Automatic protester

‘Automatic protester’ is a set of physical tools designed support activists and eventually replace human from the protest scene. Learning from Occupy Wall Street and Arab Spring, it is clear that social movement is heavily mediated through new media technology. Similar technology can be used to enfoce hegemony of power and also as a tool for distributed collective action and participation. Government agencies are investing on artificial intelligence and unmanned vehicles to further control people in revolt. It is the time, we activists, to build practical and symbolic tools to continue protesting in the age of ‘non-human’ public space. The tools are built with material that will cohere with the New York City law for picketing, such as corregated cardboard, styrofoam and electricity will run on low voltage battery and solar cell. The series include ‘Occu-bot’, a hand made electronic protester that continuously occupies public space, ‘Noise Collector’, a dog that records and plays back urban sound via non-electronically amplified megaphone.
Up until this point, my work as the artist and lead engineer focused in creating working prototypes for art exhibitions, which I consider as a simulated public space, while it’s use in real protest scenes has been limited. The Rhizome commission will support launch of D.I.Y manuals to help others make their own and make a large quantity of beta versions that will be shipped to places of social distress around the world. The project website will exhibit videos documenting its use around the world tools. Around the time of public launch, I will hold a workshop for general public to make their own.