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preroll music
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Herald: And now, a warm welcome[br]for Vera Tollmann.
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She is from the research center[br]for proxy politics.
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For those ones from Berlin,[br]as far as I know,
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there is still a very exciting exhibition
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in the Museum of Photography.
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So a warm welcome for Vera Tollmann.
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(Vera) Thanks.
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applause
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Thank you very much for inviting me.
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First of all, it's just me.[br]Boaz Levin, my colleague,
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who is also the co-author of this text[br]that I'm going to present today,
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didn't make it in the end.
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It was also very kind of last minute[br]invitation, that we received a week ago.
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I am going to present a text,[br]which is entitled:
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“The Body of the Web” or[br]“Proud to relay flesh”
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It's a text where we want to[br]install the proxy as a figure of thought.
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And continue an argument,[br]that Hito Steyerl, the artist,
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started in her text[br]“Proxy Politics: Signal and Noise”
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which you can find online.
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In this co-authored text[br]we are going to pick up
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her trope of the proxy and test it in[br]relation to different cases of protest.
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So, from our understanding the[br]notion of proxy politics can be understood
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as both a symptom of crisis in current[br]representational political structures
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as well as a counter strategy aiming to[br]critically engage and challenge
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the existing mechanisms of[br]security and control,
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which leads to a series of questions.
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What forms of resistance might fit this vague[br]technopolitical economic condition?
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Mass protesters become image makers.
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Do resistance movements[br]need to employ PR consultants?
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How does one protest[br]in public space,
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if there is no public space left?
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And in what way does this
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virtuality and duplicity challenge[br]both public space and human bodies?
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Actually the latter is[br]the most important
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that we are trying to answer[br]or follow through with this text.
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Can you hear me well?[br]Yeah? Good!
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Ah, there’s … yes?
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No … okay …[br]I just thought there is a comment.
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Since July 2015,
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protesting in public space in Spain[br]has become an expensive affair.
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I don't know, if you remember from media[br]reports in July, there was a huge protest
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where they used the hologram as a medium.
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So protesters are now threatened[br]by hefty fines
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and authoritarian reaction to
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the anti-austerity protests[br]three years earlier.
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The citizen safety law,[br]otherwise known as the gag law,
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criminalises protests,[br]that interfere with public infrastructure.
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Under the new law which was passed by the[br]governing People’s Party in December 2014
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protesters are liable[br]to fines up to 600.000 EUR,
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for marching in front of congress,[br]blocking road, or occupying a square.
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The law, criticised as a severe attack[br]on Spaniards’ right of assembly and speech,
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is the most recent attempt by the government[br]to curb a wave of popular protests,
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that has swept the country since 2011.
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With the unemployment rate exceeding 25%[br]and one half of Spaniards under 25 jobless,
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hundreds of thousands of[br]outraged citizens took the streets,
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occupying squares and universities.
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In response to a discredited political class,[br]tarnished by years of political scandal
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and corruption, the Indigñados,[br]Spanish for “The outraged”,
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sought to mobilise citizens in a series of[br]grassroots demonstrations across the city
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by reclaiming their right to public space.
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Another flashback to 2011,[br]where protests using
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similar occupation strategies[br]were taking place across the world:
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in Tunesia, Egypt, Greece, Israel,[br]and the United States.
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Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv, home to[br]the headquarters of Israel's largest banks,
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became a kilometre-long encampment,[br]dubbed “the Tent Republic”.
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I have some pictures here.
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Lasting for almost three months,[br]this protest called the tent republic.
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Syntagma Square in Athens too was filled[br]with tents and make shift dwelling places
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and became a site of[br]lasting popular assemblies
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and daily clashes with the local authorities.
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In Zuccotti Park, New York, activists[br]tapped into the electricity grid
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via lantern posts and set up
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semi-autonomous mesh networks[br]for the benefit of the protesters.
