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Smart New World
dal 3/4/2014 al 9/8/2014
tue-sun 11am-6pm

Segnalato da

Dirk Schewe



 
calendario eventi  :: 




3/4/2014

Smart New World

Kunsthalle Dusseldorf, Dusseldorf

The exhibition focuses on digitalization - the dissolution and transformation of analogue information into digital codes for the purpose of storing and processing them - and the radically fundamental changes it has brought about on society. The invited artists not only find inspiration for their pictorial worlds in the rapid developments taking place in the field of digital technology, but they above all also reflect upon their cultural, social, and political dimensions.


comunicato stampa

Curated by Elodie Evers and Magdalena Holzhey

Xavier Cha (US), Simon Denny (1982, NZ), Aleksandra Domanović (1981, SI), Omer Fast (1972, IL), Christoph Faulhaber (1972, D), Kenneth Goldsmith (1961, US), International Necronautical Society, Korpys/Löffler (1966/1963, D), Trevor Paglen (1974, US), Laura Poitras (1964, US), Tabor Robak (1986, US), Santiago Sierra (1966, ES), Taryn Simon (1975, US)

The truth is: Industrial capitalism is transforming itself into digital capitalism. That changes things.[1] The world is ruled by the binary code. The upheaval in the fields of in­for­ma­ti­on and com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons tech­no­lo­gy re­vo­lu­tio­nis­ed the busi­ness world and so­cie­ty.[2] What does it me­an to be an in­di­vi­du­al in the in­for­ma­ti­on so­cie­ty? An in­for­ma­ti­on so­cie­ty is al­ways al­so a sur­veil­lan­ce so­cie­ty. It is not the in­for­ma­ti­on that yields the sur­veil­lan­ce, the sur­veil­lan­ce yields the in­for­ma­ti­on: As so­on as hu­man ut­ter­an­ces and emo­ti­ons be­co­me quan­ti­fia­ble, they are re­cor­ded in or­der to op­ti­mi­se so­mew­he­re so­me­thing eco­no­mic, bu­reaucra­tic or ideo­lo­gi­cal.[3] Sin­ce Ed­ward Snow­den un­co­ver­ed the wi­de-spread sur­veil­lan­ce car­ried out the Ame­ri­can Na­tio­nal Se­cu­ri­ty Agen­cy at the la­test, the post-pri­va­cy thin­ker is cer­tain of one thing: The pri­va­te sphe­re is dead, the NSA so­le­ly ma­de it of­fi­ci­al.[4] Power­ful com­pu­ters so­me­ti­mes know mo­re about us than we do. The sto­r­a­ge ca­pa­bi­li­ty of the­se sys­tems in­crea­ses every ye­ar, con­sis­tent­ly, by or­ders of ma­gni­tu­de. It's get­ting to the point whe­re you don't ha­ve to ha­ve do­ne any­thing wrong, you just even­tual­ly ha­ve to fall un­der sus­pi­ci­on from some­bo­dy, even if it's by a wrong call, and then they can use the sys­tem to go back in ti­me and sc­ru­ti­ni­ze every de­ci­si­on you've ever ma­de, every fri­end you've ever di­s­cus­sed so­me­thing wi­th, and at­tack you on that ba­sis to sort of de­ri­ve sus­pi­ci­on from an in­no­cent li­fe and paint an­yo­ne in the con­text of a wrong-do­er.[5] Three let­ters, most ex­perts are agreed, will play a de­cisi­ve ro­le in the fu­ture of mo­dern war­fa­re: NCW for Net­work Cen­tric War­fa­re. Be­hind this de­si­gna­ti­on lie net­works that link mi­li­ta­ry units to each other and to their com­man­ders—thus of­fe­ring them the pos­si­bi­li­ty of ra­pid, fle­xi­ble and asym­me­tri­cal war­fa­re. The goal has be­en un­am­bi­guous­ly for­mu­la­ted: the at­tain­ment of in­for­ma­ti­on su­pe­rio­ri­ty over the en­e­my.[6] As a pie­ce of busi­ness jar­gon, and even mo­re so as an in­vo­ca­ti­on of co­ming dis­rup­ti­on, the term Big Da­ta has quick­ly grown ti­re­so­me. But the­re is no de­ny­ing the vast in­crea­se in the ran­ge and depth of in­for­ma­ti­on that’s rou­ti­nely cap­tu­red about how we be­ha­ve, and the new kinds of ana­ly­sis that this enables. By one esti­ma­te, mo­re than 98 per­cent of the world’s in­for­ma­ti­on is now stored di­gi­tal­ly, and the vo­lu­me of that da­ta has qua­dru­p­led sin­ce 2007. Or­di­na­ry peop­le at work and at ho­me ge­ne­ra­te much of this da­ta, by sen­ding e-mails, brow­sing the In­ter­net, using so­ci­al me­dia, wor­king on crowd-sour­ced pro­jects, and mo­re—and in do­ing so they ha­ve un­wit­tingly hel­ped launch a grand new so­cie­tal pro­ject. We are in the midst of a gre­at in­fra­struc­tu­re pro­ject that in so­me ways ri­vals tho­se of the past, from Ro­man aque­ducts to the En­ligh­ten­ment’s En­cy­clopédie.[7] The di­gi­tal re­flec­tion of to­day’s per­son is frag­men­ted in­to hund­reds of in­di­vi­du­al parts.[8] Know­ledge on the In­ter­net is dy­na­mic. It is flee­ting. It is vo­la­ti­le. It chan­ges its shape every day. We know litt­le about its sour­ces, the in­te­rests stan­ding be­hind it and its re­lia­bi­li­ty.[9] The re­sult is the grow­th of a cut, co­py and pas­te-cul­tu­re wi­thout true ap­pro­pria­ti­on of the con­tents.[10] In­for­ma­ti­on wants to be free. In­for­ma­ti­on al­so wants to be ex­pen­si­ve. In­for­ma­ti­on wants to be free be­cau­se it has be­co­me so cheap to di­stri­bu­te, co­py, and re­com­bi­ne – too cheap to me­ter. It wants to be ex­pen­si­ve be­cau­se it can be im­me­a­sur­a­b­ly va­luable to the re­ci­pi­ent. That ten­si­on will not go away.[11]

