Every so often in the world of Re:Generator a subject will get brought up through one form or another that has yet to have gotten the proper attention of a certain snarky online publication. One such thing was recently brought to my attention after I came across a post on The New York Times’ The Moment blog: culture jamming.
I’m sure it comes to no surprise that there are some members of the Re:Generator staff that are indeed culture jammers. I know. It’s quite a shock to the system. However, it is also an interesting fact that many individuals in this advertisement-obsessed nation do not know what culture jamming is. Even the world’s source of cumulative knowledge says that “a precise definition… is elusive.” I hope to shed some light on this “elusive” counterculture of culture jamming.
No one is able to give a full definition of culture jamming because it is always evolving and represents something much larger than any one person can even imagine. It represents the fight against popular culture at large. This includes, but is not limited to, an adverse stance to advertising, corporations, fashion, media, politics, family life, art and etiquette. Nearly any “normal” social activity or everyday thing can be the subject of culture jamming.
It is a revolution. A society that lashes out at all societies, even its own.
Since the only story I know for sure is my own, I shall start there and continue forward.
My first experience with culture jamming was when I picked up one of the first issues of Adbusters, thinking to myself “Oh my, what a wonderfully insightful, political, and artistic manuscript.” After
purchasing and reading a few of their installments, the thing in my head clicked and I realized that I probably shouldn’t be buying these magazines. And because I have such a horrible time stealing things, I would sit in whatever major book store chain that I was limited to in my suburban hell hole of a valley, and would read the zine cover to cover, careful to take down notes of various websites and whatnot. And of course I would read it online, but it always seems so much more satisfying to hold printed words in my hands. After this initial introduction I came to the realization that I had always been a culture jammer.
I appreciate the Freeway Blogging that would catch the eyes of thousands of commuters – the commuters that have been silenced for so long in their solitary confinement, moving from home, to car, to cubical, to car, to home. I marvel at the effective use of images from the Wooster Collective and individuals such as the infamous Banksy. As I walked down the streets of Los Angeles or Seattle, I knew the differences between the tags, the bombs, the throw ups, and the pieces that were worth more than the fines that the perpetrators had to pay off. And I know the importance of rogue and guerrilla operations such as Negativland that shatter any idea of censorship or misrepresentation, and have gone out of their way to represent the art rather than the money behind it.
Culture jamming could be as simple as blacking out the logos on your shoes and clothing, or as extreme as the Billboard Liberation Front. But no matter what the means of jamming, the message is all the same. You must take back the rights of the individuals from the individual corporations. Culture jamming really is the biggest show of patriotism. What is more patriotic than standing up for the rights that our nation’s forefathers died for?
