The Rhizome Digest merged into the Rhizome News in November 2008. These pages serve as an archive for 6-years worth of discussions and happenings from when the Digest was simply a plain-text, weekly email.

Subject: RHIZOME DIGEST: 7.18.07
From: digest@rhizome.org (RHIZOME)
Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2007 22:19:12 -0400
Reply-to: digest@rhizome.org
Sender: owner-digest@rhizome.org
RHIZOME DIGEST: July 18, 2007

Content:

+opportunity+
1. Patrick Holbrook: One Year Full Time Faculty
2. Scott Miller Berry: Call for Submissions : Installation | New Media | Performance (Toronto, CANADA)
3. ana otero: CALL FOR PAPERS - The Synthetic Aesthetics of New Media Art
4. charlotte.pedley AT cornerhouse.org: Final Call for Submissions : The Bigger Picture


+announcement+
5. lapsus5 AT yahoo.com: echelon: who is watching you?

6. Christina McPhee: complete public events for Paper and Pixel Week at Documenta 12 (with links)

+interview+
7. ana otero: CORRECTION - INTERVIEW: Viral Communication Hotbed, by Claudia D'Alonso / Translation: Ian Bolton

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1.



From: Patrick Holbrook <patrickholbrook AT yahoo.com>
Date: Jul 12, 2007
Subject: One Year Full Time Faculty

Digital Media: Fall of 2007 - Georgia College & State University.

One-year full-time appointment non-tenure track. MFA in studio art with extensive knowledge of digital media. Seeking candidates fluent in both screen- and print- based media as well as theory and history. Expertise in Macintosh OSX using current versions of Adobe CS, Macromedia CS, and Final Cut, within a fine arts context is essential. Teach 3 digital media classes per semester, Web page design, interactivity, video and non-linear video editing and/or 2-D animation. A broad understanding of contemporary theory and criticism of digital technologies and inter-media arts and ability to articulate concepts in a broad studio context is necessary.
Additional responsibilities: help maintain a 16 station Mac lab, mentoring independent studies, contributing to departmental planning, participating in co-curricular initiatives, assisting in exhibition and visiting artist program. In all of our studio faculty we seek secondary strengths in the theory, practice, and history of visual communication, issues of community, issues of gender, identity politics, media literacy, and demonstrable examples of other experiences such as performance, installation, and/or video art.

To learn more about GC&SU, visit: http://www.gcsu.edu. Women and under- represented candidates are especially encouraged to apply. Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Institution.

Deadline: ASAP
Start date: August 2007

Send letter of application, CV, names of 3 references, supporting materials of artistic production which may include: five minute video sample, CD or DVD, up to 20 labeled slides with slide list, and/or Web site address in a SASE to:

Richard A. Lou
Chair - Art Department
Georgia College & State University
Blackbridge Hall - CBX 094
Milledgeville, GA 31061

478-445-4572 - office
478-445-6088 - fax
richard.lou AT gcsu.edu
http://www.gcsu.edu/art/

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Associated Content is the people's media company. We run a massive library of content where you can share your work and earn extra cash. Explore scores of articles, videos, essays, reviews, how-to's and contribute your own. Show what you know at www.associatedcontent.com/join/rhizome

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2.

From: Scott Miller Berry <scott AT imagesfestival.com>
Date: Jul 16, 2007
Subject: Call for Submissions : Installation | New Media | Performance (Toronto, CANADA)

//

Images Festival (Toronto) 2008 call for Installation, New Media & Performance submissions

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
IMAGES FESTIVAL 2008
Toronto, Ontario, CANADA

//INSTALLATION // NEW MEDIA// LIVE IMAGES //
[NOTE: film and video guidelines will be available AT the end of July]

The Images Festival annually exhibits a selection of media arts installations, new media artworks and live/performance-based works as part of our annual festival. Images works with several Toronto galleries and other alternative exhibition spaces to show media art installations which incorporate the moving image, interactive media and performativity.

Please check our web archive for information on our exhibition history:
http://www.imagesfestival.com

Among the artists whose installations, performances and new media works have been featured in past festivals: Lonnie van Brummelen, Yael Bartana, Harun Farocki, Pipilotti Rist, Steve McQueen, Stan Douglas, Bjørn Melhus, David Rokeby, Masashi Iwasaki & Tadasu Takamine, Jane & Louise Wilson, John Greyson, Bob Ostertag & Pierre Hébert, Gustavo Artigas, Carolee Schneemann, Judy Radul, Richard Fung, Luke Jerram, Paulette Phillips, Joe Kelly, Nell Tenhaaf, Jean-François Guiton, Daniel Olson, Deanna Bowen, Haruki Nishijima, Gebhard Sengmüller, Marion Coutts, Willy LeMaitre & Eric Rosenzweig, Adriana Arenas Ilian, Michael Snow, Althea Thauberger, Taras Polataiko, Dara Gellman & Leslie Peters, Michelle Teran, badpacket, Jürgen Reble & Thomas Köner.

