Today we’re going to be exploring culture jamming, memes, banksy, fake news, rapping nurses, teachers with giant prosthetic breasts and how to effectively navigate the current culture wars.
Culture Jamming History & Meaning
Culture jamming is not a clear cut term and can be viewed as malleable or evolving with our culture. It can normally be viewed as a protest or commentary on a dominant cultural force. Though there are examples of corporations using similar strategies or tactics to culture jammers.
Culture Jamming: Don Joyce, a musician, coined the term in 1984 - pulling from the concept of radio jamming which is the deliberate jamming, blocking or interference with radio communications. Originally culture jamming primarily referred to sublime social commentary subverting the mainstream narrative from media, advertising and political agendas and usually promotes instead an anti-consumerism message. Think of it as a parody highlighting the absurd aspects of mainstream culture, pointing out the hypocrisy while making a social commentary.
As awareness of how the media environment we occupy affects and directs our inner life grows, some resist. The skillfully reworked billboard... directs the public viewer to a consideration of the original corporate strategy. The studio for the cultural jammer is the world at large.
Typical forms of culture jamming look like media hoaxing, corporate sabotage, billboard liberation and trademark infringement. Meme’s are likely the most prevalent modern day form of culture jamming.
Tangent: Memes
Memes are condensed images that stimulate visual, verbal, musical, or behavioral associations that people can easily imitate and transmit to others (see Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, second edition 1989)
Dawkins likened the process by which memes survive and change through the evolution of culture to the natural selection of genes in biological evolution.
Meme’s are easily digestible, sharable and trigger 4 key emotions for social change: shock, shame, fear and anger. As well the humorous nature, and often exaggeration for effect, can be more disarming and persuasive than a well reasoned argument or debate.
But if you contribute to the world's culture, if you have a good idea...it may live on, intact, long after your genes have dissolved in the common pool. Socrates may or may not have a gene or two alive in the world today, as G.C. Williams has remarked, but who cares? The meme-complexes of Socrates, Leonardo, Copernicus and Marconi are still going strong. (The Selfish Gene)
For Kalle Lasn, one of the founders of Adbusters (www.adbusters.org) , the best culture jam is one that introduces a meta-meme, a two-level message that punctures a specific commercial image, but does so in a way that challenges some larger aspect of the political culture of corporate domination.
The most common early forms of culture jamming are usually thought of as ad parodies and billboards being defaced. It disrupts the status quo with surprising, comical or satirical acts or artwork.
https://www.trippingly.net/burning-man-musings/2019/2/14/the-billboard-liberation-front-blf
Potential Historical Examples
Michelangelo painting the faces of his patrons as the faces of the damned in the Sistine Chapel in the 1500s. (this one may be a myth)
Billboard Liberation Front - 1977 Max Factor Ad
Alan Abel’s hoax The Society for Indecency to Naked Animals 1958
https://we-make-money-not-art.com/culture-jamming-activism-and-the-art-of-cultural-resistance/
Vince Caducci, cultural critic and dean emeritus at College for Creative Studies, claims culture jamming can be traced back to the 1950’s to groups like the Situationist International. SI was an organization of social revolutionaries focused on critiquing advanced capitalism. The SI believed that genuine human experiences were the fulfillment of authentic desires were being replaced by proxy through the consumption of goods damaging the quality of human life.
Critical Theory Behind Culture Jamming
Fantastic article in Thoughtco. by Nicki Lisa Cole titled Understanding Culture Jamming and How it Can Create Social Change.
The practice of culture jamming is inspired by the critical theory of the Frankfurt School, which focused on the power of mass media and advertising to shape and direct our norms, values, expectations, and behavior through unconscious and subconscious tactics. By subverting the image and values attached to a corporate brand, the memes deployed in culture jamming aim to produce feelings of shock, shame, fear, and ultimately anger in the viewer, because it is these emotions that lead to social change and political action.
Banksy Connoisseur of Culture Jamming?
Can’t beat the Feelin’ - Banksy combines Mickey Mouse, Ronald McDonald with the Napalm Girl from The Terror of War photo taken by Nick Ut.
This piece highlights the multinational corporations who exploit less developed countries which often have little or no laws around child labor, health and safety standards and minimum wages. It highlights corporations' subtle conquest of the economies of less developed countries.
For another example see Banksy at Disneyland for another example, highlighting the plight of detainees at the US’ prison in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
Modern Examples of Culture Jamming
There are far too many modern examples of culture jamming for us to review in this podcast, but there are a few specific examples I wanted to explore and share my opinion on.
Media Hoaxing or Fake News
Kim LaCapria of the fact checking website Snopes.com has stated that, in America, fake news is a bipartisan phenomenon, saying that "There has always been a sincerely held yet erroneous belief misinformation is more red than blue in America, and that has never been true."
Examples:
The Onion
Babylon Bee
The Ferryman’s Toll
Matt Opinion: Specific to Media Hoaxing I view it as having two primary categories. I think both in theory have value, but I only really appreciate one of the two categories. I view these two categories as being: Known Satirical News and Deep Fake News. Known Satirical News examples include The Onion and Babylon Bee, both are very clear they are satirical news outlets, and a quick google search of a news headline they produced will point back to their website and make it easy for a content consumer to understand its nature. Deep Fake News is like The Ferryman’s Toll where a fake news headline or article is produced but then edited to appear as if it’s from a legitimate news source, with no obvious way of telling that it is satirical or fake.
