Intervention – Sistema Operativo SO(S) Operating System

Se rumorea que… Centro de refugiados del pueblo gitano,…

11 enero, 201531 julio, 2023
por admin

Un rumor puede ser verdadero o falso. En cualquier caso, conforme
se extiende, opera en la imaginación pública y crea pautas de pensamiento
y de comportamiento. Se rumorea que… Centro de refugiados
del pueblo gitano es una intervención propuesta (aunque nunca realizada)
para el espacio urbano de la ciudad de Hull que continúa con el
duradero compromiso de Andújar con la población gitana en Europa
y contra la estigmatización xenófoba que encasilla a esta minoría
como «los otros». A través del concepto de rumor y «utilizando la
ciudad como medio», la intervención aspira a crear una imagen simulada
de una realidad diferente en la que la discriminación desenfrenada
hacia los gitanos se sustituye por la política abierta de «una
comunidad basada en la solidaridad». El rumor consistía en que se
estaba construyendo en Hull el mayor centro de refugiados para gitanos
de Europa. TTTP difundiría el rumor a través de los medios de
comunicación y una enorme valla publicitaria colocada en el espacio
urbano. El rumor era falso (una simulación) pero apuntaba a una
realidad existente en Hull y a una posibilidad igualmente existente
de cambiar esta realidad. Tal y como se dice en el material escrito
que debía acompañar la intervención, «la simulación crea emociones
a las que la realidad no llega». Además de las vallas publicitarias, la
intervención constaba de una serie de terminales de ordenador públicos
colocados en diferentes puntos de Hull, donde los ciudadanos
podían participar, contestando a un amplio cuestionario, en lo que
se presentaba como un proyecto de investigación social. El cuestionario,
un formato que TTTP utilizaba en diferentes proyectos en
aquel momento, se centraba en el racismo y en la percepción de «los
otros», en particular, los gitanos. La intervención, como tal, pretendía
hacer hincapié en la necesidad de reconocer a la minoría gitana
y permitirles integrarse en la sociedad sin tener que abandonar su
especificidad cultural.

English

Guernica. Spanish Pavilion 1937, 2014

11 enero, 2015
por admin

Over the past year Daniel G. Andújar has stolen one million email
addresses on the Internet. During the exhibition he will send the
same message to each of the addresses at a rate calculated to finish
the project by the end of the exhibition. Visitors to the exhibition
can follow the sending of the email on a small monitor in the
gallery space. The email message contains a private (i.e., unofficial)
photograph of the Spanish pavilion at the 1937 World’s Fair. Only a
few official photographs of the pavilion exist, and the private photograph
included in the email is not one of them. Andújar purchased
the photograph on eBay and then cropped the image to show only the
pavilion, thus making it his own work. By distributing this image,
he enables the global public to “visit” the pavilion and reflect on the
message of Guernica.

Guernica. 1/1.000.000 Spanish Pavilion 1937, 2014

English

Glossarĭum, 2014

11 enero, 2015
por admin

Unfiltered access to knowledge in the digital realm of the Internet
is merely an illusion. Every piece of information obtained online
has been processed by a machine and its algorithmic procedures.
Most people probably do not pay any attention to this filtering, but
even those who do have no way of understanding the logic behind
the procedures. The algorithm responsible for the filtering remains
hidden and obscure and therefore all the more powerful. Glossar˘ıum
points to one of the most widespread yet disguised of these filtering
machines: the Google search engine. By performing an image
search on words taken from Friedrich Engel’s discussions of science
from a Marxist standpoint in the unfinished manuscript Dialectics
of Nature (1883; first published 1925), Glossar˘ıum shows how Google
Search conceptualizes political concepts in misleading, strange, and
absurd ways. Moreover, the work gives visitors access to the actual
manuscript through images of the search embedded in a QR code.
The work thereby reverses the procedure and uses Google Search as a
visual interface to a discussion that is critical of authorities such as
Google Search. The work suggests that filtering can be appropriated
and used as a means of liberation rather than as a means of control.
The work is also accessible online at www.glossarium.danielandujar.org.

Intervention

Let’s democratise democracy, 2011

11 enero, 2015
por admin

Let’s Democratise Democracy is an ongoing work that TTTP has installed
at numerous sites around Europe, from Barcelona to Belgrade.
The basic element of the work is the eponymous slogan printed in
the local language, black print on a yellow background on posters
of varying sizes that are either hung in or carried around the urban
space as a site-specific performance. The politically loaded places
where the posters have been presented include the Ministry of Defense
in the city of Belgrade, which the forces of the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization bombed in 1999; Tito’s nuclear bunker in
Bosnia-Herzegovina; the production facility and residential area of
Uralmash in Yekaterinburg; and a refugee camp in Western Sahara
(as part of the 2012 ARTifariti festival of art and human rights,
which aimed to give visibility and voice to the Sahrawi people). In
one version of the work enacted in Barcelona, Murcia, and Alicante
on May 1, 2011 (International Workers’ Day) and May 21, 2011 (the
day before the general election), the message was communicated on
a banner attached to a small airplane flying along the coastline. The
airplane and banner, with cityscapes as a background, was filmed
from a second airplane, and people were encouraged to document
the banner’s route and upload material to an associated website; that
is, to participate in the creation of a collective work.
Just as Johnny Cash swore he would wear black “as long as there
are people suffering,” TTTP will continue to enact Let’s Democratise
Democracy as long as the principles of constitutional democracy are
being compromised by those in power. The work thus serves as a reminder
that a nominal democracy is no real democracy and that the
process of democratization is continuous and should involve the people,
not just the politicians.