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Though numerous commentators pointed out[br]the role played by new technologies such as
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social networks and smart phones,
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in facilitating the protests it was[br]the city's square
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as old as political thought,[br]which was the true common denominator.
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Our understanding of the rights of free speech[br]and assembly as well as the concept of
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participatory democracy are deeply indebted[br]to the development of the Greek city state,
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the Polis, and later[br]the Roman public square.
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In nearly every protest occurring[br]around this time,
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the spatial dimension of political action[br]was once again affirmed.
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Might this significance be altered by the[br]emergence of new technologies of control
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and new modes of resistance?
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As Hannah Arendt pointed out,[br]the idea of Polis,
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which for her denoted the public realm[br]of a political community,
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does not necessarily designate[br]the physical location of the Greek city state,
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rather this form of public realm[br]as the organisation of the people, quote:
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"as it raises out of acting and[br]speaking together", end of quote.
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Thus it's all the more fitting that when
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the People’s Party of Spain passed[br]its draconic law,
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demonstrators were quick to
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seek an alternative to bodily presence[br]and physical space.
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Their solution was a hologram protest,[br]the first ever.
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The first ever, as media outlets[br]were quick to point out,
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skillfully choreographed and artfully projected[br]in front of the gates of congress in Madrid.
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The Independent, the newspaper reported:
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“Spanish activists have staged the world's[br]first ever virtual political demonstration.”
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The Daily Mails headline read:[br]“The world's first hologram protest.”
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And News India asked and answered:
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“Ghosts on Spain's street?[br]No it's world's first virtual protest.”
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In an interview, Cristina Flesher Fominaya,[br]spokeperson for the activist group,
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that organised the hologram intervention,
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"No somos delito" –[br]in English "We are not a crime"
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explained how it all came together.
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A group of creative professionals,[br]who decided to remain anonymous,
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provided the needed technical support[br]prior to the outdoor projection,
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which lasted for the course of an hour.
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The campaign was developed online.
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A webpage with the slightly lofty title[br]"Holograms for Freedom",
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in which anyone can leave their hologram,[br]a written message, or a shoutout,
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was where it started.
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Finally these composite images were screened[br]across a transparent screen and looped.
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By representing people as holograms,[br]which appear in a particular cool blueish tone
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reminiscent of surveillance camera footage,
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the protest organiser seem to elude to the[br]popular depiction of a dystopian totalitarian state.
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Spectors, for once quite literally,[br]haunted the sterile streets
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voicing the grievance[br]of those barred from assembling there
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The event had been rehearsed, performed, and[br]recorded in a nearby city and the equipment
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had been installed in Madrid by a[br]PR company in a clandestine operation.
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A tech savvy, [unwittingly] absurd way[br]to demonstrate without violating the new law.
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Instead of public space,[br]the demonstrators inhabited a new medium.
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After all, bodies in public space[br]pose a problem in contemporary politics.
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The natural corporal vulnerability of protesting[br]was now intensified by the threat
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of disproportionate financial penalisation.
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This was a proxy protest fit[br]for the age of proxy politics.
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So, what is a proxy then,[br]like the way we understand it?
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A proxy is a decoy or a surrogate.
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The word derives from the Latin procurator[br](Prokurator), meaning someone responsible
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for representing someone else[br]in a court of law.
0:10:01.870,0:10:06.470
These days, the word proxy is often used[br]to designate a computer server
0:10:06.470,0:10:11.180
acting as an intermediary[br]for request from clients.
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These servers afford[br]indirect connections to a network,
0:10:14.170,0:10:17.170
thus providing users with anonymity.
0:10:17.170,0:10:23.770
However, proxy servers[br]are not distinct technology
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to hide users but can also be set up[br]for the opposite task: to monitor traffic.
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Proxy politics, as defined by Hito Steyerl,[br]as the politics of the stand-in and the decoy,
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is characterised by fraudulent contracts,[br]calmarical sovereignties, and void authorities.
