0:00:00.000,0:00:18.210
35C3 preroll musik
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Herald: Hello everybody. A warm welcome[br]to our friend Nicholas Maigret from
0:00:27.119,0:00:35.530
DISNOVATION.ORG. They are making[br]contemporary art with research and hacking
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to question the positive ideology for[br]technology, to stimulate a post-growth
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technology narrative. So I am quite[br]interested and give him a warm welcome.
0:00:47.820,0:00:53.010
Applause
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Nicholas Maigret: Hello Everyone. Ouh does[br]it work? Can you hear me? Hey, Yeah.
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Hello, so I'm Nicholas Maigret and[br]together with Maria Roszkowska we
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initiated the DISNOVATION.ORG collective[br]and our collective intends to reveal and
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challenge the dominant ideology of[br]technological innovation and circulate
0:01:15.960,0:01:22.300
alternative narrative. So I will show you[br]a selection of projects and mainly it's a
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few projects selected to resonate with the[br]CCC and the topics here. So we do
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basically creations so we organize the[br]festivals and we create the art species in
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a different series of projects around[br]basically the rhetoric of technological
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innovation and the effect of this dominant[br]ideology on society. We also
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work on publications in books. I will get[br]back to that in a minute. And we do
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artworks and site specific projects that I[br]will present in the second half of this
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talk. So the first part will be focusing[br]on our curatorial practices around this
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idea of counter-narratives on[br]technological innovation. So I will
0:02:09.610,0:02:16.290
introduce three works. The first one is a[br]pirate book. So it's a book we started to
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compile in 2014. It's a compilation of[br]stories about sharing and distributing
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cultural contents outside the boundaries of[br]local economies, politics, laws, religions,
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and so on. So with this work we tried to[br]explore the notions such as the piracy of
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necessity, the idea of new originals. And[br]I think it's interesting to go back to
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this project to come back to this project[br]in the context of the Anthropocene and the
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potential imminent collapse. Because I[br]think there is a need for non-techno-
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solutionist and non-techno-positivist[br]stories at the moment and somehow a need
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to develop post growth narratives. So[br]we'll see what we can learn from the
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following examples taken from the book[br]around concerns like repair, care,
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maintenance, and creative appropriation.[br]So the first excerpt from the book I would
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like to focus on, is an example from Mexico,[br]given by our contributor Jota Izquierdo
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and basically it focuses on the stories of[br]a craftsman that works for improving the
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practices of street CD vendors in Mexico. So[br]I will I will play a quick excerpt of it.
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Video is playing with music
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Nicholas: So in the book we cover multiple
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stories in this sort. We just focus on a[br]couple of those.
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musik from video in the background[br]Nicholas: The second one is based in the
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Sahel. It's a contribution by Christopher[br]Kirkley and is presenting basically how a
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big part of music distribution in Sahel is[br]done through copies between dumb phones
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using Bluetooth. So it's a way somehow to[br]create a circulation of contents by
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nearest neighbor dynamics, basically. And[br]the third example I would like just to
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introduce is el paquete semanal. Basically[br]it's in the context of Cuban lack of fast
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internet or internet at all. Basically el[br]paquete semanal is a sort of substitute
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to the internet in the form of a package.[br]It's a hard drive, as you can see here and
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this hard drive also circulates one copy[br]at a time. And it's basically a
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compilation of all the content that is[br]considered to be missing for people so you
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can see on this hard drive TV shows, books,[br]movies, music, and all the sorts of
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content you could expect from an internet[br]browsing experience. So you can find the
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book online for free. And we cover many of[br]the stories but tonight I will just
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present those and connect with this last[br]contribution by Clément Renaud. He did a
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long term six years of research in China[br]and he shared with us this story about
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Shanzhai technology production. It's[br]basically something between piracy and
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hybridization in Chinese manufacturing.[br]And I will focus on this one a little bit
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more so in his article Clément Renaud[br]described specific local tech
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innovation named Shanzhai. The Shanzhai[br]culture is a mix of piracy, DIY, and anti-
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establishment. It literally means[br]"mountain fortress" and it comes from a
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novel from the 13th century that tells a[br]story of a group of outlaws that hides in
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the mountain to be outside the system and[br]outside the regulation of the state
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basically. So in a more recent context[br]Shanzhai refers basically to
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manufacturing, it emerged in in the 50s[br]for instance in Hong Kong to describe a
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small scale factories that were producing[br]cheap low quality items and mainly
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counterfeit products of famous brands like[br]Gucci or Nike and they sold those products
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on markets that would not buy the fancy,[br]expensive originals. And as electonic
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manufacturing migrated to Shenzhen in the[br]early 2000s this informal network of
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Shanzhai production found the perfect[br]product in the mobile phone. So our first
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acquisition in this collection was[br]basically the the Ghana phone and we've
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been very intrigued by this device. So[br]basically this device has not been
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conceived for its superficial design but[br]it's it's been conceived to fill a gap a
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need, a niche market. So this phone is a[br]power bank basically to fill the gap of
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the frequent power cuts in Ghana. So it[br]has a battery that can last for a week.
