The global protest movement Anonymous creates performances that utilizes the surveillance economy infrastructure to deliver statements about its actions. Anonymous has gone silent for a while now but we can still examine their statements and analyze sophisticated performance techniques in how they communicate.
In this video Anonymous releases, a statement about their attack on the KKK. The video has several very effective performance aspects to it. Despite the beautiful and clear opening animations, the human figure is obscured by contrasting horizontal bars reminiscent of old tv screens. Intentionally applying this filter to the video creates the feeling this video is coming from an underground or pirate broadcast that has hacked the broadcast signal. But in reality, these videos were uploaded to YouTube, Facebook or other sites in accordance with the sites’ usage policies. Anonymous knew well the most effective way to reach people was to not to try to bring their message to the people but to bring the people (drive traffic) to the message, exactly what the attention economy and surveillance economy were already doing.
The figure in the video is also performing. The individual is sitting at a desk holding papers and employing the body language of a news anchor reporting on a television station. The Anonymous symbol in the upper left, and the picture within picture of stock footage help to reinforce the impression that this a credible source. One might ask are we meant to feel that Anonymous itself is credible, or that the individual sharing the information is credible in their knowledge of Anonymous? We should keep in mind the footage of the figure speaking is stock footage that was filmed once and used repeatedly in many videos.
In this video we can be reasonably confident that the voice over was read by live individual and then altered as opposed to transcribed for a digital reader. Careful examination of the rhetoric tools in the speech and the date of the video suggest that digital readers were not sophisticated enough at the time to speak so effectively. In addition to the voice-over the music in this video also adds to the performance aspect. The song “Lux Aeterna” composed by Clint Mansell is used to add dramatic atmosphere to the video’s message of war on the KKK.
Finally, the figure in all Anonymous video wears a Guy Fawkes mask. The history of Guy Fawkes and he went from criminal to pop culture hero goes back to the 1600’s. I could not find a source that stated when the first Guy Fawkes masks were made. The style of mask employed by Anonymous is
attributed to the 1980’s comic book V for Vendetta and the 2005 film adaptation. The mask is suspected to have been chosen for as an homage to a scene in the film when thousands of protesters standing up to a dystopian government march on Parliament and reveal they are all wearing the same mask. The mask is the most widely recognized symbol of Anonymous and appears around the globe in digital and real word Anonymous actions. The mask is also another example of Anonymous, existing within the economy and using the tools within the surveillance economy to
appear to be outside the economy. Time Warner owns the rights to the Guy Fawkes mask and sells one hundred thousand every year. Though they probably don’t all go to members of Anonymous, the movement is responsible for much of the mask’s continued popularity.
Source: What Do Anonymous Masks Mean