0:10:45.850,0:10:50.500
The concept of the proxy is emblematic[br]of our post representational,
0:10:50.500,0:10:53.210
post democratic political age.
0:10:53.210,0:10:58.060
Disembodyment and invisibility of politics[br]and its increasing subordination
0:10:58.060,0:10:59.740
to economic interests.
0:10:59.740,0:11:06.600
So, this political age is one[br]increasingly populated by bot militias,
0:11:06.600,0:11:12.650
puppet states, ghostwriters,[br]and communication relays.
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So now one paragraph on post democracy,[br]or the post representational,
0:11:19.580,0:11:22.660
what it actually means.
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There is a book by Colin Crouch.[br]It's entitled “Post Democracy”.
0:11:27.420,0:11:30.000
And there he describes the[br]current political condition
0:11:30.000,0:11:34.830
as one in which power is[br]increasingly relinquish to business lobbies
0:11:34.830,0:11:37.830
and non-governmental organisations.
0:11:37.830,0:11:40.170
As a result, he argues, quote:
0:11:40.170,0:11:45.000
"There is little hope for an agenda[br]of strong egalitarian policies
0:11:45.000,0:11:53.950
for the redistribution of power and wealth[br]or for the restraint of powerful interests."
0:11:53.950,0:11:57.300
As a corollary to the rise of neo-liberalism,
0:11:57.300,0:12:01.690
the vision of an autonomous potent[br]political subject is devastated
0:12:01.690,0:12:07.190
by the growing power of privileged elites,[br]standing at the nexus of transnational
0:12:07.190,0:12:13.050
corporations, extra juridical zones,[br]infrastructural authorities,
0:12:13.050,0:12:17.560
non governmental organisations,[br]and covert rule.
0:12:17.560,0:12:23.210
Similarly, Jacques Rancière,[br]in his book entitled "Post Democracy",
0:12:23.210,0:12:29.610
he refers to democratic action,[br]post-democracy in the government practice,
0:12:29.610,0:12:34.140
and conceptual legitimisation[br]of a democracy after the demos,
0:12:34.140,0:12:38.300
a democracy that has eliminated[br]the appearance, miscount,
0:12:38.300,0:12:42.860
and dispute of the energies and interests.
0:12:42.860,0:12:46.520
At the heart of this condition[br]lies an ontology of deception,
0:12:46.520,0:12:50.080
where the public realm is conceived[br]as a series of smoke screens,
0:12:50.080,0:12:53.330
false flags, and simulations.
0:12:53.330,0:12:59.940
The democratic appearance of the people[br]is strictly opposed by its simulated reality.
0:12:59.940,0:13:05.820
One, which is set up by the conjunction[br]of media proliferation of whatever is visible
0:13:05.820,0:13:12.480
and the endless count of opinions polled[br]and votes simulated.
0:13:12.480,0:13:17.190
With this concept of double government,[br]policital scientist Michael Glennen
0:13:17.190,0:13:23.200
has introduced a vision of US political power,[br]split between elected government officials,
0:13:23.200,0:13:29.430
and a network of institutions constituting a disguised republic.
0:13:29.430,0:13:31.820
Glennan traces this phenomenon back to
0:13:31.820,0:13:38.870
World War II and president Truman's signing[br]of the national security act of 1947,
0:13:38.870,0:13:44.770
which established, among others,[br]the Central Intelligence Agency, the CIA.
0:13:44.770,0:13:50.450
Since then, he argues, the United Staates[br]has moved toward a double government,
0:13:50.450,0:13:52.790
wherein even the president exercises
0:13:52.790,0:14:00.030
little substantive over the overall direction[br]of US national security policy.
0:14:00.030,0:14:02.590
Similarly, in Turkey, Egypt, Yemen, and Syria,
0:14:02.590,0:14:06.860
political commentators have used[br]the notion of the deep state
0:14:06.860,0:14:12.460
to describe the nexus of police,[br]intelligence services, politicians,
0:14:12.460,0:14:14.840
and organised crime.