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You can also charge other devices with it,[br]recharge your computer, another phone. You
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can also use it as a light. So that's why[br]you have a hook to connect it on the on
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the ceiling. And basically it's a whole[br]package of functions and properties that
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were designed specifically for local[br]markets that nowhere any brands were
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paying attention at. So we were very[br]interested by this track of research and
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we wanted to dig some more. So we started[br]with a simple protocol. We started to
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collect hybrid phones that were combining[br]multiple functions and designed for those
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niche markets all over the place, mainly[br]in the global south but not only, you
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will see. So you can find a lot of fancy[br]and weird devices that I will show, and
0:10:33.829,0:10:39.759
those devices we've been collecting them[br]in markets in Shenzhen like Huaqiangbei
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and also online like on Taobao,[br]Aliexpress, and so on. So one of the
0:10:45.259,0:10:49.971
reasons that we wanted to focus our[br]research on mobile phones, because
0:10:49.971,0:10:55.079
Shanzhai production is not about mobiles,[br]it's about every kind of technology I
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would say. But we kind of wanted to stick[br]to one sort of device to have this
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continuity over 20 years. And also because[br]somehow a huge contrast could be seen
0:11:08.949,0:11:16.490
through the mobile phone between sort of[br]north hemisphere culture or this somehow
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the standardized culture of the black[br]rectangle we all have in our pockets here.
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And this kind of non normalized[br]technological imaginaries that were
0:11:30.249,0:11:35.399
emerging there and somehow it reminds us I[br]think that although technological
0:11:35.399,0:11:43.470
possibilities always exist beyond the[br]ultra normalized industry. So I will dig
0:11:43.470,0:11:47.379
into a few of those.[br]musik from video in the background
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Nicholas: So each of those examples I think[br]a tell a specific story and reveal
0:11:53.189,0:11:59.189
specific uses and cultures. So here you[br]can see a lighter phone. So it's basically
0:11:59.189,0:12:09.019
a phone that does cigarette lighter. This[br]one is I would say a working cigarette
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pack that also includes a mobile phone or[br]perhaps the other way around.
0:12:12.778,0:12:38.179
inaudible voice from video
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Nicholas: And this one is a razor phone.
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So it's a phone that includes a working[br]shaver.
0:12:43.779,0:12:49.770
razor noise from video
0:12:49.770,0:12:52.350
Nicholas: So since 2015 we've been
0:12:52.350,0:12:59.029
collecting about hundreds of those hybrid[br]phones and I will zoom into a few of very
0:12:59.029,0:13:04.549
interesting specimens and stories. So here[br]you can see the card phone, it's the size
0:13:04.549,0:13:09.489
of a credit card. It used to be the[br]cheapest on the market. It cost about
0:13:09.489,0:13:15.410
twelve dollars and it's made of a single[br]board. So basically it can be very easily
0:13:15.410,0:13:22.194
replicated and optimized, modified, and so[br]on. So that's why it's been called the
0:13:22.194,0:13:27.839
Gongkai Phone which means open source and[br]you can find this board in multiple
0:13:27.839,0:13:33.929
versions in the later generation of phones[br]I will present in a minute.