The Smart New World ex­hi­bi­ti­on fo­cu­ses on di­gi­ta­liza­t­i­on – the dis­so­lu­ti­on and trans­for­ma­ti­on of ana­lo­gue in­for­ma­ti­on in­to di­gi­tal codes for the pur­po­se of sto­ring and pro­ces­sing them – and the ra­di­cal­ly fun­da­men­tal chan­ges it has brought about on so­cie­ty. The in­vi­ted ar­tists not on­ly find in­spi­ra­ti­on for their pic­to­ri­al worlds in the ra­pid de­ve­lop­ments ta­king place in the field of di­gi­tal tech­no­lo­gy, but they above all al­so re­flect upon their cul­tu­ral, so­ci­al, and po­li­ti­cal di­men­si­ons.

Their di­ver­se pie­ces li­ke­wi­se deal per­cep­tive­ly, cri­ti­cal­ly, and hu­mo­rous­ly wi­th the pos­si­bi­li­ties, vi­si­ons and al­so dan­gers of di­gi­ta­liza­t­i­on. In the pro­cess, they ex­ami­ne the ef­fects of eco­no­mic and sta­te cen­sorship, which con­sti­tu­te an at­tack on de­mocra­tic know­ledge pro­duc­tion and the pri­va­te sphe­re of each and every in­di­vi­du­al, as well as the im­pact of the In­ter­net on our struc­tu­res of thin­king and knowing. All of the works in the ex­hi­bi­ti­on ha­ve an in­ves­ti­ga­ti­ve po­ten­ti­al in com­mon.

So­cie­ty (INS), a neo-avant-gar­de, strin­gent­ly hier­archi­cal­ly or­ga­ni­zed net­work of ar­tists, wri­ters and phi­lo­soph­ers, has de­ve­lo­ped a com­plex ad­mis­si­on pro­ce­du­re for the ex­hi­bi­ti­on. Every vi­si­tor must sign a con­su­mer contract on the ba­sis of the INS’s phi­lo­so­phi­cal doc­tri­ne. Si­gning this de­cla­ra­ti­on, which is ba­sed on the con­di­ti­ons of pre­sent-day di­gi­tal-ca­pi­ta­lism, is ab­so­lu­te­ly re­qui­red in or­der to vi­sit the ex­hi­bi­ti­on.

