Meg Howie 09085963 222.

381 VCD Studies Assignment 2 Contemporary Cave Paintings

Occupy Wall Street is a leaderless resistance movement with people of many colors, genders and political persuasions. The one thing we all have in common is that We Are The 99% that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1%. (http://occupywallst.org/, 2011).

The visual communications, strategies and organisation of the Occupy protest movements encapsulate the shifts in Western culture from postmodernism to a new contemporary space. The late nineteen fifties through to the mid nineties saw the rise of advanced consumerism, to the point where social, cultural, economic and political spheres were entirely dominated by corporate capitalism (Klein, 1999). When dominant culture reached this point, alternative tendencies started to emerge, which very recently have entered mainstream culture (Williams, 1977). The last decade has seen a shake up of the production and distribution of culture, information, and therefore power. This new participatory culture has evolved alongside what has been termed 'critical realism', a move away from relativism towards a reasoned truth.

The Occupy movements can be viewed as a synecdoche of this contemporary space because the protests arose from the same roots as the culture shifts: an anger at the intrusion of corporate interests into politics and the inequality within society caused by this. The movement was particularly antagonised by the 'bail outs' of banks and financial companies after the 2010 global financial crisis (Occupy Together, n.d.). Started by the anti-corporate activist group Adbusters on September 17th 2011, their website states We vow to end the monied corruption of our democracy (A Shift in Revolutionary Tactics, 2011). Taking inspiration from the tactics of the Arab Spring uprisings and 2011 occupations of public spaces in Spain, the Wall St occupation involved an encampment in Zuccotti park, the centre of New York's financial district, and many protest marches and rallies around the area (Dobnik, 2011). The occupation quickly spread, reaching 951 cities in 82 countries (Rogers, 2011) all of which used the slogan We are the 99% in reference to inequal distribution of wealth and resources in societies. Almost all of the physical occupations have been closed down by councils or disbanded, but the movement continues online and through regular meetings and protest marches (Gupta, 2012).

Figure One. Adbusters. (2004). Hummer Spoof Advertisement.

Figure One is a spoof advertisement produced by Adbusters in 2004. Unlike the Occupy movements, it is an example of anti corporate activism that is typical of postmodern style and philosophy. From the mid nineteen eighties, brands focussed on marketing their product's sign value rather than its actual features and benefits (Klein, 1999). The format of this advertisement and other unadulterated Hummer adverts demonstrates this approach; Hummer's slogan is Like nothing else, an emotive positioning line, and the car is shown in a hero, low angle photograph to emphasize its size and solidity. This spoof is 'culture jamming', the advert is in its original format but the copy has been replaced a with subversive alternative, referencing the lives lost in power struggles over oil. Co-founder of Adbusters Kalle Lasn stated that our media saturated postmodern world, where all communication flows in one direction, from the powerful to the powerless, produces a population of lumpen spectators (1999, p. 418). This image is a response to this world view, an attempt to provoke guilt through subversion of the original. The limitations of protest in this form are that it critiques without offering opportunities for further action. This spoof interrupts the one way flow of information from producer to consumer, but still reinforces the concept that wider audiences are spectators, looking without being active in the message making process. Klein wrote about corporations at this time that we lack the mechanisms to make them answer to the broader public a position I am defining as postmodern (1999, xxi). However, although Hummer's advertising still looks similar to this today (minus the satire), new tendencies in visual culture have emerged alongside postmodernism, and are at a point now where they are beginning to replace postmodernism's dominance in Western culture.

