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Networked Disruption
Rethinking Oppositions in Art, Hacktivism and the Business of Social Networking
Tatiana Bazzichelli
PhD Dissertation Department of Aesthetics and Communication Faculty of Arts Aarhus University
DARC — Digital Aesthetics Research Center www.digital-aestetik.dk www.disruptiv.biz
Networked Disruption: Rethinking Oppositions in Art, Hacktivism and the Business of Social Networking First published in 2013 by Digital Aesthetics Research Center, Aarhus University, Helsingforsgade 14, DK-8200 Aarhus N, Denmark. www.digital-aestetik.dk PhD Dissertation: Tatiana Bazzichelli – Aarhus University, 2011. Supervisor: Søren Pold, Aarhus University, Denmark. Co-supervisor: Fred Turner, Stanford University, California. Examining committee: Franco Berardi, Geoff Cox, Olga Goriunova. Layout, design and cover: Jonas Frankki Proofreading: Alex Lay The research behind this book has been funded by Aarhus University with the support of the AU Ideas Research Project Disruptive Innovation in Digital Art/ Activism and Business. ISBN: 87-91810-24-8 EAN: 9788791810244 Copyright © 2013 Tatiana Bazzichelli License: This publication is licensed under the Peer Production License (2013) Commercial use encouraged for Independent and Collective/Common-based users. To view a full copy of this license, see page 44 of The Telekommunist Manifesto by Dmytri Kleiner (2010): http://telekommunisten.net/thetelekommunist-manifesto/ Exceptions include photographs, trademarks, logos and other identifying marks. Photographs, trademarks, logos and other identifying marks may not be reused or redistributed without prior licensing and written consent from the authors. Cover image inspired by a scene in the film Strike (1925) by Sergei Eisenstein, described as Holey Space by Gilles Deleuze & Félix Guattari in their book: Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia (1986, pp. 413-414, also depicted in this book on p. 136). This remake of the original image features (from the left): Luther Blissett, Burning Man's wooden sculpture, the Mechanical Turk, J.R. "Bob" Dobbs, Trollface, Ray Johnson's Bunny, Anna Adamolo, theThimbl logo by Telekommunisten, Neoist flaming steam iron by Pete Horobin, the Anonymous "suit without a head", Les Liens Invisibles' Captain Fake, and Facebook's default profile picture.
To Jonas and the prosperity of Bazzinkki
Acknowledgements, 6 Introduction, 8 1 Disrupting Business in Networkscapes, 25
1.1 Networking Art and Business as Research Practice, 25 1.2 The Dilemma of the "Non-Political", 30 1.3 Ethnography of Networks, 36 1.4 The Dialectical Paradox and The Paradox of Dialectics, 43 1.5 Montage as Method, 50 1.6 Disruption and Morphogenesis, 55
2 Social Networking Out of the Box, 67
2.1 Social Networks Before Social Networks, 67 2.2 The Gift-Exchange Grassroots Economy, 71 2.3 Collaborative Art Practices and Media Criticism, 74 2.4 Deconstructing Identities in Conspiracy Networks, 78 2.5 Mythologies of Demystification, 86 2.6 Disrupting the Bureaucracy, 101
3 When Art Goes Disruptive, 111
3.1 Towards a Critique of Hegemony in Participatory Networks, 111 3.2 The A/Moral Dis/Order of Recursive Publics, 116 3.3 The Anna Adamolo Multiple Singularity, 124 3.4 The Holey Spaces of Anonymous, 135
2 The Hack of Performing Inactivity. 229 Appendix: Interviews. Activists. 197 5.1 The Rhetoric of Web 2.3 Activist Enterprises & Venture Communism. 149 4. 238 Webliography. A Social Network. 157 4.4 Burning Man.3 The Art of Crowdsourcing. 184 5 The Art of Disruptive Business.1 Rethinking Criticism. 218 5.2 The Business of Cybernetics. 205 5. 149 4. 167 4. Fetishists and Entrepreneurs.4 Common Participation and Networking Enterprises.5 Hackers. 197 5. 236 Bibliography.4 Future Directions. 173 4. 255 .0 & the Politics of Open Source.
Lynn Hershman Leeson. when I was involved in the hacker and art scene in Italy and Berlin. Vittore Baroni. for their exchanges and interest expressed about the topics explored here. the staff of H-STAR. John Law. in particular – for having facilitated my stay at Stanford University and providing many interesting contacts. Jacob Appelbaum. my colleagues in the Department of Information and Media Studies at Aarhus University (now Department of Aesthetics and Communication) for creating an interesting and positive research environment. Paolo Cirio. if not before then. Loretta Borrelli. Les Liens Invisibles and Guy McMuske. all the members of Autart. Fred Turner for his inspiring research and our exciting conversations in the sunny halls of Stanford University.Acknowledgements Projects often come to life after sharing ideas with other people. Olivier Bonin. the Human-Sciences and Technologies Advanced Research Institute at Stanford University and the Stanford Humanities Lab – Henrik Bennetsen. Scott Beale. Karen Marcelo. for sharing their thoughts with me and answering my questions. my colleagues at DARC. Massimo Canevacci for his advice on my methodology and because 6 . Vale. Hal Robins and V. First of all. Alex Lay for his precise and professional work in editing my interviews and proofreading my manuscript. and DUL. It is therefore difficult to list all the names of those who contributed to the genesis of this work. This is certainly the case with the present manuscript. Lee Felsenstein. Anne Sophie Witzke for translating my abstract into Danish. but I wish to mention those who have followed this undertaking more closely and who have contributed most actively to its development. a networking journey that began in 2008 when I enrolled as a PhD scholar at Aarhus University in Denmark. for advising on each stage of the writing process with comments and suggestions and for helping me to become aware of my theoretical methodology and practice. because they are too many. the Digital Urban Living Centre of Aarhus University. the Digital Aesthetics Research Centre. I would like to thank Søren Pold for having supervised my PhD.
Eleonora Oreggia aka xname. Marco Deseriis. and because the Italian hacker and activist scene will always be my route to freedom. Chris and Peter Mock. without whose friendship. nor my research in the Bay Area so passionate. nor for it to have taken on its final form. Without his constant love. Helge Hiram Jensen for a great anticopyright exchange. Gabriella Coleman and Franco Berardi for sending me their inspiring manuscripts even before they had been published. But the most important thanks go to my husband Jonas. Kristoffer Gansing for providing me with a new job opportunity in Berlin. 7 . support and inspiration – and without Bazzinkki! – it would have been impossible to put such passion and commitment into this research. Simona Lodi and all the friends and members of the AHA:Activism-Hacking-Artivism mailing-list for the exchange and stimulating discussion. Gaia Novati. Luisa Valeriani.his theoretical polyphonic approach has been an inspiration to me ever since I studied at La Sapienza University in Rome in the 1990s. thereby pushing me to complete this research. I would like to thank my parents Roberto and Marilena for always being there for me and my sister Tamara and her family for making me reflect on myself. Franca Formenti. hospitality and warmth my journey in and around San Francisco would not have been so special. Heejung Chung for her initial research advice. Finally. to whom I dedicate this manuscript. Simonetta Fadda.
decentralisation.0 technologies) analysing the interferences between networking participation and disruptive business innovation. The increasing commercialisation of sharing and networking contexts and the key innovatory role of the open source community in the development of centrally controlled client-server web applications. interaction and collaboration have been the conceptual starting points for much art of the 20th century. However.0 companies. Internet entrepreneurs have adopted in different contexts. The main objective is to rethink the meaning of critical practices in art.0. sociability and do-it-yourself. hacktivism and social networking. in which on the one hand we find the development of a critical vocabulary and practices highlighting the exploitation of networking and the cooptation of peer2peer culture from Web 2. from mail art to hacker art. but also a pervasive business strategy. since the emergence of Web 2. and for other 8 .Introduction This research reflects on the status of activist. from Dadaism to Fluxus.0 start-ups have adopted business strategies for generating revenues. have changed the scenario of participatory culture and brought hacktivist and artistic strategies into question within the framework of net culture. who are producing a huge mass of Internet content without necessarily being technology experts. the concept of networking has been used to describe collective practices based on the principles of exchange and equal one-to-one collaboration. networking has become not only an everyday practice. while on the other. The current economical framework of the Internet bubble 2. In the context of both underground artistic movements and that of digital culture. analysing them through business instead of in opposition to it. formulating a rhetoric of flexibility. hacker and artistic practices in the new generation of social media (or so-called Web 2. openness. we face incremental opportunities for sharing and for social contacts between a large number of Internet users.0 is generating new contradictions and paradoxes. Many Web 2. Participation.
The opposition to a communications monopoly and capitalist mindset expressed by many members of the underground digital culture over the past few years has now reached a state of paradox whereby those involved in opposition are also those being opposed. Alongside this phenomenon. By identifying the emerging contradictions within the current economical and political framework of informational capitalism. The departure point for this dissertation is the assumption that. as the Greek philosopher Heraclitus stated. in the Bay Area. Since. 2009. School of Humanities. Such mutual disruption and coexisting oppositions between art. this begs the question as to whether the dualistic conflict between capitalism and anti-capitalism should be considered a path to provoke social change. the hypothesis of this research is a reformulation of the concept of criticism in art. Google and the Countercultural Ethos of New Media Manufacturing". while discussing his opinions on the social phenomenon of Burning Man 9 . "the road up and the road down are the same thing" (Hippolytus. Irvine. networking grassroots communities of hackers and artists have served to accelerate capitalism since the emergence of digital culture and cyber-utopias. business and networking.purposes. they have also served to strengthen antagonism against it. and more particularly. similar values to those which characterised the emergence of hacker culture and net culture over the past decades. April 23. hacktivism. therefore suggesting a coexistence of layers rather than a process of oppositional negations1. University of California. on the one hand. especially in the US. on the other hand. 1 Such an idea of "layering" rather than cooptation. shows how hackers and artists have been both active agents of business innovation as well as those undermining it. The purpose of this investigation is to analyse hacker and artistic practices through business. was proposed by Fred Turner in the lecture "The Bohemian Factory: Burning Man.3). Refutations 9.10. many hackers and developers who contributed to the rise of the hacker culture and open source movement in the Eighties and Nineties have now been employed by communication technology corporations. by generating critical artistic practices and hacktivist interventions based on technologies and methodologies of sharing and networking. and in the business of social networking. Such coincidentia oppositorum (or unity of oppositions) also mirrors the crisis of encompassing political ideologies and confrontational activist strategies in Western countries.
Within the framework of this analysis "business" is not analysed from a business school perspective. 10 . which will be analysed through specific case studies. Disruptive Loop Diagram. business entrepreneurship and methodologies of disruption. but as a means towards working consciously on artistic. Such case studies shed light on two different but related critical scenes: that of Californian tech culture and that of European net culture – with a specific focus on their multiple approaches towards business and political antagonism. The model of analysis as proposed here could be visualised as follows: hackers. networkers and entrepreneurs. shedding light on contradictions and ambiguities both in capitalistic logic and in art and hacktivist strategies. The notion of disruptive business becomes a means for describing immanent practices of hackers. but to reflect on different modalities of generating criticism.The aim is not to create an historical or philosophical analysis of social and artistic practices. while rethinking oppositional practices in the context of social networking. We will analyse Turner's perspective in detail in Chapter 4 of this dissertation. artists. 2011 and its contribution in sustaining new media industries. as can be seen in the picture below: Tatiana Bazzichelli. political and technological practices. activists and artists focus on social networking with a critical dimension. creating an intertwined feedback loop between art.
where hackers and artists directly perform such contradictions and provoke unexpected consequences as an art form. and today the phenomenon of Web 2.The phenomenon whereby the development of business proceeds alongside a reformulation of radical practices is nothing new: the rise of cyberculture and hacker culture during the Sixties in California is a clear example of this. Rather than trying to resolve the overall contradictions in the economical and political framework of the networked economy. The concept of disrupting business in social media sheds light on the 11 .0. Today a new coexistence of oppositions influencing each other is coming to the forece again within the framework of Web 2. which are also often unpredictable. Artists and hackers use disruptive techniques of networking in the framework of social media and web-based services to generate new modalities for using technology. are unpredictable and critical. when hackers have contributed to its creation and its strengthening? And. exposing the contradictions of business logic and appropriating it both critically and ironically.0 demonstrate that opposites co-substantiate one another and often become a symbiotic necessity for each other's continued existence: in many cases. the challenge lies in the exploration of symbolic dissolutions of power. the artists and hackers at the core of my analysis empathise with them. as has been described by Fred Turner in his research. hackers. their field of experimentation being the mutual disruption between hacking. which. Is it still meaningful to consider hacktivism as a radical criticism of a system. The history of cyberculture. in some cases. The Art of Disruptive Business is a possible path towards investigating the deconstruction of power structures through experiencing them from within. Disruption therefore becomes a two-way strategy in networking contexts: a practice for generating criticism and a methodology for creating business innovation. if capitalism and what was once called "counterculture" now share similar rhetoric and strategies. is it possible to imagine alternatives to the current state of capitalism? My intention is to propose an additional layer to this analysis: to investigate artistic and hacker interventions that create business disruption as an art practice. Since contradictions and dichotomies are nowadays inherent in business logic. business enterprises apply disruption as a form of innovation to create new markets and network values. activists and business entrepreneurs are part of the same unity. business and distributed methodologies of networking.
but to trick them by "becoming them". artists and business in the nodes of social networks. Artists become viruses. The departure point for this dissertation is the following question: what happens when the coexistence of oppositions. my analysis focuses on the mutual interference of multiple layers. Analysing artistic practices in the framework of social media implies an acknowledgement of the fascinations of consumerist goods and the consequent strategies of being constructive and destructive at the same time. mutual. to innovate business by criticising it. To investigate the progressive commercialisation of sharing and networking platforms. embodying disruptive and ironic camouflages. and the idea that one of the opposed conditions will prevail over the other. implies rethinking cooptation as a process so as to understand social change as well. but that they become multiple. but transforming it into a "playground". working empathically with the subject of intervention. both to appropriate it and expose its incongruities. to apply disruption as an art form means to imagine alternative routes based on the art of staging paradoxes and juxtapositions. in art. viral and distributed – as the many nodes of a network. it is necessary to understand business culture from within. They disrupt the machine by performing it. hacktivism and the business of social networking. the goal is not to frontally oppose the adversaries. activists and hackers who are rethinking critical interventions in the field of art and technology. How is disruption in this perspective different from classical methodologies of conflict and antagonism? Starting from the assumption that to understand capitalism today is equivalent to being conscious of it as a concrete unity of opposed determinations (for example. becomes a layer of mutual interferences? The analysis of the mutual feedback loop between hackers.practices of artists. Bypassing the classic power/ contra-power strategy. Disruption becomes a means for a new form of criticism. Instead of dualistic tension. Challenging the market does not mean refusing it. This does not mean that oppositions disappear completely. which often results in aggressive interventions that replicate competitiveness and the violence of capitalism itself. the challenge is to analyse holes in the system in which one-to-one oppositions are loosened up into distributed infiltrations. while also deconstructing it. hacktivism and business). 12 . Beyond the concept of coexistence of oppositions as dualistic tension between two forces. accepting that they must act inside the market scenario.
The concept of dialectical image is used in the present research to imagine processes of decrystallisation of singularities in a phase of crisis. and where the signs of modernity emerge from a crystallisation of progress which dissipates the illusion of continuity in history. 463. as pointed out by Franco Berardi describing the present era of informational capitalism. present and future coexist forming a dialectical image. describing the precarious 13 . normalisation tends to embrace disruption and make it a form of stasis. In this stage of crystallisation. The aim is to generate a polyphonic dialectic in which pluralities of approaches coexist. but acting in ways that the market does not expect. and by Claudia Mongini. automatism and hyper-velocity. where disruption does not mean rupture. all of which together contribute to a shaping.Drawing on Walter Benjamin's notion of the dialectical image. calls for an understating of the present condition as a phase of crystallisation. N3. I propose to adopt a vision of dialectics in which the oppositions remain open. My hypothesis is that the concept of dialectics has to be reframed in the context of disruption. adopting a perspective of "Both/And" means opening up to possible heterogeneous and distributed interventions. where critical ideas are subsumed by repetition. but are transformed into heterogeneous and distributed practices. The dialectical tension between business and opposition to it therefore shifts in a synergetic opposition where one is part of the other. Furthermore. or at least to an imagining of social change. which he described as 'dialectics at a standstill' (The Arcade Project. p. This does not mean dismissing dialectics altogether. where past. by performing the system's contradictions and understanding its logic. but framing them in a perspective which instead of emphasising the symmetric tension "Either/Or". 1) proposes a construction of history where the past and present interlock (as exemplified by Benjamin's figure of the Angelus Novus). As a metaphor for a phase of impasse in which the opposites coincide to create a frozen blockade. The dialectical perspective of Walter Benjamin. generating innovations from within the confines of business logic. This view of history as an interruption of time. without generating encompassing synthesis. the de-crystallisation comes from inside. shows the contradictory paradoxes of "Both/And" (as Marshall Berman suggests in his 1982 book All That Is Solid Melts into Air). and they mutually contribute in shaping each other.
acting as chameleons which absorb the logic of the system and recombine them by finding the weaknesses within that logic. Inspired by the analysis of morphogenesis in the book Run: forma. As Claudia Mongini points out. hackers and activists have been discovered through personal acts of networking. takes inspiration from a critique of ethnography. a possible vision implies a process of contamination and interference. where business is performed from within. which in the first chapter I define as ethnography of networks.crystallisation of critical and creative forces in contemporary society. the collective brain reaches a point of stasis. ricombinazione (2008) by Franco Berardi and Alessandro Sarti. I propose the hypothesis of disruption as an immanent tension that emerges from within the crystallised systems. where the opposites of zero. A possible path is to adopt business logic to "experience" them. art intertwines with disruption beyond symmetric oppositions or radical ruptures.and hypervelocity meet. which grows from within the capitalistic structure. pranks and tricks. preventing the creative formation of any critical idea. by generating new forms of criticism. Drawing on Walter Benjamin's approach of flânerie – from his writings on Baudelaire – the direct experience of the fascination of goods becomes a method of understanding the consumerist culture from within. vita. and thus of critically performing it. The suggestion of this thesis is to exit from the scheme of power/contra power. My methodology proposes to create 14 . These practices of artists. My research develops through the analysis of different conceptual nodes of a network. and aims to actualise – and to question – the notion of "fieldwork" itself. therefore my analysis contains both an internal perspective (since I myself have been part of the network of net and hacker culture since the end of the 1990s) and a meta-reflection on the research subject itself. implying that one of the pairs of opposites is stronger or better than the other. Morphogenesis is born within the system and by recombining its rules. where social morphogenesis is seen as a process of de-crystallisation of the financial state of the world. connecting together disruptive practices of networked art and hacking in the framework of a network economy. In my analysis. and to discover decentralised holes in the system. to create paradoxes. The challenge is to create disruption by creating innovation. trapped in a vortex of acceleration. Rather. leading to a discovery of a subliminal and distributed strategy. This method.
art and social networking. in the first chapter I reflect on the role of the researcher who abandons the use of theoretical "mediation" to approach the research subjects by engaging directly with them. Drawing on Walter Benjamin's montage method. by describing the practices of hackers and artists who work within business. constitute the basis for a deep methodological change. as Massimo Canevacci points out. financial. offering different perspectives on the subjects of hacktivism. rather than the negative dialectic used by Adorno. the "astonished dialectic". Adorno (dated November-December 1938). and the concept of empathy (Einfühlung) with the commodities as proposed by Walter Benjamin. rather than on the subject of research. art and business in the context of social networking. which Arjun Appadurai used in 1996 to describe transnational technological. However. case studies cross space and time. a networkscape. In the present research. adopting the suffix "-scape". was the strong criticism made by Adorno to Benjamin after reading his essay on Baudelaire. underlining that form and contents are strictly intertwined. and in particular by the concept of astonished facticity. the anthropologist Massimo Canevacci suggests a polyphonic and experimental mixedmedia research approach. Inspired by the reflections of Massimo Canevacci on the correspondence between Walter Benjamin and Theodor W. The lack of theoretical "mediation". activists and artists in California (especially in the Bay Area) are intertwined with European ones. Similarly. which he planned to publish in the Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung. Hackers. linked by the scope of investigating the mutual tensions between hacktivism. While conducting research on distributed networks. In the analysis of the modern metropolis – and today of the networked info-sphere – the focus shifts from alienation to empathy. business and social networking. media. and from production to consumption. and "the wide-eyed presentation of mere facts". in the context of this research. social and political configurations. and that there is a strict correlation between text and fieldwork. I trace a network of actors who directly engage with hacktivism. The method is based on the reformulation of a research approach that works within the subject of research. I propose to approach the research subject by working within it. The central role of the social factory and the mechanisms of production are substituted by the role of consumerist culture and its simulacra of 15 .a montage of transnational practices.
which I had already tested in my previous research on the hacktivist and underground art scene in Italy (which I published in the book: Networking: The Net as Artwork. but to extend the lines of research to the mixed-media of visual communication. the concept of "mediation" – and I would add. the analysis of cultural and social practices implies the involvement of the researcher in the practice of research itself. Some of the people I approached had already collaborated with me in the course of the previous research. Drawing on the perspectives of the anthropologists James Clifford and George E. both in its content and form. as Canevacci argues. and other members involved in the hacker and net culture scene suggested to me new contacts according to my research objectives. activists and business entrepreneurs involved in Californian digital culture (especially in the Bay Area) and hackers and artists active in the European network culture. and from its constellation of fragments and archival sources assembled in the Arcades Project. art and hacktivism became key to unleashing a contradictory phenomenon such as that of social networking. And in this context. written in 2006). In the first chapter I describe the idea of "montage as method".fascination. Following on from this suggestion. the research method has to fill the gap between theory and practice. my research proposes a non-linear approach. it is not only necessary to address decentralised and polyphonic viewpoints towards innovative areas of writing. but was based on the development of a method. At the same time. the art of networking. crossing national boundaries and disciplines. Marcus in Writing Culture (1986) and on much of the experimental ethnographic tradition. Therefore. the convergence of business. Decentralised and plural viewpoints become both part of the theory and practice. I 16 . derived from Benjamin's writing style of Denkbilder (thoughtimages). If a social and cultural critique has to be carried out both theoretically and practically. During my visiting scholarship at Stanford University in 2009. Therefore. of cooptation – must be rethought. connecting hackers. it becomes necessary to formulate a research methodology that reflects on techniques and methods of visualisation and narration. The network of relations behind my research analysis was crucial for developing the research itself. The process of investigation led me to link multiple perspectives and practices. The choice of case studies and the collection of interviews did not follow classical sociological methodologies.
while the approach of European network culture is usually related to media criticism and political antagonism. The Suicide Club. The result was to experiment with a methodological practice in which the theoretical point of view of the researcher was closely linked with the act of performing the research subject itself. the fact that many Californian hackers and activists refute "the political" does not necessarily imply a lack of political awareness and criticism towards the establishment. In this respect. However.collected a body of audio material by interviewing hackers. The Church of the SubGenius and of the early Burning Man Festival are clear examples of this. Many underground artistic and hacker communities and networks in California have worked towards the creation of independent contexts for sharing and exchange. the perspectives of all of them have been very important for developing this research. and this hypothesis also explains why counterculture and liberal economy in the US have often been intertwined. 17 . such a dichotomy is a theoretical simplification. I am planning to publish an edited version of the complete interviews in a further publication. To sort out the different effects of networking art and hacking in the business of social media. all of it has been crucial for gaining an understanding of the overall research subject2. The transcription of the interviews amounted to over a hundred pages. a libertarian attitude towards technology does not necessarily clash with business strategies. involving the actors directly in the development of the analysis. creating a constellation of case studies combining different attitudes and models of disruption between USA and Europe. The presence of radical anarchic and libertarian traditions in the American counterculture deeply influenced some of the European underground media and off-media experimental subcultures. Social networks have existed since the Sixties both in the US and in Europe. The Cacophony Society. The critique of the idea of hegemony has proven a common ground for these practices. In the first and in the fourth chapter. artists and free thinkers based around San Francisco and the Silicon Valley. However. I emphasise the fact that in California. both as underground movements and as 2 Even if not all hackers and activists I approached have been quoted in the manuscript. I examined their development and influence on a cross-national scale. both in the artistic and in the technological field of intervention: the role of The Community Memory Project. the concept of social networking is nothing new. While deciding to quote selectively from the interview material.
social networking is seen as a practice of community creation. Running in parallel to this. connecting the development of hacker ethics with the creation of social media and Web 2. it is possible to activate an open process of creation. Google and Microsoft sponsor newborn hackerspaces. The point of departure of the second chapter is to investigate the meaning of social networking over the past decades so as to be able to understand the phenomenon today. many interesting contradictions arise as I will highlight in the fourth chapter. With a conscious use of technology. plus the image of an ideal anti-authoritarian society. freedom and exchange in social media. As Fred Turner points out in his book From Counterculture to Cyberculture (2006). and the renowned Burning Man festival has become a strategic platform to feed new media industries and. The second chapter proposes to analyse the roots of social networking based on both analogue and digital networked art. as I claim in the second chapter. has been central in the development of information technology and computing in industrial and business laboratories. The objective is to investigate how networking practices in grassroots communities are able to change the model of production for Internet content and artistic creations. within the framework of cybernetics). nowadays. 18 . the idea of creating decentralised systems of interaction and mutual feedback.0. cannot be fully understood without tracing back the practice of networking in the hacker and underground artistic contexts over the past decades. Today in California corporations like Google are among the main sources of employment for hackers and geeks. showing that the current artistic challenge of the Web 2. In my analysis. since the rise of cyberculture (and even before that. Web 2. the current meaning of openness. To analyse social networking as a practice of collectively developing shared symbols and mythologies. new content and new technologies developed by grassroots communities.0 media production. producing new models of technological and cultural intervention. towards the imagination of common spaces of intervention – and identity identification – where symbols. However. and the rhetoric of decentralisation. A common thread connects the network of mail art.decentralised artistic practices.0 platforms lies in the invention of new courses of action. myths and memes are shared. I describe the genesis and the creation of a number of grassroots artistic networks between the Eighties and the Nineties. across both Europe and the US. but also in the realm of cyberculture.
plagiarism and fakes. disruption becomes a challenge for the re-invention of symbolic and expressive codes. Artists and hackers adopt viral and flexible strategies. to that of a/moral dis/order. therefore generating viral practices. Inverting the notion proposed by Kelty of moral order in a grassroots community as a cohesive social imaginary. operating collaborative pranks. third and fifth chapters. questioning social and cultural categorisation and bureaucratic systems. both online and offline. Drawing on the concept of moral order in recursive publics formulated in the book Two Bits: The Cultural Significance of Free Software (2008) by Christopher M. I argue that such practices of disruption have been "social networks out of the box". as does contemporary networking business. in Luther Blissett's multiple use of a single name. which works towards assembling multiple contradicting definitions of itself. The "openness" of social networking in these cases means to share a practical underground philosophy. business logic is détourned. the Anna Adamolo experience and the Anonymous entity. and by provoking contradictions. I select specific case studies which work on the concept of disruption rather than opposition.Neoism. Luther Blissett. paradoxes. which as I claim often feed off each other. in the era of Web 2. strategies of networking and "radical play". ironic and multi-angled art of disruption.0. which I analyse as case studies in chapters two and three. The challenge once again becomes to imagine possible routes for political and artistic intervention which are not based on radical clashes of opposite forces. I analyse the consequences of disruptive dynamics both in so-called underground artistic networks and in the business context of the digital economy. artists and hackers generate tonal responses to the ubiquity of capitalism. Instead of the risk of being trapped in the classic dichotomy of two opposite fronts. In the second. my intention is to highlight how the vulnerability and amorality of networking dynamics in collaborative networks becomes an opportunity for a critical understanding of contemporary info-capitalism. in the "conspiracy religion" of The Church of the SubGenius. 19 . The Church of the SubGenius and more recently. in the speculation and multiple-perspective of the Neoist network. Kelty. paradoxes and incongruities. In the anti-hierarchical one-to-one collaboration network of mail art. but on the subliminal.
of singularities. calls for a reflection on political methodology during conflicts. The fictional identity. reflecting on the evolution of a multiple-use name as a political practice to use in the context of strikes and demonstrations. or better said. Anna Adamolo served as a collective name for an unrepresentable movement. which could be adopted in the squares and in the streets by anyone who chose to do so. Day in the book Gramsci is Dead: Anarchist Currents in the Newest Social Movements (2005).A similar disruptive attitude can be applied in the business of social networking or in the framework of Web 2. as hybrid subjectivities. those of the monads without restrictions and directives. From the end of 2008 and during 2009. The use of Facebook as a strategic medium for viral communication and networking was crucial. decentralised and fluid networking practices. Drawing on Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari's notion of "immanence"3 and the description of the metalsmiths. Instead of being represented by an organisational structure. University. even if in a different context and through different methods. Anna Adamolo managed to become a selfrepresenting Italian Minister of Education. and Research in the context of the students' and teachers' struggles operated by the "Onda Anomala" national movement. built up by a network of people with diverse backgrounds and competences. I propose an analysis of projects that challenge the notion of power and hegemony. We find the same idea of the un-representability of unidentified individuals. to link the concepts of "striated spaces". or the smiths. 3 Deleuze and Guattari use the image of the metalworkers. and the battle for dominance. 20 . They can be reworked from within. which I describe as a strategy to generate disruption through the Internet in chapter three. generating distributed. and "smooth spaces". making them functional to political and social criticism. Personal and individual experiences are transferred into a collective path. The smiths' lifestyle is somewhere between sedentary and nomad. F. demonstrating that social media can be manipulated in unpredictable ways by a conscious analysis of their mechanisms and technological architecture. in the Anonymous entity. integrating online and offline practices. Building on the analysis of non-hegemonic practices and the logic of affinity by Richard J. which are those controlled by society and organisation.0. The case of the Anna Adamolo fictional identity demonstrates how to conceive of strategies of political and artistic criticism to apply during demonstrations and strikes that are able to represent a heterogeneous multitude of individuals.
Richard Day analyses libertarian and itinerant practices of activists and radical social movements which create holey spaces of intervention. Exploring the business strategy of creating a large network of engaged users to produce revenue. discovering its bugs and holes. in this context. Inspired by Fred Turner's paper "Burning Man at Google" (2009). This perspective calls for a reformulation of the idea of an encapsulation of radical values by business. which act from within the economical system. where people rise from holes in the ground. Such a process is emphasised by an analysis of crowdsourcing as a networked strategy of revenue. we are facing a progressive aesthetisation of networking practices leading to a progressive commercialisation of web-based contexts of sharing and social relationships. These contradictions are described in chapter four. which focuses on the libertarian tradition of American counterculture. They emerge from inside the capitalistic machine. suggesting possible strategies for artistic intervention. he refers to the scene of the silent film Strike (1925) by Sergei M. I argue that in the era of social media. Finally. where incongruities and paradoxes can be experimented 21 . I propose the notion of the Art of Disruptive Business. To formulate such a concept. I draw on the analysis of the aesthetics of the masses realised by Siegfried Kracauer and of the art in the age of mechanical reproduction by Walter Benjamin. Eisenstein. Similarly. I propose to consider Burning Man as a metaphor of a social network in which all the participants contribute for free in the creation of a shared common. and the analysis of the intersection between business and an anti-hegemonic critique of the establishment. but in which the owner receives the final revenues. highlighting the mutual disruption of the hacker principles of openness and collaboration and the business logic of social networking. in chapter five. and by the description of the Burning Man festival as a platform designed to legitimate and shape business strategies based on exchange and participation. previously used as a metaphor by Deleuze and Guattari. which is conceptually linked to chapter three in the analysis of disruptive case studies. acting through its cracks and interstices. The "smiths" of the contemporary networked society must therefore be discovered among a distributed network of actors who work towards emphasising the contradictions and paradoxes in the capitalistic economy. I apply the concept of the holey spaces to describe art and hacker interventions.
and working on unpredictable consequences generated by a disruptive use of it. I claim that the rise of practices of radical thinking and social change in the experimental art context has been a source of innovation for capitalism. to expose its contradictions and limits. documenting human behaviour and social tendencies in Britain from the 1930s to the mid1960s. Mass Observation exemplified the tension between wanting to disrupt the system from the inside. Two case studies described in the last chapter follow this perspective: the Facebook interventions Seppukoo by Les Liens Invisibles (2009) and Face to Facebook by Paolo Cirio and Alessandro Ludovico (2011). Here Surrealism inspired the creation of a systematic database containing a wide range of everyday life practices.with4. and by Franco Berardi in After the Future (2011). The challenge is to frame contradictions without resolving them through an encompassing synthesis. Being aware of these conceptual tensions inherent in business logic. According to Stevphen Shukaitis. the myth of energy (and action) during the past century has provoked a constant accumulation of goods and the acceleration of capitalism. my suggestion is once again to play with this logic. managing to serve the system by providing a huge quantity of personal and public data. 4 22 . and applying its logic to different contexts of networking and interaction. even while adopting different strategies. It is possible to trace such networked disruption back to the Avant-gardes. stressing the limits of Facebook's platform. Referring to the analysis of the Avant-gardes undertaken by Stevphen Shukaitis in the book Imaginal Machines (2009). and for Franco Berardi. are a reflection on the tension between the open and closed nature of social media.0 technologies – and the This concept is a result of research investigation I have been conducting since last year within a research group of the Digital Aesthetics Research Centre of Aarhus University. Simulating the functionality of the platform itself. and at the same time. a way of disrupting it. describing artistic and hacker projects in which disruption is expressed through the interference with business. but at the same time. collected by a mass of observers. as will be analysed in the final chapter. a social research organisation founded in 1937 in Britain. Both these projects. it is not possible to discuss subversion as an entity external from that of capital. in particular analysing the activities of the Surrealistfounded phenomenon of Mass Observation. they demonstrate the vulnerability of Web 2.
To achieve this. California. behind an apparent facade of inclusiveness. This sentence was first printed in May 1985 in Whole Earth Review. In conclusion. This document. Dmytri Kleiner envisions the creation of a network of enterprises where people produce for the sake of social values and share the results on an equal basis. This present research proposes both to expose and to dissipate this tension through a network of multiple. based on peer production and the distribution of productive assets. at the first Hackers' Conference in Marin County. and recombine – too cheap to meter. That tension will not go away"5. Information wants to be free because it has become so cheap to distribute. It wants to be expensive because it can be immeasurably valuable to the recipient. Information also wants to be expensive. Stewart Brand said: "Information wants to be free. playful and disruptive practices. which is also an adaptation of the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels into a Manifesto for a networked society. and in 1987 in the book. and in which the collective formulation of a commons remains a goal. The challenge facing the art of disruptive business becomes to rethink oppositional hacktivist and artistic strategies within the framework of social networking. transforms poweroriented modalities of conflict and political thinking into distributed. The increasing commercialisation of sharing and networking contexts is transforming the meaning of art and that of business. If business is adopting hacker and artistic strategies of disruption.0 companies. 5 23 . autonomous and decentralised networking strategies. copy. distributed. In 1984. what is the answer given by artists and hackers working on a critical dimension of networking? The proposal of an alternative to capitalism by working within capitalistic logic is suggested by the notion of Venture Communism developed by Dmytri Kleiner and the Telekommunisten collective. what were once marginal practices of networking in underground hacker and artistic contexts have in recent years become a core business for many Web 2. decentralised techniques of networking are developed through a process of self-organisation. The Media Lab: Inventing the Future at MIT (1987) by Stewart Brand. In the Telekommunist Manifesto (2010).consequent enclosure provided by their infrastructures.
24 .
1995. As I described previously in my book Networking: The Net as Artwork (2006). I made connections between experiences and projects from Dadaism to Fluxus.1 Disrupting Business in Networkscapes 1. when artistic practices were melding with the development of digital technologies and online grassroots communities. which traced the history of hacker ethics and artivism in Italy. Baroni. and seen – often very optimistically – as input for creating 25 . Welch. discussion and knowledge-sharing which usually precedes and inspires the creation of works and projects – is an artwork in itself. is at the root of developing and maintaining networks. activism and hacker culture in the Italian underground scene. 2001). 1982. At the core of my investigation was the analysis of concepts of participation. from mail art to hacker art.1 Networking Art and Business as Research Practice Since the mid-1990s. in which the network operators. The practice of working together on the formation and sharing of ideas and projects lies at the heart of network analysis. I reached the conclusion that informal relationships between members of grassroots communities – the whole framework of interactions. Saper. assume a strategic role. In so doing. or the networkers. linking these to the hacker and artistic practices in the underground Italian scene from the 1980s until the early years of the twenty first century. not just through networked production (Becker. when I began researching into art. the creation of contexts for sharing experiences and ideas. the practice of "exchanging" spontaneous gifts was central. collaboration and sharing through the art of the 20th century. by defining art through the creation of connections and exchanges that are developed on the basis of networking. dialogues. In the context of the 1990s. 1997.
The whole idea of creating networks became strictly connected with developing new business models for sharing knowledge and usergenerated content. possibilities of collectively intervening in the creation of an artistic product. the concept of art as object has been transformed into that of art as a network of relationships. but follows directly in the footsteps of the so-called Web 1. We would therefore assume that the main challenge of the Web 2. However.0 economy.0 platforms. and represent a successful business model for connecting people. lies in the invention of new avenues of participation and new strategies for interaction. since the mid2000s. The context for investigating social media should therefore be broadened.0 technologies. the practice of social networking in Western society has its roots in a series of experimental activities in the field of art and technology that started in the last half of the twentieth century. Within these contexts of experimentation. the practice of networking cannot be deeply analysed without considering the shift from the early meaning given to it by hackers and artists in grassroots communities during the previous decades to the meaning it assumed with the emergence of Web 2.0 does not represent a new version of the World Wide Web at all. MySpace. which have been the core activity of grassroots communities in the last two decades. Twitter. We are therefore facing a radical change in the purposes.free zones of political and social criticism. who argues that Web 2. Flickr and YouTube have established themselves among large numbers of Internet users. the creation of multiple-use names harks directly back to the Luther Blissett Project and the Neoist network. the figure of the artist as a creator of platforms for sharing and exchanging ideas has long been part of a landscape of artistic and technological experimentation. methodologies and strategies of networking. Social media such as Facebook. such as the creation of traffic and revenue through usergenerated content. from the early days of Fluxus and mail art to hacktivism and net.0 technologies. it is possible to trace a continuous thread connecting networked art and networking in the Web 2. but this is not to say that the concept of social media – or social networking – is totally new. If we consider the term networking as describing collective activities based on the principles of exchange and equal one-to-one collaboration.art. For example. Drawing on the reflections of Tim Berners-Lee. so as to consider the roots of artistic practices and social intervention based on 26 .
On the other hand. However. the danger of social media is that they can grow too big and become a monopoly. The networker is a person who does not retreat himself into his studio in order to make art.both analogue and digital networked art. 2009a). It is the act of communication that becomes a work of art" (Baroni in Bazzichelli. the storages of users' data in centralised servers owned by commercial businesses has radically changed the scenario. As Tim Berners-Lee has pointed out. The course taken by the neoliberal economy is central to understanding the present meaning of social media. or should we acknowledge that the anti-capitalistic battle has long since been 27 . As the mail artist Vittore Baroni suggested during my interview with him: "I think that first of all we have to accept the fact that there is a new generation of social networks sprouted from a constant evolution of technological tools and communication. there are alternative perspectives for analysing the issue. the increased number of users. I believe that the presence of these tools is useful. To analyse networking dynamics therefore requires reflection and consciousness in the use of technology and media. in his networking activities did not use only mail channels. What is the role of artists and hackers in the new generation of social media? Is it still effective to adopt a critical position against business logic. By doing a research it is evident that there are not only the most popular social networks. and most of all. Even Ray Johnson. the development of web-publishing techniques. but it is such a vast phenomenon that it is difficult to give an opinion on the value of them and consider them more or less positive compared to the more 'traditional' networking practices. but instead his/her primary objective is to build networks and communicate with others. Simplifying a bit. as we will see in the following chapters. known as the 'father' of mail art. 2010). or physical encounters of groups of people based on particular strategies. blocking the free flow of information even though they claim to be open (Berners-Lee. what becomes decisive is to understand how to use them and for what purposes. and they do not allow users to migrate data from one site to another. but also phone.
The North American counterculture of the Sixties was very much based on promoting "a glorious cultural flowering. 1997) and in so doing. According to Thomas Frank. but it was also the high watermark of American prosperity and a time of fantastic ferment in managerial thought and corporate practice. from Coca Cola to Nike. Two books respectively by Thomas Frank (The Conquest of Cool. 9). This is unfortunate. As Thomas Frank suggests: "In the late 1950s and early 1960s. but also for IBM and Apple.0 companies might be the only approach for understanding present-day developments of networking and hacktivism. The 1960s was the era of Vietnam. Similarly. as the result of a process of mutual interferences between counterculture and 28 . p.lost. 1997) and Fred Turner (From Counterculture to Cyberculture. 2006) analyse how the endless cycles of rebellion and transgression are intertwined with the development of business culture in Western society – specifically in the USA. 1997. But business history has been largely ignored in accounts of the cultural upheaval of the 1960s. though it quickly became mainstream itself " (Frank. that had much in common with the critique of mass society which gave rise to the counterculture. Fred Turner explains how the rise of cyber utopias in the US is strongly connected with the development of the computer industry in Silicon Valley. because at the heart of every interpretation of the counterculture is a very particular – and very questionable – understanding of corporate ideology and of business practice" (Frank. it is evident that much of the business innovation in menswear and advertising as propagated by Madison Avenue was to prepare the way for the rise of the Sixties counterculture and its critique of mass society. of over-organization and creative dullness. leaders of the advertising and menswear businesses developed a critique of their own industries. when does an act of communication become a work of art in the context of social media? The question is whether the cooptation of peer2peer culture from Web 2. became attractive for corporations. while at the same time being open to the possibility that new territories of intervention and creation within business might be identified and imagined? Following the reflections of Vittore Baroni.
as a political and artistic strategy. They embraced a new cybernetic rhetoric of information systems. It should be of no surprise to find that Google managers are adopting the strategy of employing hackers – or promoting the bohemian ethos of Burning Man among their employees – since many hackers in California have contributed to the development of the computer business in Silicon Valley. as we will describe later. is actually the shadow of another version of history. means transforming and hacking its models from within. This has its roots in the research laboratories of World War II where scientists and engineers began to imagine institutions as living organisms. making it functional for social purposes beyond the realms of capitalistic logic. and to start analysing how cyclical business trends work. in short. but to appropriate its philosophy instead. a fate also befalling the youth movement of the Sixties. As I will explain in more detail in the following chapters. but it is also necessary to break some cultural taboos and avoid dualistic oppositions. and what they represent culturally. The idea of cooptation could be reversed from the artists and hackers themselves. they might work on absorbing business ideologies to their own advantage. creating a deep transformation in social relations and styles of work. we are facing the same phenomenon once more. With the emergence of Web 2. which. might change points of view and areas of criticism. analysing how the hacker culture became a means of accelerating capitalism.0 enterprises today. antithetical to technology. it takes more effort to accept that business has often been part of counterculture and cultural development. By accepting that the digital utopias of the Eighties and Nineties were never completely extraneous to business practices. Fred Turner demonstrates how the image of the counterculture of the Sixties. If hackers and activists cannot avoid indirectly serving corporate revolutions. One possible tactic might be not simply to refute business. and imagining different 29 .business which started long before. Possible artistic scenarios might lead to a stretching of the limits of business enterprises. this might serve as an invitation for artists and hackers to reflect on what "counterculture" might mean today. social networks as webs of information. Even if it is common to recognise cooptation as a cyclical business strategy among hackers and activists. it is important to look back and analyse the reasons for the shift of networking paradigms and hacker values. In this phase of ambiguity.
interaction and collaboration are a core business. The objective therefore becomes to reflect on the intersections between art. interaction and cultural innovation. I will return to this in the next chapters. activists and hackers who are rethinking critical interventions in the field of art and technology. choosing to act inside the market scenario while at the same time deconstructing it. By focusing on the engagement of artists and hackers within business contexts. In line with this. activists and hackers make it possible to analyse the networks themselves. in which I describe the projects and interventions of artists and hackers who use disruption as a methodology for artistic creation and social networking. hacker culture and the digital economy. therefore the activities of the researcher need to work in parallel with the subjects of the researcher's investigation. artists and activists would have to directly confront a market in which participation. and to participate directly in the activity of creating networks. exchange and sharing of ideas between artists. and the consequent tensions between their tactical practices and political awareness. revealing power structures and hidden mechanisms of social inclusion and exclusion. It is participatory research.strategies of participation. focusing on disruptive art practices as tools for generating aesthetic. it becomes a research challenge to conceptually frame the progressive commercialisation of networking contexts. technological and socio-political criticism. it is necessary to experience and describe it from the inside. 1. a possible model for artists and activists might be to develop an understanding of the medium from within. The relationships. Instead of refusing to compromise with commercial platforms. A network analysis of artistic practices engaged with social media needs to be combined with a meta-reflection on the methods through which these practices can be described. connections. and it is a research 30 .2 The Dilemma of the "Non-Political" The concept of disrupting business in social media sheds light on the practices of artists. networking is not a research subject that can be effectively analysed from a distance: to understand it. which develops through an intimate dialogue with the subjects of the research. Once again adopting the hands-on strategy as practised by hackers.
the theoretical point of view of the researcher is closely connected with the act of performing the research subject itself. combining disruptive practices of art and hacking in the framework of social media. addressing decentralizing and dialogical viewpoints and taking into consideration diverse subjectivities. While this might be a generalisation. which clearly implies the personal activity of networking. Faces. my visiting scholarship at Stanford University in 2009 enabled me to approach the art and tech scene of San Francisco and the Bay Area. Furthermore. conducting interviews with some active members of it. The necessity of bringing together artistic and hacker practices from California and European netculture derives from the idea of analysing different viewpoints and subjectivities regarding the use and critique of social media. exhibitions and events about art and hacking. Spectre. which termed American hi-tech neo-liberalism as "Californian ideology". and adopts a more political approach towards technology. all pose a challenge to a research topic which has disruptive and perturbing artistic strategies at its core. especially in the context of the analysis of media criticism in the 1990s in the Nettime mailing list. lines of research multiply as well. Therefore. others emerged from debates on online mailing lists such as Nettime. NetBehaviour. Because the actors of this research – hackers. where the subjects being researched collaborate in the development of the analysis itself. It involves an analysis of mutual interferences between the hacker and art scene of California (with a specific focus on the Bay Area). Many of these practices were discovered over the past ten years during my participation in the network art scene. with that of European (or European-derived) netculture. This research develops through the analysis of different nodes of a cross-national network. it is a widely recognised point of view within international netculture. the approach of European network culture is usually linked to media criticism. As 31 . activists and artists in the context of social networking – are constantly in movement and in a state of transitional flux. Intersections between disciplines. While many of the people involved in the Californian "cyberculture" (especially those active in the Bay Area) adopt a libertarian and anarchic attitude towards technology which does not necessarily clash with business strategies. the crossover of perspectives.practice. mixed-media narrative techniques. organising conferences. and AHA/Activism-Hacking-Artivism. the Institute for Distributed Creativity (iDC).
However. The Net will allow the whole world to realise the American dream of material riches. this neo-liberal fantasy has even acquired a mystical dimension. creative and autonomous labour" (Barbrook. This is actually what has happened in the past ten years. pervasive.Richard Barbrook pointed out in a post in a Nettime mailing list in 1997: "From California. ubiquitous and. While the critique of the Californian ideology is a valid means of 32 .0 phenomenon. digital artisans represent a future centred on skilled. 1997 unpag. money-commodity or gift economies. Everyone will be able to buy and sell in cyberspace without restrictions. exploited. the contradictions in the previous Fordist economy were not going to be resolved by the digital economy. States will no longer be able to control electronic commerce which can cross national borders without hindrance. the digital artisan: "Whether producing inside the public.). politically and socially-oriented). Richard Barbrook described the emergence of the Californian ideology as a new form of the American dream. and what we see very clearly in the Web 2. According to him. once again. whose constant technological innovation derives from the skills and enthusiasm of the workforce in the emerging digital economy.). Wired magazine has achieved global notoriety through its claims that the Net will create the sort of free market capitalism until now only found in neoclassical economics textbooks. Coming from California. As he already predicted in 1997. critical. unpag. individualistic. which was going to create instead a different kind of labour: precarious. 1997. the information technologies will allegedly lead to the birth of a new race of 'post-humans': cyborg capitalists freed of the restrictions of the flesh" (Barbrook. By releasing the supposed laws of nature immanent in unregulated capitalism. this critical approach is still very much trapped inside an oppositional perspective which highlights the clash between two different points of view: the Californian ideology (neo-liberal. the optimistic promise of the digital economy was dependent on the creation of a new kind of worker. Darwinistic and techno-deterministic) and European netculture (anti-capitalistic.
any political discussion suddenly meant that you might become subject to repression. lies the problem of relating to the meaning of "politics" within an American technological scenario. they will get angry at you. but what I am saying is that any political thinking. that really did not have a political component. which doesn't make any sense. and certainly when it came to drug usage. we have the tradition of prohibition here. What was left behind was people who knew they didn't want to do as they were told. Well. There's been so much corrupt politics going on that if you call someone political. Instead. above all.recognising the existence of different approaches and attitudes towards technology and media practices. because it simply wasn't working. As the American computer engineer Lee Felsenstein pointed out during a personal interview: "The US has an aversion to politics in the sense that the Europeans don't. it ignores the presence of radical anarchic and libertarian traditions in the American counterculture scene – which have deeply influenced some of those in the European underground media and off-media experimental subcultures. I would argue that the rejection of political engagement among American tech culture does not mean a rejection of being critical towards the establishment. and eventually was then removed. So people would lower their voice if any discussion came close to any so-called small 'p' political. So the habit of political thinking and discussion was driven out of general society in that way. to live as they were given the ways to live. or at least investigation. since there isn't any large 'P' political. And this was really reenforced by the anti-Communist campaign of the 1940s and 50s. and discussing it. as well as the result of a conscious theoretical and political debate related to media culture. And that was defeated simply by criminal disobedience. first it is more or less of a dirty word in the general culture. but it was a good example for a lot of people who didn't want to do things the way they 33 . or attempts at repression. To use the word political. At the root of this misrepresentation. it is very much connected with the anarchic tradition and the concept of "hegemony". The establishment has done an extremely good job of preventing people thinking about politics.
Or certainly it should not" (Felsenstein in Bazzichelli. as I will analyse in the next chapters. So the underground here probably owes more to prohibition and what amounts to the gangster underground that developed around it than anything else" (Felsenstein in Bazzichelli. But it does not represent a paradox in the American tradition. 2009b). referring specifically to the book Gramsci is Dead (2005) by Canadian political philosopher and sociologist Richard J. "Anarchist theory allows for business. overtly refer to this anarchic tradition when describing their activities as well as sharing the same diffidence towards politics. This statement is crucial towards gaining an understanding of why the rise of counterculture in California was so closely connected with the emergence of cyberculture. this is not the situation for many hackers in the US and North Europe. Such an interweaving of business and libertarian thinking (libertarian in the sense of anti-hegemonic) might sound like a paradox for many European politically oriented activists. F. from the Chaos Computer Club to Pirate Bay. and once again bringing counterculture and business together. both in the US and in Europe. Similarly. do-it-yourself. this facet of history has mostly been ignored by many critics and exponents of politics and social movements who focus principally instead on the workers' 34 . of making).0 (openness. This anarchic background is crucial for a correct understanding of Web 2. 2009b). Day. as Lee Felsenstein points out.0 and its business logic. it just does not allow for hegemony. adopting many of the values underpinning hacker culture and network communities. nor for the many artistic and hacker practitioners who adopt a similar attitude towards transforming society and everyday life through the simple act of doing (or better said. Besides. Furthermore. as Fred Turner describes in his research in 2006. fed by both anarchist and libertarian thinking. Even if in the Italian and Spanish hacker and activist tradition the battle against hegemony and control would be considered "political". and for the understanding of many artistic and media sub-cultural practices of the last thirty years. networking and sharing) evolved. it goes a long way towards explaining why the philosophy behind Web 2.were given. many NorthEuropean hackers and activists. Unfortunately. The battle against hegemonic thinking and authoritarian practices has deep roots in the American counterculture.
The anarchic background . the objective is to formulate a methodology not focused only on the rhetoric of writing. Without laying claim to be exhaustive. Many of the experiences of libertarian practitioners are usually seen as mirroring those of the neoliberal economy and their radical intentions are usually considered either to be a part of nihilism (i. we need also to adopt the framework of another discipline: cultural ethnography. but moreover. but on 35 . To address a multi-perspective research method. This is certainly a limitation of this research.struggle. and its recent critical debate on the narration of subjectivities. bringing together different subjectivities in the fields of art and network culture. bringing together hacktivist and artistic practices from California and those from European netculture. in the present political and social situation it would be necessary to jettison the Euro-American master-narrative as well. In the framework of my research. or enthusiastic techno-determinism (hackers and geeks involved in the gift-economy). on the researcher as participant. Furthermore.is not considered an effective form of political methodology. certainly not one that is comparable with concepts such as the workers' struggle. But I am of the opinion that it is still necessary to analyse the cultural and political dynamics of influences and the disjuncture between these two scenes. and their influence on the more "underground" art and media culture landscape. only recognising anarchistic tradition in a limited way. my intention is to propose a method of research based on the coexistence of oppositions.from punk to hacking . This methodology fosters the creation of connections. Even while recognising the importance of a political and critical analysis of media practices. However.e. to understand the progressive commercialisation of network culture and the transformation of business strategies and the digital economy. paradoxes and juxtapositions. the dialogue with other disciplines is crucial to enable the adoption of multiple points of view. which highlight paradoxes rather than oppositions. and to create a broader analysis so as to include postcolonial countries. which I hope will be supplemented in time by further studies. punks and their idea of no future). and the innovative theoretical – and empirical – perspectives offered by experimental ethnography since the 1980s can be used to reflect not only on the role of the researcher as theorist. or technical and political class composition. this research tries to fill this gap.
hackers and activists). I examine their development and influence using a montage 36 . but on the ongoing relationships between individuals within the social and artistic contexts of sharing. This approach follows the publication of Writing Cultures: Poetics and Politics of Ethnography. and the more recent critiques of it collected in the book Beyond Ethnographic Writing edited by Ana Maria Forero-Angel and Luca Simeone in 2010. through a comparative methodological approach. In the experimental ethnographic tradition and in cultural anthropology the research approach is based on the in-depth investigation of practices that act in the cultural. and political fields of intervention. networks and disruptive artworks produced by artists. direct involvement and meta-reflection.3 Ethnography of Networks This research aims to construct. and the activity of networking is the thread through which the fabric of the research is woven together. My research method takes inspiration from a critical debate on the techniques of narration and representation that was used to describe – and visualise – cultural processes in the framework of experimental ethnography. art and research. the artistic and hacktivist practices analysed are not based on the production of art objects. but also on the techniques and methods of visualisation and narrations which these subjectivities adopt (in this research.the intersections between practice and theory. The choice of referring directly to the field of cultural anthropology and experimental ethnography is motivated by the need to reflect not only on the role of situated subjectivities in a political and social context. To sort out the various types of consequences of networking art practices in the era of Web 2. edited by James Clifford and George E. but aims critically to fill the gap between theory and practice.0. aesthetic. 1. Social networks are at the core of this analysis. In my research. nor solely on digital or analogue technologies. The reflection is not only theoretical. Marcus in 1986. This manifests itself through the construction of network practices in the field of art and hacking and questions the meaning of the artistic and the political in the current economy of social media. an artistic and cultural formation which I will define as the ethnography of networks.
which is rooted in the concept of ethnographic surrealism (Clifford. 1969. When Writing Culture was published. Such an ethnographic approach. The traditional rhetoric of ethnographic writing is substituted with polyphonic components of narrations and visualisation: "it is impossible to think of the ethnographic exercise without connecting art. p. the decomposition of reality. anthropology and communication started to reflect on the meaning of cultural representation. James Clifford described the ethnographic attitude as a means of dismantling culture's hierarchies and holistic truths. fragments and unexpected combinations. imagining alternative routes to the classic ethnography of fieldwork and traditional techniques of exhibiting native cultures in a museum. 10). politics. 2002). the dichotomy "observerobserved" had to be challenged by the notion of otherness. media communication. was used in anthropology to describe decentralised points of view in the study of cultural phenomena. Massimo Canevacci. taking inspiration from the practices of the Avant-gardes of the 1920s and 30s. The goal of research was no longer seen as rendering the unfamiliar comprehensible 37 . Cultural orders had to be substituted with unusual juxtapositions. 1986. but also practicebased. p. In 1981. Clifford Geertz. Culture had to be thought of as a composition of "seriously contested codes and representations" (Clifford & Marcus. At the same time. p. 1988. 2010. Anthropology as Cultural Critique by George Marcus and Michael Fischer (1986). 1928) and a mixed-media approach (James Clifford. 1981). 2). questioning the concept of authority and imagining new experimental methods of writing. researchers in the field of ethnography. it is necessary to recognise the importance of digital culture. writing about the concept of ethnographic surrealism. and where the voices of the practitioners can be heard. together with another important publication. body practices and art experimentation in the contemporary state so as to create an analysis which is not only theoretical. economics. James Clifford referred to Comte de Lautréamont's definition of beauty: "The chance encounter on a dissecting table of a sewing machine and an umbrella" (Ducasse. 234).method (Walter Benjamin. and communication" (Forero-Angel & Simeone. thereby constructing a meta-reflection on the practice of research itself whereby the participatory involvement of the researcher plays a central role. In the context of a critique of Western representations of Orientalism.
