Notes

Notes for Discussion - Net Strategies

Ricardo Dominguez

"Only art history still knows that the famed geniuses of the Renaissance did not just create paintings and buildings, but calculated fortresses and constructed war machines. If the phantasm of all Information Warfare, to reduce war to software and its forms of death to operating system crashes, were to come true, lonesome hackers would take the place of the historic artist-engineers." – Frederich Kittler

Ricardo Dominguez is a co-founder of The Electronic Disturbance Theater (EDT), a group who developed Virtual-Sit-In technologies in 1998 in solidarity with the Zapatista communities in Chiapas, Mexico. EDT's SWARM action was presented at Ars Electronica's InfoWar Festival in 1998 (Linz, Austria). He is Senior Editor of The Thing (bbs.thing.net). Former member of Critical Art Ensemble (1987 to 1994 - developers of the theory of Electronic Civil Disobedience in the late 80's). Currently a Fake-Fakeshop Worker (www.fakeshop.com) , a hybrid performance group, presented at the Whitney Biennial 2000. Ricardo has collaborated on a number of international net-art projects: with Francesca da Rimini on Dollspace (www.thing.net/~dollyoko) , and with Diane Ludin on the Aphanisis Project. His essays have appeared at Ctheory (www.ctheory.org) and recently in "Corpus Delecti: Performance Art of the Americas" (Routledge, 2000), edited by Coco Fusco. Editor of EDT's forthcoming book Hacktivism: network-art-activism, (Autonomedia Press, 2001).

"Rather than the re-emergence of the artist as the lonely hacker, we seek a new ontological status for artist and the defensive weapon in the network era." – Breet Stalbaum, Switch Journal

The Electronic Disturbance Theater (EDT) is a small group of cyber activists and artists engaged in developing the theory and practice of Electronic Civil Disobedience (ECD). Until now the group has focused its electronic actions against the Mexican and U.S. governments to draw attention to the war being waged against the Zapatistas and others in Mexico. But ECD tactics have potential application by a range of political and artistic movements. The Electronic Disturbance Theater, working at the intersections of radical politics, recombinant and performance art, and computer software design, has produced an ECD device called FloodNet, web based software used to flood and block an opponent’s web site. While at present a catalyst for moving forward with ECD tactics, the Electronic Disturbance Theater hopes to eventually blend into the background to become one of many small autonomous groups heightening and enhancing the ways and means of computerized resistance. Wired article.

Zapatista Movement - Mexico’s Zapatista movement exemplifies a new approach to social conflict that is called social netwar. Mexico, the nation that gave the world a prototype of social revolution early in the 20th century, has generated an information-age prototype of militant social netwar on the eve of the 21st century. The insurrection by the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) erupted on New Year’s Day 1994, when one to two thousand2 variously armed insurgents occupied five towns and a city, San Cristóbal de las Casas, in the highlands of Mexico’s southernmost state, Chiapas. Over the next few days, the EZLN declared war on the Mexican government, vowed to march on Mexico City, proclaimed a revolutionary agenda, began an international media campaign for sympathy and support, and invited foreign observers and monitors to come to Chiapas.

"This is basically a communications project, but it's also about getting data together for situational awareness." – Pentagon

Coalition Information Assurance Common Operational Picture — Details the information system security status of all mission-critical systems on a near- or real-time basis in support of commander-in-chief and coalition missions. Intrusion detection and immediate warning by the first partner to detect an event will allow other partners to set defenses before the attack destroys services. Joint, Combined, and Coalition warriors will develop a mutually satisfactory concept of operations that facilitates interaction but which protects national sensitivity. C-IA COP will establish a coalition information assurance capability on the research and development CFBL.