0:14:14.840,0:14:20.520
Surely, secrecy, or discretion,[br]to use its diplomatic euphemism,
0:14:20.520,0:14:24.080
is as old as politics itself.
0:14:24.080,0:14:27.900
But its recent resurgence[br]under the guise of democratic rule
0:14:27.900,0:14:32.810
reveals “arcana imperii”,[br]the secrets of governance,
0:14:32.810,0:14:36.110
to be all but arcane.
0:14:36.110,0:14:41.550
So the age of proxy politics is thus one[br]in which power is displaced
0:14:41.550,0:14:45.110
into the hands of[br]extra juridical unchecked authorities.
0:14:45.110,0:14:50.230
Whether by way of covered institutions[br]that it builds in classified budgets,
0:14:50.230,0:14:54.640
organised crimes, and grey markets,[br]or no less disturbingly
0:14:54.640,0:15:00.490
through gross privatisation[br]and the rise of transnational corporations.
0:15:00.490,0:15:04.800
According to Sheldon Wallin,[br]the paradox of our current regime
0:15:04.800,0:15:11.200
is that the more open to the[br]pressures of organised interests,
0:15:11.200,0:15:15.370
the more opaque even[br]mysterious politics becomes.
0:15:15.370,0:15:20.550
Consequently, responsibility becomes[br]virtually untraceable.
0:15:20.550,0:15:25.460
In her “Lying in politics”,[br]a text published in 1972,
0:15:25.460,0:15:30.060
written in response to the revelation[br]of the Pentagon Papers,
0:15:30.060,0:15:35.860
Hannah Arendt lamented the beginning[br]of an age, in which image making has become
0:15:35.860,0:15:39.890
the core value of American global policy.
0:15:39.890,0:15:41.610
When image makers govern,
0:15:41.610,0:15:48.240
the institutions of representational democracy[br]are destined to become a mere semblance.
0:15:48.240,0:15:53.650
The recent example came as the house of[br]representatives voted in May 2015
0:15:53.650,0:15:57.920
to end bulk surveillance by the NSA.
0:15:57.920,0:16:01.750
Rather than bringing[br]all bulk surveillance to an end,
0:16:01.750,0:16:06.530
the vote merely took the government[br]out of the collection business.
0:16:06.530,0:16:13.420
It would not deny its access to the information,[br]it would be in the hands of the private sector.
0:16:13.420,0:16:19.170
Almost certainly telecommunications companies[br]like ATT, Verizon, and Sprint.
0:16:19.170,0:16:24.330
In other words, even after[br]seemingly successful governmental reform,
0:16:24.330,0:16:30.390
it was revealed that the corridors of power[br]lay elsewhere between politics
0:16:30.390,0:16:34.070
and the private sector.
0:16:34.070,0:16:35.920
So popular protests in one country
0:16:35.920,0:16:39.040
are often convicts for the[br]expansion of power in another.
0:16:39.040,0:16:43.800
In the aftermath of a successful,[br]non violent-regime change in Belgrade,
0:16:43.800,0:16:47.600
activits behind the Otpor movement[br]relayed their experiences into
0:16:47.600,0:16:49.650
tutorials and training camps,
0:16:49.650,0:16:55.590
teaching activists in numerous countries[br]how to ignite and lead a revolution.
0:16:55.590,0:16:56.830
What's more,
0:16:56.830,0:17:02.740
Srđa Popović and Slobodan Đinović,[br]both former Otpor activists,
0:17:02.740,0:17:09.000
founded CANVAS, which is the Center for[br]Applied Non-Violent Actions and Strategies.
0:17:09.000,0:17:13.030
With the aim of educating[br]pro-democracy activists around the world
0:17:13.030,0:17:19.920
in what they regard as the “universal principles[br]for success in non violent struggle”.
