EYE

Heath Bunting's work can be defined as art, installation,
hacking, activism or criminal activity -- it all depends on
who you are, and how you react to him. He's is a
shit-disturber on the net, shuffling bits and bytes until
data is subverted to become "disinformation."

I'll back up a bit.

For any activist, the greatest obstacle to reaching a mass
audience is getting past preaching to the converted. On the
streets, activist groups can have a demonstration, or poster
walls and billboards up the wazoo. But online, it's not as
easy. An animal activist group or the McDonald's boycott
organization can't exactly afford to buy an ad on the
AltaVista search engine to direct people to their web sites.

"You have to be visible on the front line," Bunting says.
And he's found an easy -- and relatively harmless -- way to
do it.

He calls it subversion.

Bunting's latest work is an attack on the Nike and Adidas
shoe manufacturers. Within the next month, when you query
any search engine about Nike, the first 10 or more links
will send you straight to his domain -- www.irational.org --
where you'll find the words URL FOR RENT and a link to the
company's competitor, Adidas.

He's done this by making his own web site more sensitive to
search engine queries than Nike's. To get a good look at how
it works now, go to a search engine and type in
"Sainsbury's." He's used the same method to keep people from
getting to the URL of this British grocery store chain.

It's a form of activism that mucks up the consumer and the
company alike, creating a void where the capitalistic
centres exist.

Ingrid Heim