Alice Garrard 260417
To what extent has culture jamming developed alongside the advancement of technology and the influence of Adbusters? "Culture-jamming," a term I have popularized by articles in The New York Times and Adbusters, might best be defined as media hacking, information warfare, terrorart, and guerrilla semiotics, all in one" (Mark Drury, Culture jamming: Hacking, slashing and sniping in the empire of signs, 1993) The aim was to change the way we interact with mass media and challenge consumers and the manipulative distant corporations that advertise. “These industries sell values and concepts of success, worth, love, sexuality and normalcy. They show a world in which people are rarely poor, unattractive, overweight, living with difficulty or disabled.” (Rodriguez de Gerada, culture jammer, 2012) To culture jam is to deflect attention away from a world of official and branded signs, and give individuals the harsh reality of the real life effects in which consumerism is having on our society and planet. It involves taking the key elements of an advertisement and using it to highlight and manipulate their deception, in order to create a social message for consumers. The movement originated in the 1960’s counterculture, a sub culture whose values, norms differed from the mainstream society where their ethos and aspirations triggered a cultural change. This was during the era of freedom of speech and equality across the western culture. Feminism entered public lexicon. The gay rights movement put being gay out in the open, and the environment issues that are result of the destruction of the industry. This was the height in the hippy movement. These agendas were aimed specifically at the older conservative establishment who were out of touch in understanding the principles and message the youth were trying to prevail. It was argued that they probably would have played an even bigger role, if the youth revolution had not opposed them, their culture wouldn’t have been so anarchic (Participatory Economy, Michael Albert, 1991) This alternative media activist movement also borrows heavily from the beat generation, the punk scene and other bohemia’s, built up around as an expression of social and political empowerment. The French philosophical movement also inspired the 1968 Paris riots which predicted what might happen to a consumer driven capitalist society (Culture jamming, 1993, Mark Drery) Better known as the “Society Spectacle”, Guy Debord's accurate depiction of the modern human condition maps out some aspects of the 21st century cultures and how “dissatisfaction itself became a commodity” (Society Spectacle, Guy Debord, 1967) he continues to suggest that "behind the masks of total choice, different forms of the same alienation confront each other", this suggests that social media and advertisement are now the framework that supports his theory.
Alice Garrard 260417
Debord was a part of the Situationist International, who were one of the firsts to take part on subverting modern media culture. Originally he was part of a band of eight artists in 1957 in Cosec D’arroscia who achieved the anarchic drive. Viewed as a self-indulgent and unpatriotic movement, it was repelled by the government by banning LSD a hallucinogenic drug, restricting gatherings and protesters and enforced bans on public media coverage. (Debord and Wolman) A tactic coined by the Situationist’s international in the 1950s was the term détournement, which means to lift an image, message or artefact out of its context to create a new meaning. Kalle Lasn the creator of Adbusters was inspired by this Avantgarde group. Adbusters Is a nonprofit magazine fighting against hostile takeover of our physiological, physical and cultural environment by commercial forces. "We are a global network of artists, writers, students, educators and entrepreneurs who want to launch the new social activist movement of the information age. Our goal is to galvanize resistance against those who would destroy the environment, pollute our minds and diminish our lives.” (Kalle Lasn, Culture Jam, 1999). The magazine was described by Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter in their book The Rebel Sell as "the flagship publication of the culture jamming movement."
Oddly a site that is considered left-wing, they are very evasive about their political position, claiming to be "neither left nor right, but straight ahead”. Today Mr. Lasn leads a network of 100,660 "artists, activists, writers, pranksters, students, educators and entrepreneurs," who aim to "topple existing power structures and forge a major shift in the way we will live." ** However Adbusters itself sells its own products. Adbusters magazine ($8.95), calendars ($10), books, the many campaigns (TV Turnoff Week, Buy Nothing Day) and the Blackspot shoes ($75). "Somehow we've become a brand," he said. "I still yearn for those old wild days when we were just running on passion alone. Now it's become a little more like a mini-corporation here." All seems a bit ironic, "They've commodified the notion of anti-consumption -- a delicious irony that seems entirely lost on them." (Naomi Klein, No logo, 1999). Kalle Lasn has developed from an art director to a graphic designer, for keeping the magazine up to date in design with thick paper and a visually stylish layout, it somewhat reminds you of those high end glossy fashion, lifestyle magazines they despise. The final goal is a cultural revolution, or in Lasn's words, "an about-face in our values, lifestyles and institutional agendas. A reinvention of the American dream."