0:13:33.929,0:13:51.819
Video music in the background
0:13:51.819,0:13:58.249
So this one is called the Buda phone. It's [br]been designed as a digital alternative for Buddhist
0:13:58.249,0:14:06.019
prayers and related religious activities.[br]So basically it replicates for instance
0:14:06.019,0:14:12.100
the ritual components like the burning of[br]incense, purification rites, meditative
0:14:12.100,0:14:21.370
music, and more. So all of those features[br]are included in basically the UX of the phone.
0:14:21.370,0:14:54.273
musik from video
0:14:54.273,0:14:59.779
Nicholas: So this is the sound system[br]phone. It's been designed for mainly the
0:14:59.779,0:15:06.519
elderly people. So the favorite one of the[br]favorite activities of the elderly in
0:15:06.519,0:15:13.609
China is group dancing on public squares in[br]evenings. And this specific phone has been
0:15:13.609,0:15:20.059
designed for this purpose. And so it comes[br]with a several gigabytes of old fashioned,
0:15:20.059,0:15:29.339
communist songs that Chinese pensioners[br]are particularly keen on. It has huge
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buttons. I mean it's really designed for[br]the elderly. So the device is like that
0:15:36.420,0:15:41.749
size. And there is also support to stand[br]in front of the dancers and the powerful
0:15:41.749,0:15:46.089
light torch to ensure a smooth return home[br]after the dance.
0:15:50.199,0:15:54.560
Speaker on Video: Small. Nice and neat to[br]put away up in the bums
0:15:54.560,0:16:01.359
Yeah, I'm a pro,[br]I can do about 20 in 10 minutes
0:16:01.359,0:16:04.730
Speaker on Video: Why in Mars bars?[br]Speaker on video: Because they are
0:16:04.730,0:16:08.329
available in most of the visit halls, you[br]can't take something that might not be
0:16:08.329,0:16:13.629
there because if you do they're gonna[br]notice it's different. I'd say that
0:16:13.629,0:16:24.819
there's probably 75 percent of prisoners[br]have phones in jail. I take them in on the
0:16:24.819,0:16:30.989
person in places where you wouldn't get[br]searched, the front of your trousers, in
0:16:30.989,0:16:36.199
your bra.[br]Nicholas: So this one is the prisoner
0:16:36.199,0:16:44.040
phone or it's also called Beat The Buzz.[br]The buzz is a device for scanning
0:16:44.040,0:16:50.170
prisoners. So actually, It started on the[br]market as the smallest phone on the
0:16:50.170,0:16:56.380
market. But for some reason it became[br]popular among prisoners, many in the UK
0:16:56.380,0:17:01.759
because of its small size. It's the size[br]of a finger. And because of the fact also
0:17:01.759,0:17:07.819
it's composed of 99 percent of plastic, so[br]it's barely detectable during the checks
0:17:07.819,0:17:15.740
in prisons and you can easily smuggle it.[br]Inside food, inside the body obviously but
0:17:15.740,0:17:24.140
also in weird ways like inside drones,[br]carrier pigeons, rats and so on. So we try
0:17:24.140,0:17:30.370
to exhibit all this collection of weird[br]devices in their natural habitat, in a
0:17:30.370,0:17:35.890
way, so we built a reproduction of a[br]street market kiosk where we basically
0:17:35.890,0:17:41.280
showcase this collection of hybrid phones[br]and together with that we have a couple
0:17:41.280,0:17:48.600
of video documentaries like this one, that[br]kind of tells the larger Shanzhai culture
0:17:48.600,0:17:55.510
and focus on the Chinese ecosystem of[br]technological devices production and
0:17:55.510,0:18:06.150
distribution. So that's how it looks when[br]it's shown. Yeah. That's it for this one.
