In June of 2011, a 28 year-old, unemployed foster parent and high-school dropout living in the Riis public housing district in the Lower East Side of Manhattan was arrested by the FBI. His charges included multiple counts of conspiracy to engage in computer hacking, computer hacking in furtherance of fraud, conspiracy to commit access device fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, and aggravated identity theft. Hector Xavier Monsegur faced up to 124 years in prison.

On the Internet, he was known as Sabu, a key figure in a series of politically driven cyber- attacks by the hacker collective known as Anonymous. In December of 2010, thousands of hacktivists attacked the websites of some of the world’s largest financial institutions to avenge WikiLeaks. In following attacks protesting global government transparency and accountability, they infiltrated the governments of Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, becoming a critical force in supporting the Arab Spring.

HackPolitik is a surrealist investigation, through music and dance, of how we engage politics through technology in the 21st century. The plot of the piece is based on true events. It explores the thin line between activism and anarchy, anonymity and ego, gender identity and personality. HackPolitik is intensely character-driven, following the online personas of the main players in Anonymous and Lulzsec and how they play between immature mischief making and true political activism. All of the choreography is a physical interpretation of the inherently abstract interactions that can only occur over the Internet.

Or in the words of Topiary himself:

“Welcome to the underbelly of society, the anarchistic stream-of-thought nebula that seeps its way into the mainstream world- your world- more and more every day. You cannot escape it and you cannot anticipate it. It is the nightmare on the edge of your dreams and the ominous thought that claws its way through your online life like a binding virtual force, disregarding your philosophies and feasting on your emotions. Prepare to enter the hivemind, motherfuck.”
—Jake “Topiary” Davis.