Chris­toph Faul­ha­ber’s fil­mic ar­tist bio­gra­phy tells among other things about his un­com­for­ta­ble and pro­vo­ca­ti­ve per­for­man­ces wi­th which he de­mons­tra­tes the me­cha­nics of sta­te-run sur­veil­lan­ce ap­pa­ra­tu­ses whi­le it was the ar­tist duo Kor­pys/Löff­ler them­sel­ves, who em­ploy­ed in­tel­li­gence-gat­he­ring me­thods in con­junc­tion wi­th their ob­ser­va­ti­on and do­cu­men­ta­ti­on of the Ger­man In­tel­li­gence Ser­vice’s new Ber­lin head­quar­ters. The films of Omer Fast and San­tia­go Si­er­ra ta­ke very dif­fe­rent but equal­ly ef­fec­tive ap­proa­ches in ex­ami­ning the di­gi­tal­ly-con­trol­led dro­ne mis­si­ons that ha­ve co­me to play a de­fi­ning ro­le in mo­dern war­fa­re. The lar­ge­ly un­known and in­vi­si­ble and yet hu­ge and phy­si­cal­ly tan­gi­b­le com­po­n­ents of the Ame­ri­can mi­li­ta­ry and in­tel­li­gence ser­vices such as buil­dings and sa­tel­li­tes are at the heart of Tre­vor Paglen’s com­pre­hen­si­ve­ly re­se­ar­ched works. Lau­ra Poi­t­ras, who along wi­th Glenn Green­wald was the first per­son to ha­ve had ac­cess to the glo­bal sur­veil­lan­ce and es­pio­na­ge do­cu­ments ma­de avail­able by Ed­ward Snow­den, com­bi­nes film ma­te­ri­al do­cu­men­ting the con­struc­tion of the NSA sur­veil­lan­ce ware­hou­se in Bluff­da­le, Utah over the cour­se of se­ver­al ye­ars. For his part, the wri­ter Ken­neth Golds­mith ta­kes the uto­pi­an po­ten­ti­al of the In­ter­net se­rious­ly and is ac­tive on be­half of free­dom of in­for­ma­ti­on and edu­ca­tio­nal equa­li­ty by de­cla­ring pri­va­ti­zed in­for­ma­ti­on to be pu­blic pro­per­ty. At the sa­me ti­me he calls at­ten­ti­on to the sheer in­ex­haus­ti­ble flood of di­gi­tal da­ta that is vir­tual­ly im­pos­si­ble to get un­der con­trol. The ar­tist Ta­ryn Si­mon in turn sub­jects the flood of In­ter­net ima­ges to a con­cep­tu­al in­ter­ven­ti­on which cle­ar­ly shows that se­arch en­gi­nes are ne­ver “neu­tral” and that they de­ter­mi­ne our ima­gi­na­ti­on to a con­s­i­dera­ble extent. Aleksan­dra Do­ma­no­vić li­ke­wi­se re­veals how the key­word-ba­sed ac­qui­si­ti­on of know­ledge in­flu­en­ces our thought and per­cep­ti­on, and in a per­for­mance ac­com­pa­ny­ing the ex­hi­bi­ti­on Xa­vier Cha trans­la­tes the of­ten com­pul­si­ve use of di­gi­tal me­dia in­to a cho­reo­gra­phy. Ta­bor Ro­bak pres­ents ad­ver­ti­sing’s se­duc­tive stra­te­gies by me­ans of the pos­si­bi­li­ties of di­gi­tal ima­ging. Si­mon Den­ny, fi­nal­ly, turns hard­ware in­to sculp­tu­re in his cont­ri­bu­ti­on to the ex­hi­bi­ti­on, broaching the the­me of the si­gni­fi­can­ce of tech­ni­cal de­ve­lop­ment, com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons and in­ter­face. His mas­si­ve block of squas­hed te­le­vi­si­on sets and ana­lo­gue te­le­vi­si­on ima­ges on prin­ted can­va­ses crea­te a link bo­th vi­sual­ly and con­ten­tual­ly to the ex­pan­si­ve black box in the entran­ce area in which the INS ar­chi­ves the vi­si­tors’ si­gna­tu­res it collec­ted: This black box is part of a sys­tem that on­ly makes com­mu­ni­ca­ti­ons and the trans­fer of in­for­ma­ti­on pos­si­ble via the in­ter­face, wi­thout ma­king the in­ter­nal pro­ces­ses vi­si­ble.

[1] www.​spiegel.​de/​spiegel/​print/​d-14838490.​html

[2] http://​www.​fes.​de/​aktuell/​documents%202013/​130215_​Digitaler_​Kapitalismus.​pdf

[3] http://​irights.​info/​eine-informationsgesellschaft-ist-immer-eine-uberwachungsgesellschaft

[4] http://​www.​tagesanzeiger.​ch/​leben/​gesellschaft/​Die-PostPrivacyBewegung/​story/​18211611?​track

[5] http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/06/top-spying-experts-even-good-people-should-oppose-spying-because-if-someone-in-government-takes-a-dislike-to-you-the-surveillance-can-be-used-to-frame-you.html

[6] http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/armeen-der-zukunft-technologien-und-taktik-fuer-den-krieg-von-morgen-a-846443.html

[7] http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/12/theyre-watching-you-at-work/354681/

[8] http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/web/identitaet-im-netz-das-digitale-ich-liegt-in-scherben-a-567899.html

[9] http://www.julius-leber-forum.de/projekte/digitale-oeffentlichkeit/2012/06-wissen-der-welt.html?np_all=1

[10] http://www.zeit.de/studium/hochschule/2011-05/lehre-google

[11] http://www.librarianoffortune.com/librarian_of_fortune/2011/08/information-wants-to-be-free-or-expensive.html

Image: "INS-Declaration of Inauthenticity," Tate Britain, London, 2009. Photo: INS Department of Propaganda. © 2014 Richard Eaton/Tate. Courtesy of International Necronautical Society.

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Dirk Schewe Tel.: +49 (0)211 - 89 962 56 Fax: +49 (0)211 - 89 295 76 presse@kunsthalle-duesseldorf.de

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