In contrast to Figure One, the Occupy movement contains many examples of communications that have moved beyond the postmodern. Figure Two is a poster from the website Occuprint, shown with the data it is displayed with online. It is calling people to action in both its message and its medium. All of the hundreds of 'posters' on the site are on an Opensource license, meaning people visiting the site are able (and encouraged) to download, print and distribute them. Submissions for the posters are open, and are curated in order not to produce a unified aesthetic, but to magnify the diversity within this movement. (Occuprint Curatorial Statement, 2011). Visually, the poster references modernist propaganda posters in its imperative use of rhetoric, formal elements and symbolism. The colour and high contrast image are used for maximum impact, and the Guy Fawkes mask
FigFigure Two. Fahmi Reza. (2011). Don't just complain, occupy. Opensource PDF document.

and Cuban Military beret are symbols of revolution and anarchy. Compared with Figure One, this poster also reveals a major philosophical shift. Rather than

guilt tripping lumpen spectators (Lasn, 1999), the poster calls for action with a new optimism. (Lopez and Potter, 2000). The combination of this optimism for change with technology created what has given the Occupy movement its momentum: participatory culture.

Figure Three. Occupy Posters & Fahmi Reza. (2011). Don't just occupy, make demands. Opensource PDF document.

Figure Four. Occupy Design. (2011). Screenshot of Occupy Design website header. Website element.

Figure Three is a literal extension of these ideas. It is a poster from the website Occupy Design and it critically completes the original design (Occupy Design, n.d.). Stylistically, pastiche and appropriation (as seen in Figure One) are typical of postmodernity (Jameson, 1983) but in this design they have been recast; the culture here is one of sharing rather than appropriation. This is one of the first social movements in history able to produce high-quality imagery using digital graphic design tools, and distribute them instantaneously anywhere in the world using file-sharing and social media (Occupy Design, About, n.d.). The website (header Figure Four) also offers a 'designer's toolkit' free download of basic infographics that can be used to create posters, so the website is as much an example of participatory culture as the posters on it. It can be argued that in the contemporary era there is no distinct aesthetic style (in the manner of postmodern ambiguity or modernist minimalism) but that the way visuals are owned, shared and co-created is what distinguishes them from the postmodern. This application of technology is indicative of a wider shift within society, where democratisation of production and distribution is occurring. Power to

make and share messages resided almost entirely with corporations in the postmodern era, as commercial interests controlled mass media. (Jenkins 2006, Klein, 1999). Now participatory culture contrasts with older notions of passive media spectatorship, instead of a divide between author and consumer things are collectively designed, uploaded, rehashed and distributed (Jenkins, 2006, p.3). While this freedom of access to resources and production technology has caused intellectual copyright issues, its manifestation in sites like Occuprint or Occupy Design shows the potential participatory culture has to create change.

Despite the general lack of branding of the Occupy movement, it has followed many of the strategies that are regarded as current best practice marketing. Pine and Gilmore's definition of a transformational offering requires sustained involvement over time, direct person to person communication, and an offering driven by the involvement of the consumer (1999). By its nature occupation requires involvement over time, the building of a community around the movement and direct involvement from participants. The rhetoric of change and empowerment is also integral to protests.

These websites and the movement as a whole also speak to the emergent rhetoric of authenticity. One strategy of the Occupy movement has been to avoid branding; there is a feeling that one logo could not be inclusive enough for the diversity of the movement (Heller, 2011). In addition, they have avoided sponsorship from brands, donors are thanked but not glorified and politicians must donate anonymously (Solidarity Vs. Sponsorship, 2011). This relates to the rhetoric of authenticity that has appeared in Western marketing. The increasing reach of commercialism into every aspect of life has left people longing for less contrived encounters (Pine and Gilmore, 2007, pp. 10). The Occupy movement is uniquely contemporary in this respect because it has deliberately let a visual identity for itself grow organically. While websites such as Occupy Design offer resources, they co exist with others like Occuprint; there is no 'official' one that takes precedence over the others, and anyone can contribute. This is what has made the movement such a success, with so much of life a designed experience now, the willingness to let people express themselves has resonated around the world. The lack of a defined brand extended to the protest's slogans: with the exception of we are the 99%, demands were many and varied. While the movement's effectiveness was criticised because of this lack of specificity (Harris 2012, Dewey, 2011) the agency of the individual in message making enhanced the movement's authenticity. Lasn speaks of a feeling that the spectacle had kidnapped our real lives, co-opting whatever authenticity we once

had (1999, p. 487). Occupy's refusal to allow the commercial sphere into the protest has prevented it from being co-opted by these interests, and this marks the beginning of the end of the postmodern supremacy of capitalism.

