Swap Meet: Meta-thoughts on Tactical Media

At the February anti-war demonstrations we realised how the language of protest does not differ much from the 60's or 80's and is of a very different register than the sophisticated commercial images surrounding us. What has changed is the way signs and slogans refer to earlier protests, or are build on/from other slogans worldwide. Plus the concious re-invention of old slogans ["liever een irakees in de keuken dan een bom op irak"].

This classic campaign from the Civil rights Movement we returned to because it is an impressive examples of how banners communicate the many individual voices that make up a mass.

...this one taken in Amsterdam, 2003

The French design group Ne Pas Plier talked at some point about developing tools for keeping the memory of demonstrations. They documented demonstrations against unemployment, and reprinted the photographs on large banners. Protestors than carried these on the demonstrations following, as powerful signs of issues still unsolved, litterally carrying their own accumulating history of struggle.

I have to say that I am quite smitten with the slogan:

It won't change the world but it's something to do while you figure out how to!

Seems to encapsulate the kind of inadequacy I often feel when responding certain political situations.

And yes, I can imagine how crazy things have become in Australia because this kind of xenophobic knee-jerk reaction is happening across the board. I absolutely think your 'gizmos' would find resonance outside of Australia.

I was thinking about the Aids Memorial Quilt and the kind of time and effort that has been put into it. In an age of digital speed where time is the equivalent of capital, its interesting to think about the power of such a slow activity as quilting.

It may be an 'old' tactical tradition but quilting is certainly an effective means of preserving marginal histories, and in this case, visualising loss.

here's more about the Aids Memorial Quilt

In 2001 the City Council of Rotterdam was already starting to be obsessed with the same 1950's conservative 'reveil' that is currently spreading over The Netherlands like an infectuous disease. What to think of the following campaign:

Text: Turk... or your neighbour? / Moslim... or your neighbour?
Pay-off: How are you dealing with your environment?

The fact that the series was meant to better 'stadsetiquette' [so called 'city etiquette'] of Rotterdammers makes it even more insulting.
Public money is spent on these kind of campaigns, but is anyone thinking about what public this is for, what these kinds of representations are supposed to make us think?

see 'More' for the official press release [in Dutch]