Alice Garrard 260417
We put together a poster for the July issue of Adbusters. The poster was a ballerina — an absolutely still ballerina — poised in a Zen-ish kind of way on top of this dynamic bull. And below it had the [Twitter] hashtag #OccupyWallStreet. Above, it said, "What is our one demand?" I felt like this ballerina stood for this deep demand that would change the world. There was some magic about it. (Kalle Lasn) What came to a surprise from a lot of people was that 6 months into the movement and this poster which had started it all off, had never been seen again. The poetic and elliptical image that they created had no purpose, the only thing that mattered, was the hashtag at the bottom. In an age of social media, does political graphic design matter?
However merchandising does matter to this mini corporation. There new black spot sneaker idea is being launched to take on global sportswear brand Nike, using a marketing strategy similar to Nikes he claims that the sole purpose of creating the "black spot" and "the unswoosher" is to "kick Phil's ass". They based the design around a globally loved shoe which has been recognizable for last few decades, the converse, Nike also bought the company recently. There has been an up rival of the brand as they have admitted to heralding a costly campaign in New York Times, as well as billboards and slots of CNN. Some activists have created heated debates and made and claims of cancelling their subscriptions. Although the marketing idea is clever, it is still making consumers choose from one product or another, "if we really want to end exploitation we have to question the underlying structure by which we produce and consume". (Lucy Michaels, Corporate Watch) Nonetheless how do they expect to keep up with costs of manufacturing the trainers. The initial startup of 10,000 pairs will only pay for the set up costs, Lasn would need to sell hundreds and thousands to make Nike worried. Will the black spot advertisement become a target for activists itself?
Alice Garrard 260417
In January 1964, a British graphic designer, Ken Garland was asked to read out his manifesto "first things first". It highlighted the current design trend and called for a return to a humanist aspect of design, as well as lashing out to the time consuming mainstream advertisers. “By far the greatest time and effort of those working in the advertising industry are wasted on these trivial purposes, which contribute little or nothing to our national prosperity.” (Ken Garland, 1964, 154) However a change in society is a desire by all citizens just as much as graphic designers, if companies started manufacturing products which had non materialistic values, this would create jobs for designers where they could produce images for a purpose, like in environmental magazines, instead of designing another pair of trainers for the world. Here are two covers by Adbusters, the image on the left is their first ever issue and on the right is a more recent edition. At a cost of now $7.25 it doubles the prices of fashion magazines like vogue and GQ, this may be due to their high quality glossy paper. Adbusters claims to be environmentalist its questionable as to why they don’t print onto recycled paper. There original issues display a better insight into culture jamming and the principles behind it. However now their design has been over stylized with fancy layouts and digitally made images, which look vaguely similar to the advertisement they supposedly objectify. There are always mimics and mockeries of well-known ads and brands. There are articles on how to be a better activist, advertising the annual AMF campaigns and justifying the targeting of activism’s latest disfavored industry. There is art: sometimes obvious, sometimes incomprehensible. Damning critiques will always be made. Both Adbusters and culture jamming are cultural practices, as innovative art and cultural productions, which have the same essence of “anti-culture”.
Alice Garrard 260417
To altering a billboard or obstructing signs, you would expect a serious passion from the artist about the message they are trying to communicate (Cultural Studies, 1996, John Storey) Back in the day Rodríguez-Gerada was part of the infamous Artflux and Cicada crews, who would change billboards and street signs on the streets of New York. Their work was extremely influential - anti-advertising Bible, Naomi Klein’s No Logo, dedicated an entire chapter to it. “Our youth, and the use of parody, moved our adbusting and street art in the direction of satire and humor.” Although culture jamming has a strong link with youth culture and rebellion it also has a strong connection to freedom of speech and art. Rodriguez demonstrates the simplicity of culture jamming and how the need of digital software’s isn’t necessary to communicate the message. Subverting by hand displays a clearer and stronger message of the truth behind these brands. Thus relating back to Dètournement, and how people can relate and often rely on familiarity for comfort.
