[aha] Networked Disruption (PhD abstract)

[T_Bazz]

Ciao!

vi invio l'abstract della mia PhD dissertation che ho consegnato a fine 
agosto presso il Dipartimento di Information and Media Studies, Aarhus 
University. Se tutto e' confermato la "difesa" sara' il 5 dicembre ad 
Aarhus University (Danimarca).

Saluti da Berlin,
T_Bazz
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

PhD Dissertation Abstract:

Networked Disruption
Rethinking Oppositions in Art, Hacktivism and the Business of Social 
Networking
by Tatiana Bazzichelli

Objective:
The objective of this research is to rethink the meaning of critical and 
oppositional practices in art, hacktivism and the business of social 
networking. The aim is to analyse hacker and artistic practices through 
business instead of in opposition to it. By identifying the emerging 
contradictions within the current economical and political framework of 
Web 2.0, my aim is to reflect on the status of activist and hacker 
practices as well as those of artists in the new generation of social 
media (or so called Web 2.0 technologies), analysing the interferences 
between networking participation and disruptive business innovation.

Hypothesis:
My hypothesis is that mutual interferences between art, hacktivism and 
the business of social networking have changed the meaning and contexts 
of political and technological criticism. Hackers and artists have been 
active agents in business innovation, while at the same time also 
undermining business. After the emergence of Web 2.0, the critical 
framework of art and hacktivism has shifted from developing strategies 
of opposition to embarking on the art of disruption. Artists and hackers 
use disruptive techniques of networking within the framework of social 
media, opening up a critical perspective towards business to generate 
unpredictable feedback and unexpected reactions; business enterprises 
apply disruption as a form of innovation to create new markets and 
network values, which are often just as unpredictable. Disruption 
becomes a two-way strategy in networking contexts, a practice to 
generate criticism, and a methodology to create business innovation.

Theoretical Background:
Adopting Fred Turner’s perspective of investigating the interferences 
between business and radical culture through coexisting layers instead 
of progressive cooptation, I developed the concept of the Art of 
Disruptive Business as a possible model for deconstructing business 
logic through the act of experiencing it from within. The concept of 
disrupting business in social media sheds light on the practices of 
artists, activists and hackers who are rethinking critical interventions 
in the field of art and technology by deciding to act inside the market 
scenario. Drawing on Walter Benjamin’s notion of the dialectical image, 
I propose to adopt a dialectic approach in which the oppositions 
coexist. Bypassing the classic power/contra-power dichotomy, the 
dialectical opposition between business and its undermining therefore 
shifts into a synergetic tension where one is part of the other, and 
they mutually contribute to each other’s formation. Conscious that 
nowadays contradictions and dichotomies are an inherent part of business 
logic, the challenge lies in the exploration of symbolic dissolutions of 
powers, where hackers and artists directly engage in such contradictions 
and provoke unexpected consequences, which can be seen as an art form. 
Building on the analysis of non-hegemonic practices and the logic of 
affinity by Richard J. F. Day, I propose an analysis of practices that 
challenge the notion of power and hegemony, and the battle for 
dominance, generating distributed, decentralised and fluid networking 
practices which act through the bugs inherent in economical systems.

Methodology:
The method is based on the reformulation of a research approach which 
functions within the subject of research, rather than on the subject of 
research. Adopting the montage method derived from Benjamin’s writing 
style of Denkbilder (thought-images), decentralised and plural 
viewpoints become part of theory and practice. The result is a 
methodological constellation of networking practices, which I define as 
ethnography of networks, which aims to actualise – and to question – the 
notion of “fieldwork” itself. The theoretical viewpoint of this research 
is closely connected with the act of being a direct part of the research 
subject, creating a mutual exchange with the actors of the analysis 
through conversations and interviews as well as participating in some of 
the projects described here. To investigate the progressive 
commercialisation of sharing and networking platforms, it is necessary 
to understand business culture from within. My research develops through 
the analysis of different conceptual nodes of a network, connecting 
together disruptive practices of networked art and hacking in the 
framework of a network economy. To sort through the various effects of 
networking art and hacking in the business of social media, I examine 
their development and influence on a cross-national scale. Case studies 
cross space and time: hackers, activists and artists in California 
(especially those in the Bay Area) are closely connected to those in Europe.

Case Studies:
The case studies analysed in this research are those based on the 
concept of disruption rather than opposition. Artists and hackers adopt 
viral and flexible strategies, as does contemporary networking business 
by provoking contradictions, paradoxes and incongruities. I investigate 
two different but related critical scenes: the art and technological 
context in California and the European contexts of net culture, which 
generate a constellation of projects created by hackers, artists, 
networkers and entrepreneurs acting at the boundary between art, 
business and social networking. This perspective binds together 
different models of disruption in business contexts of social media and 
artistic practices focused on networking, thereby adopting a disruptive 
critical dimension. In particular, I analyse: the genesis and the 
creation of several grassroots networks applying methodologies of 
disruption (e.g. mail art, Neoism, The Church of the SubGenius, Luther 
Blissett, Anonymous); the development of underground artistic and hacker 
practices in California and its synergies with the business of social 
networking (e.g. The Suicide Club, The Cacophony Society, Burning Man 
Festival, NoiseBridge, Kink.com); projects highlighting the paradoxes 
and limits of social media (e.g. Anna Adamolo, Seppukoo by Les Liens 
Invisibles and Face to Facebook by Paolo Cirio and Alessandro Ludovico) 
and decentralised techniques of networking based on peer production and 
the distribution of productive assets (Venture communism by Dmytri 
Kleiner and the Telekommunisten collective).

Conclusions:
What were once marginal practices of networking in underground hacker 
and artistic contexts have in recent years become a core business for 
many Web 2.0 companies. The increasing commercialisation of sharing and 
networking contexts is transforming the meaning of art as well as that 
of business. Artistic practices develop beyond the realms of artistic 
institutions and some of them are transforming the meaning of business. 
If business is adopting hacker and artistic strategies of disruption, 
what is the answer of artists and hackers working within a critical 
networking dimension?
Distributed, autonomous and decentralised networking practices of 
disruption. become a means for rethinking oppositional hacktivist and 
artistic strategies within the framework of art and business.

Department of Information and Media Studies, Aarhus University, 2011

Supervisor: Søren Pold, Associate Professor
Department of Information and Media Studies, Aarhus University.

Co-supervisor: Fred Turner, Associate Professor
Communication Department, Stanford University, California.

http://networkingart.eu/2011/09/bazzichell-phd-abstract/