Tactical media

1
Tactical media

• those phenomena that are able to exploit flaws
  in protocological and proprietary command and
  control, not to sedstroy technology, but to
  sculpt protocaol and make it better suited to
  peoples real desires. - P 176

2
Tactical media

• Tactical media propel protocol into a state of
  hypertrophy, pushing it further, in better and
  more interesting ways. - P 176

3
Tactical media
Computer viruses

• a program that can infect other programs by
  modifying them to include a, possibly evolved,
  version of itself. (Cohen)

4
Tactical media
Computer viruses

• 1980s AIDS paradigm
• Early on, computer viruses were identified with
  the AIDS epidemic. It is explicitly referenced in
  much of the literature on viruses, making AIDS
  both the primary biological metaphor and primary
  social anxiety informing the early discourse on
  computer viruses.
• ? the virus itself is the epidemic.
•  
• ? computer viruses appeared in a moment in
  history where the integrity and security of
  bodies, both human and technological, was
  considered extremely important.

5
Tactical media
Computer viruses

• 1990s weaponized and related to the terrorism
  paradigm
• Later, the discourse on viruses turned toward
  weaponization and hence terrorism.
• ? Here, the virus author is the epidemic.

6
Tactical media
Computer viruses

• From self-replicating program created for
  technical exploration
• to
• weapon used by cyberterrorists.

7
Tactical media
Cyberfeminism

• computers are, and have always been, a
  technology of the female. - P 185 (Plant)
• Cyberfeminism the complex relationship between
  women and machines. - P185
• deals with the negative space created within
  protocol through the injection of mutations,
  crashes, and viral code. With cyberfeminism,
  protocol becomes disturbed. Its course is altered
  and affected by the forces of randomness and
  corruption. - P 185

8
Tactical media
Cyberfeminism

• Bugs
• a sort of super-protocological mutation that
  can, at times, propel technology in interesting
  new ways. - P 186
• Cyberfeminism as bug
• Like a computer virus, cyberfeminism exists to
  mutate and transform these questions, guiding
  them in new directions within the protocological
  sphere. - P188

9
Tactical media
Cyberfeminism

• The universality of protocol can give feminism
  something that it never had at its disposal the
  obliteration of the masculine from beginning to
  end. - P188
• As protocol rises, patriarchy declines. - P 189
• cyberfeminists have never been anti-protocol,
  but rather use protocological machines as an
  integral part of their political action, art, and
  writing. - P 193

10
Tactical media
Conflicting Diagrams

• Diagrams/graphs/organizational designs
• Bureaucracy, hierarchy, peer-to-peer,
  distribution, rhizome
•  
• Conflict between different social structures
• The rhizome is thought to be the solution to the
  tree, the wildcat strike the solution to the
  bosss controll, Toyotism the solution to
  institutional bureaucracy, and so on. - P197

11
Tactical media
Conflicting Diagrams

• WTC lt gt Terrorists
• Massing of power and control
  distribution of power
• A tower
  cellular
• A center networked
• An icon modular
• A pillar
  nimble
• A hub small autonomous groups

12
Tactical media
Conflicting Diagrams

• The category shift that defines the difference
  between state power and guerilla force shows that
  through a new diagram, guerillas, terrorists, and
  the like can gain foothold against their
  opposition.
•  
• this should be our catergory shift too, for
  anti-terror survival strategies will arise not
  from a renewed massing of power on the American
  side, but precisely from a distributed
  diagram. - P 204

13
Tactical media
Conflicting Diagrams

• The current global crisis is one between
  centralized, hierarchical powers and distributed,
  horizontal networks. P 204
•  
• What will happen when the powers that be
  actually evolve into networked power? - P205
•  
• The goal of tactical media is to push
  technology into a state of hypertrophy, further
  than it is meant to go. Then, in its injured,
  sore, and unguarded condition, technology may be
  sculpted anew into something better, something in
  closer agreement with the real wants and desires
  of its users. - P 206