Welcome to the Tactical Media Files, a 'living archive' for Tactical Media's present, past and future. More than an archive, TMF is an active news and documentation tool for the evolving practices of tactical media.
Opening event on Saturday, March 30th; 5:00-7:00pm
Slought Foundation is pleased to present The Days of the Commune, a cinematic installation by artist Zoe Beloff in the Slought galleries from March 30 - May 30, 2013. An opening event featuring the artist and 20 participating actors, activists and artists will take place on Saturday, March 30, 2013, from 5:00-7:00pm. Live songs with musical accompaniment will be performed, followed by a historical overview of the 1871 Paris Commune and a public conversation with the artist.
Tuesday, 5 March 2013, 7:00 p.m.
Depot, Vienna
Oliver Ressler in conversation with Luisa Ziaja (held in German)
An event in cooperation with Open Systems - Zentrum für Kunstprojekte, Vienna
Friday, 8 March 2013, 7:30 p.m.
Home Workspace, Ashkal Alwan, Beirut
Book signing at 7:30pm and presentation at 8pm by Gregory Sholette
Thursday, 25 April 2013, 6:30 p.m.
Austrian Cultural Forum, New York
Book presentation with Gregory Sholette, Oliver Ressler and guests
The emergence of the movements of the squares and the Occupy movement in 2011 can be seen as a reaction by people who opposed and began to fight the massive increase in social inequality and the dismantling of democracy in times of global financial and economic crisis. The movements of the squares are non-hierarchical and reject representation; direct democracy shapes their activities. The occupation of public places serves as a catalyst to develop demonstrations, general strikes, meetings and working groups on different focal points. Successful site occupancies in one place often inspire occupations in other cities, without a linear relationship.
This is an appeal to all Syrian communities and to all free people around the world to organise processions and sit-ins in front of United Nations offices in all around the world...
Friday, 31st of August, 7pm, 2012
Participants: Corina L. Apostol, Maja Ciric, Pavle Cosic / KORNET, Nikola Radic Lucati, Vladan Jeremic, Selman Trtovac, Vesna Milosavljevic / SEEcult.org, Stefan Tiron, Noa Treister, The Bureau of Melodramatic Research, Marica Radojcic, Rena Rädle.
The 3rd ArtLeaks Working Assembly will be facilitated by Corina Apostol, The Bureau of Melodramatic Research, Stefan Tiron and Vladan Jeremic.
ON-THE-BRINK BANK STILL NOT YOURS (YET)
Dow Jones posts fake release for two hours; bank gets fake website blacklisted, briefly
Bank of America executives, investors, and opponents alike reacted with surprise to yesterday's news - posted for two hours on Dow Jones Newswire and elsewhere - that the mammoth financial institution, realizing it was heading for a taxpayer bailout, was asking Americans to start thinking about what they'll do with the bank once they own it, and to start advertising that vision too.
Worldwide, May 1st is traditionally a 'Workers' day - a day of Labor Solidarity, and a public holiday. It's a day to celebrate and march in support of im/migrant rights. In protest against the corruption of the worldwide marketplace, which has led to illegal foreclosures, mass unemployment, low wages, high taxes and a penalization of all those who do not own the '99%' of the world's resources, and in solidarity with the im/migrant movements of May 1st, we decided to declare May 1st, 2012 a People's General Strike.
On Saturday, December 17th, noon, Occupy Wall Street - with support from more than 1400 faith leaders, elders of the civil rights movement, prominent artists and community members - will gather at noon in Duarte Square, downtown Manhattan, for an all day performance event. This event is part of a call to re-occupy in the wake of the coordinated attacks and subsequent evictions of occupations across the nation and around the world.
It sounds like something out of Hollywood, but as of today, mass interception systems, built by Western intelligence contractors, including for 'political opponents' are a reality.
Buy nothing day / a 24 hour moratorium on consumer spending / north america nov 25th, international nov 26th.
adbusters.org/bnd
On Thursday November 17th, the two month anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement, we call upon the 99% to participate in a national day of direct action and celebration!
This guide is not a road map or instruction manual. It's a match struck in the dark, a homemade multi-tool to help you carve out your own path through the ruins of the present, warmed by the stories and strategies of those who took Bertolt Brecht's words to heart: "Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it."
www.skor.nl/artefact-5492-en.html
April 25, 2011
Declaration drafted during 4 months by the Free/Libre Culture Forum.
