Tactical media

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Tactical media is a term coined in 1996, [1] [2] to denote a form of media activism that privileges temporary interventions in the media sphere over the creation of permanent and alternative media outlets.

Contents

Examples

Tactical media projects are often a mix between art and activism, which explains why many of its roots can be traced to various art movements. It has been suggested by tactical media theorist Geert Lovink that "discourse plus art equals spectacle", [3] reflecting its striking and memorable nature. Although there are no strict mediums through which it operates, tactical media can often have very high aesthetic value, adding to its "spectacle" and reinforcing some of its artistic roots.

GWbush.com

In 1998, computer programmer and political activist Zack Exley purchased a domain and created a website titled GWbush.com. [4] He invited the group RTMark (pronounced Art Mark) to build a copy of George W. Bush's official website, as they had done for some corporate websites.

Later, Zack Exley changed the website to be a more mainstream satire (drawing criticism from RTMark), [5] posting a fake press release from the Bush campaign announcing a promise to "pardon all drug prisoners as long as they've learned from their past mistakes". In the midst of Bush's campaign for office, the website not only received millions of hits, but also received coverage from such organizations as ABC News, USA Today and Newsweek . [6] This phenomenon can be classified as tactical media because of its conformance to its corresponding criteria.

Tactical air force

In 2000, Mexico's Zapatista Army of National Liberation social movement decided to launch a "tactical air force". The Zapatistas' air force consisted of hundreds of paper airplanes. After throwing the planes over the fence of a federal barrack, confused troops were quick to point their rifles at the paper intruders, creating an image that conveyed a very strong message of peace versus war—the target ultimately being the government. [7]

Comparisons

It has often been compared to culture jamming, as both use many of the same techniques in an attempt to occupy the public space controlled by mass media. Where the two practices differ is in their way to obtain this public space; while culture jamming consists of a response to the dominant practices within it, tactical media uses the dominant practices in order to penetrate it and become part of it. Tactical media has also been compared to alternative media. It differs from the latter by its manner in dealing with mass media where alternative media does not seek to infiltrate the dominant by a quick tactic; it attempts to oppose it by proposing what its name suggests: an alternative to the dominant. [8]

Organizations

Related Research Articles

Alternative media are media sources that differ from established or dominant types of media in terms of their content, production, or distribution. Sometimes the term independent media is used as a synonym, indicating independence from large media corporations, but this term is also used to indicate media enjoying freedom of the press and independence from government control. Alternative media does not refer to a specific format and may be inclusive of print, audio, film/video, online/digital and street art, among others. Some examples include the counter-culture zines of the 1960s, ethnic and indigenous media such as the First People's television network in Canada, and more recently online open publishing journalism sites such as Indymedia.

Jules Marshall has been an editor for Mediamatic Magazine since 1989. Trained as a journalist and a contributing writer for Wired, he has also written for Time Out (Amsterdam), i-D, Weiner, Sydney Morning Herald, Blvd. and numerous Dutch magazines.

The Institute for Applied Autonomy was an activist group of anonymous artists known for employing technology in protest. The group focused on dissemination of knowledge, autonomy, and methods of self-determination through artistic expression and application of military-like technology to the topics of Criminal Mischief, decentralized systems and individual autonomy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Natalie Bookchin</span> American artist

Natalie Bookchin is an artist based in Brooklyn, New York. She is well known for her work in media. She was a 2001-2002 Guggenheim Fellow. Her work is exhibited at institutions including PS1, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona, KunstWerke, Berlin, the Generali Foundation, Vienna, the Walker Art Center, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Shedhale in Zurich. Her works are in a variety of forms – from online computer games, collaborative performances and "hacktivist" interventions, to interactive websites and widely distributed texts and manifestos. In her work, she explores some of the far-reaching consequences of Internet and digital technologies on a range of spheres, including aesthetics, labor, leisure, and politics. Much of Bookchin's later works amass excerpts from video blogs or YouTube found online. From 1998 to 2000 she was a member of the collective RTMark, and was involved in the gatt.org prank they organized spoofing the 1999 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade talks

Călin Dan is a Romanian artist, theorist and curator based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Member of the subREAL artist duo together with Josif Kiraly. As a curator, Călin Dan has produced numerous exhibitions and was appointed director of the Soros Foundation's Center for Contemporary Art in Bucharest in 1992.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BioArt</span>

BioArt is an art practice where humans work with live tissues, bacteria, living organisms, and life processes. Using scientific processes such as biotechnology the artworks are produced in laboratories, galleries, or artists' studios. The scope of BioArt is considered by some artists to be strictly limited to "living forms", while other artists would include art that uses the imagery of contemporary medicine and biological research, or require that it address a controversy or blind spot posed by the very character of the life sciences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nettime</span> Mailing list about Internet culture

Nettime is an internet mailing list proposed in 1995 by Geert Lovink and Pit Schultz at the second meeting of the "Medien Zentral Kommittee" during the Venice Biennale. Since 1998, Ted Byfield and Felix Stalder have moderated the main list, coordinated moderation of other lists in the nettime "family," and maintained the site as their nexus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geert Lovink</span>

Geert Lovink is the founding director of the Institute of Network Cultures, whose goals are to explore, document and feed the potential for socio-economical change of the new media field through events, publications and open dialogue. As theorist, activist and net critic, Lovink has made an effort in helping to shape the development of the web.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hybrid art</span>

