[- Art vs Resistance
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By joerabie, Section whatever... Posted on Sun Oct 19th, 2003 at 09:54:37 PM EURODISCORDIA TIME
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This continues the discussion started in the guest host "Agitprop" discussion.
An important thread developed concerning the nature of resistance in art. When does an artwork (or statement, or Tactical Media action) surpass its own meaning to become an act of resistance? I suppose, when it draws a hostile response from those being targeted, when it deals with aspects of society that have been confiscated by corporations or political rule.
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Some examples:
The Nike Ground project (http://www.nikeground.com) is a performance, a work of guerilla art, by the European art group 0100101110101101.ORG and cultural Internet platform Public Netbase. Nike has threatened them with legal action if they do not withdraw their project, for a sum of 78.000€ (about 70.000$). In this way Nike denies the artist's right to engage in critical discourse concerning the forces which control society.
Many ISPs, including those hosting Indymedia sites, have been threatened with legal action by the Diebold Corporation. The Diebold Corporation manufactures electronic touch screen voting machines. There has been a great deal of criticism about the violability of their software, as well as against the corporation itself for its links with the Republican Party. (read the "Independent" article). Diebold's machines are covered by Intellectual Property laws - any revelation concerning their products infringes trade secrets, and is considered a felony. In this way, the rights of corporations come before the rights of people to control the veracity of the democratic process. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has taken the defense of Indymedia Italy in this case.
The problem is that activists do not have the financial clout to resist litigation. "Intellectual Property" is a new form of totalitarism serving to enforce consumer conformity rather than political conformity. One may say that it is obscene to use the term "totalitarism", since one is not threatened with torture, death or the goulag. Yet millions of people are kept in poverty or are dying in the south, because this is the equation which maximises corporate profits.
How do we pool our forces to fight this? |
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