0:18:06.150,0:18:12.290
And the last cultural project. I'd like to[br]introduce is a work in progress. It's
0:18:12.290,0:18:17.460
called the Museum Of Failures and I will[br]start with a quote by Paul Virilio.
0:18:17.460,0:18:18.160
Quote read by a female voice
0:18:58.833,0:19:01.880
Nicholas: So as you could guess with this
0:19:01.880,0:19:07.680
quote this project is about uncovering and[br]compiling counter narratives about the
0:19:07.680,0:19:14.530
history of technological innovation and[br]our project is basically to compile those
0:19:14.530,0:19:20.270
under represented stories, that can help us[br]to disrupt the dominant positive discourse
0:19:20.270,0:19:28.830
on innovation and help us maybe to think[br]about technology in post growth era. So
0:19:28.830,0:19:37.150
the project takes the shape of workshops,[br]conferences, events, and we share it as a
0:19:37.150,0:19:45.650
database and exhibitions. So this symbolic[br]museum is structured in two floors. They
0:19:45.650,0:19:51.380
go in negative numbers. They are somehow[br]the underground counterparts of usual
0:19:51.380,0:19:58.360
technological museum. So each floor is a[br]potential sort of entry, or perspective on
0:19:58.360,0:20:04.700
the museum sorted by topics. So you have[br]like intentional failures, fiction and
0:20:04.700,0:20:13.370
dystopias, risk and disasters, unexpected[br]outcomes, and so on. So the first part of
0:20:13.370,0:20:21.180
this future book is a collection of[br]aborted projects: flops, errors,
0:20:21.180,0:20:26.710
malfunctions, business failures, ethical[br]rejections, disasters, and somehow reflects
0:20:26.710,0:20:31.960
the outlines of our society from a[br]historical, symbolic, poetic, and cultural
0:20:31.960,0:20:37.820
point of view. The second part of this[br]book though will be based on interviews
0:20:37.820,0:20:44.120
and contributions and we are open to[br]proposals. So if you have stories or
0:20:44.120,0:20:49.070
research on post growth technological[br]imaginaries and counter narratives on
0:20:49.070,0:20:55.990
technological innovation, you're welcome to[br]submit. Okay so the second part of this
0:20:55.990,0:21:01.360
talk will be about our artworks, specific[br]selection to resonate with the CCC as
0:21:01.360,0:21:12.040
well. And we grouped it into this idea of[br]psychoanalysis of the hyper connected era.
0:21:12.040,0:21:18.370
So the first artwork I will introduce, is the Pirate[br]Cinema. So basically the copy culture got
0:21:18.370,0:21:25.040
mainstream with BitTorrent and the Pirate[br]Bay in the early 2000s and it became an
0:21:25.040,0:21:31.860
essential part of culture for a whole[br]generation. And at the same time as this
0:21:31.860,0:21:39.140
process since the early days of peer to[br]peer it coexisted with an intense level of
0:21:39.140,0:21:46.810
surveillance. So this surveillance was[br]conducted by universities, cooperations,
0:21:46.810,0:21:53.050
states. Some times for statistical[br]purposes, just to know how much is
0:21:53.050,0:21:57.500
consumed from different types of content[br]and so on, and most of the time for
0:21:57.500,0:22:04.830
copyright infringement. And we got very[br]interested in how we could disrupt those
0:22:04.830,0:22:11.580
systems of network surveillance basically[br]and use it to reveal the dynamics and the
0:22:11.580,0:22:16.730
materiality of peer to peer file sharing.[br]So basically to expose the materiality of
0:22:16.730,0:22:23.640
this process and the geographical dynamics[br]of the contents that were consumed and
0:22:23.640,0:22:30.915
shared. So I'll show a few excerpts of[br]this project.
