The what and how of culture jamming
For this assignment, I want you to investigate and critically analyze the range of activities known as culture jamming. Before starting this project, read the three essays for week #8 “Culture Jamming,” by Kalle Lasn, “Robin Hoods 2.0,” by Rachel Shteir and “The Rebel Sell” by Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter. The first two pieces describe culture jamming and what it ostensibly seeks to do while the third piece offers a critique of the practice.
What does culture jamming seek to accomplish? How does it relate to any of the other criticisms of consumer culture that we have previously encountered (in the readings or films we’ve discussed)? Are culture jamming methods effective? Necessary? Why or why not? Analyze and interpret this marketplace phenomena (relate it to course materials and ideas) and tell me what you think (evaluate their critique and their proposed solution). Please visit the resource page for this assignment on D2L to help you research culture jamming.
In a thousand words or less, answer the questions posed above, integrating them into a cohesive essay that explores these topics. Your task is thus threefold: 1) Analyze the social movement. 2) Connect the ideas and actions of the social movement with ideas from class (particularly the readings for class #8). 3) Evaluate the movement (explain why you agree or why you disagree with what they are arguing and doing). NOTE: I am looking for multiple connections to be made. There is a lot of philosophical ammo for either side of this debate and there is a lot you can do with it.
Word count. At the bottom of the paper, list the number of words in the document, NOT INCLUDING YOUR SOURCES.
below are some great resourses!!
) I would start my research here. This is the link to Adbusters, a website and magazine started by Kalle Lasn (the author of the piece on culture jamming and one of the most influential thinkers concerning its use):
Poke around the site a bit. Read some of the articles and the comments on the articles to get an idea of what is going on. Then, look at some of their campaigns. Campaigns include: buy nothing day, blackspot shoes, digital detox week as well as their spoof ads.
2) Then, I would move on to do more research on culture jamming. Culture jamming refers to a large collection of activities. Here is a good starting place, the Wikipedia entry for the practice.
3) Now, use this link to Academic Search Complete to do some research on Culture Jamming. (Wikipedia should ~never~ be your only source for research).
