Electronic Disturbance Theater

also: EDT

movement founded 1997 United States Mexico

The Electronic Disturbance Theater (EDT) is an artist-activist collective founded in 1997 by Ricardo Dominguez, Brett Stalbaum, Stefan Wray and Carmin Karasic. It became known for FloodNet, a web-based tool that staged virtual sit-ins - huge numbers of visitors repeatedly requesting a target's web page to slow or block it - in solidarity with the Zapatista movement in Chiapas, Mexico. EDT framed these actions as 'electronic civil disobedience', translating the language of nonviolent protest into network space, and the group has continued to mix performance, software and activism around border and immigration issues. Its work belongs to the tactical-media and net.art currents of the late 1990s rather than to any visual style.

Photo of Electronic Disturbance Theater taken with other photos by Kinsee Morlan for San Diego City Beat.
Photo of Electronic Disturbance Theater taken with other photos by Kinsee Morlan for San Diego City Beat.CC BY-SA 2.0 (credit: lotu5, photo by Kinsee Morlan) · source

Defining characteristics

  • Works exist as network actions and software tools rather than physical objects
  • Mass participation: the public performs the piece by visiting a target site
  • Protest framing: actions are staged as demonstrations with announced targets
  • Documentation mixes web pages, screenshots and performance-like narration
  • Deliberately low-tech interfaces (simple text pages) set against high-tech institutions

Key figures

  • Ricardo Dominguez — Co-founder and principal spokesperson of the collective
  • Brett Stalbaum — Co-founder; developed the FloodNet tool
  • Carmin Karasic — Co-founder; artist and programmer of the virtual sit-ins

Example works

  • FloodNet virtual sit-ins — Electronic Disturbance Theater (1998)

Sources

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