DATES
Deadline for receipt of entries:
27 July 2007 (NO ENTRY FEE!)

Online forms and downloadable PDF's of submission & guideline are at:
http://www.imagesfestival.com/generic.php?id=28&heading=submissions

[This is not a call for film and video works to be exhibited in a theatre!
Those guidelines and forms will be available at the end of the month]

For more information, or to have a submission form sent to you please contact submissions [at] imagesfestival.com

Best regards,

THE IMAGES FESTIVAL
448-401 Richmond Street West
Toronto. Ontario M5V 3A8 Canada
T 416.971.8405
F 416.971.7412
http://www.imagesfestival.com

21st Edition! >>> 3-12 April 2008 >>>

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3.


From: ana otero <4anaotero AT gmail.com>
Date: Jul 18, 2007
Subject: CALL FOR PAPERS - The Synthetic Aesthetics of New Media Art

// CALL FOR PAPERS
// The Synthetic Aesthetics of New Media Art
// Deadline: October 1, 2007

“The Synthetic Aesthetics of New Media Art”
Presented by The New Media Caucus in Association with the College Art Association
February 20–23, 2008, Dallas, TX
http://conference.collegeart.org/2008/

Contrary to traditional aesthetic theories that argue for the primacy of either the subjective and phenomenological, or formal and objective interpretations of artwork, the aesthetics of electronic media, like the logic of technical media itself, is thoroughly removed from anthropomorphic sensibility. One could say that electronic media aesthetics are marked by technical trauma.

However, much contemporary new media art criticism exemplifies a hermeneutic approach that seeks to rationalize and transform work into intelligible “art objects” for canonization and social theories. Is this approach problematic for the logic of technical media? Can certain attributes such as color, form, affect, or sound, effectively reconcile computer based artwork with the subjective and humanistic drives in art making?

The panel invites papers that address the aesthetics of New Media art in distinction to previous aesthetic models or media platforms. For instance, papers suggesting the ways in which color, sound, line, form, symbolism, affect, anti-aesthetics, or ideology may be distinct to new media aesthetics are all welcomed. Essentially the panel inquires: what do aestheticians address in New Media art, and why? Which artists and / or commercial work do you think best exemplifies these issues? Special attention will be given to those abstracts that are concerned with the use of color in New Media work.

• Timeline: Abstracts (max 500 words) and a brief bio due by October 1, 2007. Presenters will be notified by October 15, 2007. Final Papers due February 1, 2008. Send abstracts and papers to: clk267 AT nyu.edu

•Format: Presenters can propose brief lectures; media or artist presentations of their own, or other artists’ work; discussions; or other acceptable suggestions.

Contact me with any questions:
Carolyn Kane: clk267 AT nyu.edu

For CAA conference information visit: http://conference.collegeart.org/2008/

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Organizational memberships with Rhizome

Sign your library, university or organization up for a Rhizome organizational membership! Give your community access to the largest online archives of digital art and new media art-related writing, the opportunity to organize member-curated exhibitions, participate in critical discussion, community boards, and learn about residency, educational and professional possibilities. Rhizome also offers subsidized memberships for qualifying institutions with limited access to the Internet. Please visit http://rhizome.org/info/org.php for more information or contact sales AT rhizome.org

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4.

From: charlotte.pedley AT cornerhouse.org <charlotte.pedley AT cornerhouse.org>
Date: Jul 17, 2007
Subject: Final Call for Submissions : The Bigger Picture

The Bigger Picture. Big Screen, Manchester

The Deadline for submissions to The Bigger Picture has been extended to the 25 July. Don’t miss this great opportunity to get your work shown on Big Screen, Manchester.

The Bigger Picture is a Cornerhouse project, run in partnership with BBC Manchester, established to exhibit selections of the best moving image work being produced today. Standing outside of a traditional gallery context, the programme offers a platform for artists’ film & video, short films, and artistic community moving image. It is a curated programme that screens and commissions work by established and emerging practitioners, whilst also calling for entries up to five times a year, in an attempt to seek out exciting and original moving image works that will capture the imaginations of what is an essentially fleeting, yet diverse audience.