Each year, the FCForum brings together key organisation and active voices in the sphere of free/libre culture. It responds to the need for an international arena in which to put together and coordinate a global framework for action, and to the need to defend and expand the sphere in which human creativity and knowledge can prosper freely and sustainably.
Chobi Mela VI to Open a Portal to a Restive World of Dreams
"All that we value, that we strive to uphold, all that gives us strength, has been made of dreams"
Re:Group proposes that with participation now a dominant paradigm, structuring social interaction, art, activism, the architecture of the city, the internet, and the economy, we are all integrated into participatory structures whether we want to be or not. The exhibition showcases work that subverts existing systems or envisions new alternatives to the ways in which individuals can take part, or choose not to take part, in social and cultural life.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dow Throws a Dismal Party, Few Attend
Underattended "Run for Water" plagued by death, zombies, and dozens of "Dow spokesmen"; truth seems to run free
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
"SPECIAL" NEW YORK TIMES BLANKETS CITIES WITH MESSAGE OF HOPE AND CHANGE
Thousands of volunteers behind elaborate operation
Thursday, May 29, 2008, 7PM
Eyebeam 540 W. 21st St. (btw 10th and 11th Aves.)
Free and open to the public
Organised by de Balie and Portsmouth University, ISEA and V2_ In collaboration with Virtual Platform.
Thursday 12 April
Expert meeting: 10.00 ? 13.00
Public presentations: 15.00 ? 18.00
Remaking Media Practices - From Tactical Media to Post-Media
If media theory over the last 40 years largely understood media as hopelessly contaminated by capitalism, the quietism implied by this critique also met its challenge in Guattari's concept of 'becoming-media'. Here Clemens Apprich revisits key media political debates to imagine post-media approaches in the age of social media.
A short film by Alex Mallis and Lily Henderson that documents the burgeoning micro-community inside Zucotti Park - the General Assemblies, the Working Groups, the Comfort Station, the cigarette-roller, the masseuse, the library, the first-aid station, the drum circle, the media center, the food, and all the people working around the clock to maintain a developing national movement.
BrooklynFilmmakersCollective.com
sonsonandson.tumblr.com
Source:
https://vimeo.com/30081785 | cc-license
Networked Disruption
The current techno-economic paradigm of Web 2.0 has challenged notions
of art and hacktivism within digital culture. The book "Networked
Disruption" takes up this challenge and discusses a new perspective on
political and social criticism. It simultaneously asks what are the
conditions for hacker and artistic practices under Web 2.0 and how can
social networking be seen to build on and incorporate artistic practices
from the earlier decades of digital and network culture.
Through its theoretical discussion of contemporary art and hacktivism,
the book maps out a new contradictory space for art and criticism:
Networked disruption.
Shocking and Awful: A Grassroots Response to War and Occupation
Free Speech TV Presents
The Historic Deep Dish Series:
Shocking and Awful: A Grassroots Response to War and Occupation
MARATHON ON SATURDAY, MARCH 23 -- REMEMBER THE IRAQ WAR
Paolo Gerbaudo, Tweets and the Streets: Social Media and Contemporary Activism
"Tweets and the Streets analyses the culture of the new protest movements of the 21st century. From the Arab Spring to the "indignados" protests in Spain and the Occupy movement, Paolo Gerbaudo examines the relationship between the rise of social media and the emergence of new forms of protest. Gerbaudo argues that activists' use of Twitter and Facebook does not fit with the image of a "cyberspace" detached from physical reality. Instead, social media is used as part of a project of re-appropriation of public space, which involves the assembling of different groups around "occupied" places such as Cairo's Tahrir Square or New York's Zuccotti Park."
"On Friday evening, ANIMAL and advocacy group Stamp Stampede took a projector-equipped van to the streets of Manhattan - as promised - and broadcasted propaganda to mark the third anniversary of the Supreme Court's controversial Citizens United decision. We kicked things off at Bowery and Houston and eventually made our way uptown to send a message to some of New York's wealthiest and most powerful political players."
Video: Aymann Ismail/ANIMALNewYork)
Source:
http://animalnewyork.com/2013/watch-animal-and-stamp-stampede-killcitizensunited
Posted: January 22, 2013 - 01:00PM
Die Spanien Rettung (Spain Bailout) - Mitteilung an das deutsche Volk von Spanien (A message to the german people from Spain).