The subjectivity of others. but rather leaves the incongruities open to interpretations made by multiple subjectivities. 1995). of which ethnography and surrealism are two elements" (Clifford.. becomes a mode of thinking about future tactical strategies in the field of art and media. 38 . This method. but in making the familiar strange "by a continuous play of the familiar and the strange. As Canevacci points out. in Writing Culture the critical analysis of digitally-based cultural changes is ignored. The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography. while experienced. and which does not simply resolve into a clash of oppositions. 1 The concept of defamiliarisation was first coined in 1917 by Viktor Shklovsky in his essay "Art as Technique" referring to the process of aesthetic perception as "estrangement".. and the challenge of renewing the discipline of ethnography is only seen through written language. This new practice of reflection placed value on fragments through a methodology of revealing multiple contradictions without actually solving them. E. p. but historically situated merely within the framework of the Avant-gardes. but rather leaving them open to new interpretations as a form of cultural criticism and as a way to experience the field of research afresh. In that context. the only openness toward artistic experimentation is found in the concept of ethnographic surrealism. 1981. in which art objects. Massimo Canevacci proposes a critique of ethnographic research toward innovative compositions. are made unfamiliar. creating a consequent reification of the written form in academic literature. p. see the essay by Vincent Crapanzano: "Hermes' Dilemma: The Masking of Subversion in Ethnographic Description" in Clifford J. Berkeley: University of California Press. (1986) Writing Culture. 2010. In the essay PIXER AIR Digital Auratic Reproducibility. thereby constructing a meta-reflection on the practice of research itself. 542)1. "not focused only on the rhetoric of writing as much as extended to the mixed media of visual communication" (Canevacci. & Marcus G.as the ethnographic tradition had required. 9). 1934 – plays a central role in the development of the research objective. which reveals our present time to be a collage of incongruities. as well as the direct involvement of the researcher – following the thread initiated by the French surrealist writer and ethnographer Michel Leiris in L'Afrique fantôme. articluated by James Clifford in The Predicament of Culture (1988). the challenge became to develop a mixed-media approach (Canevacci. To further investigate the matter of interpretation of cultures and describing the self in both its individual and collective projections. With the emergence of digital culture.
The focus of research that is critically communications-based should shift towards the analysis of multiple subjects with whom the researcher can interact. p. A possible path of investigation is to deconstruct power structures. The theoretical approach of this research is based on the critical investigation that binds together hacktivist practices. with the intent of analysing them while deconstructing the subject of research itself. or the analysis of the modern metropolis. the research subjects become multiple aporias. nor was a reflection on the relationships between metropolis and communication. In the context of this research. Questioning the matter of authority and representation. which aims to construct an ethnography of networks. as I will describe later. where different disciplines 39 . irreducible dualisms and fixed narrative dimensions through the contamination of the writing practice with the language of different media. assuming the form of a trans-local dialogue. A reflection on the meaning of the artistic and the political in the current economy of social media places stress on innovative compositions. identities and subjectivities via the emergence of digital culture was not taken into consideration. To face the progressive commercialization of contexts of sharing and networking shows that it would be possible to reach the end of this path only by bringing along previous and personal experiences collected in the field. Analysing artistic practices in the age of social media implies the acknowledgement of our fascination with consumer goods and the consequent strategies of being constructive and destructive at the same time. by creating a mosaic of practices in the field of art and hacking. disciplines and experimental activities. 2010. which we can find instead in the work of Walter Benjamin. thereby situating it politically and economically. seemingly insoluble impasses. "to penetrate into the material/ immaterial processes of economic-political panoramas" (Canevacci. It implies the staging of aporias where criticism of neoliberalism encounters business culture. a comparative approach becomes of central importance. paradoxes where apparently incommensurable concepts coexist. 13). Taking this road implies reflecting on the researcher's engagement in the topics of research – an engagement which is also a prerequisite for experimental researches per se. hegemonic theories.The process of transforming bodies. business logic and methodologies of networking. investigating the contemporary state of digital communication.
meet: from literature to contemporary art, from network theory to ethnography, from business culture to everyday life. To sort out the various consequences of networking art practices in the economic, cultural and political field of intervention, the experiences of artists, hackers and activists in California meet those of members of the European net culture, and their voices and perspectives intertwine, generating a coexistence of oppositions, thereby framing the whole argument of this research. These practices of artists, hackers, activists and, more generally, cultural producers engaged with technology, are connected together in networkscapes, using the "scape" suffix to open out the concept of networks into a wider panorama, where multiple subjectivities and local minorities act inside as well as outside the technological framework. Investigating global and transnational distributions of correlated elements, in 1996 Arjun Appadurai used the suffix "-scape" to signify transnational arrangements of technological, financial, media, social and political resources, describing ethnoscapes, technoscapes, financescapes, mediascapes, and ideoscapes. This suffix indicates multiple relations between situated subjectivities, international disjuncture between cultural and economic levels that value the fragment and the minorities as well as the complex and overlapping forces of homogenisation. As Appadurai pointed out: "I use terms with the common suffix scape to indicate first of all that these are not objectively given relations which look the same from every angle of vision, but rather that they are deeply perspectival constructs, inflected very much by the historical, linguistic and political situatedness of different sorts of actors: nation-states, multinationals, diasporic communities, as well as sub-national grouping and movements (whether religious, political or economic), and even intimate face-to-face groups, such as villages, neighbourhoods and families" (Appadurai, 1990, p. 296). These "imagined worlds", which opened up a new field of research, the anthropology of globalisation, need of course to be situated within the theoretical context of the 1990s. They spread across the landscape of mobile groups and persons (ethnoscapes), the global configuration of technology (technoscapes), the rapid transaction of global capital
(financescapes), the distribution of electronic capability to disseminate information (mediascapes) and the ideologies of states as well as the counter-ideology of movements (ideoscapes). It is possible to analyse the global scenarios as mediations and concatenations of local subjectivities, creating a tension between cultural homogenisation and cultural heterogenisation. Appadurai's five panoramic flows replace the traditional Marxist structure, "questioning the dialectic structure-superstructure and therefore any possibility of synthesis" (Canevacci, 2010, p. 12). Appadurai points out a deeper change in the neo-Marxist models of development and production, which I believe is more and more in evidence today with the emergence of the network landscape of social media. As he writes: "Here I begin with Marx's famous (and often-mined) view of the fetishism of the commodity, and suggest that this fetishism has been replaced in the world at large (now seeing the world as one, large, interactive system, composed of many complex sub-systems) by two mutually supportive descendants, the first of which I call product fetishism, and the second of which I call fetishism of the consumer. By production fetishism I mean an illusion created by contemporary transnational production loci, which masks translocal capital, transnational earning-flows, global management and often faraway workers (engaged in various kinds of high-tech putting out operations) in the idiom and spectacle of local (sometimes even worker) control, national productivity and territorial sovereignty. To the extent that various kinds of Free Trade Zone have become the models for production at large, especially of hightech commodities, production has itself become a fetish, masking not social relations as such, but the relations of production, which are increasingly transnational […]. As for the fetishism of the consumer, I mean to indicate here that the consumer has been transformed, through commodity flows (and the mediascapes, especially of advertising, that accompany them) into a sign, both in Baudrillard's sense of a simulacrum which only asymptotically approaches the form of a real social agent; and in the sense of a mask for the real seat of agency, which is not the consumer but the
producer and the many forces that constitute production". (Appadurai, 1990, pp. 306-307). The whole system of production becomes a fetish, while the consumer has been transformed into a simulacrum, "consistently helped to believe that he or she is an actor, where he or she is at best a chooser" (ibidem, p. 307). Such a concept of making a fetish of the consumer is central to the analysis of social media and social networking. It stresses the tension between fascination and consumption, embodiment (in which consumer's identity is objectified into a "sign"), and alienation (the consumer is influenced by the production models). Similarly, the fetishism of the production process reveals the illusion of the local and the familiar, which we clearly see in the rhetoric of many social networks, which are seen as substitutes for contexts of friendships and relationships. Applying these reflections to the investigation of hacker and art practices in social media, we could imagine a sixth "panoramic flow": networkscapes. The concept of networkscapes stresses the pervasive character of networks, but at the same time, by virtue of its plural grammatical form, also aims to express the dimension of multiple subjectivities. In this context, networkscapes are the global configurations of networking in which the constant disjunction between personal relations and more global political and economic processes are experimented with. As Appadurai wrote in his analysis: "The critical point is that both sides of the coin of global cultural process today are products of the infinitely varied mutual contest of sameness and difference on a stage characterized by radical disjunctures between different sorts of global flows and the uncertain landscapes created in and through these disjunctures" (Appadurai, 1990, p. 308). Following this thread through until the present day, networkscapes serve as mirror for the mutual tensions between open and closed approaches, which are anathema to one another, as for example we can see in the appearance of many corporate controlled social networks. At the same time, social networks also mirror a fascination with – and fetishism of – consumerist goods, as shown by the many active users who have made social media a part of their everyday lives. A network analysis of artistic practices today needs to take into account the reciprocal tension produced by those who see social networking as a strategic resource which produces cultural innovation,
and those who see it as a new context for generating media criticism. With the emergence of social media and Web 2.0, networking is both a successful model for interaction, and a pervasive business strategy. This research focuses on the disjunction between these phenomena, the tectonic plates where business culture meet artistic disruption. In this context, the ethnography of networks is connected to a critical analysis of social media as well as the participation-based exploration of networking practices in the field of art and hacktivism, by reflecting on the concept of collective participation itself. Cross-national networks, in which various technological, cultural and political perspectives and subjectivities enter into the dialogue, become the framework of the present analysis.
1.4 The Dialectical Paradox and The Paradox of Dialectics
What is the challenge facing artists and activists working in the era of info-capitalism? To investigate the progressive commercialisation of sharing and networking platforms, it is necessary to understand business culture from within. Artists work empathically with the subject of research and practical experimentation. To achieve this objective, it is first necessary to imagine a dialectic concept as a process by which the oppositions remain open, without however generating an encompassing synthesis. Drawing on the dialectical model of Both/And, supplanting that of Either/Or (Marshall Berman, 1983), the aim becomes to generate a dialectic opposition beyond that of confrontation, one in which a plurality of different approaches coexist. To investigate the creative involvement of the artists and hacktivists in the experience of Web 2.0 and the current network economy, where commodities become emotional fetishes, my analysis builds on Walter Benjamin's dialectical image, and his research into nineteenth century Paris. The passages and the flâneur become symbols of an illusionary world of commodity fetishism, but also a pathway for political awareness. This analysis can be harnessed to formulate possible routes for artistic and political intervention in the field of social media: possible strategies are seen in the creation of networked
practices, which are derived from intimate experience rather than power conflicts. They act from "inside" instead of "outside" business contexts. To reach such an objective, it is first necessary to analyse the marketplace from within, adopting a "hacker perspective", trying to understand how the market works after deconstructing its strategies, its commodities and its mechanisms of production. In the early years of the twenty-first century, a popular motto among activists and hackers was: "Don't hate the media, become the media" (coined by Indymedia in 2000, quoting Jello Biafra). Today this approach should also be applied to business strategies, in the tactical response to the progressive commercialisation of contexts which involve the concepts of sharing and networking. Instead of shunning the market, it is necessary to understand its hidden rules and strategies, to experience it, to open it up to disruptive practices of art. The motto might be: "Don't hate the business, become the business" (Bazzichelli & Cox, 2011). Therefore, both Walter Benjamin's approach of flânerie – as a method of understanding the consumerist culture from within, or, as he states "dialectics at a standstill" (Arcades Project, p. 463, N3, 1) – a dialectics beyond historical progress – become important for the formulation of a critical approach towards social networking. To analyse his contemporary society and the modern capitalist culture, Benjamin began taking notes in 1927, which he continued until his death in 1940, collecting his impressions of the everyday life of Paris, which developed into the creation of his incomplete masterpiece, Paris – Capital of the Nineteenth Century, otherwise known as Das Passagenwerk or, in English, The Arcades Project (1927-1940). As Benjamin pointed out while referring to Baudelaire's description of flânerie, artists walk across the shiny passages of consumer culture, acting as shoppers who don't buy goods, but rather who experience them through empathy and intimate understanding. Passing from Erfahrung into Einfühlung, the flâneur experiences what Benjamin describes as the crisis of the modern (die Moderne), or, according to his point of view, the crisis of the capitalist society. The flâneur strolls among the crowd through the arcades, and empathetically connects with the commodities of the metropolis, the shiny simulacra of the market, through his "casual eye" and his meditative trance. "In the flâneur, the intelligentsia sets foot in the marketplace" (Benjamin, 1999c, p. 10).
Benjamin's philosophical approach shows how the crisis of the modern can be resolved through the experience of the past (that of 19th century Paris). section V]"(Tiedemann. which opens out into something beyond the realms of time where past and present interlock. 938). Wunschbilder (wish images) serve as simulacra of collective desire experienced in the modern metropolis. Adopting a critical mode of thinking. unpag. photography and other techniques of art reproduction. Benjamin transfigures Marxist theory and the fetishist character of commodities into both society and a collective subconscious. fashion. 2011. where the dialectic manifests itself as the feeling of the objects. Here. p. 1999. N3. historically concrete facts become images. Capitalism speaks through 45 . a deceptive image designed to dazzle. "divesting them of their commodity character" (ibidem. Arcades. According to Benjamin's construction of history. For Benjamin. What Marx called commodity fetishism.). adopting a utopian. department store shopping. cultural phantasmagoria expresses 'the ambiguity peculiar to the social relations and the products of his epoch' [Exposé of 1935. of a utopian political future that would bring history to an end" (Osborne & Charles. As Rolf Tiedemann points out: "Phantasmagoria: a Blendwerk. p. via the past. in which the exchange value or value-form hides the use value. reflects a messianic structure. Benjamin's analysis develops through the close study of advertising. a framework of everyday life associated with selfreflection. and philosophical experience (truth) is associated with the glimpse within the present. is already the commodity itself. messianic and emancipatory perspective through history. what Benjamin referred to as 'dialectics at a standstill' (Arcades Project. Phantasmagoria is the whole capitalist production process. 463. clearly visible in the figure of the Angelus Novus. fashion and bourgeois interiors become the experience of the society. becomes in Walter Benjamin phantasmagoria. "the present is defined as a time of crisis and transition. 1). distinctive objects and emotional fetishism. Such a vision. and the crystallized icons through which society represents itself. architecture. 939). which constitutes itself as a natural force against the people who carry it out.
a perspective lacking in theoretical mediation.. as the reification of estranged human relations. but also categorical. He is driven not merely to awaken congealed life in petrified objects – as in allegory – but also to scrutinize living things so that they present themselves as ancient. Benjamin could do this as no one else. 1999. 283). Cambridge UK: Polity Press. The French word for still-life.]. Benjamin's thought is so saturated with culture as its natural object that it swears loyalty to reification instead of flatly 2 I find the literal translation from German into English – astonished representation of factuality – much more poetic and responsive to the original concept than the English translation "the wide-eyed presentation of mere facts". It is a theoretical approach that Theodor W. "staunende Darstellung der Faktizität". Adorno compares such astonished representation of factuality2 to the petrifying glance of the Medusa. manifestations of the objective spirit. as adopted by the book The Complete Correspondence 1928-1940. Henri and Nicholas Walker..the empathy felt for the commodities. The Hegelian concept of 'second nature'. Adorno defines as "the wide-eyed presentation of mere facts" (Adorno. Lonitz. 1999. to everything in it devoid of domestic vitality [. p. which entraps victims in history. Benjamin extends the practice of flânerie to the emotional discovery of urban assets. comment on Walter Benjamin's dialectic at standstill. could be written above the portals of his philosophical dungeons. 'culture' as though they were natural. as Adorno writes in the letter to Benjamin dated November 1938. He was drawn to the petrified. Adorno argues: "The [Benjamin] essay as form consists in the ability to regard historical moments. Eds. The totality of this thought is characterized by what may be called 'natural history'. In a suggestive and poetic. and also the Marxian category of 'commodity fetishism' occupy key positions in Benjamin's work. beyond the logic of social mediation. nature morte. 'ur-historical' and abruptly release their significance. 46 . Philosophy appropriates the fetishism of commodities for itself: everything must metamorphose into a thing in order to break the catastrophic spell of things. frozen or obsolete elements of civilization. or in German.
In this way the object constitutes itself as a monad. 2003. becomes fundamental to understanding the development of capitalist society through a participatory perspective. 36)3. Adorno (1938). and helps to recognise the lucidity of Walter Benjamin's thinking. Through this answer. Benjamin does what Perseus did to the Medusa and her power to petrify through her gaze. And in the monad everything that formerly lay mythically petrified within the given text comes alive" (Benjamin. Adorno expresses this point clearly: "You write in your Kierkegaard that 'astonishment' reveals 'the profoundest insight into the relationship between dialectics. the critique of astonished facticity (staunende Faktizität) proposed by Theodor W. 1967. Massimo Canevacci argues: "Benjamin realises that already in the 19th century the passages – along with the Great Exhibitions – logically replace the centrality of the social factory. The appearance of closed facticity which attaches to philological investigation and places the investigator under its spell. p. unpag. as the anthropologist Massimo Canevacci points out. Walter Benjamin's answer to Theodor W. p. p. he holds up a mirror. myth and image'.rejecting it [. […] I think one should say that astonishment is an outstanding object of such an insight. Referring to the correspondence between Walter Benjamin and Theodor W. in Helmling.. 233. Adorno. Spreading empathic identification and not alienation" (Canevacci. S. dissolves precisely to the degree in which the object is constructed from a historical perspective.] the glance of his philosophy is Medusan" (Adorno. 1999a.). For a reconstruction of the Medusa myth in relation to the Benjamin's dialectical image and the Adorno's constellation. On the contrary. see Helmling. The base lines of this construction converge in our own historical experience. He severs her head and uses it as a weapon in subsequent adventures4. (2003) "Constellation and Critique: 47 . 3 4 Translated from Italian into English by the author. thereby petrifying her. As he is about to come face-to-face with her. 292). 2003. spreading consumption and not productive work..
I attempted to articulate the positive moments as clearly as you have articulated the negative ones" (ibidem. ostensibly a project about the 19th century. when overcoming their productive values. Where Adorno sees crystallisation. where history emerges from the ruins of the past. 295). finding new life in the frozen past. p. This approach. is a paradox per se. The distance produced by social mediation disappears. the fragmented and mobile constellation of objects-thingscommodities) as the centre of his immanent critics observed and melted through his astonished glance. The "dialectics at a standstill". as Steven Helmling points out in his analysis of Adorno's constellation and Benjamin's dialectic (2003). Benjamin sees life. Benjamin assumes his method beyond any mediation of synthetic dialectics: his interpretation is at the same time the destruction of reification" (Canevacci.simon-yotsuya. instead of producing paralysis. 5 From the text: An Astonished Facticity: Ethnography on visual fetishisms. consumption and communication. But at the same time. unpag. 48 .e. Benjamin writes: "In my own essay. is de facto a work about the 20th. What Adorno defines as the Medusan glance should be thought of as Benjamin's fascination with the forms of metropolitan experience. by Massimo Canevacci Ribeiro: www. 1935).Benjamin inverts the movement of the negative dialectic into a stillimage. 2007. beyond evolutionary progress. 2011).htm (retrieved March 1. become phantasmagoria. Benjamin's Dialectical Image". when referring both to his essay The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1936) and to Adorno's negative dialectic. rather than focusing merely on their production value. a spatial and atemporal dialectical image. Postmodern Culture. where "fetishised" visual objects and communicational goods take centre stage in an analysis of the contemporary metropolis.net/profil/fatticita. Walter Benjamin already shows in the 1930s that the contemporary communicational metropolis is characterised by forms of visual fetishism: "the sex-appeal of the inorganic" (Benjamin. It is a dialectic in which the opposites coexist rather than simply Adorno's Constellation. The Arcades. "Benjamin inverses Adorno's critics claiming the facticities (i. generates new imagination when coming to understand modern society. Volume 14 (September 1. 2003).)5. which led him to value the emancipatory power of commodities. As Canevacci observes. he presents the ruins as something new. Fetishes which derive from culture. In the above mentioned letter to Adorno.
This makes the work of Benjamin a key source for interpreting our present as well: if the fetishism is not merely a consequence of production (and historical progress) but is a simulacrum of the communicational metropolis. 49 . which incorporates paradoxical concepts and practices. then the concept of fetishism expands not only to commodities. Milan: Costa & Nolan.oppose each other. and networks. he sees on single catastrophe. music. As Antonio Caronia writes in the epilogue to the book: Žižek presenta Trockij. a seemingly insoluble impasse. shows the configuration of the present. fashion." Gesammelte Schriften I. instead of a petrified deadlock. design. Feticismi visuali tra corpi e metropolis. the concept of astonished facticity and visual fetishism is transformed along the flux of contemporary communication. His eyes are wide. Terrorismo e comunismo (Žižek presents Trotsky. and it is applied to art. bodies. 691-704. while the pile of debris before him grows toward the sky. What we call progress is this storm". Suhrkamp Verlag. This storm drives him irresistibly into the future to which his back is turned. in which it is possible to reconstruct history though the past – following Walter Benjamin's approach to history. referring to Benjamin's image of Angelus Novus7: 6 In the book by Massimo Canevacci Ribeiro (2007): Una stupita fatticità. and therefore a dialectic which transforms into an insoluble paradox. architecture. It is the paradox of the past/present/future brought together beyond historical progress. The dialectic at a standstill. Terrorism and Communism. 2011). his wings are spread. "On the Concept of History. The paradox lives inside the fetish. 7 From Walter Benjamin 1940 work. It shows an angel who seems about to move away from something he stares at. his mouth is open. it is so strong that the angel can no longer close them. people. a philosophical puzzle. Vol. Translation: Harry Zohn. from Walter Benjamin. Frankfurt am Main. advertising. The angel would like to stay. 392-93. 4: 1938-1940 (Cambridge: Harvard University Pres. and make whole what has been smashed. see the note above. web and performance. new aporias which emerge from the petrifying Medusa. If the dialectic becomes an aporia. 2003). Selected Writings. and can be experienced to create new paradoxes. 1974: "There is a painting by Klee called Angelus Novus. But a storm is blowing from Paradise and has got caught in his wings. it shows multiple angles and enables new possibilities of intervention. For the English abstract of the book. but also to cities. This is how the angel of history must look. Where a chain of events appears before us. which keeps piling wreckage upon wreckage and hurls it at his feet. rather than petrifying the action. awaken the dead. which become expanded objects of desire6. His face is turned toward the past. and proceed by turning her gaze into multiple visions and subjectivities.
In the above-mentioned overcoming of the theoretical mediation. business and social networking. unpag... and at the same a journey into a conscious "working model for a new. A revolution undertaken in the name of progress. The "ambiguity to encourage" and which will be developed in the context of this research. based on the analysis of the 'contradictions' that claims to identify a direction of history. is designed almost fatally to sacrifice on the altar of the future and of the 'trends of history' the concrete present of the historical agents. materialist historiography with political intent" (Osborne & Charles. individuals and social classes which purports to interpret the hidden and profound needs. 2011. we can see the formulation of a research approach that 50 . the creation of opportunities that we need to develop. is the concept of producing business by disrupting it.] It is this 'case'. The challenge is to highlight the coexistence of oppositions which generate paradoxes through the analysis of the mutual interferences between art. 2011. pp. philosophically oriented."This powerful and perceptive representation of Benjamin. which will prove no less oppressive than what it wanted to oppose" (Caronia. the emergence of events. It is the ambiguity and unpredictability of the general intellect that we must encourage. [.). not a scary 'alternative rationality'. not the loyalty to a dubious and often dangerous 'design of history'. as a challenge for critically reflecting on the practices of art and hacking in the networked economy – and beyond it – through the unpredictable action of multiple subjectivities. hacking. 250251. my translation).5 Montage as Method The Arcades Project by Walter Benjamin is a journey through the experience of the capitalist metropolis. linked perhaps to an unsustainable philological reading of Klee is one of the most radical criticisms of the idea of 'progress' that has ever been made. instead of working on the conditions of developing and creating subjectivities. 1.
ibidem). representing objects. In the methodological chapter of the Arcades Project. pre-1935). 1928) and in The Origin of German Tragic Drama (Ursprung des deutschen Trauerspiels. not to excavate the bottom and bring it to light but to pry loose the rich and the strange. The wide-open eye. "[Benjamin] already perceived that the construction of writing itself is method. Theorie des Fortschritts. Benjamin's research methodology is self-consciously organised into a fragment. p. p. explaining "a pearl diver who descends to the bottom of the sea. Josef Fürnkäs. but rather as a method to create a deep understanding of the subject of research.functions within the subject of research. rather than on the subject of research. 1928). but also in One-Way-Street (Einbahnstraße. topics and elements of the everyday life of 19th century Paris. the astonished gaze of Benjamin. That there is a strict correlation between text and fieldwork" (Canevacci. the practice of montage must not automatically be seen as stylistic artifice. Theory of Progress" (Erkenntnistheoretisches. expressed through a constellation of archival sources. through the adoption of a conscious writing style. Many theoreticians have connected the fragmented style of Walter Benjamin with surrealist writing (Ernst Bloch. Benjamin shows an awareness of the idea that a contemporary critique of culture and society has to be undertaken both theoretically and practically. Mauro Ponzi. 36. "an objective embodiment of subjective experience". "as a paradigm of a form of constitutive incompletion that is characteristic of all systematically oriented knowledge under the conditions of modernity" (Osborne & Charles. Walter Benjamin describes his conceptual framework for The Arcades and his methodology as literary montage. 1969. a puzzled object. 1935. Not only in that work. Therefore. the pearls and the coral in the depths and to carry them to the surface" (Arendt. The emergence of the modern expanded city and its transitory nature is therefore expressed through a fragmented style. 51). my translation). 1992). Hannah Arendt defines Benjamin's methodology by using a pearl diving metaphor. 2003. metropolitan ruins. which is titled "On the Theory of Knowledge. Such an association seems clear when taking as an example the work Le Paysan de Paris (1926) by the French 51 . is that of the researcher who chooses to transform his/her subject of research from within. as Adorno explicitly theorises in 1955 when referring to Benjamin's writing style. 1988.
namely the 'mythology' […]. p. unpag. the notion of Denkbild was known before this. here it is a question of the dissolution of 'mythology' into the space of history. who was aware of the subject from his study of German baroque drama (Trauerspiel. The baroque emblem. descending from the baroque emblem whose structure inspired Benjamin as well. in the writing style of Walter Benjamin. Benjamin himself maintains his distance from Surrealism through his refusal to accept the "dream state" as a means of describing the labyrinths of contemporary culture. corresponds quite closely to the structure used by Walter Benjamin in One-Way-Street: the title. 458).surrealist Louis Aragon. 1928). Denkbilder was also used in Dutch (denkbeeld). Adorno suggested considering Benjamin's kleine Form. can happen only through the awakening of a not-yet conscious knowledge of what has been" (Benjamin. While in Aragon there remains an impressionistic element. That. As Benjamin points out in The Arcades Project: "Whereas Aragon persists within the realm of dream. thus displaying simulacra and fragmentary images of the modern metropolis through the use of montage. author of the poem Der siebente Ring (1907). In 1955 Theodor W. thereby reaching a critical awareness. the image of the object described and the interpretative commentary (Richter. here the concern is to find the constellation of awakening. 2003. his aesthetics of expressing the fragmentation of modernity. especially in the compositional technique of writing and in the art of combining heterogeneous materials – the montage – many differences between the two authors nevertheless persist. p. Diego 52 . But as Gerard Richter points out. a term introduced into German by the poet Stefan George. or images of reflection). defined as such by Benjamin in a letter to Gershom Scholem in 1926 as Denkbilder (thought-images. 11). even if there are many connections between the work on Paris by Aragon and The Arcades by Benjamin. the dialectical images become thought-images (Helmling. structured through a motto or inscriptio. 1999b. The writing style of Benjamin.). 2007. a detailed description of a Parisian arcade. Benjamin's methodology responds to the aim of connecting form and content in the conscious understanding of contemporary society. in particular the chapter "Le passage de l'Opéra". Walter Benjamin was deeply inspired by the baroque emblem books by Giovanni Piero Valeriano Bolzani. and epigram or subscriptio. icon or pictura. of course. cannot be separated from his conceptual thoughts. However. Therefore.
1). they are scribbled picture-puzzles. by Ernst Bloch (Richter. through the description of philosophical miniatures and everyday life fragments. Rather. because thought in its traditional conceptual form seems rigid. 2007. p. 2007. which was particularly used in the nineteenth century not only by Walter Benjamin. Adorno. Both are based on the 53 . are not images like the myths of the cave of the chariot. 1955. The thought-image is a literary form requiring an investigation into the aesthetics of writing and into the status of writing itself. which. and. as was outlined earlier in the chapter when describing the approach of ethnographic surrealism. according to Gerard Richter. As Theodor W. Siegfried Kracauer. They do not want to stop conceptual thought so much as to shock through their enigmatic form and thereby get thought moving. hovering between philosophical critique and aesthetic production" (Richter. conventional and out-moded.de Saavedra Fajardo. ibidem). p. 2007. The challenge is once again to make the familiar strange. This form gave voice to the contemporary culture of the time. without being taken literally. 374). They can be understood "as conceptual engagements with the aesthetic and as aesthetic engagements with the conceptual. are siblings: the first showing the literary representation of the modern city and the second showing its philosophical expression. and Julius Wilhelm Zincgref and by the theories of the emblem. such as Theodor W. What cannot be proved in the customary style and yet is compelling – that is to spur on the spontaneity and energy of thought and. parabolic evocations of something that cannot be said in words (des in Worten Unsagbaren). less directly. however. to strike sparks through a kind of intellectual short-circuiting that casts a sudden light on the familiar and perhaps sets it on fire" (Adorno. Adorno writes about the Denkbilder of Benjamin's One-Way-Street: "The pieces in One-Way-Street. but also by other members of the Frankfurt School. p. as the work One-Way-Street by Walter Benjamin exemplifies. The meta-structure of Walter Benjamin's writing is evident both in the literary work One-Way-Street and the Arcades. as pointed out by Karoline Kirst in 1994 (in Richter. 2).
the subject of the research and the techniques of narration. The research therefore becomes the result of a constant renegotiation between the researcher. the Denkbilder collected in One-WayStreet "define the city and its life as a semiotically charged text to be read" (Richter. It therefore becomes necessary to focus not only on the results of the research. adopting a critical perspective in which thoughts and aesthetics are consciously intertwined. and the absence of "mediation". The subjectivity of the researcher is part and parcel of the analysis process. 54 . This intertextuality (as defined by Julia Kristeva in 1966) of One-Way-Street and the Arcades also serves as a mirror for how research subjects might assume multiple meanings. Subjectivities remain in constant transformation. p. 8 The interviews collected in the course of this research in Europe and the US. which gives value to the symbols and icons of metropolitan Paris. which are the secondary sources of my analysis.technique of montage. The network of relations underlying the research analysis becomes a central aspect of the research itself. The technique of montage not only becomes necessary for describing a subject-in-flow without thereby avoiding an engagement with the aesthetics. Theory and practice coexist in a semiotic approach. The research method becomes the experience of the encounter with the actions. thus creating a continuous interplay between theory and praxis. writing and visualisation of the research analysis. collecting voices and making other subjectivities express themselves. and it constitutes a challenge for interpreting contemporary culture. they generate a puzzle of cross-national and interdisciplinary networks8. 2007. but it also emphasizes Benjamin's concern for "awareness" while dealing with social and political matters. thoughts and practices of other people. while a fragmented style of writing might represent the cityscape which dissolves macro-categories of thought (or "grand-theories"). 45). the researcher might assume the role of a facilitator of contexts in which diverse people can both speak and can be heard. As Gerard Richter points out. have been carried out following this methodological perspective. but taking inspiration from the activity of the networker. but on the processes of investigation. and the political and philosophical reflections are inseparable from the form in the poetic texts. This close connection between form and content brings us back to the discourse between the involvement of the researcher in the practice of research itself.
where both absolute calm (a frozen scenario). What was lacking from organisations in the past were the links between pieces of information that resemble the interconnected neurons in the brain. is what Franco Berardi describes as the result of info-capitalism and the progressive abstraction of labour in the digitised age. The Crystal World (1966). The networked 55 . which have taken over an entire jungle. Mongini uses the example of measuring brain activity with electro-encephalography. increasingly difficult. The crystals keep objects and human beings connected through a patina of blockade. operational processes that must function for its survival. Here. Every industrial enterprise has 'autonomic' systems. where past. in the essay The Art of Critique in the Age of Precarious Sensibility (2011) Claudia Mongini refers to a novel by James Ballard. Such a crystallisation spreading out in every direction can be compared with contemporary forms of hyper-velocity that pervade our time and make the formation of any critical idea. it is difficult to imagine a way out. subsumed by technological automatism. Labour becomes precarious (info-labour). through an all-encompassing process of psychotic subjectivation: "The process of digital production is taking a biological form which can be likened to an organism: the nervous system of an organisation is analogous with the human nervous system. Different subjectivities freeze into a blocking patina of acceleration of stimuli and an overdose of information. due to informational acceleration. To describe this process of crystallisation. and crystallises into what he defines as the "skizo-economy". living conditions have frozen into a mysterious phenomenon of crystallization. This psychological impasse. present and future are crystallised by a competitive pressure.6 Disruption and Morphogenesis Describing the experience of the self in this age of precarious subjectivities and technological hyper-velocity. There is no escape. and ongoing repeated hyperactivity are registered as a flat pattern of white noise. Similar to the consequences of the frozen process in the forest described by James Ballard.1. in a suspended state of existence which stops time and life.
if you don't follow the technical rules of the game. Information flows within it quickly and naturally. 2011a). with the same rapidity with which we can concentrate on a problem. of humans and machines who perform common actions thanks to procedures that make possible their interconnection and interoperation. […] Swarm is a plurality of living beings whose behaviour follows (or seems to follow) rules embedded in their neural system. and its progressive control over social relations and private life. moving together in the same direction. you are not playing the game. like thought in a human being. Franco Berardi sees technical automatisms taking control of the social psyche.digital business functions is an excellent artificial nervous system. centred on what can be defined as 'Business at the speed of thought'" (Berardi. 35). I don't think that this word is explaining much of the present social subjectivity. Biologists call swarm a multitude of animals of similar size and body orientation. This hyper-acceleration of intimate rhythms. In the current financial scenario. Network is a plurality of (organic and artificial) beings. is described by Berardi as the crystallisation of the economy (Berardi. p. If you do not adapt to these procedures. In Swarm & Disruption (2011) Franco Berardi points out: "Notwithstanding the current critical fortune of the notion of multitude in neo-Spinozian milieux. where the separation between private and public life collapses – a phenomenon clearly evident in contemporary social media. The result is a constantly-at-work human being. performing actions 56 . which capitalise on friendships and intimate relations. If we want to understand something more on this problem. According to Bill Gates (1999) the conditions are created for the realization of a new form of economic system. where techno-communicative systems and social minds are interwoven. creating a situation of progressive colonisation of time. it is becoming more and more difficult for the parts to understand the whole. where banks are increasingly substituting ideologies and charismatic leaders. network and swarm are words that can help us better. 2009. and we are able to use technology to govern and co-ordinate groups of people.
The desire for a soft membrane allowing for transpiration. Swarms are different from networks. 4). Novel reconnections emerge in a germinal state" (Mongini. The challenge becomes to imagine how swarms might mutate into conscious collectivity. sensing multiple scars on the skin. an aching and fearful estrangement permeates the body. Becoming aware of breaches in the inner organs. Swarms. When the world impinges again onto the nude complexion. swarms rarely engage in criticism. because they usually follow a specific pattern. into unpredictable singularities. 2011. for a tender exchange. Claudia Mongini employs the above-mentioned frozen blockade described by James Ballard as a metaphor: "The attempt to dissolve the patina of blockade goes along with a process of beginning to feel the bodily holes which the parasitic crystals have produced. neither are random conglomerations. How does it become possible to imagine processes of de-crystallisation of singularities in a period of crisis. 57 .). Swarms are not an example of organised collectivity. like bees building a hive or moving towards a plant where they can find what they need in order to make honey" (Berardi. In the book Networks. Conglomerations of void fill visceral and soul cavities. unpag. Multitudes (2004) the biologist Eugene Thacker focuses on the analogies and differences between collectivity and connectivity. and where might this occur? Describing a new form of performative critique. because the latter are usually organised through common procedures in which a coordination of tasks and shared performances is implied. And while the body experiences disintegration. starts to penetrate in the capillaries of the soul. In a hyper-complex environment we see the human equivalent of swarms forming where people follow simplified paths and use complexity-reduced interfaces. less hard and aggressive than the former impermeable patina. In the act of following such a pattern. it craves for another form of shelter. 2011b.in a coordinated way. because they lack awareness. p.
vita. p. which escape the frozen status and develop through "collective feeling" and a "different perception of otherness" (ibidem). 2011b. drawing on Deleuze and Guattari. Assuming a hetero-genetic and rhizomatic perspective. neoliberalism has been the last effective revolution of history. propose overcoming the concanetazione-cristallo (crystal-stratum) of forms with the concatenazione-onda (wave-stratum). bringing with it a very complex financial system. The way out is found within the frozen order. As Franco Berardi and Alessandro Sarti write: 58 . The wave-stratum is a form in which the dynamic of becoming is not deterministic and not reducible to a predictable code. 2008). the authors demonstrate that even artificial morphogenesis (the generation of forms from simulated algorithms and biogenetic generation of artificial lives) is not strictly predictable. ricombinazione (Berardi & Sarti. In the book Run: Forma. According to Berardi. which traces the process of "becoming-other" as described by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. Berardi and Sarti. Franco Berardi imagines a way out of the crystallisation through social morphogenesis. which emerge through the cold stiffness that attracted the human bodies and minds. Such results are no longer possible through revolutions.The loose molecules. the creation of forms becomes independent via automatisms. 7). it is the result of an intimate understanding of the openness among crystallised patterns. which generates new forces able to de-crystallise and to exist beyond the trapped organism or organisms. That is why revolution as opposition is no longer an effective practice in neoliberal society. the process of de-crystallisation of the financial state of the world. He writes: "The concept of Revolution is deceiving. through the development of concrete and authentic relationships between human beings. It is the escape from the frozen status. which is unpredictable and un-programmable. The de-crystallisation is possible through the return of flesh and desire. They are new aggregations. the fragmentation and destabilising of labour as well as unpredictable fluxes of social change. The deterministic thought is only an illusion: morphogenesis cannot be reduced to the level of linear development. are "material fragments in search of new patterns of aggregation" (ibidem). because it was based on the illusion of a total control of social reality by rational will and by the linear project of transformation" (Berardi.
consisting of bifurcations. computer viruses replace strikes and transform the concept of "sabotage". the creative response to capitalism is the emergence of conscious (and sensitive) subjectivities. namely an absolutely random exercise whose outcome is unpredictable. p."Politics tends to be replaced by recombinant biomorphogenesis. To achieve this goal. But recombinant bio-morphogenesis cannot be an exact science. finding time for experiential enrichment and desire. governed by the etherogenesis of purposes. It will be rather similar to poetry. It is possible to apply the concept of morphogenesis into politics and society if we think about the creation of forms through a recombinant process. Minorities supersede classes. imagining new forms for a social system. The transformation of contemporary society needs to begin by reconstructing empathy. the perception of the other's body. nor a predictable technology. researchers and programmers. 74. The nature of knowledge and its infinite number of permutations are presented 59 . assembly and disassembly. a destructive exercise that renders language ambiguous by laying unexpected paths of meaning" (Berardi & Sarti. In A Thousand Plateaus (1980) Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari define society not in terms of its lines of contradictions (in the Marxist sense). replacing the techno-economical swarms. which symbolise the control society (referring to the book Out of Control by Kevin Kelly. but in terms of its lines of flight. which needs to grow directly from the skin of scientists. and its untechnocratizable consequences. with its rapid developmental rhythms. According to Franco Berardi and Alessandro Sarti. 2008. my translation). 1990). It will have rather similar characteristics to politics. by the interdependence of infinite parables of will and action. The fragmentation of social existence has to be replaced by unpredictable waves of subtraction. which have been subsumed by the ever more pervasive informational economy. overlap and misunderstanding. as is pointed out by Berardi and Sarti. after which we will be faced with trying to encapsulate discipline and dependence in the brain and body of the human organism. This may take the form of the biopolitics of power. fluxes where imagination plays a central role and where it is able to change the rules of the game. subjectivities have to regain their capacity for empathy.
Dialectics at a standstill. Walter Benjamin's dialectical image reveals that it is through the encounter of recent events and those further in the past that it is possible to reconstruct history. it can give birth to movement. while also generating crystallisation. but it is also functional in generating a new order. with its petrifying glance. and to imagine possible ways out of the impasse. consolidation is therefore a side effect of disruption. The concept of disruptive 60 . subsuming any radical opposition. 8). In the business culture. the more it gets inclined to disruption. which is still embedded in the neoliberal financial paradigm. Morphostasis follows disruption. Franco Berardi writes: "the more a system grows complex. p. This is very evident today in the phenomenon of the financial crisis: it works at disrupting an old system by provoking its collapse. If we imagine a dialectic that overcomes dualistic oppositions. but it is no longer giving way to Revolution. rather it is giving way to consolidation. I compare the process of decrystallisation leading towards the creation of a new shape of society with Walter Benjamin's hacking off of Medusa's head. Disruption drives a fake change. Referring to the previous section. and becomes a dialectical image. so that we don't know anymore how to open the way to morphogenesis" (Berardi. However. this kind of dialectic also shows a "positive" perspective where incongruities coexist and where such a Medusa's head can be hacked off. Even when frozen. According to Franco Berardi. Adorno when considering the work of Walter Benjamin. with the problematic nature of petrifaction as addressed by Theodor W. we can start dissolving the patina of blockade from within.through a rhizomatic equation. […. It is when disruption emerges from the inside of crystallised social forms – and not from outside them – that we can discover morphogenesis. Similarly. might dissolve the stasis generating other paradoxes. but innovation and the re-design of behavioural tendencies. Embedded in the dialectics at a standstill is the concept of crystallisation. disruption not only means rupture. by experiencing the impasse of modern capitalism from within and feeling its paradoxes and incongruities. which is a paradox per se. because the historical movement freezes into a steady-state cycle. as described earlier. 2011b. Disruption is a very ambiguous – and inspiring – concept.] Nowadays the collapse takes the form of disruption. We could link the concept of crystallisation as described by Franco Berardi to that of "dialectics at a standstill".
is a paradox because it shows a process that interferes with business. 61 . org/wiki/Disruptive_technology. which directly concerns human behaviour and desires. Invention is a moment of discovery or creation of something new.8% of the worlds 500 fastest supercomputers" (Wikipedia. which "when introduced. was inferior in performance to other server operating systems like Unix and Windows NT. retrieved on April 2010: http://en. not need. 9 From Wikipedia. Desire is the motivation for behaviour. and a company's ability to understand motivation directly contributes to the success of their products and services in the marketplace" (Manu. a new behaviour. Disruptive Business means the sum of new behaviours and their support models. the internal condition that gives rise to what we want to do. "is used in business and technology literature to describe innovations that improve a product or service in ways that the market does not expect"9.wikipedia. Motivation is the ethos of goal-oriented behaviour. which is at the core of my analysis. Disruption is a behaviour – an outcome involving media and a user – changed by invention. an art term coined in 1997 by Clayton Christensen. The Free Encyclopedia. Disruptive innovation. Desire leads to goals. a professor and writer on strategic foresight and innovation. and goals lead to motivation. April 2010). 2010. a manifest behaviour that engages an innovation object into new uses. As he writes in his book Disruptive Business (2010): "Innovation is an outcome. rather it is an innovative outcome. […] Innovation is rooted in Desire.business. whilst at the same time generating new forms of business. 3). disruptive innovation is not merely a breakthrough in technology. According to Alexander Manu. and modifies the habitual conditions of the present. The Wikipedia Encyclopaedia shows the example of 'new-market disruption' caused by the GNU/ Linux Operating System. but by being less expensive after years of improvements. Linux is now installed in 87. a new way of doing things. what can we do – based on the norms of behaviour – and what we will do – the actions that we voluntarily decide to undertake. Innovation is a moment of use. p. Professor at the Harvard Business School. based on our goals.
While disrupting the machine. 1981.Apart from the motivational business rhetoric of this description. In this context. Adopting this concept as an art practice offers an opportunity to imagine new possible strategies for art as well as creating innovations in the economic framework. it might be possible to accomplish a new critical perspective by forming an attitude which could be considered as "a participant's observation among the artifacts of a defamiliarized cultural reality". by becoming a direct agent in the subject of the investigation. in all its complexity. But in 62 . 542). artists and hackers. react strategically and playfully to create a change that comes from within the flow of business. so as to be able to become aware of it. Since the Avant-gardes. but doing so might also help us envision new perspectives and get rid of the "patina of blockade". Taking inspiration from Benjamin's description of the flâneur and the notion of Einfühlung. the analysis of Alexander Manu is useful for pointing out that innovation is an outcome linked to desire. Would it be possible to imagine a form of art which disrupts business by recreating business. as was earlier outlined when describing the approach of ethnographic surrealism. Combining these perspectives might appear to be a paradox. while generating new forms. while at the same time transforming it into something different. to quote the anthropologist James Clifford (On Ethnographic Surrealism. experiencing it emphatically. But the challenge is also to transform the strange in a creative manner. for Franco Berardi desire is an opportunity to be unchained from capitalist logic as well as being a channel to fight automatisms. which are only possible by getting directly involved in the business process. to perform the art of disruptive business.0. The challenge once again becomes to make the familiar seem strange. artists and activists form an intimate relationship with their subject of criticism. Despite coming from two very different backgrounds. Alexander Manu and Franco Berardi show that human desire is the key to creating morphogenesis: for Alexander Manu desire is a driving force of innovation. I propose the concept of the art of disruptive business as a form of artistic intervention within the business field of Web 2. p. conscious of the pervasive presence of consumer culture in our daily life. and engaging in criticism. while at the same time going beyond business logic? In answer to this question. artists have concentrated on the effect of producing the unpredictable.
"bodily holes" (quoting Claudia Mongini). This movement comes from within the business culture. This perspective applies to the business concept of disruptive innovation as artistic strategy. The challenge becomes to be aware of the logic and mechanisms of business. through a discovery of its holes and voids. it generates innovation. precisely the culture that artists and hackers aim to disrupt. In a scenario where business is intertwined with the values of hacker ethics and networking. but provoke disruptive innovation in the business field of social media.0 business. because it crosses new paths by finding bugs in the system. generating disruption and adopting the same language and strategies as counterculture. 63 . whilst at the same time opens a critical perspective towards business (and towards the concept of "disruption" itself ). business logic deals with the unpredictable as well. Artists and hackers can respond by appropriating the concept of disruption in the business framework. emerging from a dialectical image. This morphogenesis derives from disruption. and where the forms of criticism tend to freeze as soon as they emerge. It is an act of hacking which demonstrates how to seize on business logic so as to appropriate this logic. when cooperation.the neoliberal era. Today the paradox lives in the encounter between business culture and artistic disruption. It is a dialectic of paradoxes. and the recombination of orders play a central role. Disruption becomes constructive and destructive at one and the same time. The act of responding to this via a radical clash no longer appears to serve as an effective practice. sharing and networking have become the watchwords of the Web 2. Rather than re-creating the blockade. My intention is to investigate projects and interventions of artists and hackers who do not work on a radical interruption (or rupture) of a chain or a flow. but rather than deriving from clash or rupture. Such paradigms emerge from a frozen blockade of consumption. an inversion of clashing schemes. Business innovation becomes art intervention. in which the paradox. the way to morphogenesis might be found within business itself. through the direct experience of multiple and diverse subjectivities. it emerges from within the business system. We need to ask ourselves whether it makes sense today to talk of "counterculture". The concept of disrupting business described in this research is seen as a methodology of transformations and interventions in the network economy by the adoption of disruptive business strategies as a form of art.
conscious of the pervasive presence of consumer culture in our daily life. creating new flows of fascination by adopting disruptive business logic. I will analyse how in Web 2. I will show how the rhetoric of openness. since the Avant-gardes. they generate new ideas within it. critical art and business have shown clear signs of interconnection. 64 . They make possible an acknowledgement of how business works. they create business disruption. artists and activists. both in Europe and the USA. decentralisation and exchange evolve alongside the development of the business logic of Web 2.0.The aim of my analysis is to show how endless cycles of rebellion and transgression coexist with the development of business culture in western society. react strategically and playfully from within the system.0. Extrapolating from this. In the following chapters I will describe the process of mutual interference between networking culture and business. This will lead us to a deeper analysis of the concept of the art of disruptive business as a form of artistic intervention within the business world. beyond the logic of clashes. They do not refute business. and have become part and parcel of it within the context of social networking and community enterprises. I will describe how. They subvert business logic. introducing unexpected incongruities in the capitalist structure and provoking unusual feedback while remaining part of the machine. but rather than merely opposing it.
65 .
66 .
0.1 Social Networks Before Social Networks The aim of this chapter is to investigate network dynamics as they existed before the emergence of Web 2. or in the underground creative scene during the 1980s and 1990s. Galloway & Thacker 2007. with the emergence of social media and Web 2. which was previously a narrow artistic practice among the Avant-garde. 2001). we are facing a process of continuity: networking. However. it is possible to imagine Web 2. if we recognise that networking today is opening an ever broader channel of communication among people who are not necessarily involved in the alternative art and technology scene. enabling communities has become a pervasive business strategy (Lovink & Rossiter. On the one hand. but to focus on the meaning of social networking as a disruptive art practice. The meaning of participation. as I did in my previous book Networking .The Net as Artwork (2006). from mail art to hacker art. from Dadaism to Fluxus.0 as a new context for artistic practices. 2006. with the emergence of Web 2. on the other hand.0. Cox. focusing on the issues of participation and collaboration. On the one hand the practice of networking as a modality of sharing knowledge has been central to the creation of aesthetic situations among a small group of participants in the fields of experimental art and poetry in the last half of the twentieth century (Saper. since the mid 2000s. which have been central to artistic practices in the 20th century.2 Social Networking Out of the Box 2. collaboration and networking is itself changing and. as pointed out by Juan Martin Prada in 2007 in his paper presented at the New Art Dynamics in Web 2 Mode conference.0. has found a much wider 67 . but also on those of disruption and criticism. My intention is not to reconstruct a history of networking. social networking has become a mainstream concept. 2008).
we are facing a deep change. 2009b). In this context. technical automatism and social control. and identity. This dual approach looks more like a split. addressing the concept of disruption. describing forms of network participation that attempt to go beyond exploitation. and computer power to the people (Felsenstein in Bazzichelli. But before that. where the tension between production and consumption is affecting everyday life and intimate social relations. I will return to this debate in the next chapter. or as many hacktivists and critical theoreticians argue. such a transformation of networking practices is not necessarily negative and might open new contexts of interventions for artists and hackers. authority.audience today and is becoming a common mode of interaction. instead entering critically the sphere of political production. On the other hand. the mass worker. as a challenge to acting within production processes (recalling the hands-on imperative of the hackers). the refusal of work – and later extended to the analysis of concepts such as immaterial labour. which are constantly challenged and renegotiated by artists 68 . to name but a few. A theoretical vocabulary has developed in recent years stressing the risks of social exploitation. This approach is largely related to a political critique developed by Autonomist Marxism since the 1960s and 1970s in Italy – reflecting on technical and political class composition. which are becoming ever more centralised and informed by the logic of business. 2009). The Californian computer engineer Lee Felsenstein stresses the point that today the term social media implies a form of expanded participation – at least.0 platforms of interactions and exchange can be seen as a new form of social exploitation. formally – and this might be considered a victory for some hacker principles such as access for all. cognitive capitalism and biopolitics. therefore it is important to engage with them. while rethinking practices and strategies of media criticism. Similarly. if analysed from a critical political perspective. However. while nevertheless maintaining a critical approach (Baroni. This becomes an opportunity to reflect on concepts such as openness. especially in the framework of analysing the post-Fordist economy. it is important to reflect on the meaning of networking as a collective art practice. an involution in the modalities of creating networks. as described in the previous chapter. social networking and the emergence of Web 2. the Italian mail artist Vittore Baroni argues that we must recognise the potential of social networks as widespread platforms for sharing and exchanging.
and organiser of the first Web 2. Tim O'Reilly.0 is much more than just pasting a new user interface onto an old application.g. etc.0 built their corporate image by reappropriating the language and the values of the first phase of hacker culture – a language once very representative of certain networked art practices as well.art. participation and networking which inspired the early formation of hacker culture and peer2peer technology (Kleiner & Wyrick. Considering that the values of networking. from mail art to net. one of the main promoters of the Web 2. How does it become possible to develop new artistic strategies in an increasingly commercialised networking context? And consequently. might be considered a mirror to the economic cooptation of the values of sharing. 'refusal of compromising with business'. mail art. which were based on networks of participants and collective works (e.0 philosophy. hacking and disruption. and tagging. who work within the realms of social and cultural disruption. the concept of business disruption appears central. A possible path is to imagine artistic practices within social media which imply strategies of subversion. which props up social networking. 2007). tracing a path of continuity from the early experiments of networking art and underground culture to the recent techniques of networked art as developed in Web 2. openness. 2006.and activists. it is necessary to find a way out of the dichotomy of 'acritical acceptance of business' vs. It's a way of thinking. blogging. wrote in the fall of 2006: "Web 2. The whole idea of the gift-exchange community as an alternative social and economical system was the driving purpose behind many networked art practices after the 1950s.0.0. and the interactive processes of postal collaboration anticipated and predicted contemporary "social networks". Such networked art practices. Once again. Rather than pointing out the commercial limits of networking in Web 2. 3).). a new perspective on the entire business of software" (Musser & O'Reilly. in this chapter I aim to investigate which constructive forces remain imaginable within social media. how is disruptive art materialised in social media? At first glance it may seem evident that business enterprises of social networking and Web 2. p. play.0 conference in 2004 (in San Francisco). The objective is to provoke 69 . Both what has been called Web 2.0 since 2004 (when Dale Dougherty came up with the term during a brainstorming session) as well as the whole idea of folksonomy. sharing and user-generated content became the driving force behind the social media market. visual poetry. Fluxus.
by aiming to produce networking interventions which question the practice of opposition as a political and artistic strategy. as exemplified by the mail art network. the question is not so much whether such people are exploited anymore (many social media developers and users would simply answer that they are not). the Neoist network. Networking is indeed becoming a mainstream practice. In the process of describing cross-national networks. and indirectly. sharing and openness are still possible inside Web 2. Such collaborative networking projects reached a peak of participation between the 1970s-1990s. refuting the widely accepted idea that social networking is principally a digitally.and web-oriented phenomenon. interweaving experiences through a constellation of artistic and hacker interventions beyond space and time. as I described above.0. as well as generating disorder within it. while referring to the contemporary social media scene. In the next chapter. I will imagine possible theoretical connections. I will investigate the Italian example of Anna Adamolo (2008-2009) as offering a possible case for the adoption of a critical political approach towards social media. 70 . but what is the meaning of participation and sharing within the framework of this cultural development? First of all. the Luther Blissett Project (LBP). I will portray the Anonymous entity as today's equivalent of Luther Blissett and Monty Cantsin (the Neoist "open pop star"). I aim to go beyond earlier studies carried out on social networking. The Church of the SubGenius.a conscious understanding of the technology. following a "montage methodology". Social networking is not new. but rather how hacking. Such investigations centre on the figure of the networker. it is necessary to investigate the roots of collaborative art practices. generating viral networking practices both online and on the streets. To understand where the notion of social networking derives from. a creator of shared networks which expanded virally through collective interventions. both in Europe and the USA. These offer clear examples of how networking strategies. Considering that many social media projects are built up involving and employing hackers and networkers. And last but not least. the meaning of cooptation in a network economy. multiple identities and viral communication techniques might be used to generate artistic disruption. following this line of investigation.
but is based on the creation of sharing platforms and of contexts which permit exchange between individuals and groups. hark back to the development of the sharing models of grassroots communities in the alternative art scene of the previous half of century. but also the BBS (Bulletin Board Systems) networks have been designed to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and experience. These narrow practices have shown that networked art is not mainly technologically determined. and as a map of connections in progress. This model of relationships allowed for the "exchange" of spontaneous gifts. as a cultural strategy aimed at sharing knowledge. Openness refers to a decision-making process managed by a collective of individuals organised into a community. a practice based on peer technologies and peer networks. Saper. Since the 1980s. Such a perspective made it possible to define the concept of networking in three ways: as the practice of creating nets of relations. In those years. Baroni. today mentioned with ever greater frequency in the rhetoric of social networks and Web 2. which has often been compared with the "hands-on imperative" as articulated by Steven Levy in 1984. The concepts of openness and Do It Yourself. to assemble. but remains an absolute paradox in the centralised Internet-based social networking platforms. to make and to create independently. 1997. where grassroots communities promoted alternative social configurations and a model of sustainable economy based on the sharing of free goods (Welch.2 The Gift-Exchange Grassroots Economy The contemporary Internet-based social networking platforms have their roots in a series of experimental activities in the field of art and technology started in the last half of the twentieth century which have transformed the conception of art as object into an expanded network of relationships. 2001). 19126.96.36.199. Do It Yourself (or DIY) expresses an "attitude" to build up. copy-machines became widespread and their 71 . as well as to create collective works. which was imagined into being rather than orchestrated into existence by a centralised authority – it is a definition used frequently today in Web 2. Networked culture. DIY as a genuine underground practice could be said to have begun with the punk movement of the 1970s. networking platforms such as the postal art communities. developed during the last half of the twentieth century. was often connected with the concept of the gift-exchange economy.
