For those of you that don't know, 4chan.org is a messaging board website where people can post images, interact with one another, and troll people, and is made up of some of the best, and worst, type of people on the internet. But at the beginning of this year they turned from a bunch of shit-posting autistic trolls into their own intelligence agency.

HE WILL NOT DIVIDE US is an ongoing 'durational' piece of artwork, and the brainchild of failed actor, turned artist, Shia LaBeouf. His website states that this awkward, cliched art project is a platform for individuals and communities to show "resistance or insistence, opposition or optimism", towards the Trump presidency.

Open to all, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the participatory performance will be live-streamed continuously for four years, or the duration of the presidency. In this way, the mantra "HE WILL NOT DIVIDE US" acts as a show of resistance or insistence, opposition or optimism, guided by the spirit of each individual participant and the community.

To me this project just seems like a place where Shi can publicly have a temper tantrum and get back at Trump and his supporters for ruining the Clinton aligned safe space he was so looking forward to snuggling into before the election. Little did he know at the time of starting this project just how many twists and turns it would take. Now, only 11 months on, the HWNDU saga's already in its 7th season. His embarrassingly relentless attempt at activism and social commentary has lead us to the greatest game of capture the flag the world has ever seen.

SEASON 1

LOCATION: Museum of the Moving Image, New York
DATE: 01/20/2017

At 9am on the day of Donald Trump's inauguration Shia LaBeouf tweeted a picture of a lone figure facing a blank wall at the Museum of the Moving Image, New York, with the words HE WILL NOT DIVIDE US neatly painted on it above the persons head. Fixed to the museum wall beyond the individual was a small camera. The camera was set up by LaBeouf to stream himself and others chanting "HE WILL NOT DIVIDE US", live to the internet, repeatedly for as many times, and for as long as they wished, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 4 years.

Within hours of the stream going live hundreds of SJW's turned up to scream and shout HWNDU relentlessly into the tiny camera in the wall. Shortly after, handfuls of Trump supporters and 4chan trolls made an appearance shouting pro-Trump slogans and 4chan memes. In the days following more and more trolls turned up, some with Pepe the frog pictures, others with signs, to hold up to the camera. One person even left an MP3 player next to the camera playing Shadilay, Kekistan's national anthem.

Eventually it got to chaotic to control and after 3 weeks, on the 02/10/2017, it was shut down. Here is a video of some of the highlights from the 3 weeks.

SEASON 2

LOCATION: El Rey Theater, Albuquerque
DATE: * 02/18/2017

The camera was briefly relocated to a wall outside the El Rey Theater, Albuquerque. After someone reported hearing gunshot noises in the area the project was pulled.

^Source

SEASON 3

CAPTURE THE FLAG - PART 1

LOCATION: Unknown
DATE: 03/08/2017

In a desperate scramble to end his embarrassment after all the trolling and safety concerns, the project was once again moved to a new location. This time, the camera feed was pointing skyward at a flag with the words "HE WILL NOT DIVIDE US" written on it. In an attempt to outsmart 4chan the flag and camera had been set up in an undisclosed location. With only a live feed of a flag in an empty sky to work with 4chan set about out on what is probably one of the greatest open-source intelligence operations the internet has ever seen. This was the start of 4chans race to capture the flag. Within 36 hours the flag was theirs.

Undeterred by the obvious anonymity of the stream, 4chan users began mapping the stars and analyzing contrails the planes left behind in the sky above the flag. After if was discovered that Shia had visited a convenience store in Greenville, Tennessee, around the same time the stream went live, anons started to cross-reference their contrail data with publicly available flight data from the local area. This eventually lead them to a location called Flag Pond.

Further conformation came after TMZ reported that Shai had been seen fly fishing in the area. This enabled them to narrow down the location even further.

Once they we confident of the area it was in they then had a fellow anon drive around the general location honking his horn whilst other anons listened out for it on the live stream.

Once the location of the flag was known they waited until night fall and replaced it with a Donald Trump 'Make America Great Again' hat, successfully completing round 1 of capture the flag.

SEASON 4

CAPTURE THE FLAG - Round 2

LOCATION: Foundation for Art and Creative Technology, Liverpool
DATE: 03/22/2017

Source
Having the flag anywhere in America seemed like a bad move after the epic take-down in Tennessee, so Shai decided to move it across the pond to the UK. Although the flag wasn't to hard to find this time, it did seemed almost impossible to get. Sat on top of the Foundation for Art and Creative Technology building in the center of Liverpool, it was definitely going to be a challenge. Nevertheless, within a day 4chan anons were on the roof.

In the few hours it was up, 4chan anons came up with some somewhat ironic and humorous plans.

Eventually they got their collective shit together and started to form a proper plan. Using Google earth, they were able to get a pretty good layout of the building and surrounding area.

Once the reconnaissance of the building was complete, a 3 man anon team was dispatched to try to gain access to the building. Successfully gaining access to an adjacent building they made their way to the roof and across to the flag.

Unfortunately the flag was heavily cable tied, and they had no way of cutting them, so the were unable to bring the flag down. Although physically capturing the flag would have been a nice finishing touch to round 2 the 4chan anons were still able to chalk it up as another victory when the technology center decided to cancel the project due to security concerns.

Source

Whether you love 'em or hate 'em, 4chan trolls have become a force to be reckoned with. Their stubbornness, determination, and bouts of genius, make them a powerful rag-tag group of random internet strangers. In part 2 of this epic 4chan V HWNDU saga Shai takes us to Lapland, and to mainland Europe.

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FORTIFIED

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