Pop & Counter Culture

By analyzing culture jams in both global and local contexts we have found that they have developed into a world-wide phenomenon and consequently can be strong political pieces. Each of these political pieces portray stories of the creator and their life experiences. Readers also use their own individual cultural contexts to interpret images and thus each image can represent new or different meanings to different people. “Understanding the cultural context of a story can often help our understanding of some aspect of the story itself. The social, political and economic currents surrounding a writer can and usually do affect the writers literary creation” (virtuaLit).

Banksy was one of the culture jam artists who created political pieces such as Maid in London and the pieces done on the Gaza wall. These political pieces make statements and critically examine the culture and politics of that region. For example: the work on the Gaza wall was created in order to demonstrate how restricting and confined life is in Israel and Pakistan. Banksy challenges the negative aspects of this barrier by creating works of art that depict people being trapped behind the wall and trying to escape. By creating images like this Banksy is trying to prove that these walls are confining, and is criticizing them for the lack of freedom they portray. This is Banksy’s way of showing his outrage and dislike of this wall, and how this wall is taking away from people’s rights and freedom.

A culture jam from Slovenia was one of the rare finds of a culture jam that is not extremely westernized. This is mainly because the language used is not English. It does however criticize advertising and proves that billboard advertising does work. It also sends the message to the viewer that people, who buy into and believe what they see, cannot think critically about the advertisements they see and are therefore, in the words of the billboard, an idiot.

One form of culture jamming that is certainly occurring around the world, but is not necessarily visible on the internet, would be ‘Guerrilla Marketing’. Weburbanist.com describes this type of culture jamming as ‘Subvertising for Good Causes’. In a write-up on subversive marketing and other culture jamming techniques, the website states that “sometimes it is even more powerful not just to make a statement against the status quo - but to make one that might actually benefit someone in serious need. Humanitarian guerrilla marketing and subvertising can raise awareness about local and global issues in a visceral way that can engender real change”. This particular write up is important because in a consideration of culture jamming as a world wide phenomenon, this kind of technique becomes extremely significant. The website featured an example of an advertisement which touches on the humanitarian concern of children and poverty. If culture jamming is capable of addressing large scale issues such as this, then it must be occurring around the world to raise awareness about the vast number of global issues that we in the West do not witness on a daily basis. Although not being able to find good examples of it on the internet is discouraging, this website gave hope that Guerrilla marketing is out there in countries other than the United States and Europe who have more frequent internet access.

The second technique found through research was culture jamming propaganda. As the question asks to explain why culture jams are important political pieces within their specific cultural contexts, these examples were also significant. Weburbanist.com features some examples that take the artistic elements of historical propaganda, which have been used across the globe, from the Soviet Union and China, to the UK and the United States, and transforms them into culture jamming pieces. For example, one ‘propaganda’ like image features Bert from Sesame Street in the place of a historical figure, while another uses the red M&M character. Weburbanist states that “propaganda has often been SO serious and over-the-top that it invites parody. By injecting a note of humor into traditionally staid and solid imagery, we can derive amusement from belittling the propagandists while enjoying the jarring inconsistency between, say, the Soviet Threat personified by an army of Kermit and Bert clones”. Propaganda posters are used to boost moral and patriotism, and often feature controversial images such as North Korea’s anti-American propaganda (Weburbanist.com). Another example as discussed in class is the culture jamming of Marxist guerrilla Che Quevara. Culture jamming or parodying of these types of images helps to shed light on the use and possible abuse of propaganda during Revolutions and wartime (Weburbanist.com).

While researching it was found that many images from global locations still portray contradictions toward western built companies. “Nike the Ripper” is an important political piece towards Nike as it shows already fit women being withheld by the Nike swoosh, bringing forward questions in regards to the social class and politics behind the products they sell. This culture jam also prompted questions of how Nike products are manufactured with the economic goal of making money and how they are going to go about doing so. Furthermore the Nike culture jam and the blog are intriguing because of how one image developed into many different things. As the experiences from person to person vary, we see the controversy based on the cultural and experiential differences. This blog in reply to the Nike image seems to be based on life experiences and beliefs. It cannot be assumed that people will see the portrayed image the same way we will or the way the artist had initially intended. This concept presents us with what we have learned to date as the preferred meaning which the producer originally had in mind therefore creating a polysemic view on the image.

Culture jamming is global phenomenon but we have become more familiar with the bigger industries which are mainly in the United States and Canada. Culture jamming is a great way to spread your message, whatever your message is, whether it is contradicting a global corporation about where they get their meat or who is making our clothes for those multinational corporations. The mass audience is what media wants to appeal to; they want us to think what they have to offer us is what we should all want and need. Consumption of products is what makes our world go round today. Women play a huge part in the media, because lets face it, sex sells. Just like in the picture of the woman in the underwear ad in class, the lighting accentuates her breasts and thighs making it easier for the woman to decide, "I want to look like that! Therefore I should buy this underwear and bra!" More so, these are young women who get this big heaping weight of sex poured onto them, in order to be more appealing. These industries are here to first and foremost make money, and they will do anything to do so. Culture jamming is a person’s way to go against these global corporations and say how they feel. People should have that right to not have to buy into consumerism and going with the masses. Culture jamming certainly takes place around the world, as it is a tool to counter dominant discourses as well as address or highlight underrepresented issues.

Although finding examples from around the world proved to be difficult at times, this does not mean that culture jamming is not happening around the world. Other groups have discussed the wide variety of culture jamming formats and the history of culture jamming practices. Due to the large expanse of what is considered 'a culture jam', as well as the varying cultural and political contexts around the world, it is safe to assume that culture jamming is occurring outside of the Western world. We have attempted to discuss some versions of it throughout our blogs and in out final conclusion, but we have certainly not uncovered or discussed them all.

- Keekers, Kate Bauer, Durden32 and Aubrey B