Instant Protest Agency

In January 2017, IOCOSE started Instant Protest, an online service to sell customised protests. Photos of people demonstrating in the streets are bought on eBay for $10 each, and buyers can request any slogan they like to be written on the signs of the protesters. IOCOSE draws on crowdsourcing platforms to commission online workers from anywhere in the world to take photos of themselves while staging the protest chosen by the buyer. The final product is a photographic documentation of a global protest, re-usable for news articles, social media campaigns, lobbying and political movements.

During the residency, we want to expand this work and sell comprehensive packages, inclusive of reposts and likes on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Customers will not just receive photos of their protests, but can also commission a social media campaign.

In December 2016, Das Magazin revealed how Cambridge Analytica influenced the Brexit and Trump campaigns by investing in data analysis and online marketing. Instant Protest Agency will bring these new technological solutions to the man in the street, who might like to play a role in the democracy of the 21st century. Instant Protest Agency allows citizens to take control of other people’s perception of reality.

The work develops our ongoing research on crowdsourcing, started in 2012 with ›A Crowded Apocalypse,‹ and developed in 2013 with ›How to Make a Bomb‹ and ›If the Kids are United.‹