Source:
takethesquare.net
Published on: 2 Feb 2013.
Viva La Piracy! An intellectual freedoms documentary based around the interpersonal triumphs, and defeats of the three main characters against the largest industry in the known universe. The media industry.
Starring Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde & Fredrik Neij
Directed by Simon Klose
Credits
This film is released under the following Creative Commons Licence:
Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivs
Source:
www.tpbafk.tv/the-film
Guerilla Open Access Manifesto
In memoriam: Aaron Swartz
Information is power. But like all power, there are those who want to
keep it for themselves. The world's entire scientific and cultural
heritage, published over centuries in books and journals, is
increasingly being digitized and locked up by a handful of private
corporations. Want to read the papers featuring the most famous results
of the sciences? You'll need to send enormous amounts to publishers like
Reed Elsevier.
Syrian Hands Raised: User Generated Creativity Between Citizenship and Dissent
As much as images of violence, civil war, and sectarian strife become prominent in the media narrative of the Syrian uprising, little gems of innovative cultural production, artistic resistance, and creative disobedience continue to sprout across the virtual alleys of the Internet. These creative gems are also the germs of a viral peer-production process at work at a grassroots level in the new Syrian public sphere. Such acts of creativity - mash-ups, cartoons, slogans, jokes, songs, and web series - are probably too small and inconsistent in impact compared to the horrific magnificence that shelling, bombing, sniping, and killing scenes that provide daily fodder to global television viewers. It is also challenging to discover them; in fact, as remarked by Tunisian blogger Sami ben Gharbia at the Arab Bloggers meeting in Tunis (3-6 October 2011), Facebook is not the most suitable platform for activists to store, archive, tag, search for content, and give it a context.
Meme Wars
Hey all you cultural creatives and heterodox thinkers,
Occupy Wall Street created a fissure in global consciousness . . .
Now it's time to throw a mindbomb into the chasm:
Meme Wars
The Creative Destruction of Neoclassical Economics
The Little Book Of Ideas
A small handbook which explains complex economic terms and theories in simple language, to help everyone understand what has caused the economic mess, why it's still continuing, and enable them to engage in the debate about what needs to be changed for the better in our economic system. It is NOT a manifesto. It has been created to stimulate people to engage in discussion, and so to make up their own minds as to what they think should be done to create a better and fairer world.
Newstweek
Fixing the Facts.
"Media is the nervous system of a democracy; if it's not functioning well, the democracy can't function."
- Jeff Cohen, Founding Director of the Park Center for Independent Media
Secret Manoeuvres in the Dark
The exposure of undercover policeman Mark Kennedy in the eco-activist movement revealed how the state monitors and undermines political activism. This book shows the other grave threat to our political freedoms - undercover activities by corporations.
Occupy Monsanto
This is a Call to Action for a
Non-Hierarchical Occupation of Monsanto Everywhere
Whether
you like it or not, chances are Monsanto contaminated the food you ate
today with chemicals and GMOs. Monsanto controls much of the world's
food supply at the expense of food democracy worldwide. This site is
dedicated to empowering citizens of the world to take action against
Monsanto during the week of September 17th, 2012.
#S17NYC - Occupy Wall Street Year One
Occupy Wall Street invites you, the 99%, down to the Financial District for three days of education, celebration and resistance.
September 15, 16 & 17, 2012
On #s17 Follow the Money, All Roads Lead to Wall Street
Moving Forest 2012 London
A twelve day prelude moving across the city; a twelve-hour sound art
opera of betrayal and rebellion culminating in a spectacular series of
disturbing performances in Chelsea College of Art Parade Ground; a
one-day coda of debate.
Presented by AKA the CASTLE
#OccuPride Summer 2012
Call to Action: Reclaim Pride From the 1%
#OccuPride #OccuQueers #Tranarchism #PinkBloc
Global Facebook event
Pride 2012: The Struggle for Sexual and Gender Justice Continues
This summer, communities across the world will celebrate Pride Festivals
commemorating the birth and victories of the Gay and Trans Liberation
Movements. Despite the profound social change these movements have
accomplished since the first high-heels were thrown over the barricades
at Compton's Cafeteria and the Stonewall Inn, it is clear that the
struggle for queer, trans, and gender-variant liberation is far from
finished.