Digital age is forever growing, and with that the term culture jammer has become a loose termed movement where you have to separate the fraudsters and money grabbers from those who have a genuine purpose to deliver. Obstructing billboards by hand demonstrates the raw talent of these artist, and reveals the passion of the message they are trying to communicate, reinforced by the fact it’s being done illegally. Culture jamming is associated with art, thus being that artists should possess an amount of freedom strong enough to empower their actions. These guerrilla artists however use the environment as their canvas, which associates with the underlying meaning of the purpose “It’s time to take public spaces back from corporations” (Klein, 2000: 280). Subvertisers, who make ad deconstructions, apply the same methods of advertisers; creativity, rhetoric, design and technology. They demonstrate this similarity using a ‘jujitsu’ metaphor. Jujitsu is a martial art that uses the 18 enemy’s acceleration to subvert it like as subvertisers do (Sign wars, David Cox, 2010). One of the good examples of this metaphor is the exchange of Joe Camel to Joe Chemo (Klein, 2000: 282). He was originally invented by psychology professor Scott Plous after his father nearly from smoking, the image first appeared in Adbusters magazine in 1996. Since
Alice Garrard 260417
then many new editions of Joe Chemo have arisen, however this culture Jam has developed into an awareness campaign, distributing 10,000 posters and t-shirts were given to public schools, the national council on drug and alcohol abuse. They publicize Joe Camel as the mascot for camel smokers, they make him like a “cool” athletic guy. However, jammers exchange the cool joe camel for the sick joe chemo, presenting the fact that actually smoking isn’t a cool thing. It was recorded that more than 90% of six-year-old children matched Joe Camel with a picture of a cigarette, making him as well-known as mickey mouse. By July 10, 1997, after 23-years of Joe Camel advertising campaign was discontinued. We as consumers have our emotions, personalities and core values under siege, they are manipulated and numbed by a sense of commercial artificiality which disconnect us from the underlying issue. Ethnic minorities, labour conditions and materialism. (Kalle Lasn, Culture Jamming, 2000) We as a society have been branded. Consumerism, advertisements, and commercialism are the established ideologies for the operation of every capitalist society. Capitalism is categorically a free market economy, but behind that is a band of jammers exploiting the uneven distribution of resources. Although Consumerism has encouraged more efficient manufacturing, better technology and has created jobs for a vast growing economy. “We sought, bought, spewed and devoured too much too fast” (Kalle Lasn, Culture Jamming, 2000) resulting in the bitter truth, that the economic “progress” is killing the planet. In the past, us as “consumers” just used to purchase the basic necessitates, with use and exchange value. (Kasser and Kanner 2005) The increase in wants and desires has dramatically increased alongside the production. These products have started to become more symbolic to our satisfactions. This added value in the commodities is created by our urge for status, identity, and materialism, an abstract value is also created by “branding”, in which a brand gives a commodity with meanings and values, such as the handbags of Chanel symbolizing “elegance”, and cars like Porsche symbolizing “class”.
