IS HACKTIVISM CONSIDER A CRIMINAL ACTIVITY BY THE ART INSTITUTION OR PART OF IT?
On the other hand, Hacktivism is considered a criminal activity that has been taken on as a strategy of resistance, opposition and subversion by a number of contemporary artists working outside of the institution of art. But is hacktivism considered a criminal activity by the art institution or part of it?
If we look Frederic Jameson’s ideas in his book Postmodernism or the cultural logic of late capitalism, we read that Any artwork could be accepted by the institution of Art and share space in the hegemonic model, as the cultural logic of late capitalism. That is because corporate capitalism colonized the cultural sphere and there by created a fusion of all discourses.
He adopts the concept of simulacrum from Jean Baudrillard ; indeed, he paints a rather dystopic picture of the present, which he associates with a loss of our connection to history.
What we are left with is a fascination with the present. According to Jameson, postmodernity has transformed the historical past into a series of pastiche that can then be consumed. The result is victory of capitalist thinking over all other forms of thought.
In Jameson, new technologies can be considered as part of this system.
In Jameson idea, If we can contrast this post-modern situation with the modernist, we can see that:
Modernism still believes that there is an objective world outside the ideology or textuality where the truth can be found.
As we see here:
In the modernity avant-garde art is against the institution
“Some residual zones of ‘nature’ or ‘being’, of the old, the older, the archaic” and still believed that one could “do something to that nature and work at transforming that ‘referent’ “ [1]
Postmodernism has lost a sense of any distinction between the Real and Culture. And all the art can be in the institution.
In postmodernity, Avant-garde art is part of the institution
“An immense dilation of [culture’s] sphere (the sphere of commodities), an immense and historically original acculturation of the Real”[2]
At the same time we can see that there are different opinions and explanation about this topic:
On the one hand, we have for example the artist Robert Adrian, his opinion is more conservative and negative about the introduction of Hacktivism as part of the institution. He declare in an interview with Tilman Baumgartel in July 1997:
“The older tradition of art production, promoting and marketing did not apply, and artist, art historians, curator and the art establishment trained to operate with this tradition found it very difficult to recognise these projects as being part. Net art challenges the concept of art-making as a more of less solitary and product-producing activity”[3]
We also have opinions like Julian Stallabrass’. His ideas are more optimist and he accepted the admission of Hacktivism as Institutional art.
In his book Internet art, the online clash of culture and commerce in 2003.
“It is relatively cost-effective way to appear contemporary and especially to be seen to address issues of globalization”[4]
The fact is that Hackivism is part of the institution because…. there are
Hackmeating as the the Italian Hackmeeting, Hackit_07; Books as the Fred Turner - From Counterculture to Cyberculture, from chicago university; Artworks in festival as was Dan Phiffer in Deaf’07 this year.
Electronic Disturbance Theatre and SWARM project in the Arts Electronical festival.
The University of California in January of 2006 presented an exhibition.
One of the main artists was Ricardo Dominguez; one of the creator of Electronic disturbance theatre. In this exhibition he was presenting an interactive video game about border-crossing; a map that charts his many collaborative projects; and a 700-page manuscript that documents the rise of Hacktivism. (100 copies of the manuscript will be distributed to gallery visitors.)
[1]Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism , Verso, London, 1991, pp. ix
[2] Ibidem, p. x
[3] Tilman Baumgartel, interview with Robert Adrian, net time posting 8 July 1997
[4] Stallabrass Julian. Internet art, The Online Clash of Culture and Commerce, Tate Publishing, London, 2003