0:17:19.920,0:17:22.889
CANVAS has trained activists[br]in more than 50 countries,
0:17:22.889,0:17:29.690
including Iran, Ukraine, Palestine, and recently[br]Tunisia and Egypt, to name but a few.
0:17:29.690,0:17:33.860
By late November 2000, an article in the[br]New York Times had revealed
0:17:33.860,0:17:37.990
that prior to the revolution,[br]Otpor had received funds
0:17:37.990,0:17:47.270
from US government affiliated organisations,[br]such as the National Endowment for Democracy.
0:17:47.270,0:17:52.600
In addition, their ties to the private[br]global intelligence company “Stratfor”,
0:17:52.600,0:17:56.900
also know as the “shadow CIA”,[br]prompted questions concerning
0:17:56.900,0:18:03.350
activists’ involvement in[br]global American covert foreign policy.
0:18:03.350,0:18:07.760
So how might proxy politics be more[br]than just a condition,
0:18:07.760,0:18:13.980
the name of a political regime that thrives[br]an obscurity, opaqueness, and decoys?
0:18:13.980,0:18:19.400
How might it also designate[br]a corresponding mode of resistance?
0:18:19.400,0:18:25.420
Ideally, proxy politics would encompass[br]myriad modes of withdrawal,
0:18:25.420,0:18:28.410
both technical and metaphorical.
0:18:28.410,0:18:36.970
Its tools could be a VPN, a holographic[br]surrogate, a stock image, or a double.
0:18:36.970,0:18:44.760
Its outcome is always concealment,[br]evasion, subterfuge.
0:18:44.760,0:18:48.280
The hope is that strategies[br]such as these
0:18:48.280,0:18:51.630
might be effective during our[br]current interim phase,
0:18:51.630,0:18:57.220
the period in which the difference between[br]real virtuality and virtual reality,
0:18:57.220,0:19:02.380
the tangible and the digital is[br]increasingly difficult to discern.
0:19:02.380,0:19:04.040
At the same time, it is becoming
0:19:04.040,0:19:08.880
increasingly evident, how severely[br]controlled both spheres are.
0:19:08.880,0:19:12.840
The world wide web, by[br]way of its architecture and protocols,
0:19:12.840,0:19:18.480
and public space by[br]increasing privatisations.
0:19:18.480,0:19:23.690
As Alexander Galloway has observed,[br]instead of a [politicisation] of time or space,
0:19:23.690,0:19:25.910
we are witnessing a rise in the
0:19:25.910,0:19:34.350
[politicisation] of absence- and presence-oriented[br]themes, such as invisibility, opacity, and anonymity.
0:19:34.350,0:19:38.450
Or the relationship between[br]identification and legibility,
0:19:38.450,0:19:42.210
or the tactics of[br]non-existence and disappearance.
0:19:42.210,0:19:49.480
New struggles around prevention,[br]therapeutics of the body, piracy on contagion,
0:19:49.480,0:19:54.860
information capture and the[br]making present of data via data mining.
0:19:54.860,0:19:59.030
According to Galloway,[br]recent protest movements' refusal
0:19:59.030,0:20:03.670
to make clear demands is[br]a form of black boxing.
0:20:03.670,0:20:09.260
A conscious withdrawal from political[br]representation and collective bargaining.
0:20:09.260,0:20:16.280
The choice is for relations, relays and links,[br]in the words of Édouard Glissant.
0:20:16.280,0:20:20.360
All qualities associated with the proxy.
0:20:20.360,0:20:30.020
This politicisation upholds the right to opacity,[br]also a quote from Glissant.
0:20:30.020,0:20:35.720
Rather than reverting once again[br]to the age-old demand for transparency.
0:20:35.720,0:20:40.330
For Glissant, opacity is the force[br]that drives every community,
0:20:40.330,0:20:48.420
the thing that would bring us together forever[br]and makes us permanently distinctive.
