As we have seen in the previous chapters, the abstract machine of hacktivism runs
on different levels. It engages personal practice, the organization of communities
and the tactics of communication. In the Syntax/144 project we have already seen
how a small set of rules can affect the outcome of a project, without one person
becoming the artistic leader or the auteur, dictating the process. Instead there are
procedures delegating the creative processes making the collaborative endeavour
a form of “bazaar”. As we have mentioned, hacktivism aims to reduce the top-
down decision mechanisms to a minimum and aspires to share practice between
a multiplicity of participants on as equal terms as possible. Every contribution is
precious and valued according to how well it is crafted, but perhaps even more
according to its symbiogenetic possibilities and of how well it is interfaced and
works together with the inherent forces in the system, or how well it connects
with the other lines stretching through the rhizome or bazaar. In other words,
how it is part of the alliance.
This means that what is guiding the design processes within the hacktivist rhizome
is not the auteur or the top down artistic controller, but instead it is someone more
similar to the administrator who has the role of guiding the communication and
connections between the interacting parts. In this context, the administrator is not
the technical term we usually meet when discussing computer networks. It is not
the robotic system engineer but the negotiator. It is a role that supports the process
that creates dynamic and open agreements and which facilitate interoperations.
The results of the negotiations and the agreements that guide and regulate action
spaces are something we could call protocols. The protocols configure the symbio-
genesis within a networked system. They allow for a multiplicity of parts to inter-
operate and to form mutualistic relationships. To understand and use the full po-
tentials of hacktivism and the synergies between small design contributions all
parts must be networked into an alliance and thus synchronized by protocols. This
is what we will have to look at next.
small
change protocols
• Small Change means to start small and start where it counts. These are improvised and immediate small interventions aiming to find multipliers that can “tip over” modest ideas into synergies.
To facilitate larger collaborations these small actions can be guided by protocols.