The Big Screen, Manchester is a 25 square metre video screen with full sound system situated in Exchange Square, a public area regenerated after the IRA bomb in 1996, that has an estimated daily footfall of 50,000 people. The Manchester screen broadcasts 24 hours a day, with sound muted at night


To submit please download an application form from the Cornerhouse website: http://www.cornerhouse.org/art/biggerpicture

Please read the application form carefully, and complete in full before enclosing with your entry.

The Big Screen, Manchester, is part of a UK BBC Big Screen network and also works to generate opportunities and partnerships with international screen sites.

For general enquiries relating to the BBC Big Screen Manchester, contact Screen Manager Sarah Griffiths on 0161 244 4618 or email sarah.griffiths AT bbc.co.uk

http://www.bbc.co.uk/manchester/features/big_screen

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5.

From: lapsus5 AT yahoo.com <lapsus5 AT yahoo.com>
Date: Jul 17, 2007
Subject: echelon: who is watching you?

echelon: who is watching you?

Opening Friday August 3 from 6pm-10pm
August 3 - September 1, 2007

"One cannot use spies without sagacity and knowledge, one cannot use spies without humanity and justice" - Sun Tzu

"It was terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering to yourself—anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face… was itself a punishable offense."
- George Orwell, 1984, Book 1, Chapter 5

US surveillance began centuries ago with the concept of slave passes, which allowed slave-owners to monitor and control the mobility of their "chattel." Yet the slave pass system was sometimes subverted by the rare slaves who could write, such as Frederick Douglass. These literate slaves could create their own passes and might thus gain freedom for themselves and other slaves. Trafficking in passes and "free papers" soon became a burgeoning business, one that the slave system grappled with for nearly two centuries.

>From slaves, the history of surveillance next turns to the infamous Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which restricted Chinese immigration to the United States. All Chinese laborers were forced to register with the government and subject themselves to being photographed and fingerprinted. A whole apparatus of surveillance was created.

In the 1920s, government surveillance spread to political radicals, especially workers trying to organize union activity. J. Edgar Hoover headed this government surveillance unit which would later become the FBI. As the 20th century advanced, computer technology proved a powerful enhancement to the regime of surveillance. This allowed most devices and databases to be monitored and evaluated, including automobiles, Your car can be tracked by GPS, and your spending habits can be gleaned from accessing your credit card records. Internet and email are monitored in the workplace and cameras are just about everywhere.

For this show artists will explore the history of surveillance and how this affects us at this present time. They will in turn create work dealing with this theme which will include 2D work, installation, and new media.

ARTISTS PARTICIPATING:
Anni Holm
Drew Browning and Annette Barbier
Dustin Klare
Elvia Rodriguez-Ochoa
Finishing School
Gretel Garcia
Ian Simmons
Jesus Macarena-Avila
Noelle Mason
Patricht Lichty
Tom Sibley
T.W. Li
Venia Bechrakis

http://www.polvo.org/echelon.html

Polvo, www.polvo.org
1458 W. 18th St., 1R Chicago, IL 60608
773.344.1940
info AT polvo.org

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Rhizome.org 2006-2007 Net Art Commissions
The Rhizome Commissioning Program makes financial support available to artists for the creation of innovative new media art work via panel-awarded commissions.

For the 2006-2007 Rhizome Commissions, eleven artists/groups were selected to create original works of net art.
http://rhizome.org/commissions/

The Rhizome Commissions Program is made possible by support from the Jerome Foundation in celebration of the Jerome Hill Centennial, the Greenwall Foundation, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Additional support has been provided by members of the Rhizome community.

Rhizome 2008 Commissions Announced!
This year, eleven emerging artists/ collectives were awarded commissions in support of new works of Internet-based art. The projects include distributed sound experiments, visually compelling interactive images that blend the sublime and the ridiculous, and pioneering applications that encourage the flowering of creativity across commercial areas of the web. Follow the link below for descriptions of and links to the eleven winning proposals, which also includes our first-ever Community Award, a project designed to enhance participation and communication on Rhizome.
http://rhizome.org/commissions/2007/

The Rhizome Commissions program is supported, in part, by funds from the Greenwall Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts and by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. Additional support is provided by generous individuals and Rhizome Members.

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6.

