Occupy and UK Uncut: the evolution of activism 

Occupy Sandy gained the attention denied to Occupy Our Homes because it replaced militant Occupy! with "do-it-yourself" Occupy. Feel-good mutual aid displaced attention from the underlying contradiction between public housing and private utilities onto the quick fix of digital media. Occupy Our Homes, on the other hand, confronts the system with its failures ? predatory lending, homelessness, and empty bank-owned houses. The problems it addresses can't be solved by rolling up our sleeves and getting involved; they require political solutions.

• urban intervention,
• activism,
• precarity,
• street protest,
• austerity,
• occupy

Tompkin Square Riot Memories 

What follows are personal accounts from various people who were present on that fateful night in Tompkins Square on August 6, 1988. They observed and experienced firsthand the bloodlust of the marauding cops invading our neighborhood from all over the city. Twenty years later, these memories are still fresh in the minds of those who were there, as though it all happened just yesterday....

• gentrification

Streaming Networks 

We've had the camcorder revolution. It made making videoprograms cheaper. Audio-equipment is affordable, so radiomaking is possible for a large amount of people too. So for a long time already the masses are potential mediaproducers. There were only minor successes in accessing the broadcast channels both legally and illegally. But the efficient one-to-many distribution system (radio and tv) are chocked, regulated, hard to get access to. The Internet having the capacity for streaming media seems to promise new possibilities. Boundless access, for anyone making radio, and maybe in the near future TV. Some are pessimistic, and see these channels soon closed and regulated as well. What will this streaming media look like and who will be streaming?

Tactical Media Futures 

A conversation between the Electronic Disturbance Theater & Ian Alan Paul

Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center
مركز خليل السكاكيني الثقافي
Wednesday, March 22nd, 6:30pm
Khalil Sakakini Str. Al Masyoon, Ramallah, Palestine
Wednesday, March 22nd, 6:30pm

• art,
• Palestine,
• middle east,
• performance,
• hacktivism

Thursday November 17th International Day of Action 

Facebook Event | Twitter #N17 | Direct Action Resources

On Thursday November 17th, the two month anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement, we call upon the 99% to participate in a national day of direct action and celebration!

• urban intervention,
• precarity,
• street protest,
• occupy

Anonymous Declaration of Freedom 

"Since its inception, the internet has provided new ways for people all over the world to exercise the rights of free speech, freedom of the press and freedom of assembly. These rights are not simply the benefits of a free society--they are the very means of preserving that society's freedom."

• info-activism,
• wikileaks,
• anonymous,
• censorship

UK Uncut 

UK Uncut is a grassroots movement taking action to highlight alternatives to the government's spending cuts.

• urban intervention,
• activism,
• precarity,
• austerity

Special "Merseyside editions" of The S*n appear in Liverpool newsagents: The Truth - We Lied 

A spoof edition of The S*n tabloid newspaper has started to appear at Liverpool news agents, following the Sun's refusal to mention the Hillsborough inquest verdicts on its front page, and the infamous 'The Truth' front page on April 19, 1989, containing false accusations towards Liverpool fans. In parallel a nation wide campaign has started refusing free World Cup promotion editions of The Sun across the UK.

• activism,
• spoof,
• culture jamming,
• news

The Days of the Commune 

a work in progress in solidarity with OWS -  live and online

Citizens join us!
Every Saturday and Sunday from 11am to 1.30pm, March through May, we come to Liberty Square (Zuccotti Park) to work on The Days of the Commune, a play by Bert Brecht. Each scene in the play denotes one day. Each day is documented and posted on our website thedaysofthecommune.com

• street protest,
• occupy,
• theatre

The antidemocratic makeover of the cultural scene in Hungary 

Recent legislative steps in Hungary point towards  the authoritarian transformation of the  institutional structures and funding system of  cultural life, by giving an ultra conservative  artist group close to the rightwing government,  the Hungarian Academy of Arts, an unassailable  position of power. As a result of these  decisions, the government has endangered the long  term autonomy, professionalism and democratic  procedures of Hungarian contemporary art.

• politics,
• art,
• propaganda

Indymedia: It's time to move on 

Indymedia is the name given to a particular network with a rather uneven global reach, to which many hundreds of local independent media projects, mostly web-based, have been affiliated at one time or another. It is also the name for a particular approach to news media - one that attempts to avoid hierarchal production and hence promote grassroots reports on events.

• grassroot journalism,
• diy media,
• independent media,
• media criticism,
• participatory media,
• news

 VakuumTV

VakuumTV was founded in February 1994 on the initiative of László Kistamás. Its members presented weekly broadcasts on Monday nights at the most popular cultural club in Budapest, Tilos az Á.

• tactical media,
• tactical television

 Eyebeam

Art + Technology Center, New York City.

Carbon Defense League

Carbon Defense League (CDL) is a collective of media artists, technologists, activists and critical theorists working to explore the intersection between radical theory, traditional activism, and technology subversion through the creation of tactical media projects utilizing communication system technologies. The collective began in Pittsburgh, PA in 1997 and now has international membership with concentrations in areas including Michigan, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Spain, Australia, Amsterdam, and the United Kingdom.

Utopian Promises-Net Realities 

The need for net criticism certainly is a matter of overwhelming urgency. While a number of critics have approached the new world of computerized communications with a healthy amount of skepticism, their message has been lost in the noise and spectacle of corporate hype-the unstoppable tidal wave of seduction has enveloped so many in its dynamic utopian beauty that little time for careful reflection is left. Indeed, a glimpse of a possibility for a better future may be contained in the new techno-apparatus, and perhaps it is best to acknowledge these possibilities here in the beginning, since Critical Art Ensemble (CAE) has no desire to take the position of the neoluddites who believe that the techno-apparatus should be rejected outright, if not destroyed. To be sure, computerized communications offer the possibility for the enhanced storage, retrieval, and exchange of information for those who have access to the necessary hardware, software, and technical skills. In turn, this increases the possibility for greater access to vital information, faster exchange of information, enhanced distribution of information, and cross cultural artistic and critical collaborations. The potential humanitarian benefits of electronic systems are undeniable; however, CAE questions whether the electronic apparatus is being used for these purposes in the representative case, much as we question the political policies which guide the net's development and accessibility.

• art,
• network cultures,
• net.activism,
• net criticism

Tactical Media Room 

Duration: 19 Apr 2022 - 30 Dec 2022

The Tactical Media Room (TMR) is an initiative of Waag Futurelab and Institute for Network Cultures (HvA), founded in late February 2022 after the Russian invasion in Ukraine. In collaboration with hackers, artists, designers and researchers in The Netherlands, TMR aims to support independent tactical media, journalists, newsrooms and civic initiatives from Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus.

• campaign,
• war,
• infopolitics,
• info-activism