Culture Jamming on the Internet- Part I

The origin of the term ‘culture jamming’ is credited to the band Negativeland, but the philosphy and aims of culture jamming go back (at least) to the 1960s with the pranks of Abbie Hoffman, Joey Skaggs and others.

Wikipedia lists the aims of culture jamming:

• To create a contrast between corporate or mass media images and the realities or perceived negative side of the corporation or media. This is done symbolically, with the “detournement” of pop iconography.
• To renew civic engagement and social connectedness through shared radical ideas.
• To reawaken a sense of wonder and fascination about one’s surrounding environment, inspired by the frequent intentional ambiguity of a specific culture jamming technique, which stimulates personal interpretation and independent thinking.

An excerpt from Negativeland’s radio broadcast, Over the Edge, sheds more light on what is meant by culture jamming:

“The cultural jammer works his secret in public, the skillfully reworked billboard with new lettering painted in the same style that the original has, turning strategic corporate elements back on themselves in a manner which is itself, invisible, directs the public viewer to a consideration of the original corporate strategy in the context of a thoughtful reaction. The studio for the cultural jammer is the world at large, his tools are paid for by others, an art with real risk. You people still painting out there – all you crazy stonecutters: Would you go to jail for your art? Well?!”

For part I I’m going to focus on some of the more well known culture jammers on the internet.

Joey Skaggs

Joey Skaggs is considered one of the originators of Culture Jamming. He’s been hoaxing and pranking since 1966 when he created a 200lb sculture of a rotting skeleton with long human hair, a crown of thorns and a metal penis, crucified on a 10ft cross. Skaggs and his friends dragged the crucifix to the top of a barren knoll in Tompkins Square Park, NYC. There they were attacked by a group of offended onlookers and eventually confronted by police. He was summoned to court for violating City Park regulations and paid a fine.

Easter Sunday, 1967 Skaggs dragged the piece through the streets of New York City.

During the exhibition, the piece was taken down, broken, and placed into a 55 gallon trash can. Skaggs was told by NYU officials to go pick it up, that it had been removed. When he went to retrieve it, he was thrown down a flight of stairs by two NYU guards who were offended by the piece. Skaggs threatened a law suit. NYU had a hearing and apologized.

His pranks are usually nothing more than a press release. Often times the medial reports on them and, once the hoax is revealed, still don’t retract the story.

Some of his pranks through the years include a celebrity sperm bank, a campaign called WALK RIGHT! to enforce proper street walking etiquette, and a funeral/memorial theme park called The Final Curtain.

His website features numberous articles on his pranks, lectures and guides to culture jamming.

The Billboard Liberation Front

The Billboard Liberation Front is a west coast group dedicated to improving the billboard ads of fortune 500 companies. In addition to photographs of their exploits the website has the BLF Manifesto, a history of the BLF, and a manual for starting your own BLF group.

The Yes Men

The Yes Men are a group of guys engaged in ‘identity correction’ with the stated goal of:

Impersonating big-time criminals in order to publicly humiliate them. Targets are leaders and big corporations who put profits ahead of everything else.

The Yes Men have successfully impersonated the WTO on several occations. They were invited, as representatives of the WTO to the Certified Practicing Accountants Association of Australia. There they announced that the WTO has realized globalization has been detrimental to the ‘little guy’ and that the WTO would dissolve and relaunch as the Trade Regulation Organization, whose new goal would be to ensure corporations behave responsibly toward all world citizens. They were congratulated by the other attendents for doing the right thing.

In 2004 they got on BBC World News as a representative of Dow Chemical and made a public apology for the 1984 Bhopal India disaster and pledged to raise $12 billion for the victims. News anchors applauded the ethical change in tone “Dow” was taking.

Many more exploits are posted on their website.

Here’s an interview with the Yes Men on Bill Moyers Journal.

Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping

Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping is a NYC based group lead by Bill Talen. Bill created the character Reverend Billy to preach the evils of consumerism and advertising while “putting the odd back in God.”

One of their earlier exploits targeted the Disney Store in NYC. Performers in plain clothes entered the store one by one talking on non-functional cell phones. The imaginary conversations they had revolved around the misdeeds of the Disney corporation. Once a critical number of actors had infiltrated the store, enter Reverend Billy to preach to the real customers of the evils of Disney.

Other pranks and information on the group can be found at their website.

Improv Everywhere

Improv Everywhere doesn’t fit perfectly into culture jamming in that their pranks rarely, if ever, try to target the media or corporations so much as use public space to stage harmless pranks. They have successfully pulled off over 70 missions.

In one prank they had 80 actors enter a Best Buy store dressed in blue shirts and khaki pants. The actors were instructed to stand at the ends of isles and not to talk to anyone unless they were asked a question. They were supposed to help any customers as best they could when approached. If asked, the actors were to deny being an employee of the store. Best Buy did call the cops, but the authorities told store management that no laws were being broken and they could do nothing.

Other pranks include an actor posing as Anton Chekov at NYC bookstore doing a book reading and signing copies of The Cherry Orchard. An annual No Pants Day is held on the NYC subway where actors ride around without pants. If asked by other passengers why they have no pants, the actors are to respond that they forgot them.

Their website features write-ups of the pranks and, when available, video of the missions in action.

In 2005 they were interviewed by Ira Glass on This American Life. Listen to it here.