[aha] Networked Disruption (T_Bazz PhD Abstract)
T_Bazz
t_bazz a ecn.org
Ven 7 Ott 2011 16:50:37 CEST
Ciao!
vi invio l'abstract della mia PhD dissertation che ho consegnato a fine
agosto presso il Dipartimento di Information and Media Studies, Aarhus
University. Se tutto e' confermato la "difesa" sara' il 5 dicembre ad
Aarhus University (Danimarca).
Saluti da Berlin,
T_Bazz
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PhD Dissertation Abstract:
Networked Disruption
Rethinking Oppositions in Art, Hacktivism and the Business of Social
Networking
by Tatiana Bazzichelli
Objective:
The objective of this research is to rethink the meaning of critical and
oppositional practices in art, hacktivism and the business of social
networking. The aim is to analyse hacker and artistic practices through
business instead of in opposition to it. By identifying the emerging
contradictions within the current economical and political framework of
Web 2.0, my aim is to reflect on the status of activist and hacker
practices as well as those of artists in the new generation of social
media (or so called Web 2.0 technologies), analysing the interferences
between networking participation and disruptive business innovation.
Hypothesis:
My hypothesis is that mutual interferences between art, hacktivism and
the business of social networking have changed the meaning and contexts
of political and technological criticism. Hackers and artists have been
active agents in business innovation, while at the same time also
undermining business. After the emergence of Web 2.0, the critical
framework of art and hacktivism has shifted from developing strategies
of opposition to embarking on the art of disruption. Artists and hackers
use disruptive techniques of networking within the framework of social
media, opening up a critical perspective towards business to generate
unpredictable feedback and unexpected reactions; business enterprises
apply disruption as a form of innovation to create new markets and
network values, which are often just as unpredictable. Disruption
becomes a two-way strategy in networking contexts, a practice to
generate criticism, and a methodology to create business innovation.
Theoretical Background:
Adopting Fred Turner’s perspective of investigating the interferences
between business and radical culture through coexisting layers instead
of progressive cooptation, I developed the concept of the Art of
Disruptive Business as a possible model for deconstructing business
logic through the act of experiencing it from within. The concept of
disrupting business in social media sheds light on the practices of
artists, activists and hackers who are rethinking critical interventions
in the field of art and technology by deciding to act inside the market
scenario. Drawing on Walter Benjamin’s notion of the dialectical image,
I propose to adopt a dialectic approach in which the oppositions
coexist. Bypassing the classic power/contra-power dichotomy, the
dialectical opposition between business and its undermining therefore
shifts into a synergetic tension where one is part of the other, and
they mutually contribute to each other’s formation. Conscious that
nowadays contradictions and dichotomies are an inherent part of business
logic, the challenge lies in the exploration of symbolic dissolutions of
powers, where hackers and artists directly engage in such contradictions
and provoke unexpected consequences, which can be seen as an art form.
Building on the analysis of non-hegemonic practices and the logic of
affinity by Richard J. F. Day, I propose an analysis of practices that
challenge the notion of power and hegemony, and the battle for
dominance, generating distributed, decentralised and fluid networking
practices which act through the bugs inherent in economical systems.
Methodology:
The method is based on the reformulation of a research approach which
functions within the subject of research, rather than on the subject of
research. Adopting the montage method derived from Benjamin’s writing
style of Denkbilder (thought-images), decentralised and plural
viewpoints become part of theory and practice. The result is a
methodological constellation of networking practices, which I define as
ethnography of networks, which aims to actualise – and to question – the
notion of “fieldwork” itself. The theoretical viewpoint of this research
is closely connected with the act of being a direct part of the research
subject, creating a mutual exchange with the actors of the analysis
through conversations and interviews as well as participating in some of
the projects described here. To investigate the progressive
commercialisation of sharing and networking platforms, it is necessary
to understand business culture from within. My research develops through
the analysis of different conceptual nodes of a network, connecting
together disruptive practices of networked art and hacking in the
framework of a network economy. To sort through the various effects of
networking art and hacking in the business of social media, I examine
their development and influence on a cross-national scale. Case studies
cross space and time: hackers, activists and artists in California
(especially those in the Bay Area) are closely connected to those in Europe.
Case Studies:
The case studies analysed in this research are those based on the
concept of disruption rather than opposition. Artists and hackers adopt
viral and flexible strategies, as does contemporary networking business
by provoking contradictions, paradoxes and incongruities. I investigate
two different but related critical scenes: the art and technological
context in California and the European contexts of net culture, which
generate a constellation of projects created by hackers, artists,
networkers and entrepreneurs acting at the boundary between art,
business and social networking. This perspective binds together
different models of disruption in business contexts of social media and
artistic practices focused on networking, thereby adopting a disruptive
critical dimension. In particular, I analyse: the genesis and the
creation of several grassroots networks applying methodologies of
disruption (e.g. mail art, Neoism, The Church of the SubGenius, Luther
Blissett, Anonymous); the development of underground artistic and hacker
practices in California and its synergies with the business of social
networking (e.g. The Suicide Club, The Cacophony Society, Burning Man
Festival, NoiseBridge, Kink.com); projects highlighting the paradoxes
and limits of social media (e.g. Anna Adamolo, Seppukoo by Les Liens
Invisibles and Face to Facebook by Paolo Cirio and Alessandro Ludovico)
and decentralised techniques of networking based on peer production and
the distribution of productive assets (Venture communism by Dmytri
Kleiner and the Telekommunisten collective).
Conclusions:
What were once marginal practices of networking in underground hacker
and artistic contexts have in recent years become a core business for
many Web 2.0 companies. The increasing commercialisation of sharing and
networking contexts is transforming the meaning of art as well as that
of business. Artistic practices develop beyond the realms of artistic
institutions and some of them are transforming the meaning of business.
If business is adopting hacker and artistic strategies of disruption,
what is the answer of artists and hackers working within a critical
networking dimension?
Distributed, autonomous and decentralised networking practices of
disruption. become a means for rethinking oppositional hacktivist and
artistic strategies within the framework of art and business.
Department of Information and Media Studies, Aarhus University, 2011
Supervisor: Søren Pold, Associate Professor
Department of Information and Media Studies, Aarhus University.
Co-supervisor: Fred Turner, Associate Professor
Communication Department, Stanford University, California.
http://networkingart.eu/2011/09/bazzichell-phd-abstract/
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