tactical media tactical media is a term coined in 1996 to denote a form of media activism that privileges temporary hitandrun interventions in the media sphere over the creation of permanent and alternative media outlets tactical media describes interventionist media art practices that engage and critique the dominant political and economic order they were first popularized in europe and the united states by media theorists and practitioners such as david garcia geert lovink joanne richardson and the critical art ensemble since then it has been used to describe the practices of a vast array of art and activist groups such as rtmark the yes men electronic disturbance theater carbon defense league institute for applied autonomy 0100101110101101org bureau of inverse technology ubermorgen the illuminator irationalorg subrosa and iod among others roots although tactical media borrows from a number of artistic and political movements it has been suggested that much of its techniques are rooted in the situationist idea of detournement that is in the critical appropriation and transformation of a preexisting workbe it an artwork a commercial billboard or a political campaign in the case of tactical media it is the media themselves to be the subject of a detournement the dada movement has also been credited as an influence on tactical media the two often used within activist campaigns much like it tactical media often aims to do the opposite of the media it penetrates it shocks and reveals an antithesis tactical media also draws from surrealism borrowing the idea that a truer experience than the present one is present much like surrealism tactical media also criticizes social political and cultural elements of a given society through its domains techniques as for mediarelated roots tactical media partly stem from the alternative media created by the counterculture of the 1960s however due do their temporary nature tactical media do not tend to construct alternative media outlets but rather appropriate existing media channels and technology to transform their usage andor the popular understanding of their messages in this respect tactical media are more akin to other temporary forms of cultural and political intervention such as guerrilla communication and culture jamming origins tactical media is said to have risen following the fall of the berlin wall where a certain rebirth of social political economical and media activism occurred this activist spirit soon reached both media specialists and artists creating the groundwork of tactical media in many ways it was made possible by the availability of cheaper technology and by open forms of distribution such as publicaccess television and the internet through tactical media participants are able to attract attention to an issue they feel strongly about and want society to be aware of or get involved in most who have written about tactical media would agree that its current form and meaning come from french philosopher michel de certeau more specifically in his 1984 essay the practice of everyday life as part of this essay de certeau debated that consumers actually act as producers within our society moving in a technocratically constructed space and using an already established vocabulary the importance to de certeau is that these practices determines the elements used but not the phrasing produced by the bricolage the artisanlike inventiveness and the discursiveness that combine these elements which are all in general circulation this distinction between the elements used within a society and the system under which they are used is critical to the study of tactical media in his essay de certeau appeared to suggest that one could easily use these social elements in a creative manner that would fall outside of the system under which they are to be used once this distinction was made de certeau also pushed forward the idea of how the elements found within a society could be used one of these was to use them as a tactic which he believed to due to its lack of space he also characterized a tactic to be dependent on time needing to be constantly on the watch for opportunities that must be quickly seized or needing to manipulate events in order to turn them into opportunities by mixing the nature of tactics with the use of media a new type of activism was created it used elements of a particular system in a creative manner that fell outside its practices creating resistance through difference de certeaus concept of a tactic also explains why most tactical media campaigns are quick effective and current however successful a particular campaign or a particular group may be its ultimate goal is not to replace a certain media outlet for tactical media discourages branding264 although it is possible for tactical media to be representative of the local views of a specific area it is usually present on a global level there are plenty of tactical media projects that operate on a physical space but it most often uses networked space and the internet making its span stretch over the entire planet the virtual nature of the space it occupies also allows it to create new channels towards the hierarchies of power it fights against a certain tactic does not need to attack in person or on a physical level but it can attack virtual and free space where the dominant have little control this important element makes a tactical media project not the work of certain identifiable individuals but an entity in itself which most likely helps convey the message it attempts to communicate examples tactical media projects are often a mix between art and activism which explains why