Yo Logo! Zur künstlerischen Auseinandersetzung mit Markenpolitiken unter Netzbedingungen

Abstract

VERENA KUNI

Yo Logo! Net Artists and Branding Policies

This paper examines the changes in the strategies adopted by net artists critically engaging with branding policies in the age of global branding. Discussion focuses on two examples whose contents and aesthetics are concerned with textiles. First, Cat Mazza’s Nike Blanket, a net project that campaigns for fair working conditions at Nike’s manufacturing facilities; second, Stephanie Syjuco’s Counterfeit Crochet Project, which calls for making hand-made copies of well-known luxury bags. By demanding a return to traditional women’s handicraft, both projects subvert the desire for luxury goods, which is stimulated by the large fashion and textile companies and greeted with a flood of industrially manufactured counterfeits. Like these corporations, the projects use the Internet to extend their scope of action and reflection. This contribution offers a critical discussion on how far the existing primacy of singular artistic authorship (curtailing the involvement of project participants to legwork) preserves existing hierarchies or indeed enables cooperative labour. It also explores the political effectiveness of these projects which, it is worth remembering, are ultimately situated within the sheltered space of (virtual) art.