Hacktivism/Sexual Tourism

The first part analises the problem of temporary citizenship through the case of !Mediengruppe Bitnik’s Random Darknet Shopper, a piece of hactivism art that has been initially arrested by police, then released. The semiotic concept of discursive regimes is here used to inspect the conflicts between the legal, the artist and the technical istances that are involved. This phenomenon allows to emphasise the discord that emerges between a performative and a right-based citizenship. It also shows how the concept of citizenship, if understood in this paradigm, assumes an extension that can include otherwise unforeseen instances, such as masses of data and goods. The second part develops the concept of sex tourism, attempting to show that this species of tourism is indistinguishable from its genus. Both, in fact, involve and are fuelled by urban zooning phenomena. In the case of sex tourism, it is fed by its illegal nature. After briefly overviewing the global politics concerning sex working legislation, the conclusion focuses on the two processes of projecting a metaphysical truth onto the phenomenon and of doubling down on zoning in the psychological introjection by workers.