[ISEA2015] Artists Statement: Carmin Karasic, Brett Stalbaum, Ricardo Dominguez & Stefan Wray (Electronic Disturbance Theatre) – FLOODNET

Artists Statement

Web (1998)

FloodNet is the first global online political protest software that successfully implemented electronic civil disobedience, launching a new era of hacktivism. FloodNet disrupted traffic to a specific web server and wrote messages to its error log, successfully bringing attention to Chiapas, Mexico. This first FloodNet strike had over 8000 global participants, and made history on June 10, 1998, when the Mexican government implemented a countermeasure that caused any browser running FloodNet to crash. The Mexican countermeasure shows that through popular electronic civil disobedience, FloodNet participants forced the Mexican government to acknowledge global Zapatista solidarity, making the work a historically significant example of hacking for a political cause.

  • The Electronic Disturbance Theater (EDT) is a small group of art activists engaged in developing the theory and practice of Electronic Civil Disobedience. The founding members are Ricardo Dominguez, Carmin Karasic, Brett Stalbaum, and Stefan Wray. EDT is recognized as one of the first small autonomous groups working to popularize digital resistance, working at the intersections of radical politics, global performance art, and web design.

Text with images (PDF) p. 23