Talk: Spectre @ MUTEK 20, Montreal
In a little under 2 weeks time I’ll be joining some fascinating artists and thinkers at MUTEK Montreal, Canada for the 20th edition of the MUTEK festival. I will be presenting 2 presentations as part of this years programme. The first covers my most recent work interrogating computational propagandas and the logics of Dataism and surveillance capitalism more broadly, the second is a nostalgic recollection of the Brandalism project which focusses on challenging persuasion architectures in urban space. It is nice to present these two projects at MUTEK as the latter most definitely informs the former in the development of my practice and bridges creative strategies of resistance to protect the 2 commons – the urban to the digital.
—————————
Following the keynote from Douglas Rushkoff, myself and Daniel Howe will present:
Presentation: Spectre – Welcome to the Altar of Dataism
August 20, 2019, 11:00 – 11:45
August 20, 2019, 11:00 – 11:45
British artist Bill Posters (aka Barnaby Francis) and American researcher Daniel C. Howe open space for interrogating computational forms of propaganda and what they call the wider digital influence industry with a presentation of their project Spectre. Inviting audiences to “pray at the altar of dataism,” this interactive installation premiered at the Sheffield Doc/Fest 2019 Alternate Realities exhibition, and has attracted considerable media attention ever since, contributing to a debate on the privacy policies of the big social media companies.
Spectre was the winner of Sheffield Doc/Fest’s Alternate Realities 2019 Commission, supported by Arts Council England, Site Gallery, the British Council, and MUTEK.
—————————
Straight after I jump into an exciting panel and presentation session alongside Sava Saheli Singh, Paulo Cirio with Ryan Stec as moderator:
Panel: Data Practice & Network Forensics
August 20, 2019, 12:00 – 13:15
August 20, 2019, 12:00 – 13:15
How are privacy and agency at risk in our current moment of leaky networks, hacked elections, and ‘smart’ cities? With a trio of panelists speaking to recent projects that weaponize deepfakes, foreground socially manipulative technologies, and warn us about the perils of ubiquitous surveillance, this session will help attendees see, parse, and critically engage the communications infrastructure that surrounds us.
For those that can, please join us in Montreal! I’ll be checking for audio / video recordings of our sessions to share online for those that may wish to engage remotely at some point.
More info here.