0:20:48.420,0:20:53.060
Recently in Paris,
0:20:53.060,0:20:58.100
where the state of emergency, declared in[br]the wake of recent terror attacks,
0:20:58.100,0:21:02.680
prevented climate change activists from[br]assembling in public spaces
0:21:02.680,0:21:08.550
during the climate change summit,[br]protesters installed over 10.000 pairs of shoes
0:21:08.550,0:21:10.500
at Place de la République,
0:21:10.500,0:21:14.900
theatrically standing in place[br]of the absent bodies.
0:21:14.900,0:21:17.720
Images of the square circulated[br]widely in the media,
0:21:17.720,0:21:22.280
emphasising the inherent mediatisation [br]of contemporary protest
0:21:22.280,0:21:28.540
and the need for effective images,[br]not necessarily real bodies.
0:21:28.540,0:21:33.620
Holograms and shoes function as[br]placeholders, making it all the more possible
0:21:33.620,0:21:40.400
for images of absent bodies to[br]communicate large scale discontent.
0:21:40.400,0:21:44.620
So in reference to the[br]wave of protest in 2011,
0:21:44.620,0:21:49.260
Judith Butler has suggested that[br]protest in public space has, quote:
0:21:49.260,0:21:53.500
"become politically potent only[br]when and if we have a visual and audible
0:21:53.500,0:21:59.640
version of the scene communicated in[br]live time, so that the media
0:21:59.640,0:22:04.950
does not merely report the scene,[br]but is part of the scene and the action;
0:22:04.950,0:22:10.360
indeed, the media is the scene or the space[br]in its extended and replicable
0:22:10.360,0:22:13.870
visual and audible dimension."
0:22:13.870,0:22:18.740
In Madrid, the shadow-like figures[br]in the hologram embodied a double movement,
0:22:18.740,0:22:24.080
a process of deterritorialisation and reterritorialisation.
0:22:24.080,0:22:27.410
Slogans and shouts were[br]crowdsourced online
0:22:27.410,0:22:30.980
and synced with holographic images[br]filmed in a nearby city.
0:22:30.980,0:22:37.230
Then, the resulting image was meticulously[br]reworked to match the
0:22:37.230,0:22:41.260
distances and angles of the scene[br]in front of congress.
0:22:43.920,0:22:51.110
So in recent years, there has been a[br]growing interest in the reterritorialisation
0:22:51.110,0:22:52.950
of the internet.
0:22:52.950,0:22:59.060
The artist Trevor Paglen and theoreticians,[br]such as Tung Hui Hu and Keller Easterling,
0:22:59.060,0:23:02.730
have drawn attention to the[br]materiality of the Internet,
0:23:02.730,0:23:06.910
data centres, undersea cables,[br]and routers, which in turn
0:23:06.910,0:23:12.330
rely on hydro-electric power stations[br]and dams for electricity, as well as
0:23:12.330,0:23:20.470
railway tracks and telegraph lines[br]for communication routes.
0:23:20.470,0:23:26.620
The web, until recently associated with[br]immateriality, virtually and spacelessness
0:23:26.620,0:23:30.970
as exemplified by the[br]popularity of the term “cyberspace”,
0:23:30.970,0:23:34.520
clearly has a body,[br]a sprawling physical infrastructure
0:23:34.520,0:23:38.190
and ever-growing ecological footprint.
0:23:38.190,0:23:43.590
The benign-sounding “cloud” is nothing less[br]than a publicity ploy for a vast campaign
0:23:43.590,0:23:49.250
to centralise digital data, and to turn[br]software and hardware into a black box.
0:23:49.250,0:23:56.480
As our computers have become thinner and sleeker,[br]the weight of the cloud has only grown greater.
0:23:56.480,0:24:00.140
So the body politic is now[br]intertwined with the body of the web,
0:24:00.140,0:24:04.380
and the web, the world wide,[br]is constrained by
0:24:04.380,0:24:08.360
national policies and geographical realities.