Ontologies of the Wayward Drone - Part I
A Salvage Operation
On a clear evening in December, as the sun was setting over the Texas
horizon, a Mexican drone entered U.S. airspace and crashed into a
backyard in El Paso.
Tactical Media as Virtuosic Performance
With kind permission of the author and publisher we have included the introduction of Rita Raley's book Tactical Media - 'Tactical Media as Virtuosic Performance' in the TMF resource as a pdf document. Raley's book appeared as part of the
series Electronic Mediations with the University of Minnesota Press in 2009.
The Invention of the Savage: Colonial Exhibitions and the Staging of the Arab Spring
Watching a popular uprising in real time was indeed a dramatic experience. As viewers tuned in (or streamed in) to the violence, courage, and uncertainty of events in North Africa this year, many of them had the impression of witnessing the "actual" events, free from the framing tactics and analytical bias often found on the six o'clock news. A host of new media celebrities became household names as they reported live from Tahrir, and news outlets such as Al-Jazeera saw an unprecedented rise in viewership. Spectators were made to believe that a return to the event "itself" was once again possible after decades of being locked into what Jean Baudrillard called the hyper-real. The revolution in-and-of-itself seemed to unfold before our eyes, creating a fetish for real-time revolt.
Enter the Swarm: Anonymous and the global protest movements
Felix Stalder explores the swarm politics of the 'endlessly fascinating Anonymous story' in an essay written for Le Monde Diplomatique, where it appeared in a slightly edited version and under a different title.
This version of the text was originally distributed via the international nettime mailing list.
The Days of the Commune
a work in progress in solidarity with OWS - live and online
Citizens join us!
Every Saturday and Sunday from 11am to 1.30pm, March
through May, we come to Liberty Square (Zuccotti Park) to work on The
Days of the Commune, a play by Bert Brecht. Each scene in the play
denotes one day. Each day is
documented and posted on our website thedaysofthecommune.com
Publication: Legacies of Tactical Media - The Tactics of Occupation: From Tompkins Square to Tahrir.
Out now and available for download: INC Network Notebooks 05 - Legacies of Tactical Media
Tactical Media employ the 'tactics of the weak' to operate on the
terrain of strategic power by means of 'any media necessary'. Once the
rather exclusive practice of politically engaged artists and activists,
the tactical appropriations of media tools and distribution
infrastructures by the disenfranchised and the disgruntled have moved
from the margins to centre stage.
Webcasts Media Squares now available
International public seminar on the new forms of protest and their media, hosted by De
Balie, centre for culture and politics in Amsterdam, on Friday September
30, 2011.
.jpg;jsessionid=A1DDC39A77B0D72D93DA7314BC14A5B8)
Short animation film in homage to the Syrian revolt.
by La Chaise Renversee
Realisation :
Dani Abo Louh et Mohamad Omran
October 2011 - France
Source:
http://vimeo.com/30585735
Social Media and the UK Riots: "Twitter Mobs", "Blackberry Mobs" and the Structural Violence of Neoliberalism
"One formula [...] can be that of the mob: gullible, fickle, herdlike, low in taste and habit. [...] If [...] our purpsoe is manipulation - the persuasion of a large number of people to act, feel, think, known in certain ways - the convenient formula will be that of the masses". - Raymond Williams
#OCCUPYWALLSTREET
A shift in revolutionary tactics.
Alright you 90,000 redeemers, rebels and radicals out there,
A worldwide shift in revolutionary tactics is underway right now that
bodes well for the future. The spirit of this fresh tactic, a fusion of
Tahrir with the acampadas of Spain, is captured in this quote:
"The antiglobalization movement was the first step on the road. Back
then our model was to attack the system like a pack of wolves. There
was an alpha male, a wolf who led the pack, and those who followed
behind. Now the model has evolved. Today we are one big swarm of
people."
- Raimundo Viejo, Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona, Spain
Signs of the Times: the Popular Literature of Tahrir
Protest Signs, Graffiti, and Street Art - a special issue of Shahadat
This issue takes as its focus the popular literature of the Egyptian
Revolution. Drawing on protest signs, graffiti, and street art in Tahrir
to read the culture of resistance particular to the Egyptian
Revolution, the curators examine how protesters changed the political
narrative through the use of images, memorials, and expressions of daily
life. Featuring examples from an extensive gallery of online images
culled from the collections of several prominent Egyptian journalists
and activists, the online piece is a visual tour of some of the creative
production of Egypt's Revolution. A collaborative curation project
split between New York City and Cairo, this is ArteEast's first critical
look at the cultural production related to recent political
developments in the Middle East.