0:22:30.915,0:23:20.780
inaudible sound snippets from video
0:23:20.780,0:23:24.170
Nicholas: So we programed the server to
0:23:24.170,0:23:29.190
use BitTorrent and to synchronize every[br]morning with the Top 100 videos of the
0:23:29.190,0:23:34.260
Pirate Bay. So it's a sort of a man in the[br]middle attack where we see what people are
0:23:34.260,0:23:42.680
sharing through our server. So it's a way[br]to view the global dynamics through one
0:23:42.680,0:23:50.410
node of the BitTorrent network. And as you[br]can see on the video it also reveals the
0:23:50.410,0:23:57.400
user IP address and the countries. And[br]somehow it's a way to depict the
0:23:57.400,0:24:04.920
geographical dynamics of media sharing in[br]the consumptions. The next project I'd
0:24:04.920,0:24:11.380
like to introduce following this idea of[br]counter narratives. It's a series about
0:24:11.380,0:24:18.590
illicit contents. It's called Blacklist.[br]So we got interested in basically who
0:24:18.590,0:24:23.320
controls and decides what should be[br]visible or not online or what should be
0:24:23.320,0:24:32.800
blocked or not. And how those least are[br]built and used. And somehow how maybe it
0:24:32.800,0:24:39.980
can be something that reveals the value[br]system we live in. So there are numerous
0:24:39.980,0:24:46.340
blacklists. You can subscribe to more or[br]less efficient and up to date. Script
0:24:46.340,0:24:50.620
blacklists, Squid blacklists, Sheller[br]list, Cisco and so on and somehow they
0:24:50.620,0:24:57.490
remind us literally of the index of[br]forbidden books that used to exist in
0:24:57.490,0:25:02.780
libraries around the globe. It was a list[br]basically of publication considered a
0:25:02.780,0:25:09.510
hereticall, immoral or anticlerical. And[br]you know in an internet blacklist nowadays
0:25:09.510,0:25:14.890
you have pretty much the same. So[br]addresses that can be blocked, they are
0:25:14.890,0:25:20.050
organized into categories as you can see[br]here. And as a sysadmin you can decide
0:25:20.050,0:25:26.650
what type of content you want to block. So[br]such lists are used by universities,
0:25:26.650,0:25:32.450
towns, airports, companies, individuals[br]and so on. And then it helps you basically
0:25:32.450,0:25:38.260
to restrict the access to specific content[br]on your network. So you have categories
0:25:38.260,0:25:43.700
like copyright, porn, pharmacy and so on[br]and you can see weird stuff like feminist
0:25:43.700,0:25:50.330
for instance and I guess it reveals the[br]for profit nature of this list and the
0:25:50.330,0:25:58.160
fact that anything can be requested, if[br]enough clients are asking for it. So this
0:25:58.160,0:26:05.470
work took the shape of a sort of an[br]encyclopedia in 13 volumes of 666 pages.
0:26:05.470,0:26:12.160
It's basically an encyclopedia of illicit[br]and filtered sites. It is structured like
0:26:12.160,0:26:19.440
an old phone book. It's a sort of ready[br]made, that reveals the moral sort of
0:26:19.440,0:26:23.590
portraits or framework of the web.
0:26:23.590,0:26:25.470
Video: Blacklists is a directory of the
0:26:25.470,0:26:31.960
prohibitions of the internet, deployed in[br]the form of an encyclopedia in 13 volumes
0:26:31.960,0:26:38.860
of 666 pages each. It is an extensive[br]collection of restricted websites used
0:26:38.860,0:26:45.060
for the automatic filtering of traffic[br]considered ilicit or licentious. Just
0:26:45.060,0:26:49.520
like the intent of forbidding libraries[br]the Blacklist project points out the
0:26:49.520,0:26:55.070
sidelining of online content that could be[br]dangerous for the very survival of the
0:26:55.070,0:27:01.390
system. With around two million web sites[br]extracted from commercial content control
0:27:01.390,0:27:07.250
softwares this collection reveals the[br]cultural social and ideological model of
0:27:07.250,0:27:13.390
our society through what has been deemed[br]unfit for consultation by specific groups
0:27:13.390,0:27:23.770
and institutions around the globe.[br]Nicolas: So I guess you get the idea. All
0:27:23.770,0:27:30.100
right. So this next work is predictive art[br]bot and I will need to contextualize a
0:27:30.100,0:27:37.450
bit. So basically we live in the era of[br]hyper connectivity and the time we spend
0:27:37.450,0:27:43.280
on phone and social media is radically[br]increase over the last ten years. This has
0:27:43.280,0:27:48.240
a strong effect on us. Online news and[br]communication tends to monopolize a lot of
0:27:48.240,0:27:53.970
our attention and it does have a growing[br]influence on our types of concerns and
0:27:53.970,0:28:02.400
priorities. So we know about effects like[br]a filter bubble, media echo chambers and to
0:28:02.400,0:28:07.350
some extent the influence of social media[br]and hyper connection tend towards a sort
0:28:07.350,0:28:14.320
of uniformization not only of our concerns[br]but also somehow of our innovation and
0:28:14.320,0:28:20.650
creativity. And it tends towards a higher[br]chance of predictability of our behaviors.
