The CAE offer a radical critique of the tasks of the tactical media and point out directions for the development of effective tactics of resistance for artists and media practicioners.
... Resistance in the age of the virtual requires extreme... Real space tactics alone tend to remove a situation from
the continuity of space and time, and treat the event as an
independent unit. The problem here is that tactical planning
and activity in real space is far too localized and limited in a
time marked by nomadic multinational power ...
... The consequence is an intensified form of...Rather than being developed as a great homogenizer of... The electronic body is the perfect body. The electronic body is a body without organs. It is both self and mirrored self. The electronic body does not decay; it does not need the plastic surgeon's scalpel, lipo-suction, make-up or deodorant ...... The electronic body seduces all who see it into the bliss of counter-production by offering the hope of a bodily unity that will transcend consumption. But the poor pathetic organic body, always in a state of becoming. Perhaps if it consumed just one more product, it too could become whole, perhaps it too could become a body without organs, sliding in screenal space ...
populations, spectacle was constructed as a means to
narrowcast specialized identities to various social aggregates,
as well as to articulate social boundaries beneficial
to a multinational ruling class, and to generate nationalist
illusions of welfare capitalism. On the other hand, the
early critics of spectacle were quite correct when they argued that
the media apparatus is the primary means of mediating
social relationships. The response to this development emerged in the
form of the tactics of subversion ...... A new decentralized communication apparatus arose,
made possible by the ascendancy of computer and satellite
technology, that allows multinational power to retreat into
absence, where it is free from the theater of subversive
operations because it can be everywhere yet nowhere simultaneously ...... The corporate futurologists talk of evolution,
revolution, new horizons, and global vision. Well, their
global vision is blinding me. My computer has a
program that counts my keystrokes. It watches me all the time,
and tells me when I am not working hard enough.
It's like the computer is my boss. Every time I leave my computer,
I return to find the message "insufficient data entry"
posted on the screen. What's really frightening is that I've
actually begun to care. I hesitate to leave my work station
for any reason. I question, and even ignore, my own needs
and desires, and instead concern myself with the demands of
my computer ...... The sight machine not only scans the surface of the body, but it also penetrates the mind, and infects it with data-driven consciousness and machinic intelligence. In support of this development, the spectacular wing of the sight machine barrages populations with seductive double-edged promises of convenience, body reconfiguration, new spirituality, re-emergent community, and democratic access to knowledge and speech. Thus far, this spectacular media campaign has managed to convince increasing numbers of individuals that technology exists solely for their liberation ...
... Resistant forces no longer require violence nor... Much like the tactics of refusal, electronic resistance seems to be reactive and blindly destructive. Typical of this situation are offenses such as electronic assassination (electronic attacks on the data bodies of offensive individuals), random release of viruses, idiosyncratic security breeches, and other adolescent pranks. While these actions do offer the perpetrators moments of amusement, they too often hurt the undeserving, or alert members of the elite virtual class to weaknesses in their security systems, which in turn helps strengthen virtual bunkers. Individualized attacks should focus on reappropriating one's own data body using the tactic of data corruption or deletion ...... Real is the information that validates my existence as cyborg. Real is my data body--the flow of files which represent me. Correction. I represent them. The data is the original; I am the counterfeit ...
The complete text of the N5M performance will be available from this site during the conference. Other material by and related to the CAE is available from their website.