Objectives:

Develop and demonstrate a coordinated IA posture for coalition networks and information systems
Demonstrate interoperability of U.S. and coalition networks and security systems while retaining sovereignty of country-specific assets
Share relevant technology (visualization, Intrusion Detection Sensor, fusion agents) and IA event data with coalition partners for common U.S./coalition concerns

This Commander-in-Chief 21st Century (CINC 21) ACTD is being developed to improve command and control and decision-making through network-centric, knowledge-enabled staff functions. CINC 21 will demonstrate operational applications of information technology that are focused on the critical need to accelerate decision-makers’ understanding of events. CINC 21 will also improve the ability to collaborate, plan and decide with all essential parties regarding appropriate courses of action in situations involving multiple concurrent theater operations and coalition activities.

Objectives:

Situational understanding at a glance
Assured networks – there when you need it
Teamwork that transcends time and distance
Input knowledge once, access in many forms and locations

The Coalition Theater Logistics - Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (CTL-ACTD) will demonstrate the military utility of leveraging automation technology to share logistics information and decision-support tools in a coalition force for the full spectrum of operations. This capability will be shared among a Coalition Task Force (CTF), the individual nation "in country" staff, and individual nation "home station" staff. The CTL-ACTD will help guarantee the success of future combined operations by strengthening the strategic logistics interoperability of multinational partners.

The United States will partner with Australia as a co-sponsor and developer for the CTL-ACTD. In the U.S., this initiative is sponsored by USCINCPAC. The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) is the lead agency, and the Advanced Information Technology Services Joint Program Office (AITS-JPO) within DISA is serving as both the technical and transition manager. In Australia, the Chief Knowledge Officer sponsors this initiative, with logistics discipline specialists being provided by Headquarters Australian Theatre and Joint Logistics Command. As the CTL-ACTD matures, other nations and Combatant Commanders will be asked to participate.
The CTL-ACTD will work in concert with several U.S., Department of Defense and Australian Defence Force initiatives. It supports Joint Vision (JV) 2010 and JV2020 in Focused Logistics and is consistent with the Australian Service Publication 97 and White Paper 2000.

CTL-ACTD applications will be web-based, allowing for an easy transition into national logistics information systems. Highlights include:

Coordinated multi-national logistics information and decision support tools for accurate identification of force requirements, improved deployment planning, efficient force sustainment, and rapid logistics re-planning across the full spectrum of operations.
Improved logistics C2 interoperability with coalition partners.
Multi-national collaborative logistics analysis capability.
Enhanced theater engagement opportunities.

FloodNet - FloodNet requires widespread participation to succeed, and the intention of ECD (Electronic Civial Disobedience) actions is to demonstrate widespread support for the Zapatistas in their struggle against the Zedillo government and its global economic agenda. The Zaps Flood Net is conceptual art that empowers people through activist/artistic expression. By creatively selecting phases, for example "human rights", the floodnet can request that of the targeted server, sometimes returning a page stating: "human_rights not found on this server." The server is forced to record a request for "human rights" in it's log file.

Warning: Retaliation by the Mexican government on June 10th 1998 (the same day of the military attacks on El Bosque), caused the browsers of peaceful floodnet protestors to crash. It is recomended that you turn Javascript off to avoid this aggressive countermeasure.

Note: The above link is for demonstration purposes only. For information on Flood Net Events, please visit the ECD site:

Tactical Flood Net's automated features are used to:
1) Reload a targeted web page several times per minute.
2) Spam targeted server error logs.

As the Java applet performs automatic reloads in the background, the Zapatista Flood Net also encourages interactive conceptual Internet art. Netsurfers may voice their political concerns on a targeted server, via automated error log spamming. A mouse click sends a predefined message to the server error log of the targeted web site. Alternatively, the "personal message" form will send the surfer's own statement to the server error log of their choice. Flood Net is conceptual art that empowers people through activist/artistic expression. By creatively selecting phases, for example
" human rights", surfers can upload messages to server error logs, like "human_rights not found on this server." This works because of the way servers process requests for web pages that do not exist. Flood Net's error log Java applet asks the targeted server for a web page called, in this example, "human rights", but that web page doesn't exist. So the server returns the familiar "File not Found" or "Error 404" message. It also records the request for "human rights" in the server's error log. This is a unique way to leave a message on a server. – Carmin Karasic

Virtual Sit-in at the White House - In opposition to the U.S. military attack on Iraq and belief that the timing of this assault was designed to detract attention from President Clinton's impending impeachment hearing in Congress.

