CULTURE JAM - ROUND 1 : THE STATE OF JAMMING IN FINLAND AND THE UK

The Finnish Institute in London is organising an evening that celebrates culture jamming and counter-advertising 21 April at Rich Mix in Shoreditch. The event is a part of the Institute’s series of events and talks focusing on culture and its role in creating social change.

Culture Jam – Round 1 pays special attention to the Finnish culture jamming scene and wants to find out how it relates to the British scene. Speakers for the evening are artists and activists Jani Leinonen (FI), Darren Cullen (UK) and Sara Kärpänen (FI) and author and activist Mel Evans (UK). The talk will be moderated by journalist and author Jari Tamminen (FI). Eeva Kemppainen from Pro Ethical Trade Finland will also introduce her new publication A Guide To Running A Subvertisement Workshop.

Culture jamming, in its core, always deals with the question of who controls space. Be it advertising space or physical urban space. Who has the right to decide what the public space looks like? Who gets to decide what we, the citizens, look like and do with our lives? Culture jamming rarely gives ready answers, but it asks the questions. As a global and diverse phenomenon, it can be found almost everywhere: it's subvertisements and liberated billboards, unexpected performance in the rush hour and it's street art.

“As the citizens of society today are steadily and increasingly evolving into consumers, and as the public space and media are optimised for consuming, it is important to remind people that a different kind of development is possible. Marketing always is one-way communication, culture jamming can hijack the channels of marketing and send a critical message back to the advertiser.” says Jari Tamminen.

*The term culture jamming is derived from radio jamming, used especially in warfare in order to create a distortion between the sender and receiver of a message. In a similar way, culture jammers respond to a particular message and aim at starting a dialogue/discussion and creating moments of distortion, in order to make it possible for the audience to see the world and society differently.

Culture Jam - Round 1, Thursday 21 April at 6:30pm at Rich Mix, 35-47 Bethnal Green Road, London E1 6LA

The event is free - but due to limited places, we advice you to book your ticket on Eventbrite here