Figure Five. Invisible Children Inc. (2012). Kony 2012 action kit. Photograph

A public awareness campaign that contrasts with Occupy is Invisible Children Inc's Kony 2012 campaign, which targets the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda. This has a carefully designed brand, and while posters were again available for download, additions or reinventions were not encouraged. Figure Four is the 'Action Kit' available for sale on the website, the visual language draws from US political campaigns, using symbols and colour in the same way as Figure Two. While the Kony 2012 campaign took off strongly, with 50 million views of their video within four days of its launch (Inside Story, 2012), it received widespread criticism for being ambiguous about its agenda and oversimplifying the issues presented (Schomerus on Inside Story, 2012). While stylistically similar, the difference between the Occupy and Kony posters lies in the hierarchy of image production. One was designed and redesigned by members of the group, then used by others within the movement. The Kony poster was 'professionally' designed and then broadcast to the public. Pine and Gilmore suggest authenticity is automatically achieved when people can define and even create their own offerings (2007 pp.13) which Kony 2012 fails to facilitate. I would argue that the lack of authenticity in the movement is a large weakness. Figure Five, a student rally, evokes a vision of a pre-packaged message being swallowed by the public

unquestioningly, which contrasts directly with Occupy's communal creation of visuals, messages and actions. It can be argued that Kony 2012 is a mixture of residual postmodern and contemporary tactics. The way in which Kony was successful was in 'going viral', the rapid spread of the video around the world, and this was due to its use of social media like Youtube, Facebook and Twitter. This social sharing of information is a contemporary phenomena (Jenkins, 2006), a strategy it has in common with Occupy. However, the message that was being spread was designed to be unaltered as it travelled, essentially a one way dialogue, particularly lacking in Ugandan voices. This was where the claims of brainwashing and manipulation were made, and this was Kony 2012's stumbling block.

Figure Six. The Guardian. (2012). A crowd of young people wearing Kony shirts. Photograph.

Figure Seven. Adbusters. (2012). Screenshot of Adbusters website homepage. Webpage.

Figure Seven is the current home screen on the Adbuster's website. In contrast to the Hummer spoof, this example is firmly positioned in the contemporary. It illustrates convergence culture and critical realism. Adbusters are a global network of culture jammers and creatives working to change the way information flows, the way corporations wield power, and the way meaning is produced in our society (Adbusters, n.d.). The layout of the website itself is an example of how this is occurring. On one side is a live action stream of tweets about the Occupy movement feeding directly from Twitter, unmoderated, from anyone who tweets with tag #ows. Underneath are a list of links to 'Get Involved', and on the left are highlighted articles from a variety of media, from The New Yorker to Al Jeezera. The highlighted article is about Anonymous, an internet based group of activists who have been instrumental in the Occupy movements (Captain, 2011). The website is therefore a convergence point for many platforms of information, allowing direct feedback into the conversation from anyone. This is a demonstration of convergence joining with participatory culture, information flows through different media and platforms, being edited and contributed to at every stage. The value of this dissemination of media is the way that grassroots and corporate media intersect (Jenkins, 2006, pp. 2). The use of social networks like Facebook and Twitter for political purposes demonstrates a politicising of the social and the inventiveness with which people are using technologies, and social networks now have as valid a place in political message making as mainstream media.

The movement's organisational structure follows the example set by technological convergence. There is no Occupy HQ, no one webpage, group or person that is the official international Occupy leader. The movement is organised around the anarchist concept of horizontal participation and swarm politics (Bennett, 2011). This relates holistically to the movement, from the way the each website is arranged as a piece of a larger network, to the running of the movement through General Assemblies where there are facilitators but no leaders.

