Little Brother Breaks the Fifth Commandment

Buiani, Roberta; Genosko, Gary

doi:10.1080/09502386.2012.707220

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 2 publications

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“…As a piece of theatrical political activity, Oldfield sought to achieve maximum exposure and cause minimal amount of damage and, at the time of his protest, he was not linked to any wider political group. Although Oldfield did not explicitly link his protest to inspiration from this movement, one can infer that he was aware of, and took inspiration from, the 1960s Situationist International and the US Yippies (Buiani and Genosko, 2012). Indebted to Surrealism, Bakhtin, Lefebvre, the Dada-inspired Lettrist International (Gardiner, Situationist International was an exclusive, theoretical, theatrical grouping that saw the contemporary 'spectacle' of global capitalism as a fake reality which masked the denigration of human life (Kaplan, 2012;Rasmussen, 2004).…”

Section: Individual Protest and New Social Movementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Messing About on the River.’ Trenton Oldfield and the Possibilities of Sports Protest

Dart

2016

Sport, Protest and Globalisation

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In April 2012 Trenton Oldfield disrupted the annual Boat Race between Cambridge and Oxford Universities by going for a swim in the River Thames. For some, Oldfield's timely swim in a public space was an imaginative and well executed act of peaceful, civil disobedience which achieved maximum exposure and caused minimal damage. Live television coverage of the event and his use of social media allowed him to promote his manifesto 'Elitism leads to Tyranny' with Oldfield's actions an example of individual, autonomous political activity. This chapter consider the opportunities that a large sport event, here the Boat Race, offers to such individual autonomist protesters and how new forms of digital web-based media are changing the dynamic between sport, media and protest.Discussion focuses on response to Oldfield's protest by sections of the English media and UK government who, upset to see their sporting pleasures disrupted, sought to deport him from the UK.In carrying out his direct action against what he saw as elitism and an increasing division in British society, Oldfield targeted the highly symbolic event -commonly known as 'the Boat Race.' This event, held annually since 1856, is between the heavyweight men's eight crews from the universities of Cambridge and Oxford is a non-ticket event which takes place between Putney Bridge and Chiswick Bridge (Mortlake) on the River Thames. Since its beginning it has drawn huge crowds with the audience increasing when the BBC first broadcast the event in 1938. In 2012 Trenton Oldfield, originally from Australia, stopped the race for the first time in its 158-year history. He was immediately arrested and later convicted of causing a public nuisance, sentenced to six months in prison. Following the direct involvement of the Home Office minister, he was then threatened with deportation (back) to Australia.The discussion draws from a number of sources, primarily the British news media and other web-based material. As will be shown there was an array of responses to Oldfield's action ranging from the centre-ground Guardian and Independent newspapers to the right-of-centre Daily Mail who gave extensive coverage to the event. It uses Trenton Oldfield's protest as an entry point to examine the emerging predilection for autonomous individual protest. What

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Section: Individual Protest and New Social Movementsmentioning

confidence: 99%