0:28:20.650,0:28:28.430
So stemming basically from the art field[br]we started to notice somehow similar
0:28:28.430,0:28:36.320
patterns amongst the artists around us. So[br]we spotted numerous similar imaginaries
0:28:36.320,0:28:42.680
similar trends in each interest groups.[br]And we started to observe similar topics,
0:28:42.680,0:28:47.900
similar ideas and even similar ways of[br]realizing artworks and answering to ideas
0:28:47.900,0:28:53.340
and concerns. So at some point we were[br]like: Do we really need artists to simply
0:28:53.340,0:28:58.790
follow the trends? And do we need artists[br]to just illustrate the latest technical
0:28:58.790,0:29:03.820
technological bells. Maybe no. So that's[br]where the project started with the simple
0:29:03.820,0:29:10.180
question and we decided to automatize the[br]process of mainstream creativity we could
0:29:10.180,0:29:19.080
say. And to push it toward sort of the[br]absurd. So to do that, we created a bot.
0:29:19.080,0:29:25.960
And this bot basically is subscribed to[br]hundreds of RSS feeds. That's the sort of
0:29:25.960,0:29:31.150
feeds we will get on our cell phone, our[br]Twitter feed you know. So were basically
0:29:31.150,0:29:39.930
subscribing the bot to the same. And then[br]the bot is using some python library to
0:29:39.930,0:29:48.309
try to identify the most significant[br]keyword in the headlines and those
0:29:48.309,0:29:54.350
keywords are stored and then we organized[br]using Tracery in a sort of generative
0:29:54.350,0:30:00.470
poetry to create potential concept for[br]artworks and those concepts are reposted on
0:30:00.470,0:30:07.070
Twitter and different places to basically[br]create a new weird inspiration machine.
0:30:07.070,0:30:13.520
That's what you will see now.[br]Video: Predictive Art Bot is a bot that
0:30:13.520,0:30:20.050
turns the latest media headlines into[br]artistic concepts. In the Age of Hyper
0:30:20.050,0:30:25.260
connectivity the perverse implications of[br]media echo chambers are becoming more and
0:30:25.260,0:30:31.350
more obvious. Groups of similar behaviors[br]are being partitioned into filter bubbles
0:30:31.350,0:30:36.620
while the few massively reposted topics[br]tend to monopolize most of the available
0:30:36.620,0:30:42.900
attention. Search insular echo chambers[br]strongly effect ways of thinking, resulting
0:30:42.900,0:30:49.760
in increasingly homogeneous imaginaries[br]within groups of likeminded people.
