PROTEST & THE WEB (& ART)

[mpalmer at jps.net]

If you want to protest the government, put your body on the line. A mere webpage won't cut it.

There is no way to stage a viable protest on the web, short of some widely disapproved dispersal method such as spam. A webpage, whatever its content, must follow a standard commerce-driven "open door" policy which allows the customer the option of entering it or not, depending on whether he wishes to partake of the content contained therein. Because of its passive nature, a webpage thus only perpetuates the flow of capital without offering any kind of critical alternative. By contrast, the function of protest is to shake people out of their usual habits, to disrupt the flow of their lives, to challenge them to take a stand, to think. A protest offers a place to shout, to vent, to get active, to make noise. Indeed, if a protest isn't involved in some form of activity that provokes a response, good or bad, it is worthless.

This is not to say that a webpage doesn't have its positive uses, albeit at a modest level. It can serve to organize like-minded people from disparate parts of the world; it can serve as a forum for the debate of issues and the raising of money and awareness. But it will never be a medium of radical change, due to inherent structural limitations that confine it to a passive role within the context of capital.

>From this, one may conclude that the notion of political net art is an oxymoron, at least in its current state. Net art is and has always been apolitical at best, and reactionary without knowing it at worse.