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In regards to the readings for April 17/April 22:

1. Paul, 204-211 2. Geert Lovink,
“Tactical Media: The Second Decade,” October 2005
3. McKenzie Wark, “A Hacker Manifesto Version 4.0,” Ja. 2006

Before this class, I had never heard of the Yes Men and other artists and activists who use digital media to further their political ideas and statements. They pretend to be powerful representatives of well known world organizations and go to conventions and make outrageous comments. They also make spoof websites, one of them being George W. Bushs’ 2000 campaign website. www.gwbush.com It definitely makes sense to take advantage of the internet, video, and websites as it is easily accessed and will be viewed by many. I was astounded that these men could go to these large corporations and say and do outrageous things and not even get a response. I did not realize the ways in which some large corporations go about doing business. I like that people are out there pointing out the hypocrisy and corruption within corporations, government agencies, etc. I cannot believe that they went and pretended to be with the World Trade Organization and wore the gold leisure suit and their audience of top businessmen of the world just swallowed it without much response.

The movie was very entertaining, but at the same time was really scary how much we let go on without really thinking about it.

Other artists use ‘hactivism’ to make their statements. It is also sometimes called electronic civil disobedience, ha. Hacktivism is a term that combines “hacking” and “activism.” It is a statement about politics using technology. Hactivists take the codes for websites or programs and basically reprogram it to fit their needs. I naturally associate “hacking” with some evil person trying to break in a computer to steal information. Hactivist work is not “evil,” but it does sometimes may become very close to being illegal. In other cases, large groups of people try to get on a website all at once (virtual sit-ins), such as The Electronic Disturbance Theater, and try to disrupt service to the site. I didn’t really understand what this would really do, other than to irritate the companies. The Electronic Disturbance Theater performed virtual sit-ins in 1998 on the websites for the Mexican Government and the Pentagon.

www.theyesmen.org