DAT201: essay summary, ponies, artefact ideas and how to make it all complete like magic

During my research on hacktivism and tactical media, I've noticed something that may seem quite out of the ordinary for a research topic, especially for the latter, but whilst I was exploring that area, I've found something very intriguing that boosted my research, and as a result, I've understood the culture of it a lot more, and became part of it at the same time. Now, in terms of tactical media, you'd not normally expect the presence of multi-coloured equines to appear in such form, even on a website that is arguably well known for its tactical media (4chan), and the memes that resulted from it, but since the 10th of October 2010, postings of pictures from the new animated TV series of the My Little Pony franchise, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, became commonplace.

This then resulted in one of the fastest-growing fandoms in the world, especially considering that the huge majority of fans, never before experienced in MLP's nearly 30-year old history, are male (female fans exist as well), and are mostly between the ages of 13 through to the 30s. The phenomenon even went as far as to spread worldwide in many forms of media, and outside of 4chan as well, as a result of a ban that resulted from a 'flame war' (since lifted) in early 2011. The birth of bronies (from a portmanteau of 'bro' and 'pony') has resulted in an increase in the usage of a form of tactical media, but rather than being used for a political cause (as many past examples show), it is being used to promote the TV series, and to recruit more people into the fandom.

An idea I had for an artefact was to produce a series of posters referencing MLP, but done in a subtle way like most forms of guerrilla communications, whilst another was to explore the possibilities of performing interventions in digital spaces. However, it then came to my mind that I wanted to actually take the research I've done in my essay, and transform it into a sort of 'cook book', or manual, to show brony digital artists on how to apply digital arts practices used in tactical media to promote the TV series, the fandom, and the mantra: "Love and Tolerance", which fits perfectly for not just the fandom, but also world problems as well, because in this world, there doesn't seem to be enough love and tolerance, given today's political and economic climate.

DAT203 - Infrastructure

In every city, there is an infrastructure - London has one, Birmingham has one, Manchester has one, even our own Plymouth has one as well. However, the infrastructure of Plymouth isn't as well developed as other competing cities around the UK, in fact, pretty much every major city in developed Europe. In today's lecture, we was shown many examples of urban infrastructure, both in fiction and reality, of which we were then introduced to our assignment, a joint project with Plymouth City Council.

The reason for Plymouth's slow development dates back to after World War 2, when the city was bombed by the Nazi Luftwaffe. The city had more bombs dropped on it than Coventry, and as a result, most of the city had to be rebuilt from the ground up. in 1943, Sir Patrick Abercrombie drew up a plan for redeveloping the city, and was then enacted after World War 2, with 20,000 new houses built by the 1960s, and a new Civic high-rise completed during that same period. 

The city was designed with the automobile in mind, which has resulted in an American-influenced infrastructure and architecture, which was typical of many American cities at the time. In addition, it was also fitting for Plymouth, as it was a city that has historical links with the Plymouth in the United States, of which the Pilgrim Fathers discovered, but following a trend of pedestrianisation in the 1980s and the 1990s, the main roads going through the city centre's main shopping districts were paved over, and this has resulted in an important piece of infrastructure being severed or severely curtailed. 

In addition, the ills of the existing transport infrastructure were then felt in the 2000s and the 2010s as other comparable cities were then becoming fully developed, and with the recovery from the global financial crisis still underway, this has now come more important than ever, with the airport now closed and better railway links being needed to help boost growth in city commerce and to increase the speed of redevelopment.

DAT201: Research Theme: Hacktivism and Tactical Media

For my readme (which is a communication of ideas for the artefact), I am researching the themes of Hacktivism and Tactical Media. Hacktivism and Tactical Media is, to an extent, a form of guerrilla communication, and has developed from previous forms, but takes it to a whole new level. The real definition of Hacktivism and Tactical Media varies according to source, but the many examples I've found from at least 3 sources included "media activism using traditional political work with technology" (A Virtual World is Possible. From Tactical Media to Digital Multitudes), "a method of engagement using re-engineering as creativity" (Digital Media and Technology), and a "critical form of interventionism" (Tactical Media).

Recently, many examples of hacktivist interventions have occurred. During the WikiLeaks saga, activists have taken to the digital platform to vent their anger against organisations that have severed ties with WikiLeaks following the publishing of sensitive US Government data. They used what is known as DDoS (Distributed Denial-of-Service) attacks, which uses deliberated connections to cause bandwidth overloads, which then drives the website offline. These types of interventions tend to have mostly democratic goals, to vent anger at governments, to send out a very strong message of disapproval, and to promote better democracy as well.

The term 'tactical media' was coined as recently as 1997, to describe a form of digital interventionism that, as the name suggests, uses tactics to deliver the message. Last year, in IDAT108, we was shown one example of 'tactical media' in a lecture, which came in the form of a manifesto/documentary film about the 'remix' culture, which involves recycling copyrighted media in a world where corporations are heavily fighting for tight control, and where copyright needs to be updated for the 21st century. The 2008 documentary RiP!: A Remix Manifsto explains the whole subject about the problems of copyright and how it has impacted on remix artists, as well as promoting the concept of open source, even going as far as promoting itself as being the 'world's first open source documentary'.

There is a link to both Hacktivism and Tactical Media. One hacktivist, Jaromil, pioneered the idea of linking the two. Jaromil, famous for one of the world's most elegant form of UNIX shell fork bomb, which consists of just 13 characters, created dyne.org, a website dedicated to promoting the freedom of expression using free software.

Sources:

• A Virtual World is Possible. From Tactical Media to Digital Multitudes - http://www.uoc.edu/artnodes/espai/eng/art/lovink_schneider0603/lovink_schneider0603.pdf - Lovink & Schneider (2003) 
• Tactical Media - http://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=0IyN2OKQzgQC&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=Hacktivism+and+Tactical+Media&ots=sVi2LcrnNF&sig=-MNyUDC4dAmDKax1Il2SU7FoFlU#v=onepage&q=Hacktivism%20and%20Tactical%20Media&f=false - Raley (2009) 
• The New Digital Media and Activist Networking within Anti–Corporate Globalization Movements - http://ann.sagepub.com/content/597/1/189.short - Juris (2005)
• Tactical Media and Hacktivism - http://jchasef.wordpress.com/2008/04/22/tactical-media-and-hacktivism/ - Digital Media and Technology - jchasef (2008) 
• RiP!: A Remix Manifsto - http://www.ripremix.com/- Gaylor (2008) 
• Dyne.org - http://jaromil.dyne.org/ - Jaromil