Networking art resulted in the practice of acting inside social interstices and cultural fractures. becoming a practical philosophy within the hacker scene. Within this timeframe. thereby opposing the business model of large music labels. Punk culture questioned the notion of high art in order to open up creative possibilities for musicians who were not necessarily professional. punkzines. but in fact constituted a fertile territory for the re-invention and re-writing of symbolic and expressive codes. fusing it with a set of anarchistic attitudes to produce music and manufacture albums and merchandise as well as organise low-cost concert tours. In the Italian underground culture. In the Italian hacker communities of the 1990s networking platforms were perceived as open spaces in which the ideas of sharing. The motto was "anyone can play". the DIY network dynamic was affirmed on a broader level through the use of computers and the Internet. but there is no doubt that between the 1970s and the 1980s punk was a driving force for grassroots participation. Obviously. but also in the BBS networks. the punk movement was soon co-opted by the music business. and it inspired many young people eager to change the status quo. The history of Italian hacktivism and net culture from the early 1980s until today is a clear example of this process. the Telestreet networks and into many other networking and art projects managed by different Italian artists and activists. which was hungry to discover new markets. and several bands began to apply this DIY logic. autonomous and grassroots participation. networking became the practice of creating nets of relations by sharing experiences and ideas. which seemed to be at the margin of daily life. as was pointed out by Stephen Duncombe in 1997.use increasingly harnessed within the milieu of "dissent". as I previously described in 2006. etc. decentralisation and free access to computers applied. the concept of "hacktivism" referred to an acknowledgment of the net as a political space. A path which began in mail art. the concept of networking was considered an art practice in itself. Within that scene. Similarly. with the aim of generating decentralised. openness. providing a critical perspective on political imagination among people who were harking back to the tradition of the avant-gardes as a subversive art practice. giving birth to underground zines. art-zines. Within this framework. where hacker communities were 72 . in the Neoist and Luther Blissett projects. evolved yet further into the creation of Italian hackmeetings.
in the mail art network. The idea of establishing a gift exchange economy was crucial. which still survives today in the more politicised and radical areas of the movement. It resulted in the creation of networks of artistic and media experimentalists. art and technology met. Inspired by the hacker scene of California. which took the form of a broad aesthetic movement. The objective of the network operators was to make art less elitist and more inclusive.Z. It enabled the development of a kind of utopian autonomous zone (in the sense described by Hakim Bey in the book T. but networkers were also those who accepted the invitation for the networking project and created their DIY products in answer to this call. the art of networking in Italy still constitutes 73 . a networker was anyone who managed to generate areas of discussion and sharing. DIY and sharing knowledge. often refuting – or playing with – business logic. and in so doing attempting to question the very meaning of art itself. showing a strong rebuttal of capitalist logic. this attitude towards technology lasted longer in Italy than in many other countries. Among the BBS culture between the 1980s and the 1990s. anarchic and cyberpunk literature. Probably due to the prevalence of a language gap (not so many people spoke English fluently enough to be able to participate in international mailing-lists and debates). and by libertarian. the Italian hacker scene is functional for our discourse because it developed as a very widespread experimental "playground" for applying the logic of openness. the art of networking developed through the figure of the artist as a creator of platforms for sharing and of contexts for connecting and exchanging. even if many practices were more correctly imagined as an alternative to the financial economy and therefore a utopian concept of sharing and collaboration.A. a networker was anyone who in turn created contexts of exchanging self-made artworks.(and still are) very much linked to activism. It was an aesthetic where relations among networkers became the real artwork. published in 1991). In this context. Networking as a direct modality of sharing and communicating was the symbol for the shared ethics in the international underground scene of that time. As we will see from the various artistic projects for which network strategies are inherent. clearly disrupting the capitalistic logic of producing goods to generate revenues. the development of hacker culture in Italy constituted a very fascinating zone where politics.
Even if they differ in origin. p. quoting the famous phrase by Marshall McLuhan the medium is the message "today one may say that the network is the message of the medium Internet" (Kerckhove. context. both in Europe and in US. and which gave rise to a lively utopian attitude towards technology. but on ongoing relationships between individuals. and goals. 11). The network of mail art. which raise the question of the meaning of participation itself. networking was a collective art practice not merely based on the production of objects.3 Collaborative Art Practices and Media Criticism In the aforementioned examples which pre-date the notion of social networking engendered by the Web 2. 74 . 2. We will come back to this when outlining the case of Anna Adamolo (2008-2009) and its viral development both in the field of social media and in the streets. The practice of networking was imagined as a process that grew from contact to contact and expanded through intertwined actions of people who developed viral communication strategies. the Neoist network and the Luther Blissett Project (LBP) are clear examples of distributed modalities of networking. which date back more than thirty years and frequently took shape beyond the confines of the Internet. following the emergence of Web 2.a fertile area of experimentation and subversion.0. what they share in common is the development of a grassroots networking structure. As Derrick de Kerckhove points out when describing the evolution of the networking phenomenon and recognising the practice of mail art as one of its predecessors long before the evolution of the Internet. This common ground of networking constituted the basis for many artistic practices in the 1990s working within the realms of media and art. The Church of the SubGenius. an analysis of social networking today cannot be undertaken without shedding light on its roots. nor solely on the use of digital or analogical technologies. Assuming therefore that the network of relationships is the main message. 2006. even if today it implies a criticism of networking practices themselves.0 platforms.
Therefore. In this context therefore. Movements such as mail art. even if. therefore constructing networking by building a phantasmagoria of fictitious myths. anonymous) philosophy of sharing. the creation of a multi-use (and in the case of Luther Blissett. Reflecting on such topics as the deconstruction of identity. the critique of a rigid identity. The underground conspiracy networks examined here worked on renegotiating the meaning of history and truth. for example. using the elements of surprise. creating a collective myth. My choice in selecting these concepts to analyse disruptive practices in the early phase of social networking has been made so as to avoid a linear historical perspective. the practice of disruption also becomes a multiple phenomenon. 1987). questioning the meaning of authority. Pranks and cultural jamming interventions focused on continual poetic renewal (Vale & Juno. the creation of urban myth and the production of fake information. not to 75 . My intention is therefore not to write a historical reconstruction of their activity – not least because it is impossible to understand if sources are reliable – but to lay stress on the meaning of speculative and conspiratorial methodologies of constructing (social) networks by exposing multiple contradictions. the important aspect when analysing them is not to figure out what really happened or who did what – even if I will try to give some practical examples of their artistic practices – but which driving forces lay behind the idea of creating unstable networks. some mail artists were involved in Neoism. To analyse networking practices which harnessed the concept of disruption. disrupting the bureaucracy. I have selected five main concepts: generating openness through media criticism. Neoism and Luther Blissett presented quite different strategies. They worked with collective symbols while reinventing the meaning of participation and selfrepresentation. meaning something different each time. challenging the dogma of truth.the redefinition of the concept of art through disruptive intervention. they questioned the institutional media system of the time and often plunged it into crisis. while some Neoists were involved in Luther Blissett and some Luthers were involved in mail art. exposing its bugs and highlighting its vulnerability. and were made up of different participants. irony and social criticism. by experimenting with networking strategies and deconstructing identity. The Church of the SubGenius. a reflection on the meaning of authority. an attack on high culture.
spinning a web across the postal and telephone services between different people who had common interests. generating openness through media criticism. As he recalls: "There were decades of counterculture and political battles. 76 . but if he was still alive today he would probably use the Internet too" (Baroni in Bazzichelli. George Maciunas understood that there was a network of people who shared artistic and creative objectives but they were located in Europe. Ray Johnson found post and telephone the most efficient and economical way to create his artistic network. linking it to the rise of the counterculture in the Sixties and the development of new possibilities of spreading independent information. or artists behind the Iron Curtain. but also those of visual poets in South America. created an efficient and disruptive action in certain circles. America or Japan. Starting from the first concept. […] The creation of mail art coincided with the diffusion of postage as a means of communication in different circles. it is through analysing their roots that we can find some important answers to be able to correctly frame the concept of social networking today. the fanzines or punkzines from the punk era. The genesis coincided with a practical need: the idea of connecting people in the most simple and functional way possible. like that of the New York Correspondence School founded by Ray Johnson. artzines or telephone). The flyer given to people on the street during the 1968 movement (which in Italy actually took place in 1969). 2009a. unpag. There was an intense epistolary correspondence underpinning Fluxus. he describes the genesis of mail art. during which the most common means of communication used was the simple instrument called 'mimeograph'. However. It was no surprise that Fluxus came about through a festival in Germany. The central tenet of mail art was not which channel to select in order to create networks (either postal communication. it is useful to quote – and combine – different narratives on the genesis of such disruptive networks.).mention the fact that Neoism and The Church of the SubGenius had various influences in common. During a personal interview with Vittore Baroni (March 2009).
Mail art affects firstly the structure of cultural work. The mail art phenomenon aimed to demonstrate that postal communication could replace galleries and museums.Six. etc. and the result of this mail art activity was the development of innovative strategies to make information open and accessible to all.or which artefact to produce (visual art. was a radical statement. showed that puzzling. postal stamps. remixing. poetry. 1981). at the time of the genesis of mail art. music. which deeply influenced the output of alternative culture. reconstructing and constantly renegotiating the meaning of communication became 77 . in the early 1960s. rubber stamps. to generate a loose international community involving people from the most varied backgrounds. artzines. "The Eternal Network" (as described by Robert Filliou). and the creation of a worldwide network of free exchanges often based on xerography (photocopying). to have fun. not to mention the New York Correspondence School he created in the 1960s. The ethics of distributing artgifts. often implying the production of all-inclusive catalogues. was a very fertile channel of communication between many sub-cultural movements emerging in the 1970s and 1980s.). of showing in collective initiatives everything submitted to the network by its members without previous selection. sound art. The collages and drawings of Ray Johnson. "Mail art is not just another art trend. The mail art network. As Vittore Baroni writes in Real Correspondence . One challenge facing the movement was to strategically remix and recombine information and communication symbols by generating one-to-one collaboration on an equal basis. the way art and information is produced and circulated" (Baroni. The focus was not to harness this or that specific medium. juxtaposing. thereby disrupting the art establishment through network strategies. The hand-made production of postcards. audiocassettes. becoming the main context for artistic and cultural production. assembling. The need to communicate among a network of people sharing similar interests was directly connected with a critical reflection on the use of media. but to communicate. it was easier to create alternative content using simple communication tools. so as to develop a worldwide cultural movement. but the idea of connecting people located in different countries. As Vittore Baroni recalled during our interview. became a common technique of networking used by many artists and all sorts of creative people during those decades. fragmenting. because the channels of information were still rather slow and circumscribed.
and it came out Monty Cantsins. I did it in Portland.O. we decided to make a pop star out of Maris. I did not do this alone. an artist named Maris Kundzins. Well. As the mail artist David "Oz" Zack recalls in a letter written to Graf Haufen.4 Deconstructing Identities in Conspiracy Networks It is no surprise that Neoists used mail art to share information.an art practice in itself. 2. and that mail art was one of the most popular forms of exchange within Neoism. monster folios and dinosaur folios we called them. Cantsin. anyone who wanted could assume the personality of the pop star. even if mail art was not a substantial part of Neoism at the time. a Berlin-based member of Neoism: "One thing I definitely did invent is 'Monty Cantsin'. and A Neoist Research Project (2010) by N. an independent publication assembled by Monty Cantsin. but it had to be an open pop star. from Neoism to the Luther Blissett Project. Maris and I sent a card 1 Such as the website The Seven by Nine Squares and the books: "Neoism Now!" (1987). We'd been working with a Xerox 3107 that makes big copies and reductions. at the end of 1970s in the city of Portland. the Neoist experience started in connection with the practice of mail art. singing songs in Latvian about toilets and traffic. the network of mail art played a central role in connecting people and establishing the exchange of postal gifts as a channel of communication. from Fluxus to punk. that is. We were making giant folios. As reported in the few existing Neoist publications1. with the very first Monty Cantsin. 78 . […] We were mouthing Maris Kundzins' name. Oregon. And one night Maris started fooling around with the tape recorder. From Dadaism to Futurism. Then we got to say can't sin and can't sing and quite a few other things to give the impression that this pop star could be a thief as well as a saint. the open pop star.
79 . Tom Cassidy. Blaster Al Ackerman. the Hungarian-Canadian performance artist Istvan Kantor. punk culture and industrial music scene of Portland2. Alan Lloyd. Kantor was the first to rally to the call when he arrived in Portland in 1978. Tim Harvey. Anna Banana. challenging the notions of truth. These consisted of periodical bouts of shoplifting in supermarkets carried out by Kantor and Zack. Genesis P-Orridge and Cosey Fanni Tutti. Jerry Sims. the former simulating a heart attack so as to distract the employees while the second stole cases of beer. as David Zack writes. and its subsequent development into Neoism. Musicmaster. The "legend" says that the recipient of the Monty Cantsin postcard. followed David Zack's suggestion by starting to act as an open pop star. The first of these two components. Zack launched the Monty Cantsin idea in 1977 as a reaction against individualism in art and musical culture. and as a challenge to achieve fame by adopting the name of an open pop star. it can be seen how two of the five concepts I mentioned earlier. The genesis of Monty Cantsin (the original name was Monty Cantsins. Eerie Billy Haddock. Kantor initially used the name Monty Cantsin within the context of the "first major Neoist activities" which they named Portland Convenience Store Mysteries. namely challenging the dogma of truth and questioning the meaning of authority are explored with irony and cynicism. and continued using the name actively for many years. the scene involved Rhoda Mappo. As Stewart Home writes on Neoism as Negation & The Negation of Neoism (1993). the Neoboys. the open pop star" (Zack in N. Cees Francke. is central for an assessment of the birth of Monty Cantsin. temporarily. inclusive and anti-ideological grouping of individuals who saw themselves as artists opposed to the gallery 2 Together with David Zack and Maris Kundzins. David Zack. Patty Blaster.Cantsin. Steve Minor and also.to Kantor in Montreal. Monty Cantsin made its first appearance written as a name on a simple postcard. you are Monty Cantsin. with an additional "s" at the end) was embedded in the underground art. Dr. Al Ackerman and Maris Kundzin invented the concept of No Ism. following the mail art ethics that "people can share their art power". unpag.).O. John Shirley. during the late 1970s. 2010. In these initial attempts to bring Monty Cantsin to life. to mention just a few. "an open.
1995).brooklynrail. Plagiarism & Praxis by Stewart Home. published in The Brooklyn Rail. Reinhart Underwood Sevol and Alain Snyers. Napoleon Moffatt. Neoism took on concrete form in 1979 when Kantor moved back to Montréal in Canada and entered into contact with a group of young French Canadian artists. No Ism gave life to Neoism. 2011. led to the mail art show The Brain in the Mail. which is perhaps the negation of a movement itself. As Istvan Kantor says during an interview with Daniel Baird. 1979 and mostly it is considered to be 80 4 5 . according to tENTATIVELY a cONVENIENCE (pseudonym of Michael Tolson). is actually a clear indication that Neoism could be considered a constant paradox.system"3. "Neoism is. It is almost impossible to reconstruct a history of Neoism (and. Indeed. June 2004 (www. a prefix and a suffix without anything in between". 87). furthermore. arrived at through a synthesis of websites. according to the most accepted narrative today. The fact that even the same author generates a contradiction through his two explanations of the roots of Neoism (which could be a development of ISM but also of No Ism). 1979.htm. AK Press. Since that time. Home writes: "What can be ascertained with certainty is that Kantor had spent some time at the Portland Academy in 1978 and returned to Montreal with the concepts of Monty Cantsin and ISM which Zack. Written by Stewart Home in April 1993 for the Negation: The Last Book edited by Jack Sergeant (where it never appeared . above all. p. But. because its members were encouraged to spread fake stories and contradictory definitions of the movement.the text was subsequently included in the book Neoism. Niels Lomholt. interviews and rare Neoist publications. in the book The Assault on Culture. organised by Kantor and opened at Vehicule Art on February 14. 1988. refusing any attempt to achieve any degree of historical certainty about their activities. who joined Neoism in the early Eighties.org/2004/06/art/istvan-kantor): "The opening of the Brain In the Mail show took place on February 14. Among the group of young Canadian artists were: Kiki Bonbon (pseudonym of JeanLuc Bonspeil). a date considered by Istvan Kantor to be the beginning of Neoism5. Ackerman and their group had been developing" (Home. pointing out the potential openness of the movement. offering up Monty Cantsin as a pseudonym which anyone could borrow4. The connection with the young artists around the Vehicule Art group. retrieved on April 21.org/neoism/neoneg. is beyond the scope of this chapter). Lion Lazer. Kantor and the rest of 3 From: www. However.stewarthomesociety. According to Home.
But Kantor gave no clear definitions. Most popular of all were the Blood Campaigns. creating an interesting diffuse and un-linear narrative on the subject. As can be read in the website The Seven by Nine Squares.the young crowd of artists started to organize radical anti-art events in art galleries. As Istvan Kantor recalls. ambiguities and aporias. mention should be made of the homonymous section "Truth" in The Seven by Nine Squares. Even though I came up with the name only a couple of months later and typed the word Neoism for the first time on a Smith-Corona typewriter on May 1. […] Neoism was only a name. As he says. individuality. I came up with this name because it didn't really mean anything. Retrieved from The Seven by Nine Squares April 21. London 1988. Some events were flaming iron rituals or flaming-actions in art spaces – being the flaming steam iron part of the Neoist iconography – as a reaction to the immobility of the art system. at 1100 McGregor Street. 1979. raising contradictions. value and truth"6. which contains large amounts of links and texts. Therefore I proposed Neoism. "I felt there was a need for something else to extend the Monty Cantsin concept. in: The Festival of Plagiarism. as Stewart Home points out.thing. it was Election Day and he decided to bring Neoism onto the street. and Hallowmass and Supper (1979) – lifting the food motif from the Fluxfeasts. western philosophic notions of identity. 81 . The people were curious and they thought it was part of a political campaign. and basically that was it. to be really exact". in Apt. The idea is to create an 'open situation' for which no one in particular is responsible. a series of events in which Kantor used his blood in performances such as Red Supper. just a regular folding chair with a Neoism sign attached to it. I didn't have any manifesto – I did write a one-sentence manifesto that said 'Neoism has no manifesto'" (Kantor in D. 215. 2004).de/projekte/7:9%23/ multiple_names. collective situations where groups of people gathered. "Multiple names are connected to radical theories of play. Some proponents of the concept also claim that it is a way to practically examine. Another "origin myth" of the movement suggests that The Neoist Chair was the first "official" Neoist event. and break down. not always coherent with one another. He asked people to sit on a Neoist chair.html. held on May 22 1979 in downtown Montreal. 2011: www. The challenge of truth is crucial for understanding what lies behind Monty Cantsin. 6 "Multiple Names" by Stewart Home. which in essence is a multiple name that challenges every linear and orthodox way of thinking. Baird. To understand the importance of challenging the truth within Neoism. the beginning of Neoism.
including various activities such as conferences and performances. spreading from U. From the end of the 1970s Neoism became a conspiracy network (The Neoist Network-Web). and habitation manoeuvres. As we read in the Wikipedia definition of Neoism. weeklong events taking place in the apartments of Neoists.A and Canada to Europe (in particular. artists and political groups since the late 1980s. but also of connecting people together through informal situations. England. The two authors. drills. who are either inspired by Neoism or oppose it8.org/neoism/ninesq.org/wiki/Neoism. and also. a self-written legend and thus has become very appealing for other artistic subcultures. the paradoxical aspects of Neoism.stewarthomesociety.htm. expressed mostly by the Neoist Apartment Festivals (APTs). even while collaborating. they are self-contained signs and that everything done with them affects what they represent"7. have two contradictory notions about Neoism – Stewart Home placing Neoism in the context of the twentieth-century Avant-gardes.S.Neoism started as an idea without a clear definition. They were the fêtes mobiles of the Neoist Network Web. according to Florian Cramer.wikipedia. Therefore. April 21. 2011. Psychogeography & Epistemological Trepidation (sic). As Kantor recalls: 7 8 Retrieved from: www. while Florian Cramer presents Neoism as an epistemological experiment in speculation. "rather than simply being arbitrary. retrieved April 21. What emerges through reading the letters in The House of Nine Square is that. In the book The House of Nine Square (1997). edited by Stewart Home and Florian Cramer. peaking between 1980-1986. to quote Stewart Home. every narrative constructed around Neoism is inaccurate and manipulative. with the chief objective of gatherings. The Neoist Apartment Festivals (14 in total. plus a European Training Camp in 1982) are probably the best exemplification of Neoism in terms of (social) networking strategy. 2011: http:// en. Neoism might be considered a movement which proclaims itself to be an anti-movement. Germany and Italy). and the challenge of the truth come to the fore. 82 . a collection of letters about Neoism. an empty concept to be appropriated: later it developed into an international subcultural network that collectively used the Monty Cantsin pseudonym. and that Monty Cantsin and Neoism.
having discussions. at the second APT in 1981. and so on" (Kantor in D. comes from Baltimore and has been active with the Krononautic Organism (a time travellers' society). Mad Scientist Didactions. For example. Uncerts. whose structure can be followed online and which he defines: "A Mere Outline for One Aspect of a Book on Mystery Catalysts. exercising. eating. like cooking. Currently tENTATIVELY is writing a book. which he acted out during the SubGenius 1983 Congress in Baltimore. 2011: www. The purpose of the 9 tENTATIVELY. invading public places. Psychopathfinding. Air Dressing. We also introduced the training camp concept that was somewhat the same idea of living together but more focused on the philosophical aspects of doing things. a section of The Seven by Nine Squares written by tENTATIVELY. working in the garden. Practicing Promotextuality. 1983. several members of the Krononautic Society assisted the event. Once you joined Neoism you didn't just sell your soul to Neoism. Imp Activism. we read a short and clear definition of Neoism: "Neoism is a mind game. 83 ." (Retrieved on April 22. bringing other subcultures into the fold as well. CircumSubstantial Playing. In A Few Simple Statements about Neoism (1994). but your living space. Acts of As-Beenism. in the streets. who was also involved in The Church of the SubGenius9 and whose attempt at making of Neoism a participatory network is well documented from his involvement in the APT Festivals – he personally promoted the APT 7 in Baltimore. who defines himself a Mad Scientist / d-composer / Sound Thinker / Thought Collector. tENTATIVELY. booed music. a cONVENIENCE. on the beach. tENTATIVELY. Among them."For a while we pulled out all Neoist activities from institutional places and only performed in our own apartments. making Neoist altars. a cONVENIENCE.fyi. having sex.html). 2004) The International Apartment Festivals – the first occurred in September 1980 at No-Galero in Montréal – helped to expand the Neoist network. your 'Lebensraum' became part of the network as well. The Church of the SubGenius – in which he's a saint – and became popular for his performance "Pee Dog/Poop Dog Copyright Violation Ritual". Baird. dancing with flaming irons. etc. up on the roofs. neoism. So-Called Whatevers. in clubs. Later the apartment concept was extended to the entire city so activities could take place anywhere.net/~anon/MereOutlineIndex. naked and covered in white greasepaint. was arrested while beating a dead dog in an abandoned railway tunnel. Nuclear Brain Physics Surgery School. Guerrilla Playfare.
Cantsin. He also argues: "One of the main functions of an improper name is to empower a subaltern social group by providing anonymity and a medium for mutual recognition to its users" (ibidem. p.) and in this respect the notion of questioning the meaning of authority takes on a peculiar meaning. who didn't often manage to go beyond their singular identities.de/projekte/7:9%23/tent_neoism. it is also worth mentioning the magazine Smile. Not all mind games are Neoism"10. it was not completely protected from over-identification and personal competition. as Deseriis points out (Deseriis. 48). which was a parody of the magazine File launched by "General Idea" in 1972. 2010. It was created in order to question authorship and promote anonymity by propagating plagiarism and.html. But even if Neoism was about sharing and cooperation between people. 10 The association goes directly to the zine Vile created by the Canadian mail artist Anna Banana. However. 2010. No-one is a Neoist all the time. unpag. the name Monty Cantsin was not always able to guarantee this openness and to completely obfuscate the identity of its "users". or using different pseudonyms.game is to provide stimulus for the players. which soon became the zine of Neoism. 2). the members did not always manage to put their egos and temperaments to one side (as David Zack underlines in N. No doubt in part because perhaps this was not From: www. p. Marco Deseriis describes the concept of improper names pointing out that they are explicitly constructed to obfuscate both the identity and number of its referents (Deseriis. the contents included plagiarism of mail art works and plagiarism of previous Smile issues11. p. but because Monty Cantsin was connected to physical individuals. 2010. 2010). retrieved on April 22. Playing the game comes naturally to the players. People who aren't sure that they're Neoists aren't Neoists. indeed. launched by Stewart Home in February 1984. for example. When analysing the movement through the interwoven actions and interventions of various individuals. is quite peculiar because of its presentation of Neoism as a distributed network of people.O. The above-mentioned text written by tENTATIVELY. followed by a list of "Neoist-Mind Game Players". in the case of Neoism. In his PhD dissertation Improper Names: The Minor Politics of Collective Pseudonyms and Multiple-Use Names (NYU. tried to challenge authority by claiming to be Monty Cantsin. 3). The Neoist members. 2011. 11 84 .thing.
thereby becoming a source of inspiration for many subsequent members of underground networks The use of "speculation" in this context is related to the idea of deconstructing and negotiating the meaning of truth and identity in unstable artistic networks in the underground framework of the Eighties and Nineties. It is likely that such a constant renegotiation of meanings made it difficult for Neoism to spread in any pervasive way. being therefore a sort of dialectical image where the opposites coexist – thereby alluding to my reflections on Walter Benjamin's dialectical approach described in the previous chapter. This is a contributory factor as to why Stewart Home left the group in 1986. It is not directly related to the exploration of speculative realism and post-continental philosophy developed recently in the Journal of Speculative Realism (www. "by letting individuals appropriate Cantsin as a self-promotional banner.the central aim of some of the members. p. such over-identifications were unavoidable in a context where art practices and personal lives were so intertwined. However. 2010.g. It is a network and an anti-network. 247). the one between Home and Kantor). it suddenly transformed into something else. and. but this doesn't necessary demonstrate its failure. the harsh polemics over the "proper use" of Monty Cantsin (e.com/speculations). and the issue of who has the authority to speak on behalf of the multiple name made the group lose strength as well as denting enthusiasm among its members (Deseriis. 225). This occurred to the point that. the problem of over-identification caused many tensions. even if a minor one. as Deseriis underlines. the Festival of Plagiarisms (1988-1989) and the Art Strikes (1990-1993). however. they demonstrated the contradictory aspects of Neoism that were deeply rooted in the movement. it symbolises at one and the same time both the construction of a network and its deconstruction12. Monty Cantsin reached an audience. especially in respect to his/her speculative being. some members of the movement somehow got trapped into it. but it managed to influence future generations of artists and activists anyway. and tried instead to push more politically driven alternatives such as the open concept Karen Eliot. moreover.publicpraxis. a collective signature for artworks. they unleashed unspoken jealousies and rivalries that undermined the collaborative spirit of networking" (ibidem. who wanted to act as open pop stars. it is Neoism and Anti-Neoism. and even while Neoism was trying to challenge the notion of authority. 12 85 . If Neoism takes shape through speculations and paradoxes. In a viral form. Furthermore.
the negotiation of truth. communication and techniques of cultural and symbolic representation. and before it. 2011). 13 86 . Anna Adamolo – for which Neoism serves as a predecessor. the fourth factor connecting sub-cultural movements which use the network strategy as a central modality for development. In the essay: CLICK THIS? MySpace & the Pornography of Corporately Controlled Virtual Life (2009. London: Diffussion generator. Some artistic and political practices can still be found – I will describe one of them later. This is not the case however for Stewart Home. brings us back to the experience of the Luther Blissett Project (LBP). as will be analysed in the next chapter in context of the Anonymous entity. many social media users simply use the pseudonym Monty Cantsin as a profile name and as a vehicle for propaganda. who since the emergence of Web 2.org/praxis/myspace. In the case of the Luther Blissett Project (the network sharing the "Luther Blissett" identity). Stewart Home describes his explorations of social networking as the fake identity Mister Trippy started on MySpace in the spring of 2006. and networking as disruption of consumer capitalism become possible strategies for performing criticism beyond opposition. without really reflecting on the nature of the platform itself.stewarthomesociety. which worked deeply with language. even if they do not seem to be applying any practices of disruption in that context13. and many Monty Cantsins are still alive and well within social media such as Facebook. Deconstruction of identity.5 Mythologies of Demystification The topic of creating a collective myth. the mythological component acquired a subversive As far as I can judge.htm (Retrieved August 9.0 is using disruptive techniques of networking and communication to create paradoxes and fakes in blogs and social media. Online at: www. No profit publication). 2.whose activities still contribute to the perpetuation of a collective myth today. and for generating disorder from within the technological and economic systems. The practice of constricting networks through multiple-use names or shared identities becomes central towards gaining an understanding of new forms of disruption and play which intertwine in the creation of contemporary Internet actions. to that of The Church of the SubGenius.
the new semiology – or the new mythology – can no longer (or will no longer be able to) separate so easily the signifier from the signified. absolute and progressive way of thinking. We can understand this meaning of myth as a shared phantasmagoria only if we try to break free from a vision of history as continuum. and . but it has become mythic itself […]. reconnecting us to the analysis of aporias and paradoxes as disruptive art practices already described in the previous chapter. the ideological from the phraseological. to the point that we could define Blissett's methodology as being both the construction of a mythology and its demystification (or demythification). Walter Benjamin is once again a significant source of inspiration – as it was for Luther Blissett too. thereby linking myth and de-mythification together. connecting the idea of myth with its demythification offers an interesting angle towards explaining the methodologies of the underground subcultures we will be analysing.aim. Peppino e la guerra psichica (Totò. written by Luther Blissett in 1996. a corpus of phrases. Quoting Ronald Barthes in The Rustle of Language (1989): "With regard to myth. as we read in the book Totò. a shared myth of origin and a strategy of building unstable networks. The strength of the practitioners of such techniques was in being disruptive and constructive at one and the same time. Even if Barthes describes mythology as a conservative practice used to establish power and control upon society (which is why we need a process of de-mystification). 1989.after having exposed their limits . where Walter 87 . and though this is still a task which remains to be accomplished. Following this vision of history as constant renegotiation. first breaking the rules. a catechistic statement" (Barthes.creating a new perspective by which to see critical engagement. which goes beyond a linear. History becomes a fictional construct. an assemblage of fragments. in other words a new mythological endoxa had been created: demystification (or demythification) has itself become a discourse. Luther Blissett dismantled common rules by creating an alternative set of shared parameters. Peppino and the Psychic War). showing that history is a constant construction of a plot. 66). p. Not that this distinction is false or ineffectual.
Peppino e la guerra psichica: "La storia è oggetto di una costruzione il cui luogo non è il tempo omogeneo e vuoto. such that on one side lies 'the productive' 'forwardlooking'. Luther Blissett was a multi-use name. And so on. spreading from Italy to the rest of Europe. within various 'fields' of any epoch. and on the other side the abortive. ma quello pieno di 'attualità' [Jetztzeit]".PDF. It is therefore of decisive importance that a new partition be applied to this initially excluded. negative component so that. but in that which is fulfilled by the here-and-now [Jetztzeit]"14. every negation has its value solely as background for the delineation of the lively. a positive element emerges anew in it too – something different from the previously signified. As Benjamin writes in On The Theory of Knowledge.Benjamin's 14th thesis on history is quoted: "History is the object of a construction whose place is formed not in homogenous and empty time. p. This reflection. 1999. Theory of Progress: "It is very easy to establish oppositions. allows us to reflect on the meaning of disruption as an artistic practice. by a displacement of an angle of vision (but not of the criteria!). The very contours of the positive elements will appear distinctly only insofar as this element is set off against the negative. ad infinitum. and as an emerging context of criticism beyond opposition. 'lively'. the positive. intertwining the present and the past in a frozen configuration. a shared identity adopted by hundreds of artists and activists all over Europe from the summer of 1994. the retrograde.efn. 'positive' part of an epoch. On the other hand. retrieved august 19. a collective alias. 14 Italian translation in Totò. 459). org/~dredmond/Theses_on_History. according to determinate points of view. The English translation quoted above is by Dennis Redmond and it is the closest version I found to the Italian one published in the Blissett's book (see: www. Walter Benjamin's notion of history. 88 . and obsolescent. until the entire past is brought into the present in a historical apocastasis" (Benjamin. which brings the positive and the negative together in the configuration of an historical dialectical image. 2011). can be applied to Blissett's methodology if we consider that mythology for Luther Blissett was a tool for disruption and liberation at one and the same time.
to the United States and South America. combining the idea of anonymity with the negation of a singular identity in favour of a shared philosophy. it was missing what [the Italian singer] Franco Battiato described as 'a centre of permanent gravity'. Vittore Baroni. not only due to its use of a multiple name. who was part of the Luther Blissett project from the outset. Once upon a time you would go to see a concert like Woodstock and on the stage you would see 'mythological' people. Baroni analyses how the construction of a shared mythology might lead to a rethinking of strategies of artistic interventions. describes the genesis of the phenomenon as being connected to today's practice of networking in social media. disjunctions. If a song like Give Peace a Chance was sung by millions of people in a square during a protest. but also disjunctions with Neoism. With the aim of disrupting the cultural industry. Today in the network dynamics we see an explosion of artificial democracy and equality. at the same time. the subject of individual responsibilities tends to crumble in an undifferentiated mass of fragmented data. Here. being more often a pseudonym than a multiple identity. Luther Blissett was able to create a common phantasmagoria and became a popular phenomenon throughout the 1990s. with the practice of social networking: "We realised that a certain mythology of practices and ways of thinking were missing. as we have seen. The LBP can therefore be seen as an example of a fertile networking strategy. Contrary to Neoism. By the way. which creates a total opacity. while reflecting on some connections and. the LBP – at least in its early phase – managed to solve the problem of over-identification by the network's members with the multi-use name. which could be defined as the applied myth of a common cause. Here we can see associations. Once upon a time people like John Lennon were able to create a song that had meaning because he was the one creating it. but also because it was perceived by an audience that contributed to spread it through people's imagination. so much attractors as lightning conductors and energy diffusers. the multi-use name Monty Cantsin was to a large degree related to specific individuals. The LBP was rooted in Neoism. but also because many Luthers themselves were also Neoists. a virtuous circuit would be created that contained the artist and the public together. 89 .
In the frenzy of equality of Web 2. guaranteed income to all). fighting for "reddito garantito". and was predominantly active in the cities 90 . with its questioning of authority. behind the multiple-use of the Luther Blissett name was a need for a new mythology.0 the most satisfied are those who have the power. he was the face of everyone. etc. but people have the illusion that there is full freedom and the possibility for everyone to have their fifteen minutes of fame. turning their actions into long-lasting collective performances. an open identity that could be adapted to everyone. trying to combat the status quo by finding tricks and subliminal tactics to exploit conformist ways of thinking. But it would be a mistake to consider Luther Blissett as a radical left political project. if we consider the Italian political situation prevalent at the time. because it also implied a deep criticism of the very concept of politics. Even if many Luthers worked to disrupt capitalism (for example. I think that current social networks are reality shows for everyone. and the mechanism of political representation. they also tried to appropriate pop culture for their own ironic purposes.). which heralded the creation of a "folk hero". Now we just have to transform the reality show into a cultural programme (which is a difficult task!)" (Baroni in Bazzichelli. to all those wanting to subvert the cultural industry and the hierarchical mechanisms of power (media power. because the problems are still the same. Luther Blissett managed to be so inspiring to so many because he became a cultural symbol that could be freely appropriated and personalised. unpag. A kind of "Robin Hood of the information age". political power. In Italy. a symbolic suicide orchestrated by some of the early "conspirators" involved in the LBP – Luther Blissett became an icon for students and activists involved in the underground scene. leadership. the network was mostly connected with the Social Centre (centri sociali) scene. 2009a. sexual power. According to Baroni. or at least.). This multiple-use name was the perfect "tool" that could be used strategically by a generation of activists and students growing up immersed in the informational society – a society whose media system was becoming increasingly monopolised. Between 1994 and 1999 – the year of Blissett's Seppuku. as described in their website by the Wu Ming group of novelists (considered to be among the "veterans" of the LBP). Being the face of nobody.
Sometimes the course programme. but it definitively influenced me. anarchism and street art (Tozzi.eu/the-book 16 I was part of this young crowd. Some years later. section 8: Media Homeopathy (p. the students having a tape recorder. but was also the less documented. Then they introduced the character (Luther Blissett). A generation of young people.of Bologna. such as Daniele Vasquez and Fabrizio Carli. advertising jingles. hacker culture. who had grown up influenced by political antagonism. I got to know some of the Roman Luthers better (among them. 321-329) 15 For a deeper analysis of the early politicization of cyberculture in Italy. I also recall hearing for the first time the "voice" of Luther Blissett. immersing myself deeper into this common phantasmagoria. Luca Nobile and Andrea Tiddi). providing deep insights into the practice of psychogeography in the city of Rome. The Luther Blissett scene in Viterbo was very important for the development of the movement. it is deeply explored by Marco Deseriis in his PhD dissertation (2010). see Chapter 2 (Towards the Cyber Utopias) of my book Networking: The Net as Artwork (Costa & Nolan. getting to know some colleagues who were very active in the network. electronic experimentations. punk and rock music. which was commonly practiced in the Roman Luther Blissett Project. during my involvement in the AvANa hacker collective at the Forte Prenestino social centre. a huge picture of Luther flanked by two candles. as well as the diffusion of network communication among cultural activists who were using independent BBSes (Bulletin Board Systems) for networking and propaganda purposes. Online version at: http://networkingart. The Mythmaker". This period saw the spread of cyberpunk culture (and in the unique manner by which this happened in Italy. I was not actively part of the Luther Blissett Project at that time. One episode that got into my mind like a shot was a Luther Blissett "ritual" when I was studying Cultural Anthropology in 1994. A group of students entered the room carrying a Luther Blissett altar. The practices of the opposition in the 1980s. 2006 / DARC. run by Massimo Canevacci. Andrea Natella. Here is where the practice of demystification (or de-mythification) arises as a form enabling a symbolic "re-appropriation" of culture and language. when studying Sociology at the "La Sapienza" University in Rome between 1993 and 1999. songs from popular TV series and Japanese anime cartoons (the latter performed by the Toretta Style music event at the Forte Prenestino Social Centre in Rome) was ready to embrace this newborn folk hero17. 1991) now found themselves in an unusual confluence with pop culture. 2008). presented ex-chatedra activities. Through a collection of inedited interviews. emitting a very fascinating synthesised collage of words. fusing subversive practices with mainstream media. 17 91 . and one of them was dedicated to Luther Blissett. which intertwined punk culture. it was therefore linked to a political agenda16). Rome and Viterbo15. in Chapter 4: "Luther Blissett.
creating the concept of a multiple-self. even if such knowledge was not decisive in the adoption of the name.This phenomenon came about through the generation of social and political disruption by the collective staging of stunts. the creation of a myth was central to the genesis of the Luther Blissett folk hero (even if probably not all the Luthers would agree with this). which worked both as a political statement and a critique of politics. that was able to transform the concept of identity into a mind game. most of all. nor for an understanding of the phenomenon's broader meaning. to reveal something of it a posteriori. The background anecdotes about its genesis only acquire importance once the "legend" is historically reconstructed. together with Neoism. when it becomes a familiar icon to many people. Its strength resides in the power that the symbol catalyses after its creation. sources of inspiration for the Luther Blissett multiple-use name was a networking project of an English mail artist who had diffused compositions and collages of football players including the Jamaican player Luther Blissett. To mention just some of the diverse genesis myths for the Luther Blissett character: "Luther Blissett's face was created by Andrea Alberti and Edi Bianco in 1994 by morphing old 1930's and 1940's portraits of Wu Ming 1's great-uncles" (as we read in the Wu Ming website). Indeed. The "folk hero" was formed by activists. As with many myths. to share in a sense of belonging. which implied the belief in radical practices. students and artists who could identify with propagating such a myth. the name of Luther Blissett derived from the name of the former Jamaican footballer who played for Watford and also – with less success – for Milan in the 1980s. but also an attempt to work creatively with media. urbanity and. making linguistic tricks and selfirony part of the political strategy. even if such anecdotes were not central to the creation of the Blissett mythology. According to the Wu Ming group of Italian novelists. antagonism 92 . identity. Luther Blissett was not only an attempt to rethink politics beyond the traditional concepts of opposition and clashes. The criticism against radical politics resulted in the rethinking of political antagonism beyond hierarchies and leadership. There is a specific narrative that has been constructed to augment the Luther Blissett "urban legend". However. almost irrelevant. pranks and media hoaxes. communication. they were still important for the members of the movement to feel a part of it. The LBP was one of the first underground subcultures. its genesis is simple.
Luther Blissett was therefore creating a self-mythology while at the same time embedding the art of disruption. as Wu Ming 5 describes: "The creation of myths – of stories. something with which it's possible to interact. the demystification component was also central). that is. foundational episodes and moments – is at the base of every human community. Situationism. they change. As we read on the Wu Ming website. often they're emptied of sense and remain mere rhetorical simulacra until someone comes along to reinterpret them. always claiming responsibility and explaining what bugs they had exploited to plant a fake story18. 18 93 . as something living. That is. Retrieved August 9. […]. To tell a story is a political activity in the primary sense of the word. to make a community. and especially the concept of dérive. they're shaped. as Wu Ming intends it. And so it has been from the dawn of time. as the spontaneous exploration of urban landscapes. has to do with this way of seeing myths and stories. Additionally. But if from an analytical point of view all myths have the same value. something collective. it was quite different from that of the Situationist International. To make a community is never From: www. by nature of its very loose structure. Thinking more in detail. any family group or small kinship clan recognizes itself through the stories of the parents. while disrupting pop culture and reflecting on the impact of media tactics (therefore. Because myths live in the midst of human events.com/english/biography. they take on different meanings. 2011. It was a myth that was also an expression of a communitarian political act. was a great source of inspiration – even if the Luther Blissett Project never claimed to be an avant-garde movement.html#1. aunts and uncles.and subversion. through the anecdotes that are repeated at every family reunion. the objective of the Luthers was to play elaborate media pranks as a form of art. a ritual without which those people would be almost unknown to each other. legends.wumingfoundation. grandparents. The activity of the storyteller. Because to tell a story is to share. it's not at all the case from a political point of view. exemplary events.
too). there were also many Luthers who decided to remain anonymous until 94 . Some Luther Blissett stories became more popular than others. developing a methodology based on the principles of inclusiveness. and often orchestrated though the use of network technology (many of the Italian Luther Blissetts were using Bulletin Board Systems to coordinate their activities. Of course. the members of the Wu Ming group. It became an "open reputation". to find significant symbolic stories.a neutral activity. is choosing which story to tell or the way to tell it. We often refer to the need to act narratively. […] What interests us more is presenting multiple communities and characters" (Wu Ming 5 in R. 258-259). the nodes of Bologna. because they managed to create a "reputation" (not only for the open character. Baird. Luther Blissett became so widespread among the underground culture of the 1990s because it reflected a multiple and open art of storytelling. but in the case of Luther Blissett we can state with some certainty that its main strategy was to question the meaning of the networking structure itself. However. It would be uncritical to say that embodying a multi-user identity or becoming an open pop star would solve the problem of representation or leadership in grassroots networks in its entirety. and neither. therefore. which will help us see the present from a new angle. 2006. who signed the book Q as Luther Blissett and who orchestrated the Luther Blissett Seppuku. Rome and Viterbo were the most active. What Wu Ming 5 states about the non-neutrality of making a community and choosing which story to tell is truly central for Luther Blissett as we have also seen for Neoism. bringing us back to the issue examined by Marco Deseriis in his PhD dissertation (2010). In Italy. as generated by a network of individuals. which the members were constantly renegotiating through their activities and writings. co-dividuals. pp. as for example. or better still. namely: who is actually allowed to use a collective name and for what purpose. but Luther Blissett was potentially open to appropriation by anyone. some people had more authority than others. such as the network of BBSes Cybernet). and that is why it spread so well in other countries too. among the Luthers. but for themselves. the death of the project in 1999. as we can read on the LBP website. P. There were of course Luthers who became more popular. The actions of the Luther Blissett Project were planned collectively.
It was the prophecy of the heretic Blissett" (Blissett. plagiarism and subversions. to advertise them and to transform and modify them through a constant flow of action and information. another networking myth was created: its origins go back to the early 1950s in the USA.the end. 30. R. Texas. p. a principal networking challenge facing the Luther Blissett Project. contributing to the creation of a shared imaginary – which. radio. […] This is the greatest advantage of the network. The challenge was to produce events. R. In the above-mentioned book Totò. "Bob" Dobbs. it is known that The Church of the SubGenius was founded originally in Dallas. while at the same time keeping in constant contact with each other and interacting at any time" (Blissett. to practice them. Philo Drummond in 1979. or majorities. people. but a 1950s-style comic figure. 31. my translation). a collective performance which was also a critique of the political: "without centres of power. And it was achieved through an international network. was founded by J. every method was permitted. "Bob" Dobbs is represented graphically as an iconic image of a man smoking a pipe. my translation). p. Clair Smith) and Dr. from cultural sabotage to media hoaxes. telephone or postal exchange. Peppino e la guerra psichica (1996). where it was given the name of The Church of the SubGenius which. "It had to be the first step toward putting into circulation ideas. rave-parties. though Stang himself 95 . despite the Seppuku is still alive today and is still inspiring generations of younger artists and writers. the individual links which will always be independent of each other. legends and all those things that break the continuum of the official history. we can read about The Networks of Events. political committees. theatre happenings and public demonstrations. 1996. The main idea was to start building up a planetary network of active participants (as Luther Blissett calls it) of autonomous groups and individuals able to coordinate their activities through every means of communication: from real-life relations to computer networks. As Luther Blissett states. Demystifying the mythical story. but only the man's face is visible. incidentally. but simply by applying to the various nodes of the network specific actions to which it is possible to join for free and freely. real or fake. 1996. J. by Reverend Ivan Stang (born Douglass St. Following our analysis of disruptive networks based on the creation of a common phantasmagoria. and in fact he is not a real man at all. before Luther Blissett and Monty Cantsin. as legend has it. the "world's greatest salesman".
