The Possibility of an Army

2015

“In the piece enti­tled ‘The Possi­bility of an Army’ the work explores the concept of iden­tity, which is more rele­vant than ever in light of the everyday use of social media networks. Digital iden­ti­ties are the currency of multi­na­tional corpo­ra­tions, the 'Like' button the foun­da­tion stone for a new economy of atten­tion. With ‘The Possi­bility of an Army’ the work pops the key ques­tion: Do we wish to measure cultural value simply by those figures that a profit-maxi­mizing company collects and prepares? It sallies forth with a possible army of merce­naries to search for the weak chinks in a long estab­lished system.” - from exhibition text of solo at Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt

“How do we end the unbri­dled use of this false vali­da­tion system in jour­nalism? How can we make clear that follower counts, 'views' or 'likes' are not and will never be a trust­worthy measure of social commit­ment as long as finan­cial incen­tive is in place to manip­u­late these counts. Even that quan­ti­fied social feed­back does not mean quality. How do we keep this objec­tivist system cele­brating effi­ciency and a corpo­rate, western approach to art and culture from manip­u­lating cultural critique? Do we need to sell T-shirts and tote bags on Kick­starter before we can crit­i­cize these false vali­da­tion systems? It is time to use more dramatic terms. What follows is the recruitment of a virtual, Discor­dianist, Hessian army.” - from a declaration of war posted on both Hyperallergic Magazine and on the website of Schirn

“Volunteers created PVA, phone verified accounts, with the names of real but long dead, soldiers in the army of the lost state of Hesse-Cassel. In the 18th century, when Germany was still a patchwork of small states, Frederick II of Hesse-Cassel hit on a brilliant way of enriching his domain: he hired out this well-trained army to fight other peoples’ wars. The Hessians, as they were known, were a regular army for hire. Their most famous (in America, infamous) employment was on the British side against the American revolution. ‘The economy of the Hessian state got a big boost.’ The profits were used in an Enlightenment campaign to improve society. It’s eerily appropriate that they have now returned as a band of Facebook mercenaries, their identities marshalled in the inauthentic, money-spinning world of social media.Facebook is seen as a very American product, exporting a very American popularity culture. The original Hessians fought in the US and have been caricatured as brutal mercenaries but in reality they “behaved honourably’.” - Jonathan Jones, from article in The Guardian

“Facebook verwijdert nepaccounts normaal gesproken. Maar het werk omzeilt het detectiesysteem van Facebook door telefoonnummers te kopen in bijvoorbeeld Bangladesh of op de Filipijnen, en het account aan dat nummer te koppelen. Dan lijken het individuele personen. Of het gaat lukken om 20.000 'soldaten' te maken, is niet zeker. Facebook is namelijk vrij streng als het om de echtheid van accounts gaat. ‘Het maakt niet uit als er af en toe een account verwijderd wordt. Het is een leger, en in elk leger sneuvelen wel eens soldaten. Er wordt niet geheimzinnig gedaan over de werkwijze: dat zou het tegenovergestelde zijn van wat het werk wil bereiken.’” - from article on Dutch news platform NOS