0:30:49.760,0:30:53.480
Predictive art bar caricature is the[br]predictability of media influenced
0:30:53.480,0:30:59.640
artistic concepts by automating and[br]skirting the human creative process. But
0:30:59.640,0:31:04.900
beyond mere automation, it aims to[br]stimulate unbridled, counter intuitive and
0:31:04.900,0:31:11.870
even disconcerting associations of ideas.[br]To do so it continually monitors emerging
0:31:11.870,0:31:16.800
trends among the most influential news[br]sources in fields as heterogeneous as
0:31:16.800,0:31:24.320
politics, environment, innovation,[br]culture, activism, or health. On this
0:31:24.320,0:31:29.300
basis it identifies and combines keywords[br]to generate concepts of artworks in a
0:31:29.300,0:31:36.520
fully automated way ranging from[br]unreasonable to prophetic to absurd. Each
0:31:36.520,0:31:40.540
prediction becomes a thought experiment[br]waiting to be incubated, misused, or
0:31:40.540,0:31:47.380
appropriated by a human host.[br]Nicolas: Okay. And we also commissioned a
0:31:47.380,0:31:53.450
few artists to interpret and realize those[br]projects a few times. Okay. The last
0:31:53.450,0:31:58.190
project for tonight. I see that it's[br]almost time for me. So the last project is
0:31:58.190,0:32:07.370
a map and it's a work in progress for a[br]future long-term project. And basically it
0:32:07.370,0:32:13.040
focuses on the fact, that the web has[br]become one of the most impactful vehicles
0:32:13.040,0:32:19.380
for the propagation of ideas in culture.[br]And hyper connectivity did intensify the
0:32:19.380,0:32:26.790
rise of online politics and made it way[br]easier to manipulate public opinions. And,
0:32:26.790,0:32:34.690
I mean this happened at a sort of[br]unprecedented scale. So you know we've
0:32:34.690,0:32:40.590
seen the emergence of political bots, fake[br]accounts, troll farms and so on. But today
0:32:40.590,0:32:46.190
I will focus on the cultural aspect of[br]this battleground. So one of the important
0:32:46.190,0:32:50.760
aspects of online culture wars that we[br]were trying to map, is perhaps this notion
0:32:50.760,0:32:56.940
of transgression, so as one of the Trump[br]supporters, Milo Yiannopoulos used to say
0:32:56.940,0:33:04.800
"Conservatism is the new punk".[br]Milo Yiannopoulos: And think about how the
0:33:04.800,0:33:09.190
culture wars have changed, and changed[br]very rapidly and in a very short space of
0:33:09.190,0:33:18.929
time. The dissident element in culture: punk,[br]mischief, irreverence is now better
0:33:18.929,0:33:24.010
represented in politics by a "Make America[br]Great Again" hat than by anything on the
0:33:24.010,0:33:28.520
left. If you want to annoy somebody, you[br]want to piss your parents off, If you want
0:33:28.520,0:33:35.410
to be ejected from polite society as this[br]poor angel has been. There is no better
0:33:35.410,0:33:39.850
way to do it than to cast a vote for[br]Donald Trump. This is the new punk.
0:33:39.850,0:33:44.260
Shouting[br]Milo Yiannopoulos: This is the new punk.
0:33:44.260,0:33:48.670
Republican is the new cool. Thank you for[br]coming.
0:33:48.670,0:33:54.270
Shouting[br]Nicolas: So in the context of the
0:33:54.270,0:34:00.010
political correctness and self-censorship,[br]public shaming. That was occuring a lot
0:34:00.010,0:34:07.500
in the left. This obscure style of sort of[br]iconic, cynical, mockery emerges as a sort
0:34:07.500,0:34:15.810
of counterforce. And transgression made[br]the alt-right attractive in a way. And
0:34:15.810,0:34:20.749
this transgressive online culture is well[br]presented in the book of Angela Nagel
0:34:20.749,0:34:25.569
called Kill All Normies.[br]Audio: What seem to hold them all together
0:34:25.569,0:34:31.429
in their obscurity was a love of mocking[br]the earnestness and moral self flattery of
0:34:31.429,0:34:36.299
what felt like a tired liberal[br]intellectual conformity running right
0:34:36.299,0:34:41.279
through from establishment liberal[br]politics to the more militant enforcers of
0:34:41.279,0:34:47.849
new sensitivities and from the wackiest[br]corners of Tumblr to campus politics.
