#OccupyOccupy
#OccupyOccupy, is a multidimensional online project that investigates and to a certain extent critiques the presence of the Occupy movement on social media. The outcome of the project is a Twitter archive of Occupy during some of the local protests I was involved with, most significantly #OccupyGezi. Tweets on the map are clustered around symbolic spaces of satellite protests. I also developed a Twitter bot that scrambled and reposted existing Tweets. This project stems from a desire to shed light on how the essence of the political movements of our time has transitioned onto platforms like Twitter, while radically transforming both our use of social media and how we protest.
#OccupyOccupy was the culmination of my studies in Communication Design at Central Saint Martins. It embodies the spirit of exploration and adaptation, echoing the core principles of the Occupy movement itself. Through this project, I sought to bridge the gap between the digital and physical, the academic and the public, and in doing so, contribute to a broader conversation about the evolving landscape of activism in the digital age.
The journey began with a quest for a suitable platform to convey the essence of #OccupyOccupy. Google Maps emerged as the most fitting medium, and I embarked on a self-taught journey in JavaScript. My final product was meant to map out real-time #Occupy tweets on their corresponding virtual locations. The resulting custom Occupy map might technically appear somewhat chaotic, but I embraced this aesthetic, mirroring the grassroots nature of the movement's native tools and strategies.
The title of my dissertation, "Learning from #Gezi: What is the potential of #digital #publicspace as a medium?" underscores my intention to bridge the academic realm with broader social discussions. I used hashtags throughout the whole piece and took an unconventional route by tweeting the content of my dissertation sentence by sentence on Twitter. I mentioned all of my references on the platform, in an effort to extend beyond academic confines and stimulate authentic conversations around the topic.
As another outcome of the project, I created a Twitter bot with the capability to craft distinctive Occupy-themed tweets. The process involved compiling existing Occupy tweets into a database and deconstructing them into individual words. This deconstruction enabled the bot to generate entirely new sentences, imbued with the essence of Occupy, yet devoid of new perspectives. The intention behind these nonsensical tweets was to magnify the resonance of the Occupy movement, similar to an echo chamber, without introducing novel viewpoints. This exactly aligned with the role of the platform within this particular context.
A physical dimension was also integrated into the project through the #OccupyOccupy stencil kit. This kit comprises symbols and phrases derived from the project, intended to be utilized as tools for protest. This tactile engagement pays homage to the traditional means of protest while infusing them with contemporary symbolism.
