Culture Jamming and Reality Hacking - The Art of the Prank

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.

March 25, 2007January 15, 2019

Community Service (2002)

Graffiti, in case anyone missed the point, is a marking on a surface. Graffiti eradication is typically the application of paint over the marking of the surface. In terms of “damage,” there is no evidence that one layer of paint is less destructive than the one beneath it. In the course of painting over graffiti, the eradicators create a unique marking of their own that writers call “buffmarks.” Roll along the highways of LA and see thousands of buffmarks, each as visually compelling as the next and the last, each with a story to tell. Continue reading “Community Service (2002)”

March 24, 2007January 15, 2019

The Cacophony Society

The Society is a loosely structured network of individuals, banded together in “the pursuit of experiences beyond the mainstream.” Particularly noteworthy among said experiences are Cacophony”s costumed rampages in the guise of clowns, Santas, dogs, biohazard teams, and post-apocalyptic shoppers, as well pranks and hoaxes including flyers announcing public pigeon roasts, UFO landings, and book-burnings. Continue reading “The Cacophony Society”