Performances Draw from the Past
While keeping up with new technologies and media, current practices of political art and activism cite previous traditions of protest and art making.
For example, the virtual sit-ins organized by the Electronic Disturbance Theater (EDT) evoke several symbolic practices in order to create a scenario of collective presence on the Internet. First, as the name "virtual sit-in" makes clear, EDT builds on the notion of pacific protest known as "sit-in." The group also aligns with the tradition of Civil Disobedience called forth by Henry David Thoreau by naming their actions "Electronic Civil Disobedience." Moreover, implicit in the name of the group, there is an association with another system of meaning-making: Theater. In this regard, EDT mentions the influence of Brazilian theater practitioner Augusto Boal and Luis Valdez's Teatro Campesino alongside Bertolt Brecht's notion of gestus.
Another example of performances that cite previous repertoires of symbolic behavior is the in-bank protest Vacationing at the Bank by the Wakstein family. The family announced their event sending emails to the main newspapers in Buenos Aires. In these emails, the Waksteins presented their deployment of beach chairs in the bank as an escrache, a practice of public shaming that is carried out by the human rights organization H.I.J.O.S (the children of the disappeared).
Although the participants of the Debtor's Revolt in YouTube may not know of the Argentinean escraches, their public ousting of Bank of America's unfair credit card fees mobilizes a similar tactic of exposing a fact that many people may not be aware of.
For example, the virtual sit-ins organized by the Electronic Disturbance Theater (EDT) evoke several symbolic practices in order to create a scenario of collective presence on the Internet. First, as the name "virtual sit-in" makes clear, EDT builds on the notion of pacific protest known as "sit-in." The group also aligns with the tradition of Civil Disobedience called forth by Henry David Thoreau by naming their actions "Electronic Civil Disobedience." Moreover, implicit in the name of the group, there is an association with another system of meaning-making: Theater. In this regard, EDT mentions the influence of Brazilian theater practitioner Augusto Boal and Luis Valdez's Teatro Campesino alongside Bertolt Brecht's notion of gestus.
Another example of performances that cite previous repertoires of symbolic behavior is the in-bank protest Vacationing at the Bank by the Wakstein family. The family announced their event sending emails to the main newspapers in Buenos Aires. In these emails, the Waksteins presented their deployment of beach chairs in the bank as an escrache, a practice of public shaming that is carried out by the human rights organization H.I.J.O.S (the children of the disappeared).
Although the participants of the Debtor's Revolt in YouTube may not know of the Argentinean escraches, their public ousting of Bank of America's unfair credit card fees mobilizes a similar tactic of exposing a fact that many people may not be aware of.
| Previous page on path | Hemispheric Digital Constellations, page 3 of 5 | Next page on path |
Discussion of "Performances Draw from the Past"
Add your voice to this discussion.
Checking your signed in status ...