It happened here. Democracy was upended, and started walking as a ghost-name, rather than a political model of government, on November of 2016. We know how the machinery of misinformation, foreign intervention, and internet forms of activism (and “activism” here has a very broad sense, regardless of its political color), along with political mishaps, the collaboration of bad actors, and un-democratic practices, ended up in the election of the 45th president of the US without the support of the popular vote by a large number.
The manifestations of archival productivity ever since are impossible to tackle, as they have grown exponentially thanks to the false promises of social networking. In the middle of that, there is one particular truth —that of some people undertaking un-hackeable practices to reaffirm the presence of the demos, that is, the people as a political actor. One of those un-hackeable practices happened immediately after Election Day, when thousands of people started writing post-its and sticking them on the walls of Union sq / 14th street Subway station hallways. Just a few weeks ago, similar post-it-ing happened in the streets of Hong Kong: thousands of post-its turned the streets of protest into a space of ephemeral memory of the political actions that Hong Kong inhabitants were undertaking, and that would end up having legislative effects.
In my talk and power-point, I will reflect on these ephemeral walls of post-its, and the political un-hackeability they promote.