7th – 10th November 2012
Facultat de Geografia i Història - Universitat de Barcelona
Wednesday 7/11/2012
Thursday 8/11/2012
Friday 9/11/2012
Saturday 10/11/2012
From the Deep Web to the City Streets: Hacking As a Political and Cultural Practice
PhD Candidate
Abstract
The era that started with the massive revelations of classified documents by Wikileaks, culminated in the Arab spring and has since caused multiple social and political vibrations, has revealed the potential of hacking as a revolutionary tool; from the complex world ofprogramming, it has risen to the surface as an everyday practice that is reawakening oursense of citizenship, gaining the force of a political and cultural phenomenon.
This paper traces the path from the formation of ‘information age ideologies’ to the emergence of hacking as a cultural practice. The idea of ‘hacking’ as a means of intervening in a space and questioning the established networks of distribution of information is reflected on contemporary culture, where the participation of the public in the creative act and the “remixing” of existing forms have become standard practices.
The concept of “cultural hacking” is substantiated through the works of artists that focus on hacking, hacktivism and piracy, either as acts that bring the artwork into existence or as ways of initiating the public into these practices. Moreover, it extends onto the urban space, in the emergence of street art, which questions the established rules of visibility and creates new nodes of meaning in the city.
Therefore, hacking becomes a catalyst for political events and a bridge between artworks that belong in different spheres –the virtual, the hybrid or the urban space. In a world where anyone can be a hacker, political and cultural change is only a matter of a few mouse-clicks.