0:34:47.849,0:34:54.239
Nicolas: So basically this culture of[br]transgression aligns pretty well with what
0:34:54.239,0:34:58.630
is called a weaponized meme so a[br]weaponized meme is when the internet memes
0:34:58.630,0:35:05.180
become part of political and ideological[br]propaganda. It can be done by the right
0:35:05.180,0:35:10.480
but as well by all the political spectrum[br]like here to fight the homophobia in
0:35:10.480,0:35:17.910
Russia. And as a starting point for this[br]new series of projects we wanted to create
0:35:17.910,0:35:23.249
a kind of mind map of the emerging online[br]culture wars. So we use this classical
0:35:23.249,0:35:29.820
political compass as a framework. I mean[br]it's a framework that has been criticized
0:35:29.820,0:35:35.829
a lot but nonetheless it became popular as[br]a format to exchange content on online
0:35:35.829,0:35:41.500
forums and on the meme-osphere and it[br]often integrates non-political characters
0:35:41.500,0:35:47.890
and pop-references and so on. So after[br]studying numerous critical researches on
0:35:47.890,0:35:52.509
the topic, like the Computational[br]Propaganda Project, Angela Nagel, Florian
0:35:52.509,0:35:57.859
Cramer and so on and also on[br]investigations, we started to assemble a
0:35:57.859,0:36:03.779
sort of cartography of weaponized meme[br]elements with the help of Baruch Gottlieb.
0:36:03.779,0:36:10.349
Audio: The Online Culture Wars Project[br]offers a provisional cartography of
0:36:10.349,0:36:17.150
weaponized meme elements using a[br]speculative political distribution. Taking
0:36:17.150,0:36:21.059
the political compass as a framework this[br]cartography offers a symbolic
0:36:21.059,0:36:26.859
representation of online ideological and[br]political debates in the context of the
0:36:26.859,0:36:33.549
growing polarization and radicalization.[br]This ever evolving chart is the result of
0:36:33.549,0:36:39.520
a superposition of hundreds of politicized[br]memes found online. In addition to
0:36:39.520,0:36:44.960
influential political symbols, actors and[br]influencers. It is designed as a
0:36:44.960,0:36:51.460
discussion starter intended to expose and[br]contextualize the present battlefield of
0:36:51.460,0:36:56.289
online culture wars.[br]Nicolas: So we are currently continuing
0:36:56.289,0:37:02.759
this map as an interactive, contributive[br]webpage. Well this was a quick selection
0:37:02.759,0:37:08.440
of our old and new works that somehow[br]resonates with the CCC and thank you for
0:37:08.440,0:37:15.290
your attention.[br]Applause
0:37:15.290,0:37:25.660
Herald: A big thanks Nicholas. Are there[br]any questions to Nicholas. There is
0:37:25.660,0:37:30.200
microphone 1.[br]Micophone 1: Hey congrats. Beautiful
0:37:30.200,0:37:32.200
presentation.[br]Nikolas:Thanks.
0:37:32.200,0:37:38.210
Micophone 1: I'm curious what's what have[br]you never dared doing, what's your next
0:37:38.210,0:37:46.119
step? I think it's correlated somehow.[br]Nicolas: Yeah yeah yeah. So as I said this
0:37:46.119,0:37:51.650
last project is a sort of a starting point[br]for a new series of investigation and
0:37:51.650,0:37:58.239
research. And at the moment we are[br]accumulating a lot of documents on the
0:37:58.239,0:38:06.509
online propaganda and online influence.[br]And we're starting a new series of online
0:38:06.509,0:38:14.710
performance using and basically[br]challenging those strategies for the
0:38:14.710,0:38:22.319
manipulation of opinions. So we are trying[br]to develop our own propaganda strategies
0:38:22.319,0:38:27.049
basically.[br]Herald: Are there any questions from the
0:38:27.049,0:38:35.670
internet. No. Yeah. Then a big warm[br]applause, thanks for Nicholas.
0:38:35.670,0:38:37.664
Applause
0:38:37.664,0:39:01.000
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