From: Christina McPhee <christina112 AT earthlink.net>
Date: Jul 12, 2007
Subject: complete public events for Paper and Pixel Week at Documenta 12 (with links)

documenta 12 magazines: Kassel 16-22 July 2007

http://magazines.documenta.de/frontend/site.php?
IdPublication=1&IdLanguage=1&NrIssue=1&NrSection=10&NrArticle=1526#anker

Paper and Pixel

organised by Alessandro Ludovico and Nat Muller

in collaboration with LabforCulture.org http://www.labforculture.org/

Tuesday 17 July

13:00-14:30 Lunch Lecture, Documenta Halle

How to Survive the Paper Industry

Participants: Simon Worthington (Mute, London) http://www.metamute.org/ , Alessandro Ludovico (Neural, Bari) http://www.neural.it/

Moderator: Nat Muller (Rotterdam)

Ever since ink turned into toner and pixel, printed paper has been struggling to survive as a medium. Yet, stubborn independent editors are still producing the most endangered species of paper products: the independent magazine. By endlessly reinventing content, technical and economical strategies these magazines testimony to the distinct qualities of printed publications, such as periodicity, touch of paper and smell of copy. Yet, it is precisely the love for the speed of electrons, and an understanding of the potentials of networked media, that have inspired the cultural tactics of these magazines; from print-on-demand, collaborative editing, sharing content and knowledge, to surfing and playing up to new
economical demands.

16:00-17:30 Screening and Discussion

Ibon Aranberri in dialogue with Pablo Lafuente (London)

Kabinett 1, Documenta Halle

Thursday 19 July

10:30-12:00 The Art of Blogging

Kabinett 2, Documenta Halle

A lecture by Regine Debatty (We-make-money-not-art.com, Berlin).
http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/

The art of blogging. How blogging is an art and how to make it successful. The queen of media art blogging Regine Debatty talks about the king of media art blogs. Ironically titled, 'we make money not art', the latter is a unique case in the world of digital art publishing successful, competent, engaging, and purely digital.

13:00-14:30 Lunch Lecture, Documenta Halle

Processual Aesthetics, Processual Editing: Net-Working

Participants:

Miren Eraso (Zehar, San Sebastian), http://magazines.documenta.de/frontend/index.php?IdMagazine=146, http://magazines.documenta.de/frontend/index.php?IdMagazine=77

Christina McPhee (-empyre-, Sydney), http://www.subtle.net/
empyre , http://magazines.documenta.de/frontend/index.php?IdMagazine=59

Patricia Canetti (Canal Contemporaneo, Sao Paulo/Rio de Janeiro)
http://www.canalcontemporaneo.art.br/_v3/site/index.php?idioma=br

Moderator: Alessandro Ludovico (Neural, Bari) http://
magazines.documenta.de/frontend/index.php?IdMagazine=58

Cultural networking has been embodied in different forms through the various nets of independent publishers. We will focus on the aesthetics and practices of networking, collaborative editing and publishing and how that all ties into what has been called “processual aesthetics”, namely an aesthetics that recognizes the material and embodied dimensions of netculture. Strategies of connecting, sharing, improve altogether, meeting on shared goals and then terminating collaborations to start new ones as temporary autonomous zones of production and development. So how do editors really work on the net, and where is the locus of pixel and where is the locus of paper?

Saturday 21 July

13:00-14:30 Lunch Lecture, Documenta Halle

Publishing the Public: Contextualising Locality

Participants: Jaime Iregui (Esfera Pœblica, Bogota), http://magazines.documenta.de/frontend/index.php?IdMagazine=91

Fran Ilich (Sab0t, Mexico City), http://magazines.documenta.de/frontend/index.php?IdMagazine=129

Jose-Carlos Maráitegui (Lima/London)

Nebojsa Vilic (Concrete Reflection, Skopje) http://magazines.documenta.de/frontend/index.php?IdMagazine=81

Moderator: Nat Muller (Rotterdam)

In a time when the public sphere is shrinking and “things public” become convoluted with “things privat(ised)”, we would like to approach writing and publishing as a public act. Like curating, we would like to view publishing as an effort towards making this public, and in the service of various publics. What is public is of course shaped and moulded by the specificities of context. In a global era we insist to ask how we can work from a particular locality, and go beyond the standard (and by now tedious) “local vs. global” debate, but head to another (yet unknown) destination altogether.

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7.