0:24:08.360,0:24:10.070
In October 2015,
0:24:10.070,0:24:14.630
citizens in Thailand protested against[br]their military government's plan to
0:24:14.630,0:24:21.410
channel Internet traffic to international[br]servers through a single network gateway,
0:24:21.410,0:24:25.859
with the intention of perfecting[br]state surveillance and censorship.
0:24:26.280,0:24:31.080
This political move was dubbed[br]“The Great Firewall of Thailand”.
0:24:31.080,0:24:36.510
As in Madrid, the choice of protest space[br]corresponded with the space,
0:24:36.510,0:24:39.320
the new law was tailored for.
0:24:39.320,0:24:43.420
The military government's websites were[br]targeted and downed for several hours by
0:24:43.420,0:24:45.990
denial of service attacks.
0:24:45.990,0:24:50.620
The online action was reported beyond[br]activist platforms and international media,
0:24:50.620,0:24:55.609
however, it lacked images that could[br]represent the bodies of those who would
0:24:55.609,0:24:57.900
literally be barred from leaving Thailand
0:24:57.900,0:25:01.500
where the government was[br]following through on its plans
0:25:01.500,0:25:04.370
for greater surveillance and censorship.
0:25:04.370,0:25:06.560
In the meantime, the[br]hacker collective “Anonymous”
0:25:06.560,0:25:10.640
declared cyberwar on the Thai government.
0:25:10.640,0:25:14.780
Operation “Single Gateway” targeted[br]Thai police servers in an effort to
0:25:14.780,0:25:20.840
demonstrate the actual vulnerability[br]of virtual state institutions.
0:25:22.250,0:25:28.290
So, how can one possibly grasp the current[br]relation between the digital and its outside,
0:25:28.800,0:25:34.820
back when the Internet was still thought of[br]as synonymous with cyberspace?
0:25:34.820,0:25:38.490
Both were clearly defined as separate.
0:25:38.490,0:25:40.110
A quote from Wendy Chun:
0:25:40.110,0:25:44.020
"Cyberspace as a virtual non-place made[br]the Internet so much more
0:25:44.020,0:25:45.930
than a network of networks:
0:25:45.930,0:25:51.570
It became a place in which things happened,[br]in which users’ actions separated from their bodies,
0:25:51.570,0:25:56.520
and in which local standards became[br]impossible to determine.
0:25:56.520,0:26:01.040
It thus freed users from their locations."
0:26:01.040,0:26:05.580
So in the 1990s, the Internet was[br]imagined to be a perfect frontier
0:26:05.580,0:26:07.870
science fiction dream come true,
0:26:07.870,0:26:14.010
where users could navigate as powerful agents,[br]invisible and free of physical constraints.
0:26:14.010,0:26:19.750
Yet, as Wendy Chun in her book[br]“Control and Freedom”, published in 2006,
0:26:19.750,0:26:23.280
as she has demonstrated,[br]the world wide web was designed
0:26:23.280,0:26:27.020
as a technology of control from the start,
0:26:27.020,0:26:34.170
geographically rooted and constantly[br]monitoring its users via protocols such as TCP/IP.
0:26:34.170,0:26:38.630
So in what way does virtuality challenge[br]our conception of public space
0:26:38.630,0:26:42.059
and the mobilisation of human bodies?
0:26:42.059,0:26:48.630
As we have seen, the digital and the real[br]coalesce in ever new forms and devices.
0:26:48.630,0:26:51.330
And despite the gaming industry's[br]recent success in
0:26:51.330,0:26:55.290
bringing early visions of virtual reality[br]to technical perfection,
0:26:55.290,0:27:00.900
think of Oculus Rift, or something[br]like the body snap app,
0:27:00.900,0:27:05.510
prior myth of virtual reality are slowly,[br]but certainly eroding.