- Co-curators, Rayya El Zein & Alex Ortiz.
Interview with Rami Nakhle, a Syrian activist in exile in Beirut, who uses social networks to disseminate news from protests on the streets in Syria across the country.
(April 26, 2011 - '14:54)
TMF editors: This video has achieved a somewhat iconic status for depicting the internet dimension of the protests in Syria. The rising death-toll of the protests in Syria shows, however, that these 'cyber-protests' are not without material consequences on the ground. Neither are the protests primarily media-based, of course. They are first of all staged in the streets. Deeply troubling questions emerge about the dilemma's media-activists face promoting the image of a popular uprising with dramatic consequences (even more so keeping the descent into civil war in Libya in mind). We have linked this video with an excellent and rather controversial interview with Syrian political blogger Camille Otrakji, published by the Qifa Nabki blog.
The 1988 Tompkins Square Police Riot - A Video Point of View
Saturday night on August 6th 1988 was stiflingly hot and humid. My
apartment had no air conditioning and I was dying from the heat.
Fortunately that night I was booked from midnight to 7 a.m. at Broadway
Video at Broadway and 49th street to do special effects and editing on
my video work entitled "Free Society".
Unknown Quantity - Foreword
"Contemporary civilization differs in one particularly distinctive feature from those which preceded it: speed. The change has come about within a generation," noted the historian Marc Bloch, writing in the nineteen-thirties. This situation brings in its wake a second feature: the accident. The progressive spread of catastrophic events do not just affect current reality, but produce anxiety and anguish for coming generations.
10 tactics for turning information into action explores how rights advocates around the world have used information and digital technologies to create positive change. This 50 minute film documenting info-activism success stories is part of a larger package containing tools, tips and advice for info-activists.
Published by Tactical Technology Collective, November 2009.
www.tacticaltech.org
Crossfire - An Installation by Shahidul Alam on Extra Judicial Killings
Drik Gallery, Dahka, March 22- 31, 2010.
The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) was set up on 26th March 2004 to curb
corruption in Bangladesh. It consists of members of Bangladesh Police,
Bangladesh Army, Bangladesh Navy and Bangladesh Air Force. RAB has
increasingly been criticized for the extra judicial killings and
torture that have taken place of people in custody.
Twelve Theses on WikiLeaks
Thesis 0
"What do I think of WikiLeaks? I think it would be a good idea!"
(after Mahatma Gandhi's famous quip on "Western Civilization")
THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD is a screwball true story about two gonzo political activists who, posing as top executives of giant corporations, lie their way into big business conferences and pull off the world's most outrageous pranks.
From New Orleans to India to New York City, armed with little more than cheap thrift-store suits, the Yes Men squeeze raucous comedy out of all the ways that corporate greed is destroying the planet.
Brüno meets Michael Moore in this gut-busting wake-up call that proves a little imagination can go a long way towards vanquishing the Cult of Greed.
Who knew fixing the world could be so much fun?
5th April 2010 10:44 EST WikiLeaks has released a classified US military video depicting the indiscriminate slaying of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad -- including two Reuters news staff.
www.collateralmurder.com
A documentary by Alberto Arce and Mohammad Rujailah.
Running time: 113"
Language: Original in english and arabic. Subtitles in english.
Country: Spain.
Production year: 2009
Distribution and press: Eguzki Bideoak Merced, 21
Directors: Alberto Arce/ Mohammad Rujailah
Script: Alberto Arce/ Miquel Martí Freixas
http://toshootanelephant.com
Book Launch Critical Strategies in Art and Media
Following the September 2009 roundtable conference organised by the World Information Institute in New York, the follow-up publication will be presented on Thursday April 15 at the New School University. The book launch hosted by Ted Byfield,
with remarks by Marco Deseriis (NYU), Steve Kurtz (Critical Art
Ensemble), Andy Bichlbaum (The Yes Men), Ken Wark (NSU), and Trebor
Scholz (NSU)
Wollman Hall, New School University, 65
West 11th St, 5th Floor, New York, NY.
6:30 - 8:15 pm
Some points of departure
Introductory essay for the second editon of the Next 5 Minutes festival of tactical media, 1996.