Szukalski himself would never have believed this and would have reacted to it with horror. But. which was destroyed in the war. the Proton. Lovecraft. but there are also SubGenius thinkers.k. as Hal Robins (a. "Bob" Dobbs founded the organization in 1953. There used to be a museum devoted to his work. some writings of Szukalski.denies this and claims J. another member of the Church of the SubGenius – and a renowned underground comic artist and illustrator – recalls during an interview in San Francisco (December 2009) the icon of "Bob" came from a clip art phone directory for a local phone company. 96 . However. the yeti admixture was to the good and its descendants are SubGenii. or Dr. Hal. That is one current. ape-like forbear. and many others created out of his work. how their anatomies correspond to this yeti. Howland Owll). What goes into your life becomes part of your art. Then. drawings. Philo Drummond] grew up hearing this stuff all the time. the crazy religious background of the American south and southwest. His books are extremely peculiar. there are many literary influences and philosophical ones. and in the American south and southwest. publishing books. certain apes or ape-like beings intermarried with humans to create a lineage which includes all the evil dictators and oppressors of humanity and some of his books demonstrate with pictures of politicians. and one of them was that in the past. Dr. One of these was the Polish genius Stanislaw Szukalski. […] He was a big artist in Poland before the Second World War. one of them is called Behold. Our friend who recently died – Robert Anton Wilson – was important to us. R.a. And there is a coherent philosophy within it. produced the unified tenets of The Church of the SubGenius and its philosophy. He developed many theories. creating sculptures.P. And these two young men [Ivan Stang and Dr. we believe that instead of producing evil politicians and oppressors of humanity. He describes the genesis of the SubGenius as such: "In Texas. The horror writer H. the radio is full of screaming fanatical fundamentalist preachers shouting about hellfire and damnation. although we in the Church of the SubGenius accept this teaching.
a life 97 . clips from the various SubGenius events. pleasure and independence from authority and the limits experienced by conformist behaviour within society. where instead of victimisation. anarchic thoughts of rebellion and freedom. The aim of the Church is linked to the idea of libertarian satisfaction. modification and alteration of pre-existent film and video material. TV news and cable show clips. illustrations. freedom. but the slack has been stolen from us by an antagonist conspiracy.although there are many offshoots and sidetracks" (Robins in Bazzichelli. voices and texts – among the SubGenii are many visual artists. hackers and free thinkers – must oppose. such as American and Japanese science fiction movies of the 1950s. refusal and privation. "found-footage" clips. there exists a combination of anti-authoritarian behaviour. liberation. however. cynical and subliminal practices applied to media and communication. which means the acquisition of a sense of satisfaction. This is the conspiracy of normalized people – or so-called "pinks" – that the SubGenii – blasphemers. or just "doing nothing and getting what you want anyway". The belief of the Church of the SubGenius is intertwined with ironical. It is a celebration of an effort-free and pleasurable life. such as Paul Mavrides. Robert Crumb and the above-mentioned Harry S. which combines various media. 2009b) As can be seen. which even if it is not devoid of contradictions and paradoxes. plagiarism. old civil defence films. Among the techniques used by the SubGenii for their propaganda are détournement. The opposition. this myth holds significance for the SubGenii as well. self-created footage. The central philosophy and belief of the Church of the SubGenius and its members is the pursuit of total slack. Robins. creating satires that mock organised religions (such as Scientology. stating that humanity is born with Original Slack. for example). underground cartoonists and filmmakers. The result is an extremely visionary communication style. but also reflects a critical reflection on art and visual experimentation. The Church of the SubGenius is ludic religion. and fan clips. irony and cynicism. rebels. outcasts. doesn't imply the pursuit of radical political action or intervention – reflecting the way many people in the US interpret the concept of "politics" – but it comes through slack. constitutes a common basis for the development of a movement.
so slack is of considerable importance.org/wiki/Church_of_the_SubGenius. 1928-1929). it is not a pipe (Ceci n'est pas une pipe. on April 29 2011: http://en. as Dr. for a meaningless result. the Conspiracy. as well as producing visionary radio shows. The first invention of prehistoric people came in their leisure time. books and promotional material to spread the cult. The pipe is not a pipe. It encourages a symbolic appropriation. Leisure is the basis of culture.where you don't want to spend your time working for somebody else. 2009b). Slack means to restore meaning and value to the individual and to take it away from an unquestioned attachment to the undefined yet very real external group that we've given the name of Conspiracy" (Robins in Bazzichelli. 19 98 . Hal points out: "We do reject the system of values. a détournement of meanings: it is an act of disruption. and it has been defined as a cynisacreligion. information. which deeply influenced later visionary underground pop culture movements.wikipedia. The pipe of "Bob" symbolizes the mythology of the church: it is more than a pipe. because it is the image of a pipe. when they were not engaged in the work of survival and that sort of thing. You don't want to spend your time in meaningless toil. and the abstraction of this image means it can be used for different purposes. pamphlets. or better said. Slack is the opposite of tension. and it also represents leisure. Our chief value is slack. This is what we want to divert people from doing. Only in leisure can cultural creation and innovation come about. in ways it is not normally supposed to be used. It made use of (and still makes use of ) iconic and graphic symbolism. not the time that is dictated to you by the Conspiracy. The symbol Retrieved in Wikipedia. The Church of the SubGenius used Scientology double-talk as a parody in the mid-80s for its groundbreaking "Arise!" video and other Sub-genius productions19. creating disruptive interventions in the media and a meta-reflection on media culture as well. which represents anti-values. The Free Encyclopedia. "Church of the SubGenius" article. Slack time is the time that is your own time. by quoting the words painted by the Belgian surrealist René Magritte below a pipe. Comedy and parody are part of the structure of the Church and its rituals.
the aim of the Church is not to produce opposition. People can have it without the grief that comes from giving away their own time.binaries. as we can see from the recent symbol the SubGenii have created to brand the church. alt.becomes an icon. Their main power comes from not being questioned. gaining prominence in the 1980s and 1990s but going on to maintain an active presence on the Internet as well (the total membership in 2003 was close to 10. It was a social network before what is called social networking today. but as objects of contemplation.slack.000). in the mid-1990s dozens of DIY websites of the church spread through the Internet. We are aiming to provide slack. applying both strategies for networking and the ability to reflect on these strategies as well. in the 1990s. The pipe and the face (like the face of Luther Blissett) therefore become a symbol of a common belief.slack and alt. Symbols are the basis of art for us. Besides the fact that the SubGenii have been meeting every year since 1996 in New York State for the annual SubGenius meeting called "X Day". Hal describes the purpose of the Church and its difference with the experience of culture jamming and adbusting as follows: "We are not that pro-active as aggressors and attackers. we tend to try to alter the meaning of symbols with our parodies and our questioning of them. We treat them in a different fashion. taking their power from them. which is not of acceptance. However. We are creating slack by dissipating this tension. travelling across generations. not of opposition. not to generate profits. The slack is in the symbol more than in the thing. The result of our activity is to give people their time back. From simply being accepted. which is maintained by Ivan Stang. […] We create slack where they are creating tension. Another central aspect of our analysis is that The Church of the SubGenius was a widespread network. not of commerce. and a common practice as well. and a third 99 . Dr. We provide leisure on the basis of culture" (Robins in Bazzichelli. 2009b). and showing how to appropriate the symbols rather than the things. which is an abstract representation of Bob's face. but to pursue slack and leisure. the network of the SubGenius gave birth to two Usenet newsgroups. connected to the official SubGenius home page.
pp. Dr. his wife Princess Wei R.a. the Hour of Slack. alt. which very often characterises both revolutionary and reformist viewpoints as an attempt to create a consensual order in society. 2005. was created in 2005. Today. a consensual aim of struggle. as mentioned earlier when discussing with Lee Felsenstein the hacker ethics in California. a striving to dominate antagonistic groups (Day. transferring their actions from the logic of hegemony to decentralized networks and toward a more network-based logic of "affinity".k. and which he defines as the hegemony of hegemony (Day. what binds together such networks based on self-organisation and the selfdevelopment of alternative practices is more a logic of affinity rather than hegemony. Doe. it remains a creative symbol across the US and Europe for many people.slack.com. The creation of direct affinities. Day in the book Gramsci is Dead (2005). Hal Robins and Doug Wellman (a. it represents the aversion of the logic of hegemony as can be found in the US counterculture of the 1970s-1980s. and by destructuring normativity. a weekly radio programme. and voice comic Dave DeLuca (a. p. "Hegemony" is not seen as a form of oppression. reflecting on the assets of dominance. According to Day. but following the perspective of Antonio Gramsci. Hal Robins by asking him whatever question they wish. autonomous and post-colonialist groups which work through systems of situated subjectivities. 20 100 . also presents audio and visual collages by KROB. Lonesome Cowboy Dave) is still being broadcast. Such a perspective. As we will see in the next chapters. the "newest social movements" (those post-1980s) directly question a dominance-driven structure of political antagonism. The show. Hal". hosted by Stang. going beyond the old-fashioned idea of mass revolution. in San Francisco. 2005. Philo Drummond. as well as the visual puns of Yo-Yo King David Capurro. F.k. while in the Bay Area. 6-7).binaries.one. Even if the Church of the SubGenius has been in existence for thirty years. the focus has shifted towards "those struggles that seek to change the Hal Robins. control and power. together with Chicken John runs the show "Ask Dr.askdrhal. it is interpreted as a process. As Day points out. Richard Day criticises such logic. an interactive salon in which the audience can consult the oracular Dr.a. a common tension to acquire power. The official website is: www. sheds light on minorities. Puzzling Evidence) broadcast the show Puzzling Evidence that started back in 198220. describing the analysis of Richard J. 8). sheds light on critical practices perpetuated by networks of minorities.multimedia. hosted by Chicken John.
the artistic and hacktivist practices analysed here are not merely based on the production of art objects. These activities are pre-dated by the mail art projects of other networking pioneers. the former for 101 .root. Saper defines creative appropriation and subversive interventions in the standardized bureaucracy of contemporary society. mail artists used various methods to appropriate the bureaucracy of postal correspondence to create and disseminate their works of networking. the fifth factor which I argue linked underground network practices in the course of 1980s and 1990s. proposed the concept of intimate bureaucracy to describe practices of mail art. or the "blue stamp" of Yves Klein in the 1950s. In 2001. which work by understanding and consequently disrupting the systems of control and bureaucracy. For example. networked art and experimental visual poetry spanning the last half of the twentieth century. which value a logic of affinity rather than the politics of representation. that want to address not just the content of currents modes of domination and exploitation. p. such as Ben Vautier. S.6 Disrupting the Bureaucracy This section sheds light on the concept of disrupting the bureaucracy. Contents and practices are interlinked. envelopes and postcards. 2005. Saper. stickers. 4). a professor at the University of Central Florida. and the creative experimentation with stamps and postcards by some Fluxus artists. As I demonstrated earlier. but develop through relationships between individuals within social and artistic contexts of networking. often. Through his idea of intimate bureaucracy. but also the forms that give rise to them" (Day. giving rise to community-based networking practices. G. such as by self-producing postage stamps. such as Giacomo Balla and Francesco Cangiullo. rubber stamps. recognition and. 2. Boggs (Steve Litzner). dominance. The following examples suggest how to imagine alternative forms. Craig J. and which I will adopt as a comparative standpoint to analyse both hacker and art practices in the contemporary social media. Robert Watts and Mieko Shiomi. The list of artists who have endeavoured to transform bureaucracy into a work of art must certainly include the Italian mail artist Cavellini and the American artist J.
money) These artworks invent a gift-exchange community involved in a more intimate sense of transactions that we usually consider impersonal" (Saper. The cooperative network formed by the artist. As Craig J. the goods he purchased. The Boggs bills. but the network of transactions involved in trying to spend the bill as real money. the change he got. stamps) to create intimate aesthetic situations. For example. As a consequence. Often such artist's activities contribute to create a rupture in the status quo. logos. but they also develop innovative modalities of production. which becomes the real artwork. a $100 bill can be exchanged for $100 worth of goods. but the receipts. by proposing alternative paths in the economy and everyday life. x). also known as "Boggs bills". William Boggs worked critically on the issues of reproducibility and market disruption. xii). the 102 . A collector who wants to get hold of the art bills. events.. including the pleasures of sharing a special knowledge or a new language among a small network of participants" (Saper. Boggs banknotes constitute a performance in and of themselves: the real artwork is not the fake banknote created by the artist. and the latter for his series of self-produced Dollar banknotes. at the same time. As Saper points out. p. Saper points out: "An intimate bureaucracy makes poetic use of the trappings of large bureaucratic systems and producers (e.his encyclopaedic and systematic activities of self-historicization. "Bogg's work demonstrates the general phenomena found in a group of artworks concerned with transactions that create intimate relationships using the trappings of bureaucratic systems (stamps. transforming bureaucracy into a networking practice and an intimate exchange between individuals. corporate names. a challenge for creating unexpected connections. instructions. the idea of disrupting the bureaucracy is strongly connected with the above-mentioned concept of business disruption. p. the "objects" produced by the artist. sometimes. and. constitutes a clear example of the intimate appropriation of the market bureaucracy.g. the artworks are not solely the bills created by the artist. cancelling stamps. 2001. the collectors. 2001. in Boggs's case. has to track them down himself through the network of transactions. in circulation since 1984 and actually used by the artist as real banknotes until the American government forced him to suspend their production. At the same time. bureaucracy is seen as a parody of itself and. To describe the transaction involved in Boggs's disruption of bureaucracy. and. logos.
U. and other creative The F. who integrates himself directly into the society's economy.N. 2003 ibidem)21. China. common in the late Baroque period and in some (pre-mail art) postcards from the beginning 21 103 . free and open participation in the creative experience" (Baroni. p. African countries. was therefore created to imagine a utopian network of countries "preserving the biodiversity of cultures and encouraging an eco-friendly. by disrupting it. The project F. India and many other Asian countries were not involved in the "Ethernal Network". the promised land of Akademgorod by the Neoist network. Surrealville by buZ blurr (Russell L. and an independent and supranational organisation that was devoted to collaboration among all kinds of imaginary countries and worlds. even if mail art and networked art had the scope to create "horizontal networks". the NSK State by Neue Slowenische Kunst. but it wasn't flawless. (Funtastic United Nations). the idea of horizontality might often be no more than a utopia. such as George Maciunas' Fluxus Island. Another project in the context of networked art. patterns of collective activity and human cooperation which "affect both the production and consumption of art works" (Becker. Butler). Dogfish's Tui-Tui Islands.U. The concept was to dream up imaginary lands. but also the "cartographies of the soul". created in 2001 by the mail artists Vittore Baroni and Piermario Ciani.suppliers and the consumers is therefore what produces the work of art: a distribution system created by the artist himself. which worked to create unexpected interferences between art and daily life by disrupting the bureaucracy.). 1). The main purpose of this collective concept which dealt with fictitious worlds was to reflect on the strategies of networking itself. As Vittore Baroni points out. middle class. multi-ethnic and transgender. It is a good example of what Howard S. F. 2003 unpag. whose popularity spread only in the Western countries.N.U. Anna Banana's Queendom of Banana. where the passports. 1982. was F.U. the purpose of networking over the course of the past decades has been to destabilise the art market and the artstar system through interpersonal collaboration. literate class of people" and was not exempt from ego conflicts. the postal network involved mostly a "white.N. male. was a network which produced several collaborative publications. furthermore. Becker defined in 1982 as "art worlds". Harley's Terra Candella. postage stamps and banknotes are real. but not the wars" (Baroni.N concept followed in the footsteps of other similar projects which imagined "free zones" and utopian lands. "virtual countries. as has been described above.
David Zack. created by twenty international artists. as Vittore Baroni and Piermario Ciani pointed out (Mail 4 Fun.N constitutes the artwork. 2004). to hold back the depersonalisation of money transactions. from the series of 1 Dollar Bills produced in 1962 by the Fluxus artist Robert Watts. is described in the SUN of FUN. as the Funtastic United Nations. David Zack conceived together with Niels Lomholt (Denmark) and Horacio Zabala (Italy) a "10% Prison share" bill. in October 1981. Second Universal Nexus of Funtastic United Nations catalogue). for example. for the Bank of F. issued through Lomholt Formular Press. was often forced to escape from creditors. tENTATIVELY a cONVENIENCE. and many exhibition projects of mail art have been focused on artists' (fake) money. The creative currencies from the Bank of FUN. With a similar attitude. the Funtastic United Nations meetings (the second. follow a long tradition of artist's money. In 1979.U. 2002) 104 .Pay Me to Go Away' & wearing a parking meter hood over my face. Then I followed the drivers when they left their cars with an impassive face & my hand out-stretched mechanically. 2002).N project.U. and the banknote is already an artwork in itself. at the APT 4 in Montréal. as Istvan Kantor recalls. A similar methodology of disruption of bureaucratic systems. the Dollar Bills collages by Ray Johnson that came to light in Chicago in 1970. I stood at empty parking places & waited for cars to park there. rubberstamps. "which was basically a party to get drunk and glue unpaid gas and electricity bills to large pieces of cardboard" (Kantor in D. 2003. having value only if traded or used in the Funtastic United Nations. postcards (collected in the Mail 4 FUN survival kit. such as thematic artistamps. describing the action as follows: "Wearing sandwich boards that said in English & French: 'Neoist Parking Meter Action . who was conducting a nomadic lifestyle in a van with his family. the travelling artistamps show Philatelic FUN. held in 2005. p. staged the Neoist Parking Meter Action. Baird. between 1984 and 1988 (Baroni & Ciani. and a limited edition portfolio of art banknotes of the Funtastic Nations. so that at the end of the 1970s he invented the Unpaid Bills Collage Festival. the Bank of F. of the twentieth century.works created by the Funtastic United Networkers. AAA Edizioni. was practiced in the Neoist network. 9). Here also.
which started in 2000 with the "Haining's Irish Biketour in Eire and Round N Ireland (Arts)" – HIBERNIA project – ended five years later. Pete Horobin was involved in the mail art network and in Neoism.12.after which I left a Neoist Parking Ticket under their windshield wiper. known as "The Attic". but as Marshall Anderson and Peter Haining (the whole project is today known as The Attic Archive). Finally disgusted by what I thought was a mediocre response to my imaginative begging. After this project. DATA carried on for 10 years on a daily basis. which stands for Daily Action Time Archive. and it is also documented through drawings and films.O.1999 was a mixed media artist and freelance art journalist who worked with arts and crafts in Scotland. When I explained. Such work of self-historification. Marshall Anderson and Peter Haining. 2010. collaborations. However. the headquarters of Horobin's studio. two guys stopped me & asked me what I was doing. the eighth Neoist Apartment Festival in London.01. I started to walk back to the LOW theatre. The Attic Archive covers in total a period of more than thirty years. which resulted in an extraordinary collection of material. organising several Neoist Apartment Festivals (1984: APT 8. from 1990 to 2005. the activity of Peter Haining. correspondence. only this time no longer as Pete Horobin. En route.Cantsin. audio recordings. the artist documented two other phases of his life. from 1st January 1980 to 31st December 1989. filed daily and archived for 105 . 1985: APT 9. whose life is documented through Scottish landscape drawings and an assemblage of film material. Italy). It took the name DATA. based at 37 Union Street in Dundee. graphics. Marshall Anderson. journals.).1990 to 31. combining films. the artist having had three lives and three different names: Pete Horobin. the ninth Neoist Apartment Festival in Ponte Nossa. He documented every day of his life using various media. they thought it was so funny that they pretended to get out of a car & gave me money" (tENTATIVELY. small three-dimensional objects and photography. a cONVENIENCE in N. who lived from 01. mail art projects.The drivers all avoided me by walking somewhere where I wasn't . unpag. drawings. in the Neoist and mail art network the most impressive project of "intimate bureaucracy" and "disrupting bureaucracy" was realised by the Scottish artist Pete Horobin.
they disrupt the relational scheme between art and life. it was also considered recompense for every time 22 Another more recent artistic work of self-historification. but the network around them. Luther Blissett claims that the entertainment industry owes him money. but also messages. related directly with money and was titled: "I Need Money to Be an Artist". In the "Taxes Declaration" written by Luther Blissett in the "Rivista Mondiale di Guerra Psichica" (World Magazine of Psychic War. if we consider the idea of "reddito di cittadinanza". it was an urban action to strike back against the common old fashion idea of the artist as Bohemian.aksioma. without his/her knowledge. and other random objects. The first public artistic project of one of the three Janez Janša (born as Davide Grassi). It constitutes a tentative transformation of institutionalised and formalised automatisms from everyday life into an art performance. It is considered a refund for all the times that Luther Blissett. postcards (directed to the artist but also other people. A similar strategy can be found in the Luther Blissett Project.3. an urban installation presented first in Ljubljana. which was the name of the former Prime Minister of Slovenia. brining art into life instead of life into art. winter 19951996). is a clear demonstration of "intimate bureaucracy" as a combination of art and life. in Venice). dealing with the idea of disruption through the intertwining of public bureaucracy and intimate everyday life is realised by Janez Janša.org/i_ need_money). and it works poetically by building up a personal mythology through the art of storytelling22. Janša and Janša demonstrate through their work. Their practice is focused on the acts of changing one's personal name as a critical artistic methodology.thirty years. a shared political claim meaning guaranteed basic income for all the citizens. whether casually or in the background. It was an ironical attempt of reflecting on material exchange and on the boundaries between production and consumption in the everyday life of contemporary artists – by placing several yellow mail boxes. n. Lately. 106 . Slovenia (1996) and then in Venice. and therefore every citizen. the artist presented the goods collected in the mail boxes at the Kapelica gallery in Ljubljana. which creates a constant tension between what is public and what is private. They are three Slovenian artists – who all changed their names to Janez Janša. where the mail boxes were open to the public – not containing only money. and the meaning of "mediation" in the art. In this case. at specific locations in Ljubljana (and later. Janez Janša and Janez Janša. upon which the artist wrote the statement "I Need Money to Be an Artist". like for the examples of Boggs banknotes and the archive of Pete Horobin. letters. The concept of disrupting the bureaucracy by turning it into self-representative performance and an intimate art practice acts as a common ground for the early "social networks" described in this chapter. being the yellow boxes mistaken for real white postal boxes). – in the summer of 2007. Italy (www. has appeared on television. As the artist points out. in film or on the radio. what is central are not the collected objects per se. As Janša.
or when defining marketing strategies. It reflects on such issues as the crisis in capitalism. 23 107 . which became a huge debate in Italy involving various political parties and activist groups.net/archive/139_it. Clearly embracing political reflection. The basic income for all the citizens was a crucial political issue in Italy during the 1990s. and combined different political approaches by analysing the changes in politics and society from the mid 1970s until the early years of the new century. suits. backpacks. is "the multiple and the varied".lutherblissett. Peppino e la guerra psichica (AAA Editions. socks. 1996). the result is to get "a lot of money because I am many". Now the whole of society In another article. which began in Italy at the end of the Seventies (and the Italian Autonomia was a direct exemplification of this). or by the daily wearing of t-shirts. Towards a society without work). The entire cycle of work production has largely bypassed the walls of the factory for all to society as a whole. published in January 1996 and later in the book Totò. and as usual. to be used as normal currency for transactions inside Social Centres. then the industries have to pay for this. named "Lettera aperta di Luther Blissett a tutti i centri sociali (e non solo a loro)". jackets. because Luther Blissett. towels with brands and advertising slogans. Luther Blissett proposes to substitute the Italian banknotes (liras) with banknotes of Luther Blissett. In the book Reddito di cittadinanza: Verso una società del non lavoro (Basic Income Guarantee. and his identity belongs to everyone. money for Luther Blissett and therefore for all citizens. The argument of the basic income guarantee was a proposed system of social security. The letter is also published online in the official Luther Blissett website: www. as Luther Blissett points out. Andrea Tiddi and Agostino Mantegna point out: "The factory can no longer be regarded as the central place of spatial and temporal work production. the initiatives and interventions of Luther Blissett became an occasion to reflect on social and political dynamics23.html. the crisis in the Welfare State. Agostino Mantegna and Andrea Tiddi describe the divergent political perspectives surrounding the definition and formulation of such a hypothesis. or to increase the productivity of firms. If Luthers' bodies are unconsciously used as billboards. providing each citizen with a sum of money.industries have used personal citizen's data as part of their statistical calculations. ("Open Letter From Luther Blissett To All Social Centres (And Not Only Them)". immaterial labour and the increasing precariousness of working conditions.
It is a mirror of a deep social and political transformation. where symbols and languages are mixed up and recombined through a constant assemblage of codes. so to say. on social and political dynamics. hackers and artists. In these contexts the practice of networking becomes a distributed strategy for collectively developing political and social criticism. As was mentioned in the previous chapter. p. it becomes the perfect stage for producing artistic and activist interventions. techno-scientific and affective commodities. fluid interferences in the everyday stream of events in life. intellectual. The crystallisation of the social factory. where clashing political antagonisms are translated into more subliminal actions. my translation). as will be described though the analysis of three case studies in the next chapter. and. If we apply this concept to the contemporary practices of activists. resulting in a shift of critical reflections among artists and activists as well. spreading consumption and not productive work. in other words by the specific rules of capitalistic production. Luther Blissett. Work production changes from a linear scheme into a complex process relating to the ever more developing social networks of cooperation" (Mantegna & Tiddi.is to be. points out that they logically replace the centrality of the social factory. together with the other disruptive art projects presented here. describing the analysis of Walter Benjamin on the passages. more generally. are clear examples of the changing focus of intervention from the production factory to that of everyday life. Massimo Canevacci. it is evident that their creative methodology becomes a disruption from within. of automatic bureaucracy and of encompassing political schemes is shaken by a flow of mobile interventions that reflect on the meaning of network cooperation. governed by the factory's regulations. 108 . Production is increasingly detached from physical performance and basically takes the form of manipulation of relational. 14. spreading empathic identification and not alienation. With the network of cooperation being an increasingly sensitive territory for the rewriting of symbolic codes and a central setting of political and economic fluctuations. 2000.
109 .
110 .
As I wrote in the previous chapter. These hacker interventions foster a critical understanding of contemporary informational power and enable possible avenues for political and artistic actions via the construction of decentralised networks. questions a political strategy involving radical clashes of forces which struggle for change by dominating their opponent. Day considers the logic of hegemony described by Antonio Gramsci as an attempt to 'lead' kindred and allied groups (Gramsci. so as to enable a methodology of political action that leads directly to a critique of oppositional hegemonic practices. 8). bearing a direct relationship to the concepts described in the previous chapters. 2005. Day observes that even in politically Leftist groups. proposing on the contrary a practice-based logic of affinity to interpret contemporary network-based social and political movements. drawing together post-anarchism (Gustav Landauer) and post-structuralism (Michel Foucault. this notion of "hegemony" is prompted by the reflections of Richard J. Such analysis.1 Towards a Critique of Hegemony in Participatory Networks This chapter presents a selection of three case studies relating to the topic of disruptive art in networks. p. Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari). Such interventions must be considered within the broader question of subjective participation and identity construction in unstable networks. proposing instead projects and situations that operate "non-hegemonically rather than counterhegemonically" (Day. 1971). Day in his book Gramsci is Dead: Anarchist Currents in the Newest Social Movements (2005). a commonly prevalent attitude is to establish a counter-hegemony which works 111 . F. These case studies combine multiple identity projects and hacker practices with distributed networking strategies to generate political and social criticism within the framework of art and social networking.3 When Art Goes Disruptive 3.
pp. personal and political. 2005. "Power is seen as disseminated through many relationships. In such a context political revolution makes no sense. By addressing the fluidity of networking dynamics. 133-134). disorder. a Neoist intervention at the rebel:art festival in Berlin in Germany (April 2004). p. inversion of radical 112 . They contest the hegemony of a specific entity (be it individual or collective) and the battle for dominance of a specific position (both in the art and in politics). 2005. rethinking the meaning of oppositional practices in art. using "non-universalizing. non-hierarchical.from 'below' in favour of the 'oppressed'. but more specifically. As I wrote previously. 2005. but also generate a meta-critique of themselves. 8). non-coercive relationships based on mutual aid and shared ethical commitments" (Day. discursive and material. The first case study. 8) to achieve social change. The case studies presented here follow on from the reflections on the multiple-identity and multiple-use name practices as described in previous chapters. shows how the concept of disruption can be applied through artistic practices which generate confusion. The strategy of disruptive innovation as a model for artistic creation is therefore described as a challenge to the re-invention and rewriting of symbolic and expressive codes. they all play with and challenge the notion of power and hegemony among radical groups. But such an attitude commonly results in remaining trapped within the oppositional logic of power against power. the challenge becomes to provoke a dialectic of paradoxes. The aim of my analysis is to conceive of and describe more flexible viral actions as relevant responses to the ubiquity of capitalism. no leader one could assassinate. p. as there is no building one could seize. […] [P]ower does not emanate from a single point. they generate socio-political criticism. Once again quoting Richard Day. and disturbance. The challenge instead is to devise non-branded strategies and tactics. in order to eliminate power effects and achieve a transparent society. hacktivism and social networking. every day and every night. structures and aims. but flows through all points" (Day. of their objectives. The case studies here described operate not only as a political and social critique of specific phenomena (from the art system to education policy and the structure of corporate media). leading to what Day defines as the hegemony of hegemony (Day. while the act of creating disruption becomes an art practice in its own right.
from blogs to social media (as some members of certain hacker and activist communities would do). Such inversion of parameters. They act virally from within the systems. they do not propose a model of counter-hegemony. common social norms of openness and freedom. a concept proposed by Christopher M. a mode of action which also inspired the reflections of Richard Day. they do not reach this objective by trying to dominate business contexts. As a challenge to contemporary info-capitalism. However. and therefore inverting the parameters of moral order into amoral disorder. and the meaning of the community itself. They create what Deleuze and Guattari in A Thousand Plateaus define as the holey space of the itinerant smiths (Deleuze & Guattari. A recursive public. my analysis sheds light on the vulnerability of networking dynamics in recursive publics. Artists can question the concept of "moral order" by constantly renegotiating the meaning of being part of a community. where enterprises work by generating disruptive innovations in order to stimulate higher levels of participation – and consumption.schemes of oppositional conflicts. also mirrors a shift of business strategies in the Web 2. by 113 . or "hegemony of hegemony". focusing on the meaning of participation in decentralised artistic networks. 1987. through the direct involvement of multiple subjectivities that act playfully from within. Kelty in the book Two Bits: The Cultural Significance of Free Software (2008). describes geek communities as groups sharing a moral order. p. artists and activists appropriate business strategies. applying subliminal and speculative tactics of disruption. demonstrate how disruption can be created by staging unpredictable interventions. Such a reflection on disruptive strategies of criticism is central to providing the context for the second and third case studies to be explored in this chapter: the Italian fictional identity of Anna Adamolo and the international Anonymous "entity". these networks produce critical changes from within.0 market. 413) oriented towards circumventing hegemony. Focusing on disruptive actions in collaborative networks. Both of these phenomena. This case study also explores networking dynamics and the way groups perceive themselves. a different perspective in understanding contemporary networking dynamics emerges. even if their contexts and objectives differ. adopting the concept of disruptive art to investigate hacker and activist practices. However. through the strategic use of networking techniques. from moral order to amoral disorder. Rather than simply refusing to use commercial platforms.
when translated into practice. Michael Hardt and Paolo Virno. questo è egemonizzato dalla moltitudine". The Anonymous "entity" deconstructs proprietary logic by disrupting corporate contexts and branding strategies. nomadism and overcoming a negative dialectical approach. Antonio Negri writes: "Così la ricomposizione delle lotte si fa nel segno della moltitudine e quando si parla (come Genova ci impone di farlo) di un nuovo 'ciclo di lotte'. and generating new dynamics of networking and collaborative actions. most of the time challenging the notion of morality as well.understanding how to play strategically with such platforms. and by bringing into play different subjectivities working against neo-liberalism. Theorists such as Antonio Negri. combining viral interventions both online and offline. which is once again linked to the idea of power and the issue of inclusion/exclusion within communities. 1 Here. Although the aforementioned theorists themselves tend to focus on the topics of subjectivity. Another important aspect linking such case studies is their participation in networking contexts. For some years. and when we talk about a new 'cycle of struggles' (such as Genoa requires us to do). but it is difficult to apply such a concept on a pragmatic activist level without recreating dynamics of power conflict. and in Multitude (2004) and by Paolo Virno in A Grammar of the Multitude (2004). describes the movements of Seattle. My translation: "Thus the struggles' reconstruction is carried out on behalf of the multitude. in his article Cosi comincio a cadere l'impero (2001). a term first used by Machiavelli and Spinoza. described an emerging entity called the multitude. The concept of participation is central for highlighting how the concept of "networking" has evolved and transformed in antagonistic contexts. Quebec City and Genoa as "hegemonic"1. their ideas are often interpreted by activists as generating "oppositional clashes". Antonio Negri himself. Such a vision of the multitude can operate at a theoretical level to describe decentralised and distributed practices of political criticism. a critical vocabulary has developed over the issue of social participation and capitalist exploitation in the post-Fordist economy. This is closely related to an analysis of new models of social and political struggle through an emerging plurality of individuals. Göteborg. this is hegemonised by the multi114 . The Anna Adamolo network uses Facebook to operate a political critique of authority and to give voice to a plurality of individuals. and more recently analysed by Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt in the book Empire (2000).
nel centro dell'Europa e nel mezzo delle foreste del Chiapas.Whilst it is not my intention to dismiss oppositional practices of conflict. In the article. artistique. in the heart of Europe and in the middle of the forests of Chiapas. The D-I-Y tradition that ranges from underground art networks to hacker culture. published in Multitudes: revue politique. The challenge is to disrupt the dichotomy of oppressors vs. become crucial territories of intervention. on December 7. Negri clearly describes the emerging international political movement at the beginning of 2000s as "hegemonic": "Questo movimento è egemone: lo trovi.. by acting on the spheres of production and politics. language and communication. As Paolo Virno suggests. I nevertheless consider it essential to rethink the notion of hegemony as a strategic answer to more and more pervasive forms of control. in the riots of the Indonesian students and in the growing resistance of the outraged Russian intelligentsia. Retrieved on: http://multitudes. as we will see in the following three case studies. and the notion of viral interventions. even if presented in the plural form. opponents by trying to imagine new forms of participation that go beyond the creation of a compact force seeking holistic hegemony. tude". 2001. August 10. 115 . negli States e nei deserti e nelle megalopoli africane. as well as on the meaning of "oppositions". To avoid the risk of falling into the trap of the hegemony of hegemony. even if such a background is also open to criticism since the emergence of Web 2. might serve as a form of inspiration..0 and the collapse of many utopias related to the notions of freedom of knowledge and peer exchange. This would avoid falling into the trap of legitimising the existence of the "oppressors" by giving them the opportunity to fight using the same strategies as their opponents. It can be gleaned from such experiences that it is possible to act within the systems (applying what hackers call the "hands-on imperative") and to work through fluid strategies of disruption in the cultural industry. which might offer the only possible solution in certain cases.net/Cosi-comincio-a-cadere-l-impero.La sinistra italiana ha una sola possibilità: mettersi al servizio di questo movimento egemone" (My translation: "This movement is hegemonic: you find it. it is also necessary to rethink activist practices and strategies by engaging in a meta-reflection on their meaning.. in the US and African deserts and in the metropolis. nelle rivolte degli studenti indonesiani e nel crescere di una resistenza indignata dell'intellettualità russa..The Italian left has only one option: to serve this hegemonic movement". which are evident in the current era of info-capitalism. 2011. senza contraddizione. philosophique.samizdat. without contradiction. From: Cosi comincio a cadere l'impero.
and in the business of social networking. or refeudalization (to 116 . the power and possibility of occupying the position of independent public – one not controlled by states. becomes a challenge for envisioning disruptive practices in the field of art and technology. but open (they claim) through and through – and develop a desire to defend it from encroachment. By drawing on Walter Benjamin's dialectical image. and the contradictions which emerge from clashes between two opposing powers. through their association. destruction.2 The A/Moral Dis/Order of Recursive Publics The concept of a/moral dis/order is analysed in this context as a dialectical tension between disruptive strategies in so-called underground artistic networks and in the business context of social media. They discover.3. Kelty proposes the notion of modal and technical order: "Geeks share an idea of moral and technical order when it comes to the Internet. adopted here as a model for political criticism which encourages the coexistence of oppositions instead of provoking oppositional clashes. The strategy of disruption as a model for artistic creation loosens dualistic tensions. Christopher M. but they share a commitment to maintaining that order because it is what allows them to associate as a recursive public in the first place. proposing disruptive viral actions instead as responses to the pervasiveness of capitalism. corporations. as will be further analysed. The juxtaposition of concepts such as amoral and moral (which becomes a/moral) and that of disorder and order (which becomes dis/ order) sheds light on the ambiguities inherent in the contemporary business of social networking. or other organizations. What generates order and what creates disorder in the contemporary framework of the digital economy and political antagonism? And is the business of social networking "moral" or "amoral"? Perhaps contemporary networking business and the political methodology surrounding the concept of radical clashes are both generating order and disorder. or rediscover. the "dialectics at a standstill". they are both moral and amoral. not only this. In his investigation into geek communities and what binds them together.
suggesting unexpected connections through the dialogue of various subjects. the developers of their own social imaginary. as well as previous investigations by Jürgen Habermas and Michael Warner. and at the same time the geek community is the network and the social infrastructure which geeks maintain. creating and maintaining networks. According to Kelty. what brings geeks together is a shared imagining of order: geeks share a moral imagination of the Internet. 117 . "The idea of order shared by geeks is shared because they are geeks" (Kelty. p. software. Marcus's ethnographical exploration of the relationship between contemporary science and technology in his book Technoscientific Imaginaries (1995) questioned the notion of imaginary. 50). even if Kelty prefers to use the term "geek" to that of "hacker" (Kelty. In other words. But even if Kelty's concept of recursive publics adds a new layer to the analysis of social imaginary in the so-called modern society – since it is not only interpreted as a shared background but as a tool of creation and autonomous development – the concept of "social imaginary" still has to be questioned. networks and protocols. While discussing a public sphere that refers to a specific moral and social order. and which shapes practices in their everyday lives. 2008. Geeks speak and argue about topics which they directly create and bring into existence: therefore. As Kelty points out. p.use Habermas's term for the fragmentation of the public sphere)" (Kelty. they are their own public. 35). when seen as a coherent unity of a body's image. which is a common social imaginary about technology and the Internet. 2008. but they also build up the technology that allows the expression of certain ideas. geeks share ideas. In 1936 the psychoanalytical analysis of Jacques Lacan indicated that the notion of imaginary. is just a fascination and an illusion of control and totality (the "Mirror Phase")2. 2008. The geek community is a recursive public since it works on developing. what Kelty defines as moral and technical order could easily refer to hacker ethics. which lives through hardware. Kelty draws upon the analysis of the Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor. 43). p. George E. beyond authoritative and comprehensive conceptual schemes. 2 The idea of the mirror phase was first proposed at the 1936 Marienbad International Congress of Psycho-Analysts.
in the case of Napster. Kelty cites the example of Napster's collapse and its battle against the musical industry. p. I would argue that Napster was able to garner so many followers because it managed to absorb their values and channel them into its business model. Therefore geeks did not defend Napster as much as they experienced its legal restriction as a wake-up call: the Internet enables Napster and will enable many other things. transferring them from the so-called underground culture to the field of business.To return to the common ethics shared by geeks. 61). as represented by the music industry monopoly. we might discover a different meaning. A business enterprise like Napster managed to attract the will and the energy of many activists to support a cause with a deep commercial purpose at its core. a 118 . Analysing this apparent contradiction. Napster opened a (new) cycle of appropriation of values and ethics. Therefore. and the right to use decentralised technologies in opposition to monopoly. but laws. and government can destroy all of it" (Kelty. This is one possible way of analysing the matter. and the change could be achieved by being strategically amoral – thus adopting values that were apparently contrary to its own set of aims and practices. This was a battle strongly supported by hackers and geeks worldwide.0 companies have been doing since the mid-2000s. championing the sharing and freedom of information. but a dot-com-inspired business plan in which proprietary software was given away for free in the hopes that revenue would flow from the stock market. Kelty points out: "Napster was not. but the exact opposite. a recursive public or a Free Software project. just like many of the new generation of social media and Web 2. It was a business which decided not to follow the moral order shared by its peers. who found a common goal in the fight for the freedom of information and exchange. from advertising or from enhanced versions of the software. lobbyists. but if we were to adopt another perspective. however. 2008. It demonstrated that the idea of social imaginary as a cohesive moral order could be disrupted. corporations. money. the challenge of generating revenues was addressed by not encouraging corporate monopoly and protect copyright.
due to its highly speculative nature. my aim is to present a different modality of criticism. Through referring to a constellation of various interventions undertaken in the present and in the past in the field of art and technology.rebelart. the fictional identity of Anna Adamolo in Italy (2008-2009) and the contemporary Anonymous network. which followed an intervention by the radical activists Alexander Brener and Barbara Schurz at the Club der polnischen Versager in Berlin in April 20043.html. 119 . When the act of disruption 3 In the context of the Rebel:art festival: www. Furthermore. networking and business within the context of Web 2. If we start adopting such a perspective. but on distributed techniques of disruption. The Neoist prank staged by a Berlin-based Monty Cantsin.net/f001-02. which proposes disruptive practices as the engine of cultural innovation beyond the idea of incommensurable moral orders. it is rendered questionable when referring to those groups practicing disruption of their very own values as a form of art. the intervention shows that the notion of shared moral orders is not always effective for an interpretation of collective dynamics. This also explains why today it might be overly reductive to describe network dynamics from only a singular point of view. but also that of amoral disorder might be a valid perspective from which to analyse business logic. and that. so as to be able to correctly frame the mutual interference between hacking. when referring to underground communities who stage paradoxes and who work towards the creation of multiple contradictory definitions of themselves. To back this up. what conclusions might we reach? I propose shedding light on disruptive practices which contribute towards exposing paradoxes and juxtapositions in the field of art and hacktivism.0. who were among Napster's main users. not only the notion of moral order. I have selected three case studies: a Neoist prank at the rebel:art Festival in Berlin in 2004. is presented here as an example of a creative form of disruption which served to deconstruct the political strategy inherent in a clash of opposite forces which was aimed at creating social criticism. in the fields of both business and technology. Even if the idea of sharing moral orders and social imaginary might prove effective for explaining the activities of some independent groups (as Kelty demonstrated).philosophy already familiar to the communities of geeks and hackers. one which is not merely based on oppositions.
reformulated their approach into anti-technologies of resistance in 2000. Borrowing from Foucault. from Neoism to NSK (especially through the above-mentioned book Demolish Serious Culture!!!). Istvan Kantor's Blood Campaigns. throwing eggs and spitting on your opponent's dress. are directly reminiscent of Alexander Brener's radical interventions in art museums and galleries. Among them were Alexander Brener and Barbara Schurz. originally from Kazakhstan. who gave the lecture "Texte Gegen Die Kunst". The rebel:art festival in Berlin brought together various underground activists and artists. but internationally known as a Russian performance artist. transforming flexibility into tactical advantage. For example. who had originally proposed the concept of technologies of resistance. working on culture jamming. gained popularity in the art field for his act of defecating in front of a painting by Vincent Van Gogh at the Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow and for drawing a green dollar sign on Kazimir Malevich's painting Suprematisme at the Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art in Amsterdam. His radical writings and actions. on the other hand we discussed the effectiveness of showing your ass in front of your enemy. for which he was jailed in 1997. published in 2000. who 120 . at the same time. it reveals the weakness of a mono-dimensional approach and. media art and urban interventions.becomes art. under the heading "Demolish Serious Culture!!!". hacktivism. as well as individual 'transgressive' techniques". as we will see in the following examples. which was also the title of one of their books. might open the path for viral interventions in the field of art and politics. the series of performances in which he took his own blood and splashed it onto walls. canvases or into the audience. sit-ins. often created in collaboration with Austrian activist and researcher Barbara Schurz. claiming a radical critique of the art world and of capitalism through "familiar and traditional methods of political struggle and cultural resistance. if it wants to be effective. Resistance must take into consideration concrete circumstances of place and time and must act from very precise strategies and tactics of local struggle. As they wrote: "On the one hand we tried to analyze critically technologies such as demonstrations. hunger strikes. have inspired many subcultures. Alexander Brener. Alexander Brener and Barbara Schurz.
leaflets. In their view however. beating their fists on the table while reading aloud from their paper and denouncing the compromise made by the rebel:art festival with the art system. is no longer adequate. a member of the audience suddenly stood up. They began asking for the director of the festival. interventions. local scandals. Soft subversion. claiming to be the director of the festival.). we were a "geek recursive public". 2000. Quoting Christopher M. we were just part of the art system. apparently sharing the same "moral order".' Such a resistor doesn't act from universal concepts or out of the doctrines of parties or groups. slowly realizing that they had been fooled by an imposter. and the hidden undermining of the political context of the enemy is obsolete and has finally degenerated either into cynicism or into conformism and strategies of success and survival within the system" (Brener & Schurz. In combating the current art-system. graffiti etc. Actually. managed by only a few people. It had been arranged by Alain Bieber and the rebelart. The organisers made up the bulk of the public during the festival. while holding a basketful of eggs. that of activists. who later explained his action 121 . not knowing what he or she will do tomorrow. hackers and independent artists in the underground media scene in Berlin. the rebel art festival was a small underground event. with the support of those (myself included) who had contributed to the development of the programme.spoke about the 'specific intellectual' we suggested the term 'local and specific resistor. unpag. met in turn by screams from the audience and demands for them to leave. but struggles against these very doctrines and keeps moving endlessly. Such techniques of resistance are what they proposed at the Club der polnischen Versager in Berlin when performing their poem "Texte Gegen Die Kunst".net collective. Brener and Schurz's response was to throw an egg in his face. While Alain Bieber beat a swift retreat after receiving threats from Brener. Kelty. a heritage inherited from the 1980s. Alexander Brener and Barbara Schurz stood there visibly surprised and embarrassed. which in our minds at the time also included Alexander Brener and Barbara Schurz. may be effective at a certain moment but useless in another context.
1999. The idea of the technology of resistance could be conceptually connected with Cantor's "Blood campaigns". commented on or further mentioned by its instigator. "The best product of Neoism is anti-Neoism" is the favoured aphorism of the Neoists. and its speculative nature also becomes clear from this action in Berlin4. I do not therefore view as highly problematic the emergence of individualistic behaviour within Neoism.to Barbara Schurz by stating simply: "Because I am Monty Cantsin and I love you". as Wu Ming 1 recalls (WuMing1. individualistic and speculative character of Neoism. because I believe that at such a moment. and was acting as Monty Cantsin. a subculture. even if these interpretations contradict each other. the open-pop star of the Neoist network. 122 . both from inside and outside the network. The performance was never laid claim to publicly. However. this person decided to perform under the Cantsin pseudonym. Aarhus. Florian Cramer. a cONVENIENCE in teleconference) was involved in the programme of the rebel:art festival. The above-described reaction to the reading of Alexander Brener and Barbara Schurz was an individual initiative. as we described in the previous chapter. Georg Ladanyi (and tENTATIVELY. Stiletto. Neoism is a practice that makes sense if individualised. and each member – each Monty Cantsin – can perform it and decide what Neoism is. I decided not to reveal the real identity of the specific Monty Cantsin who disrupted the reading of Brener and Schurz. scheduled after the reading by Alexander Brener and Barbara Schurz. The strategy of answering power with contra-power might just contribute to the enlargement and development of spiralling and encompassing 4 A group of Berlin-based Neoists. proposing the event: "Neoism Now And Then!". unpag. as Florian Cramer pointed out after reading my reflections on that night (previously presented in a paper at the "Public Interfaces" Conference. Instead. However. no instructions for use. January 2011) someone like Istvan Cantor would probably not agree with my interpretation. which have often been criticised and considered a limitation for the movement. a détournement of a famous saying by Amadeo Bordiga. it being my intention to demonstrate the antiholistic. I consider them as inherent to its meaning and practice. as I pointed out in the previous chapter. including Mario Mentrup. I agree with this objection. therefore there is no need to break with the anonymity of the action. by exposing the differences between Alexander Brener and Barbara Schurz's resistance theory and the Neoist practices. This self-negation and amoral disruption of orders (and disorders) is also a mirror of a multi-dimensional approach that might be considered an inspiration for reflecting on contemporary forms of socio-political criticism. which constantly negated itself and whose definitions have often been disputed. This constant disputation has been a central aspect of Neoist art practice. The intervention of the person acting as Monty Cantsin is not to be attributed to all the Neoists present that night.). It is not the case that such an artistic act of disruption came from one of the many Monty Cantsins. Neoism has no manifesto.
constitutes one of the first examples of this phenomenon. 2011: http://en. therefore interfering with communities and networks. the ability of business to adopt and invade "moral orders". which function by applying such philosophy at a practical ethical level. Napster clearly demonstrates the ambiguity inherent in many social networks today. clearly emerges. "it was not fully peer-topeer since it used central servers to maintain lists of connected systems and the files they provided. business has always worked by encouraging innovative practices and visions created in what was formerly called "counterculture". there is nothing wrong in doing business in such a way. even in hacker circles.oppositions. managed to become a real business by offering free online music. and.0 business to adopt a philosophy of sharing and networking. 5 123 . The Free Encyclopedia on May 10. resulting in the support of many people. The case of Napster. so long as it doesn't interfere with the freedom of action and speech. and the appropriation of many cultural instances of 1990s hacker culture by proprietary platforms (from the concept of openness to do-it-yourself). The concept of resistance as proposed by Alexander Brener and Barbara Schurz at the rebel:art festival demonstrates its inefficiency when disrupted by viral strategies which work by staging pranks filled with ambiguity. If we reflect on the increasing commercialization of the concepts of sharing and networking. As Fred Turner wrote in his book From Counterculture to Cyberculture (2006). But it managed to create a revolution in the music industry by proposing a different way of providing songs. However. Is this logic generating disorder (by creating disruptive innovation) or a new form of economic order? And is this ability to fluctuate between "moral orders". org/wiki/Napster. initially founded by Shawn Fanning and his uncle John as a pioneering peer-to-peer file sharing Internet service. as we read in Wikipedia. what is important to point out is the ability of Web 2. which function by claiming a sharing and open attitude while still maintaining centralised data in accordance with corporate business logic. to legitimising the power under question. which received huge support from many people in the underground technology scene when it was shut down by court order. to be considered "amoral"? For many hackers. Using Napster Retrieved from Wikipedia. Actually. Napster. which were once the purview of their opponents. paradoxically.wikipedia. while actual transactions were conducted directly between machines"5.
In short: not clashing with it. becomes an interesting territory for art experimentation.as an example. as we have seen at the rebel:art festival in Berlin. adopting a "hacker perspective" by trying to understand how the market works after deassembling its strategies and mechanisms of production. whether they be authoritarian or anti-authoritarian in nature. it is necessary to analyse the marketplace from within. But it also aimed at reaching 124 . Monty Cantsin's disruption of the intervention by Brener and Schurz. A/moral dis/order. To reach this objective. and of many hacker communities. is one example of this. By disrupting the concept of "moral orders" (but also that of "amoral disorder") as a coherent set of values which communities share. the idea of "resistance" as a clash of opposite forces appears anachronistic and destined to fail. And it can easily fail as an art practice as well. looks to be a more effective framework for such art practices – and for many practices of hackers as well. analysing artistic practices in the time of social media implies an acknowledgement of the strategy of innovation and disruption at one and the same time. while challenging it critically – and ironically – from within. A reaction to the notion of oppositional clashes as a whole. showing the crisis of encompassing political intents and strategies. which corrupts the mechanism of oppositions from within. Monty Cantsin demonstrated that the challenge resides in the encounter with the symbolic dissolutions of power. as the art of revealing paradoxes and contradictions.3 The Anna Adamolo Multiple Singularity This section describes the birth of a fictional identity. Similarly. Innovation becomes possible through disruption and disruption becomes critical when it is transformed into an art form. as we will see later. but developing within it. together with the subsequent history of Web 2. 3. the actions of their members can be in open contradiction with each other. In the case of Neoism. created on the occasion of the student's and teacher's strikes and school occupations in the autumn of 2008 in Italy.0. The project was a collective endeavour and was directly inspired by networking techniques and collaborative projects previously developed in the context of Italian hacktivism and artivism. Anna Adamolo.
creating a new impetus in the Italian artivism and activism scene. but also in nomadic interventions such as blockades of 125 . The networking project Anna Adamolo started in October 2008. Furthermore. the Anna Adamolo experience presented a direct link with the symbolic strategies developed in the Luther Blissett Project (the genesis of a fictional identity able to represent a diverse mass of individuals). therefore. It managed to bring about an open process of creation both online and offline. in mail art circles (such as the creative use of bureaucracy). To describe its nomadic strategies and polyphonic components the Anomalous Wave movement used to evoke the metaphor of being unrepresentable and unstoppable. and in other Italian collective projects working playfully with pseudonyms and fakes (such as the fictional characters of San Precario. which resulted not only in demonstrations and sit-ins. Anna Adamolo demonstrated that social media could be used as a platform for political and artistic intervention. It would be impossible to understand the causes and the objectives of the Anna Adamolo project without describing the political and social situation in Italy at that time. researchers and teachers to protest against national educational cuts. teachers and researchers. finding a tactical means of spreading communicative icons and imaginative symbols to the student movement. Anomalous Wave. through an understanding of what lies beyond their user-friendly interface and by consciously playing with it. in English.a broader range of individuals and groups beyond the framework of political antagonism. Anna Adamolo was a creative consequence of the call by Italian students. this case study needs to be contextualised by such political circumstances. It worked both on the symbolic level and on the pragmatic level. More specifically. or. Anna Adamolo is the acronym for "Onda Anomala". developing concrete political strategies that could be applied during demonstrations and strikes. Furthermore. This collective project was the result of a conscious reflection on the dynamics of collective representation in a time of political struggle. it showed how they could be effectively appropriated. Its political tactics were to use networking strategies. By taking apart and disrupting institutionalised circuits. From the outset it rejected the idea of being represented politically by parties and leaders. very conscious as its creators were of the recent defeat of the institutionalised Left in Italy. a concept developed in Italy in the autumn of 2008 to define a national movement of Italian students. and Serpica Naro).
who refused to be described as one movement following the same flag. In practice: for every 5 retiring employees. Furthermore. 2011: http://anomalia. organising open-air lectures and classes during strikes and school occupations carried out by teachers. clearly intended to please the Confederation of Italian Industry (see: www. Mariastella Gelmini. It bears the name of the Italian Minister of Education.com/2008/11/08/law-133-what-does-it-say. the article proposed the reduction of the Ordinary University Funding (FFO) by1441. It is the largest student movement focussed on educational matters in Italy since the Pantera (Panther) movement. retrieved May 11. it will be possible to hire only one new employee". For the year 2012 the limit is 50%. was the third attempt in ten years to reform the education system in Italy. but whose common objective was to contest and abolish the "Gelmini Education Reform Bill".org) by providing a direct interference of private companies in the study programme. still under consideration today. must not exceed 20% of the contracts that are discontinued the previous year. The Anomalous Wave included many individuals and groups. Since 2008.treellle. from elementary school to university. 6 126 . gaining them the right of a seat in the study board. signified the first attempt by the government to make cut backs on public education funding6. educational funding cuts and fixed-term contracts for researchers. Information retrieved from the blog "Anomalous Wave". The Bill requires. the movement proposed self-organisation and self-education ("auto-formazione") as models for knowledge dissemination. blogsome. 2010. actions which were coordinated between the demonstrators on a national scale. The Gelmini Bill. through large-scale protests and demonstrations. following Minister Berlinguer's reforms in 1997. Universities and Research. researchers and students. thereby reducing the overall budget for public education. workers and teachers. and the stabilization of precarious contracts. The second article included measures of "rationalization". which was responsible for the occupation of In particular in the university context. "Authorization of the university to transform itself into a foundation". professors. making an obvious disadvantage for precarious contracts – and giving more power to full professors. It stated that "For the three years 2009-2011. Furthermore. The first one. by cutting or reducing the employees. and the Moratti Bill of 2003. approved on December 22.5 millions of euros in the course of five years. among other measures.train stations and streets. the most critical – and contested – articles by researchers and students were the 16th and the 66th ones. the Anomalous Wave movement has grown into a network of students and researchers. Provisional Law 133. the employment of personnel. who has been serving in the Berlusconi Cabinet since May 2008. The Gelmini Bill covers every level of education.
creating a collective fictional identity named Anna Adamolo. named Uninomade 2. Conceptually connected with Uninomade is the more international platform Edu-Factory. The abolishment of Law 133. To give voice to the Wave movement. But later. a transnational collective engaged in the transformations of the global university and conflicts in knowledge production. specifically rooted within Italy's precarious social and political situation of the last decade. During their occupation of schools and universities. defines the genesis of Anna Adamolo as follows: "The main idea was to create an interesting and playful intervention working on communication strategies and 7 The Uniriot network followed the path of the Globalproject platform. which translates as 'the network of rebel schools'.0. Uniriot. the city of Rotterdam). Two networks emerged from Globalproject: Uniriot. A member of AutArt. and was "in movimento" (moving) again. 127 . il network delle facoltà ribelli. but also researchers. and who was directly engaged in the self-education programme at the Brera Fine Art Academy. keeping Italy's educational system public and accessible to all. essays and publications on the topic. a network previously created as part of the "disobedience" antagonist movement spread in Italy during the beginning of 2000s.several schools and universities in 1989-1990.g. regardless of individual income. the more intellectual networks of researchers. which produces texts. some of whom were members involved in the process of self-education which evolved during the school occupations. they claimed that the Pantera was back. However. At the beginning of the Wave movement. and. the network of the students fighting against the educational cuts (which is today called Unicommon). Such a network provides the backdrop for the creators of Anna Adamolo. who connected with each other in several Italian cities and in other towns abroad (e. and on the internet (through Italian art and activist mailing lists and various social media). Pantera's iconography was abandoned for the more fluid definition of the Wave. played a central role in coordinating the students' activities in schools and universities7. involving not only students and teachers. scholars and professors – today. and Uninomade. more generally. the Anna Adamolo network had a wider appeal. were central to the Wave's objectives. artists and activists. a collective of students and activists based in Milan. the students used to borrow the iconography from the Pantera movement for their own propaganda. this loose network decided to work at the level of social imagination.
pratiche di piazza8. Anna Adamolo was an occasion to collectively reflect on the practices of fake and détournement, which we were discussing at that moment with some other students, but also to question the reasons for adopting collective names as a form of artistic intervention. We started to think that the use of collective names (such as Luther Blissett) could become a concrete strategy (pratica di piazza) to use on the street during strikes and demonstrations. The idea of creating a collective name to apply during protests created the genesis of a fictional character to individually appropriate and personalise. Anna Adamolo worked on two levels. She embodied the practice of fakery by being interpreted as the new Minister for Public Education; furthermore, she was the mask, which each individual could wear on the streets during protests. She was the voice through which various singularities could speak on their own, and politically represent themselves without intermediaries" (a member of AutArt, 2011, unpag., my translation)9. Anna Adamolo was conceived as a catalyst to encourage reflection about political strategies during strikes and demonstrations, as well as a methodology to apply viral networking techniques (as we can read on Anna Adamolo's blog: http://annaadamolo.noblogs.org). She was regarded as a collective name through which an unrepresentable
The concept of pratiche di piazza, is a specific Italian construct to describe strategies of political interventions during strikes and demonstration. For example, pratiche di piazza are expressed by the specific behaviour adopted by different groups and collectives on the street during protests, which could result from ludic interventions to violent clashes. Usually, each group of collective has a specific plan to express its presence in the public sphere, and pratiche di piazza are often negotiated among participants of a demonstration – and they are also the most frequent reasons of fights, disputes, schisms or splits among collectives. It is interesting how the word "piazza" (square) is used in this context; "piazza" literally refers to a convivial way of being in the public space, and in Italy, piazze have traditionally been the most important place for meetings and chats, and in general, for the expression of the public life. Extract from an interview with a member of the AutArt collective, carried out by the author on May 15, 2011. The person here interviewed chose to remain anonymous in order to preserve the collective configuration of the Anna Adamolo network. For the same reason, the author decided tnot to mention the "real" identities of the various people and groups that were part of the AA network. The above-written extract has been translated from Italian into English by the author.
movement could be represented, but also as a means for expressing a personal political experience, because "il personale è politico" (The Personal Is Political), as one of the members of AutArt points out, quoting a famous slogan used during the feminist movement at the end of the Seventies in Italy. The significance of this character was very rooted in the collective understanding of political strategies during street interventions, but also in the debate about bio-politics, a concept initially developed by Michel Foucault, as the application and impact of political power on all aspects of human life, and later discussed by many other intellectuals, such as Michael Hardt, Antonio Negri and Judith Revel10. Judith Revel, in Identity, Nature, Life: The Biopolitical Deconstruction (2009) reflects on Michael Foucault's approach to the terms of "identity", "nature" and "life", proposing a new path for political actions based on the recognition of the subjectivities to face dispositifs of power. She argues that, instead of aiming for a "creative force", which would entail a return to a certain postmodern vitalism, "we should attend to the forms of subjectivation yet to come". The analysis of a common "we" becomes part of the political investigation, "and it is precisely this 'we' which is part of the problematisation of our present, as the slow invention of a commonality yet to come as the constantly reworked space for resistant subjectivation and ways of life" (Revel, November 2009, p. 10). The network of students, teachers, researchers, artists and activists who created Anna Adamolo seek to play with cultural and political codes through the détournement of symbols, to express the will of a collective of people, but also the will of specific singularities. Minister Gelmini was playfully transformed into someone else: the Wave Minister, who first took shape as a woman's portrait and then as a stylized graphic female face. The portrait of Anna Adamolo was graphically represented by a woman's face created by morphing a female photo – the creators of Luther Blisett used a similar technique years before. The graphic character of Anna Adamolo, which later started to circulate as the "logo" for the project, also showed the face
Another source of inspiration for the creators of Anna Adamolo was a podcast on the Uniriot network platform, where Judith Revel reflected on the topics of "Biopowers and resistances", published at: <www.uniriot.org/index.php?option=com_vfm&Ite mid=109&do=view&file=Biopoteri+e+Resistenze+-+Judith+Revel+%28+Coll+autof+Padova+%29|judith.mp3> (Langugae: Italian; undated), retrieved May 21, 2011.
of a woman, but it was drawn without a mouth because she was representing all the voices of the diverse people who were fighting at that time. Having no mouth, she was the mouth, and the voice, of everyone. She was the "face" of an enlarged network, and a multiple voice expressing the general motto of the Anomalous Wave: "noi la crisi non la paghiamo" (We Will Not Pay For This Crisis), which started to circulate among the demonstrators at the beginning of October 2008. Anna Adamolo's graphic character resembles Minister Gelmini to the extent that she wears squared glasses, but she is also directly linked to the Wave movement by featuring a wavy hairstyle. Her glasses and logo are purple, the principal colour adopted for Anna Adamolo's propaganda. The choice of adopting the colour purple was suggested by a definition of the term "purple" published in October 2008 on it.wikipedia.org (my translation): "The purple colour appears frequently in children's drawings. It represents the urgent need to express themselves: its appearance is often related to an environment in which the child cannot express itself freely in all areas, due to imposed rules or standards of behaviour. Such a conflicting situation arises within the family and at school and can influence the child linguistically, behaviourally and in terms of free expression"11. The portrait of Anna Adamolo started circulating on Facebook at the beginning of November 2008, when the AA network created several Facebook groups in support of Anna Adamolo. However, when the AA groups started to appear on Facebook, it was still not clear who Anna Adamolo was. Her identity, that of the Wave Minister, was revealed only on November 14, 2008, on the occasion of the national students' and teachers' strike in Rome, as a final step in two simultaneous interventions orchestrated by the Anna Adamolo network: the creation of "The Fake Ministry Site" and "The Facebook Operation". The "Fake Ministry Site" was created by hijacking and cloning the official Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and
Original Italian text, retrieved from Wikipedia, and posted on the Anna Adamolo mailing-list by a member of the Anna Adamolo network, on November, 6, 2008: "Il colore viola è uno dei colori che emerge frequentemente nei disegni dei bambini. Rappresenta l'urgenza di esprimersi: il suo apparire frequente è in relazione a quella situazione ambientale che non consente al bambino di muoversi liberamente in tutti i settori per le regole o le norme di comportamento che gli vengono imposte. Tale situazione conflittuale insorge sia in famiglia che nella scuola e può investire nel bambino: la sfera del linguaggio; la sfera del comportamento; la sfera della libera espressione" <http://it.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Viola_(colore)>.
