Some notes on Space Hi j ackers

Of f i ci al Protester of the London 2012

Games campai gn
I SAAC MARRERO- GUI LLAMON

I encountered the logo you can see in the
image above in the summer of 2012 first as
an online image, then as a copyright
controversy that made it to the news, and
finally printed on t-shirts (mostly worn at anti-
Olympics events).
Space Hijackers (SH), an activist
collective who define themselves as a group
of Anarchitects, had set up a webpage
1
where
people could sign up to be part of the official
protest of the Games and apply for tickets to
official protest events. They warned visitors to
be wary of bogus sites claiming to give you
access to protest at the Games. Ensure you
only register with our authorized website.
The website, and the tweeter account
associated with it, caught the attention of
LOCOG (the London Olympics Organizing
Committee), a limited company created to
organise the Games and exploit them
commercially. Acting within their legal remit,
they accused SH of inappropriate
association with the Olympic brand, arguing
that their use of the official logo could create
confusion. According to LOGOG, SH were
impersonating the Games official organisers.
Soon after, Tweeter duly responded to
the accusation and shut their account without
previous notice. This of course made news
amongst activist circles, but also in the

1
www.protestlondon2012.com (as of June 2014
the site seems to be down.)
mainstream media
2
, which of course further
publicised the campaign and contributed to its
notoriety.
Following a bit of back and forth,
Tweeter ended up restoring their account.
This, according to SH, meant that the
confusion had finally been resolved and
their status as official protesters officially
recognised. Later on, in order to avoid further
conflict with LOCOG, they stopped selling the t-
shirts and instead posted the instructions to
make your own. The DIY shirt became even
more popular, and was worn by many activists
in the spring and summer of 2012.
I think the campaign raises interesting
questions for Curating the activist object. First,
it produced a momentary shortcircuit in the
logic of the copyright system: SH managed to
drag LOCOG into a paradoxical position, where
denouncing them meant recognising the
success of the campaign. Second, it involved
connecting viral online tactics with offline
actions, so that the debate over the
trademarking of the Olympics (which, lets not
forget, included protection over the flag, the
motto, the anthem, the emblems, the flame,
the torches, and words such as Olympiad,
Olympian, Olympic, Summer, 2012,
Gold, Silver, Bronze, or Medals)
proliferated unexpectedly. Third, it made use
of satire and DIY methods in ways people
could easily participate in allowing the
campaign to become appropriated by many,
rather than directed by HS.
(Image from SpaceHijackers.org)

2
It was featured amongst others in The
Guardian, The Telegraph, and Wired.