#rtmark

[paskvilnet]

RTmark

Mediální teroristická skupina RTMark (rtmark.com) je jistě zvučné označení. Však právě proto si toto označení skupina pracovníců z agentur specializovaných na public relation vybrala. I když sami přiznávají, že to co dělají není umění, ale politika, s gustem si žádají o umělecké granty, aby pak vytiskli letáčky Lufthansy k nerozeznání podobné originálním. Jen nabízející za zvláštní poplatek tzv. Deportační třídu. "Udělali jsme to když jsme se dozvěděli, že Lufthansa na svých pravidelných linkách deportuje ve spolupráci s německou vládou ročně 30 000 běženců z Třetího světa. To dává poněkud jiný pohled na jejich exotickému marketingovému sloganu. See the world through different eyes! Dívej se na svět jinýma očima. Prostě na to upozorňujeme." Dál si Rtmark udělali legraci z amerického presidenta, amerického volebního systému, alternativní pop hvězdy Becka či Světové obchodní organizace. "Nejsme doslova teroristé, ale snažíme se podobně jako teroristé vyhledávat slabá místa systému a na ty pak útočíme. Naším úspěchem je, když se problém dostane do federálních médií či podobně jako v případě stránky gwbush.com do hlavního vysílání CNN " Právě na tomto kanále označil G.W.Bush Rtmak za "garbage", odpad, když na stránce s jeho jménem uveřejnili výzvu, aby zrušil tvrdé tresty za drogové delikty, protože sám má prokázanou zkušenost s kokainem. Umělecký mediální terorismus zasahuje vlády, nadnárodní korporace a přitom všem se tváří docela sexy. Pokud navštívíte stránky rtmark.com, najdete ho tam v krystalické podobě.

[obscuritory]

Still floored that RTMark responded and confirmed that they made up their story about Secret Writer’s Society. Even for a group that has a history of making things up, that’s a bold claim to fabricate and then double down on after Panasonic disputed it. And it’s even more amazing it really was just a bug the whole time that wasn’t caught during development. Based on the beta version, it seems that the swear filter was a last-minute feature (added during the last months of development), so it makes sense if it wasn’t tested as thoroughly.

Hilariously, that actually ends up reinforcing RTMark’s point about not trusting a poorly made educational program to teach your children.

[obscuritory]

In 1998, Panasonic Interactive Media released Secret Writer’s Society, an educational game designed to help kids write. One of its features was a text-to-speech tool that would read back what you wrote.

But if you wrote three or more sentences and double-clicked the text-to-speech button – which an impatient kid might do – the program would read a list of obscenities.

Initially, Panasonic claimed this was a bug related to the program’s swear filter, but eventually, culture jamming activist group RTMark (and one of their managing groups, Rhizome) claimed responsibility for the “feature” as sabotage and an act of protest. Wired quotes the programmer as saying that he “wanted to wake parents up to reality — here's what happens if you hand your responsibility to some machine.”

The act was condemned by some educators as unproductive, but they also agreed that it had a point. Although I haven’t played it (it doesn’t seem to be readily available anywhere, sadly), by all accounts Secret Writer’s Society was not a quality instructional program, and we need to think critically about whether software, however well-made, can be a substitute for teaching.

The founder of RTMark, Jacques Servin, was also responsible for inserting scantily-clad “himbos” into Maxis’s SimCopter in protest of working conditions at Maxis and the non-inclusion of gay character in games. You might also recognize Rhizome for their work preserving the Theresa Duncan CD-ROMs last year.

[belldubois]

The Barbie Liberation Organization or BLO, sponsored by RTMark, are a group of artists and activists involved in culture jamming. They gained notoriety in 1993 by switching the voice boxes on talking G.I. Joes and Barbie dolls. The BLO performed "surgery" on a reported 300-500 dolls and then returned them to the shelves of stores, an action they refer to as "shopgiving." This action resulted in girls opening their new Teen Talk Barbie to hear it say phrases such as "vengeance is mine" and boys hearing their G.I. Joe say "the beach is the place for summer."

[cawlie-blog]

The Barbie Liberation Organization

The Barbie Liberation Organization or BLO, sponsored by RTMark, are a group of artists and activists involved in culture jamming. They gained notoriety in 1993 by switching the voice boxes on talking G.I. Joes and Barbie dolls. The BLO performed "surgery" on a reported 300–500 dolls and then returned them to the shelves of stores, an action they refer to as shopgiving. This action resulted in girls opening their new Teen Talk Barbie to hear it say phrases such as "vengeance is mine" and boys hearing their G.I. Joe say "The beach is the place for summer."

[canonsofexclusion]

Networks, Surveillance, Culture Jamming

Exchange, transfer and collaborative creation from remote participants using computers and telecommunications resulting ing telematics.

Artists: Roy Ascott, Julia Scher, and rtmark

Image by "Always There" by Julia Scher