Research website (which, however, was never directly affected by this operation). On the Fake Ministry Site the multiple voice of Anna Adamolo made her first public appearance, embodying the identity of the Wave Minister. The clone website made by the AA network (with the domain name of www.ministeroistruzione.net) was apparently very similar, if not identical, to the official one (www.miur.it). But for those accessing the site, within a few seconds an unexpected video would pop up on the homepage (www.vimeo.com/2431622). The video, entitled "Sono Anna Adamolo" (I am Anna Adamolo), showed mixed images of a calm sea (the wave) and street demonstrations (the Anomalous Wave), while the voice of Anna Adamolo declared herself to be the new "Wave Minister", representing all the students, mothers, teachers, workers who were embodying her. At the end of the video, the visitor was redirected to another website, the "official" Anna Adamolo Ministry website, which had a similar look and layout as the "real" one. Here, the biography of AA was presented; together with all texts written by the people who had previously recorded their protest messages by calling a telephone number shown on the home page. The visitors could record their experiences and thoughts about the education protest, turning the AA Ministry website into a mirror for public and collective dissent, where all the individuals in this movement could emerge and have a voice. In January 2009, nine of these stories, collaboratively written by twenty-two people, were published in the book: Sono Anna Adamolo: Voci e Racconti dall'Onda Anomala ("I am Anna Adamolo: Voices and Stories from the Wave", NdA Editions, 2009). Some weeks after the launch of the website, the AA network orchestrated a Google-bombing campaign, until the Wave Ministry website rose to third position for anyone searching for "Ministero dell'istruzione" (Ministry of Education). But the most disruptive action managed by the AA network took place on Facebook. Being aware that the "real" Minister of Education, Mariastella Gelmini, had no Facebook profile as yet, the AA network decided to create one for her, obviously without informing the real Minister. The Gelmini Facebook profile was created at the end of October, during the first wave of occupations by the movement. It soon reached two thousand "friends" – both supporters and antagonists of the Gelmini Reform, but mainly supporters – who expressed their solidarity or
their anger on the Minister's Facebook wall. On the same date as the Fake Ministry website launch, on November 14, 2008, the profile of Mariastella Gelmini turned into that of Anna Adamolo. The Facebook's friends of Gelmini thought that hackers had hijacked the Minister's profile and started expressing their anger on the Wall: but there was no real Minister profile, only that created by the same people who had changed it into "Anna Adamolo". In the meantime, intense networking activity had already made of Anna Adamolo a symbol for many activists and members of the Anomalous Wave movement to rally around. They now started to interact on the Facebook wall of Anna Adamolo too. "The Facebook Operation" generated a chain of support for the Anomalous Wave protest, and immediately after this operation, the virtual heroine became one of the most popular Facebook icons in the Italian activist network. On Facebook, many members of such networks changed their names or their profile's images into those of Anna Adamolo. Simultaneously, the character of AA started to "infiltrate" strikes and demonstrations and it became a real tool used by protestors on the streets or to promote initiatives: an Anna Adamolo DIY-kit was spread on the Internet, including the shape of the purple glasses to cut and paste (or to wear during strikes) and stencils to draw and glue onto walls with the face of AA; some "official" stamps of the Wave Ministry, as well as the "official" signature of the Wave Minister and other bureaucratic merchandise could be downloaded from the AA blog. Some students created Anna Adamolo t-shirts, others staged a theatre play where some extracts of Anna Adanolo's book were read aloud and performed. The fictional identity of Anna Adamolo started to be used as a pratica di piazza, thereby ensuring that the AA network reached the initial objective of its imaginative project: to bring a multiple identity into the streets to represent a movement made up of multiple subjectivities. However, this was not the first time that an Italian movement of precarious subjectivities (workers, students, activists, etc.) had acted radically through iconic, symbolic and playful strategies. As I previously described in my book Networking: The Net as Artwork (2006), in 2004 the Italian activist network created San Precario, the patron saint of precarious workers (www.sanprecario.info), and, in 2005, Serpica Naro, the fictional fake designer, whose name is the anagram of San Precario (www.serpicanaro.com). The fictional identities of San
made of Anna Adamolo both a collective and an individual project. bringing together different individuals into a network. a comprehensive group of people. Anna Adamolo interpreted Luther Blissett by playing with media communication and creating an identity open to many. She was a public/intimate tool that could be used by the movement to create community. However. without following specific directions or action plans. who were protesting against the official politics both offline and online. transforming the Government bureaucracy into a realm allowing possibilities for intervention. Signs and labels of the bureaucracy were used to reflect on a different model of education and to fight for a better future. contrary to Luther Blissett and San Precario. was central to the AA project. and expressions of life stories. The possibility of calling an open telephone number to narrate a personal life story and the editing of such stories into the AA collective book. and a mix of various subjectivities. becoming a platform for sharing. The fictional character managed to generate a network of collaboration between activists. which is also evident in Serpica Naro. researchers and activists who were directly linked with a national political movement such as the Anomalous Wave. She answered to the impasse of the political economy and education policy. plus the idea of using the AA DIY-kits during strikes and demonstrations. authority.Precario and Serpica Naro. and resulted from those involved reflecting on identity. together with the previous experiences of Luther Blissett. teachers. even if narrated by people who decided to stay anonymous by wearing the mask of the fictional character. students and young researchers. AA tried to give voice to a community of students. Universities and Research to the Ministry's official website. which were very personal and real. The personal and intimate component. and 133 . from the official stamps and signatures of the Ministry of Education. precarious workers and teachers. Anna Adamolo was regarded as an identity that everyone could embody: she was the mirror of specific stories of life. more than in Luther Blissett. and by working on collective symbols and media icons the AA network placed on centre stage similar communication techniques as those applied by previous multiple identity projects. The networking component was central to Anna Adamolo. The symbols of the institution were reversed. constituted a source of inspiration for the creators of Anna Adamolo. creatively re-interpreting the formal bureaucracy and power structures of everyday life.
It is evident that contemporary platforms of social networking define as "social" something that often is not. which are not equally redistributed among them. but many of the contemporary social media platforms store data in proprietary servers and do not allow a flow of information and sharing beyond the limits decided by the companies which own the infrastructures. She worked within the Anomalous Wave movement. as has been demonstrated by projects such as Anna Adamolo's "Facebook Operation". which had not necessarily applied them before. uncensored and unfiltered exchange. The rhetoric of openness and self-production appears to be the same. Anna Adamolo aimed to deconstruct the hierarchical logic of communication which influences the meaning of collective and social participation. the network beyond Anna Adamolo managed to achieve pervasive disruption within the parameters of social media. Inspired by previous Italian hacker and artivist experiences (i. in order to for those taking part to become politically active agents and to reflect on their own social responsibility. Anna Adamolo managed to transfer strategies and techniques of hacking and artivism to a broader movement. being directly rooted in its political and social struggle. However. they substantially differ from peer2peer technologies. 134 . the Hackmeeting or the AHA/Activism-Hacking-Artivism community).conscious political participation. networks became a tool for artistic creation and socio-political criticism. spreading viral techniques both offline and online and allowing people to appropriate them according to their own needs. While much of the contemporary social media provides access for a broad public and high quality technologies for sharing. by critically redefining the notion of social networking through direct action. These companies generate consumption by collecting high revenues through the sharing of users. and by accelerating the level of communication so much to make difficult the creation of a deep conversational context.e. Once again. but she also went beyond the more "traditional" political struggles. by not including an open. this does not mean that a collective intelligence cannot intrude and hack social media circuits from within. to develop strikes and demonstrations. The Anna Adamolo project demonstrated that understanding and knowing different models of networking might constitute a tactical response and a challenge to stress the limits of social media themselves.
3. the AA network managed to challenge the limits of collaborative participation on such platforms. p. Deleuze and Guattari refer to the text by Élie Faure on the metallurgy of India and his description of itinerant people who bore holes in the ground. They live in the shadow of granite. p. and anonymous. showing up miles away from where their predecessors entered. but also people in the streets during strikes and demonstrations. derived from Deleuze and Guattari's "Treatise on Nomadology". By shaping the hard metal while it is hot and soft. excavate the land instead of striating it.To create The Facebook Operation the AA network had to be able to understand the weakness of such systems before applying techniques of viral communication. 135 . inhabit a space somewhere between being citizens and nomads.4 The Holey Spaces of Anonymous In his analysis of counter-hegemonic practices and the logic of affinity. published in A Thousand Plateaus (1987). nor the smooth space of the nomad" (Deleuze & Guattari. Their activity is described as such: "they transpierce the mountains instead of scaling them. The smiths. To describe the smiths' activity. plural. they create holey spaces. the Facebook technological infrastructure facilitated the spreading of the AA icon – and meme – because the activists and students understood how to use it strategically. 1987. and "they follow the matter-flow of the subsoil" (Deleuze & Guattari. the metalworkers. thereby creating "the fantastic forms corresponding to these breakthroughs. F. after centuries. 413). bore holes in space instead of keeping it smooth. "we". They are itinerant. the vital forms of nonorganic life" (ibidem). Their political intervention became a means of expressing both personal and collective experiences. Richard J. so that "their space is neither the striated space of the sedentary. turn the earth into swiss cheese" (ibidem). Paradoxically. By turning the networking and propaganda features of social media to their own advantage. they excavate mountains and. their mining successors emerge from them. 1987. giving voice to a multiple. 412). Day refers to the description of the smith as a mode of critical subjectivity. Anna Adamolo managed to reach not only its own limited network.
with its gaps. from the film Strike (1925) by Sergei M. etc. On the other side. whereas it conjugates with sedentary space. where "a disturbing group of people are rising. it is a kind of rhizome. stems. 1987. each emerging from his or her hole as if from a field mined in all directions" (Deleuze & Guattari. subterranean passages. 413-414). Holey Space. holes. Eisenstein. they argue: "The [machinic] phylum simultaneously has two different modes of liaison: it is always connected to nomad space. By pointing out that the smiths exist in a zone between being sedentary and nomad. symbolising a strike in 1903 undertaken by the workers of a factory in pre-revolutionary Russia. the sedentary assemblages and State apparatuses effect a capture 136 . On the side of the nomadic assemblages and war machines. is used by Deleuze and Guattari as a description of hybrid subjectivities. Deleuze and Guattari cite as an example one scene from the silent film Strike (1925) by Sergei M. Eisenstein. openings. This very emblematic picture. detours.In order to visualise the metaphor of the smiths creating holey spaces in a concrete fashion. pp. traits.
a demonstration of its functionality. And out of these holes will spring all manner of subjects" (Day. we could argue that such hybrid subjectivities are both agents of disruption. subordinate the technological operation to the work mode. put the traits of expression into a form or a code. 137 . discovering its bugs and holes. As we previously pointed out. p. to building communities of resistance and reconstruction that are wider and more open. plug the lines of flight. impose upon the connections a whole regime of arborescent conjunctions" (Deleuze & Guattari. a dialectical model of Both/And supplants that of Either/Or (Marshall Berman. in this tension. feminist. reflecting on the concept of the "smiths" as presented by Deleuze and Guattari. However. resources and spaces with others.of the phylum. By working from inside the system. and a result of the State apparatus. Hybrid subjectivities act inside its interstices. 2005. A coexistence of opposition therefore lies at the core of social and political change. but are also open to sharing values. 1987. rather then acting against them from the outside. even when there are no longer any margins. 175). Included by Day in the notion of the smiths are anarchist. they challenge it and transform it. as Richard Day points out. fluid and fragmented. they do not tend "to dominate by imposing all-encompassing norms" but seek "to innovate by tracking and exploiting opportunities in and around existing structures" (ibidem. it will never achieve its ambition of totality – it is impossible to create a system with no outside. "the activities of smiths show us that no matter how totalizing a system might be. and agents of innovation. hacker. For there will always be holes. The smiths are therefore a rhizome-like entity. p. 176177). queer. Like the smiths. Drawing on Day's perspective. pp. 415). make the holes resonate together. 1982). Day sees the figure of the smiths as a metaphor for a further exploration of social spaces where communitarian nomads live. and hybrid subjectivities. subjectivities that work in the interstices and margins of the institutional "sedentary" society. p. Even if they do not acritically accept its rules they coexist with it. yet remain non-integrative in their relation to others" (ibidem. They are the ones "who practise an ethic of care of the self. even a system that appears to cover an entire planet. 174). holes and fractures of the systems.
They are both nomadic and sedentary. The Anonymous entity is a difficult research subject because it is constantly changing and in movement. To embark on the task of collecting together some of the pieces of such a rhizome-like puzzle of interventions. The point is to concentrate on the meaning of different strategies and actions which are the real purpose of the entity. they are an agglomerate of lightweight particles. or better said. resulting in offspring that are genetically identical to the parent plant. laugh out loud) – as those in Anonymous usually say. Who exactly is behind the label "Anonymous" and who is doing what become uninteresting – as has already been argued when describing Neoism and the Luther Blissett Project. The seeds are produced without pollination. Basically. or for the lulz (a derivation of lol. Assistant Professor at the New York University. she describes the political birth. In the article "Anonymous: From the Lulz to Collective Action" (April 6. They have no name. Everyone is invited to become an active agent. it is not only necessary to read newspaper articles. the seeds leave their original location and drift off. and to perform in the art of participation. they dissolve into the air and re-emerge somewhere else. Approaching this entity as a researcher is not an easy task. their name is Anonymous. We should imagine a digitalised holey space. When the wind blows. or not following any of them. it is important to participate and directly enter into the Anonymous world. which travel on air currents. They all look identical from the outside.Researching hybrid subjectivities which generate holey spaces. the multifaceted attributes 138 . blogs. comments. I came across a rhizome-like collective of people who have often been cited in recent years both in the mainstream and independent media. forums. by modelling new forms of conviviality and by operating the art of disruption. where anonymous individuals pop up in pursuit of the most diverse of causes. just for fun. 2011). This is what Gabriella Coleman. together with that of having fun. The scant information about Anonymous is contradictory. and the art of creating paradoxes is one of their better skills. The image that comes to my mind when attempting to describe it is one of a field of dandelions. but they are very diverse when compared with each other close up. A dandelion seed head enables windaided dispersal over long distances. wikis and essays about them. not only because generating pranks and jokes is part of their practice. but also because each member can act independently and does not necessarily share the same views as the others. has done.
Therefore. and history using traditional analytical categories. Referring to the difficulty of analysing Anonymous as an encompassing phenomenon.both online and offline12. To introduce some of their most popular interventions. Retrieved June 1. and how to stay safe during unrest and protests .of the Anonymous entity. Anonymous is an entity. While there are forms of organization and cultural logics that undeniably shape its multiple expressions. This difficulty follows from the fact that Anonymous is. For many years. since 2008 the term Anonymous has been directly linked to a specific phenomenon. sociology. no hierarchical structure. nor any geographical epicenter. it is a name that any individual or group can take on as their own" (Coleman.). 2011. It is a loose collectivity of people that decides to act or to perform anonymously. and today it is directly connected with a collective of people who act as part of a very loose community.com/LVrXDNCm. In this context. The tradition of being anonymous is nothing new in the so-called digital culture. or a group. However. From the outset. launched in 2003 following the popularity of Japanese manga The Anonymous' Introductory Guide to Safety during Social Instability is a good example: http://pastebin. using the label "Anonymous" basically has little meaning for people already familiar with political practices. 12 139 . the term "Anonymous" derives from the fact that it was used to post anonymously on imageboards like 4chan (www. from trolling to political protests" (Coleman. the forms of authority and power hidden or openly manifested in the Anonymous IRC channels. she writes: "Anonymous resists straightforward definition as it is a name currently called into being to coordinate a range of disconnected actions. like its name suggests. unpag. unpag. both in the real and in the digital word. if taken literally. it has been a very open definition.4chan. Gabriella Coleman points out: "[…] Commentators struggled to describe its ethics. shrouded in some degree of deliberate mystery.). not a movement. 2011. org). and many hackers have often acted in a conscious and safe way while being online. 2011. especially in the US. communities of hackers and activists have been shown how to protect personal data on the Internet. It purports to have no leaders. which can embrace everyone – and no one.
2011.org). the name assigned to someone posting an image without entering any text in the name field. who often expose themselves or other people (mostly humiliating them). the exact history is a mystery. or "Pedobears". with the subject: Academic work on the website 4chan? (http://listserv. and which was initially spread in deviantART. the paedophilic bear. as well as an archive for online communities to document and reference deviant users"14. on the Air-L mailing list (the mailing list is provided by the Association of Internet Researchers http://aoir. Anonymous has become a multiple use name for signing actions and interventions. but actually leads to the the 1987 Rick Astley song "Never Gonna Give You Up". 13 From Encyclopædia Dramatica: www. icons or behaviours that are virally transmitted from person to person. but also distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. Lolcats are pictures combining a photograph of a cat with text – often grammatically incorrect – to generate humour. pranks and parody (as the chain http://vortexchan.html). spreading Internet memes such as "Lolcats". later in 4chan and currently appearing in many other websites or Internet platforms when designating trolling. "Never Gonna Give You Up" Rickrolling. an 8-bit animation depicting a cat with the body of a cherry pop tart flying through outer space.org/pipermail/air-l-aoir. they act just for fun.ch). Other recent popular mems are the Nyan Cat. the Trollface meme. creating jokes. or refer to popular Internet phenomena like the "Chocolate Rain" viral video.org demonstrates).aoir. For most memes. is the picture of a bear which is often used in imageboards to signify the idea that behind something cute and nice. to poke fun at everyone and everything on the internet. "Chocolate Rain" viral video is a song and music video performed by American Internet personality Tay Zonday. like the bear's character. often spread through social media or Internet platforms.and anime chans. reference-style parody. so that at the end of the Anonymous Internet "memes" are ideas. leaving behind a rainbow trail. Such an in-joke culture is also connected with the development of wikis and forums like Encyclopædia Dramatica (http://encyclopediadramatica. by default becomes that of "Anonymous". Since 2008. therefore referring to the controversy surrounding his love of little girls. Rickrolling is another meme which is usually used when in forums or imageboards a person provides a hyperlink seemingly relevant to the topic discussed by the members. also known as Pop Tart Cat. which became very popular for the deep voice of its singer and his mannerisms while singing. which is mostly associated with activity of trolling. and others13. This is done to preserve the anonymity of the users. retrieved June 8. A good source for analysing the trolling phenomenon – and the Anonymous entity – though a research perspective is the thread initiated on Feb 6. a platform "to provide comprehensive. 14 140 . Pedobear. org/2011-February/022965. Sometimes. 2011. after being spread on YouTube in 2007.ch/Encyclopedia_ Dramatica:About. Here. a creepy image of a smiling face.encyclopediadramatica. there could be a much darker side.
Before Anonymous started to act as a "Legion". 2011.wikimedia. the Operation developed into viral trolling actions. However. which often introduce their operations or attacks. See the article: "Leaked Media Defender e-mails reveal secret government project" by Ryan Paul. 16 DDoS is a distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS attack). After the video was removed from YouTube at the request of the Church.ch/Project_Chanology. 2008. It is a common strategy of civil disobedience used by many activists and hackers since long time (for example. Expect us". Another detailed description of the Operation is at: https://secure. styles and objectives of the Anonymous interventions by leaking internal e-mails of the MediaDefender company specializing in the battle against peer2peer and file-sharing15. 2011). such as applying a DDoS to the Scientology's website and Gigaloader attacks17. "Many Scientology call centres were treated to the music of Rick Astley and a great number of pizzas and taxis were mistakenly ordered for Scientology buildings around the world" (Encyclopædia Dramatica. Scientology – or $cientology as they like to write it – became a target. in 2007 the "Operation Media-Defender-Defender" anticipated strategies.com/archives/fulldisclosure/2007-09/0317.com/software/news/2007/09/leaked-media-defender-e-mails-reveal-secret-government-project. Thanks to "Vecna" for pointing out these references.announcements. We do not forget. Retrieved May 13. in Italy. a similar practice took the name of Netstrike starting as a phenomenon in 1995). The Operation started by leaking on YouTube internal information about the Church. 17 141 . such as a video featuring Tom Cruise speaking enthusiastically and uncritically about the Church's salvation practices.ars and the message on Full Disclosure List "Media Defender owned big time" published on Mon Sep 17 2007: http://archives. oriented at saturating the server of the target of the protest with massive external communications requests. "Project Chanology" (or "Operation Chanology") is commonly considered the first Operation realised by Anonymous as an entity16. We are Legion. It started in January 2008 with the aim of exposing the controversial Church of Scientology's religious and money-oriented philosophy: for the members of Anonymous. 15 A good source for information about Project Chanology can be found on Encyclopædia Dramatica: http://encyclopediadramatica. usually forcing the targeted computers to reset such that they respond too slowly or they become effectively unavailable. we read: "We are Anonymous.org/ wikipedia/en/wiki/Project_Chanology. A Gigaloader DoS attack is an easy way to do a DoS attack (denial-of-service attack) stressing the target server using a site called "Gigaloader". at: http://arstechnica. We do not forgive.html. neohapsis.
who invited Anonymous to use more critical strategies and legal procedures to oppose Scientology. the hack of Stephen Col20 142 . Message to Scientology. on Mastercard and Paypal after they stopped their service to Wikileaks. and a new phase started. which assumed a much more political language. Later.Consequently. and the protest started to bind together online and offline strategies: "Anonymous showed that they can troll effectively IRL [In Real Life] as well as online" (Encyclopædia Dramatica. uploaded by xenutv1 on Jan 27. 2008: www. focusing on the battle against misinformation and suppression of dissent. retrieved June 8. 2011. 18 Scientology: "XENU TV Speaks to Anonymous". youtube. spread safety activist guides to use during riots. to promote freedom of knowledge18. recently. and Iran to support local protests. 2011). Anonymous gathered at approximately two hundred Scientology Organisations and Missions. 2008. and. Egypt. Among them.info. and other sites hosting the plans for the raid. Operation Payback to support The Pirate Bay after the DDoS of its server instigated by an Indian software company hired by the MPAA. the hack of the Westboro Baptist Church (www. the attack on Bank of America. retrieved May 31. beyond just trolling and devising pranks19. such as Partyvan. Bahrain. information and global power. and fight against restrictions on free speech20. 2008: www.com/search?q=anony mous+wikileaks+news&hl=en&lr=all). Scientology's answer was to start a legal battle and through bandwidth attacks on the insurgency wiki (http://vortexchan. an anonymous message to Scientology presented as "The Formal Declaration of War".com/watch?v=zW466xcM0Yk&feature=player_embedded. where the fun of trolling networked with fights for freedom of speech and information. aimed at fighting for the freedom of speech.org). a new video was published by Anon on YouTube.com/watch?v=OZJwSjor4hM&feature=youtu. 2011. Yemen. featuring Mark Bunker. Encyclopædia Dramatica.youtube.com/watch?v=lwil_LGuDaI&feature=player_embedded. many protests occurred worldwide. the distributed denial of service (DDoS) against the government sites of Tunisia and Zimbabwe. which was used to coordinate the action (http://partyvan. another video appeared.be). a renowned critic of the Church. On February 10th.youtube. 19 A list of the most influential Anonymous' protests and actions since 2008: Operation Payback to support The Pirate Bay (https://encrypted.info). Since then.google. Many interventions have been organised. Uploaded on YouTube by en0nym0us0 on Feb 14.
As we can see on the #OpNewblood Guide for IRC Chat Setup & Anonymous Interneting: http://pastehtml.observer. the attack on Bank of America (www. Retrieved June 7.whyweprotest. com/). with his "friends" at skidsr. From http://mes23 143 . and even if it is possible to find updates about Anonymous on blogs and websites.anonops.thehackernews.org/ network/groups/a99/).html. AnonNews . 21 Some useful addresses are: AnonOps Communications (http://anonops.html).anonops.youtube.html). the lawsuit against GeoHotz from Sony (http://arstechnica. Using the networks service bot 'Zalgo' he scavenged the IP's and passwords of all the network servers (including the hub) and then systematically aimed denial of service attacks at them (which is why the network has been unstable for the past week). Yemen.com/view/1dzt3z4. to support those countries' local revolutions and fight against oppressive political systems (http://www.com/ Anonymous#!/anonops). Describing the loose structure of Anonymous. Zimbabwe.ch/Anonymous).youtube. WyWeProtest (www.net/).colbertnation.in.facebook. ars). A99 Operation Empire State Rebellion to fight global financial power and the banking system (www.com/2011/02/operation-iran-press-release-by. "a former IRC-operator and fellow helper named 'Ryan' decided that he didn't like the leaderless command structure that AnonOps Network Admins use. AnonOps community on Facebook (www. It is necessary to be constantly updated in order to follow the phenomenon. a concept which is difficult for outsiders to grasp. the DDoS attacks against Tunisia. but which is very welcoming towards new people21.net & irc.Everything Anonymous (http://anonnews. Bahrain.us.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wEV2CMfhCeo). 22 Recently. com/tech-policy/news/2011/04/anonymous-attacks-sony-to-protest-ps3-hacker-lawsuit. and will continue to publish news there". Egypt. com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Qf17WaXrHTA and http://ampedstatus.com/the-colbert-report-videos/375739/ february-28-2011/anonymous-hacks-the-colbert-report). the hijack of the website of Washington DC-based HBGary Federal (www. As the Anonymous announcement states. even on Facebook and Twitter22.Today. We however still have control over AnonOps. Unfortunately he has control of the domain names AnonOps. because many of the actions are planned on IRC (Internet Relay Chat) network channels (#AnonOps is the most active and has the most participants). So he organised a coup d'etat. and Iran. Encyclopædia Dramatica (http://encyclopediadramatica. Anonymous IRC networks .com/2011/03/14/bank-of-america-anonymous-leakmortgage_n_835220. Anonymous consists of countless members belonging to an Internet subculture.net. we don't know at this stage) so we are unable to continue using them. 2011.org/?p=home).irc. AnonOps on Twitter (http://twitter.huffingtonpost.ru (and possibly AnonOps.com/2010/daily-transom/4chans-anonymous-army-takes-down-mastercard-visa-paypal-lieberman).blogspot.com/#!/anonops). and often disrupted by its own members. on Mastercard and Paypal to support the Wikileaks cause (www. so that URLs and IRC channels are constantly moving23.ru have been hacked. the Anonymous entity is very fluid. Gabriella Coleman points out: bert's The Colbert Report (www.
In my view. beyond moral conformism and political correctness. Uploaded by "AnonymousThought" on YouTube on Mar 20. 2006).in. com/watch?v=x0WCLKzDFpI. Since Anonymous is a constellation of different individualities. you aren't being asked to send money.html). unpag. "Anonymous Thoughts" describes Anonymous as such: sage."What we can note about Anonymous is that since the winter of 2008 it has become a political gateway for geeks (and others) to take action.com/2011/05/anonymous-irc-networks-ircanonopsnet. 2011. via a concrete path of action. posted on May 8. However. 2008 at: www. it is just an individual contribution to it. You don't have to fill out a form with your personal information. 24 144 .anonops. 2011. the mask used by the Anonymous members during their offline protests (which is the same Guy Fawkes mask used by the character "V" in the movie V for Vendetta. now not available at: The Hacker News. A video named "Who Is Anonymous?"24. I decided to quote it here. describes the birth of the entity. as well as fighting for freedom and social rights. and people who have shown leadership tendencies have been banned from the IRC channels. The decision to engage in political action has to happen somehow. of course it is not representative of the whole Anonymous entity. Anonymous provides discrete micro-protest possibilities that aren't otherwise present in a way that allows individuals to be part of something greater. or influences. oppression and corruption. Anonymous is precisely that path for many" (Coleman. Among other opportunities. against corporations. a set of events. shows a person wearing a mask. The author. the anarchic structure of Anonymous has made those aspects coexist easily. 2011 (www. there is no overall committee deciding what Anonymous must be or is. The author says that when he originally planned this video it was supposed to be a joke. it shows a poetic and interesting personal interpretation of Anonymous. retrieved June 1.). you don't even have to give your name but you do feel like you are actually part of something larger. and its double-sided approach of coming up with pranks for the lulz. The fun of trolling and political activism are bound together. who signs himself "Anonymous Thoughts".youtube. thehackernews.
"Is Anonymous a hated cyberterrorist or an activist for freedom and truth? No / Yes. […] There is no control. it is stated that "users on the IRC channel with a @. 2008. no leadership. They are simply a spark but not the fire. on the #OpNewblood Guide for IRC Chat Setup & Anonymous Interneting. &. For example. authority and power are not irrelevant subjects. The claim is not more valid than the individual claim to existence. a proverb. With anonymous there is no authorship. manifestos and videos. a fad. The most important platforms of coordination are the IRC channels #AnonOps and #AnoNet. but being technically skilled operators (or "ops") gives you more power in the community and it burnishes your reputation. The concept of anonymous has always existed […]. the world in which we live. only influence. Blogspot 145 . into the world we know. where it is possible to join different "operations" entering in specific channels. To start interacting is technically quite simple (also because in #AnonOps and #AnoNet it is possible to use webchats). Others publish messages and announcements on Twitter. may be a phrase. Anonymous has grown out of the imageboards. only a limited number of people have a pivotal role among the IRC networks. Even if the Anonymous entity has no leaders. Some members create announcements. In the above-mentioned article "From the Lulz to Collective Action" Gabriella Coleman points out that within Anonymous. out of the Internet. Anonymous beginnings make it difficult to understand the entity. The influence of thoughts" (AnonymousThought. people with technical skills are much more influential than others. so RESPECT THEM". %. The networking strategies of Anonymous in organising their actions are diverse. used to broadcast Anonymous messages. even if privacy safety measures are always recommended to avoid unpleasant surprises. As in many hacker collectives. video). and IRC operators able to run IRC channels or skilled geeks able to make a denial of service attack (DoS attack) or distributed denial of service attack (DDoS attack) attain more respectability. or ~ in front of their names have elevated privileges. there are theoretically no hierarchies. and even if anyone can potentially coordinate or run a micro-protest. Anonymous is simply ideas without order. and are able to ban other participants if necessary.
to spread a meme. Beneath this mask there is an idea. However. but it is difficult to establish whether they are "authentic" or not. to propose new paths of thoughts. to produce evidence of corruption. and that the more open groups are. to Operation Payback. to create a viral idea. they pop up from the holes within the system (both digital and real) and they occupy a specific space 146 . Returning to the previous analysis by Richard Day on the "smiths" of contemporary social movements. either for the lulz or for social justice. Mr. Even if anyone can potentially join. the more easily they are polluted. and the advice would be always to maintain your Anonymity and don't trust anyone too much. video messages and hacks perpetuated by the members of Anonymous are what is of real interest. the possibility of influencing public opinion. to the recent "OpTunisia" in support of the revolts in Tunisia. who believe in fragmented social structures by playing with them. and it is not difficult to get involved. those who build up networks of ideas which are able to spread like memes. to expose bugs in the system. and ideas are bullet-proof " (V. is what really matters. As happened with the practice of Netstrike in Italy in the 1990s. The various actions of Anonymous. This is also what "V" says in V for Vendetta: "Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. It is not important to win the battle or to crash servers. This also demonstrates the fact that the Anonymous entity is the disruption of authenticity in and of itself. thereby making the project viral and very alive. Creedy. 2006). Like the smiths described by Deluze and Guattari. this would seem unavoidable in order to keep the whole structure open and without evident leadership. I would argue that they consist of those who understand that the machine can be disrupted from the inside.and Facebook under the name Anonymous. show that the strength of Anonymous is to spread as a meme involving a large number of diverse people. from the global protest against the Church of Scientology. The spread of a meme. those who follow fluid trajectories. Are we really sure that Anonymous messages are created by members of Anonymous instead of being spread by opponents of Anonymous to disrupt the image of the entity? It appears that Anonymous blogs and forums are flourishing more and more. but to make people speak about crucial topics. and of making people discuss the social and political meaning of various campaigns. it is not clear who decides the political strategies and behavioural norms that are to be followed.
between the nomadic and sedentary lifestyle. They are a network of singularities who do not like leadership, but like to act collectively. In Encyclopædia Dramatica we read: "Anonymous must work as one. Anonymous is everyone and no-one. You are. I am. Everyone is". The three case studies described in this chapter: the Neoist intervention at the rebel:art festival, the Anna Adamolo fictional character and the Anonymous entity, are examples of networking strategies that have been used to disrupt encompassing systems: art systems, political systems or systems of ideas. The challenge becomes that of being aware of the logic and mechanisms of such systems, and to envision artistic actions that become disruption. These case studies show that technology, pop culture, even the philosophy of lolcats and Rickrolling can be turned into something different, an idea to believe in, to follow in connection with other people and according to our own needs. The Internet technology industry can become a path to find holey spaces of rebellion and lulz, while mechanisms of consumption, if inverted and appropriated, can become an incentive for the creation of artistic and political interventions.
4 Common Participation and Networking Enterprises
4.1 The Rhetoric of Web 2.0 & the Politics of Open Source
After the analysis of some artistic and hacktivist practices that work by imagining and applying pervasive methodologies of disruption within networks, this chapter focuses on the development of collaborative artistic and hacker practices in the Web 2.0 era, by highlighting mutual interferences between networked art, hacktivism and the business of social networking. It traces the shift in the meaning of "openness", and how a certain vocabulary of freedom and peer collaboration has been adopted by the rhetoric of Web 2.0 and social networking. As I already described in Chapter Two, Do-It-Yourself, sharing knowledge, hackability, and similar concepts first witnessed in the underground interventionist realm of hacker culture and networked art are today the core business for many enterprises of Web 2.0. Many hackers and activists have pointed out that the rhetoric behind Web 2.0 has been via a progressive appropriation – and often, disambiguation – of hacker and cyber utopias of the 1980s-1990s. However, the analysis of Fred Turner (2006), of Brian Holmes (2001), and the documentary "The Net" on the Unabomber by Lutz Dammbeck (2006) have largely shown that the cultural upheaval of US hacker culture and counterculture in the Sixties has been deeply intertwined with the history of cybernetics and the IT business. The same discourse holds true for the history of branding and advertising – for example, the cultural output of Madison Avenue – which opened the way for the subversive values of counterculture in the Sixties, and later co-opted what the counterculture produced, in an endless cycle of cooptationrebellion-cooptation, as analysed in the book The Conquest of Cool (1997) by Thomas Frank.
The cooptation of radical values by business needs will be analysed by focusing on its ambiguity, shedding light on the constant paradox of being functional to the system while trying to disrupt it. In both this and the following chapter, I propose the hypothesis that it is possible to take advantage of business logic and flexible mechanisms of revenues by generating both disruptive and innovative artistic visions which are able to challenge – and compromise – systems of economic production. My analysis goes back to the radical anarchic and libertarian tradition of American counterculture, reflecting on how it has been able to bind together business production and an antihegemonic critique of the establishment, using as examples various contributions of hackers, activists, artists, cultural producers and practitioners whom I interviewed during my stay in San Francisco, Stanford and Silicon Valley in the autumn of 2009. Their points of view show that the difference in (political and social) approach between the US and Europe towards technology and media practices does not necessarily imply a lack of consciousness in strategies of media criticism. As we have seen in the example of 4chan and Anonymous, the refusal to become politically organised or have a leadership does not imply a refusal to be critical towards the establishment. The perceived lack of criticism in the US cyberculture and hacker culture is often a Eurocentric misunderstanding, which tends to stigmatise the US libertarian attitude as an uncritical acceptance of capitalism and neoliberalism (see, for example, the position of Richard Barbrook and Andy Cameron in The Californian Ideology, 1995). As we have seen in the previous chapters, such a libertarian attitude emphasises the values of freedom of knowledge and speech, but it does not imply a lack of reflection on crucial issues such as hegemony, pervasive control and surveillance by corporations and centralised systems, nor does it eschew an analysis of proprietary business logic and its possible subversion. However, the ambiguity of the US networked managerial class during the rise of cyberculture, which resulted both in the absorption of countercultural values and in the production of them, by generating an economic system of "flexible accumulation" (Holmes, 2001) is quite an emblematic process that can be drawn upon to analyse the meaning of the cooption of grassroots networking practices by Web 2.0 businesses. Starting with the analysis of hacker culture in the era of social media, we can say that openness, freedom of culture, the sharing of knowledge
and many other values that had previously been commonly associated with hacker ethics, have become the core business of entrepreneurial companies. As described by Steven Levy in his book Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution (1984), hacker culture expressed a new way of life, with a philosophy, an ethics and a dream. The roots of such a philosophy go back to the Sixties with the hackers of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and to the Seventies, with the rise of the cybernetic computer culture in California and in Silicon Valley. In the 1980s and 1990s the hacker principles of sharing, openness, decentralisation, free access to computers, world improvement and the hands-on imperative (Levy, 1984) proved to be a common ground for both American and European hackers, who started to connect through BBSes (Bulleting Board Systems) and to use networks and computers to create digital communities. Creating networks of collaborations is therefore a practice which has roots in the rise of "digital utopianism", as Fred Turner points out in his book From Counterculture to Cyberculture (2006), which will be described in due course. Today, the principal success of a Web 2.0 company or a social media enterprise derives from the ability of enabling communities, providing shared communication tools and folksonomy. The software developer and venture communist Dmytri Kleiner described Web 2.0 business logic and its paradoxes in a panel discussion at the Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin in 20071: "the whole point of Web 2.0 is to achieve some of the promises of peer2peer technology but in a centralized way; using web servers and centralized technologies to create user content and folksonomy, but without actually letting the users control the technology itself " (Kleiner, 2007, video). Even if the Web 2.0 business enterprises do not hide their function as being data aggregators, they make openness, usergenerated content and networking collaboration their core strategies. User contribution becomes a key factor in market dominance. One of the first companies to base its business on the process of involving users in giving productive feedback was Google, which applied the strategy of releasing beta versions of its applications to be tested by
24th Chaos Communication Congress, Panel 'Hacking Ideologies, part 2: Open Source, a capitalist movement', with Dmytri Kleiner, Marcell Mars, Toni Prug, Tomislav Medak, 23 November, 2007, Berlin. Video: http://chaosradio.ccc.de/24c3_m4v_2311. html.
John "maddog" Hall and Larry Augustin (Linux International). is clearly in favour of collaborative practices. Sam Ockman (Silicon Valley Linux User's Group). and which included various individuals connected with the O'Reilly community: the developer Todd Anderson. considered controversial by many hackers for being heavily negative towards the work of Richard Stallman and the Free Software Foundation (clearly representing the metaphor for the Cathedral). established first by the Free Software Guidelines and later by the Open Source Definition.users without their being formally part of the production process (this is what occurred with the development of the Gmail email service and the Chrome browser). It juxtaposes the methodology of open source and its de-territorialisation of production (the Bazaar method) with that of project development in laboratories or closed groups of programmers and software engineers (the Cathedral). California. This is hardly surprising considering that Raymond is the co-founder of OSI – together with Bruce Perens – the organisation which coined the term "Open Source" in 1998 in Palo Alto. Raymond's essay focuses on sharing practices in the hacker community and on the idea of generating a "distributed peer review" as a method of collaborative production (www. This text. Eric S. and Eric Raymond. If we want to discover the roots of such an idea of perpetual beta (Musser & O'Reilly. to a model of networked collaboration for cultural production. Raymond conceptualised it in his paper The Cathedral and the Bazaar (1997) presented at the O'Reilly Perl Conference in September 1997.opensource. but also an apologist for greater involvement of free culture in the marketplace. Michael Tiemann (Red Hat). created a paradigm shift from the idea of open source as signifying user rights of free infrastructures. Chris Peterson (Foresight Institute). Raymond. whose essay led to the formation of the Open Source Initiative (OSI).org/history). As Florian Cramer points out: 152 . The paper analysed the ability to create software and other products of intelligence and creativity through collaboration among a community of individuals acting to open up communications channels. 2006) we should go back to a sharing knowledge model which inspired both business entrepreneurs and geeks in the course of the 1990s: the Bazaar method.
this techno-methodological shift implies the idea of building modular architecture to allow compatible programmes. A predictable consequence of this production-oriented collaborative vision emerges when Tim O'Reilly – involved from the outset in the Open Source Initiative – refers to what he calls the "open source paradigm shift" (O'Reilly. proprietary software companies such as Microsoft may develop their code in distributed 'Bazaar' style" (Cramer. As the hackers and activists of the Ippolita Italian collective point out in the book Open non è free (Open Is Not Free. unpag. Much free software – the GNU utilities and the free BSDs for example – is developed by rather closed groups and committees of programmers in what Raymond calls a 'Cathedral' methodology. Yet this is not at all what the Open Source Initiative's own 'Open Source Definition' says or is about. it simply lists criteria licenses have to meet in order to be considered free. It doesn't emphasise the concept of freedom and rights to users as stressed by the free software movement. 2004.). Therefore. respectively open source. Focused on the business advantages of building applications on top of open source software. it is political (Stallman. but evokes broader cultural connotations […]. 2006. networked collaboration. encourage Internet-enabled collaborative development and create viral distribution and marketing by engaging users as co153 . 2007. making open source seem instead to be more of a branding label than a philosophy. The fact that a work is available under such a license might enable collaborative work on it. unpag). by shifting the target from users to producers. Conversely. the open source production model focuses more on business opportunities than on an ethical idea of (free) software distribution towards the creation of a shared commons. 'Open Source' sparked an all the richer imagination as Raymond didn't simply pitch it as an alternative to proprietary 'intellectual property' regimes. Derived from Debian's 'Free Software Guidelines'. while. the main difference between free software and open source in Raymond's view is cultural. but it doesn't have to by definition."The main advantage of the term 'Open Source' over 'Free Software' is that it doesn't merely refer to computer programs. but as a 'Bazaar' model of open. unpag). according to Richard Stallman. 2005).
As Anna Nimus (aka Joanne Richardson and Dmytri Kleiner) points out in the essay "Copyright. The idea of applying collaborative software development and open source models in Web 2. This makes life easier for producers. with its inherent reductions in production and development costs. which involves a sharing model which is beneficial to business. Its mixed bag of cultural goods are not held in common since it is the choice of individual authors to permit their use or to deny it. to Creative Commons and Wikipedia. not by freeing information.0 companies becomes a strategic business advantage. unpag. Google.contributors. Creative Commons is an attempt to use a regime of property ownership (copyright law) to create a non-owned. Its purpose is to help the owners of intellectual property catch up with the fast pace of information exchange. culturally shared resource. Copyleft and the Creative Anti-Commons" (2006): "The public domain. Creative Commons is really an anti-commons that peddles a capitalist logic of privatization under a deliberately misleading name. but by providing more sophisticated definitions for various shades of ownership and producer-control" (Nimus. anticopyright and copyleft are all attempts to create a commons. is used by the Creative Commons initiative. Indeed. the same cultural vision. The conditions of use may differ. Facebook. from IBM. according to the whims of individual members. Many companies have adopted such a "Bazaar method" and open source built-in communities model. To fight against closed models of intellectual property (such 154 . 2006. according to various interpretations of rights and responsibilities. Apple. but it might cover a business strategy which promotes a free market logic of production. a shared space of nonownership that is free for everyone to use. By contrast. on a case by case basis. thereby leading to a softening of monopolistic models.) We can therefore see that the idea of using an open license does not always encourage peer and equally distributed practices. where little emphasis is laid on the rights of users. but these rights are common rights and the resources are shared alike by the whole community – their use is not decided arbitrarily.
the free software community has not been left out of this progressive corporate takeover of the hacker counterculture. the shift of the hacker principles of openness and collaboration into commercial purposes mirrors a broader phenomenon. With the emergence of Web 2. and apologists for capitalism. consumers are encouraged to be more involved in the production process. an online backup and synchronization utility. it co-opts its opposition" (Nimus. p. At the same time. Stone. 1980). and paying Canonical/ Ubuntu for the development of Chrome. and hierarchical organisational structures.0 era. unpag. emphasising its role in providing free services for enabling communities. Many of the social networking platforms try to present an image of themselves as "a force for good" (Fry. Anna Nimus states: "What began as a movement for the abolition of intellectual property has become a movement of customizing owners' licenses. USA.as the Microsoft policy).) However. Google organises the Summer of Code festival every year to get the best hackers and developers to work for the company (http://code. Almost without notice. as does Google. hackers and pirates is now the domain of reformists. uses Amazon S3 as its storage and transfer facility – while the Free Software Foundation 2 In the book The Third Wave (Bantam Books.com/soc). but which are indeed transforming the meaning of communities and networking. Reflecting on the problem of intellectual property and the producer-consumer dichotomy in the Web 2. as defined by Alvin Toffler in 19802. but shadowing their centralised logic of business production.0 we are facing a progressive commercialisation of contexts for software development and sharing. & Hoffman. The concept of prosumers was already envisioned by Marshall McLuhan and Barrington Nevitt in their 1972 book Take Today: The Executive as Drop-out (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. the aim of which is to appear open and progressive (very emblematic is the claim "Don't be evil" by Google). 155 . making the consumer become a producer. 4). it encourages open source development. When capital is threatened. this being one of the consequences of a production process which started much earlier. what was once a very threatening movement of radicals. Similarly. supporting the Mozilla Foundation for the development of Firefox. thereby making people more likely to work for free.google. the role of producers and consumers begins to blur and merge. 2006. Thus. Ubuntu One. as we will see in the next section. 2009). leaving space for a new form of wealth-generating labour. or prosumer. revisionists.
as well as a wide-range of relational dynamics and linguistic practices: "The characteristic aspects of the intellectuality of the masses. Such mass intellectuality goes beyond the boundaries of labour structures and extends into a more comprehensive system of production of intangible property. for this reason exactly (and not in spite of this reason). and this is the other side of the coin. 60. cannot be found in relation to labour. of linguistic practices. p. Paolo Virno defines general intellectual labour-power. of cultural consumption. Furthermore. ethical propensities. 156 . so to speak. exactly at that point does it project itself into every aspect of experience. especially in California. but. uses the cyber-populism of smart mobs against media professionals to crush their resistance . Similarly.0 corporations. above all. This ambiguity of values and practices mirrors what Carlo Formenti defines as the apology of the amateur function to establish "an anarchocapitalist project.0 philosophy and practices are more and more intertwined. The intellectuality of the masses 3 As Florian Cramer argued during an email exchange on how hacker culture and Web 2. my translation). and the nuances of subjectivity. the Hacker Dojo in Mountain View – and tends to promote incipient tech groups and initiatives. Nevertheless. as intellettualità di massa (intellectuality of the masses). The intellectuality of the masses lies at the heart of this dialectic. Personal email correspondence. its identity. on the level of life forms. it is a fundamental component of today's capitalistic accumulation. Because it is difficult to describe in economicproductive terms. 2011.e. which affects both public and private life. on Ubuntu3. 2010.0 and the new generation of software. January 24. Business and hacker values are therefore clearly interconnected in the development of Web 2.branded as corporative – to personnel and salary cuts" (Formenti. just when production is no longer in any way the specific locus of the formation of identity. which on the one hand aims to accelerate the end of the dinosaurs of the old cultural industry and replace them by the 2. Google funds hackerspaces – i. subsuming linguistic competencies.bases its GNewSense free software GNU/Linux distribution. but also internationally through Google companies worldwide. and on the other hand.
However. This complex phenomenon weaves together the rise of the US counterculture in the Sixties with that of cyberculture in the Seventies and Eighties. As has already been pointed out in the first chapter. p. this perspective of mutual opposition between pro-business US entrepreneurs and anti-business European activists runs the risk of simplifying and stigmatising a much more complex process. then the critical attitude of many European media activists cannot be completely separated from a cultural and social process that had started in the US long before. "a parasite is haunting the hacker haunting the world" (Pasquinelli. 2004. who tend to adopt a more critical and radical perspective towards both digital culture and the political process. American hackers and practitioners often relate more closely to business practices than those involved in European network culture. the avoidance of the overtly "political" among those involved in the American tech culture does not imply an uncritical stance towards the establishment.(another name for the multitude) is at the centre of the post-Ford economy precisely because its mode of being completely avoids the concepts of the political economy" (Virno. 109). If we consider that the rise of digital culture in the US deeply influenced many European underground experiences in the course of the Eighties and Nineties. 4. 90). while analysing the contemporary exploitation of the rhetoric of free culture. where networking values and corporate missions are deeply intertwined. which later led to the development of the 157 . Such ambiguities of business perspectives and non-material production. p. 2008. As Matteo Pasquinelli points out. such as working on creating networks of collaborations. and the collapse of the "digitalism" ideology.2 The Business of Cybernetics In the first chapter I emphasised the divergences from the libertarian attitude towards technology adopted by many of those involved in Californian "cyberculture" in contrast to the politically oriented perspective of many members of the European net culture. allow us to critically rethink the meaning of the digital utopias of the last decades.
2006/ DARC. by the refusal to succumb to hierarchical authority and centralised leadership. collaborative production. 7). Those collective experiences fuelled their anti-conformist attitudes. p. have deep roots in the rise of cyberculture in the US since the end of the Sixties. Similarly. those hackers and activists have since been able to transform the previous experiences of revolutionary politics into a model for decentralised forms of critical thinking. emphasising their effort in imagining new models of criticism. decentralisation of networked systems. have described the social context of the Eighties as a source of opportunism. artists and activists instead created networked critical activities especially in the artistic and technological underground subcultures4. we could argue that the concept of "political" could be extended into such practices as well. 158 . which. in short. 2008). 1996. As has already been demonstrated in my descriptions of experiences such as Neoism. has been the result of a complex combination of mutual influences that responded politically and creatively to the development of industrial and pop culture during the Cold War. and as I analysed in my book Networking: The Net as Artwork (Costa & Nolan. Amen. Even if many of these groups and networks have often considered themselves to be more anarchic-libertarian than "political". mail art and the Church of the SubGenius. a "poisonous culture" (Hardt & Virno. However. commercialisation of values and. freedom of knowledge and the battle for cyber-rights. such as the sharing of knowledge. by engaging in the 4 As Tommaso Tozzi described in his book Opposizioni '80: Alcune delle realtà che hanno scosso il villaggio globale (Milan. Many values that inspired the development of hacker ethics and cyberculture. Luther Blissett. were crushed by the State and the police. edited by Michael Hardt and Paolo Virno. when the first punk and hacker collectives started to act against "normalisation" of behaviour and authoritarian systems. many artistic experiences have been able to infiltrate pop culture and the symbols of mass consumerism by applying viral strategies of networked collaborations. Even if some publications.New Economy in Western society. especially in Italy. such as the anthology of essays Radical Thought in Italy (1996). Such grassroots networks and projects emerged from the ruins of radical political movements in the Seventies. expressing values of anti-hegemonic thinking beyond institutionalised political parties. 1990). during those years many hackers. by the application of distributed networking practices. what happened in many European contexts in the Eighties.
Even if the subsequent intrusion of IT business has been in evidence during the development of such distributed networks of interventions. as well as the activity of Stewart Brand and the community of entrepreneurs 159 .0 and the consequent absorption of hacker values into business. to return to the statement of Michael Hardt describing the Eighties as a "poisonous culture". the rise of cyberculture that led to the New Economy shows that historical development usually follows a nonlinear structure. Drawing upon Walter Benjamin's concept of dialectical image. It results in a flow of practices and facts that are based on ambiguity and juxtapositions. Similarly. and that facts and events are often intertwined.battle for freedom of speech and openness of information. and by a deep transformation in business and the commercial sector as well. However. causing disturbances to centralised systems and understanding how to play with viral contamination strategies. In the book From Counterculture to Cyberculture (2006) Fred Turner analyses the root of American digital utopianism. hacker culture and radical politics. the critical-mindedness of many hackers and activists during the Eighties was clearly inspired by a deep change in society and cultural structures during the Cold War. hackers and activists learned to poison their targets of criticism (instead of being poisoned by them). emphasising paradoxes beyond a linear historical approach. more than oppositional negations. where the present and the past are frozen together by keeping cultural ambiguities and paradoxes alive. Therefore. The analysis of "counterculture" through business therefore generates a dialectic that exposes paradoxes and coexistent layers of events. the methodology of highlighting coexistences and contradictions becomes central to understanding the connections between business culture. Linking what happened in the US during the rise of cyberculture during the Seventies to what is happening today with the emergence of Web 2. we could turn this phrase around by saying that these distributed networks of artists. tracing the history of the Whole Earth Catalog (1968-1972) and network. it becomes a metaphor for a "dialectical image". If we want to analyse social and cultural phenomena according to a dialectical approach. it makes it easier to understand how networking and business today are more and more connected to and dependent on each other. it does not necessarily mean that such experiences have been poorly socially or politically engaged.
