adjack

Vandalism 2.0

Movements like brandalism work with artists to takeover ad placements in public to draw attention to certain issues, and #ADHACKMANIFESTO aims to make knowledge of accessing and editing ad placements public knowledge.

It’s too little too late, almost all subvertising relies on static print placements. With static being phased out almost everywhere with digital placements that get advertisers excited. Digital advertising is far more difficult to subvert. Firstly, it’s a moving target, you can take a sharpie and draw a pair of glasses on an ad on a screen, but within 20 seconds that ad will change to something else. It’s also carries significantly harsher legal penalties. A lot of subvertising can be classed as activism and not vandalism, therefore allowing a certain amount of protection. However until now the only way to subvert a digital placement is to hack it, an act which not only leaves a trail, but is rarely respected as activism.

With adjack, there’s a better way.

Adjack is an open source project which will give anyone the ability to subvert digital advertising screens in their city, in a way that doesn’t cross any legal lines.

We’re using components that can be found within any LCD display to create a transparent portable display that can be clamped onto DOOH via magnets. Using an onboard Raspberry Pi, we can open the door for real time digital subvertising that plays with the content being displayed on the screen. Using a web portal, anyone will be able to draw or write over ad placements as they change. This project is in the early stages of development, small scale working prototypes are being built in the London Hackspace, with the aim to have a full scale prototype deployed by Spring 2022.

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