English

e-projects, 2001

11 enero, 2015
por admin

Representative democracy arguably has an inbuilt mechanism that
works against its very foundation. The common understanding of
a well-functioning democracy is based on discussions and negotiations
among different political parties. However, if one group of parties
in agreement reaches absolute majority in the parliament, they
do not have to discuss or negotiate anything. Such coalitions can
simply pass any law they want without including parties that might
disagree with their proposals. Such was the political situation in the
region of Valencia around the year 2001, and one area where this
situation manifested itself most significantly was the cultural arena.
Spectacular projects were commissioned to promote the region—
including to its own citizens—and to create the idea that the region
was thriving and on the forefront of the new experience economy. In
reality these projects were the products of scams, nepotism, and bad
judgment and caused huge deficits. e-valencia.org was a response to
the situation; it took the form of an online platform that encouraged
and allowed the public to discuss the cultural politics of the region.
Moreover, the identities of the contributors were automatically deleted
from the server the moment their comments were posted, making
it impossible for authorities to identify the contributors. The local
public was thereby empowered with the means to openly discuss cultural
politics without fear of persecution. The solution was radical,
but when democracy is not democratic, alternative methods need to
be applied to secure it. TTTP would later produce similar platforms
for Madrid, Seville, and Barcelona, and e-valencia.org was featured
in an issue of the magazine Mono edited by Daniel G. Andújar.

English

Access To Technology is a Human Right ™, 1996

11 enero, 2015
por admin

The stickers all read, “Access to Technology Is a Human Right.” TTTP
launched this radical statement in 1996 and has used it as guiding
principle ever since. Neither money nor power but simply being a
human being entitles you to have access to technology. Referencing
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ratified by the United
Nations in 1949, the slogan implies that technology is as important
as, for instance, water for human survival in contemporary society.
People in the Western world commonly understand that everyone has
access to technology. However, large numbers of people remain without
adequate technology to actively participate in society. Therefore,
as stated in the documentation for Street Access Machine, TTTP is
“aimed at people in the so-called Third World as well as the homeless,
orphaned, expatriated or unemployed, at fringe groups, runaways,
immigrants, alcoholics, drug addicts, people suffering from
mental dysfunctions and any other categories of ‘undesirables,’ at
all those without social ties and unable to find a safe place to live,
at all those who have to beg in order to survive.” The statement reflects
the political understanding of technological society promoted
and engaged with by TTTP and makes explicit the company’s commitment
to challenge the power structures that haunt this society.

English

It is rumored that … Roma Refugees Centre, 1999

11 enero, 2015
por admin

A rumor may be true, or it may be false. In either case, as it spreads,
it works on the public imagination and creates patterns of thinking
and behavior. It Is Rumored That … Roma Refugees Centre is a proposed
(but unrealized) intervention in the urban space of Hull, England,
that continues Daniel G. Andújar’s long-running involvement with
the Gypsy population in Europe and the xenophobic stigmatization
of this minority as “the others.” By means of the concept of the
rumor and by “using the City as media,” the intervention aimed to
create a simulated image of a different reality in which the rampant
discrimination of Gypsies is replaced by the open-minded politics of
“a solidarity-based community.” The rumor in question was that the
largest refugee center for Gypsies in Europe was going to be built
in Hull. TTTP distributed the rumor through the media and on a
huge billboard placed in the urban environment. The rumor was false
—a simulation—but nevertheless pointed to an actual reality in Hull
and to the equally actual possibility of changing this reality. The written
material that was supposed to accompany the intervention states,
“simulation creates emotions that reality does not reach.” Besides
the billboards the intervention consisted of a number of public computer
terminals placed around the city. Citizens could use them to
answer an extensive questionnaire for what was presented as a social
research project. The questionnaire, a format TTTP used in several
projects at the time, focused on racism and the perception of “others,”
especially Gypsies. As such, the intervention emphasized the need to
recognize the Gypsy minority and allow them to be integrated into
society without having to abandon their cultural specificity.

