Open Source Resistance

opensourceresistance.net (Website from the Year Zero alternate reality game, archived at the Wayback Machine here)

Discovery

This website was found through The Price of Treason where this site is credited to "Neil Czerno".

Content

Unlike the rest of the Year Zero World of Year Zero sites, Open Source Resistance is set in -15, which, since Year Zero is 2022, is this year (2007). The appearance of the site reflects this, particularly since it doesn't carry the "corrupted" appearance of the sites sent by the pilgrims in 2022/0000 or any banned media.

submit@opensourceresistance.net

The site encourages you to submit subversive work or platforms by which the work can be distributed to submit@opensourceresistance.net with the suggestion that the work will be published somehow. The work should follow the guidelines of anything which is intended to raise awareness of the issues which could lead to Year Zero.

Submitting to the request for subversive art or platforms elicits the following emailed response:

"Thanks!  I mean that.  Your particular piece may rock my world or 
leave me cold, but the fact that you put the time and energy into making 
it in the first place is what matters the most.  That kind of effort is 
the thing that allows me to hope the future will be
 better than I fear.

 I never know exactly when I’ll have time to review submissions, 
but I will try to get to it soon."

Broadcasts

This section of the site hosts artwork that has been published in various magazines and newspapers. Publications include: Seattle Weekly (Seattle, WA), Austin Chronicle (Austin, TX), City Paper (Philadelphia, PA), Weekly Dig (Boston, MA), Village Voice (New York, NY), Orlando Weekly (Orlando, FL), OC Weekly (Orange County, CA), Chicago Reader (Chicago, IL), San Francisco Guardian (San Fransisco, CA), LA Weekly (Los Angeles, CA).

Open Source Resistance email list

At the bottom of the page is a link to subscribe to a mailing list. You can join the list by sending an email to list@opensourceresistance.net with the subject line of 'subscribe'. If you subscribe to the email address, you'll get the following response:

''Thanks.  You are now on the Open Source Resistance email list.  
I don’t sell, I don’t spam.  If you want to get off, write back
 with "Unsubscribe" in the subject at any time.''

 

''Welcome.  There are more of us than there are of Them.  
Let’s make that count for something.''

If you reply to that, you'll get the same thing over again.

Email sent April 11

People subscribed to the email list received the following:

"	From: 	  list at opensourceresistance.net
	Subject: 	Update, plus OSR goes live in LA
	Date: 	April 11, 2007 8:38:23 PM EDT
	To: 	
 Unbelievable, the quality of stuff you have been sending in. 
Check out the new content on the site-and beyond that, people are 
starting to submit platforms with real potential. From campus DJs 
and copy store clerks to people with connections at major networks 
and publications. This feels like the start of something real. 
(I'll be sending out the first few connections soon, so please keep 
them coming. Every voice out here helps.) 

 Local news-some very serious artists in LA are making a difference 
in a very public place. Check out the piece near Melrose and Ogden in LA. 
If you're worried about where this country (and this world) is going, 
check out their work. It will remind you why you should be worried:  
but maybe give you a little juice for the fight, too.

 Lastly, a few of us are talking about organizing a meeting here in LA.  
If you're interested, show up at the Melrose location at or a little 
after 7 pm on this Friday evening (April 13th). Wear something that 
shows you're one of us. Stand under the big pig and follow the revolver 
across the street to the van. Knock twice. When you've got the stuff, 
get out of there fast.
 Don't attract attention. Don't be followed.

 That's it for now. Sometimes it feels like hope is hard to come by.  
What you're doing makes hope a little easier for me to find.

 Neil

OSR Meetings

On April 13th many LA locals met at The Melrose Location which led to the first meeting of the OSR on April 18th 2007.

A video of the first OSR LA Meeting is available.

See 2007/04/18 LA for full details.

Czerno And Art Is Resistance

The creator of the website, found through The Price of Treason. The Price of Treason says he was executed Feb. 4, 0000, one day after a post on Another Version of the Truth was made, talking about how the creator of Art Is Resistance was "disappeared" by the government. Many people speculate that this Neil Czerno had also put up Art Is Resistance.

Czerno seems to have been the one to first use the "AIR flag", since it appears on this page numerous times. The star field of the flag is actually a lower-case r, finishing the abbreviation "OSR" in the site's logo. The star field also appears without stripes at the bottom of the page, as if it were a final word on the subject - "resist.".

AIR Flags on London Mural

Photo of London mural posted on nin.com

If one looks closely at the London mural image, there are three areas of the mural that have been torn away. Within the underlying areas of the tears, one can see a repeating motif of the Art Is Resistance flag. The mural is also present in a photo posted in the 'current' section of the official nin.com website.

Websites Linked From Open Source Resistance

On the submissions page (opensourceresistance.net/submissions.htm) you can view various subversive art pieces. One in particular, titled Fairytale (opensourceresistance.net/images/04112007/Fairytale.jpg), leads to Sentiments of an American Woman (sentimentsofanamericanwoman.com) and a short movie from the National Welfare League (sentimentsofanamericanwoman.com/NationalWelfareLeague.htm). The phone number on the movie clip is the White House Comment Line.