From: ana otero <4anaotero AT gmail.com>
Date: Jul 18, 2007
Subject: CORRECTION - INTERVIEW: Viral Communication Hotbed, by Claudia D'Alonso / Translation: Ian Bolton

CORRECTION to the post on 7/16/07: "INTERVIEW: Viral Communication Hotbed, by Claudia D'Alonso / Translation: Ian Bolton"

This post was a reblog from newmediafix.net originally published at July 11, 2007.

http://newmediafix.net/daily/?p=1473

-----------

This text is republished in collaboration with Digicult.it. It was released on March 2006, and has been edited for republication.

According to some scientists the word “virus” does not indicate a living being, but “information” contained in the DNA/RNA with various alignments at some point of the genome. The virus enters into the organism and taking advantage of vital cycles and nutriment it infects; it modifies the cellular morphology succeeding at times to prime modifications in the informative matrix of the host, represented by the DNA. From some years the macro international advertising organism has been suffering from a singular viral infection that has been slowly fighting internally in order to change of morphogenesis and reproductive mechanisms: cultural jamming.

The cultural jammers, cultural saboteurs, are advertising groups, communication artists and professionals that, taking advantage of an individual’s/consumer’s addiction to publicity, inoculate into mind television advertising, pseudo-events, posters, stickering, fake sites, underhanded viruses that replicate themselves among the minds provoking semantic short circuits and derailment of the advertising content from the straight path of produce-consume-die.

Born in Italy in 2003 Guerrigliamarketing.it , is an advertising agency that uses non-conventional communication techniques, like the creation of fictitious events or campaigns reaching the limits of legality, through which they “fuck the market in order to enter it”, entering the media system and taking away the automatism communication. Among the campaigns of the guerrillas: Rottama il Brand (Wreck the Brand), that promotes the appropriation of incentives for those companies that decide to junk their own obsolete marketing plans; Shock and Hoax, network of urban marketing actions on the national territory during which areas of various Italian cities have been swamped with alarming Military announcements of “prohibited Limits” and “military drills” in order to provoke in our life of western tranquillity a small shock and a lightning bolt of thought towards the war in Middle East; the creation of t-shirts Spazio Disponibile (Available Space) in order to make us t!
hink about the unpaid promotion of the brands through the clothes that we wear; the site of Espropriproletari (proletarian expropriation) that ironically promotes the actions of expropriation of companies as a tactic to obtain unexpected straightening of media antennas, ergo advertisement at zero cost.

We had the opportunity to meet and have a chat with Andrea Natella, founder and chairman of the project Guerrillamarketing.it; this is what came out…

Claudia D’Alonso: how did Guerrigliamarketing.it come about: who are the members and after what experience did you reach the decision to start this project?

Andrea Natella: Guerrigliamarketing.it was born out of a bet. Is it possible to imagine modalities of radical participation on the universe of brands and at the same time present oneself as an advertising agency? Is it possible for the professionals of communication not to give up their own political ideas in carrying out their job? Guerrigiamarketing.it is still a bet that is up against demands of income and the need not to betray this projectuality.

Our backgrounds are diverse. Personally, I come from experiences of alternative transmission, from the Luther Blissett project and another strange experiment called Men In Red, a false collective of Radical Ufologia. The other members of the group have origins from the world of the political militancy, art, comic strips etc. We have always taken hand in hand these passions with average boring jobs, in the best hypotheses of little interest. With guerrigliamarketing.it we are trying to get away from some kind of schizophrenia. Objectively, however, we are precarious workers.

Claudia D’Alonso: what are the techniques of guerrilla that you prefer to use?

Andrea Natella: There is no preferred technique. Each time it all depends on the idea that must be communicated. We enjoy ourselves more when we play with what is false; we invent unlikely stories and the mass media bites.

Claudia D’Alonso: i have noticed that compared to historical organisations of culture jamming, like Adbusters, you don’t make use of television advertising. Can you explain the reason for this choice? How do you think the scene of culture jamming is changing in relation to the choice of media in which the viral communication is injected?

Andrea Natella: Actually, at the beginning we made a false ad for Esso. There is a couple that is coming back from a party in a car, they stop a garage and fill up the car. We see, however, that the petrol ends up in bottle and not in the tank. A moment after we see the man transform into black-block activist and he throws a petrol bomb. Then we see the slogan: “Esso good for war, better for guerrilla”. It was an attempt of repositioning the Esso brand during the war in Iraq to face the boycotting that came from the no global front.

But it is true that we don’t do many videos. This is because we try to keep a high profile and, nevertheless, keeping the technical costs down, making videos at an “advertising” level remains expensive from a productive point of view.

Claudia D’Alonso: I would like to talk about the birth of cultural jamming in Italy. What are the roots of phenomenon and what influences have characterised its development?

