Culture jamming

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A precise definition of culture jamming is elusive. It has been called a resistance movement to cultural hegemony, whereas some say the defining theme of culture jamming is an individualistic turning away from all forms of herd mentality – including that of movements – and by that definition, culture jamming should never be represented as a movement. Culture jamming is not defined by any specific political position or message, nor even by any specific cultural position or message. The common thread is mainly an urge to poke fun at the homogenous nature of popular culture, often by means of guerrilla communication (communication unsanctioned or opposed by government or other powers-that-be).

Culture jamming could be defined as an art movement, although this too may be insufficient to cover the full spectrum of activities identified as culture jamming. Culture jamming has been characterized as a form of public activism which is generally in opposition to commercialism, and the vectors of corporate image. However, this also is too narrow a definition to cover all culture jamming activities (that definition more closely fits Subvertising). Some culture jamming takes aim at these power structures because they are part of the dominant culture, but any other aspects of the dominant culture are also fair game for culture jamming.

Culture jamming sometimes entails transforming mass media to produce ironic or satirical commentary about itself, using the original medium's communication method.

Aims of culture jammers may include:

  • To have a good laugh (and to encourage others to do likewise) at the expense of prevailing social currents - many purveyers of which, in the opinion of many culture jammers, take themselves too seriously. Even culture jammers themselves are not immune to being the subjects of culture jamming, if they appear to be on their way to becoming as institutionalized and humorless as the original objects of culture jammers' attention.
  • To reawaken a sense of wonder and fascination about one's surrounding environment, inspired by the frequent intentional ambiguity of a specific culture jamming technique, which stimulates personal interpretation and independent thinking.
  • To demonstrate contrasts between iconic images, practices or attitudes and the realities or perceived negative side of the item object of the jamming (often the target is a trapping of monolithic power structures such as corporations, government or religions). This is often done symbolically, with the "detournement" of pop iconography.
  • To provoke an interest in civic engagement and social connectedness.

Culture jammers' intent may differ from (but may overlap with) that of artistic appropriation (which is done for art's sake) and vandalism (in which destruction or defacement is the primary goal), although its results are not always so easily distinguishable. Some street art and other actions fall into two or even all three categories.

Contents

[edit] Origins

Coined by the collage band Negativland on its release JamCon '84, the phrase "culture jamming" comes from the idea of radio jamming: that public frequencies can be pirated and subverted for independent communication, or to disrupt dominant frequencies.

Culture jamming has roots in medieval carnival's subversion of the social hierarchy (theorized by Mikhail Bakhtin in RABELAIS AND HIS WORLD), the media-savvy agit-prop of the anti-Nazi photomonteur John Heartfield, the sociopolitical street theater and staged media events of '60s radicals such as Abbie Hoffman, the German concept of Spaßguerilla, and in the Situationist International (SI) of the 1960s. The SI first compared its own activities to radio jamming in 1968, when it proposed the use of guerrilla communication within mass media to sow confusion within the dominant culture.

The Canadian magazine Adbusters began to promote aspects of culture jamming after the American author and cultural critic Mark Dery introduced editor Kalle Lasn to the term through a series of articles he wrote for Adbusters. Dery's New York Times article on culture jamming, "The Merry Pranksters And the Art of the Hoax" [1] was the first mention, in the mainstream media, of the phenomenon; Dery later expanded on this article in his 1993 Open Magazine pamphlet, "Culture Jamming: Hacking, Slashing, and Sniping in the Empire of the Signs" [2], a seminal essay that remains the most exhaustive historical, sociopolitical, and philosophical theorization of culture jamming to date.

[edit] Examples

Techniques of culture jamming include adbusting, performance art, graffiti, billboard alteration, flash mobs and hacktivism (such as cybersquatting and Google bombing).

