Tactical Media Performance
Buscar Justicia:
Justice Claims and the Poetics and Politics of the Search Engine.
Picket lines, murals, and net art are different tactics used to animate physical and digital spaces in regards to social claims. When socially motivated, these tactics are interventions in specific places to give visibility to labor-related issues, as in the case of picket lines, or to commemorate a specific event and site as in the case of murals.
The image that accompanies this text is an example of the ways in which contemporary artists and activists approach digital platforms not merely as means of communication but as sites of political intervention.
The image documents an online action organized by the art collective Sienvolando in June of 2002, six years after the assassination of the young picket liners Darío Santillán and Maximiliano Kosteki by the police. Santillán and Kosteki were members of an association grouping unemployed workers (the Movimiento de los Trabajadores Desocupados, MTD or Movement of Unemployed Workers). They were shot when participating in a picket that disrupted traffic on the bridge connecting the city of Buenos Aires and a working class area, the city of Avellaneda.
Mimicking the famous Google doodles, Sienvolando modified the search engine's logo, inserting drawn images of the murdered activists. The artists also intervened the logo, adding a location to Google: the sub-urban city of Avellaneda where the assassination took place. The double "o" that we find in the Google logo and that may evoke "eyes" in metonymical connection with the "search" function, is replaced by the image of Maxi and Darío, which alongside "Avellaneda" imply a particular point of view, a reference to an event that informs the purportedly objective retrieval of information. The search box is filled with the campaign slogan: "Maxi y Darío dignidad piquetera!" [Maxi and Darío picket liners' dignity!]
Now, the user:
The two clickable frames represent two options that will show different results: "Cajoneo del gobierno" which replaces the "search" function links to a list of more than a thousand cases of police brutality under democratic governments in Argentina which are still without legal resolution (the slang expression "cajonear" means "to keep inside a drawer," that is, to leave a case unattended); the frame on the left, which replaces the classic "I' m feeling lucky" option, conveys the users' active involvement in the case through the phrase "Voy a buscar justicia" [I am going to search for justice]. Clicking on this option, the user gains access to information about the legal process involving the policemen who shot the protestors in 2002.
This net art action was announced and replicated through several websites such as Indymedia and other activist organizations. The artists of Sienvolando invited supporters to paste on their sites the following code which would incorporate an image linked to the action:
<a href="http://buscarjusticia.linefeed.org/"><img id="dignidad piquetera" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="ir a la acción de arte en red exigiendo justicia para Dario Santillan y Maxi Kosteky" src="http://buscarjusticia.linefeed.org/banner_google_dario_santillan_maximiliano_kosteki_dignidad_piquetera.gif" border="0" /></a>
The Google action was also carried out in different non-digital sites such as a street wall, Sienvolando's art space, and people's tees.
The Google logo provided a strong imprint to the campaign for social justice.
Justice Claims and the Poetics and Politics of the Search Engine.
Picket lines, murals, and net art are different tactics used to animate physical and digital spaces in regards to social claims. When socially motivated, these tactics are interventions in specific places to give visibility to labor-related issues, as in the case of picket lines, or to commemorate a specific event and site as in the case of murals.
The image that accompanies this text is an example of the ways in which contemporary artists and activists approach digital platforms not merely as means of communication but as sites of political intervention.
The image documents an online action organized by the art collective Sienvolando in June of 2002, six years after the assassination of the young picket liners Darío Santillán and Maximiliano Kosteki by the police. Santillán and Kosteki were members of an association grouping unemployed workers (the Movimiento de los Trabajadores Desocupados, MTD or Movement of Unemployed Workers). They were shot when participating in a picket that disrupted traffic on the bridge connecting the city of Buenos Aires and a working class area, the city of Avellaneda.
Mimicking the famous Google doodles, Sienvolando modified the search engine's logo, inserting drawn images of the murdered activists. The artists also intervened the logo, adding a location to Google: the sub-urban city of Avellaneda where the assassination took place. The double "o" that we find in the Google logo and that may evoke "eyes" in metonymical connection with the "search" function, is replaced by the image of Maxi and Darío, which alongside "Avellaneda" imply a particular point of view, a reference to an event that informs the purportedly objective retrieval of information. The search box is filled with the campaign slogan: "Maxi y Darío dignidad piquetera!" [Maxi and Darío picket liners' dignity!]
Now, the user:
The two clickable frames represent two options that will show different results: "Cajoneo del gobierno" which replaces the "search" function links to a list of more than a thousand cases of police brutality under democratic governments in Argentina which are still without legal resolution (the slang expression "cajonear" means "to keep inside a drawer," that is, to leave a case unattended); the frame on the left, which replaces the classic "I' m feeling lucky" option, conveys the users' active involvement in the case through the phrase "Voy a buscar justicia" [I am going to search for justice]. Clicking on this option, the user gains access to information about the legal process involving the policemen who shot the protestors in 2002.
This net art action was announced and replicated through several websites such as Indymedia and other activist organizations. The artists of Sienvolando invited supporters to paste on their sites the following code which would incorporate an image linked to the action:
<a href="http://buscarjusticia.linefeed.org/"><img id="dignidad piquetera" style="CURSOR: hand" alt="ir a la acción de arte en red exigiendo justicia para Dario Santillan y Maxi Kosteky" src="http://buscarjusticia.linefeed.org/banner_google_dario_santillan_maximiliano_kosteki_dignidad_piquetera.gif" border="0" /></a>
The Google action was also carried out in different non-digital sites such as a street wall, Sienvolando's art space, and people's tees.
The Google logo provided a strong imprint to the campaign for social justice.
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