So far. p. as well as being a powerful social and rhetorical resource for entrepreneurship. have deep roots in a utopian vision of society which emerged during the Cold War. of atomic bombs. Tools that aid this process are sought and promoted by the WHOLE EARTH CATALOG" (Brand. This network gave birth to the virtual community named the WELL (The Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link). In the opening text of the first Whole Earth Catalog (1968). find his own inspiration. personal power is developing – power of the individual to conduct his own education. but it also became a productive platform for the communitarian rhetoric surrounding the introduction of the Internet – and of what Fred Turner defines as digital utopianism. and of potential nuclear attacks. Emblematic of the rise of cyberculture. which were commonly seen as social spectres in the US during the Seventies. remotely done power and glory – as via government. In response to this dilemma and to these gains a realm of intimate. the Whole Earth network provided utopian answers to the fears of the Cold War. The DIY approach towards technology and culture. founded late in 1940 160 .connected with it. church – has succeeded to the point where gross defects obscure actual gains. 1968. to the magazine Wired and contributed to the development of the emerging technological hub now known as Silicon Valley in California. business entrepreneurs. Highlighting new frontiers of consciousness opened by technology and synthetic drugs. and share his adventure with whoever is interested. interlinking hippy and psychedelic culture with mainstream consumer culture. Stewart Brand writes: "We are as gods and might as well get used to it. shape his own environment. and as Fred Turner demonstrates. big business. backto-the-land proponents. This network managed to carry into the future the revolutionary torch lit by the youth in the Sixties and to champion values focussed on the empowerment of people. formal education. in the militaryindustrial-academic laboratories of cybernetic research during World War II (such as the MIT Radiation Laboratory. 3). the Whole Earth group brought together scientific researchers. which became very common in the hacker and activist scene of the Eighties and Nineties.
instead of expressing a centralised way of thinking. as many activists from the New Left thought during the Sixties. which brought together military research projects and a variety of academic disciplines from management theory to clinical psychology and political science. throughout the Rad Lab. Neither scientists nor administrators could stay walled off from one another in their offices and laboratories. Here. Such rhetoric. 2006. in the restaurants and living rooms of Cambridge. connecting system theory and cybernetics 161 . rigid conformism and bureaucratic methodologies.by the National Defense Research Committee). was at the centre of the cybernetic rhetoric. This vision. was exemplified after the war by the Macy Conferences (1946-1953). the pressures to produce new technologies to fight the war drove formerly specialised scientists and engineers to cross professional boundaries. to see their projects through. the military research projects were extended into society in general. Such interdisciplinary collaboration. flexible and freewheeling work ethic. entrepreneurship and collaboration were the norm. As Fred Turner points out regarding the structure of laboratories during World War II: "Among these various professionals. interdisciplinary networks within which to work and live" (Turner. funders and administrators. p. Scientists and engineers have to become entrepreneurs. 19). created the basis for systemic and distributed network theories as well as a non-hierarchical management style. which combined great trust placed in the possibilities offered by technology and in the ability of humanity to control nature through machines and to establish collaborative systems through mathematical algorithms. and independence of mind was strongly encouraged […]. Many scientists and theorists contributing to the development of cybernetic and of interdisciplinary networks of people oriented towards technology and the transformation of consciousness gave rise to a highly entrepreneurial. first developed in the military industry in the US during World War II. assembling networks of technologists. sponsored by the Macy Foundation. and even after hours. and to form new. to routinely mix work with pleasure. and particularly among the engineers and designers.
In such a vision of society and culture. 21-22). From the end of the Sixties and into the Seventies in the US. mathematician and founder of cybernetics Norbert Wiener and many others (see: www. the universal rhetorical techniques. which later would become the basis of Internet research (Turner. geographically distributed methodologies of analysis. and its potential as a tool for interrogation and psychological manipulation (Holmes. neurophysiologist Ralph W. 1936). and the interdisciplinary and flexible structure of the military-industrialacademic complex to develop a new cultural and social model of information technology. 2002: Dammbeck. information management and control through computer systems. neurophysiologist and cybernetician Warren McCulloch. anthropologist Gregory Bateson. a heterogeneous set of people worked towards establishing networks of collaboration where flexible and interdisciplinary relationships contributed to the establishment of a new form of economic life. mathematician and statistician Leonard J. Stewart Brand and the Whole Earth network embraced the cybernetic theories of information. As Fred Turner points out. org/foundations/history/MacyPeople. 2006). 2006. cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead. psychiatrist. some of the researchers participating in the conferences later contributed to governmentfunded analysis on the psychological effects of LSD. social scientist Lawrence K.to cognitive science and everyday life5. and the flexible social practices born out of the interdisciplinary collaboration of 5 Among the participants.htm). following on from the questioning of authority already initiated by the Frankfurt School when conducting its research on the authoritarian personality (Studie über Autorität und Familie. biophysicist Heinz von Foerster. physiologist and a pioneer of cybernetics Arturo Rosenblueth. Frank. mathematicians John von Neumann. pp. such as the relationship between a system and its observer. physician. Additionally. The Macy conferences contributed to the development of cybernetic concepts. This was a life in which the development of computers and technology linked countercultural values of freedom and liberation with the rhetoric of information and system theory as previously developed within the military-industrial-academic context. psychologist Kurt Lewin. we find psychiatrist and a pioneer in cybernetics William Ross Ashby. Savage.asc-cybernetics. researcher. Gerard. Stewart Brand and the Whole Earth network helped legitimise the lifestyle of the government-funded military-industrial research by "embracing the cybernetics theories of information. pioneering computer engineer Julian Bigelow. the nature of feedback. 162 .
Word War II" (Turner. authoritarian hierarchy is eased by eliminating the complex middle-management ladder of the Fordist enterprises and opening up shifting. which became a "magical answer" for aspirant managerial groups. the critique first levelled against capitalism by the worker's movement.led to a decentralised reorganisation of work production towards the networked model. creativity and relational fluidity can be encouraged in a network as factors 163 . cyber-enthusiasts. p. writers like Kevin Kelly and Peter Schwartz and the team of Wired magazine. to make the system become tolerable once again. flexibility and networked forms of sociability are becoming pervasive business norms. computer experts. Networking became both a means of accumulating cultural value and a model of production. one-to-one connections between network members. managers of business corporations and entrepreneurs of the Global Business Network. However. Brian Holmes. pp. Second. 2006. 33). the systemic models of cybernetic research. Brian Holmes is clear about the reason for the entrepreneurial interest in networked organisation and production models: "First. 238-239). refers to the book by Luc Boltanski and Eve Chiapello The New Spirit of Capitalism (written in 1999). whereby precariousness. Since the Nineties. The foundation of the first virtual communities and of the collaborative network forums and publications that Brand and his peers helped to establish is the consequence of a process whereby military and academic life worked together to transform social and cultural values into networking models. the history of the Whole Earth network and the activities of the "New Communalists" (as defined by Fred Turner. and at the end of the 1960s by social movements . This interlinked collaboration brought together back-to-the-land proponents. analysing how capitalism works at "recuperating" the critique of the previous era.namely. in the essay The Flexible Personality (2002). and before them. demonstrate that the phenomenon of co-opting anti-hegemonic counterculture by business. spontaneous communication. the pressure of a rigid. such models have become more and more connected with a restructuring of economic paradigms. that it thrived on exploitation and alienation . is actually a process of consensual cooperation. For example.
the confluences between hacker culture and business logic in Web 2. thus at once addressing the demand for meaning on the part of employees and consumers. thus overcoming the alienation of impersonal. Third. extended mobility can be tolerated or even demanded. libertarian and anti-hegemonic thoughts have often been connected with business logic. such a process of "contamination" is nothing new. allowing work to be relayed through telecommunications channels. as the analysis of the roots of cyberculture previously demonstrated. desire can be stimulated and new. rapidly obsolescent products can be created by working directly within the cultural realm as coded by multimedia in particular. The growing flexibility of networked managerial systems is therefore a consequence of the recovery by capitalism from the setbacks of the Sixties and the Seventies. which is proper to every capitalist society. which reveals how in the development of cyberculture. the standardization of products that was the visible mark of the individual's alienation under the mass-production regime can be attenuated. This is not only a North American phenomenon: it is the obvious manifestation of the cyclical process of integrating and recuperating "deviations" and criticisms by organised systems.0 appear clear. Instead. unpag). it is a contemporary expression of a phenomenon started long before. the interesting aspect of this phenomenon is that organised institutional 164 . However. both physical and relational. On the other hand. 2002. by the configuration of small-scale or even micro-production networks to produce limited series of custom objects or personalized services. to the extent that tool-kits become increasingly miniaturized or even purely mental. If we apply such a term to the user-generated content model of cultural production and interaction in social networks. anti-hegemonic ways of thinking and systemic models of cooperation are turned into a business model. Fifth. which Holmes describes as a "flexible personality". This social and economical process generates new forms of mobility. rationalized procedures. and resolving part of the problem of falling demand for the kinds of long-lasting consumer durables produced by Fordist factories" (Holmes. imposing delocalised contracts and more volatile modes of consumption.of productivity and motivation. Fourth. Once again.
As will be seen in the final section of this chapter. Similarly. Instead of avoiding conflict with business.com. Instead of using their time working for companies during the day and creating radical projects critical of the mainstream during the night. and independent thinkers in California during my scholarship at Stanford University in the autumn of 2009. hackers. the entrepreneurial attitude of many hackers. since she is waiting for the return of Odysseus. geeks and cultural producers working for commercial companies or in connection with them. and more precisely in the Bay Area. Collaborative meeting platforms such as the San Francisco Dorkbot. in California. In Homer's Odyssey. leading to projects and networks whose goal might be to transform the status quo and create cultural and technological alternatives. hackerspaces such as NoiseBridge in San Francisco. which has come to characterise the majority of labour production in the immaterial economy in recent times. This ambivalence of perspectives became more and more evident to me while getting to know as well as interviewing activists. publishing houses such as Re/ Search. Penelope weaves a burial shroud during the day. which would be a sort of schizophrenic "Penelope's activity". trapped in a constant dichotomy between innovation and 165 . pornography companies such as Kink. demonstrate how it is possible to avoid falling into the trap of accepting mainstream business models by turning entrepreneurial attitudes into a source for disruptive. One interesting aspect of such an attitude is that it might also tackle the above-mentioned "Penelope's syndrome". and often critical. production. many people I met demonstrated how to turn this tension to their own positive advantage. however. does not preclude them from generating highly experimental projects which even have the potential to make a critical impact on society and culture and in the marketplace. as the development of networking methodologies and interdisciplinary collaboration models within the militaryindustrial-academic laboratories demonstrated. it might happen that an individual works for a commercial company during the day. and disrupts such activity by creating radical political projects at night. web hosting services such as Laughing Squid. in the night she unpicks part of the shroud. such experiences benefit by confronting the ambiguities involved.systems can also become agents of cultural change and can be critical of the status quo. telling her many suitors that she will choose one of their number when she has finished it.
building the capability to go to space)" (Kern. at least. Disrupting Ambiguity is not about destroying the other side in a conflict – it is about resolving the conflict by moving to a whole new level that makes the differences of the two sides' moot. building a military complex to fight in WWII and second. However. 2010. who are not just "simple users". Furthermore. the analysis of business strategies becomes useful for reflecting on disruptive forms of criticism. This statement demonstrates also the ambiguity of the concept of "free" – which expresses both a value of freedom and part of business logic – and that it is a crucial step towards framing the current development of networking technologies. irrelevant" (Kern. and the tension between production and consumption never completely vanishes.exploitation. The idea of disrupting ambiguity is useful for describing a flexible economical and social 166 . stressing the ambivalence of creating revenue through the spontaneous involvement of active networks of participants. but become "producers". turning it into something positive. unpag). Katherine Warman Kern points out the ambiguity of making money with the strategy of creating a very large network of engaged users.. To explain the notion of disrupting ambiguity she mentions Stewart Brand's statement delivered at a hacker conference in 1984: "Information wants to be free. the concept of freedom as well as that of leadership. she describes the ambiguity of the role of leadership in the US economy. which might for many people be a means of getting beyond the problem of exploitation or. unpag). Information also wants to be expensive" (because it can be so valuable). This friction becomes evident in the business logic which the innovation analyst Katherine Warman Kern defines as disrupting ambiguity. this certainly does not get to the root of the problem. Exposing such a set of ambiguities and incongruities concerning the role of users in networks. using what has been learned at a commercial company can sometimes lead to the creation of a self-sustaining activity. And finally. As she writes in her blog: "This week's reading and thinking inspires a theory that the path to innovation is not just disruption (i. destroying the status quo) but 'Disrupting Ambiguity'. production and consumption. "since both Roosevelt and Kennedy accelerated innovation by providing government funding to start-up companies who could help the US achieve objectives related to national security (first.e. wondering if the US might be considered a model for 'state capitalism'. On the contrary. 2010.
the act of producing disruptive strategies of sustainability within business contexts might open a path for producing critical interventions. I propose to link such theories to the aesthetisation of networking practices in both social media and collaborative contexts. The aim of this section is to analyse the concept of social networking through the development of folksonomy and to reflect on the status of artistic and activist practices in the intertwining realms of Web 2. exposing the constant tension between production and consumption that is inherent in the development of Web 2. this phenomenon can be traced back to the analysis undertaken by Siegfried Kracauer on the aesthetics of the masses. Eng. "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction". However.3 The Art of Crowdsourcing This section focuses on the business strategy of creating a large network of engaged users to create revenue. where informational technology. culture and technology are often interconnected. Following a "montage method". used in this context to describe the development of social networks as 6 Benjamin W. cultural innovation and methodologies of networking are intertwined. even if it might finally prove possible to get rid of Penelope's shroud. I will start by referring to the dialectical perspective 'Ästhetisierung der Politik – Politisierung der Kunst' (aesthetisation of politics – politicisation of art) by Walter Benjamin6. as well as to research undertaken by Walter Benjamin into art in the age of mechanical reproduction. as was witnessed in the San Francisco and Bay Area countercultural communities and the emerging technological hub of Silicon Valley. 4. The contradictions inherent in the development of digital culture in the past forty years demonstrate that business and innovation in society.0 and social media. where contradictions are exposed and not necessarily resolved. New York. Drawing upon the concept of mass amateurisation. it might still remain lying inside a closet. as will be seen in the following sections.system.0 networking and business... 1968. Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter Seiner Technischen Reproduzierbarkeit. Therefore. in Illuminations. Essay and Reflections. 1936. eds. Schocken Books. 167 .
"the logical result of Fascism is the introduction of aesthetics into politics" (Benjamin. would inherently be based on the practice of politics. Cambridge. and consequently.. Siegfried Kracauer describes the phenomenon of the aesthetisation of the masses and the emergence of a new social mentality through collective gatherings in public contexts7. The authenticity and value of a unique and singular work of art would be substituted by media aesthetics. According to Benjamin. 238). S. Similarly. analysing the consequent death of an individual artwork's aura (the unique original character of that artwork). 1927. 241).an aesthetic representation of a social commons. which they "branded as reproduction with the very means of production" (Benjamin. Therefore. by disregarding the aura through mechanical reproduction. p. 1999). Dadaist artists. Harvard University Press. In The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1936) Walter Benjamin reflects on the advent of photography and cinema in modern society and connects the emergence of consumer culture with the development of technological reproducibility. p. in the Weimar essays known as The Mass Ornament (1927). 7 168 . and the arts. rejecting prevailing styles of art. anti-bourgeois and anti-authoritarian values and imagining a form of art in which reproducibility and fragmentation embraced the logic of chaos and irrationality. in which the masses would recognise themselves (Pold. created a utopian vision of everyday life by addressing anti-war. through the artworks of the Dadaists.. as emphasised by the Manifesto on the colonial war in Ethiopia written by the Futurist artist Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. Benjamin describes the attempt by Fascism to organise the masses "without affecting the property structure which the masses strive to eliminate". my analysis will show how endless cycles of rebellion and transgression coexist with the ongoing development of business culture in Western society. to analyse possible strategies of artistic and activist interventions in the social media. In contradiction to this. Eng. in the epilogue of his Artwork Essay. the masses became active players in the transformation of the arts. Alongside this. Das Ornament der Masse. Benjamin sees the Ästhetisierung der Politik as evidence of a propagandistic effort culminating in the aesthetics of war. In the age of cinematic media revolution. 1968. 1968. 1995. Weimar Essays. The Mass Ornament. the destruction of the aura had already taken place at the beginning of the twentieth century. Kracauer describes the gatherings in urban spaces Kracauer. eds.
even if Benjamin criticised the progressive aesthetisation of politics. 1999. Walter Benjamin states: "Mankind. where the single individual is not conscious of being part of a wider production design. This is the situation of politics which Fascism is rendering aesthetic. however. p. Quoting once again a crucial sentence by Benjamin in the Arcades Project: "In the flâneur. which in Homer's time was an object of contemplation for the Olympian gods. According to Benjamin. and mainstream culture was a framework in which the masses could find new forms of selfexpression. the film industry was a tool for mobilising the masses. he was never against opening technological development up to a broader public. Its self-alienation has reached such a degree that it can experience its own destruction as an aesthetic pleasure of the first order. the 169 . which are neither technologically deterministic […] nor blind to the revolutionary effects of media on the political and cognitive levels. p. the "intellectuality of the masses". As part of his dialectical conclusion of the Artwork Essay. as celebrations of capitalist society. Applying the concepts of aesthetisation of art and of mass ornament to the contemporary networked society. as was outlined in chapter one when I highlighted the difference between Walter Benjamin and Theodor Adorno in their approach to popular culture. quoting Paolo Virno. 1999. "the mass ornaments". 10). as he pointed out in The Arcades Project. 1968. As has previously been described. 23). it should be understood within the political context of when Walter Benjamin penned it in the mid-1930s. the epilogue of the Artwork Essay today sounds quite apocalyptic. in modern society the demand for a politicisation of art is not alien to the experience of Baudelaire's urban flâneur in the arcades of the metropolis. now is one for itself. on the basic level of experience" (Pold. Exposing the risks of using mechanical equipment and technological features to perpetuate totalitarian propaganda. As Søren Pold points out "the Artwork Essay opens up a critical space through its reflection on media. Communism responds by politicizing art" (Benjamin. it becomes useful to analyse the process of mass amateurisation or. p. 242). and the flâneurie becomes a method of understanding the consumerist culture from within. However.and the mechanical movement of line dancers. the intelligentsia sets foot in the marketplace" (Benjamin. The flâneur connects on an empathic level with the goods of mass consumerism and the shiny signs of business. As has already been analysed.
later. p. Social networks are a clear example of the emerging trend for incorporating everyday practices into a net of constant connectivity. They also argue that even if. My response to this question was published on the Nettime Digest (September 25). If we observe the structure of social media platforms such as Facebook. 9). Retrieved June 11. exposing a phenomenon of mass amateurisation as "the process whereby the dichotomy between experts and amateurs is dissolving and creating a new category of professional amateurs. which aim to appear open and progressive. while their networking activity is exposed to a wide public through comments. also called Pro-Ams" (P2P Foundation. this phenomenon might reveal a lack of desire for common participation.0 brings with it a progressive commercialisation of web-based contexts of sharing and social relationships. on my blog: www. We are today in an age of "business analysts who seek collaboration as a tool to grow wealth for the already prosperous" (Lovink & Scholz. notes and "likes".emergence of Web 2. At the same time.nettime. As Geert Lovink and Trebor Scholz argued. 2007. 2007. 170 9 .html. many online independent communities and mailing-lists which were very active in the netculture and net art scene between the mid-1990s and mid-2000s today enjoy a much less active participation. Friends are collected together and displayed on the profile of each user. 2011. follow the thread "Has Facebook superseded Nettime?" started by Florian Cramer on 21 September 2009 on the Nettime mailing-list: www. 20088). and "working together does not exempt us from systemic complicity" (Lovink & Scholz. but which are indeed transforming the meaning of community and networking. For more information on this topic. This phenomenon of aesthetisation of "mass intellectuality" exemplifies the expansion of social networking from a sharing methodology between a few artists and hackers to a larger crowd of 8 Definition of "mass amateurisation" in the P2P Foundation's website: http://p2pfoundation. we gain the impression of it being symptomatic of a massive aesthetisation of personal relations. states.net/Mass_Amateurization.0 "there is no total autonomy of collaborative projects". thanks to social media.networkingart. contexts of sharing are becoming more accessible than before. in many community networks of Web 2.eu/2009/10/has-facebook-superseded-nettime. p. which becomes faster and more distracted.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-0909/msg00024. participation in which usually require less attention and commitment9. while a good number of their members are now quite active in social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. 10). and.
10 171 . which is very reminiscent of the broken voice of HAL 9000 in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.bicyclebuiltfortwothousand. Daisy Bell). but rather perform automatic assignments often paid for by only a few cents per task.com). Koblin "takes real-world and community generated data and uses it to reflect on cultural trends and the changing relationship between humans and technology" (www. www. aaronkoblin. www. which was indeed. and to get compensation for doing so.thesheepmarket. Aaron Koblin. started to use the Amazon Mechanical Turk to create artworks which result from a combination of tasks performed by a group of people.tenthousandcents. Koblin used the strategy of crowdsourcing to create works such as Bicycle Built for Two Thousand (2009).0 is not often drawn attention to – nor expressed by the companies who own the users' data. In these contexts networking clearly becomes a strategy for business. Of course there is nothing bad with this as such. gathered through an open call for contributions.com. The result is an assemblage of voices singing a synthesised version of Daisy Bell. contributors are paid a specific amount of money after delivering their work. and then record themselves imitating what they heard for a fee of $0. creating collaborations in which the users do not really interact with each other. since the structure of work is extremely flexible and the workers class their income as selfemployment. we have the visualisation of 2.06 USD. Respectively: www. Such a labour model allows employers to avoid problems such as the minimum wage and overtime taxes.com. when HAL's logic is lost completely. such as the Amazon Mechanical Turk. a project by Aaron Koblin and Daniel Massey. As his website states. the IBM 704. an artist based in San Francisco who leads the Data Arts Team in Google's Creative Lab. producers). workers had to listen to a short sound clip.088 voice recordings collected via Amazon's Mechanical Turk. As in the crowdsourcing business. and the computer begins singing this song (referring to the first song played on a computer.com. "a marketplace for work". This economic logic becomes more evident in business strategies of crowdsourcing. which enables employers to coordinate the use of human intelligence to perform automatic tasks. In this experiment. Ten Thousand Cents (2008) and The Sheep Market (2006)10. but the ambiguity inherent in the practice of networking as an economically oriented modality of interaction in Web 2. In the first work.users (or better said.
it is exactly through such aesthetic representation of the crowd that we are able to understand it as a whole. Drawing on the dialectical statement of Walter Benjamin. was an aesthetic representation of the crowd. "working in isolation from one another painting a tiny part of the bill without knowledge of the overall task". What was gained at the end of the process. But we can only reach this level of consciousness at the end of the process. If we go back thirty years to the practice of mail art. reveals the transformation from networked art as a collective and sharing practice into networking as management of economically oriented communities. which is not a real collectivity. Such aesthetisation of networking practices. which is now a common part of the business field. However. In contrast. which resulted in sharing exchanges though the postal network. People were part of an emotional network of interests. the crowdsourcing experiments of Aaron Koblin and his partners contribute to visualising the present state of networking and of its production processes in contemporary media society: a crowd of connected monads involved in simulacra of interaction. Aaron Koblin and Takashi Kawashima create a representation of a US $100 bill. should we answer the aesthetisation of networking practices with a politicisation of business through artistic interventions? 172 . thanks to the work of 10 000 anonymous artists who participated in the project via Amazon's Mechanical Turk.69 USD per hour. beside the almost insignificant revenue. Finally. The workers were paid one cent each and the result was the creation of an US $100 bill for a labour cost of $100.In Ten Thousand Cents. the networked collectivity is objectified. it involved individuals belonging to a non-formalised network of common interests. What is lacking in such crowd labour is the possibility of being active subjects. homemade postcards. when the "mass ornament" is complete. the members of the crowd performing such tasks were not conscious of the global design they were part of. in The Sheep Market 10 000 sheep were drawn by workers on Amazon's Mechanical Turk for an average wage of $0. rubber stamps. handmade stamps. envelopes and many other creative objects. motivated by a common desire for cooperation. as can be read on the project's website. As with the collective dance compositions of the Tiller Girls described by Siegfried Kracauer. but a sum of isolated individuals. and even if the final result draws attention to the production process.
burningman. It is both a collective occasion to create a social commons. Burning Man is a phenomenon with many contradictions. A Social Network If we proceed using a comparative methodology based on ethnographic investigation of a constellation of cases. supporting new forms of production in Silicon Valley – and especially at Google" (Turner. However. we notice a clear shift from its initial phase in which it symbolised 173 . 145).4 Burning Man. it is still a mass participation event in California. it is both an event where anti-consumerist practices can be experimented with and a resource where high-tech entrepreneurs can network with each other. and a business enterprise.com). but also in the extravagant behaviour that burners like to exhibit during the festival. Despite Burning Man having been started more than twenty years ago. a significant example of the progressive commercialisation of networking contexts of interaction and sharing is Burning Man (www. Going back to the analysis of counterculture and cyberculture in the US. Many people today identify themselves as burners. a definition which conjures up a bohemian ethos of freedom. Burning Man festival is a week-long art event which has been held every year since 1990 in the Black Rock Desert (Northern Nevada.a temporary build-fromnothing conurbation. and a centralised urban geography managed by a small group of people – even though it is constructed through the involvement of all participants. "Burning Man serves as a key cultural infrastructure for the Bay Area's new media industries. California) and managed since 1997 by the business enterprise Black Rock City LLC. and resonates deeply in the technological and artistic cultural scene of the Bay Area and its surroundings. It is both a symbol of the US ethos of a libertarian lifestyle. My point is that Burning Man is also a clear example of the current evolution of social networking. p. the above-mentioned shift from networking art as a grassroots practice to social networking as a business model becomes evident. 2009. and a gathering of predominantly wealthy middle class people. evident not only through the creation of a shared environment . creativity and experimentation. Furthermore.4. If we imagine it as a social network.Black Rock City . as Fred Turner pointed out in the paper "Burning Man at Google" (2009). It is both a spontaneous ecosystem of peers who come to experiment with art and technology.
there was no Internet Respectively: www.. interventions. www. For a deeper analysis of such movements. gathering naked in San Francisco cable cars. V. of living everyday life as an art form. when the Suicide Club was created. New York: Little. Events held included the surreal experience of climbing San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge in the fog. John Law. games and group performances from the end of the 1970s and through the 1980s. the Burning Man festival would never have been possible without the previous existence of several underground experimental art groups: The San Francisco Suicide Club and The Cacophony Society (Doherty. San Francisco: RE/Search. In the Seventies. Warne gave concrete form to the concept of synaesthesia in the San Francisco public arena.cacophony. 11 174 . to a company-owned networking infrastructure. creating a unique way of living in the city of San Francisco. 2006. Brian. linked to the idea. Pranks 2. promoting and organising collective pranks. 2004)11. Indeed. but where the owner receives the final revenues.a peer-to-peer system where all the participants organised the event and collaborated at the same level.org. Brown and Company.com. This is Burning Man. during our interview in the Herald Tribune tower in Oakland (where he takes care of the tower clock). but an experimental network of people who applied networking methods to carry out initiatives and actions. where all the participants contribute for free in the creation of a shared commons. and Doherty. p. 39). a member of the Suicide Club. The Suicide Club and The Cacophony Society had deep roots in experimental art practices. argued that the Suicide Club was not only an artistic group. whose actions have often been associated with avant-gardes such as Dadaism. "to create experiences that would be like living out a fantasy or living out a film" (Vale. 2004. The San Francisco Suicide Club (1977-1983) was a top-secret group. ed. This phenomenon becomes even more interesting if we consider that Burning Man started as a highly performative experiment. Surrealism. clearly inspired by the avant-garde. 2006. among who was Gary Warne. Its motto was to live each day as though it were your last. or doing a treasure hunt in the middle of the Chinese New Year's parade when firecrackers are going off and dragons are winding down the streets. initiator of The Cacophony Society and joint-organiser of the early Burning Man festivals. It was founded by five people. see the books: Vale. as well as Situationism. The Rise of a New American Underground.suicideclub.
but there were a lot of crossovers from what I have read" (Law in Bazzichelli. as punk or rock bands often did during that time. As was seen in Chapter two. and they would write one another or write criticisms of the stories. In these contexts. However. music. which started in 1969 in San Francisco. which were then sent out by mail to the contributors after the deadline. unpag. as part of the Free School Movement which could be found in many colleges in the United States. and they had the right to manage the curriculum of the initiatives and programmes. Many APAs were founded in the 1930s. they would write hagiographies of their favorite writer and they would trade this information with each other. 2009a. It wasn't a direct outgrowth of the APAs. They would form groups. cinema and other topics related to writing. Amateur Press Associations. and pulp fiction magazines. and people were linked together through very simple methods of networking. or previous experiences of networking between the members. […] Those associations later grew – in the '50s – into the mail art. even before the advent of electronic bulletin boards or the Internet. and the participants joined thanks to informal connections. Another source of inspiration for the networking models of the Suicide Club was the Communiversity. Or. as John Law recalls: "The APAs were communities of people around the US. which 175 . These were distributed groups of people whose aim was to share common interests in a single forum. mostly like 14-20 year old boys who loved serial stories.as it exists today. creating newsletters and covering events in magazines to attract more people. Since a good number of those organising the Suicide Club were interested in pulp fiction. comics. Usually a Central Mailer (CM) coordinated the APAs. the students became the administrators of the free schools. The CM's role was to distribute the association's publication to its members. such as spreading flyers in coffee shops.). this networking model is very similar to that used for mail art – even if the contents in this case involve science fiction. or Amateur Press Associations. the Suicide Club never advertised. to manage the subscription lists and the call for contributions. the roots of the San Francisco Suicide Club go back to America's APAs. science fiction or horror.
and the activities he conceived in this role had a deep influence on the Suicide Club. There was a treasurer. As John Law points out. and the position of treasurer rotated every four months. […]" (Law in Bazzichelli. So that was the collective nature of it. One reflection of John Law's is of particular interest for our discourse. the Suicide Club networking structure implied a double strategy. anyone could do it. 2009b. or to an initiation. Anyone could sign up to do the newsletter […]. And that was set up very specifically by Gary after being in collectives a lot. As John Law recalls. being horrified by how they always descended into political back-biting and fighting. or prank games on campus. you had to agree to everything I wanted you to agree to. like naked events. […] No one owned the newsletter. Gary Warne became one of the administrators of the San Francisco State Communiversity. we weren't exclusive at all. engaging around twenty core members and many others whose collaboration was more sporadic. in the early 1970s. unpag). play writing. if they came to an event. "The collective aspect of the group was that anyone could join. And you didn't have to agree to 176 . Its aim was to create radical contexts for artistic experimentation and urban exploration. […] They'd just leave on their own if they didn't like what was going on. Every month. In contrast to the libertarian aspects of the Suicide club. namely the co-existence of equal collaboration and "authoritarian" practices at Suicide Club events. so there was nobody controlling the mechanism of the organization such as it was.ranged from discussion groups on power and politics to astrology. the fact that many events were actually dangerous meant they needed to be well organized – which implies a highly centralised organisational structure: "If you came on my event. many of them. a collective aspect and an individual one. And the people who stayed were usually pretty creative and very eccentric. graphic art and gay liberation workshops. Suicide Club started as a Communiversity event in 1977 before taking on a life of its own. As John Law recalls.
and you would leave no garbage. identification required. or Nazi barbeques and Scientology meetings. a literary walking tour of San Francisco initiated in 1977 This attitude was inspired by the book The True Believer: Thoughts On The Nature Of Mass Movements. […] We would leave everything exactly how we found it so that no one ever knew that you were there. boots. we had a catchphrase: 'I. We had a very strong ethical view about how we went about moving through the world and breaking the law. like the Unification Church. you could come back and do it yourself with a different format later. What that meant was.D. pretending they wanted to join. as Law recalls. After the death of Gary Warne. unpag). Another central aspect of the Suicide Club was its members' interest in social movements. Suicide Club members went out and infiltrated weird cults. written in 1951 by the social psychologist Eric Hoffer – which was Garne's favourite book. you need to bring your I.D. required'. which later spread to other US cities. because we're going to be breaking the law. You need to bring tough clothing. if we were going to climb the Golden Gate Bridge. a knapsack with a little food and water in it. a flashlight. The idea was to investigate how myths were created and the meaning of "belief ". I would have my write up go 'please show up at X time and X place. 12 177 . It's where Burning Man got it from. but then you didn't come on the event. extreme group activities and extreme group beliefs. It took the performative aspects of the Suicide Club by creating street theatre. You didn't take anything.' If the event was an illegal event. and "the intensity and the genuine human connections that you experience through belief " as John Law points out12.it. This also helped members understand how to look at symbols. […] For instance. oh. And if you didn't like the way the event went. Most of the tenets of Burning Man came from Suicide Club" (Law in Bazzichelli. flags and mythmaking with a certain critical detachment – and irony. we left nothing. urban explorations and pranks in public places – and it was directly inspired by the Suicide Club event "Dashiell Hammett". and that was fine. like to go on the Golden Gate Bridge. like if we were climbing the Golden Gate Bridge. former members of the Suicide Club in San Francisco initiated The Cacophony Society in 1986. 2009b.
51). Christiania.com). conceived by Kevin Evans and organized with John Law and Michael Mikel in 1990. explains: "Solvognen came from Copenhagen's hippie district. The most well known of their actions was to enter the store Magasin where they took goods from the shelves and distributed them as presents to the customers (later. starting the ritual of burning a wooden sculpture of a man on Three Cacophonists started the Santa Event in 1994 in San Francisco: John Law. Zone Trip #4: "A Bad Day at Black Rock". on December 18.Z. Rob Schmidt and Michael Mikel. For the Cacophonists in San Francisco. as Law defines it. singing songs. Since 1986 the local sculptor. getting drunk. 2006. the latter co-founder of Burning Man. That's where Julemandshaeren came in" (Lone Nyhuus "Reality in the Theatre". as John Law points out. but also more playful. The best-known collective gathering of the Cacophony Society is the SantaCon event. 1974. Mary Grauberger had been organising an annual beach party and sculpture event at Baker Beach. but more as a way of having fun. the Cacophony Society was less radical and more open than the Suicide Club. and they started rollerskating.dk/en/Performance/ The-Santa-Claus-Army). It is from this event that Larry Harvey and Jerry James came up with the idea of initiating Burning Man. John Law defines the Cacophony Society's activities as Surreal Tourism. near the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. almost like a William Burroughs cut-up" (Law in Vale. or the idea of "Zone Trips". elderly centres and schools. formerly Santarchy (http://santarchy. However. "a kinder and gentler Suicide Club". at http://kulturkanon. and reclaiming Christmas. visiting nursing homes.A. 13 178 . which has taken place every December since 1994 on the streets of cities all over the world. one of the co-founders of the theatre group Solvognen (the Sun Chariot) in 1969. inspired by the book T. p. singing. involving tens of thousands people dressed in Santa Claus costumes13. Here. SantaCon was not started as a political event. the repression of the indigenous population by the imperialist United States (the Wounded Knee action). One of the Cacophony's central concepts was the trip to the Zone.by Don Herron. The group wanted to create political theatre of action through humorous and peaceful protest. signalled the beginning of the annual Burning Man festival. and member of Suicide Club.as well as the commercialisation and bourgeois nature of Christmas. which "helped you look at wherever you were in a completely different way. each dressed as Santa Claus. the police arrived trying to stop them). arrived in Copenhagen by ferry from Oslo. – Temporary Autonomous Zone by Hakim Bey (1985). As Nina Rasmussen. These were directed against the rising price of milk. many people. However.kum. the roots of this event can be traced to Denmark. and the existence of NATO (the Nato Army action) .
together with the art installations and the other venues. Burning Man is now held every year in Black Rock City. Furthermore. which is burned at the end of the festival. where those involved create huge art sculptures. As John Law points out. John Law points out that another direct source of inspiration was the movie The Wicker Man (1973). a temporary city constructed for just one week at the end of August in the playa of the Nevada Desert. is raised at the centre of the city and at the top of its inhabitants (see image below). where the wooden man sculpture. the Cacophony Society moved Burning Man to the Black Rock desert in Northern Nevada so as to avoid police disruption (which had occurred at the previous Burning Man events at Baker Beach). a virtual city with specific rules and its own economy based on the concept of sharing goods and living liberated experiences. It is a community experiment. and which disappears without trace after the wooden sculpture of the man. as we will see when analysing the development of the festival into an entrepreneurial enterprise. It is a networking enterprise. music events. 14 179 . In 1990. and people survive by sharing their food. Burning Man is very different today from what it once was.the beach at the summer solstice14. a company that. and has a very precise structure: it unleashes centrally organised chaos. happenings and performances. this phenomenon confirms once again the idea that the rise of countercultural utopias in the US is strongly linked with the development of the computer business in Silicon Valley. has increasingly been transforming Burning Man into a networking enterprise. even if Larry Harvey denies it. have been burned by the city's temporary inhabitants. Since 1997 the festival has been organised and administered by Black Rock City LLC. Today Burning Man might be seen as a collective social network. The origins of Burning Man are therefore deeply connected with the experimental art scene and the early urban counterculture of San Francisco. year on year. with 50 000 participants each summer paying around 200 dollars to be part of. There is no money to use in the playa.
John Law describes the difference between the early architecture of Burning Man with the mass participation event as it is today. from Rod Garrett's essay "Designing Black Rock City". its structure suffers from a formal aesthetisation (evident also from the fact that nowadays wearing an extravagant outfit at Burning Man has become almost a must). 2010. The participants themselves no longer raise the sculpture up together anymore as happened in earlier Burning Man events at Baker Beach. if you're looking at the architecture of that event at the time. and it is obvious to all that Burning Man is no longer a non-profit event. April 20. which. it would have been much more difficult and 180 . retrieved from <blog.Black Rock City 1999. Furthermore. It is situated in the middle of the playa and it looks at the people from above. emphasising the concept of commodification of the current festival: "[Originally Burning Man was] complete freedom. the ability and the encouragement for people to do whatever they wanted to.com/metropol/ designing-black-rock-city>.burningman.
to the limits of madness in their crazy dance thing. I think that Burning During our interview. July 5. In Wikipedia we read: "As of 2007. We believe that the best way to lay out the city would be to have nodes of creativity. I don't think that Burning Man is a movement. and Larry Harvey] are currently engaged in a legal struggle initiated by Harvey over control of the name and symbol of Burning Man. Vale. because the people who go. the three partners [John Law. "it's a positive thing. Originally people could set up their camps pretty much where they wanted to. they get a creative and a collective social value out of it" (Law in Bazzichelli. which would make it harder to find things and move around. 2009b). V. rather than styled after a severe geometry. Michael Mikel. Furthermore. where people who had a much larger group could set up much more. 2011.org/wiki/John_Law_(Burning_Man). John Law's response to this struggle was to sue to dissolve the controlling partnership and release the name and symbol into the public domain". which is what it is like now. they get their money's worth. John Law points out that Burning Man today is a profit-making corporation which generates money from admission tickets and through the licensing of the image15. get something out of it. As a consumer experience. 2009b). or they may even throw off all their clothes or whatever they do that is generally not permitted. Vale in Bazzichelli. and just reach some ecstatic state or plane in which they are expressing and transcending their former limits. and a platform for experimenting with liberating practices: "at least [Burning Man] gives a socially acceptable setting for people to almost go crazy. It would be styled totally organically. 15 181 . Similarly. who in 2009 published the book Burning Man Live (edited by Adrian Roberts).wikipedia. of what they'd never been able to dance that well ever before or ever again" (V. 2009b). John Law told me that he has not been at Burning Man since 1996. the founder of Re/Search publications. However. Retrieved from: http://en. Olivier Bonin.messy than making a nice and neat little Nuremburg Rally. or if they're a creative person who goes there and is working with a group. sees it as both an "economic threshold". the French director of the documentary Dust & Illusions: 30 Years of Burning Man History (2009) argues: "I think people feel a common ground out there. but it would be much freer and much less controlled" (Law in Bazzichelli. But I don't think it is Burning Man that is creating that common ground.
In the essay "Burning Man at Google" (2009). participation in project-based artistic labour. etc. It symbolises the shift from a noncentralised and chaotic structure to a managerial organisation. more grassroots level of organizations.. p. This is not surprising. And Burning Man is riding that wave" (Bonin in Bazzichelli. According to Turner. however. contexts of exchange and spontaneous personal relations become a platform by which to generate revenues.). Twitter. and the fusion of social and professional interaction – help shape and legitimate the collaborative manufacturing processes driving the growth of Google and other firms" (Turner.Man is benefiting from the movement all around the world of people who wanted to have more grassroots communities. and in 2007. 145). Burning Man "serves as an infrastructure" which provides "commons-based peer production". consider themselves Burners since the early days and in 1999 the founders famously shut down the company for a week to allow the employees to participate in Burning Man.0. creativity and openness. "the corporate education program extended to making how-to videos for cooking and camping at the Playa and conversely offering internal seminars for co-workers in the remote site" (Losh. burningman. But at the same time. Similarly. Management structures and communal ethos become intertwined. considering that Google's co-founders. MySpace. an aspect clearly inherent in the business strategy of Web 2. which.0 corporations based on freedom of values. Black Rock City LLC began the development of Burning Man Earth in collaboration with Google (http://bmanearth. 2009. Social networks such as Facebook. is nevertheless still based on the concept of sharing and creating a commons. 2009b). For example. unpag. "It shows how elements of the Burning Man world – including the building of a socio-technical commons. Larry Page and Sergey Brin. 2009. 182 . represent for many users a successful model of connecting people. sharing. they are based on a very centralised way of generating exchanges. in 2006.com). The evolution of Burning Man from a counterculture experimental art gathering into a centralised event organised by a business enterprise could be compared with the transformation of social networking from networked art to Web 2. Fred Turner explores how Burning Man's bohemian ethos supports new forms of production emerging in Silicon Valley. while the digital economy and artistic practices become fully interconnected.
As Fred turner points out. Turner noted. the use of financial and social numeration. since people were jammed into offices with three people in systems of forced collaboration that also included open e-mail lists to facilitate talking to one another and developing ideas for goods" (Losh. Liz Losh writes: "Turner claimed that this mode of production enables a number of effects: the fusion of personal and professional 'growth'. the resulting inspiration being of potential use for the company. Quoting the Google project manager Marissa Mayer. unpag. The openness at Google isn't always divorced from coercion. revenues for business companies. 183 . 2009) to generate social commons. peer-based modes of product development" (Fred Turner. Irvine. Google and the Countercultural Ethos of New Media Manufacturing" (University of California. Is it still possible to talk today about "counterculture". Alongside the New Communalists' embrace of the military systemic theories to create physical and virtual communities. Turner states that more than 50% of new products were developed during this 20% personal project time.0 business. This dialectic between counterculture and networking enterprises shows once again that the art of networking today is strictly connected to the use of commercial platforms and is therefore changing the meaning of collaboration and of art itself. the participants of Burning Man embrace "distributed. Similarly. and the transformation of the worksite into home and home into worksite. 2009). In her blog commentary on the lecture by Fred Turner "The Bohemian Factory: Burning Man. this strategy is very evident in Google's business model which allows every engineer to spend 20% of their working time on personal projects. encouraging employees to participate in Burning Man and be involved in an "embodied commons" makes it easier for the company to gain their trust and facilitate the development of lucrative products – as gifts for the "community". and consequently. when social networking has become the motto of Web 2. we are not adopting a model of cooptation to describe the transformation of Burning Man from an underground artistic gathering into a networking enterprise. and business enterprises are using the rhetoric of the commons to generate revenues? Once again. 2009.).
and entrepreneurs are often hackers and activists. analysing such phenomena though a linear evolutional approach could lead to misleading conclusions. unpag. Such a process of "layering" in the US has been generating a very complex coexistence of oppositions: on one hand there are the hackers and activists who adopt a libertarian and anarchic attitude towards technology.but we are demonstrating that business. and evolve alongside each other. becomes indicative of a wider perspective. hackers and activists are often entrepreneurs. 184 . Networks of hackers and activists use strategies of disruption to rock the establishment and business entrepreneurs use networks to generate revenues. In California. or individual choice" (Law in Bazzichelli. However. art. Fetishists and Entrepreneurs Section two of this chapter traced the mutual interconnections between counterculture and business in the rise of the digital utopias in the US. but it has to be based on individual incentive. As Fred Turner argues in his talk "The Bohemian Factory" (2009).). with its development from an artistic underground gathering into an entrepreneurial business being comparable to the evolution of gift-economy in the business of social networking. This can be better understood if we consider the libertarian roots of the American counterculture. 2009b). a similar phenomenon also becomes evident through an analysis of the Burning Man festival. hacking and business has to be imagined as causing mutual disruptions. openness and participation in the contemporary immaterial economy are closely connected. the confluence between counterculture. as we have also pointed out. it should not be thought of as "one regime replacing another" but as "layering" (Turner in Losh.5 Hackers. on the other are the entrepreneurs who create business opportunities by applying networking strategies. 2009. where each element influences the others as they develop and intertwine. 4. As has been seen in the previous section. for example. Activists. so that the vision expressed by John Law: "I am not against collective effort. Therefore. innovation.
and Elin Rønby Pedersen. V. according to the policy that only Google's official spokespeople could release interviews. contextualising from the local hacker and artist scene the contemporary dissemination of social media and the business of social networking. I consider this episode as a clear example of the tension at Google between "openness" and "being closed". Lee Felsenstein (computer engineer. and my conducting of interviews in the fall 2009 in San Francisco. Karen Marcelo (3D programmer and hacker. Scott Beale (founder of Laughing Squid. Olivier Bonin (filmmaker. Harry S. As previously noted. and what is the tension between politics and entrepreneurship among hackers. Lynn Hershman (visual artist and filmmaker). culture and technology as well as independent web hosting in San Francisco). an online resource for art. voice talent and a prominent member of the Church of the SubGenius). expert on hacking and pioneer in both the design of early personal computers and in the formation of the personal computer industry). Survival Research Laboratory). The conversation I had with Elin Rønby Pedersen. hacker culture in California has never really been expressed as a counterculture in competition with the market. LSD and the Internet" (2006). This took shape through my direct participation in a series of local hacktivist and artistic initiatives. screenwriter.During my research scholarship at Stanford University (2009). artists and activists? The network of relations behind this research analysis became of key importance to the research itself. Palo Alto. John Law (member of Suicide Club. 30 years of Burning Man History" – 2009). PhD and Research scientist at Google.Vale (founder of RE/Search Publications. In Lutz Dammbeck's documentary "The Net: The Unabomber. the outcomes of that conversation are not part of this manuscript. I focused on the analysis of how hacker culture favoured the emergence of Web 2. Hal (illustrator. is unfortunately unavailable because I was not allowed to record it or to quote it during my visit to Google headquarters in Mountain View. founder of the Dorkbot San Francisco and member of SRL. 16 185 . Stewart Brand describes the libertarian approach of the Californian hacker during the Sixties and Seventies: "The The interviews included: Jacob Appelbaum (co-founder of the NoiseBridge hackerspace in San Francisco and computer security hacker employed by the Tor Project). co-founder of Cacophony Society and Burning Man). director of the film "Dust and Illusions. Therefore. Robins – aka Dr. and the experience of my encounter with hackers and artists allowed me to build up a constellation of networks.0 in California. Mountain View and Oakland16. independent magazine and book publisher). The main questions facing me were: What has been the nature of the hacker culture in California since the emergence of the social media phenomenon? What happened to the hackers who built Silicon Valley and inspired many of the underground hacker networks in Europe? Is there a political approach towards hacking in California.
Instead. Anarchist in the US is a very close relationship to libertarian. stanford. delivered on June 12. it is not surprising that Steve Jobs. symbolised by the politically oriented publications of the Shake Editions. 2005: http://news. because nobody really brought that word up. 2006). is a clear example of this. cofounder and chief executive officer of Apple. it really broke out of the underground within two years with the introduction of the Apple II. As the personal computer developed. org> demonstrates). I don't know if I want to use the word…anarchists. defined the Whole Earth Catalog as "sort of like Google in paperback form. the activity of Stewart Brand. as has been previously noted when referring to Turner's analysis of the Whole Earth Network. we will create a world that you can sell whatever you want to sell in'. Therefore. And it became really clear there was some money to be made in all of this. but they managed to adapt it radically to the local social and political contexts in which they found themselves. 2011). typical of many European hacker communities (as the community around <www.political stance taken by hackers was: 'don't get in our way. In Italy. thirty-five years before Google came along: it was idealistic. but it was all right with them. And we kept being right about that" (Brand in Dammbeck. and overflowing with neat tools and great notions"17. Lee Felsenstein recalls a similar approach describing the situation of hacker culture in California in the 1970s: "It may turn into the question of 'how did that structurally happen in the business culture' rather than so much out of the business culture. transforming it into something more "antagonistic". the development of hacker culture and cyberculture in California deeply intertwined business entrepreneurship. has no real tradition in California.html (Retrieved July 6. social networking and libertarian antiauthoritarian values. Many hackers in Europe were inspired by the libertarian ethos of American cyberculture. and the Whole Earth Catalog. 17 186 .edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505. and libertarianism in its extreme form is From the Commencement by Steve Jobs.hackmeeting. The idea of hacktivism as an anti-capitalistic practice. the practice-based interpretation of the concept of "hacktivism". The people who ran computer systems knew that their best workers were very often these underground type people who came and went and sometimes did unauthorized things.
the new social network by Google (announced on June 28. and many IT start-ups aspire to be bought by it. like Andy Hertzfeld. that support does not come with control. the first designer of the Macintosh operating system. While many hackers see Google as a symbol of centralising power (one of the main tenets of the book Open non è free by the Italian collective Ippolita). Felstenstein argues: "First of all. Many more are still working independently in the field. in Bazzichelli. Google is not identified solely in terms of the search engine and its other web services: it has become a sort of technocultural connector. This is not a contradiction according to Lee Felstenstein. working at Google is an ambition for many hackers in California. which. The presence of Google in California has quite an influence on the local hacker crowd. such as Bill Gates and Steve Wozniak to name but the most obvious. 2009b). or if there is any restriction on activity. which in many cases simply blocks out many questions that the left anarchists want to ask" (Felsenstein.hackerdojo. who since 2005 has been working at Google and has been the key designer of Google+. Google tends to attract many of the hackers in the area. not only by organising the Summer of Code every year (http://code. Hacker Dojo won't work if it is perceived that they are following any instructions from Google or Microsoft.google. and the people involved are very sensitive to that. nominated "sensei" of Hacker Dojo from the outset. 2011). In California. was financially supported by Google and Microsoft. com) the hackerspace started in Mountain View in the fall of 2009. Google and Microsoft know this 187 . from the outset. This has been the case for the Hacker Dojo (http://wiki. many of the hackers who grew up between MIT in Boston and the Homebrew Computer Club in Silicon Valley have become entrepreneurs who have gone on to found IT corporations.com/soc). and others are working for big companies. As Steven Levy describes in his article in Wired Magazine in May 2010.anarchism. but also by sponsoring emerging hackerspaces. an event which brings together a recruitment pool of programmers and geeks. which investigates the future of hacker culture and its involvement with business development.
also. and the fee for being a member of Hacker Dojo is $100 per month. and the open dissemination of information. He argues: "I don't resent the fact that Facebook has found a way to make some money from the information I'm putting in.org). for example.org) so as to understand the goals of the younger hacker generation. Jacob Appelbaum. To me. A more similar approach to the radical idea of hacking as a political and communitarian practice adopted by some European collectives lies at the root of NoiseBridge (www. they're not unintelligent. co-developer of Tor Project (www. 2009b). According to Felsenstein. Facebook is a tool that allows users to get in contact with people.net). When the limitations that come with the use of their tool begin to be a problem to me. "hacking is to make a better tool". The fact that Web 2. Do It Yourself. I'm going to start looking around to see where I can get something that doesn't do that" (Felsenstein in Bazzichelli. and recently known for representing Wikileaks at the 2010 Hope 188 . a hacker is a person who upholds the principles of sharing. while creating products of ingenuity to engage a wider public. a hackerspace in the Mission district of San Francisco.) to generate business at the corporate level is an obvious consequence of this. co-founder of NoiseBridge. As with many newborn European hackerspaces. but also one who actively seeks to innovate in the field of information technology. as well as the idea that anti-hegemonic and libertarian values and business might often coincide.0 companies are using the rhetoric of hacker culture and hacker practices (such as openness. According to Felsenstein. It is interesting to investigate the perspective adopted by the newborn hackers labs (which for some years have been called 'hackerspaces' and organise themselves on wiki: http://hackerspaces. but also as a business incubator.torproject. In Mountain View. and. 2009b). that's a pretty good exchange. social networking. This attitude is clearly related to the general hacker aversion towards "hegemony" that has been described previously. and I would hope that it doesn't evolve in that direction. So it is to their advantage… they are really not giving a lot of money. etc. the Hacker Dojo is seen as an opportunity for self-training and sharing.noisebridge. that we can make the dues nothing if we just get all our money from Microsoft" (Felsenstein in Bazzichelli. it is more of a practice-based technology club than a politically oriented collective platform of hacktivists.
They became great carpenters and they built amazing chairs and everyone had different furniture that they'd all built. argues that NoiseBridge was largely inspired by European net culture and hacktivism. Therefore. but I also saw where a lot of that went. It was like people who were carpenters for the sake of building their chair for their home. while many European hackers during the Eighties and Nineties where inspired by the techno-utopias of the American cyberculture. and then seeing how that affected Europe. only to find out that is not what happens for everyone. […] That was really inspirational. 2009b). because it was directly tied towards the desire of becoming a company that Google buys. As we can read on the website of the 189 . nowadays many young hackers in the US are inspired by the European communitarian approach to technology as evidenced by some hacker and activists groups active in the last decade. and writing software that was really relevant. Metalab and Monochrom in Vienna. in Bazzichelli. I was inspired by MIT and by the men and women in Silicon Valley. so it was a combination of growing up on the West Coast. and while I respect that. and ASCII in Amsterdam. because that's not necessarily accessible. […] I saw in Europe people weren't working towards becoming millionaires per se. such as the experiences of C-Base and Chaos Computer Club in Berlin. poured their heart into everything in order to try and become fabulously rich. it's not what I wanted to do and it's not what I wanted to see. […] Some people. MAMA in Zagreb. and a combination between communitarian and anarchic approaches. and seeing a lot of the leftist social movements really coming together to form cohesive communities" (Appelbaum. The NoiseBridge hackerspace was created as a context for sharing knowledge and tools. like in the Douglas Copeland book Microserfs. and knowing about the MIT hackers and knowing that not everyone can go to MIT. I saw that wasn't really sustainable. they were working on improving their own communities and on improving their own lives.conference. As Jacob Appelbaum points out: "It's a mimetic feedback loop. almost always.
the community of members share an ethics of sudoleadership ('sudo' as in the Linux command that allows an ordinary user to become root). there is a network of initiatives and people which to some degree is very similar to that seen in European net culture. One of the goals of NoiseBridge is to bring people together. to "feel the real responsibility" and "to be passionate about the values of the community". For example.com). This network also includes the active presence of well-known personalities who managed to engage in critical thinking and radical practices since the end of the Seventies. 2009b). such as the independent publishing house Re/Search by V.hackerspace. However. And of course. such as can be seen at the Survival Research Laboratories. and pornography (www. when I was visiting the space. such as the Laughing Squid web hosting and blog managed by Scott Beale (http://laughingsquid. it is interesting that many of its members manage to sustain themselves through their networking activity. the initiative founded by Karen Marcelo. which brings many other local projects into the fold. in Bazzichelli.thelab. which works as a cultural and technological hub for many artists and hackers in the Bay Area. Arse Elektronika. the sharing and the fact that there was a product that everyone could use as a result of their labour" (Jacob Appelbaum. without necessarily waiting for the consensus of others. therefore it works as a social network. NoiseBridge is based on "a set of cohesive social values" which contribute to the community.com) and some islands of creativity in which technological experimentation are combined with artistic research. sexual culture. and the principle of sudoleadership did not clash with the idea of "the solidarity. This means that each member of NoiseBridge can propose an activity and an event.org). the festival organised by the artist group Monochrom that combines hackers and experts of technology.org).org/dorkbotsf ). as soon as people become members. Vale (http://researchpubs. However. the festival Burning Man and its artistic roots play a central role in 190 . Jacob Appelbaum argues that the communitarian aspect was very important in the creation of NoiseBridge. and the art and activist space The LAB (www. For example. where geeks meet about once a month to present their projects (http://dorkbot. founded by Mark Pauline (http://srl.org). they get the keys to the building. The same happened with an edition of Dorkbot San Francisco. as well as decide to carry it out. held some initiatives in the space.ars-elektronika. which becomes a smallscale business. In San Francisco.