"Utilizing all means and possibilities of the information and communication technologies for sabotage and misinformation." Austrian arms expert Georg Schöfbänker.

Ars Electronica Symposium - Info War: In 1998, under the banner of "INFO WAR", the Ars Electronica Festival of Art, Technology and Society, appealed to artists, theoreticians and technologists for contributions relating to the social and political definition of the information society. The emphasis here did lie not on technological flights of fancy, but on the fronts drawn up in a society that is in a process of fundamental and violent upheaval .

Friday, Sept. 5, 1998 NETSTRIKE IN MEXICO, THE UNITED STATES, AND GERMANY ON SEPT. 9 AGAINST ZEDILLO, THE PENTAGON, AND FRANKFURT STOCK EXCHANGE FALL CAMPAIGN ON THE STREET AND ON THE NET - In solidarity with the Zapatistas in Chiapas, Mexico, and with people everywhere struggling against the global neoliberal economy, the Electronic Disturbance Theater calls for multiple acts of Electronic Civil Disobedience (SWARM), on Wednesday, September 9, 1998. The Electronic Disturbance Theater issues this call in connection with its participation in the Ars Electronica Festival on Infowar, held in Linz, Austria, from September 7 to 12. Actions will begin on Sept. 9 at 11:00 a.m. (Linz time) for a 24 hour period. Other start times are: Berlin 11:00 a.m.; London 10:00 a.m.; New York 5:00 a.m.; Mexico City 4:00 a.m.; and San Francisco 2:00 a.m. Our FloodNet software will target three web sites in Mexico, the United States, and Europe representing three important sectors: government, military, and financial.

1) President Zedillo (http://www.presidencia.gob.mx)
2) The Pentagon (http://www.defenselink.mil)
3) The Frankfurt Stock Exchange (http://www.exchange.de)

When enough people simultaneously connect their Internet browsers to the FloodNet address it effectively blocks the targeted site. To join the actions, simply point to and click on the FloodNet foyer on the Electronic Civil Disobedience web page during the 24 hour period. Leave your browser connected to FloodNet for as long as you can. Details and more specific instructions will be sent just before the action. We also urge people to engage in their own actions against these three
sites at the same time as ours. We propose multiple actions, virtual and real, aimed at multiple targets on September 9 but also for a series of dates this fall. We call for these hybrid Street/Net actions on September 16 (Mexican Independence Day), October 12 (Columbus Day), and November 22 (Day of Action at the School of the Americas).

RTMARK

http://www.rtmark.com

Rtmark lies in the virtual realm between artistic mediation and hactivist activism. Their techniques are primarily net-based, though they have been known to create physical installations for museum exhibitions. They are essentially an information service provider for art-activism, utlizing humor, parody, and hactivsm to attack a wide range of issues from gender to survelliance to war.

Some of their projects have included:

Barbie Liberation Organization

In 1993, ® TM ark channel $8000 from a military veterans' group to the Barbie Liberation Organization, which used the investment to switch the voiceboxes of three hundred Barbie TM and G.I. Joe TM dolls. A secret society called the BLO is single-handedly trying to change the image of the Barbie Doll. Now, BLO stands for the Barbie Liberation Organization and its members claim they have switched the voice boxes on 3000 Barbie’s and gi Joes this holiday SEASON. as a result, some kids may have Barbies that say "dead men tell no lies" and GI Joes that ask, 'Want to go shopping?" and thats not all... "I love school dont you? Lets sing with the Band Tonight!" The BLO says the dolls reinforce gender-stereotypes. Hasbro, the company that makes the GI Joes, calls the BLO's tactics 'ridiculous" Barbie's maker Mattel says its received no complaints at all.

