Guerrilla communication - Definition and Overview

The terms guerrilla communication and communication guerrilla refer to unconventional forms of communication and/or intervention in more conventional processes of communication.

Communication guerilla is a specific style of political action drawing from a watchful view of the paradoxes and absurdities of power, turning these into the starting point for political interventions by playing with representations and identities, with alienation and over-identification.

One form of guerrilla communication is the creation of ritual via participative public spectacle to disrupt or protest some public event or to shift the perspectives of passers-by. Such spectacles often take the form of street and guerrilla theater, such as the theater of Augusto Boal. Another way to create such spectacle is via tactical frivolity.

Pie-throwing as performance art is a classic form of guerrilla communication. The event is a moment turned inside-out; art is made from the reactions of the bystanders, turning spectacle to ritual. Other forms of guerrilla communication include adbusting, graffiti, hacktivism (notably cyber squatting), and reclaiming.

See also

• Culture jamming
• KLF
• Publixtheatre Caravan.
• Reclaim the Streets
• Spass guerilla
• Subvertising

External links

• The Handbook of Communication Guerrilla (http://www.contrast.org/KG/engindex.htm)
• Blogchronik der Kommunikationsguerilla - multilingual Weblog - but german dominant (http://kommunikationsguerilla.twoday.net)

Texts about Guerilla Communication

• autonome a.f.r.i.k.a.-gruppe: Communication Guerilla - Transversality in Everyday Life? (http://www.republicart.net/disc/artsabotage/afrikagruppe01_en.htm)
• autonome a.f.r.i.k.a.-gruppe, Luther Blissettt and Sonja Brünzels: Communication guerrilla - a message out of the deeper german backwood (http://www.contrast.org/KG/nett20.htm)