Artistic Utopias of Revolt by Julia Ramírez Blanco

Author:Julia Ramírez Blanco
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

(Counter)spectacle

Power has always used spectacle to express and strengthen its rule. Throughout history dissidence too has created its own spectacular interventions, on its own scale, using whatever means are within its reach at any particular time. Various complementary forms of communication have been deployed, including trying to appear on television and in the press. In the context of a society where the media occupy a leading role in the construction of meaning, eye-catching forms of creative activism succeed in capturing much more attention and, because of this, they are more efficient at serving the aim of dissemination. This ‘external’ functionality exists alongside the internal meaning of the actions, which is always directed towards its own participants. The ‘utilitarian’ media function exists at the same time as the expression of a passion that is both intrinsically human and fundamentally ‘useless’, as is the creative impulse.

Another approach to the mass media has to do with intervening in them, altering their original meaning. During the 1990s, some social movements reflected seriously about how to use media in their favour. At this time people started to speak of ‘communication guerrilla ’100 and ‘culture jamming’101 to describe forms of social intervention which used culture as a weapon. Examples include false advertising, modified posters, and fake websites.

Over the years, the idea of creating one’s own counter-information media, immune from corporate manipulation, gained increasing strength. At first, this involved fanzines, pamphlets , newspapers, pirate radio stations, and video-activist organizations. The rise of the Internet, where more and more content was generated by users, has led to a real revolution . Today, the images that are created by activism are often directed towards the Internet and social media.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.