Technologies of Resistance - PhD Research
Technologies of Resistance: Transgression and Solidarity in Tactical Media
PhD Thesis by Miguel Afonso Caetano, Info at [email protected]
Description
Resulting from the convergence between media, technology, art and politics, tactical media are a set of cultural practices and a theoretical movement which started in Europe during the first half of the 90s, having spread to North America until the end of the millenium and, afterwards, to the rest of the world. Initially taking advantage of video camcorders but also, later, of digital technologies such as CD-ROMs and the Internet, the producer of this kind of media acknowledges himself as as a hybrid, performing simultaneously the role of an artist, activist, theorist and technician.
These subversive and/or creative uses of information and communication technologies by individuals who normally don't have access to them are characterized by experimentalism, ephemerality, flexibility, irony and amateurship. Based on the distinction between tactics and strategies developed by Michel de Certeau and continued by David Garcia and Geert Lovink, this dissertation examines the way tactical media present themselves as "media of crisis, critique and opposition". By applying a theoretical analysis of some collectives, we intend to demonstrate that the protest tactics of these media production forms represent a position of permanent struggle against a concrete and explicit opponent (nation-state, supranational institution or transnational corporation).
After addressing the dangers that this antagonist model of media as a weapon of resistance can lead to, we propose an alternative perspective of tactical media built on an empirical analysis of two brazilian projects, Metáfora and MetaReciclagem. Finally, we argue that these and other grassroots initiatives adapt the practices of subversion and resistance visible in the activist collectives of developed countries to the local settings of a peripheral country like Brazil. By fostering technological reappropriation for social transformation, these groups unleash the creative and communication capacities of these communities, towards their self-sustainability and autonomy.
Keywords: tactical media, strategies, media activism, alternative media, hacker, free software, technological reappropriation, recycling, Brazil.