  • "Media Burn," a spectacle staged in 1975 by the performance art collective Ant Farm.
  • BUGAUP, an Australian group founded in 1979 and most active in the 1980s, which creatively defaced advertising billboards, especially those featuring cigarette and alcohol advertising. The group's acronym which stands for Billboard-Utilising Graffitists Against Unhealthy Promotions, is also a pun—to "bugger up" is an Australian slang term meaning "to spoil/ruin"
  • Naomi Klein's No Logo, whose section on culture jamming draws heavily on Mark Dery's 1993 essay on culture jamming, highlights the work of Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada [3], of Artfux and the Cicada Corps of Artists. An excerpt is in Brandweek magazine. [4]
  • The Bubble Project, a street art project by Ji Lee which involves placing empty "speech bubbles" on posters and advertisements for passers by to write commentary in.
  • The Church of the SubGenius, a satirical religion.
A "Kill your TV" slogan with skull motif in downtown Toronto
A "Kill your TV" slogan with skull motif in downtown Toronto
Andre the Giant Has a Posse, street art
Andre the Giant Has a Posse, street art
  • André the Giant Has a Posse, a street art campaign.
  • Kerry Against Bush a spoof political pressure group, based in Kerry, Ireland who urged voters to vote against GW Bush in the 2004 election. Their logo was a jam of a kerrygold butter logo. The website is archived here
  • Nike-Jam by 01.org
  • Stickering stop signs to create messages (e.g., "Stop War," "Stop Eating Animals," "Stop! Hammertime!," etc.).
  • Operation Mindfuck- Outlined as various projects for Discordians to carry out which involve either defacement or sending absurd letters to people who have political power. Most notably Project Eagle which involves putting up fliers that read "Burn the polls, ye sons of freedom" on or around election day and Project Graffito (and Project Bumpersticker) which involve giving particularly Erisian slogans, such as "Your Local Police Are Armed and Dangerous", widespread distribution.
  • 500 Copies of the Paris Hilton's debut album are remixed and retouched by Banksy and Danger Mouse. [5]
  • UK artist Dan Wilson's massive tapedropping [6] [1] (or mediadropping [2]) project involving dropping cassettes, CDs or DVD-Rs of homemade self-produced music or video in public places for random people to find.
  • Shopdropping (or Reverse Shoplifting)—The placement of art objects in public retail environments (especially large retail conglomerates). [3][4][5]
Madison Avenue & 57th Street, NY.
Madison Avenue & 57th Street, NY.
Queens, NY.
Queens, NY.
NYC
NYC
  • Writing messages on paper currency.
  • In Reno, Nevada, homemade stickers have appeared on vending machines, stating "The bill you slip/ into this slot/ supports my graft/ so thanks a lot!- Mayor Bob Cashell."
  • www.NoArmy.com—a remixed version of the recruitment site, www.goarmy.com, which presents the facts missing in the Army sales pitch, and shows potential recruits what they can really expect if they enlist.

[edit] Culture jamming organizations or people

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ NYtimes article - December 23, 1990,
  2. ^ Culture Jamming: Hacking, Slashing, and Sniping in the Empire of the Signs
  3. ^ Works by Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada
  4. ^ Excerpt from Brandweek magazine
  5. ^ Retouched albums of Paris Hilton by Banksy and Danger Mouse.
  6. ^ massive tapedropping from DOT-ALT magazine
  • Dery, Mark (1993). Culture Jamming: Hacking, Slashing, and Sniping in the Empire of Signs. Open Magazine Pamphlet Series: NJ. [6]
  • Klein, Naomi (2000). No Logo. London: Flamingo.
  • Kyoto Journal: Culture Jammer's Guide to Enlightenment. [7]
  • Lasn, Kalle (1999) Culture Jam. New York: Eagle Brook.
  • Tietchen, T. “Language out of Language: Excavating the Roots of Culture Jamming and Postmodern Activism from William S. Burroughs' Nova Trilogy.” Discourse: Berkeley Journal for Theoretical Studies in Media and Culture. 23, Part 3 (2001): 107-130.