monochrom presents the second part of a lecture series by Johannes Grenzfurthner.
The terms guerrilla communication (and communication guerrilla) refer to unconventional forms of communication and/or intervention in more conventional processes of communication. Communication guerilla is a specific style of political action drawing from a watchful view of the paradoxes and absurdities of power, turning these into the starting point for political interventions by playing with representations and identities, with alienation and over-identification. The starting point for the panel and its reflections on communication guerrilla is a rather trivial insight: information and political education are completely useless if nobody wants to listen. Guerrilla communication doesn’t focus on arguments and facts like most leaflets, brochures, slogans or banners. In its own way, it inhabits a militant political position, it is direct action in the space of social communication. But it doesn’t aim to destroy the codes of power and signs of control. It prefers to counteract the omnipotent prattling of power by distorting and disfiguring the meanings. Communication guerrillas do not intend to occupy, interrupt or destroy the dominant channels of communication, they focus on detourning and subverting the messages transported. But what’s new about all this? Nothing. But standing on the shoulders of earlier avantgardes, communication guerilla doesn’t claim the invention of a new politics or the foundation of a new movement. It is merely continuing an incessant exploration of the jungle of communication processes, of the intertwined and muddled paths of senders, codes and recipients. The aim is a practical, material critique of the very structures of communication as a basis of power and rule. The internet offers fascinating possibilities also in a quite different sense: Beyond its reality, the web is an urban myth, and perhaps the strongest and most vital of all. Let’s get inter-active!
At Art University Linz, Kollegiumgasse 2 (4th floor), Linz, Austria. May 14, 2010; 3 PM-7 PM.