Electronic Civil Disobedience: Theory and Practice

VIS149

FALL 2005

Room: VAF 228

Thursday 9:30 to 12:20

 

Professor: Ricardo Dominguez

Email: rrdominguez@ucsd.edu

 

Class Description:

 

 Electronic Civil Disobedience (ECD) as a theory will be compared with the multiple forms of ECD practice that have emerged since the early 1990's. We will investigate how ECD intersects with earlier definitions of civil disobedience (CD) by Henry David Thoreau to Ghandi. The class will also examine the trajectories of tactical media, digital zapatismo, hacktivism, cyberwar and social netwar that arose at the same time as ECD. Core questions for the class will be: is ECD a useful tactic for contemporary activism and if so how and when; and, to what degree have post 9/11 politics effected the practice of ECD. The readings and examples of ECD practice will only be on-line. Among the E-books on ECD that we will read sections from: The Electronic Disturbance and Electronic Civil Disobedience by Critical Art Ensemble; also, Hackitivism: network_art_activism by Electronic Disturbance Theater; and The Zapatista Social Netwar in Mexico by David Ronfeldt and John Arquilla. Also, one book will be read by the class Hacktivism and Cyberwars: Rebels with a Cause? By Time Jordan and Paul A. Taylor.

 

Grading Policies

Final Grade Evaluation:

25% Assignments ­ 1 Notebook Diary & One Midterm - 5 page essay (MLA Style).    

50% Attendance and Participation

25% Final Exam - Take home essay - 10 page essay (MLA Style).

 

Attendance:

You will be expected to attend every class. If you have more than 2 unexcused absences, your final grade will drop 1/2 a letter for every additional unexcused absence.  Two unexcused lateness will be considered an absence.

 

NEW LINKS - ONLINE ACTIONS OR ANALYSIS DURING OUR CLASS

 

MobileActive: Going Beyond the Mobile Buzz

 

Thousands protest Bush in Argentina

 

Protest Over Metal Detectors Gains Legs as Students Walk Out

 

Hacking for a Cause

 

Tunisians Conduct Online Protest

 

Info about Tunisian Action

 

Class Structure:

 

Thursday, Sept 22 - Introduction

 Watch Info War.

 

Thursday, Sept 29 - Civil Disobedience (CD)

 

Read:

Henry David Thoreau - 1849

Civil Disobedience

http://eserver.org/thoreau/civil.html

 

Read:

Mark Shepard - 1990

Civil Disobedience, Nonviolence, and Satyagraha in the Real World

http://www.markshep.com/nonviolence/Myths.html

 

Thursday, Oct 6- Electronic Disturbance

 

Critical Art Ensemble - 1994

 

Electronic Disturbance (Read Chapters 2, 4 and 6)

http://www.critical-art.net/books/ted/index.html

 

Start to Read: Hacktivism and Cyberwar.

 

Thursday, Oct 13 - Digital Zapatistas

 

 Dr. Harry Cleaver - February, 1994

 The Chiapas Uprising and the Future of Class Struggle

http://www.eco.utexas.edu/facstaff/Cleaver/chiapasuprising.html

 

Jason Wehling - March, 1995

 Netwars and Activists: Power on the Internet

http://www.spunk.org/library/comms/sp001518/Netwars.html

 

Sites to Visit:

   

EZLN (Zapatistas On-Line)

http://www.radioinsurgente.org/

http://www.ezln.org

http://chiapas.indymedia.org

 

Continue to Read: Hacktivism and Cyberwar

 

Thursday, Oct 20  - Electronic Civil Disobedience

 

Critical Art Ensemble - 1995

 Electronic Civil Disobedience (Chapter 1 and 2).

http://www.critical-art.net/books/ecd/index.html

 

Thursday, Oct 27  - Digital Zapatistas 2

 

Dr. Harry Cleaver - 1998

 A Contribution to the Discussion of Electronic Civil Disobedience

http://www.thing.net/~rdom/ecd/harrycontrib.html

 

 Performance Art in a Digital Age - 1998

http://www.thing.net/~rdom/nyu/ECDperformance.doc

 

Continue to Read: Hacktivism and Cyberwar

 

Thursday, Nov 3  - Social Netwar

MID TERM DUE ­ 5 Pages.

 

RAND - 1998

Zapatista Social Netwar in Mexico (Chapter 2, 4 and 6)

http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR994/

 

Site to Visit

 Electronic Disturbance Theater

http://www.thing.net/~rdom/ecd/ecd.html

 

Continue to Read: Hacktivism and Cyberwar

 

Thursday, Nov 10  - Social Netwar 2

 

Dr. Dorothy E. Denning - 1999

 Activism, Hacktivism, and Cyberterrorism

http://www.totse.com/en/technology/cyberspace_the_new_frontier/cyberspc.html

 

 Dr. Jill Lane - 2000

 Digital Zapatistas

http://www.thing.net/~rdom/ucsd/DigitalZapatistas.pdf

 

Continue to Read: Hacktivism and Cyberwar

 

Thursday, Nov 17  - Hacktivism

 

Mapping ECD 2001

 

Steal This Modem

 

Thursday, Dec 1  - What Next?

 

A Transparent and Civil Act of Disobedience

http://post.thing.net/node/304

Finish Reading: Hacktivism and Cyberwar

 

Sandor Vegh - October, 2002

 Hacktivists or Cyberterrorists?

http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue7_10/vegh/index.html

 

Swarm the Minutemen

More Suggested Books:

 

William Bogard, The Simulation of Surveillance (1996)

 Scott Bukatman, Terminal Identity (1993)

 Dorothy E. Denning, Information Warfare and Security (1999)

 Chris Hables Gray, Postmodern War (1997)

 Tim Jordan, Activism!: Hacktivism and the Future of Society (2002)

 Martha Mccaughey, Cyberactivism (2003)

 Graham Meikle, Future Active (2002)

 Nettime.org, Read Me! Read Me! Read Me! (1999)

 Michael Perelman, Class Warfare In The Information Age (1998)

 Benjamin Shepard, from ACT UP to the WTO (2002)

 Winn Schwartua, Cybershock (2000)

 Adam Wishart and Regula Bochsler, Leaving Reality Behind (2002)

 

___________

 

Online Simulations and Performance: Interview with Ricardo Dominguez

 http://www.thing.net/~rdom/ucsd/onlinesimulations.pdf

 

The Journal of Aesthetics and Protest

 http://www.journalofaestheticsandprotest.org/about/index.html

 

Tactical Media Reader

http://www.n5m.org/n5m4/dox/n5m_reader.pdf

 

Emergence of Noopolitik

http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1033/

 

More Suggested Essays

 

 Stefan Wray - 1999

 World Wide Web of Hacktivism

http://switch.sjsu.edu/web/v4n2/stefan/index.html

 

 Dr. Jon McKenzie - 1999

 !nt3rh4ckt!v!ty

http://www.thing.net/~rdom/nyu/interhacktivity.doc

 

 the electrohippies collective occasional paper no.1 - February, 2000

 Client-side Distributed Denial-of-Service

http://www.fraw.org.uk/ehippies/papers/op1.html

 

Hacktivists Stage Virtual Sit-In at WEF Web site 

http://www.alternet.org/story/12374

 

Targeting Diebold with Electronic Civil Disobedience

http://www.why-war.com/features/2003/10/diebold.html

 

Net Activism Tools

http://backspace.com/action

 

The media’s portrayal of hacktivism before and after September 11
by Sandor Vegh

 

Hacktivism by Dr. A. Samuel