Alice Garrard 260417
In Paul du Gay's words, this is "labelling from above" Just as crucial is "the actual behavior of those so labelled"(Paul Du Gay Consumption and Identity of Work, 1996) "Culture is no longer created by the people. Our stories are now told by distant corporations with something to sell as well as something to tell. Brands, products, fashions, celebrities, entertainments - the spectacles that surround the production of culture - are our culture now. Our role is mostly to listen and watch and then, based on what we have heard and seen, to buy." (Lasn, Kalle, p.xiii) The advancement in technology has made both the creation and the circulation of ad parodies undeniably easier. The Internet is full with brave new forms of branding, but it is also capped with sites that offer links to culture jammers in cities across the world. The Internet supports different pathways for culture jammers to extend their opinions, such as Adbusters'' magazines, Anti-Pearlman Permanent Poster League on Facebook, and Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping (Sandlin & Milam, 2008; Naomi, 2008). It has become as easy as downloading ads and digital versions of original ads, which can be imported directly onto personal desktops or jammed on site. For Rodriguez de Gerada, the true revolution has been the leading impact desktop publishing has had on the techniques available to ad hackers. Over the course of the last decade, he says, culture jamming has shifted "from low-tech to medium-tech to high-tech," with scanners and software programs like Photo-shop now enabling activists to match colors, fonts and materials precisely. "I know so many different techniques that make it look like the whole ad was reprinted with its new message, as opposed to somebody coming at it with a spraypaint can.” This makes you think whether the sole purpose of culture jamming has been distorted, although the internet and technology has been a new platform for activism, it takes away the core principles of subverting. Brands have even started to vandalize their own advertisement as a marketing scheme. Billboards for the insurance company Go Compare had been victimized with slogans like “Go jump of a cliff”,” go get some singing lessons” and “go get a new job”. However, it later came to people’s attention that it was part of an elaborate publicity stunt, campaigning for a new TV program featuring Gio Compario. Even Nike obstructed their own billboard in Australia back in 2001 and branding
Alice Garrard 260417
others with “100% slave labor”. With this type of merchandising, will the whole movement of culture jamming be lost? Within my visual response I explore the qualities of culture jamming, and what makes a successful subverting. I approached it by the process of dètournement in which culture jamming is heavily influenced by. I primarily used images found from fashion magazines and cultural newspapers, displaying the understanding and technique of the movement. I also felt the need to highlight environmental issues and exploit corporate brands by subverting their logos and mimicking their mascots. However, I focus specifically on images from the 1960s subcultures and the 21st century youth culture who helped shape the rebellious nature of culture jamming. Combing my own illustrations and displaying the simple and effective technique of the “classic” culture jamming, defying the need of digital. With the power of technology now It inevitable that designers rely on digital production, however what made culture jammers so ornate was the process of going out there and obstructing these advertisements first hand, not sitting at home behind their computer screen producing “jams” which don’t look anything far from these corporate adverts. It’s easy to see the irony in culture jammers work, they highlight and juxtapose specifically on the first world brands with the third world scenes to contrast the inequalities, resulted from globalization caused by no one other than ourselves. What will culture jamming hold in the future, is there any limit to it, now with the vast amounts of it on the internet. Will there eventually be culture jams on online advertisement? It’s like we are living in a world that Pop Art only announced recently, where the obvious difference between literal language and irony hardly exists, and this difference is what urban artists often rely on in their art. This uncertain meaning changed the behavior in which corporations communicate to consumers, and consequently a big number of people react to many things all the time, making the structure of information seem more confusing than ever. That makes it very challenging for culture jammers to keep up, but it is almost certain that they will find another clever way to do it.
Alice Garrard 260417
Bibliography http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/01/0111_040112_consumerism.h tml https://www.leuphana.de/fileadmin/user_upload/PERSONALPAGES/Fakultaet _1/Behnke_Christoph/files/literaturarchiv/Carduci_Cultural-Jamming.pdf https://jamming.wordpress.com/culture-jammingwhat-is-it/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterculture https://www.boundless.com/u-s-history/textbooks/boundless-u-s-historytextbook/the-sixties-1960-1969-29/counterculture-221/counterculture-12329277/ https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/sep/04/revolutionary-artists60s-counterculture-v-and-a-you-say-you-want-a-revolution http://www.widewalls.ch/counterculture/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterculture https://blog.tickyes.com/a-brief-history-of-culture-jamming/ http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/05/the-new-culturejamming-how-activists-will-respond-to-online-advertising/257176/ http://www.tacticalmediafiles.net/articles/3378/Notes-on-CultureJamming;jsessionid=4CF4DAC0CA909A88B302DCEF152A6D0D http://mediamargins.net/?p=450 https://informationactivism.org/en/what-culture-jamming https://openwallsgallery.com/culture-jamming-urban-art/ https://depts.washington.edu/ccce/polcommcampaigns/peretti.html https://www.activistfacts.com/organizations/36-adbusters/
Alice Garrard 260417
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerrilla_television https://depts.washington.edu/gcp/pdf/culturejamsandmemewarfare.pdf http://designobserver.com/feature/adbusters-in-anarchy/1647 https://www.activistfacts.com/organizations/36-adbusters/ Books - Culture Jam- The uncooling of America, 1999 Kalle Lasn - No Logo, 2000, Naoimi Klein - Sign Wars- Culture Jammers Strike Back, David Cox - A Users Guide to Detournement, 1956, Debord and Wolman 1