0:27:05.510,0:27:09.290
The old demarcations between[br]the human body in physical space
0:27:09.290,0:27:15.420
and the so called “immateriality of the[br]digital sphere” are superseded.
0:27:15.420,0:27:21.580
Attempts to conceptualise the[br]effect of the synthetic face-to-screen situation
0:27:21.580,0:27:26.310
either one that this is downfall[br]of the sovereign subject or
0:27:26.310,0:27:32.560
extricate emancipatory potential from[br]the entanglement of humans and technology.
0:27:32.680,0:27:38.070
How then might a proxy give way to[br]different bodily modes and morphologies
0:27:38.070,0:27:41.360
a body both present and absent?
0:27:41.360,0:27:46.300
Whereas Donna Haraway and Rosi Braidotti[br]have attempted to destabilise the subject
0:27:46.300,0:27:52.070
as it was conceived during the 20th century,[br]exploring notions as the cyborg
0:27:52.070,0:27:55.760
in conceptualising a feminist post humanism.
0:27:55.760,0:28:03.820
Might the proxy antagonistically restabilise[br]a very concrete subject in a synthetic situation,
0:28:03.820,0:28:07.890
is a proxy a techno body,[br]does it have flesh after all?
0:28:07.890,0:28:12.470
Might it serve as the object other of the[br]high tech clean and efficient bodies
0:28:12.470,0:28:16.720
endorsed by contemporary culture[br]as Haraway envisions?
0:28:17.060,0:28:21.060
Or rather as a nomadic device[br]that enables people to become
0:28:21.060,0:28:25.030
post human subjects in Braidotti's[br]line of thought?
0:28:25.030,0:28:32.820
Braidotti warns of a fatal nostalgia for[br]either, humanist past or the cold war cyborg.
0:28:32.820,0:28:39.640
And instead proposes that we embraced[br]vulnerability, take pride in being flesh.
0:28:40.350,0:28:44.869
Her post-human theory aims at[br]shaping and shifting new subjectivities
0:28:44.869,0:28:48.989
against modern humanism,[br]a school of thought she criticises
0:28:48.989,0:28:54.170
for its wide male supremacy,[br]eurocentric normativity, imperial past,
0:28:54.450,0:28:58.790
and inhuman consequences.
0:28:58.790,0:29:03.279
So proxies permit human bodies[br]to step out of the line of fire
0:29:03.279,0:29:08.540
to evade forensics,[br]the lack of a human silhouette,
0:29:08.540,0:29:13.610
face, or fixed physiognomy[br]and can be associated with numerous
0:29:13.610,0:29:16.460
individuals wherever they are.
0:29:16.460,0:29:22.420
Rather than the avatar, a creatively designed[br]porn in the network gaming environment,
0:29:22.420,0:29:27.910
they assume either a transformative[br]shape and form, or none at all.
0:29:27.910,0:29:30.100
Last two sentences. chuckles
0:29:30.100,0:29:36.640
Proxies are necessary in[br]contemporary political struggle,
0:29:36.640,0:29:40.510
they're counter figures to[br]capitalist self improvement
0:29:40.510,0:29:43.980
or a [???] opaque other.
0:29:43.980,0:29:48.650
So proxies provide an escape route[br]from a schizophrenic situation,
0:29:48.650,0:29:56.320
which denies or limits bodies to being[br]mere vessels of biotechnological information.
0:29:56.320,0:30:03.740
Proxies offer a path toward a new,[br]a fleeting relation as sovereign bodies.
0:30:04.400,0:30:06.900
Thank you.
0:30:06.900,0:30:11.199
applause
0:30:11.919,0:30:14.850
Herald: Thank you very much for the[br]spontaneity and the talk
0:30:14.850,0:30:17.640
and I think there might be time[br]for questions outside.
0:30:18.480,0:30:19.840
Thank you.
0:30:19.840,0:30:24.520
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0:30:24.520,0:30:31.000
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