Below is a deep fake news headline, CBCNews is a real Canadian news outlet and Mike Crawley is a reporter for CBC - but he has never written this article. The only way to tell if it's fake is to go to CBC and review the list of Mike Crawley articles and confirm it’s not valid.
What particularly frustrates me about this approach to culture jamming is that it doesn’t feel like it’s putting forward a position or commentary on the current state of affairs. In addition it often gets reshared by would be supporters as a legitimate example of government overreach etc. One very popular Ferryman’s post was a fake article stating the government's concerns over the fact conspiracy theories keep being proven true. This became widely shared on social media as true, and because there is no indication it’s a meme or satirical in nature it undermines the credibility of everyone that shares it. Arguably you could state that anyone who shares a news story without any due diligence deserves to have their credibility questioned - and perhaps this is simply training us to prepare for a future where deep fakes are omnipresent and easy to produce - but if every individual needs to become a detective or phd researcher in regards to every piece of news they receive - then very few us will ever know the truth. In summary I feel like this form of culture jamming is simply an attempt to unfairly undermine the credibility of mainstream news. I believe there are a lot of legitimate reasons to be skeptical of the mainstream media, and I believe Ferryman himself is, but I feel like his efforts are more likely to undermine his natural allies than to actually strengthen them.
Alex Stein the Modern Culture Jamming King?
In a similar but different vein of culture jamming is the trolling or political commentary of Alex Stein. Alex is a self described as ‘I’m a Pimp on a Blimp, High on Steak and lots of Shrimp’ even though he’s actually a vegetarian. There is a very Kaufmanesque nature to his approach to culture jamming. Often taking extreme left and cultural marxist talking points and exaggerating them or taking them to their most extreme interpretation. Odds are in the last few years you’ve seen a clip or two of Alex’s work - and for a lot of people the first time you’re exposed to him, it’s hard to distinguish whether he’s sincere or trolling.
Example: Alex, dressed in medical scrubs walks up to the mic at the Dallas city council meeting. Alex informs over a dozen city council members that he has figured out a way to make vaccination more hip and cool to the younger generation: a freestyle rap.
When asked about his approach to cultural jamming Alex Stein has commented:
“Everyone sees nurses dancing on TikTok, so it’s not that absurd,” he said. “I want people to see my video and not know whether or not it’s real. Questioning is almost as good as laughter. People need to ask questions.”
It’s performances like Alex’s that makes it difficult for me to determine whether news stories like the recent one about an Ontario Canada teacher, who is biologically male and wears extremely large prosthetic breasts while teaching his highschool shop class is a sincere individual or a culture jammer who is playing 5D chess.
In case you’ve missed this story - Blogto describes the situation as ‘Several pictures show the woman with long blonde hair wearing bike shorts, tight tops, and what we can only assume to be a massive prosthetic breast piece with protruding nipples.’
https://www.blogto.com/city/2022/09/oakville-trafalgar-high-school-teacher-prosthetic-breasts/
In regards to the Ontario teacher I view it as likely being one of two possibilities.
They’re a sincere individual who believes wearing giant prosthetic breasts is part of them living in alignment with their true identity.
It’s a perfectly executed culture jamming commentary on how our institutions have been completely captured by woke ideology and identity politics to the point that they cannot point out the emperor is not wearing any clothes, or in this case that it’s absurd to subject highschool students to weird sexual fetishes.
When asked for comment the school responded:
"We strive to promote and support a positive learning environment in schools consistent with the values of the school board," continued the statement, "and to ensure a safe and inclusive learning and working environment for all students, staff and the community, regardless of their race, age, ability, sex, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, cultural observance, socio-economic circumstances, or body type/size."
The school has also pointed out that its dress code only applies to students. "Dress codes must prevent students from wearing clothing that exposes or makes visible genitals and nipples."
While it’s difficult for me to put my finger exactly on why I believe Alex Stein’s performances which straddle the line of believability are different from what I describe as deep fake news - I believe it is.
Questions to Explore with Audience:
What’s your thoughts on culture jamming?
Have you ever had a meme change your mind, or cause you to completely question a position or view that you believed to be settled?
Who’s currently crushing it at culture jamming in your opinion?
Do you know of any resources that teach you how to participate or improve at culture jamming?
So What? Is Culture Jamming important?
When analyzing the significance of culture jamming, I immediately think of The Breitbart Doctrine which is the idea that "politics is downstream from culture" and that to change politics one must first change culture.
Whether you agree with it or not, many on the right will often point to the left's dominance of post secondary institutions and the entertainment industry and how that’s shaped culture and politics for multiple decades.
I think when done well culture jamming, particularly in the age of cancel culture, is perhaps one of the most effective ways to question the orthodoxy of the day.
Further Reading & Resources
https://www.thoughtco.com/culture-jamming-3026194
https://www.nassio.com/sven/everyjoke-svenwoodside-2001.pdf
https://jewishjournal.com/culture/arts/344681/meet-comedian-alex-stein-a-professional-troll/
Books
https://www.amazon.ca/Culture-Jam-Americas-Suicidal-Consumer/dp/0688178057
https://www.amazon.ca/Selfish-Gene-Richard-Dawkins/dp/0192860925
https://www.amazon.ca/Culture-Jamming-Activism-Cultural-Resistance/dp/147980620X
What are your thoughts on culture jamming? Has a meme or viral clip ever caused you to question your political or moral positions?