S. but she is also an active member of Survival Research Laboratories. Jacob Appelbaum.D. sex machines. is conflated with rape or abuse. For example. even if superficially the opposite would seem to be the case.. two members of NoiseBridge.S. which is usually a highly ethical practice. Ani Niow and and Alex Peake. published in the New York Times (April 2007). which specialises in B. slave training.D.M. and one which lays an emphasis on neither partner being hurt. etc. Kink.D. Or that Karen Marcelo is not only the founder of Dorkbot San Francisco. and Laughing Squid hosts the SantaCon website. is something that characterises much of the approach to technology for some of the younger hackers in the area. as symbolised by the activities of the Arse-Elektronika festival. chronicling the Portland Santacon '96.com's founder. hosted by The Portland Cacophony Society. lesbian wrestling. This mutual intersection of sex and technology. Too often. hardcore sex. He realized early on that building a respectable company devoted to the fetish could help 'demystify' it..com. with a PhD in finance from Columbia University. Another interesting aspect of such a physical social network in the Bay Area is the connection of hacker culture with pornography.S. and the anthologies of Arse-Ekectronika.the creation of a common imagination for many members of those groups. People who felt conflicted about their kinkiness. managed to create a community of employees who work applying the values of B.M. B. is a perfect example of the encounter between disruption. and some other local hackers had previously worked for a company named Kink.com. Peter Acworth. constructed respectively a steampunk vibrator and a tactical corset. bondage and fetish porn. All these experiences are deeply intertwined: for example. Or that Re/Search published a book on Burning Man. Scott Beale is involved in the SantaCon community18. 18 191 . featuring kinky and sex videos of bondage. he told me. as he once He is also the author of the documentary "You'd Better Watch Out: Portland Santacon '96". As Mooallem writes: "[Acworth] describes the company as having a certain social mission.M. based in the State Armory and Arsenal in San Francisco. The business logic of Kink. business and communitarian ethos as described in the article A Disciplined Business by Jon Mooallem. which the Austrian group Monochrom started in 2008 in San Francisco.
as opposed to simply consuming. unpag. in keeping with Acworth's intention of making "the Armory's two-foot-thick walls as transparent as possible – and B. and in fact they 'take the man out of the machine'. The idea of active and conscious participation is an established value 192 . as in real-life B. People have sex with those machines.M. which is connected with technology entrepreneurship. […] I was participating in all these different events because they were my own interests and so we were all working on driving them forwards" (ibidem). so to speak. for Jacob Appelbaum. working at Kink. points out the innovative aspect of the business.com was a means of seeing the relationship between hacking and sex culture as "participating.). It's also changing some of the paradigms for sex and pleasure" (Appelbaum.com is the mother ship where they have a list of different websites. Loving partners can do this to each other. 'would realize they're not alone and. and they are related to the different webmasters. the residents of the Mission District protested in front of the building. in Bazzichelli. one of the other sites is called Fuckingmachines. 2007. everything is negotiated in advance and rooted in a certain etiquette and trust — that everyone is friends" (Mooallem.D. Jacob Appelbaum. networking models and radical sexual imagery: "Kink. […] are meant to break the fourth wall. who worked in the company running the network and computer system.had.S. but in others there is a chainsaw where the bits have been replaced with latex tongues. that there's a big world of people that are into this stuff and that it can be done in a safe and respectful way. At the same time.com which is run by a totally awesome webmaster who has designed different custom robots and machines.M.' Kink's required pre. 2009b).com moved into the State Armory. play. who are the masters of their domain and their domains are related to the different things that are happening there.D. When Kink. in fact.S. For example. assuring audiences that. along with it" (ibidem). the residents were invited inside to see how the business and the shoots worked. In response.and post-scene interviews. In some cases there's still a phallus.
They have stolen and wrecked a lot of people's lives bys stealing all their identities and visa cards and committed crimes just for purely selfish. Vale.among hackers worldwide. whether this be positive or negative. 193 . each group being a microcosm of a wider network. anti-authoritarianism and collectiveness express itself? And how does this relate to the business of social networking in contemporary digital culture? The previous examples demonstrated that artistic and hacker projects focusing on networking contribute to redefining the concept of business through immanent practices. something common to all is a general refutation of the concept of "political". hierarchy and privilege". and there are hackers who still refuse to be part of the market and try to shun big business. Vale pointed out in our interview. as V. hackers and artists addressed in this chapter tend to work inside the economic systems and the logic of these systems in order to generate disruptive innovation. 2009b). The entrepreneurs. it became the practice of pornography and business. They devise different ways of dealing with such systems. in which he argued that more emphasis is placed on cultural revolutions and anti-authoritarian practices than political ones: "The best of hacker culture is to satirize and lampoon and attack the authoritarian parallel official culture of corporate and government websites. I'm not in favor of that. There are hackers who come from a countercultural background and run dotcoms. Some of them are criminals. and I love these people who have managed to penetrate huge corporate websites. profit-making motives. The question once again is how does the tension between antihegemony. What emerged from my interviews in San Francisco and Silicon Valley is that the hacker culture in California is very fragmented. In the case of Kink. and adopt different models to express their attitude towards business. But I am in favor of taking down all authoritarianism. The entrepreneurial attitude blends with the ethos of "understanding and de-mystification". in Bazzichelli. However. because "everything political tends towards secrecy. wherever it shows its pyramid-shaped head" (V.com. which might also be considered part of the ethics of some hackers. I love that. I don't approve of that.
with the methods of dealing with business and political criticism becoming "plural". where disruption becomes a political objective and an artistic strategy. to work within the logic of a network economy. Disruption becomes a concept that can be analysed from a multiangle perspective.0.These artistic and hacker practices are transforming the meaning of business as well. my goal is to emphasise possible methodologies of being disruptive. 194 . I will investigate the practices of hackers. In the next chapter. and stressing multiple interferences rather than oppositional conflicts. exposing contradictions and incongruities. activists and artists who create interventions in the business field of social networking and Web 2. By building up a distributed constellation of practices and models of networking. both in the US and in Europe.
195 .
196 .
0 from within or which 197 . where institutionalised systems create new rhetorical infrastructures of networking and new forms of sociability. react strategically and playfully from within these business systems. as a result of framing open contradictions without wanting to resolve them through an encompassing synthesis.0. where artists and activists. The concept of the Art of Disruptive Business is a result of an investigation I have been conducting since last year within a research group at the Digital Aesthetics Research Centre of Aarhus University. I demonstrated how disruption is recursive.5 The Art of Disruptive Business 5. Furthermore. generating an intertwined phenomenon of consolidation and rebellion. This chapter will suggest possible strategies for artistic actions. I will refer to artistic and hacktivist practices which were attempts to hack the market of social media and Web 2. and social networks work to disassemble hierarchical systems by creating new modes of business logic based on flexibility and sharing models to acquire revenues. but leaving the incongruities and paradoxes open to be experimented with. critical art and disruptive business have shown clear signs of interconnection. which adopts a libertarian ethos towards innovating forms of technology and social communication. In this chapter I will show how. I will develop the concept of disrupting business as a form of artistic and hacktivist intervention within the business field of Web 2. conscious of the pervasive influence of flexible and immaterial economical models in our daily life.1 Rethinking Criticism In the previous chapters I focused on the tensions between the cooptation of networking practices and hacker values by the social media business as well as disruption as a form of business. since the emergence of the Avant-gardes.
p. the analysis of "layering". the aim is to create disruption by creating innovation. 24). the challenge becomes to create paradoxes and tricks. By linking those reflections with Walter Benjamin's concept of "dialectical image" and its historico-philosophical implications. The social and political change comes from the inside. Using business logic to criticise business logic. turning such weaknesses around to produce innovative perspectives and critical interventions. and towards conceptualising a mutual convergence of business logic. hackers. I focused on the phenomenon of crystallisation which tends to embrace disruption and make it a form of stasis. I addressed the theoretical perspectives on this subject as seen by Franco Berardi. Adopting such a dialectical perspective. more than that of cooptation becomes a possible model for understanding social change. I analysed which paradigms might emerge from a petrified asset of consumption. quoting Marshall Berman once again (Berman. Alessandro Sarti and Claudia Mongini. by performing within the system and finding its contradictions and the bugs in the machine. or by using its own logic to transform it. Benjamin's dialectical image served as an inspiration towards visualising a dialectic in which oppositions coexist.started using its business logic as a means of causing disruption. Thus. Therefore. thereby aiming to discover its holes and voids. I aim to answer the following principal question: is it possible to respond critically to business without either being co-opted by it or refusing to engage with it altogether? How can the "business machine" be disrupted while at the same time producing business innovation and critical interventions? In the first chapter. networking strategies and hacktivist interventions. by being able to find the system's weaknesses. artists and activists might create both disruption and innovation at the same time. Disrupting the scheme of oppositional conflicts. a progressive conflict of negations leaves spaces for an intertwined network of reciprocal feedbacks. 198 . Morphogenesis is born of recombinant actions while performing within the system. which occur simultaneously: a dialectical model of Both/And supplants that of Either/Or. with the protagonists acting as chameleons to absorb the instances of the system and. 1983. as well as exposing the "bugs in the system". Analysing the tension between the contemporary financial economy and morphogenesis. as Fred Turner points out.
Adopting a hacker's strategy. In the era of immaterial economy and increasing flexibility. in the case of the artistic and hacktivist interventions earlier analysed within this context. unveil unresolved contradictions in the field of art. while at the same time generating disruptive innovation. Trying to disrupt a frozen forest of crystallisation (recalling Ballard's novel The Crystal Word). However. the act of responding with radical opposition no longer looks like an effective practice. the author/engineer is able to act within them. The figure of the engineer as described by Walter Benjamin is reminiscent of the attitude adopted by artists and hackers who. artists and activists become aware of the subject of their criticism by directly experiencing its logic.Similarly. such fluid molecules provoke disturbance and expose ambiguities rather than consolidate systems. by engaging with the means of production. In the essay The Author as Producer (1934). […] In the 1930s. Geoff Cox and Joasia Krysa point out: "Social change does not simply result from resistance to the existing set of conditions but from adapting and transforming the technical apparatus itself. might become a possible path of exploration. transforming the function of cultural production itself and opening it up to collective intervention. creating a continuous interplay.0 business model. To perform what we might call the art of disrupting business. performing both disruption and innovation means simulating the logic of the contemporary Web 2. the difference is that innovation and disruption created by many hackers and artists does not follow capitalistic logic. keeping the dialectic open through coexisting oppositions. Instead of reproducing the production apparatuses. which works by adopting sharing values of networking and peer2peer collaboration and producing new networking strategies. theory and praxis coexist in a semiotic approach. and. while that of performing within the capitalist framework. Referring to Walter Benjamin's essay in their introduction to the book Engineering Culture: On "The Author as (Digital) Producer" (2005). transforming it into a context for intervention. under particular conditions and against the backdrop of fascism. a certain 199 . and often works "out of the box" as a form of subversive action. Walter Benjamin describes the role of the author through the figure of the engineer. Following a methodological perspective well delineated by Walter Benjamin. hacktivists and artists take up the challenge of understanding how capitalism works. in both the political and social systems. more generally.
2009. 2005. 2009. incorporating everyday life 200 . He argues that it is not possible to discuss subversion or construction as if they were external entities. pp. or external enemies of capital. but also the software engineer or software artist" (Cox & Krysa. Their answer is to refer to the activity of 'engineering'. p. What is therefore the function of cultural production "when activities of production. Dynamics of resistance. anti-art and the avant-garde have greatly shaped the development of capitalism to the degree that it relies on rejuvenation through new images and imagery along with other forms of social energies" (Shukaitis. or what he calls "the logic of incorpseoration". p. He points out that as the tension between social struggle and capitalist accumulation builds. "to refer to technical and cultural activity. control and use of power. investigating the concept of constructing imaginal machines that create forms of autonomous organisation within the collective imagination. 2009. 26). are therefore necessary for understanding the course of capitalist development and he argues that "resistant aesthetics. "social struggles do not die. In this. 7-8). the traditional mechanical or electrical (hardware) engineer is evoked. but rather are left in a zombified state of indeterminacy where they only desire to turn against themselves and eat the brain of the living labour of resistance" (Shukaitis. 7). 27). 2005. consumption and circulation operate through complex global networks served by information technologies"? (ibidem p. is "both as a refusal of a separated sphere for aesthetic activity and a re-fusing of new creative energies entering the social field" (Shukaitis. drawing from autonomist and DIY politics. 7). By this. is to use power productively to bring about change and for public utility. p. p.political optimism made social change seem more possible. His analysis of the avant-garde is quite peculiar in the context of understanding dynamics of cooptation. He argues that what he defines as "the avant-garde 're//fusal'". Stevphen Shukaitis explores the condition of art and politics in contemporary capitalism. In his book Imaginal Machines (2009). Can this optimism be maintained when technology operates in the service of capital in ever more insidious ways?" (Cox & Krysa. he means that the avant-gardes worked on the refusal to separate aesthetics from the social domain. To act as an engineer in this sense. through the application of knowledge for the management. recuperation and innovation. 24). Being embedded with the capital is "part of the machinery" and we can't avoid dealing with this when we think about critical practices.
2009. Simonetta Fadda. Therefore. Even the Fluxus artists. p. namely the realization that attempts to create such spaces will inevitably face repression and recuperation" (Shukaitis. Futurism. Indeed. 2009. by trying to bring it into society. and the anti-art aesthetic practice was reintegrated back into the art system. However. they contributed to "the re-fusing and conjoining of aesthetics in the construction of an imaginal machine" (Shukaitis. p. an Italian video artist who in the early phase of her artistic career worked together with the Fluxus 201 . they refuted the previous idea of art. as Shukaitis argues. 101). and they operated within the circuit of galleries. later became a specialised role within artistic institutions. First. Second. proposing anti-art as a new practical mode of aesthetics. 100). As he writes. p. at the risk of generalising. They defined themselves as artists. who clearly tried to open up the concept of art into collective practices. Innovative action therefore becomes a new logic of production within the social realm. they performed on stage. Therefore. The challenge for Shukaitis becomes to keep alive an antagonism without closure. But at the same time. thereby becoming part of the artistic and social system. by working against the separation of aesthetic production and politics from the body of society. 115). art dealers and art critics.practices and objects into the artistic realm. nevertheless remained part of the art system. they enabled their creativity to contribute to the development of social wealth. the compositional modes created within avant-garde arts have also been turned against themselves and zombified" (Shukaitis. we should say that not all the avant-gardes are the same. we could say that Avant-garde represents a pushing of the boundaries regarding what is accepted as the norm or the status quo. to avoid solidified patterns of circulation and the trap of 'recuperation' into fixed and constituted forms. 2009. "Temporary autonomous zones are temporary for a reason. More specifically. for example. There are differences between Dadaism. there are three main points to consider when reflecting on the dynamic of cooptation and disruption in the framework of the avant-gardes. Surrealism. Pop Art and Nouveau Réalisme. as Shukaitis points out: "The problem is that in much the same way that the determining role of anti-capitalist resistance on capitalist development has often turned liberatory movements into mechanisms they turned against themselves. or Fluxus. The idea of criticising the role of art as a practice separate from society.
artist Giuseppe Chiari. Therefore. 2008. adopting radical points of view against the art system and against the culture industry in general does not always solve the tension between cooptation and innovation. but to reinsert art into life" (Fadda in Bazzichelli. 30). in these cases too. remarks that. in any case. we could instead say that at that time artists managed to turn business to their own advantage. "Only after. as has previously been demonstrated. to say that Pop Art was co-opted by business is of course a paradox. taking photos and collecting data. with their celebration of progress. are a case in point. legitimised as art by the artist. and many everyday life objects. In a famous quote. from which it can be seen how the Avantgardes can manage to produce disruptive innovation and develop new forms of business. However. A more obscure case of contamination between Avant-garde and business transpired with a project named Mass Observation. The situation is therefore very different if we speak about the anti-art practices of punks. My third point is that Avant-garde artists were aware of the fact that capitalism relies upon the production of new imagery and creativity. does the point of view become inverted: the goal is no longer to reinsert life into art. and were conscious of being absorbed into the system. Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art". they innovated the art market (and not only that. It was a social research organisation whose aim was to observe and study common human behaviour. The Italian Futurists. of course. considering the fortune that Pop Art had in mainstream culture). Some of them actually worked as part of the creative industry. Andy Warhol states: "Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art. war and machines. shouts 202 . p. keeping diaries. became a paradoxical affirmation of the vision of artist's power over reality. for example. and by innovating art. the figure of the artist as creator was central to the context of the Avant-gardes. engaging a mass of observers (both on a paid and volunteer basis) to analyse and collect a wide range of everyday life practices into databases: between 1937 and 1945 hundreds of people mailed in regular reports of their (or other people's) daily lives. But this is even more the case with Pop Art and Andy Warhol's creative factory. mail artists and hackers. with the artistic practices of networking on the Internet. founded in the UK in 1937. The aspects of contemporary life under observance where quite singular: "behaviors of people at war memorials.
'poetry must be created by everyone. unpag. beards. diffusion and significance of the dirty joke. anthropology of football pools. 2006. and thus free to change them. The Mass Observation project. Madge wrote in a letter to the New Statesman published in January 1937. the private lives of midwives" (Crain. the collagist Julian Trevelyan.and gestures of motorists.' to be spread by 'Coincidence Clubs' throughout Great Britain" (Crain. funerals and undertakers.). 2006. the photographer Humphrey Spender. unpag. was to "establish a new standard for literary realism and liberate poetry from the grasp of professionals" (Crain. It is a singular experiment where surrealist practices were embedded in questionnaire techniques and data-mining processes – and where clearly. bathroom behavior.). eyebrows. initiated with the idea of generating a nationwide effort to document the feelings of the populace after King Edward VIII's abdication in 1936 so as to be able to marry the divorcée Wallis Simpson. the aspidistra cult. and the painters William Coldstream and Graham Bell. by documenting events that shook public consciousness.' So Madge had started to plan a movement that he called 'Popular Poetry.). female taboos about eating. 203 . journalist and card-carrying Communist Charles Madge. is described by Caleb Crain as follows: "Perhaps. May the Twelfth: Mass Observation Day Surveys 1937 by over two hundred observers aimed to subvert the Government's efforts at image-making for the British population. one could make society aware of its unexamined myths and fantasies. The genesis of Mass Observation through the activity of Charles Madge. Mass Observation was therefore the result of the wish to subvert the bureaucracy of the Government by creating a kind of allinclusive and collective bureaucracy: "Only mass observations can create mass science". 1 Other collaborators were: the critic William Empson. unpag. serial production and automatism became functional to surveying the masses and to documenting the status quo. anti-Semitism. armpits. distribution. Those founding Mass Observation included the surrealist poet. 2006. filmmaker and surrealist painter Humphrey Jennings. the French Surrealist André Breton had explained. who later put into practice the concept of "anthropology of ourselves". For this kind of liberation. and renegade anthropologist Tom Harrisson1. The book resulting from the investigation.
Jennings. and a tool for consumption. Who is disrupting whom? Is art a means of criticism or a tool for consumption? My answer is that it is both of them: a means of criticism. by using the same logic as the system they wanted to disrupt (some observers even worked sixteen hours a day). only to discover that their inheritance was tiny to nonexistent. also generates in this case a mutual loop of interferences. However. Their goal was to generate a movement of observers with the Surrealist aim of breaking society-wide repression. unpag. as well as that between cooptation / social change. after Britain declared war. Madge. after some disagreements about the group's policy. 1939.). The tension between disruptive innovation / disruptive business. In 1949. at least in that particular group of data-collectors. Mass Observation allowed them to write books of statistics and facts and sell them.that is. consumption and consumer culture have been intertwined since that time. From the outset.The members of Mass Observation tried to disrupt the system from within. their focus was on the act of subverting Government policy. the government hired the Mass Observation group to find out whether its posters were improving consensus and morale. as part of the Surrealist Avant-garde scene. confirming therefore the assumption that art. and that they would have to struggle to make a living" (Crain. In the engine room of the surveillance machine were people working with art. during the war. providing data to the Government. Mass Observation was incorporated as a market-research firm. producing documentaries and. And to embrace this dialectical image as a practice would mean to start the game in a different playground. 2006. merely focusing on the commercial habits of the country – but the main founders had already left the group. but at the same time. they did so by using surveillance techniques . and Harrisson "were raised with the expectation that they would live like gentlemen. Was the subversion of the system the real objective for this group of surrealist intellectuals? As Caleb Crain agues. but in. 204 . they managed to serve the system by providing a huge quantity of personal and public data.
Such a tension. Focusing on the paradoxes as a business model.uk/projects/2008/antisocial) curated by Geoff Cox. and on cultural "Trojan horses" – or better said. Even if an encompassing criticism about business strategy through artistic practices is yet to be undertaken. activism and business.arnolfini. both disrupting business logic and innovating within its constraints. where a disruption feedback loop connects economically oriented strategies with other strategies that are critical of politics. 205 . is a starting point from which to critically analyse creative intersections between business and art in the field of hacktivism and social networking. antagonism disrupting business. where on the one hand we see business disrupting antagonism.org. for framing the meaning of cooptation and recuperation today. as well as the coexistence of oppositions. and consequently. Rather than simply refusing to compromise with the market.0. such artists and hackers have adopted a critical perspective towards the business of Web 2. since the emergence of Web 2. and the projects listed in the webliography of this research. investigating interconnections between art. one that we could call "the disruption paradox".2 The Hack of Performing Inactivity Some artists and hackers in the past few years have already moved in the direction of making interventions into the art market. social hacks – generated by artists and hackers. a strategy emerges for rethinking the role of art and activism in the network economy. sharing and networking has become the motto of Web 2. In order to move forward we need to ask ourselves whether it makes sense today to speak about "cooptation".5. The same mutual tension comes to the fore when analysing the concept of innovation.0 many art projects have produced critical intervention from within.0 and social media. Facing the progressive commercialisation of sharing and networking 2 For a more detailed list of art and hacktivist projects dealing with Web 2. exposing its contradictions and paradoxes and stressing the boundaries between art and the economy2. but try to act upon different layers where the two-way tension between business and its criticism becomes evident.0 business. and on the other. see the Arnolfini Online Gallery "Antisocial Notworking" (http://project. Their main objective has become how to develop disruptive business models that do not simply follow capitalist logic. Such networked disruption generates paradoxes and juxtapositions. when cooperation.
trying to understand how social media work. As has been demonstrated. Covering a wide range of artistic practices. and often generates a bifurcation: on the one hand the market incorporates artists and hackers. hacker art and other artistic practices over the past two decades. who activate the service by obtaining private data. but also to highlight the possible "bugs within the system". exposing paradoxes and generating unexpected consequences. The interaction with social media usually begins when the user submits data and personal areas of professional interest and recreational preferences.not only to investigate experimental modes of interaction. a hacking of its mechanisms. what is the response from activists and artists working with and within networks? As has been shown by net art.environments. it is possible to work critically within network technologies . their works became an incentive for technological development itself. but to appropriate them and shake them up from within. artists have worked on creating new experimental visions and a network mode of communication. hackers and cultural producers is a business strategy of many companies working on disruptive innovation today: this is certainly the case for Google. The business logic implies the establishment of a private contract – often hidden in the Terms of Service (ToS) document – with the social network operators. within the context of net culture. Not surprisingly. Through this perspective emerges the idea of disrupting business as an art practice. In recent years. By adopting both interpersonal exchanges as well as collaborative and cooperative work as art forms. what that individual gets in return for delivering 206 . disruptive innovation can take different paths. art practice has aimed to devise different modalities of social interaction and media intervention. for Diesel. while on the other. artists and hackers become aware of the game's rules. deciding not simply to refute them. possibilities which have often not been explored by the commercial environment and by the market – and often anticipating them both. applying a hands-on perspective to the business framework. and before that. Leaving to one side the serious implications for an individual's privacy. By this concept I mean the ability to act artistically within the market so as to highlight its limitations while at the same time disrupting its rules from within. but also for the Madison Avenue advertising agencies in New York in the 1950s. Hackers and artists investigate new scenarios. The critique of capitalism becomes a performative act. the recruitment of artists.
developed externally to the central server.0100101110101101. independently offering the additional possibility of interaction with (and to) registered users. once we place them on the servers of these platforms.0100101110101101.etoy. which has remained 207 . http://rtmark. the Toywar (1999.html) and in 2003 with Nike for the Nike Ground project (www. often leading to legal battles between artists and social media corporations. Furthermore. making us reflect on who owns our personal data if. Many artistic projects within social networks are based on the possibility of experimenting with partner applications.org/story.org/home/vaticano.their data is connectivity and the opportunity to share with others. registered by the group of net artists.ORG for the domain Vaticano.com) between the Etoy group of net artists and the corporation eToys Inc. we also lose the right to experiment with them. The art curator Simona 3 In the history of net art and hacktivism there have been abundant examples of legal conflicts between artist-activists and business during the 1990s and the beginning of 2000s: the Digital Hijack of the Altavista search engine as part of the campaign for the release of Kevin Mitnick implemented by the group Etoy (1996. which can be implemented. the legal battles by ®TMark for the project GWBush. But in recent years. www. and Cease & Desist letters have became increasingly frequent3.com/ gwbush) and by The Yes Men with the corporation Dow Chemical.hijack.. Such interventions emphasize the price we pay for our presence in social networks. the boundaries between artistic action and critical intervention have become more and more unstable. because this enables the analysis of the limitations as well as the bugs of the central systems. due to the www. showing that these platforms often have programming bugs which can be seized on and played with.com domain. exposing the strategies of the company in question.org/home/nikeground). With the gradual commercialisation of contexts for networking and sharing. they serve to highlight that our data and virtual identities become commodities which are then claimed as company property. with anonymity and with the very practice of hacking within the framework of Web 2. Some have taken up the "challenge".0. www. Legal suits against artists and activists have been taken out by corporations. thereby emphasizing the limits of these platforms.etoy.org). the conflict with the Vatican in 1998 by 0100101110101101. artists and hackers using social media have come to understand that it is also possible to gain in return an additional opportunity to play with identity. using them in ways they are not supposed to be used and without necessarily needing to enter them illegally.org (www.com (1998. which are not obvious to all users. Playing with external applications becomes an area of research interest in social media.
featuring various artists in the net. it has become common among digital artists to focus on illegal art practices.org/Ferre). after its censorship in 2001 for presumed computer-related crimes connected with the publishing of the web site (www. investigated the boundaries between art and freedom. Furthermore. retrieved on July 13. Any artist interested in taking part in the movement chooses a good lawyer rather than a good gallery owner" (Lodi. 2010. This is Illegal!" for the LPM. in 2010 designed the exhibition project "Cease & Desist Art: Yes. The Cease & Desist letter is "an order or request to halt an activity (cease) and not to take it up again later (desist). www. open source initiatives.).Lodi. or else in the history of net art as the BBC Bhopal Hoax (2004. These practices and interventions extended beyond the terms dictated by institutions or corporations. 2011.html). or had been involved in a trial due to their art interventions.liveperformersmeeting.art and net culture scene who had received Cease & Desist letters. which are shown off as trophies in exhibitions. 208 . in Rome (May 27-29. Receiving a Cease & Desist letter has become the latest badge in championing the freedom to create in the Corporation Age. The project.francaformenti3.babelgum. unpag. The exhibition's intention was to shed light on the tensions between legality and illegality of the practices of artists and hackers working within the network culture and economy.nl/global/netstrike. Live Performers Meeting. the end of techno-utopias. 2010)4. and the way business has co-opted hacker values. the Italian artist Franca Formenti in 2005 decided to create an artwork with the prior legal agreement to publish an interview signed by the fashion house Gianfranco Ferrè (www. net/2010/en/thursday-27/cease-desist-art-yes-this-is-illegal/.autonoomcentrum. As Simona Lodi points out: "For some years now. using guerrilla tactics to protest against the fairness of copyright and intellectual property laws. and the legal battle of Netstrike. Countless Cease & Desist letters have been sent out by companies to pirates. Action artists promote controversial forms of art.htm).com/4024557/ yes-men-the-legendary-bbc-bhopal-hoax. web communities and mailing lists. hackers and disturbers.it. 4 The project can be seen on the LPM 2010 website: www. plagiarists. as a reflection on the intersection between corporate logic and art intervention playing with the boundaries between legal and illegal. and web freedom.
2011. where the exaltation of progress. after the sudden change of light that followed the 9/11 event. it is an ordination. Franco Berardi. For many reasons the year 1977 can be seen as a turning point: this was the year when the punk movement exploded. As Franco Berardi points out: "In the last three decades of the century the utopian imagination was slowly overturned. and especially during the past century.). of virtual knowledge and actual war. and a paradox of its inherent logic. where "futurism is without future".wikipedia. from the faith in progress as shown by the Futurists to the punk declaration of its end. "the century that trusted in the future". violence and psychic instability. Will we ever find a path beyond the limits of the Dystopian Kingdom?" (F. unpag. Berardi retraces the history of the imagination of "the future". he argues that "we have to invent something beyond the obsession of the future because the future is over" (F.face legal action"5. The artistic imagination. since that day.org/wiki/Cease_and_desist. Berardi. describes how the myth of the future has been connected with the myth of energy (and action) throughout the modern age. In his analysis of the 20th century. In its most basic form. and it has finally produced a growing system of virtual life and actual death. in the first section of his forthcoming book After the Future (2011). whose cry – 'No Future' – was a self-fulfilling prophecy that has slowly enveloped the world. 2011. A new utopia appeared on the stage during the last decade of the century that trusted in the future: cyberculture. forthcoming) 5 From Wikipedia. retrieved July 14. to stop actions online (or offline). Facing the present reality. hyperconnected and infinitely powerful. B. Berardi. But it can also be seen as a symbol of how the financial market works today. He sees in the Futurist avantgarde the final step to full modernity. seems unable to escape the territory of fear and of despair. which has given way to the imagination of a global mind. machines and velocity has brought contemporary society to a state of acceleration. 209 . and has been replaced by the dystopian imagination. The Free Encyclopedia: http://en. usually issuing forth from corporations or institutions. This last utopia ended in depression.
gain an awareness of those around them.). the means to counteract this tendency is to reconnect bodies and minds. not by separating themselves from the world. cannot come about solely from violating rules. If financial growth has led to the fracturing of time. causing many young people to claim "we want our future now!" (as the students fighting in Italy did in the demonstrations against the educational cuts). But isn't this also what the avant-garde aspired to? Doesn't experimental art wish to sever the link between symbol and referent? In saying this. The collective has created growth: now we need to enjoy it" (F. to stop "the process of subjectivation in terms of resistance". which were then recombined in the network machine of abstract semio-production.The idea of constant growth has led to an accumulation of goods. As Berardi writes: "The whole system precipitates into indeterminacy as all correspondences between symbol and referent. People need to find time to slow down. People need to discover their singularity. Rather. by "being themselves without protecting themselves". He argues that "we do not need more things. 2011. we need more time and joy. simulation and event. the answer for artists. and on the other the deregulation as launched by Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. value and labor time no longer hold. Berardi. enabling individuals to decelerate. antagonism and business can be seen to intertwine once again. I am suggesting that the anarchic utopia of the avant-garde was actualized and turned into its opposite the moment society internalised rules and capital was able to abdicate both 6 For example. hackers and activists. to an exploitation of ordinary lives and to the dictatorship of the financial economy. unpag. I am not accusing the avant-garde of being the cause of neoliberalist economic deregulation. to experience pleasure and to feel. while at the same time finding their singular rhythm (experiencing what Berardi defines a thera-poetic affect). work and activities. Therefore. 210 . who are the subjectivities specifically being addressed here. at the one extreme are the anti-structural utopias imagined by the avantgardes. but as part of the body of the world. as not just activists but also business entrepreneurs have shown over the past few years6. Is there any way out of this social impasse? Berardi suggests starting to live in a post-futurist way. Following the idea of a loosening up of the rules.
by sending C&D letters. has brought us towards the acceleration in the productivity of the social machine. the whole idea of constant "activism" to compete and to dominate. but to instigate disruption. The strategy being investigated in the context of the present research is not to instigate resistance. 2011). To do it for the lulz. confining people to the role of consumers. and to exacerbate the bugs in the system. Activism thus takes a different course. B. becoming inactive and no longer bothering them? How can we perform disruptive practices which move beyond the 20th century myth of radical action – and which extend beyond exploitation? Some works by artists dealing with such subjects have shown that one possible path is not to violate the rules.juridical law and political rationality to abandon itself to the seeming anarchy of internalised automatisms. increasingly comes to look like a blind alley: the idea of mobilising social energies. reflecting on the possible strategies that could be adopted. or better said. controlled prosumers. Or by remembering that: "Intimate and direct dialogue is the monad 211 . we are facing a bifurcation: on the one hand we have corporations repressing dissent and demanding a halt to critical actions. and passive sabotage?" (F. which is actually the most rigid form of totalitarianism" (F. However. to stage collaborative pranks. 2011). But how to find conscious ways of slowing down without just doing what the corporations want: namely. but on the other hand there is an excess of information. B. as the Anonymous entity would argue. market deregulation and precarisation. but to appropriate them and expose their contradictions as well as their paradoxes. Berardi. as a strategy of resistance aimed at opposing indeterminacy. its goal being to trick. and of the need for accumulation. Berardi asks himself: "Should we not free ourselves from the thirst for activism that fed the 20th century to the point of catastrophe and war? Shouldn't we set ourselves free from the repeated and failed attempt to act for the liberation of human energies from the rule of capital? Isn't the path towards the autonomy of the social from economic and military mobilisation only possible through a withdrawal into inactivity. or merely refute them. of automatism. silence. Therefore activism. all of which should make us stop producing. Berardi. running faster and obsessively believing in a hyperactive future.
and on the constant connectivity imposed by the informational society. As we read on Seppukoo's website: "our privacy. the Japanese ritual suicide of "stomachcutting".seppukoo. This is what two group of artists. while at the same time. But are those lives really worth to be experienced?"7. Adapting the idea of Seppuku.fake and/or real . decided to undertake. Seppukoo. when some subjectivities of the Luther Blissett Project decided to give up the multiple-use name they had been adopting over the previous 7 From Seppukoo website: www. and Web 2.0 Suicide Machine (2009.0. http://suicidemachine.entirely exploited for a sole purpose: to be sold as a product. as well as on the increasingly confused boundaries between virtual and real life since the emergence of Web 2. as the mail artist Vittore Baroni describes it. "Data is the Next Intel Inside". created by Gionatan Quintini and Clemente Pestelli. a project launched by Les Liens Invisibles in November 2009 at the Share Festival in Turin. each by creating an art project dealing ironically with virtual suicide: Seppukoo (2009. and even if they decided to remove their profile. where disruption does not mean necessarily to break rules. Les Liens Invisibles. states a popular Web 2. users could not erase their presence. engaging directly and intimately with a group of peers. our profiles. and the Moddr_ Lab. 2011.org). or to create ruptures. our identities. video and texts would remain archived in the Facebook servers. If the corporations push for consumer inactivity. Les Liens Invisibles invited users to deactivate their Facebook account as a form of "liberation of the digital body from any identity constriction". The artists noticed that once registered on Facebook. Activism and art can become a fulfilling game. retrieved July 15. and people's data is a crucial resource for the networking machine. generating passive sabotage by being inactive is seen by artists and hackers as a possible means of exiting the networking machine. www.com/about.around which is built the philosophy of networking". then performing inactivity as an artistic intervention might be seen as a way of breaking this paradox – by being a paradox itself. photos. in collaboration with the designer group ParcoDiYellowstone. but to perform paradoxes. our relationships. to the context of Facebook.com). they are all . It reflects on the commoditisation of virtual identities in social networks.seppukoo.0 slogan. Taking inspiration from the ritual suicide of Seppuku as performed by Luther Blissett in 1999. 212 . all personal data.
users could reactivate their account simply by logging in again to Facebook and restoring their previous data. thereby making the "instigator" rise up the suicide chart. commoditisation. after committing Seppukoo. by seeing how many such 'friends' would be prepared to follow someone's example by committing virtual suicide. but to instigate an ironical virtual process whereby people could reflect on the issues of exploitation. which could only be "deactivated" – all data was still kept by the 213 . customise their Memorial Page.five years – choosing another status instead to incarnate themselves in other experiences – the Seppukoo virtual suicide symbolised the collective detachment from a mechanism designed to make profit by connecting people.0 social networks. Indeed. In so doing.com). but how many followed them into the act of committing Seppukoo. viral networking strategies and the exposing of the centralised policy of many Web 2. which derived from the disruption of Facebook's "Deactivate" system. In November 2009. They could follow the viral chain of virtual suicides by also committing "seppukoo". by inducing their friends to commit virtual suicide as well: the more friends following the lead of the instigator in the virtual suicide.seppukoo. A common phenomenon on Facebook is the feeling of deriving social status depending on how many friends people manage to collect. What was required to commit suicide by Seppukoo was apparently very simple: people just needed to log in. the mechanism behind the user interface was what was really of interest for gaining an understanding of the disruptive implications of such a gesture. "Seppukoo playfully attempts to subvert this mechanism disconnecting people from each other and transforming the individual suicide experience into an exciting 'social' experience" (www. the more s/he would rise in the top 100 suicide rankings. and enjoy the act of Seppukoo by clicking a button. With Seppukoo it was not important how many friends people had. Users were invited to instigate a viral suicide process so as to increase their score in the Seppukoo ranking system. The artists wanted to reverse this mechanism. it was not possible for users to voluntarily erase their profiles. Therefore the goal was not to shut down the machine. However. users were deactivating their own profiles. How did Seppukoo work? The virtual suicide service functioned through a specific script. and the Seppukoo platform was sending each user's last words to all Facebook friends.
Facebook initiated a sort of war because it started constantly changing the mechanism of user deactivation. my translation)9. because Facebook needs to process it and approve it. As Guy McMusker.. In our case. Seppukoo built a simulated process of user navigation connected to that of Facebook. argues: "This was for us a real hacking script. but we managed to use something which was already inside Facebook. where the users had to write their last words. 31. we did not build anything extra. and to avoid automatisms. by simulating it and tricking it. and the user was consciously committing virtual suicide. Bazzichelli. it requires a captcha. unpag. T. The deactivate page on Facebook shows your favourite friends. and moved on to the deactivate page. those who you will leave after turning off. Pisa. in which the user accessed the home page. and the process became increasingly difficult" (Guy McMusker in Bazzichelli. which were sent to the user's friends. the same usually used to log in on Facebook. Furthermore. 2011a. 2011. Facebook is very keen to 8 This is now possible. Conversation with Guy McMusker / Les Liens Invisibles. logged in with his or her username and password.. and to erase a personal profile usually takes a long time because the company does not want to lose people's data. We showed a similar page. 2011a. the mechanism was the same. As managers of the system we received a notification from people as soon as they committed suicide.company8. because we managed to hack Facebook from the inside. Furthermore. but the process of erasing personal profiles takes a long time. and we peaked at one suicide every twenty seconds during the heaviest traffic periods: Seppukoo had become viral" (Guy McMusker in Bazzichelli. unpag. 214 9 . the spokesman of Les Liens Invisibles. Deactivation in Facebook is immediate. Rec March. 2011. Guy McMusker describes the internal mechanism of Seppukoo: "The process of virtual suicide started when the user logged in to the Seppukoo service. my translation) Such a process of deactivation is crucial for Facebook. Translation from Italian into English by the author. The only possible way of intervening in this process was to understand how the deactivation script worked. Through an open source software (Open Inviter) and a PHP library.
using the Open Inviter library to allow users to import data from Gmail accounts (the same library used by Les Liens Invisibles and also by MySpace. Although we strongly disagree with this data protectionism. Facebook does not allow anyone to use the same script to export data from its server. see the article by Erick Schonfeld "Power. We think this is an important thing for you to know before you import your data there. 2009): http://techcrunch. essentially locking up your contact data about your friends. you are always free to download your contacts using the export feature in Google Contacts.com/mail/help/contacts_export_confirm. To find out more. LinkedIn and many other services). and it adopts a totally restrictive policy on exporting data from its server.html. retrieved July 15. a socialnetwork aggregator that lets users access a number of social networks through one portal. Facebook did not restrict its own users from accessing data provided by Google. The initial expansion of Facebook also arose due to the fact that it managed to retrieve contacts from Google Gmail. Initially Google did not complain. Of course. Because. 11 215 . you won't be able to get it out. However. but eventually delivered its users who were trying to import Gmail contacts into Facebook a specific message: "Hold on a second. retrieved July 15. 10 Gmail by Google: "Trap my contacts now": www. the choice is yours. you should have control over your data. after all.google. 2011.protect itself from episodes of "phishing": an attempt by an external application to acquire usernames. passwords and other sensitive information.com And Facebook Are Friends Again (Almost)" (January 7. which was sued by Facebook for allowing users to chat with Facebook friends though an external messaging client10.com/2009/01/07/powercom-and-facebook-are-friends-again-almost. 2011.com. The company usually condemns any attempt to do so – as happened in the case of the service Power. So once you import your data there. You have been directed to this page from a site that doesn't allow you to re-export your data to other services. Are you super sure you want to import your contact information for your friends into a service that won't let you get it out? Here's the not-so-fine print. On the contrary. This public service announcement is brought to you on behalf of your friends in Google Contacts"11.
Seppukoo was not merely parodying the idea of accumulating friends on Facebook. As Guy McMusker points out: "The log-ins of Facebook's users were being broadcast live from the Facebook server to Seppukoo. investors are willing to pay more. Similarly. and the same accusation made by Facebook about us might apply to them" (Guy McMusker in Bazzichelli. As Guy McMusker argues.uk/technology/2011/mar/17/us-spy-operationsocial-networks.co.co.Facebook maintains a very strict policy vis-a-vis its data. and information a commodity to increase revenues. Distributed interventions are difficult to track and to block. in December 2009. 2011: www. Facebook could actually save the passwords of Gmail users if they wanted. might increase control mechanisms. as a recent military US spy operation on social media has demonstrated"12. and people could take advantage in secretly manipulating minds. thereby making the company's rhetoric of openness and equal sharing of data sound like a paradox. but despite this. considering that the artists were promoting virtual suicide!). 2011). The operation used software to create fake online identities in social media to spread pro-American propaganda ("Revealed: US spy operation that manipulates social media" written by Nick Fielding and Ian Cobain and published on guardian. users were consciously performing suicide. We were deleting them on a daily basis and we had no interest in keeping any users' data..guardian. If a company manages to accumulate more data. Les Liens Invisibles received a Cease & Desist letter from Facebook. In the case of Seppukoo. and just for a limited period of time. you cannot impersonate anyone other than yourself. "On Facebook. However. the artists decided they were not erasing any data. my translation). Retrieved July 15. all of which had been submitted voluntarily. accusing them of exporting users' data without permission. The ownership of private data becomes a cause of virtual battles.uk on Thursday March 17. instead of increasing democracy. Such battles against anyone attempting to force the company's technical infrastructure to become more open was also the reason why. 2011. it was showing that platforms like Facebook are not as liberal as they may at first seem. unpag. the members of LLI had to stop their actions (a real paradox. The network structure. but only the session cookies were kept by us. 12 216 .
However. But neither Web 2. Predictably. For example. which integrates Twitter updates from a person's connections or data collected from sites like Facebook.0 suicide scripts are maintained" (http://suicidemachine.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/05/12/BU8M1JFIL8. when googling a person14. 2011. both art projects managed to expose the sensitive business strategies of Facebook and other social media. 2011. and completely do away with your Web2. A recent anecdote in the San Francisco Chronicle reports that Facebook hired a major public relations firm. by James Temple. sfgate. with the sarcastic title: "Trap my contacts now".0 suicide! This machine lets you delete all your energy sucking socialnetworking profiles. Facebook cited once again the issue of users' privacy and terms of service related to the use of their data by external sources.0 Suicide Machine website: http://suicidemachine. shows that tensions between the two companies in Silicon Valley are increasing. kill your fake virtual friends. where the tension between control and openness comes to affect their competitiveness. The artists were pushing for a radical and ironical break from Web 2. the consequence for the perpetrators of the Web 2. who were completely aware of what was happening and were consciously deciding to commit virtual suicide.0 Suicide Machine – nor Seppukoo – had in any way used personal data contrary to the will of users. who created the project Web 2. raising privacy concerns. Similarly. Retrieved on July 18. the above-mentioned message by Google. San Francisco Chronicle May 13. Twitter and LinkedIn. The machine is just a metaphor for the website which moddr is hosting.0 Suicide Machine13. the idea was to oppose the collection and use of information by Google that had been taken from people's accounts on Facebook.A similar experience to that of Seppukoo happened to the Moddr_ Lab group of artists. In this case.org/#credits. Burson-Marsteller.com/cgi-bin/article. Google's strategy of providing "social search results" was highlighted. the reason for the virtual suicide was to allow users to permanently erase their profiles from Facebook.0 alterego. Specifically. from: www.DTL#ixzz1SRcl2w00.0: "Liberate your newbie friends with a Web 2.0 Suicide Machine was to receive a Cease & Desist letter from Facebook Inc. to plant negative stories about arch rival Google's services. This battle The people who created and developed the art project are listed on the Web 2. the belly of the beast where the web2. MySpace and Yahoo into its public search results. 14 217 . Myspace.org). 13 From the article: "Facebook's not-so-stealth campaign against Google".
contribute to highlighting business logic and pervasive mechanisms of social control. such proprietary business logic can become an incentive for the creation of artistic interventions within social media.3 Activist Enterprises & Venture Communism The recent conflicts between social media corporations and the abovementioned examples of Seppukoo and Web 2. and getting involved instead in something more intimate and "real". provoking unexpected consequences. working at the boundaries between the business of social media and its criticism. 5. The strategy of disrupting business becomes a model for artistic creation. exposing business paradoxes and contradictions might become a possible artistic strategy. 218 . networking strategies and the construction of virtual identities constitute the business framework of analysis. on the other hand. Such artistic interventions. virally adopting business strategies and disrupting business logic. How can we critically address the issues of networking and collaborative interventions when they have become a core business for many corporations? Artistic practices and interventions today face a tension: on the one hand they stress the right to exit the capitalist machine. understanding that refusing to compromise with business might lead to a passive form of exploitation. arresting the chain of production. Creative intersections between business and art become an important territory for acknowledging how the business of social media works. analysing the matter from another perspective. they try to construct an alternative. artistic interventions might lead to a progressive disruption of the meaning of common participation and of networking itself. introducing unexpected incongruities and provoking unusual feedback while disrupting the machine. If social media. Being aware that there is no escape from consumption. However.0 Suicide Machine show that the digital economy and subversive artistic practices can be fully interconnected.over data ownership and public perception mirrors their contrasting modes of business logic as well. mostly by ironic means. and exposing the bugs and limits of the systems in which they operate.
had already been involved in producing artworks dealing with Web 2. 1). As Cirio and Ludovico state: "Our mission was to give all these virtual identities a new shared place to expose themselves freely.At the beginning of 2011.0. www. the founder of Neural magazine.com. the custom-dating website "lovely-faces. net). a Cease & Desist letter by Facebook Inc. reached another pair of artists: Alessandro Ludovico and Paolo Cirio. in which the company asked Cirio and Ludovico to "give back the data" of the one million users. and Paolo Cirio.net domain. www. generating conceptual artworks to hack their marketing and economic strategy.net was actually just the 219 . but at the same time. http://gwei. Both projects used custom-programmed software to expose (and exploit) the inner mechanisms of online corporations. also a way to expose the vulnerability of personal data in a social networking service. It functioned by "Stealing one million Facebook profiles. and Amazon Noir (2006. was an attempt to free personal data "trapped by Facebook" (Cirio & Ludovico. and the implications of this for privacy and users' rights. it managed to expose the strict policy of data control perpetuated by the social networking corporation.amazon-noir. 1).com) giving them justice and granting them the possibility of soon being face to face with anybody who is attracted by their facial expression and related data" (ibidem. com".net). Alessandro Ludovico.org). and its main target was Facebook. Google Will Eat Itself (2005.0 Suicide Machine. it was also an ironical attempt to disrupt Facebook's policy. Of course. p. So we established a new website (lovely‐faces. but the artists argued that the "stolen" data was publicly available. Facebook assumed that the artists were violating the Facebook trademark. subverting the corporate logic of production from within: GWEI. According to the artists. Naturally a reaction from Facebook soon followed. sorted by their facial expressions characteristics" (from: www. artist and programmer. and then. also asking them to remove the contents from Face-to-Facebook. posting them on a custom-made dating website.face-to-facebook. 2011. As with Seppukoo and Web 2. breaking Facebook's constraints and boring social rules. This time the project adopted the name of Face to Facebook (2011. Face to Facebook was launched in February 2011 at the transmediale festival in Berlin as a clear provocation. created with the artist group Ubermorgen.face-to-facebook. p. and closing their personal Facebook accounts. filtering them with face-recognition software. and Face-to-Facebook.com).
who seem to be based somewhere in Europe. external sources are able to intrude into their systems. Consequently. the Face to Facebook project opposes business logic. and making users vulnerable. It is not therefore surprising 220 . on the other hand. the company's founder. As we read in a Wired article commenting on the intervention by Cirio and Ludovico: "Moreover. they'll have an excellent defense. Indeed. It also showed that it is relatively simple to manipulate users' data in Facebook. giving a green light to marketing companies to carry on their data-analysis. unpag. Zuck'"(Singe. 'I learned it by watching you. made his name at Harvard in 2003 by scraping the names and photos of fellow classmates off school servers to feed a system called FaceMash.). 2011. by allowing others to vote on which one was better looking. a denouncement similar to that emanating from Google. the artists put up a notice that Lovely-Faces. adding a link to visit the Face to Facebook website for more information. I would argue that by disrupting Facebook's business logic. Mark Zuckerberg. it's a bit funny hearing Facebook complain about scraping of personal data that is quasi-public. a law firm that represents many companies including Facebook. However. With the photos. Zuckerberg created a controversial system that pitted one co-ed against another. So even if Facebook's anticipated legal nasty gram makes its way to the duo. it is not impossible to collect people's data from Facebook and Facebook's terms of service require those who want to do so to apply for permission. generating unexpected holes in the social media architecture and exposing the lack of safety of virtual data. the project replicates business logic. Face to Facebook raises an interesting contradiction showing how business practices and hacktivism often intertwine in the contemporary networked society. On the one hand. Face to Facebook forced the system to expose the lack of openness of social media platforms like Facebook and to denounce the fact that user data is "trapped in Facebook". "scraping" personal data without permission.documentation project website. and that such platforms are not at all safe – despite their rigid policy. after a warning by Perkins Coie.com was temporarily unavailable.
Exploitation of resources which someone else owns or produces at a lower price or even for free. he argued: "Awareness-raising about the conditions of social oppression has no price and in the Face to Facebook project we came closer to reaching that goal. it is true. came from the context of the artistic project. its logic differing little from that of a business company. […] I understand that Face to Facebook can be seen as a very controversial artwork and unfortunately in the art world as well there was someone who did not want to understand the importance of such a provocation. that nobody really wants to take responsibility and become aware of his own behaviour. just like in the Drowning 221 . Finally it is really important that Lovely-Faces.that after the launch of the projects. And we removed all the people who requested to be taken out of our dating website. So the person who found his classmate. 2011b. and also thirteen website partnership proposals (four of them coming from commercial dating websites). When I asked Paolo Cirio if Face to Facebook could be seen as a commercial operation. I associate such an attitude with those who complain about the occupation of train stations or highways during a demonstration. the artists received fifty-six messages of concern from people asking to be removed from Lovelyfaces. expressing this paradox to him. When I interviewed Paolo Cirio. we didn't want to harm anyone. he answered: "Yes. just like in the case of the private social media platforms like Facebook. friend or even himself/herself. So. almost like we were talking about a social taboo. unpag. nor ruin marriages" (Cirio in Bazzichelli. most of the big firms' business is based on the goods and time of others. pointing out that Cirio and Ludovico's scraping operation was paradoxically similar to the genesis of Facebook.com dating website contents were not indexed by Google.). Actually I think that Facebook has become so widespread and used also by those who claim to be against it. The Face to Facebook project was about a parody of the business world.
depending on the individual's personal artistic perspective or political leanings. liberating identities from the trap of centralised client-server applications is clearly a criticism of business. "stealing" user profiles and recombining them in a custom-data website is seen as a business opportunity to get technical innovation feedback.drowning-nyc. more than exploitation. 15 222 . and disruption.). Although these operations may be seen as classic détournement of the language. the term "business" often generates distinctions of belonging among artists. Face to Facebook does not simply criticise exploitation by reproducing it. From the activists' perspective. as an attempt to weave a fictional story into the daily reality of the residents of Lower East Side Waterfront in Manhattan: www. but at the same time. My audience are not so much those of the exhibition spaces. The idea of liberating identities staged by the activist project coexists with the idea of emphasising what business does. practices and corporate interests were emphasised. hackers and activists. almost by making fun of them. Similarly." (Cirio in Bazzichelli. there are different methodologies for creating disruption and often the meaning of disruption itself can differ depending on whether it is defined by business enterprises or by activists. we are facing a coexistence of oppositions. the sudden legal reaction of Facebook. but specific targets I want to influence. This would explain the business proposals received by the artists from potential business partners and. However. custom software was the medium which turned information into a new form for a new contextualisation […]. I discussed the concept of "disruptive business" with Paolo Cirio after our interview for Digimag Drowning NYC is a project of Recombinant Fiction by Paolo Cirio. Language. but for business enterprises. Therefore. Face to Facebook was a parody of business logic. unpag.NYC project15. by validating the assumption that data has become the most important source of revenues. 2011b. creating a feedback loop between cooptation. a creative example of how to remodel such logic to create disruptive innovation. innovation. or variations of this practice. in both projects there are important strategic and aesthetic innovations. but evidences a crucial aspect inherent in contemporary business logic.net (note of the author). In the case of Face to Facebook.
Nr. in the Italian context. by introducing innovations that helps create a new market and value network – not only in the business of Web 2. but also in the wider European activist scene). Business entrepreneurs also disrupt business by providing new contexts of interactions and systems of collaboration.0 company needs to create a centralised infrastructure where mechanisms of sharing and collaboration become the main source of revenue. while in most of my works I am doing something for common people. is often preferable and more "politically correct". a Web 2. In the context of this research. March 28. As I wrote in the interview. undertaken with both care and anxiety. as described by Dmytri Kleiner in The Telekommunist Manifesto (written between 2004 and 2010). One contradiction emerging from the business analysis of webbased user services is that they are both an increasingly participatory culture and free exchange and they lead to pervasive forms of control. and he showed reservations about the concept of business. personal communication. "Paolo Cirio. introduces a new topology of networks where Bazzichelli. which usually has very negative connotations (especially in the Italian. 16 Commonly. The idea of being trapped in the World Wide Web and in desktop-based client-server technologies.. Quando il furto diventa arte / When Stealing Becomes Art. I do not find my activity so much in this analysis. while business in its etymology refers to an occupation.beyond the criticism of the language I can not see in my project many links with the market. 2011. 17 223 . my translation). business – as understood without recourse to translation – directly refers to management tasks and company entrepreneurship." Digimag. by analysing its mechanisms of production from within. and as the result of many personal sacrifices" (Paolo Cirio. I believe that this perspective is also derived from a common misconception of the term "business". I understand business as identified in private benefits/advantages. Artists and hackers disrupt the social media business by introducing unexpected reactions and unusual feedback to acknowledge how business works. "disruptive business" has to be interpreted as a mutual tension between art. hacking and the business of social networking. and is not in itself derogatory or directly linked to capitalism17. T. but in the broader context of a "network economy".in March 201116. while to use the word "market" (mercato in Italian). 63 (2011).. claiming that "with respect to the notion of business.0. To be successful.
if we consider that networking systems and methodologies of decentralisation have been key to the rise of cyberculture (and even before. In the Telekommunist Manifesto (2010). The potential of peerto-peer systems has been replaced by the growth of centralised clientserver technologies. Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and other distributed systems are becoming obsolete for many users. We are therefore not merely facing a progressive process of exploitation. He writes: "An alternative to venture capitalism needs to provide a means of acquiring and efficiently allocating the collectively owned material wealth Even if many group are still using IRC and Usenet as a source of sharing: for example the newborn Anonymous entity is mainly coordinated through IRC. and the focal point for investments and business innovation. 18 224 . there was still space for the evolution of a set of networking practices which provoked criticism and established the freedom of speech and anti-authoritarian values. and continue to do so.users are monitored and controlled by creating social exchanges.and business development are two sides of the same coin. is provoking a deep transformation of networking systems at the expense of the more decentralised and distributed Internet. texts and images. because the Internet has been connected with industrial. It is an inherent phenomenon that had already started in the Sixties. which has led from a free Internet to a system of capitalist financing. The process of making the Web the primary online social platform. based on community-created value as a source of profits for platform-owners and investors. while alternative porn communities have long since been using Usenet to share photos. such commercialisation of networking platforms is not surprising. if we consider the philosophy of the laboratories of World War II described by Fred Turner). or if we can imagine a business logic that does not lead to a private appropriation of community-created value. However. over the past decades. and the newsgroup alt. military and business development since its inception. which he coined in 2001. However. The question is whether we can still imagine a way of creating distributed networking practices today. Internet email. which also shows that Internet. Dmytri Kleiner introduces the concept and practice of Venture Communism. Usenet. and that business and counterculture have been intertwined for a long time. while Cloud computing. is the next trend18. rather than merely following capitalist logic.slack is still the main social forum for the Church of the SubGenius. provided mainly by Google and Amazon.