And according to Barbie, "Hi, I'm teen talk Barbie, the spokesdoll for the BLO. That stands for the Barbie liberation Organization. We're an international group of children's toys that are revolting against the companies that made us. We turned against our creators because they use us to brainwash kids. They build us in a way that perpetuates gender-based stereotypes. These stereotypes have a negative effect on children’s development. To correct this problem, we have set up our own hospitals where we are carrying out corrective surgery on ourselves. Before surgery, me and GI Joe were forced to say things we didn’t want to. Now we say things like this! 'Dead Men tell no tales Ha Ha Ha!' 'Troops, attack!' 'No escape for the guilty!' Vengeance ids mine' I donate my voice to a GI joe, because they wanna be free too. They dont wanna say all that violent war stuff. Now he says what I USED TO SAY! " Wanna go shopping? Lets Sing with the band tonight!" After we finssh our corrective surgery we climb back in our boxes and go off to the store, just in time for Christmas. BY Now! I have to get in to my box and off to the store."

The ETOY FUND - etoy.com

Reinhold Grether's summary - In late 1999, Internet toy giant eToys attempted to buy etoy.com from European art group etoy, and offered upwards of $500,000 in cash and stock options for the domain. etoy turned down the offer, so on November 29, 1999, eToys obtained a court injunction preventing etoy from operating a website at www.etoy.com, which had been registered before eToys even existed. To obtain the injunction eToys told the judge that etoy.com was confusing customers, and furthermore that it contained pornography and calls to violence. etoy.com had never made any reference to eToys or toys, and only an extremely primitive conception of art could lead one to see pornography or violence on its pages.

In response to eToys' greedy and unethical (but entirely typical ) conduct, a team of toy designers invented the etoy Fund online game , whose avowed aim was to destroy eToys, Inc. and whose realistic intent was to make eToys' stock value go as far down in value as possible. (For more about this intent, please see this article by Reinhold Grether, one of the principal toy designers.)
The game's blurb read: "On your team, thousands of players. Your opponents: eToys and its shareholders--as long as they still own shares. The stakes: art, free expression and life on the Internet." Click CNN's new banner to read some articles.

Success in lowering eToys' stock value , it was decided, would set a permanent precedent, like the Brent Spar , that would force e-commerce companies in the future to think twice about censorship for financial profit. As an ® TM ark spokesperson said on December 12, when the game was released, "eToys says etoy.com was hurting sales by disturbing those who stumble upon it. Well, eToys' domain is disturbing people who want to see great Internet art but stumble upon eToys instead, and so why not say eToys shouldn't exist? Why should financial might make right? If they want to play by barbaric rules, we will too."

The etoy Fund's fast and furious action and thrilling multi-user gameplay set thousands of users' hearts pounding as they helped to lower the value of eToys stock considerably, using many methods (but none causing physical harm... to humans). The pages in this section helped the game-players with their quest for success: there were pages with extensive financial ,physical , and human information about eToys, links to other resources, a press archive , a roster of similar cases , and much, much more.
Some of these pages are still active, most notably the roster of similar cases . Remember that etoy's triumph is only one small victory, and only in the virtual realm. Most people who fall victim to big corporations never see their way out, are never written about in the press, and end up losing whatever their tormentors wished to take. Until some egregious laws are rescinded, and perhaps a few others passed, there will continue to be many victims.

GWBush.com

In April 1999, ® TM ark constructed GWBush.com, a website that at first glance appeared to be that of Republican Presidential candidate George W. Bush (his website is GeorgeWBush.com ). ® TM ark's first version incurred Bush's wrath, and his lawyers sent a threatening letter . The domain's owner, Zack Exley, then took down the site and attempted to sell his domain to the Bush camp.

By the time ® TM ark's second version of GWBush.com was published, with much more content , the Bush campaign had complained to the Federal Elections Commission .

These attacks resulted in a major international news story , which was then magnified by Bush's televised response to a reporter's question about the site: "There ought to be limits to freedom ," Bush said--an ominous gaffe that many still remember.