Dear nettimers,
it seems like the MIC CHECK, the ritualistic practice of amplifying a
speaker's voice in public space through call and response, is now
migrating from cities and squares to public (or semi-public) events held
by the authorities in various venues. Basically, protesters bring with
themselves a text and engage in call and response so as to overcome the
amplified voice of authority. A very simple tactic, but quite effective,
as you can see from the videos below.
The first powerful action that I know of was held at the Panel for
Education Policy in New York on October 26:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbmjMickJMA
Then Wisconsin governor Scott Walker (the union-buster) was mic-checked
at the Chicago's Union League Club on November 3:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oHRdiklTlU&feature=share
And yesterday Republican presidential candidate Michelle Bachmann was
mic-checked by a group of students in Charleston, SC:
http://mountpleasant-sc.patch.com/articles/bachmann-talks-foreign-policy-at-yorktown#video-8403501
I can see this spreading so as to become one of the favorite forms of
contestation of the Occupy Movement. It would be interesting to know
whether someone is working on a social history of the Mic Check.
Enjoy,
Snafu
# distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
# <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
# collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
# more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l
# archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: [email protected]