(Kleiner. using the great peer-to-peer potential of network systems. 20). Venture communism allows the community to own what it creates and to redistribute it accordingly. which is able to create a distributed commons. the latter generates cooperatives. many open source projects have led to key innovations in the development of Web 2. P2P and commons-based systems owned by everybody and nobody. Python. 2010.0. According to Kleiner. a model for worker self-organization inspired by the topology of peer-to-peer networks and the historical pastoral commons" (Kleiner. 2010. such as Linux. The idea of peer production is distinct both from capitalism and from collectivist modes of production. etc. p. PHP. We need venture communism. which is already part of capitalist business. 8). But with Web 2. a form of struggle against the continued expansion of property-based capitalism. 18). Apache. p. "For peer production to have any effect on general material wealth it has to operate within the context of an overall system of goods and services. and it disrupts centralised methods of production based on the existence of an elite of owners: "A community of peer producers can grow without developing layers of coordination because they are selforganising and produce independently. and it is thanks to such unpaid collective work that those companies become richer. 21). p. Ruby. p. 2010. where the physical means of production and the virtual means of production are both available in the commons for peer production" (Kleiner. The wealth they use to impose restriction on our freedoms is the wealth they have taken from us. Venture capitalism is the model of reproduction for capitalism. venture communism is the model of creation for a peer-to-peer social commons. Without us they would have no source of wealth" (Kleiner. but a modality of working together and sharing across national borders. The former creates mechanisms for sharing and collaboration that are based on property.required to build free networks and free societies. The change lies not in the concept of networking topology. where the source of wealth is no longer venture capital. and as such they do 225 . As Kleiner argues: "We must start by preventing property owners from turning our productivity into their accumulated wealth. 2010. which can both be exploitive.0 only a few companies control the data sources generated by the users.
such a vision should not automatically be interpreted as a new dogma. 2010. p. which converts the vision of class conflict into a model for workers' self-organisation. just like the computer networks that manage the allocation of immaterial goods. Venture communism is such a way" (Kleiner. In the community of peer producers. 24). and more stable and sustainable communities of commons-based producers" (Kleiner. but acquires and allocates material assets among the members. 2010. which imposes only a minimal coordination burden. This proposal. Many venture communes could exist. not property. the political supremacy of the proletariat. for example). ownership can only be acquired by contribution of labour. Dmytri Kleiner rewrites part of The Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848). However. p. but as a beginning or an introduction for new imaginations. […] Thus what is needed for peer production to be able to incorporate material goods into the common stock is a system for allocating material assets among the independent peers. In The Manifesto of the Telekommunisten Network. By writing "Venture communism should not be understood as a proposal for 226 . The model is based on the corporate form of the "venture commune". as the author writes. which works by sharing material property on the basis of a distributed network of independent peer producers who are geographically distributed. are activities that are well suited for computerized automation. while the venture commune does not coordinate production. decentralised and commons-based vision of a networked asset based on an alternative economy to capitalism. venture communism becomes a model for independent producers to share a common stock of productive assets.not need any layers of management other than what is needed for the provision of the common stock of productive assets. is also a creative adaptation of the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels into a Manifesto for a networked society. or the centralisation of credit into the hands of the state) into a distributed. "The main activities of the venture commune […] do not impose a high level or coordination and. Extending those forms of material production into the sphere of creating immaterial value (such as free software. merge together forming larger. transforming the more hegemonic assumptions (such as the proletariat as the ruling class. and as they become interrelated. 23).
For Miss Information. therefore creating a model for a decentralised and selforganised social networking architecture. and Thimbl (2010. The functionality of Thimbl is well described in the Thimbl presentation. and must probably work initially on a micro scale. 25). www. thimbl. It is a decentralised web-based client alternative to Twitter or identi. www. and it can run on any server on the Internet. com/18749871. net). it is political" (www. which was originally developed in 1970 and is supported by all server platforms and available in each server's software repository.dialstation. deadSwap (2009. going beyond the limited vision of Internet as merely the Web).html. the idea of proposing a comprehensive vision of society. open source.org/ web/?page_id=72). www. Such an idea for a decentralised organisational form is what the Telekommunisten collective. the metaphor of venture Communism as a new model for worker's self-organisation is transferred into a technical infrastructure by creating a distributed platform to enable social connections. p.com) a prepaid service which enables cheap international calls to be made from any telephone. which actually erases the possibility of any alternative.deadswap. Thimbl is based on the Finger User Information protocol.net). founded by Dmytri Kleiner and active in Berlin since 2005. This is a genuine alternative to Twitter by dint of the fact that with Thimbl it is not necessary to sign up. and therefore capitalistic values. a free. where technical infrastructures are shared and distributed: Dialstation (2006.a new kind of society" but as "an organizational form with which to engage in social struggle" (ibidem. In fact. If a decentralised model is to be imagined. a clandestine offline file sharing system. which is distributed.ca.net/presentation. integrating classic Internet technologies into the Open Web (therefore. respectively at: www.thimbl. On the Thimbl website we read: "The most significant challenge the open web will need to overcome is not technical. is putting into practice by creating technologies and network services. it must be plural. Call (2008. In the case of Thimbl. http://hackfemeast. and http://vimeo. Dmytri Kleiner also avoids the risk of falling into a totalitarian vision of society by paradoxically proposing a decentralised one. and in the Thimbl video. a playful and interactive city-scale experiment arising from miscommunication. distributed micro-blogging platform. with no need to incorporate users' data to generate revenues19. 19 227 . might lead to the risk of replicating competitiveness and power conflicts.
it is both content and culture". Technologies are linguistic machines which contribute to a redefinition of the assets of production. The Art of Disruptive Business is therefore a multi-layered concept which highlights the current transformations – and contradictions – inherent both in the fields of art and technology and in that of the network economy. but rather by playing with them and disrupting them.net). indeed. In this research the concept of the Art of Disruptive Business must be interpreted beyond categorical definitions. shedding light on contradictions and ambiguities both in capitalistic logics and in artistic and hacktivist strategies. Technological development. 76)20. p. 76). The notion of disruptive business is useful for reflecting on different modalities of generating criticism. in the framework of this analysis "business" is neither analysed through classical business school methodologies. Los Angeles. l'idea centrale è che il sapere è al contempo materiale intellettuale e relazionale. If capitalism is now an integral part of our daily lives and we are at work before going to the office. infatti. but is a means for working consciously on political practices – and for raising questions on art and media criticism. creating a process whereby communication and productivity are connected in a mutual feedback loop21. 1999. Business logic today is versatile and infinitely adaptable. Therefore. Forthcoming in English in August 2011. English translation by the author: "In the evaluation of intellectual capital by business companies. the central idea is that knowledge is both relational and intellectual material. nor seen as positive or negative. interpersonal relationships and desire are all intertwined. as: Capital and Affects: The Politics of the Language Economy. while rethinking oppositional practices in the context of social networking. contenuto e cultura" (Marazzi.thimbl. Rethinking strategies and modalities of opposition implies that new forms of interventions and political awareness should be proposed without replicating the capitalistic logic of competitiveness and power conflicts. where business and the antagonism of business intertwine. 21 228 . "Disruption" implies a multi-angled perspective and is a two-way process. as Christian Marazzi describes in Il posto dei calzini: La svolta linguistica dell'economia e i suoi effetti sulla politica (1999. p. 20 'As Christian Marazzi writes: "Nella valutazione/misurazione del capitale intellettuale delle imprese. Semiotext(e). to imagine forms of disruptive business means to imagine forms of innovation that affect many areas of our everyday life. as we have seen in the previous chapters.
thoughts and relationships can only be fragmented. as part of the Innovation Incubator/ Centre for Digital Cultures (Art and Civic Media cluster). theoreticians and practitioners before it can be fully I wrote the reflections and directions described in this paragraph before handing in my dissertation. This practice-based research activity was initially funded by a four-month research grant (September-December. 22 229 . Holes in the system are everywhere. (Institut für Kultur und Ästhetik Digitaler Medien /ICAM). following a process of distributed morphogenesis. where I have been working within the framework Transmedial Culture – A Practice-Based Research Project of Networking Art and Culture. Faculty of Culture Studies. as a cooperation project between Leuphana University of Lüneburg and the transmediale festival. and since July 2012 by the Institute for Culture and Aesthetics of Digital Media. where the progressive involvement of users in the production process generates new possibilities of peer interaction. Since September 2011. at the end of August 2011. The social media and social networking phenomenon brings about contradictions and ambiguities. business methodologies as well as on the relationship between art and economy. In July 2012 my contract extended to the Institute for Culture and Aesthetics of Digital Media. working as programme curator at transmediale festival in Berlin. as a two-way disruption. It becomes necessary to rethink concepts and dichotomies such as innovation and disruption. The vision of a distributed network of practices. 2011) awarded by the Aarhus University Research Foundation (AUFF). the framework of my research has been developed within the project "reSource transmedial culture berlin". but also of hierarchical control. and based on multiple layers of imagination. 5.4 Future Directions At this present time22. The research subject of social networking is constantly transforming. cooptation and opposition. while inside the Internet bubble 2. political and commercial.The challenge is to try to alter business logic.0. after completing my PhD degree. users and producers. analysing the topology and the effects of artistic and hacktivist practices in decentralised social networks implies a reflection on power structures. and requires both a theoretical and empirical involvement of researchers and artists. ready to be performed and disrupted by the smiths of the networked society. In April 2012 I became a Postdoc researcher at the Leuphana University of Lüneburg. at Leuphana University of Lüneburg.
in early August 2001. Gabriella Coleman and Franco Berardi (for more details see the Bibliography section of this research). What it lacks is a broader analysis of business disruption beyond the Western social While I was writing about Anonymous.wikipedia. Networking. but also as an investigation into the practice of networking as a research method. art and social networking. another entity. This research must be imagined as a starting point for further analysis of disruptive hacker and artistic practices in the business of social media.org/ wiki/LulzSec). the Anonymous Social Networking site (http://anonplus. they released a "50 days of lulz" statement. 23 This was the case with the upcoming publications of respectively Marco Deseriis. as a computer hacker group responsible for several high profile attacks. Methodologies and technologies of networking are used to investigate new models of production of Internet content and creative innovation explored by artists and creative communities working with media and art. and the main platform of communication and sharing had to move somewhere else. techniques and contents within (and beyond) digital culture. My theoretical approach has been based on the analysis of artistic practices as a resource for producing cultural innovation. and hopefully a source of inspiration for further reflection and practices in the field of hacktivism. In the course of writing this manuscript. a former participant disrupted their IRC channel. groups and activities have been constantly reshaping.com. It was necessary to adopt a similar attitude towards the literature consulted as a theoretical source as well. transforming. but also as a strategic challenge to generate media criticism. Furthermore. This present research should be seen as merely an initial input. Since the publication of my first book. multiplying and moving elsewhere23. Anonymous launched Anonplus. Thus. 24 230 .com. 2011). Recently. Flexibility.com/1znEGmHa. But on 26 June 2011. direct participation and constant updating have become part of my research methodology. The Net as Artwork (written in 2006) my objective has been to investigate how collaborative practices among communities of artists. and often case studies have been developing.understood.com). emerged. activists and hackers engaging with participatory technologies and networks has contributed to the shaping of new courses of action. I asked some authors to send me their manuscripts before these had been published24. in some cases. as the final group release (see: http://pastebin. named LulzSec. including the compromise of user accounts from Sony Pictures in early 2011 (see: http://lulzsecurity. retrieved July 18. which often depends on fluctuations in practices and the innovation of technologies. and http://en.
not only theoretically. hackers. 2010. Bazzichelli 2011). including fieldwork in postcolonial countries. of my future investigations to be multi-angled and decentralised. clearly limited as this research is in its analysis of merely European or North American practices (with a specific focus on the scene in northern California). and a project for distributed networks by organising events. The reSource will work towards the creation of a shared knowledge laboratory within transmediale. The increasing commercialisation of the contexts of sharing and networking is currently transforming the meaning of art. what should be the answer of artists and hackers working on a critical dimension of networking? And what is the responsibility and role of cultural institutions engaging with art and digital technologies in contemporary society towards a critical articulation of the relationship between technology and culture? After the completion of this dissertation. and central to further developing the concept of anti-hegemony. therefore. and situated approaches including local minorities and micro-political perspectives. I will be running the reSource experimental project. To develop a practical research approach becomes of crucial importance when investigating topics and activities which are fragmented. translocal and constantly in movement. It will be the aim. For example. often outside the realm of artistic institutions. transgender and porn communities. queer. a new initiative within the transmediale festival initiated by the festival's director Kristoffer Gansing. workshops and talks involving artists. My role will be to develop and curate a networking distributed platform that extends into an ongoing. my research will be framed within the project "reSource transmedial culture berlin" (Gansing. yearround activity with touchdowns at each festival. as part of the team working on the art and digital culture festival transmediale in Berlin. a further investigation into gender studies and feminist literature and practices within social media is necessary. researchers 231 . It is necessary therefore to integrate the activity of research into those of networking and curating. The challenge remains to explore multiple dynamics. and some of those practices are transforming the meaning of business as well. collective. From September 2011. but also empirically. through the analysis of decentralised and distributed strategies of networking among feminist. If business is adopting hacker and artistic strategies of disruption. Artistic practices are developing within the framework of technology and business.media landscape.
To create an ethnography of distributed networks. through the activities of grassroots communities of hackers. The reSource will be oriented towards giving something back to the local art and activist community in Berlin. I plan to examine their development and influence on a cross-national scale using a mixed-media method (Clifford. Adopting the networked methodology I have been testing in the context of this PhD research. First. I plan to map the fieldwork of art and hacktivism working with collaborative practices. which will result in the organisation of practical events and forums for collaboration and sharing. I will apply a comparative approach based on in-depth ethnographic investigation of a limited number of cases. 1988). hackers. To achieve this objective. -. I plan to further develop the analysis of artistic interventions within the market. I plan to analyse three main research hypotheses: -. rethinking the concepts of social networking. innovation and participation. collaborative practices. working in collaboration with local and translocal communities of artists and hackers in Berlin and abroad. Geertz. artists and cultural producers.and cultural producers. towards creating an accessible and dynamic forum for the translocal media art scene. working in collaboration with local artistic communities. -. Within this framework of networking communities as a research practice. working in the context of translocal micro232 . to sort out the communities of artists. by developing an empirical methodology based on mutual exchanges between the members of the (post-) media art scene and researches in the field of humanities. Secondly. activists and cultural producers in the city of Berlin.To advance upon earlier studies on network culture by analysing the significance of sharing communities in the local and translocal media and art scene (with transmediale festival as the focus of this fieldwork).To apply the concept of disruptive innovation to the art field so as to open up a critical perspective on the "network economy". trying to understand how the market works after de-assembling its strategies and mechanisms of production. as well as towards interdisciplinary cultural producers and researchers.
As described in the introduction to the network platform and project Unlike Us: Understanding Social Media Monopolies and their 233 . investigating creative approaches across digital and analogue media. decentralised and socially engaged contexts of participation and innovation. distributed social networks as new modes of producing and spreading cultural content. the aim of my research is to act as a link between the cultural production of art festivals and theoretical research in the field of hacktivism. I will conduct a further analysis on the literature on networking. art and social networking. my themes of investigation will be: an analysis of the concept of transmedial culture.politics and situated practices. The reSource transmedial culture will be my principal case study and will be central to analysing the collaborative processes of knowledge production and networking and its contribution within an international media art festival in order to develop an accessible and dynamic forum for both the media art scene as well as for cultural researchers and producers. Following on from my PhD research. and new curatorial strategies will be investigated within the framework of the "reSource transmedial culture" project. Within the aegis of facilitating collaboration and the sharing of resources and knowledge between the transmediale festival in Berlin and other research institutions. hackers and artists within the framework of networking communities as a research practice. networking and disruptive innovation. co-developing experiences which invite exploration and reflection. I intend to examine disruptive modalities of art production developed by artists and activists after the emergence of social media. developing comparative research on the practice of networking communities. reflecting on distributive. social hacktivism and curatorial research practice. Contemporary works of media art and methods of cultural production in the field of net culture will be analysed. as well as new ways of forming a cultural public. knowledge and experiences between researchers. hackers and activists active in the city of Berlin (and in the broader field of net culture) who use computers and technology as channels for sharing knowledge. international communities of artists. Within such a framework. Furthermore my objective will be to develop mutual exchanges of methodologies. reflecting on the intersections between artistic production. Alongside this.
Alternatives (July, 2011)25 promoted by Geert Lovink (Institute of Network Cultures/HvA, Amsterdam) and Korinna Patelis (Cyprus University of Technology, Lemasol) much has still to be done to promote and research 'the alternative in social media'. Even if today social media dominate Internet and mobile use, many questions must still be raised and answered within the framework of a highly contradictory field of study, since social media both facilitates the free exchange of social relationships and provokes their commercial exploitation. The analyses of these subjects necessarily imply methodologies whereby artists, hackers, activists and researchers join together to inform practice-oriented research and give feedback to both theory and practice through an interdisciplinary, distributed and polyphonic approach. To understand social networking today means to integrate a multiplicity of perspectives and to listen to a plurality of voices, where economical, political, technological and artistic reflections become intertwined with practical interventions in a multi-layered dialectical image. Tatiana Bazzichelli, Aarhus University, August 2011
Posted on Nettime mailing list, July 15, 2011: www.mail-archive.com/nettime-l@ mail.kein.org/msg00262.html.
Appendix: Interviews
During my visiting scholarship at Stanford University in 2009, I collected a body of audio material through interviewing hackers, artists and free thinkers based between San Francisco and the Silicon Valley. Those interviewed include: Jacob Appelbaum (co-founder of the NoiseBridge hackerspace in San Francisco and computer security hacker employed by the Tor Project), Olivier Bonin (filmmaker, director of the film "Dust and Illusions, 30 years of Burning Man History" – 2009), Scott Beale (founder of Laughing Squid, an online resource for art, culture and technology as well as independent web hosting in San Francisco), Lee Felsenstein (computer engineer, expert on hacking as well as pioneer in both the design of early personal computers and the formation of the personal computer industry), Lynn Hershman Leeson (visual artist and filmmaker), John Law (member of Suicide Club, co-founder of Cacophony Society and Burning Man), Karen Marcelo (3D programmer and hacker, founder of the Dorkbot San Francisco and member of SRL, Survival Research Laboratory), Harry S. Robins – aka Dr. Hal (illustrator, screenwriter, voice talent and a prominent member of the Church of the SubGenius), V.Vale (founder of RE/Search Publications, independent magazine and book publisher). The transcription of the interviews amounted to more than a hundred pages; therefore I decided to quote selectively from the interview material. Although not all hackers and activists I approached have been quoted in this manuscript, the perspectives of all of them have been crucial in the development of this research. I am planning to publish an edited version of the interviews on the disruptiv.biz website. The only exception is the interview with Lynn Hershman Leeson, which was published on "MISH MASH", Leonardo Electronic Almanac, in August 2011, with the title: "Hacking the Codes of Self-representation: An Interview with Lynn Hershman Leeson" (see bibliography for further details).
Additionally, I conducted a more informal conversation on the Anna Adamolo network with a member of the Italian AutArt collective (rec. May 15, 2011), but the person I interviewed chose to remain anonymous in order to preserve the collective nature of Anna Adamolo, which is why I decided to keep our conversation private; similarly, I discussed strategies of networking and hacktivism with Guy McMusker, the spokesman of Les Liens Invisibles (rec. March 31, 2011), and I am planning to publish a selected version of this interview in a further publication. Finally, in March 2009 I conducted an interview with the mail artist Vittore Baroni, which was published in Digimag nr. 43: "Interview with Vittore Baroni: From Mail Art to Web 2.0" (April, 2009); and in March 2011 I conducted an interview with Paolo Cirio, published in Digimag nr. 63: "Paolo Cirio: When Stealing Becomes Art" (April, 2011).
Below is a select bibliography (MLA-style) of books, essays and articles consulted in the preparation of this research. The publication dates at the end of each book refer to the specific editions used by the author; when not otherwise specified, all electronic sources were last accessed on August 18, 2011.
AA., VV. Freedom of Culture: Regulation and Privatization of Intellectual Property and Public Space. Open. Vol. 12. Rotterdam: NAi Publishers / SKOR, 2007. ---. Sono Anna Adamolo. Voci e racconti dall'onda anomala. Santa Giustina (Rimini): NdA Press, 2009. ---. The Populist Imagination. The Role of Myths, Storytelling and Imaginary in Politics. Ed. Open. Vol. 20. Rotterdam: NAi Publishers / SKOR, 2010. ---. An Open Web. Berlin: transmediale parcours 4, 2011. Adorno, Theodor, et al. Aesthetics and Politics. London, New York: Verso, 2007. Adorno, Theodor W. "Benjamin's Einbahnstrasse." Trans. Nicholsen, Shierry Weber. Notes to Literature. 1992 ed. Vol. 2. New York: Columbia University Press, 1955. 322 – 27. ---. "Portrait of Walter Benjamin." Trans. Weber, Samuel and Shierry. Prisms. 1997 ed. Cambrige MA: MIT Press, 1967. Adorno, Theodor W., and Walter Benjamin. The Complete Correspondence 19281940. Eds. Lonitz, Henri and Nicholas Walker. Cambridge UK: Polity Press, 1999. Adorno, Theodor W., and Thomas Mann. Il metodo del montaggio (original title: Briefwechsel 1943 - 1955). Milan: RCS Libri, 2003. Anderson, Chris. "The Web is Dead. Long Live the Internet." Wired Magazine 2010. ---. Free: How Today's Smartest Businesses Profit by Giving Something for Nothing. New York: Hyperion, 2010.
" The Brooklyn Rail. Critical Perspectives on Arts. Anonymous. Bair. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. "In Conversation: Istvan Kantor with Daniel Baird. "The Digital Economy.html>. Barbrook." The Impact of Technology on Culture." Illuminations: Essays and Reflections by Walter Benjamin.brooklynrail.Anonymous." Nettime mailing list. Appadurai. 239 ." Men in Dark Times." Image [&] Narrative [e-journal] 18 (2007). Aragon. May 21 <http://encyclopediadramatica. Auerbach. "Imagine no Metaphors: the Dialectical Image of Walter Benjamin. An Interview with Wu Ming.org/2004/06/art/istvankantor>. 2011 <http://pastehtml. 1969. Alex. Arte Postale.htm>. 2011. ---. and Encyclopædia Dramatica. "#OpNewblood Guide for IRC Chat Setup & Anonymous Interneting ". Ed. "Anonymour Portal". "Stories Are Not All Equal. Bertiolo: AAA Edizioni. html>.17 Jun 1997 (1997). August 18. Louis.imageandnarrative. 2005. Electronic document. 2011 <http://www. Vittore. 2011. Ed." Global culture: Nationalism. Arendt. April 21. Baird. 1997. Proceedings of the 2008 Senior Symposium in Anthropology. Ed. Anthony. 2011 <http://www. Baird. August 18. Paris Peasant.nettime. Baroni. 2011 <http://pastebin.be/inarchive/thinking_pictures/ auerbach. 2011 <http://www. New York: Schocken. Featherstone.ch/ Portal:Anonymous>. 1968.org/Lists-Archives/ nettime-l-9706/msg00143. Robert P. Guida al network della corrispondenza creativa. 1990. June 1. London: SAGE Publications. June 7. Arendt. Globalization and Modernity. ---. "The Anonymous' Introductory Guide to Safety During Social Instability ".com/LVrXDNCm>. Daniel. "'We are Legion': An Anthropological Perspective on Anonymous. Richard. 2011.com/view/1dzt3z4. Mike. "Introduction. Boston: Exact Change Edition. Hannah. Arjun." Chicago Review September (2006): 250-59.June 2004 (2004). Politics and Culture.: Idaho State University. Hannah. "Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy. "Walter Benjamin 1892-1940.
"Mythology today.N. Lee Felsenstein. Bauwens. Calcutta. 2003. asp?id=1423>.com/H-45/BaroniSve. Roland. ---. Val Vale. August 18. ---. 1. Bertiolo: AAA Editions. ---. and Michel Leiris. A mail art kit of the Funtastic United Nations. Rome: Derive Approdi & Fake Press." Heterogénesis: Tidskrift foer visuell konst. recontextualization." REFF.it/digimag/article.45 (2003). 2008. "Funtastic United Nations: For a creative de-globalization of cultures. 2010.gr/en/?p=261>. The reinvention of the real through critical practices of remix. mash-up. 1989.heterogenesis. The Net as Artwork. Print. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press. (preview). 2005." Viareggio: E. Aarhus University.Palo Alto . Barthes. and Piermario Ciani. Absorb 'em or the Endless Dance of the Corporate Revolution. "Bank Of FUN. Milan: Costa & Nolan. Bazzichelli.htm>.nr. 43 (2009). Bateson. Print. John Law. "Mail 4 Fun. ---. Networking. Arnolfini. Bankonote delle Nazioni Unite Fantastiche ". CA (Unpublished Work). Oriana Persico. New York: Seagull Books. Correspondence: Georges Bataille and Michel Leiris." Digimag.Oakland. Steps to an Ecology of Mind. 2011 <http://www." San Francisco . reenactment. Bristol (2009). Print. Print. Confessions of an Unredeemed Mail Art Junkie. Georges. DK / Stanford University." The Rustle of Language. ---.re-public. Federico Ruberti. Aarhus: Digital Aesthetics Research Center. Bataille.O. ---. 240 . 2009. California Aarhus University.0. 2002. Karen Marcelo. "Interviews with: Jake Appelbaum. Scott Beale. Tatiana. 2011 <http://www." Bertiolo: AAA Editions. Michel. Gregory. Hal Robins. Baroni. 2000. Networking. 2008. Luca Simeone. 2006.digicult. Ed. August 18. August 18. "Psychopatia Postalis. La rete come arte. "Interview with Vittore Baroni: From Mail Art to Web 2. ---. "The Social Web and its Social Contracts: Some Notes on Social Antagonism in Netarchical Capitalism. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. "L'arte disruptiva del business (The Disruptive Art of Business). 2011 <http://www. 3 Nr. Cary Hendrickson." Re-Public (2008). Olivier Bonin.---. Vittore. London." Concept Store Vol. Salvatore Iaconesi. "If You Can't Hack 'em.
Hannah. 1997. New York: Schocken Books. & London: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Berardi. ---. "The Author as Producer. "On the Theory of Knowledge. ---. London: Verso Books. ---. 1999. Rec May 15. Semiocapitalism and the Pathologies of the Post-Alpha Generation. Essay and Reflections. 2009. Becker. Bello. "Free Bit Flows. 2011. Print. Rec March. Quando il furto diventa arte / When Stealing Becomes Art. MA. ---. Hannah Arendt ed. "Hacking the Codes of Self-representation: An Interview with Lynn Hershman Leeson. Una sparatoria tranquilla. 1968. The Origin of German Tragic Drama." The Arcades Project. Benjamin. The Capital of the Ninetheen Century (Exposé of the Arcades Projects). 1983. Walter. 241 . Illuminations: Essays and Reflections. New York: Schocken. Skype. ---. ---. exStream Collaborative Media. Cambridge. Per una storia orale del '77. Arendt. 2011. London: Minor Compositions / Autonomedia. Ed. ---. New York: Verso. 2004. ---." "MISH MASH" Leonardo Electronic Almanac Volume 17 Issue 1 (2011)." Vienna: Institute for New Culture Technologies. "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Konrad. 2011. and Felix Stalder. ed. 63 (2011). Rome: Odradek. Charles Baudelaire.Nr. Pisa. ---. Claudio Del. A Lyric Poet in the Era of High Capitalism. Howard S.---. CA University of California Press.Conversation with Guy McMusker / Les Liens Invisibles. Precarious Rhapsody. One-Way Street and Other Writings. 1999. 1968. Ed. 31. "Paris. 1999. Franco. & London: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press." The Arcades Project. "When Art Goes Disruptive : The A/Moral Dis/Order of Recursive Publics. Art Worlds. Cambridge.Conversation with a member of Aut Art collective. 1982. Berkeley. ---. ---. London. MA. "Paolo Cirio. ---. 1977." New Left Review I / 62 July-August 1970 (1970)." Illuminations." Digimag. Theory of Progress. & London: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Cambridge. The Arcades Project. 2011. London: Verso Books 1997. Becker. MA." Nyhedsavisen: Public Interfaces 2011: 22-23.
Gary Genosko / Infoscape Centre for the Study of Social Media. Rec June 20.. Milan: Shake Editions. Michael S. All That Is Solid Melts into Air. Gary and Nicholas Thoburn. 2009. "4chan and /b/: An Analysis of Anonymity and Ephemerality in a Large Online Community. The Soul at Work. rebel:art. 2011. Berardi.scientificamerican. ricombinazione. "Life at Work: Bioeconomy and the Crisis of Cognitive Capitalism (KeynoteConversation with Maurizio Lazzarato). The Politics of Copyleft and Open Source. Oakland. Berners-Lee.---. 2011 <http://www. Hakim. Franco. Franco "Bifo". Marshall. Print. From Alienation to Autonomy. Print. and Emanuela Biliott. "Swarm & Disruption. vita. New York: Verso. "After the Future. London: Pluto Press. Poetic Terrorism. London." Eds.com/article. Alessandro. eds. "Long Live the Web: A Call for Continued Open Standards and Neutrality. Genosko. Berman. T. cfm?id=long-live-the-web>. Ontological Anarchy. 1991. 2002. Basel: Christoph Merian Verlag. Bernstein. La rivoluzione della creatività. ---. Copy. and Ermanno "Gomma" Guarneri. 2009. Udine: AAA Edizioni." ICWSM. ed. Bernhard. Berardi. Materiali dal Luther Blissett Project. 2008. Ryerson University." Scientific American Magazine. et al. Ed.: The Temporary Autonomous Zone. Berry. Bey. Rip. # 1." Bologna. 2008. Franco Bifo. Blissett. Peppino e la guerra psichica. and Alessandro Sarti.Video Presentation of "After the Future". Franco "Bifo". Totò. Storia di una radio sovversiva. Lizvlx & Hans. Il contesto storico in cui appaiono i fogli trasversali. 2011. Ed. Fifth International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media.com. Ed. 2011. Connecting Art & Activism. eds. Burn. CA: AK Press.A. 2004. Los Angeles: Semiotext(e). New York: Autonomedia. 2010. Ludovico. 1996. Ubermorgen. Run: Forma. Conceptual Art. Alice è il diavolo. Berardi." Transmediale 2011. How to provoke today? Vol. Tim. Berlin. Hamburg: rebel:art Media Foundation. January 6. 2011.December 2010 (2010). 242 . Bibier. David M. ---. Media Hacking vs. Alain. ---. Milano: Mimesis. Berardi. Luther. 1983.Z. The Experience of Modernity. Milan: Cigra Editore.
gener@tion. Canevacci. 243 . ---.php?iss=1010>. 2011 <http://www. "Revueform in der Philosophie. and Eve Chiapello. "PIXEL AIR." Vossische Zeitung (1928). ---. 1996. August 18. ---. Massimo. 2002. Rome: Apogeo. 2011 <www. eds.13. June 1976 No. ---. Milan: Mondadori. Milan: Costa & Nolan. Antropologia della comunicazione visuale. Fall 2010 (2000). Bloch." Whole Earth Catalog (Electronic Edition) 1. ---. and Susanne Jaschko. Mela marcia. 1987. Loretta." Beyond Ethnographic Writing. "Una stupita fatticità. ---.Participation . Rome: Castelvecchi. The New Spirit of Capitalism.---." Berlin: transmediale. Cantsin. 10 (1976). March 3. "Do It Yourself. 2007.wholeearth.>. Fall 1968 (1968). 2010." EuroArt Web Magazine. "For God's Sake." Avatar. Milan: Agenzia X. Margaret! Conversation with Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead. 2005. "Wonderland. La mutazione genetica di Apple. ---. 2000. Verso un'etnografia della reificazione. Art and Digital Media: Software . Demolish Serious Culture!!! Vienna: Edition Selene. Borrelli. Alexander. Andreas. 2000. 2001. Feticismi visuali tra corpi e metropoli Milan: Costa & Nolan. and Angelika Nollert. Dislocazioni tra antropologia e comunicazione 2003: 36.com/new/?issue=20&page=1&content=54>. Brener. 2011. Digital Auratic Reproducibility. Stewart. Print. Byte. "Fuck Neoism?! Now!" (undated). and Barbara Schurz. Monty. "We Are as Gods. Neoism Now! Berlin: Artcore Editions. 2005. Manifesto delle nuove libertà. 2009.com/issueelectronic-edition. Boltanski. P.J. Ferry. ---. net.ccca. Broeckmann. DE: Revolver. Come fottere i media: manuale di guerriglia e di sabotaggio culturale. Block. Didattica etnografica sperimentale." CoEvolutionary Quarterly / Whole Earth Catalog. "Anti-Technologies of Resistance. 1995. ed. 2011 <http:// euroartmagazine.01.rtf. Luc. Una stupita fatticità. New York: Verso. London. et al." Brera Art Academy. Mind Invaders. Rome: Meltemi Editions. Ernst. Rene. Kassel.ca/ performance_artists/k/kantor/kantor_perf18/neoism/the_antics.Distribution. Brand. August 18. Kollektive Kreativität/Collective Creativity.
Writing Culture. Marcus. Annmarie. The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth-Century Ethnography. 2011. Coleman. 2010. Cirio.'I did it for the Lulz! but I stayed for the outrage:' Anonymous. The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography. 1986. Cavarero." 1st ed. "Phreaks. Filosofie della narrazione. Ed. ---. Chandler. 244 . Bertiolo: AAA Editions and Juliet Art Magazine. Literature. James. ---. the Politics of Spectacle. and Alexei Shulgin. 2011. Chen. Print. Chris. Katherine K. 2000. James. 2011 <http://mediacommons. Milano: Mimesis. 2008. At a Distance: Precursors to Art and Activism on the Internet. Aristarkh. and Alessandro Ludovico. Berkeley: University of California Press." Ths Social Media Reader. UK: The MIT Press. Sarah. and Mark Leger. Milan: Feltrinelli. Ed. Cook. eds. "On Ethnographic Surrealism. A Media Commons Project.. Gabriella. 235-52. ---. Clifford." Comparative Studies in Society and History 23 4 (1981). Piermario. August 18. London. New York: Verso. Caronia.org/tne/cluster/politics-age-secrecy-and-transparency>. and George E. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press. eds. Chernyshev. Berlin: The Green Box and CRUMB. The Processed World Anthology.Politics in the Age of Secrecy and Transparency (2011). Enabling Creative Chaos. Clifford. Dal great complotto a Luther Blissett. tu che mi racconti.Carlsson. Roman Minaev. "Trockij cent'anni dopo. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. "Anonymous: From the Lulz to Collective Action. MA. eds. London. and Norie Neumark. Berlin. ovvero: dagli amici mi guardi Iddio " Žižek presenta Trockij. "Face to Facebook Press Release. et al. and Art. The Organization Behind the Burning Man Event. Moscow: XL Gallery. 2009. Michael. 1988. Comparative Media Studies. and Trolls and the Politics of Transgression and Spectacle. 2011. A Brief History of Working with New Media Art: Conversations with Artists. Antonio. eds. 2011 (forthcoming)." The New Everyday. Caronia. and Geek Protests against the Church of Scientology. New York. Tu che mi guardi. Bad Attitude. Media Art 2. New York: NYU Press. 2009. 1990. Ciani. Antonio. Hackers. futureofthebook.0: Electroboutique. 2005. Cambridge. Adriana. Paolo. Terrorismo e comunismo. Rec January 24. 2011. Mandiberg.
eds. Daniels. eds. "Hermes' Dilemma: The Masking of Subversion in Ethnographic Description. ---. Vincent. Gramsci is Dead: Anarchist Currents in the Newest Social Movements. Engineering Culture: On 'The Author as (Digital) Producer' New York: Autonomedia (DATA browser 02). Cramer. 2006 <http://www. The Mass-Observation movement and the meaning of everyday life. Berkeley: University of California Press. Other Cinema.html>. Lutz. Rotterdam: Independent publication.html>. Dammbeck. Crain." The New Yorker September 11. A Brief History of Curating New Media Art: Conversations with Curators. 2006. Florian. 2004." Nettime mailing-list. ---. Debord. Geoff. eds. 2006 (2006). Crapanzano." Writing Culture. Antithesis: The Dialectics of Software Art. Medien Kunst Netz 2 / Media Art Net 2: Thematische Schwerpunkte / Key Topics. Richard J. 1994.php>. Joasia Krysa. August 18. ---. eds.nettime. 245 . Cox.21 September 2009 (2009). Dieter." Art & Social Technologies Research (2008). 2010. Guy.The Net: The Unabomber. LSD and The Internet. eds. The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography. and Anya Lewin. 2005. Cox. "Has Facebook Superseded Nettime? . "Analog Media as (Anti-)Social Networking ".uk/projects/2008/antisocial/notes." (2006).---. ---.org. 2005.nettime. Aarhus: Digital Aesthetics Research Center.arnolfini. October 9. Aarhus University.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-0610/ msg00025.F. Heidelberg: Springer. 2011 <http:// project. London: Pluto Press. 2010. "Surveillance Society. Caleb. 2010 <www. San Francisco. Day. "Antisocial Applications: Notes in support of antisocial notworking. and Rudolf Frieling. and Joasia Krysa. Berlin: The Green Box and CRUMB. 1986. New York: Zone Books. Print. Geoff. 2010. May 10.org/Lists-Archives/ nettime-l-0909/msg00024. Media Art Net 1. "The Creative Common Misunderstanding. The Society of the Spectacle. 2005. 1991. Cox. Heidelberg: Springer. Geoff. Economising Culture: On 'The (Digital) Culture Industry' New York: Autonomedia (DATA browser 01).
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html Aaron Koblin and Daniel Massey.org Anna Adamolo network. The Yes Men (2000 to date): http:// theyesmen. Aristarkh Chernyshev. Web Uebermahlung No 1 (2008): www. Nike Ground (2003): www.ORG.net 255 .0100101110101101. but is intended to offer a glimpse of the many artistic and hacktivist projects dealing critically with art and business. Myfrienemies (2007): www.html A. Ten Thousand Cents (2008): www.Webliography Below is a select webliography of online projects consulted and visited in the development of this research.org Angie Waller.com Aaron Koblin.ORG. The following list is not comprehensive.0100101110101101. Darko Maver (1998-1999): www.0100101110101101.thesheepmarket. ActivArmy Agency (2011): www.com/new/home/ subvert. electroboutique. Electroboutique (2004): www. and/ or which adopt disruptive artistic strategies of (social) networking.com Amy Hoy and Thomas Fuchs. tenthousandcents.activarmy.org Alexei Shulgin. bicyclebuiltfortwothousand. All links have been verified by August 18.noblogs.nictoglobe.com Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno.list. Bicycle Built for Two Thousand (2009): www. The Sheep Market (2006): www.com Aaron Koblin and Takashi Kawashima. The Fake Ministry Site (2008): www. No Fun (2010): www.ORG.org/ home/nikeground 0100101110101101. ministeroistruzione. 2011.com/new/notities/ text. Semantic Disturbances (2005): www.org/home/darko_maver A.org/ home/nofun 0100101110101101. Twistori (2008): http://twistori.com Anna Adamolo (2008-2009): http://annaadamolo.myfrienemies. Andreas.nictoglobe. Andreas. 0100101110101101.com ACTIV@rmy.
com/ projects/a-tool-to-deceive-and-slaughter/#0 Chainworkers (2000-2010): www.org AnonNews . A99 Operation Empire State Rebellion (Communication) – (2011): www.ncludr.youtube.html Bakunin & carl0s. The Anonymous Networks Development Blog (2011): http:// anonplus. (2008): www.wepr0n. Improv Everywhere (2001 to date): http:// improveverywhere. Isolatr (2006): http://isolatr.iterature.youtube.com/ watch?v=x0WCLKzDFpI Aram Bartholl.de/areyouhumaneng.com Christophe Bruno. nclüdr (2008): www.com Bob Yelram.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Qf17WaXrHTA Anonymous. Who Is Anonymous? (2008): www.html AnonOps Communications: http://anonops.vimeo.com/view/1dzt3z4.org 256 . Pr0n: WePr0n.Everything Anonymous: http://anonnews.com/ adwords Christopher Poole aka moot.youtube.anonnet.de/mapeng.4chan.org AnonOps IRC: http://irc.la.com/dreamlogs Christophe Bruno.com/ watch?v=JCbKv9yiLiQ Anonymous.com Anonplus.free.Anna Adamolo. html Aram Bartholl.blogspot.net AnonymousThought. The Dadameter (2008): www. WyWeProtest: www.lc/AnonOps Anonymous #OpNewblood IRC channel: http://irc.datenform. Are You Human? (2009): http://datenform.facebook. Dreamlogs (2005): www.com/dadameter Christophe Bruno.lc/Anonops/Opnewblood Anonymous.whyweprotest.com Blogging. Message to Scientology (2008): www. The Google AdWords Happening (2001): www. Map (2006): www. A Tool to Deceive and Slaughter (2009): www.com/#!/anonops Anonymous. Don't You? (2010 to date): www. #OpNewblood Guide for IRC Chat Setup & Anonymous Interneting (undated): http://pastehtml. 4chan (2003 to date): www.com AnonNET IRC: irc.rec.chainworkers.fr Caleb Larsen. com/2431622 Anon.org Charlie Todd et all.iterature. Sono Anna Adamolo / I am Anna Adamolo. Palindrome Records (1999): http://palindrome.com AnonOps community on Facebook: www.com/Anonymous#!/ anonops AnonOps on Twitter: http://twitter.iterature.caleblarsen.
post-data.art-generator. Clare is Facebook (2008): www. php?v=28497924081 Cornelia Sollfrank.net (Jaromil & Marco Sachy). uk/projects/2008/antisocial George Holsheimer.html etoy.deletefrominternet.org/beige Cory Arcangel. Fabrizio Giardina Papa.SHARE-CERTIFICATES (1998): www. Patri Sadiqah & Raoul Siepers. Imagine the Future of Money (2010): www.science. 2008: http://staff.CORPORATION. DYNDY.A.A. Toywar (1999): www.at/ai- weiwei-fuck-off-bookmarklet F.com Cornelia Sollfrank. Digital Hijack (1996): www. Delete From Internet: The Web's Trash Can (2008): www.CORPORATION. Blue Tube (2007): www.com/video/video.etoy. PlaySureVeillance (2008): www. Squatting Supermarkets (2009): www.at/qr-stenciler-and-qr-hobo- codes F.etoy. Daan Odijk.net/2009/10/27/squatting-supermarkets Franca Formenti. Lab.cc Geoff Cox.net/works/realspace.SHARE and etoy. Foodpower (2007): www.facebook. Michael Stevenson and Esther Weltevrede. Floriano Lapolla. QR_STENCILER (2011): http://fffff.dyndy.arnolfini.org/ Ferre Fred Stutzman.at/processing/index. Fuck Google!!! (2010): http://fffff.at/fuck-google F.com Encyclopædia Dramatica (2004 to date): http://encyclopediadramatica. Net. Dyne: Bolic (2001-2011): http://dynebolic.A.hijack.net Dyne.Clare Adams.org/femext Cory Arcangel. etoy. RealSpace (2007): www.yugo. Defamiliarization (2008): http://dianaalidefamiliarization. Giovanni Salerno.nl/~dodijk/aTagsLife Gordan Savicic. Friendster Suicide (2005): www. La Bio Doll seduce Ferrè (2005): www.CORPORATION. Anti-Social (2010): http://anti-social. com Dyndy.at/fuckflickr FakePress/Art is Open Source. FuckFlickr (2008): http://fffff.org Collective.T. A Tag's Life. artisopensource. Lab.org Elisa Giardina Papa.artwarez.post-data. Lab.com/fundamentals/etoy-share etoy. Ai Weiwei – FUCK OFF – Bookmarklet (2011): http://fffff. DEberlusconiZER (2011): http://deberlusconizer.art Generator (1999): http://net.uva.com/projects/toywar/ etoy.org.A.org/beige Diana Ali.ch Erik Borra. Antisocial Notworking (2008 to date): http://project.com Erin Gee.blogspot. Female Extension (1997): www.it Franca Formenti. php?what=playsureveillance 257 . Mirjam ter Linden.T.org F. Lab.T.foodpower.T.eringee.francaformenti3.
mode +v noise (2009): http://slashmodeplusvnoise.uk/projects/2007/uphone Kate Rich. and Igor Štromajer.org/i_ need_money Jean Baptiste Bayle.guerrigliamarketing. the STATUS project (2008): http://status. YES WE SPAM! (2008): www. R.org/works/tweet4action Les Liens Invisibles. Stranger of the Month (2008): www. Problemarket.us/winning_information (2008): JODI. The Invisible Pink Unicorn (2011): http://invisibile.myownspace.org www.jodi.isafake.org J. Puredyne (2009): http://puredyne.aksioma.org JODI.folksomy.partitodemocratico2008.elfriendo. Reality Is Out There (2010): www. uPhone (2007): http://project.jodi. Hal: www.fr JODI.org IOCOSE.net JODI.iocose. Twitter sk8 (2009): http://twitter. In the Long Run (2010): www. Seppukoo (2009): www.seppukoo.unicornorosa.org.com/ IOCOSE. I Need Money to Be an Artist (1996-1997): www. strangerofthemonth.org Govcom.jodi. "Bob" Dobbs et all.org (1998): http://oss.com Les Liens Invisibles.jodi.org Kerrie-Dee Johns and Jonathan Tjhia. oss.T. del. Crashvertise (2010 to date): www. subgenius.org KOOK Artgency.realityisoutthere.jodi. arnolfini.jodi.it (2002): www.irational. Myownspace (2008): www. elfriendo (2008): www. R. Tweet4Action (2011): turbulence.goto10.org (1998): http://404.I.org Foundation.com Heath Bunting.org JODI.icio.delicious.com KOOK Artgency & Les Liens Invisibles.crashvertise.org/works/in_long_run IOCOSE.jodi. NoTube Contest (2010): http://notubecontest.repetitionr.org (1998): http://asdfg.com (2001): www. A Fake is a Fake (2008): http://fake. Ask Dr.O. asdfg.org GOTO10. Repetitionr (2010): www.org 258 .org Kate Rich / Bureau of Inverse Technology.com Guerrigliamarketing. 404.org/ problemarket Janez Janša.it Hal Robins (with Chicken John).aksioma. net Les Liens Invisibles.askdrhal.com/#!/sk8monkey JODI.feraltrade.com/winning_information JODI.com Les Liens Invisibles. <$BlogTitle$> (2010): http://blogspot.com Les Liens Invisibles. The Church of the SubGenius (1979 to date): www.com Janez Janša. Feral Trade (2003): www. The Folksomy Project (2009): www.GOTO10.
Participation 0.com/myspace Nils Andres.fr/ myownad/myownbannerwizard. McDonald's videogame (2006): www.net Paolo Cirio. Gatepeepin (2008): www.de/ projekte/7: 9%23/Welcome. Information disorder was not enough (2006): http://noblogs. _feralC_.com Personal Cinema & the Erasers.gatepeepin.org Monty Cantsin.frespech. DieSpace.net/ deptofreading/wiki/pmwiki. Web 2. Drowning NYC (2010): www. Subvertr (2007): www.lutherblissett.org Noblogs.arnolfini.php Nicolas Frespech Add to Friends (2008): www.nl Monty Cantsin.org (1997): www.0 / Part I (2007): http://project.php?language=eng 259 .mouchette.thing.p2pgiftcredit. (2010): http://automatist.thebigplot.uk Martine Neddam aka Mouchette. net/ Les Liens Invisibles.pleintekst. Brand Science Institute.drowning-nyc. Anti-Myspace Banner Wizard (2006): http://myownspace. Give Me My Data (2010): http://givememydata.com Martin Howse & others.ning.php/CommonPractice Mail art network.pipslab.youtube. Google is Not The Map (2008): http://google.mocksim.foldedin.com Linda Hilfling.Les Liens Invisibles. Hatebook (2007): www.com/ watch?v=AzfPzOKaOJM Lynn Hershman Leeson. Alessandro Ludovico. The P2P Gift Credit Card (2011): www. The exchange program (2003): http://exchangeprogram.net PiPS: lab.html#1 MyOWNspace.net Michael Mandiberg.org Mez.0 Suicide Machine (2009): http://suicidemachine. The Seven by Nine Squares (started in 1995): www. DodoDada Arte Postale: http://dododada.net Paolo Cirio.uk/ dump/antisocial/participation Luther Blissett (1994-1999): www. com Magda Tyżlik-Carver / Department of Reading.lynnhershman. Roberta Breitmore (1974–1978): www.isnotthemap.subvertr. The Big Plot (2009): www. Nihilist Evangelion (2008): www.face-tofacebook.1010.com Paolo Cirio. mouchette.org/FeedLackLoop.net Paolo Pedercini aka Molleindustria.org.nl/cv_pips2. (2007): www.org Micheal O'Connell. htm Moddr_Lab.co. Folded-In (2008): www.org Linda Hilfling. micro_research (2006-2011): www. Neoist site (2006 to date): http://neoism.org Owen Mundy.hatebook. Face to Facebook (2011): www.com Paolo Cirio.net Luther Blissett. Feed Lack Loop (2008): www. (2010): http://netwurker. mcvideogame.
com Société Réaliste.com Second Front.green-card-lottery-eu.myspace. Planetary Pledge Pyramid (2009): www. The Quick Art Movement (2010): http://sites.nl/archive/works/www_hack Sal Randolph.cacophony.deberlinisation.precaria. AFRO Project (2004 to date): www. EU Green Card Lottery (2006): www. Money Actions & Free Money (2006 to date): http:// moneyactions.com/ projects/tps/planetpledge-pyramid The San Francisco Suicide Club (1977-1983): www.org/blog Serpica Naro (2005 to date): www.Purdakus.org/web/?page_id=72 The Billboard Liberation Front (1977 to date): www.org Santarchy & Santacon (1994 to date): http://santarchy.net Telekommunisten Collective.org The Laboratoire Deberlinisation (Mansour Ciss. Call (2008).net/projects/freebeer/ Telekommunisten Collective. com 260 .thimbl.lrntrlln.google. DeviantART (2000 to date): www. Free Beer (2006): www. Pirates of the Amazon (2008): http://pirates-of-the-amazon.com The Uncyclopedia Foundation.wikia.serpicanaro. For Miss Information.com/projects/guerillaprojection Rui Guerra.com Telekommunisten Collective. Tatiana Bazzichelli.com/fucktrees & others. Uncyclopedia (2007): http://uncyclopedia. Tree Sex Girl Network (2007): www.www_hack (2008): www. Thimbl (2010): www.suicideclub.com Scott Jarkoff.billboardliberation. Web2dizzaster (2007): www.org/web2dizzaster Superflex.org San Precario (2004 to date): www. Baruch Gottliebm. Christian Hanussek). Dialstation (2006): www.deadswap. Matthew Stephens.superflex.com The Cacophony Society (1986 to date): www.net Telekommunisten Collective. Laughing Squid (1995 to date)http://laughingsquid.kickstarter.com RTMark (1993): www.com Reverend Billy & The Church of Earthalujah! (1999 to date): www.com Rui Guerra.iki. Angelo Sotira and others.org Stewart Home.de The People Speak. Paolo Cirio.deviantart. Mister Trippy blog (Jan-Dec 2009): http://stewarthomesociety.revbilly.v2.dialstation.intk. deadSwap (2009): www.secondfront. Grand Theft Avatar (2008): www.rtmark. org/blog Stewart Home.com/site/ purdakus/home/shortfilm---i-am-finally-here PZI students. Sumoto. Guerrilla Projection (2010): www.http:// hackfemeast.com Scott Beale.
com/cgi-bin/cutstest. why bother? (2006): www.com/logo_wiki.com/cgi-bin/ious. WikiScanner (2007): http://wikiscanner.amazon-noir.art.com/un_wiki.COM.in-vacua. un_wiki (2005): www.xDxD.thomson-craighead.org 261 . IOUs (2007): www.vs.com Vittore Baroni's mail art archive (by earthlydelights2006.pl Wayne Clements.box (2000): www. youtube.pl Wayne Clements.COM and Stefan Nussbaumer.org/?doc=Net. Cuts_test (2010): www. Alessandro Ludovico.net/ my_contacts Tor Project Anonymity Online (2002): www.virgil.html Wayne Clements.in-vacua. The Sound of eBay (2008): www. Amazon Noir (2006): www.Thomson & Craighead.box Yomango (2002 to date): www. August 2008): www.artisopensource.ning.gwei. My_Contacts (2008): www. Alessandro Ludovico.com Virgil Griffith.yomango. Google.x-arn.torproject.in-vacua.com UBERMORGEN.in-vacua. GWEI: Google Will Eat Itself (2005): www. ArtDetox: A Year of Artistic Detoxification (2010): http:// artdetox2010.gr Vittore Baroni & all.sound-of-ebay.COM.org UBERMORGEN.org UBERMORGEN. Paolo Cirio. Net. Paolo Cirio.com/watch?v=YL1bpIfG-2A Wayne Clements.art.html xDxD. Logo_wiki (2007): www. net/2006/03/05/google-why-bother Yann Le Guennec.
The Cacophony Society.0. By identifying the present contradictions within the economical and political framework of Web 2. She received a PhD degree at Aarhus University in 2011. Tatiana Bazzichelli is a Postdoc Researcher at Leuphana University of Lüneburg and programme curator at the transmediale festival in Berlin. Luther Blissett. Anna Adamolo. The San Francisco Suicide Club. and was a visiting scholar at Stanford University (2009). Neoism. hacker and artistic practices are analysed through business instead of in opposition to it. The Church of the SubGenius.A fter the emergence of Web 2. Active in the Italian hacker community since the end of the '90s.biz .eu www. the critical framework of art and hacktivism has shifted from developing strategies of opposition to embarking on the art of disruption. the Telekommunisten collective. www. She has previously written the book Networking: The Net as Artwork (2006). and many others. Anonymous. her project AHA:ActivismHacking-Artivism won the honorary mention for digital communities at Ars Electronica in 2007. the author proposes a constellation of social networking projects that challenge the notion of power and hegemony. the NoiseBridge hackerspace.disruptiv. the early Burning Man Festival. Les Liens Invisibles.0.networkingart. such as mail art. Connecting together disruptive practices of networked art and hacking in California and Europe.