many of its roots can be traced to various art movements it has been suggested by tactical media theorist geert lovink that discourse plus art equals spectacle reflecting its striking and memorable nature although there are no strict mediums through which it operates tactical media can often have very high aesthetic value adding to its spectacle and reinforcing some of its artistic roots gwbushcom in 1998 computer programmer and political activist zack exley purchased a domain and created a website titled gwbushcom114 he invited the group rtmark pronounced art mark to build a copy of george w bushs official website as they had done for some corporate websites later zack exley changed the website to be a more mainstream satire drawing criticism from rtmark117 this phenomenon can be classified as tactical media because of its conformance to its corresponding criteria tactical air force in 2000 mexicos zapatista army of national liberation social movement decided to launch a tactical air force the zapatistas air force consisted of hundreds of paper airplanes after throwing the planes over the fence of a federal barrack confused troops were quick to point their rifles at the paper intruders creating an image that conveyed a very strong message of peace versus warthe target ultimately being the government124 the yes men the yes men the yes men are an organization who mimic their subject through certain media examples include counterfeiting sites and creating fake videos they will mimic their criticized subject designed to fool the general public into believing their alternate identity examples of organizations and corporations that the yes men have successfully impersonated and criticized are dow chemicals exxonmobil mcdonalds world trade organization us department of housing and urban development hud the new york times and heritage all of the yes mens media operate in a similar fashion they will impersonate a powerful entity and publicize or make decisions based on their own personal viewpoint one of the most controversial but widely known works that the yes men have produced is a humorous video spoof where they impersonated a world trade organization representative asking corporations to buy votes directly from the general public some other ideas that they publicized in this video spoof include the presentday influence dating from the civil war encouraging the idea of reviving slavery these video spoofs are meant to evoke emotions of outrage and absurdity they were once successful enough to fool the public to the extent where they were able to be interviewed by cnnhowever cnn was unaware of the true identity of the yes men an example of yes men impersonating a dow chemical spokesperson revolution islam in april 2010 a radical islamic group revolution muslim made threats to south park creators matt stone and trey parker after they were offended of the show depicting their prophet mohammed this website was intended to draw visitors who incorrectly typed in the url to the islamic website this tactic was aiming to mock islamic radicals who use violent tactics to get their way and then get offended that they are stereotyped as violent rip a remix manifesto rip a remix manifesto brett gaylor an avid web activist created a documentary entitled rip a remix manifesto which was dedicated to defending deejay girl talk who had been accused by top record labels with copyright infringement although girl talk samples songs from other artists gaylor suggests that copyrights should be distributed according to the creator of the music as a whole rather than who holds the ownership for specific songs moreover he argues that girl talk should be the owner of the mashups that he created despite ownership conflicts this represents tactical media well because an ordinary person with a mindset can create a temporary power of reversal with girl talks adversaries in video games video games have opened a whole new approach and canvas for tactical media artists this form of media allows for a wide range of audiences to be informed on a specific issue or idea some examples of games that touch on tactical media are darfur is dying and september 12 another examples of tactical media within video games is the mcdonalds game the author of this game takes power away from the executive officers of mcdonalds and gives it back to the public by informing then through rhetoric on how mcdonalds does its business and what means they use to accomplish it chris crawfords balance of the planet made in 1990 is another example of tactical media in which the game describes environmental issues artists krzysztof wodiczko best known for his homeless vehicle project wodiczko designed a sleeping quarters for the homeless using a device that resembled a shopping cart and inside was a designed sleeping area he dispersed the vehicles to homeless people around new york city envisioning a goal that raised homelessness awareness new york city officials confiscated the vehicles so the message would not further spread guillermo gmezpea and coco fusco best known for couple in a cage performances where people pretending to be extinct natives are displayed in a caged area in public this work of art is intended to challenge the idea of preconceptions that many hold regarding other cultures nao bustamante bustamante performs art that challenges stereotypes and constructions of identity bringing attention to issues about personal classification and character she is a strong proponent of individualism and personal growth the only entity capable of forging an identity being the person him or herself allan kaprow kaprows work attempts to integrate art