creative critical tech

tactical media

“a wide array of radical practices at the intersection of activism and art” (Smolicki, 2017)
“Tactical media are what happens when the cheap ‘do it yourself’ media, made possible by the revolution in consumer electronics and expanded forms of distribution (from public access cable to the Internet) are exploited by groups and individuals who feel aggrieved by or excluded from the wider culture” (Garcia and Lovink,1997, no pagination).

“She sees tactical use of media as interventions into media and technical infrastructures (web- sites, datasets, databases, servers, etc.) which aim less to change the status quo than to temporarily disrupt it, to highlight and call attention to some controversial mechanisms and practices deliberately withheld from the general public by authorities and financial corporation” ⤴️
“artistic collectives like Critical Art Ensemble, Carbon Defense League, Bureau of Inverse Technology, or Yes Man, the last of which is known for hi-jacking press conferences” ⤴️
“major characteristic of tactical media, as Raley asserts, is their “ephemerality” and “distinct temporality” (ibid., p.7). T” ⤴️
“the intervention and disruption of a dominant semiotic regime,” ⤴️
“temporary creation of a situation in which signs, messages, and narratives are set into play and critical thinking becomes possible (2009, p.6).” ⤴️
“the tactical use of media technologies is inherently positioned against power structures previously identified as superior and hegemonic.” ⤴️
“taking a position inferior to the strategically produced power structures, tactical media practices are performed in short temporary and circumstantial gaps.” ⤴️
“This performative, transient, and momentary nature of tactical media practices benefits tactical media practitioners as they themselves have no intention of engaging in systemic change or in leaving a permanent, archival trace of their actions. “” ⤴️
“suggest a concept of tactical media’s integral focus against stability, duration, and permanence, and thus, against the archive.” ⤴️
browser plug-ins and extensions as resistance, signal-disruptors ⤴️
video/image surveillance
- tactics more appropriate to situations not avoidable eg more necessary communications or tech forced upon you eg public surveillance
- “disrupting the face-tracking software embedded in CCTV surveillance monitoring of urban areas” “making identification of the target difficult, if at all possible” ⤴️
- “media art interventions attempt to balance the picture by offering what might be described as anti-tracking wearables, However, such artistic quasi-camouflage systems are still more likely to be encountered in art galleries and media festivals than on the street.” ⤴️
- “reflectionism (ibid., p.333), a tactical use of technology to confront authorities, purposefully recording their actions (and misconduct) to reveal their mechanics, motivations, or violence, and, in so doing, to balance the distribution of power. In this reading of sousveillance, technologies are incorporated into one’s existence to counteract the their hegemonic use by authorities who aim to control and discipline the society. On the other hand, however, he approached sousveillance as a practice incorporating recording devices into life as existential technologies, techniques of “self-determination and mastery over our own destiny” (Mann, 2003).” ⤴️
“tactical media practices, as not merely short-term, unsustainable interventions into power structures (technical, political, economical) from a supposedly autonomous and untraceable outside position, but also as semi-permanent, long-term engagements in inventing, composing and (re-)con- figuring life with technologies, devices and media systems, from within, alongside, or parallel to hegemonic, regulatory, and mainstream forces.” ⤴️ (Smolicki, 2017)
“Joseph August Lux proposed a different point of view. In his opinion, the effects of this new technologies could be overcome through developing a “spiritual center” along with a long-term vision by which these technologies could be attentively adopted in the currents of one’s everyday life. This long-term vision and historical consciousness were not a large-scale solutions for the problem; they indicated one way through which an individual could address the omnipresence of technologies and their effects ever-more deeply woven into the fabric of life.” ⤴️

critique

“double status of being in the system, but on one’s own terms, might be seen as characteristic of tactical media, and more generally, a performance of the tactical as proposed by de Certeau (1984).” ⤴️
“Selvaggio’s artifact can be seen as an example of a recent trend prevailing among media art practitioners who aspire to be politically and socially active, without moving much beyond the realm of merely theoretical artistic (or technological) speculation.” ⤴️
- “What is perhaps paradoxical in such counter-surveillance art that deals with themes of obfuscation and identity protection is that, while promoting the erasure of visibility and identity, they simultaneously work to- ward constructing and solidifying their creators’ strong artistic, scholarly, and media image. Instead of becoming anonymous, their media visibility and presence in the discourse only become more vivid.” ⤴️
“for media-art practitioners who work with techniques of counter-capture, the incentive is to become invisible to the state, the opposite – becoming documented and recognized – is an in- centive for a number of migrants and asylum seekers.” ⤴️
“Often media-art practitioners committed to such practices come from or are settled in economically, geographically, politically, and technologically privileged environments (West-European countries, tech-labs, academia).” ⤴️
“might unwillingly subscribe to the paranoid aura around contemporary debates on network and digital media. Were this the case, the propaga- tion of such practices as an antidote to the ubiquitous surveillance would paradoxically perpetuate a state of fear and uncertainty which might, in fact, be in the interest of the authorities.” ⤴️
“practices seeking to evade the capture and erasure of visibility might be seen as energy-draining.” ⤴️

I consider arguing that some singular tactical media practises aren’t alone actually tactical - whilst it employs para-tactical para-tactical aims it also actively assists in the hegemony - it would have to have at least a neutral impact on the efficiency/quality/etc of institutional process rather than actively support it - overcompliance must be to the point of disrupting processes that expect lower volumes. - “Jarzombek interprets this as a tactical act of appropriating the device, since the user “steals the enemy’s invention for his own purposes,” the enemy being the modernist rationalization and standardization of everyday life, and the user’s purpose being a set of subjective, spiritual, philosophical values according to which one put the device into use and which effectively contradict these processes” ⤴️ - “sousveillance and obfuscation, instances of tactical media practices explicitly oriented against the strategic proliferation of technical systems of surveillance, capture, and control (Mann et al., 2003, Brunton and Nissenbaum, 2015).” ⤴️
alternatively, these practises might alone be considered tactical only if this quality is activated later on, amplified when circumstances make the capture no longer possible, eg on death or changing political regimes, or in combinaton with others’ practises?? not sure.