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[ PMLA theories and methodologies

Electronic Civil Disobedience: Inventing the We see that a certain revolutionary type is not possible, but at the same Future of Online time we comprehend that another revolutionary type becomes possible, not through a certain form of class struggle, but rather through a molecular rev- Agitprop Theater olution, which not only sets in motion social classes and individuals, but also a machinic and semiotic revolution. —Félix Guattari (qtd. in Raunig) #$%&#'( '()$*+,-. We follow the speed of dreams. —Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos, !e Speed of Dreams (2007)

CRITICAL ART ENSEMBLE STAGED THE THEORY OF ELECTRONIC CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE (ECD) AS A GAMBLE AGAINST A FORM OF THE ALL-

too- present future of “dead capital,” otherwise known as late capital. In our 1994 book !e Electronic Disturbance, Critical Art Ensemble argued that dead capital was being constituted as an electronic com- modity form in constant !ow (11). Capital had been, was, and would continue to be reensembling itself, as the contemporary elite moved from centralized urban areas to decentralized and deterritorialized cyberspace (13). For Critical Art Ensemble, it was clear that cyber- space, as it was called then, was the next stage of struggle. "e activist reply to this change was to teleport the system of trespass and block- age that was historically anchored to civil disobedience to this new phase of economic !ows in the age of networks: “As in civil disobedi- ence, primary tactics in electronic civil disobedience are trespass and RICARDO DOMINGUEZ is an associate pro- blockage. Exits, entrances, conduits, and other key spaces must be oc- fessor at the University of California, San cupied by the contestational force in order to bring pressure on legiti- Diego, in the visual arts department; a mized institutions engaged in unethical or criminal actions” (Critical Hellman Fellow; and a principal investiga- Art Ensemble, Electronic Civil Disobedience 18). As we imagined it in tor at the California Institute for Telecom- the early 1990s, electronic disturbance was the core gesture that could munications and Information Technology (CALIT2). His recent project on nanotech- initiate a new “performative matrix” (Electronic Disturbance 57). nology, Nanosférica, which he created with However, the conditions for this perfomative matrix came not *particle group*, will be presented in the from digital networks but from Chiapas, the southernmost state of online journal E-misférica in fall 2009. Mexico and the site of the Zapatista uprising on 1 January 1994. "e

/012 [ © 3114 56 78- )('-#* 9&*+,&+- &::(%$&7$(* (; &)-#$%& ] /3A.B ] Ricardo Dominguez  theories uprising contested the implementation of to send an automated reload request every the North American Free Trade Agreement seven seconds to Zedillo’s page. Reports from (NAFTA), a signature economic structure of participants and our observations con

neoliberal globalization. It also happened to that the more than ten thousand participants methodologies and be the moment when Web- browser technol- in this first FloodNet action intermittently ogy was www.gb.mx/human_ rights,” the FloodNet is On 22 December 1997 forty-

them all visible to that infrastructure as an paradigm that we have established—as trans- over!ow of “not found” con

market and information in Mexico under and the public good. . . . Civil disobedience is a public act which the dissenter believes to be NAFTA at the time of the Zapatista uprising. justihacktivism in of a DoS attack may vary, it generally consists of the concerted, malevolent e?orts of a per- the information age.” Similarly, Dr. Dorothy E. son or persons to prevent an Internet site or Denning of Georgetown University stated service from functioning eGciently or at all, in her testimony before the Committee on temporarily or indeprotests code between machines but about a new form and physical sit- ins, not as acts of violence or of social contestation that appeals to existing terrorism. "is is an important distinction. laws that de