Hybrid art is a contemporary art movement in which artists work with frontier areas of science and emerging technologies. Artists work with fields such as biology, robotics, physical sciences, experimental interface technologies, artificial intelligence, and information visualization. They address the research in many ways such as undertaking new research agendas, visualizing results in new ways, or critiquing the social implications of the research. The worldwide community has developed new kinds of art festivals, information sources, organizations, and university programs to explore these new arts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Culture jamming</span> Form of protest to subvert media culture

Culture jamming is a form of protest used by many anti-consumerist social movements to disrupt or subvert media culture and its mainstream cultural institutions, including corporate advertising. It attempts to "expose the methods of domination" of mass society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New media art</span> Artworks designed and produced by means of electronic media technologies

New media art includes artworks designed and produced by means of electronic media technologies, comprising virtual art, computer graphics, computer animation, digital art, interactive art, sound art, Internet art, video games, robotics, 3D printing, and cyborg art. The term defines itself by the thereby created artwork, which differentiates itself from that deriving from conventional visual arts. New Media art has origins in the worlds of science, art, and performance. Some common themes found in new media art include databases, political and social activism, Afrofuturism, feminism, and identity, a ubiquitous theme found throughout is the incorporation of new technology into the work. The emphasis on medium is a defining feature of much contemporary art and many art schools and major universities now offer majors in "New Genres" or "New Media" and a growing number of graduate programs have emerged internationally. New media art may involve degrees of interaction between artwork and observer or between the artist and the public, as is the case in performance art. Yet, as several theorists and curators have noted, such forms of interaction, social exchange, participation, and transformation do not distinguish new media art but rather serve as a common ground that has parallels in other strands of contemporary art practice. Such insights emphasize the forms of cultural practice that arise concurrently with emerging technological platforms, and question the focus on technological media per se. New Media art involves complex curation and preservation practices that make collecting, installing, and exhibiting the works harder than most other mediums. Many cultural centers and museums have been established to cater to the advanced needs of new media art.

FUSE was a Toronto-based Canadian non-profit arts and culture periodical published by Artons Cultural Affairs Society and Publishing Inc. FUSE was one of Canada’s longest running alternative art publications. Throughout its 38 year history, the focus has been the interchange between art, media, and politics. The magazine published its final issue in Winter 2013, under the editorial direction of Gina Badger.

This is a list of books about Wikipedia or for which Wikipedia is a major subject.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Activism</span> Efforts to make change in society toward a perceived greater good

Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range from mandate building in a community, petitioning elected officials, running or contributing to a political campaign, preferential patronage of businesses, and demonstrative forms of activism like rallies, street marches, strikes, sit-ins, or hunger strikes.

Post-conceptual, postconceptual, post-conceptualism or postconceptualism is an art theory that builds upon the legacy of conceptual art in contemporary art, where the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work takes some precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. The term first came into art school parlance through the influence of John Baldessari at the California Institute of the Arts in the early 1970s. The writer Eldritch Priest, specifically ties John Baldessari's piece Throwing four balls in the air to get a square from 1973 (in which the artist attempted to do just that, photographing the results, and eventually selecting the best out of 36 tries as an early example of post-conceptual art. It is now often connected to generative art and digital art production.

Indigenous feminism is an intersectional theory and practice of feminism that focuses on decolonization, indigenous sovereignty, and human rights for Indigenous women and their families. The focus is to empower Indigenous women in the context of Indigenous cultural values and priorities, rather than mainstream, white, patriarchal ones. In this cultural perspective, it can be compared to womanism in the African-American communities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Armin Medosch</span>

Armin Medosch was an Austrian artist, curator, theorist and critic working in the fields of net.art, new media art and DiY networking.

Self-managed social centers, also known as autonomous social centers, are self-organized community centers in which anti-authoritarians put on voluntary activities. These autonomous spaces, often in multi-purpose venues affiliated with anarchism, can include bicycle workshops, infoshops, libraries, free schools, free shops, meeting spaces and concert venues. They often become political actors in their own right.

Tjebbe van Tijen is a sculptor, performance artist, curator, net artist, archivist, documentalist and media theorist who lives and works in Amsterdam. He is best known for his 1960s collaborative public performances, and for his later artworks and projects done in collaboration with archives and libraries.

Four Walls was an artist collaborative event space. From 1984 to 2000, it hosted a wide range of one night activities, such as artist conversations, panel discussions, exhibitions, screenings and performances. The organization consisted of two consecutive phases from 1984 to 1988 in Hoboken, New Jersey and from 1991 to 2000 in the Greenpoint Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. Throughout its life Four Walls was situated in growing creative communities where it served to encourage an exchange of ideas and generated alternative ways of experiencing art.

References

  1. Nayar, Pramod K. (2010). An Introduction to New Media and Cybercultures. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 100. ISBN   978-1-4051-8167-9. OCLC   316772265.
  2. Meikle, Graham (2008). "Whacking Bush: Tactical Media as Play". In Boler, Megan (ed.). The Space of Tactical Media. MIT Press. p. 369. ISBN   978-0-262-02642-0. OCLC   165956671.
  3. Lovink 2003, p. 256.
  4. Meikle 2002, p. 114.
  5. Yeomans, Matthew (4 February 2000). "The Power Jokers". Slate .
  6. Meikle 2002, p. 117.
  7. Meikle 2002, p. 124.
  8. Meikle 2002, p. 119.

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Further reading