English

Soy Gitano, 1992

11 enero, 2015
por admin

Soy Gitano was an intervention in the public space of Valencia that
followed Daniel G. Andújar’s involvement with the Gypsy population
over a period of three years, including writing regularly for
the Gypsy newspaper. On a small poster, article 14 of the Spanish
Constitution is superimposed on a red-tinted photograph of a young
Gypsy boy. Article 14 reads, “Spaniards are equal before the law,
without any discrimination for reasons of birth, race, sex, religion,
opinion, or any other personal or social condition or circumstance.”
However, the text as printed on the poster is not in Spanish but has
been translated into Caló—the language spoken by Gypsies all over
Europe—thus making the Gypsies both the true senders and receivers
of the message. Tellingly, since Caló is spoken only by Gypsies
and is not recognized as an official language in Spain, its use in the
poster caused confusion, leading some local politicians to believe
the intervention was Basque propaganda. In addition to the posters,
the intervention consisted of do-it-yourself stickers with the text of
article 14, also in Caló. The intervention serves both as a reminder
of ideals written down in the constitution but all too often forgotten
in everyday life and a declaration of identification with the Gypsies
as part of Spain. Furthermore, the intervention revisits a specific
chapter of Spanish history; namely, the several hundred years following
the expulsion of the Jews and Muslims by a Christian king,
a time when Gypsies were the only minority in the country. They
arrived in Spain in the fifteenth century, strongly influencing the musical
culture as well as serving as a workforce for the king. However,
they were continuously persecuted, and in the middle of the eighteenth
century most Gypsies were arrested and imprisoned. In that
way Soy Gitano points both to the long tradition of xenophobic sentiment
and politics that followed the rule of Christianity and to the
anticonstitutionality of that tradition in the present day.

English

Estamos vigilando—We are watching, 1992

11 enero, 2015
por admin

Urban space is a system, and like most systems of contemporary society
it is programmed according to political protocols of order and rationalization.
Furthermore, urban space is programmed according to
commercial protocols that work to transform citizens into consumers.
But like any system, urban space can be hacked and reprogrammed
according to otherwise unruly logics of critical and creative practice.
On multiple levels, even. The intervention of The Low Tide Group on
the beach of San Sebastian is an example of such a practice. By writing
giant slogans in the sand, the intervention subversively rediscovered
the banned activity of advertising on the beach. The point was
not to sell products, however, but to encourage the public to reflect
on the very protocols that control urban space. One slogan in particular
captures the concept of the intervention: “WE ARE WATCHING.”
The slogan mimics Big Brother’s omnipresent message to the public
in George Orwell’s novel 1984 (1948). Only this time, the public is
watching the system. As such, the slogan mirrors a vigilant public
that in the tradition of civil disobedience challenges the system rather
than passively accepts it. The slogan was not only written in the beach
sand but distributed around the urban space in the form of stickers
placed on lampposts, doors, signs, windows, and so on. The point of
the tactic was clear: The watching public is everywhere. Some years
later TTTP would produce a series of merchandise with the related
slogan “Watch the Watchers.” The relevance of being vigilant has
only increased dramatically since the beach slogans were washed out
by the high tide. At a time when our activities in urban space—in real
life as well as online—are not only being watched but stolen and sold,
we have all the more reason to mistrust the system of watchers and
keep an eye on its every move. Eventually, this is the hope expressed
by TTTP at least, watching the watchers will empower the public to
change the workings of the system toward more openness.

English

Anarchists and Hackers, 2000

11 enero, 2015
por admin

Many of the technologies that form the core of today’s IT products were
invented in the 1960s and 1970s by the hacker community. Despite
this legacy, hackers have been continually stigmatized as criminals
and, in several cases, have been imprisoned. However, in hacker jargon,
the term hacking refers to a creative approach to cultural products
and problems, whereas exploiting the hack for personal gain at
the expense of others is cracking and is condemned by the ethical
rules of hacker culture. The material that constitutes the installation
Anarchists and Hackers is testimony to this creative approach, its historical
context, and political significance. The installation displays
twenty-two “recipes” from the infamous The Anarchist Cookbook (1971),
written by a nineteen-year-old William Powell, along with twenty-two
file cards describing equally infamous computer viruses and instructions
on how to explore digital devices and networks. A bible of the
counterculture in the United States and the anti–Vietnam War protest
movement, The Anarchist Cookbook is a do-it-yourself manual containing
recipes for the production of “rebellious” things such as explosives,
drugs, and counterfeit money, as well as phone phreaking and
free radio. The viruses and instructions show how hacking develops
the do-it-yourself spirit of the The Anarchist Cookbook in the context
of contemporary digital society, from hacking Geocities websites and
Windows 95 to sending fake emails and intercepting cellular phone
conversations. The politically ambiguous material in the files raises
questions of security and vulnerability, making the audience aware
of how control exists and can be exercised in the digital society. At the
same time, the material demonstrates how hacking can challenge
the established power structures behind that control. As such, it emphasizes
hacking as a politically loaded form of creativity that, with
an advanced and inventive technological literacy, opposes existing
power structures in the name of common empowerment.
When Anarchists and Hackers was first shown, the notorious “i love
you” and “Melissa” computer viruses were spreading and causing
fear, even panic, among the public. The viruses, although they were
the work of just a few naive and malignant individuals, fueled misconception
of the hacker community as an underground culture that
should be made illegal and fought. Anarchists and Hackers is an attempt
to correct this misconception and demonstrate the creative forces of
hacking as a progressive and necessary cultural practice.

Categoría: <span>Intervention</span>