridiculous presentation, the students are literally booing and throwing things at them. Everything went exactly as planned because the Yes Men made their impact.
What are your thoughts?
Was anything accomplished through this prank?
Advise from an MFA grad...
You can watch the full Yes Men movies on Youtube for free with ads here:
The Yes Men 2004: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2gpBTOvCxo&t=3412s
The Yes Men Fix the World 2009: https://youtu.be/295gCWahBxc?si=2ISs8jf56s7yL-9m
The Yes Men Are Revolting 2014 (buy or rent): https://youtu.be/3Cg3mVZnfWA?si=-RGsa7m7pDPyXMOu
Yes Men Website to learn more: https://theyesmen.org/
Improv Everywhere
The Yes Men have collaborated with other groups of similar interest, including Improv Everywhere, Andrew Boyd and Steve Lambert. In the video posted above we see an example of "retail poisoning." Retail poisoning is similar to hacktivism, but it's specific task is to disrupt consumerism. Improv Everywhere does exactly that with this community performance that flips an average day at Best Buy into a disruption of mass confusion and frustration (on the part of Best Buy) that is nothing less than hilarious and exciting! A collection of retail poisoning based works appear on a tumblr, and consist of videos, recorded performances, sculptures pranks and other creative ways of disrupting the retail portion of corporate capitalism. Below are a few more examples:
What are your thoughts?
what do these disruptions achieve?
A collection of retail poisoning based works appear on a tumblr, and consist of videos, recorded performances, sculptures pranks and other creative ways of disrupting the retail portion of corporate capitalism. Below are a few more examples:
Evan Roth, Available Online for Free stickers:
Jeff Wysaski's altered pet store labels:
Jeff Wysaski's altered book covers (changed and replaced on bookstore shelves)
Graffiti & Digital Graffiti
Recent
The burger king heckler at Steve Bannon Press Conference
A guerilla monument....
"Art has the power to transform the world. It reaches people in ways that conventional language cannot. It shapes culture and drives political movements. Visual artists, poets, musicians and performers of all kinds hold immeasurable sway over the hearts and minds of people worldwide, and have since the dawn of civilisation."
~The Art Newspaper
What are your thoughts?
Project 3: The Pixel Resistance-- You will become Visual Agents of Mass Disruption!
Now that we have discussed culture jamming movements, activists like the Yes Men, Anonymous, alongside the theories of hacktivism, laughtivism, and retail poisoning, let's put our understanding of these movements to work! By understanding these strategies, we can use remix & AI to critique contemporary societal issues & inspire real-world change.
Your Task:
Collaborate with AI to create original works that challenge and subvert mainstream media messages, consumerism, or some other social/political issue that you want to confront. Focus on crafting a powerful message with the potential for real-world impact. Your final remixed artworks will be showcased in a student-curated art exhibit, demonstrating the practical value of fair use and the power of AI/remix as tools for social critique.
Goals:
choose the issue/establishment/norm/etc. you wish to confront, research it, and devise a plan to disrupt, subvert, criticize, expose, challenge or otherwise oppose it through art.
create a series including a minimum of 6 images and 1 time based media.
Time based media can be anything from performance/prank captured on video, gif, animation, commercial, music video, video game, fake website or other similar time-based experience. You can use AI to generate videos.
consider how you will present this at our final exhibition.
printed zine, live performance, prints on wall, shared video loop with classmates, a computer screen, etc. Your creative ideas welcome!
Embrace some of these characteristics: disruption - humor - parody - performance - subversion - prank - risky - innovation - provocation - community orientation - temporality - symbolism - accessibility - impulsiveness - & chaos in order to draw attention - induce thought & emotion - criticize - expose truth, damage perceived enemies and possibly... ----> to change the world!!<----
Have Ethical considerations. While I do want you to take positive risks, to rock the boat, to have power in your projects, to be disruptive and critical, it is important that we practice ethical behavior and should take a do no (actual) harm approach. Think about the ethical concerns we have already discussed in this class and use that as your guiding light.
Constraints:
Do not get yourself, me, or any of your classmates arrested.
Do Now:
Brainstorm and decide the theme of your project in preparation for next week.
Next week I will show you several examples of what we might consider to be "fine artists", who are working in interesting ways that fit right in with these creative activist movements.
Questions?
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