Protest projection on Twitter HQ

San Francisco/CA/United States, 18 NOV 2022

Film On display

This video features in a responsive display in the museum that presents the moments, stories and memes capturing the zeitgeist by going viral on the internet.

Lawless oligarch. Worthless billionaire. Space Karen. These are just some of the labels activist Alan Marling projected onto Twitter’s San Francisco HQ to describe new owner Elon Musk. The scrolling text questioned Musk’s ethics, investments and treatment of employees after taking over the company in October. On Twitter itself, the vibe was apocalyptic, with many users lamenting the end (using the hashtag #RIPTwitter) and Musk’s unbanning of controversial figures like Donald Trump. This real-world projection protest reflects the kinds of commentary users are making about the site’s new overlord.

The backlash against Elon Musk's isn't only because of his treatment of employees or reinstating divisive figures, it follows growing resentment towards billionaires (and how they amassed their wealth) as the world struggles with rampant inequality.

Related works

Content notification

Our collection comprises over 40,000 moving image works, acquired and catalogued between the 1940s and early 2000s. As a result, some items may reflect outdated, offensive and possibly harmful views and opinions. ACMI is working to identify and redress such usages.

Learn more about our collection and our collection policy here. If you come across harmful content on our website that you would like to report, let us know.

How to watch

This work has been digitised but due to rights and access requirements can only be viewed onsite at ACMI over WiFi.

Collection

Not in ACMI's collection

Credits

creator

JoshuaPHilll

Production dates
18 NOV 2022

Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

Curatorial section

The Story of the Moving Image → Moving Minds → MM-09. Catch of the Day

Object Types

Moving image file/Digital

Materials

Screen recording from @JoshuaPHilll's Twitter account

Collected

2511 times

Please note: this archive is an ongoing body of work. Sometimes the credit information (director, year etc) isn’t available so these fields may be left blank; we are progressively filling these in with further research.

Cite this work on Wikipedia

If you would like to cite this item, please use the following template: {{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/121828--projection-of-protest-messages-onto-twitter-headquarters-in-sf-by-activist-alan-marling/ |title=Protest projection on Twitter HQ |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=5 October 2024 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}