Culture jamming

Culture Jamming is the act of using existing media to comment on that very media itself, using the original media's communication method. It is based on the idea that advertising is little more than propaganda for established interests, and that there is little escape from this propaganda in industrialized nations. Culture jamming differs from artistic appropriation (which is done for art's sake), and from vandalism where destruction or defacement is the primary goal.

Culture jamming is a form of activism and a resistance movement to the hegemony of popular culture, based on the ideas of "guerrilla communication" and the "detournement" of popular icons and ideas. It has roots in the German concept of spass guerilla, and the Situationist International. Forms of culture jamming include adbusting, performance art, graffiti art and hacktivism (notably cyber squatting).

Examples of Culture Jamming:

Billboard modifications, done in the style of the original billboard.

Negativland's Dispepsi album, in which recordings related in some way to soft drinks are used to comment (in a negative way) on the beverage industry and its marketing practices.

The appropriation of corporate logos for evangelical purposes. Christian groups have appropriated the 'Cover The Earth' logo of the Sherwin-Williams paint company, and modified the Coca-Cola trademark to read, 'Jesus, he's the real thing.'

See also: KLF.

External Links

• Sniggle.Net, The Idiosyntactix Culture Jammers' Encyclopedia

Some culture jammers include

• Adbusters
• People Like Us,
• Deportation Alliance,
• The Yes Men,
• The Publixtheatre,
  
• Mao Dada,
• D.SEC, and
• Negativland.
• Idiosyntactix