The website and the movement as a whole also demonstrate a major philosophical shift away from postmodern relativism towards critical realism. In postmodernity, the universal, didactic world view of the modernists was replaced by the belief that there are many socially constructed truths, all of which have validity (Weedon, 1999, Lopez and Potter, 2000). While this was important in terms of acknowledging marginalised world views, it has been seen as detrimental to large scale social protest because it is so divisive (Weedon 1999, Caldwell, 2003). Solidarity forms the basis for political action (Elam in Weedon, 1999, p.111) and this is part of the reason that the Adbuster's

spoof takes a negative stance rather than a positive call for action, the cultural paradigm was not in the right space. In saying this, Adbusters did run campaigns like Buy Nothing Day in the nineties, the difference is the impact these campaigns have had, the cultural soil was not fertile for change. Now however, there is a single world again, the concept of objective truth has returned, although now Descartes' rationalism has been moderated by the postmodern understanding of idealogical distortion (Caldwell, 2003, Lopez and Potter, 2000). Critical realism is not then about unquestioningly following science and technology, but using considered reasoning to arrive at a solution.

Figure Eight. (1997). Screenshot of MAI-Not! campaign homepage. Webpage

The Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) was an agreement drafted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that was withdrawn in 1998 after an international anti globalisation campaign opposing it. The agreement essentially gave multinational corporations the right to sue governments if they enforced regulations that restricted profits, whether the regulations protected the environment, worker rights or other national interests. (Varney and Martin, 2000, MAI, Not Now, Not Ever, 1998). Figure Seven is a website from a Canadian Anti-MAI group - the 1998 equivalent of Adbuster's home page, and it is an interesting question as to whether this fits into postmodern or contemporary tendencies. MAI opponents made heavy use of electronic mail and the World Wide Web in raising the alert, sharing information and coordinating actions. They worked collaboratively, flexibly and imaginatively towards their goals while MNCs and governments were working secretively and within more traditional hierarchical models. (Varney and Martin, 2000, p. 1) From this description of the campaign, it is clear that this is where the roots of participatory and convergence culture lie. The challenge to the deceptiveness of the governments and multinational

corporations progressed to today's demand for authenticity. The campaign was very much based on a critical realist position because it demanded to know the rational benefits of the MAI. Essentially, these factors qualify this webpage and campaign as an early manifestation of the contemporary period, although without the technological sophistication to create two way dialogues, or application of information design to make engaging webpages.

The evolution of critical realism from a philosophy into a style has led to a new functionalism. In the postmodern period, 'style' was largely reserved for expression. Information design, or user interface design, were mostly ignored by mainstream designers, hence the layout of the webpage above. In contrast, the Adbusters website has been carefully engineered for engaging and easily navigable use. There is a rational hierarchy as the viewer scrolls down the page, large eye catching images and limited use of accent colours. This functionalism is a throwback to modernist rationalism, a reaction against the chaos of the expressive postmodern style. It also suggests a new value placed in the role of design, we are drinking from a fire hose of information (Natan Linder, personal communication, Karl Kane, 29th May 2012) and design's role is to make it digestible. It is evident in Occupy Design's choice to provide infographics: We believe that regardless of background or politics, 99% of the nation can truly agree upon the injustice demonstrated by a clear communication of facts and statistics in a well-designed way (2011). This kind of statement shows a clear departure from relativism, a return to science as truth is a key part of critical realism (Caldwell, 2003, Lopez and Potter, 2000). The fact that a participatory, convergent approach successfully created a global protest movement makes it self evident that there is a return to feeling that there are some objective truths, that notions like injustice can be applied universally.

Figure Nine. Occupy Wellington NZ & Facebook. (2011). Screenshot of the Occupy Wellington NZ Facebook group. Webpage.

From the Adbusters website it takes only four clicks to get to the Occupy Wellington Facebook page. This demonstrates the contemporary position of the global citizen, as well as the return of the local. The power of the Occupy movement is that it has created solidarity across the world while giving people a platform to express local concerns. For example the profile picture on this page is a placard for a protest against the proposed partial sale of NZ assets. The style used is similar to the Occuprint poster designed for New York by Malaysian Fahmi Reza in Figure Two, but here it links the Occupy Wellington movement to the Asset Sales protest. This social interconnectedness is a fusion of technology and philosophy; the networks and knowledge sharing are made possible by the internet, but the desire to join together came from the critical realist perspective of shared injustice.

