Culture Jamming and Reality Hacking - The Art of the Prank

March 31, 2007January 15, 2019

Greenpeace Hijacks Kleenex PR Stunt in Times Square

Greenpeace activists performed an amusing and savvy intervention on a Kleenex commercial shoot in Times Square, effectively hijacking their ad campaign, and shutting down the shoot for the rest of the day (March 24th 2007). Kleenex, responsible for vast old-growth forest destruction in Northern Canada’s Boreal Forest, opened the door for this one.

Friends of mine at notanalternative.net put together this neat little video of the jam:

And check out the main campaign against Kleenex’s criminal timber practices at: http://kleercut.net (a good culture jam in its own right).

With additional coverage here at gothamist.com.

March 30, 2007January 15, 2019

Instructions for Billboard Liberation

The Billboard:

Most billboards are wheat-pasted posters, coming in two standard sizes, the most common being 12 x 22 feet. These are the billboards you see atop taller buildings and along the highway. The freestanding billboard of this size can be accessed with a 12 foot ladder. To access the ones atop buildings, you need Continue reading “Instructions for Billboard Liberation”

March 30, 2007January 15, 2019

Culture Jamming: Hacking, Slashing and Sniping in the Empire of Signs by Mark Dery

In 1993, Mark Dery wrote this seminal discourse coining the phrase Culture Jamming. I think it’s a must read for anyone interested in the subject. This is an open source document and is available on Mark Dery’s Web site. JS

“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, terror-art, and guerrilla semiotics, all in one. Billboard bandits, pirate TV and radio broadcasters, media hoaxers, and other vernacular media wrenchers who intrude on the intruders, investing ads, newscasts, and other media artifacts with subversive meanings are all culture jammers. Continue reading “Culture Jamming: Hacking, Slashing and Sniping in the Empire of Signs by Mark Dery”

March 30, 2007January 15, 2019

Reality Hacking Defined

Here’s a definition of “reality hacking” from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia -JS

Reality hacking is an artistic practice that emerges from the intersection of hacking and hacker culture, contemporary art, activism, and net culture. Reality hacking takes as its basis a broad, phenomenological point of view of the world, and considers (often unorthodox) investigations into everyday objects and situations a meaningful way of probing into the working of varied social contexts.

Reality Hacking as Political Activism

“Reality hacking” is a form of activism that relies on tweaking the every-day communications most easily available to individuals with the purpose of awakening the political and community conscience of the larger population. The term first came into use among New York and San Francisco artists, but has since been adopted by a school of political activists centered around Social Redemption. Continue reading “Reality Hacking Defined”

March 27, 2007May 13, 2020

Don’t Doubt the Dance

123 Party! specializes in impromptu dances and they hit the jackpot recently when they were tipped off that a local Fox News team was doing a story on dumpster diving. The dancers staked out the news team and what ensues proves that, indeed, Fox News has no sense of humor.

123 Party! promises to strike anytime and anywhere with fierce, dorky dancing and the rallying cry, “Don’t doubt the dance!” Other videos listed on the page prove just that.