DEFINITION OF HACKTIVISM
Before answering these questions, I would like to define what Hacktivism is about.Hacktivism is the act of hacking into a Web site or computer system in order to communicate a politically or socially motivated message. But when does Hacktivism become art?
If we see Andrea Fraser’s ideas:
“Art is art when it exists for discourses and practices that recognise it as art, value and evaluate it as art and consume it as art”…. “It exists within the perception of participants in the field of art as art; this perception is not necessarily aesthetic but fundamentally social in its determination”[1]
The act of hacking may include altering the content of a website, or preventing or inhibiting communication. For the hacktivist, it is an Internet-enabled way to practice civil disobedience and protest. That is because The Internet has been proposed as a “place” in which anything is possible, where the Utopia can become true. And it is there where it is possible to fight for ideologies and principles.
An example of this is a particular hacktivist project created by the Borderlands Hacklab, Electronic Disturbance Theater and Rising Tide NorthAmerica.
They proposed a virtual sit-in. In this, hundreds of activists attempted to access a target website simultaneously and repetitively . If done right, these actions will cause the target website to run slowly or even collapse entirely, preventing anyone from accessing it. This name comes from the popular sit-ins during the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
In this project, they called for a “virtual sit-in” against the websites of the G8+5 and the Mexican government during the G8+5 meetings on October, 2006 in Mexico
This is the website of Bordeland Hacklab in defend of Oaxaca. This online movement was in response to the Mexican Government, because they playing host to world politicians while mounting a massive violent attack on the people of Oaxaca. The reason of this movement, comes from the massive violent attack on the people of Oaxaca from the Mexican government, at the same time that they (the Mexican government) tries to play host to the G8+5 Gleneagles
Dialogue on Climate Change.
Apparently the Mexican government thinks it can cleanse the country of its growing pro-democracy rebellion while laying out a red carpet to world politicians including the G8 Energy Ministers.
[1] Fraser, Andrea. From the critique of institutions to an institution of critique.(institutional critique as artistic phenomena), Artforum International, September, 2005
