Wooster Collective

Wooster Collective is a culture jamming blog created in 2001. This blog has pictures, writings, and videos portraying culture jamming. The blog is bottom up run. The people who run it are a group of people/activists from New York City who see culture jamming movements in person or find online and post it to the blog. They mainly focus on street art.
"Wait- what exactly is street art?
Street art is art created in public places, often without permission. Street art is made in a number of mediums, including stencils, stickers, posters, paint, and sculpture. In mathematical, political, criminal, and philosophical terms, streetart is a subset of graffiti" - Streetsy (which is also Wooster Collective's affiliate).
Wooster collective seems like a popular alternative community for people to come together and express what they see. It seems like a culture jamming community which is a really cool concept. It reminds me of the blog we have for my Convergent Media and Divergent Voices class. A place where everyone can come together and inform eachother. Alot of the things I see on Wooster are not as crude or as racy compared to Ron English or Adbuster's. It seems more like art to me and very subtle messages. I appreciate what I have seen. I think what they have to offer is definitely alternative and a form of jamming but unlike others I have seen.

Check it out and let me know what you think: Wooster Collective

Banksy

Banksy is a culture jamming graffiti artist well known for his street art. He is also well known for not being know. Banksy has rarely been seen by anyone. He secretly shows up to wherever the location is that he is jamming and he leaves. Banksy is an alternative voice because as popular as his recreations are he remains unknown. He is popular by the power of his message and his art. People see his art and critically interpret what it means. "Banksy turns familiar signs into question marks, inviting us to rethink, on the one hand, our understanding of the cultural status of graffiti and, on the other hand, our understanding of the museum and gallery: public spaces which are defined by exclusion." (172) Coyer, Kate, Tony Dowmunt, and Alan Fountain. "Culture Jamming." The Alternative Media Handbook. London: Routledge, 2007. 163-85. Print. Banksy uses his powerful artwork to convey meanings that are not expressed in our culture. Banksy's culture jams allow others to form opinions and their own meanings of what they feel the underlying messages are.

The image that sparks my brain the most is the first jam that is shown is a breaking of a popular representation in society. When I look at it I think of the famous telephone booths seen in movies when they take place in England. I am not sure what his message is but, I am going to interpret that it is a mocking of tourists and an iconic landmark in England. Maybe he is saying there is more to life than what you know, and there is more beyond this telephone pole? I think this is what makes it a divergent message because there are probably so many interpretations as to what this is.


Banksy is an inspirational artists and culture jammer. His unknown identity and powerful messages in his artwork make him who he is: a divergent, culture jammer.