THE YES MEN AND ACTIVISM IN THE INFORMATION ... - Index of

ears. No violent or strong audience reactions were recorded until the group lectured to students in
Plattsburgh and “disbanded” the WTO at the lecture in Sydney. In fact, the only reactions
received from the lectures as seen in the film, other than those in Plattsburgh, are of mild
amusement or unquestioning praise for the WTO. As evident in their most recent work against
Dow, the group is not seen as a savior of the downtrodden that it claims to support. One might
conclude from such press as discussed above that the Yes Men have done more harm than good,
angering the victims of their targets rather than helping them.
One reason for their lack of success is the Yes Men’s apparent lack of interaction with
the art world. RTMark, on the other hand, has always operated within the realm of art, and has
collaborated with other artist groups on a regular basis. In 2000, they participated in the Whitney
Biennial in New York, in which, the group commented on the exclusivity of such juried
exhibitions. Their work, created specifically for the Biennial, consisted of the RTMark website,
which the group allowed to be hijacked during the duration of the show. In this way, anyone who
had the means could submit their URL, which would replace the RTMark site. Anyone with a
website could then become an exhibiting artist in the Biennial. Depending on the frequency and
number of outside submissions, an artist could participate in the show for anywhere from a few
minutes to a couple of days. 63 The group also auctioned off their tickets to the Biennial party to
the highest bidder, who would, in RTMark’s words, “become official Whitney Biennial
artists.” 64 By framing their actions as RTMark within the art world, Vamos and Servin created a
63 Galloway, 235.
64 Ibid.
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