Andrea Natella: we can say that cultural jamming has always existed. In a certain sense also the futurists did cultural jamming. More correctly I would identify the metropolitan Indians and the experience of the magazine Il Male as more direct premonitory group of the CJ today. I think that the true impulse, however, came from the experience of Cyberpunk that represented a new position within the mainstream media.

Claudia D’Alonso: Speaking about psichogeomarketing, are there any general differences between the feasible strategies of guerrilla in Italy compare to those put into practice in other countries, for example compared to the United States?

Andrea Natella: More than anything else there are various inheritances. The European Cj tends to be more political. There is always a deeper consideration than is expressed in the United States. I would say although the label is American the European Cjs are more mature, they are not simply interested in raising a problematic question and each time they try to give an open reading which always remains complex. It sometimes seems to me that the American Cj stretches simplification to the maximum, this in some way facilitates the result but weakens the content: it is tinned more easily.

Claudia D’Alonso: Among the techniques of communication used, how much has it mutated from the tactics of commercial marketing and how much from the contra-culture, from street the cultures, like for example stickering, the horizontal word of mouth of the mailing-list…?

Andrea Natella: Innovation is always born out of conflict. If there is no conflict there is no development. For this reason the street is the territory where innovation is consumed. Marketing is always subordinate from the point of view of innovation; otherwise you would not be able to explain the necessity to hire cool hunters, the really true strike-breakers of stylistic innovation. What we try to do is to increase the awareness that true value is produced by the consumers. Marketing has an exclusively managerial ability to put value into this innovation. The true problem is that street cultures are the true research and development units of post-fordist Capitalism. A unit to which, however, no economical counterpart is recognized

Claudia D’Alonso: You are an advertising agency and as such realized similar campaigns on a commission basis. Do you give yourselves ethical limits regarding the jobs you accept?

Andrea Natella: We will never make publicity for companies that produce weapons, furs or for any military forces or police forces. Having said this, our ethical limit is empiricist. Are we able to say something interesting with a campaign? If we accept the assignment, otherwise we try to refuse it.

Claudia D’Alonso: Let’s speak about proletarian expropriation. How did this come about and what is the concept of this campaign? Is it a type of “historical” action of the antagonist movement; through which communicative strategies have you reinvented it?

Andrea Natella: Espropriprolatari (proletarian expropriation) was born out of ascertainment. To endure expropriation in the society of show business is objectively an advantage for he who endures it. Objectively it would be an advantage also for he who realizes it if issues of the legal type did not arise. We wondered about this labile legal border, for example the issue of how legality can at the same time transform an illegal action into a value and an action that creates value in something illegal.

Claudia D’Alonso: You certainly expected the controversies that arose in the public opinion after some proletarian expropriations, but do you not think that for actions of this kind there is a risk of not reaching the people, not succeeding in communicating the message one wishes to communicate, but to provoke a closure in the average Italian, who is immediately ready to label you?

Andrea Natella: When the Corriere della sera (national Italian newspaper) titled with: “We offer an expropriation, it is worth more than an advert” a communicative short circuit was created. With this operation, we exposed ourselves as an advertising agency. We made people think that in order to sell a company it is ready to do anything, also on the border of illegality. We tried to confuse these borders. After that it is not always necessary that decode is linear. When we see a work of art by Duchamp we are not trying to find the one and only meaning. Works of art open worlds and this is one of the aspects of the things that we want to do, without necessarily being confined to the world of art.

Claudia D’Alonso: do you think that guerrilla techniques risk being, at times, reabsorbed by the advertisng trade? Think for example about the Diesel Wall, about football championships on the Nike roof… are you running the risk of being ripped off by the market again?

Andrea Natella: There is an issue that every culture jammer should ask themselves when they think about an action: is it aversive, radical and innovative enough? Would it be even if it were “sponsored”? If the answer to this second question is no, then the answer to the first question is probably negative, too. If an action is radical enough it would be even if it had a sponsor. For this reason truly radical actions find it hard to sponsors.

http://www.guerrigliamarketing.it/

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Rhizome Digest is supported by grants from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency.

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Rhizome Digest is filtered by Marisa Olson (marisa AT rhizome.org). ISSN: 1525-9110. Volume 12, number 28. Article submissions to list AT rhizome.org are encouraged. Submissions should relate to the theme of new media art and be less than 1500 words. For information on advertising in Rhizome Digest, please contact info AT rhizome.org.

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