On Sun, Aug 21, 2011 at 11:19 PM, Udhay Shankar N <[email protected]> wrote:
> On 14-Jan-11 5:54 AM, Gabriella Coleman wrote: > > > "As for Ms. Coleman, I appreciate the work she's doing but I would not > > want to be locked in a room with her. She has gazed deeply into the > > abyss. Who knows what horrors have taken root in her mind, and lie > > sleeping, waiting to unleash unfathomable nightmares for the lulz?" > Such a great quote. > > Couple of interesting links related to Biella's work that I came across: > > She teaches a class on hackers at NYU, some details here [1]. Of > particular interest to me is this long piece on trolls [2] that she uses > as course material. > > Biella, would you say that trolling is primarily *performance art* and, > therefore, would not exist without an audience? > I think that is a huge part of the logic (and am publishing a piece this fall, under a CC license so I will post here exploring it somewhat in those terms: Phreaks, Hackers, and Trolls and the Politics of Transgression and Spectacle). But what is also interesting is the different formats and logics trolling takes and why it is exploding now. I don't get into in too much detail and there are more than two to contrast, but the trolling from 4chan takes the form of anonymous crowd-sourced trolling, where the performance is really never meant to draw attention to one person (in fact they really chide that individualism). On the other hand, the trolling in the NY Times article (featuring weev who is now in the NY area awaiting trial and so I have gotten to know him quite well) is so much more about an individual and his performance art. In fact I first got into contact with Weev when he left me a phone message asking/urging me to study him as spectacle is his "art." He is rather good at trolling, too good at it, one might say given his current legal troubles. This is somewhat tangential, but lately I have been spending a lot of time on Anonymous and some of you might be interested (their roots are in trolling). Here are two of the more substantial pieces: http://mediacommons.futureofthebook.org/tne/pieces/anonymous-lulz-collective-action http://owni.eu/2011/08/22/is-anonymous-anarchy/ Biella > > Udhay > > [1] > > http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2010/09/the-anthropology-of-hackers/63308/ > [2] > https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/03/magazine/03trolls-t.html?pagewanted=all > -- > ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com)) > >