The visual products, strategies and organisation of the Occupy movements are definitive of the contemporary era, demonstrating major shifts in cultural formation, philosophy and style. They encapsulate the movement away from the postmodern rule of corporate capitalism; culture is now collectively created rather than just consumed. An optimism has emerged about the potential for change, brought about by the combination of technology with participatory culture and solidarity through critical realism. While I am positioning critical realism as a philosophical perspective within this essay, it is implicitly connected to changes within the cultural formation and aesthetics

of the contemporary era, to the extent that some have used 'critical realism' as a label to describe the period from the mid nineties to the present (Lopez and Potter, 2000, Caldwell DATE). I would argue that the politicising of consumption and participatory culture are also key to the contemporary period, and are not covered under the umbrella of critical realism. 'Critical collectivism' or 'participatory consumerism' are terms I would suggest cover these more comprehensively. This set of circumstances are in strong contrast to the inertia brought about by postmodern relativism, and have found their expression in the thousands of people who took to their streets and public places as part of the Occupy movements to declare that We are the 99%.

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Varney, W. & Martin, B. Net resistance, net benefits: Opposing MAI. In Social Alternatives. Vol. 19, No. 1 (January 2000) pp. 47-51. Retrieved from http://www.uow.edu.au/~bmartin/pubs/00sa.htmlx Varsavsky, M. (2011, May 25). Spanish revolution of 2011 explained. In The Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/martinvarsavsky/spanish-revolution-of-201_b_867156.html Weedon, C. (1999). Feminism, theory and the politics of difference (pp. 99-130). Oxford: Blackwell. 2007-2012 Global financial crisis.(n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007%E2%80%932012_global_financial_crisis 2011-2012 Spanish protests. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011%E2%80%932012_Spanish_protests 3 News Online Staff. (2012, June 1 (updated)). Arrests at student anti-budget protest. 3 News. Retrieved from http://www.3news.co.nz/Arrests-at-student-anti-Budgetprotest/tabid/423/articleID/256395/Default.aspx

Image List Figure One. Adbusters. (2004). Hummer Spoof Advertisement. Retrieved from http://desizntech.info/2009/08/being-a-creative-critique-40-best-spoof-ads/ Figure Two. Fahmi Reza. (2011). Don't just complain, occupy. Opensource PDF document. Retrieved from http://occuprint.org/Posters/DontJustComplain Figure Three. Occupy Posters & Fahmi Reza. (2011). Don't just occupy, make demands. Opensource PDF document. Retrieved from http://occupydesign.org/gallery/designs/dont-just-occupy-make-demands Figure Four. Occupy Design. (2011). Screenshot of Occupy Design website header. Website element. Retrieved from http://occupydesign.org/ Figure Five. Invisible Children Inc. (2012). Kony 2012 action kit. Photograph. Retrieved from http://1.bp.blogspot.com/wo2O2ve5_d8/T2YqDbxDgbI/AAAAAAAACLM/2IKpMWSoRs/s1600/kony_2012_kit_accion_playera_pulsera.jpg Figure Six. The Guardian. (2012). A crowd of young people wearing Kony shirts. Photograph. Retrieved from http://static.guim.co.uk/sysimages/Guardian/Pix/audio/video/2012/3/8/1331236557967/A-crowd-of-youngpeople-w-007.jpg Figure Seven. Adbusters. (2012). Screenshot of Adbusters website homepage. Webpage. Retrieved from http://www.adbusters.org/ Figure Eight. (1997). Screenshot of MAI-Not! campaign homepage. Webpage. Retrieved from http://www.flora.org/flora/archive/mai-not/ Figure Nine. Occupy Wellington NZ & Facebook. (2011). Screenshot of the Occupy Wellington NZ Facebook group. Webpage. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/OccupyWellingtonNZ