cally, the airline had su?ered economic losses people have been deported from Germany methodologies and every year from the mid- 1990s to today. Luf- from the campaign, while other Internet us- ers had been prevented from using Lu@hansa’s thansa, Europe’s second- biggest airline, was web site. "e online demonstration was found readily allowing German state authorities to to be a threat of an appreciable harm as de- use its global !ight network to help carry out protest that day, and grounded by the German activists; for them, the Lu@hansa Web site went oIine. As a re- ECD action was not about the law and tech- sult, Lu@hansa ended its deportation business nology but about the law and the inhuman with the German government (“Stop”). condition of the migrants who were being On 14 June 2005 the activist Andreas- killed by the hyperviolence of the lawless law "omas Vogel went on trial in a lower court of deportation: As the Libertad! spokesperson in Frankfurt. Vogel had registered the domain Hans- Peter Kartenberg puts it, “Although it name “libertad.de,” a site where the call for is virtual in nature, the Internet is still a real the Lu@hansa action had been published in public space. Wherever dirty deals go down, 2001. Vogel was prosecuted in a high- security protests also have to be possible” (“Higher Re- courtroom normally used for terrorist trials: gional Court”). For Libertad! activists, as for EDT, ECD uses technology as an ampli

since no one has been exempt from “the state event—like a new Pearl Harbor” (Donnelly). of exception” since 9/11 (Agamben). "e neoconservatives also hoped to deploy an expansion of internal controls of the masses in the United States: “free speech zones” that were Postmedia Swarms after 9/11 holding pens far away from the power brokers, 9/11 has been constructed as an ontological uncontrolled surveillance of United States citi- event that rede

and methodologies of political realism for both war and security, who seemed other (soon to be pro

an event zone where history bifurcated into a emy combatants”), and the making of anyone bad end and a terrible restart. On that day the who was not with the “Osama bin Bush” re- neoconservative “end of history” narrative gime invisible to the dominant media. theories became the future- present Operation Infi- Activists, artists, artivists, hacktivists, nite War, all under the signs of speed and the and international civil society soon discov- media simultaneity that radiated from the at- ered what the new normal would mean to tack on the World Trade Center towers. How the alter- globalization movement during the did activists, artists, and agitprop performers World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting on respond to this cultural shi@? I would argue 31 January 2002—only four months after that these new postmedia formations had an- 9/11—which usually met in Davos, Switzer- ticipated the shi@ long before 9/11.K "us, we land, and instead met in New York City to have been able to continue developing the lan- demonstrate that “virtual capitalism” was guage of civil disobedience that combines “so- not shutting down but only revving up for the cial netwar” and “tactical frivolity” (Critchley next good war. EDT chose to march across 124), erasing the subvertising or destroying ads in urban areas or city

not just to stop the Internet access of the most transportation systems. Nevertheless artivists engage methodologies and powerful individuals representing the richest in di?erent media like the internet not only for actions nations on our planet but to show once more which could be described as hacktivism” (“Artivist”). that the WEF’s transnational economic vision 4. The independent forms of communicative agency that have emerged over the past years in free radios, me- for the last <@y years was faulty at all levels. diactivism, telestreet, subvertising, and so on express and EDT’s disturbance of the semantic prison preArtivism developed in .com. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 July 2009.  Electronic Civil Disobedience: Inventing the Future of Online Agitprop Theater [ PMLA

Raunig, Gerald. “Molecular Revolutions and Transversal Stalbaum, Brett. “"e Zapatista Tactical FloodNet.” Elec- Art Projects.” 16 BeaverEvents: Saturday 01.12.08—Ger- tronic Civil Disobedience. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 July 2009. ald Raunig—Art and Revolution—01.12.08, 7:00 PM. “Stop Deportation Business: Online- Demonstration 16 Beaver Group, n.d. Web. 30 July 2009. against Lufthansa.” Campaign against Sanctions on Rawls, John. “Civil Disobedience and the Social Con- Iraq. N.p., 6 June 2001. Web. 14 July 2009. tract.” Morality and Moral Controversies. Ed. John Videcoq, Emmanuel, and Bernard Prince. “Félix Guattari Arthur. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice, 1996. et les agencements post- média (L’expérience de Radio 354–85. Print. Tomate et du Minitel Alter).” Multitudes: Revue po li- Ronfeldt, David, et al. The Zapatista Social Netwar in tique, artistique, philosophique 21 (2005): n. pag. Web. and methodologies

Mexico. Santa Monica: Rand, 1998. Print. 14 July 2009. En glish abstract. theories