and life through happenings the separation between life art artist and audience becomes vague and open to interpretation the happening allows the artist to experiment with human senses deploying the involvement of sight sound and smell key elements of happenings are planned but occasionally artists retain room for improvisation michael mandiberg mandiberg produces websites and firefox plugins that provide information about environmental aspects of our world such as the cost of oil his plugins reshape and modify the displayed information on other websites to display an alarming point how much it costs us oil standards michel de certeau de certeau helped invent the idea and methodology that is tactical media and stressed the important roles of consumers vs producers in society david garcia geert lovink geert lovink is a very influential person lovink in a sense believes the idea of tactical media has been greatly miscued and that what this idea and title once stood for has been misinterpreted and drawn off course by falsified groups and causes that claim the title of tactical media graham meikle rita raley in 2009 rita raley associate professor of english at uc santa barbara authored a book titled tactical media the yes men the yes men are an activist duo who perform identity correction in which they pose as representatives of large corporations and fake moral actions in contrast to the actual ideology of such groups using mass media outlets the duo draw attention to corporate crime and often create situations in which corporations must publicly acknowledge their lack of responsibility towards disastrous events daniel garca andjar technologies to the people andujar turns free and opensource software into a progressive tool to reprogram the use and understanding of computers as well as social culture at large xdevian and the reprogramming of free software culture the art of hacking or communication guerrilla as artistic practice with new media comparisons it has often been compared to culture jamming as both use many of the same techniques in an attempt to occupy the public space controlled by mass media where the two practices differ is in their way to obtain this public space while culture jamming consists of a response to the dominant practices within it tactical media uses the dominant practices in order to penetrate it and become part of it dont hate the media become the media as coined by jello biafra spoken word artist and lead singer songwriter of the dead kennedys119 versus strategic media tactical media is described as the rebellious userexamples of media tacticians include hackers street rappers or an innocent bystander filming an incident an important factor in tactical media is the idea of ground level work meaning that a power struggle exists ordinary people who do not possess status or capital utilize technology to create a temporary reversal of power certain aspects that strengthen the magnitude of tactical media can include crisis criticism critique or absurdityin order to convey a social message tactical medias counterpart is strategic media a common analogy used to describe this phenomenon is an overseer controlling the masses they are people who are the supplier of information examples include producers authors and educators they promote ideas that typically only benefit them whereas tactical media tends to broadcast a message that criticizes a powerful entity such as a corporation or strong organization there is some debate that tactical media resembles a strategy more than a tactic121 criticism although a crucial element of tactical media states that ordinary citizens of society are performing the criticism some say that even everyday people may have skewed intentions or opinions that do not represent the societal ideals as a whole much of the tactical media projects are fueled by information warfare and has also been accused to be closely linked to propaganda the high value of aesthetics placed within a project is said to be the element that enables the transfer of this information parallel to how propaganda functions organizations creative activism an open undergraduate study group exploring tactical media critical art ensemble doeat group institute for applied autonomy memerider media team memefest international festival of radical communication next 5 minutes preemptive media an organization that existed from 2002 to 2008 rtmark subrosa telestreet the yes men tactical media files this website creates a space for viewing and storing information past and present of examples and demonstrations of tactical media janefinchcom critical art ensemble institute for applied autonomy hactivist next 5 minutes memefest festival of socially responsive communication and art mdia ttica brasil shoot an iraqi tracking transcience the abc of tactical media google art or how to hack google tactical media nyu detournement of virtual presence of 2016 slovak presidency of the council of european union media justice electronic civil disobedience vteguerrilla theatre and derivationsderivations guerrilla theatre 1965 semiological guerrilla 1967 spaguerilla 1967 guerrilla television 1971 people puppets incorporated 197172 invisible theater 1974 guerrilla marketing 1984 culture jamming 1985 tactical media 1996 flash mob 2003 groups san francisco mime troupe 1959 diggers 1966 yippies 1967 precursors theatre of situations 1947 situationist prank 1958 theoreticians edward bernays 18911995 jeanpaul sartre 19051980 guy debord 19311994 umberto eco 19322016 jay conrad levinson 1933 abbie hoffman 19361989 peter coyote 1941 emmett grogan 19431978 paul ryan 1943 michael shamberg 1945 mark dery 1959 