Expanding upon early 20th-century techno-utopian visions, Heba Y. Amin’s project to sink the Mediterranean and relocate it within the African continent instigates a new vision for Africa and the Middle East by pinpointing what could be attained by and for those most affected by the wars waged for oil, resources and power
Category Archive: politics
Lawrence Abu Hamdan’s installation explores the concept of atmospheric violence, offering a historical and political reflection on the use of noise as a tool for oppression and control
An investigation into the colonial logic at work in contemporary Russian warfare through the largely unknown history of Soviet military cybernetic research
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By using AI to anonymise the Russian soldiers, the artist points the finger at the Russian government’s failure to take responsibility for these deaths
How do we narrate extreme violence without succumbing to its necropolitical impact? How do we make the unheard audible?
How cold is weaponised to control, punish and persecute communities, individuals, in particular racialised people
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It seems that design is locked in a system of exploitation and profit, a cycle that fosters inequality and the depletion of natural resources. CAPS LOCK uses clear language and striking visual examples to show how graphic design and capitalism are inextricably linked
From the politics of proxies to space extractivism and the commodification of the commons, including citizenship by investment and the art market, everything indicates that “offshore governance” has become the norm…
But what are the wider effects of whistleblowing as an act of dissent on politics, society, and the arts? How does it contribute to new courses of action, digital tools, and contents?
The ubiquity of access to information has lulled us into complacency with its flipside: ever more highly technologized forms of surveillance and the overexposure of our personal data
The digital revolution has given rise to new models of collaboration and knowledge production but also to new forms of exploitation, precariousness and dependency that have been likened to feudalism
An exhibition packed with artworks that are bold, socially-engaged and smart. This review focuses on the pieces that look at labour conditions, migration and the ghosts of past conflicts
A practical guide for working with data in more ethical, creative and responsible ways
Building on a long-shared history in the region, the projects covered in this volume use design and architecture to address social, political and ecological concerns along the shared border between Mexico and the USA
A rigorously researched overview of right-wing domestic terrorism. The author analyses its historical roots, characteristics, tactics, rhetoric, and organisation, assessing the current and future trajectory of the use of violence by the far right
The book considers how artists have used cultural practices to rethink concepts of violence and non-violence
How hackers and hacking moved from being a target of the state to a key resource for the expression and deployment of state power
The artist’s critical approach to technology can be found in works such as an orchestra of musical instruments that mine for Bitcoins, a 3D printable kit to cut undersea internet cables, a Bitcoin mining machine that claims to be worst in the world, etc.
Artists, theorists, activists, and scholars propose concrete forms of non-fascist living as the rise of contemporary fascisms threatens the foundations of common life
Artist and researcher Paul O’Neill takes Dubliners and curious tourists on guided tours of the HQs, warehouses, data centers and other infrastructures the internet relies on
A participative installation that imitates the functioning of machines and embraces human imperfections and errors started quietly enough but ended up causing controversy and censorship in Hungary
Photographer Salvatore Vitale explores Switzerland’s security measures by focusing on “matter-of-fact” types of instructions, protocols, bureaucracies and clear-cut solutions which he visualizes in photographs, diagrams, and graphical illustrations
Artist Dani Ploeger has been looking at the new fences built to toughen “Fortress Europe.” In particular the ones that use heat sensors, sophisticated cameras and other so-called ‘smart’ technologies to shut off “illegal immigrants”
A VR-essay and performance reminds us that organising information is never innocent and that we shouldn’t trust a Silicon Valley giant with its archiving, exhibiting and mapping
DocLab Expo: Humanoid Cookbook offered the usual menu of interactive documentaries, VR cinema, performances and interactive experiments but with an extra edge of AI creativity and a bit of culinary action
The artists and designer is interested the often invisible political nature of spaces and technologies, and how the design of the ordinary is involved in shaping values, practices and ideologies
In a world dominated by the visual, could contemporary resistances be auditory?
These posters might be half a century old, but they have lost nothing of their strength, nor sadly of their relevance. Today we have hashtags and other social media tools but we’re still yearning for equality, freedom and justice
“The collective wisdom of more than a hundred grassroots organizers from five continents. It’s everything you need for a DIY uprising of your own”
Artists investigating how creativity can be deployed to establish empathy and communication between incarcerated people and the public outside the prison
Although the exhibition is small, it still manages to convey many of the mechanisms, discriminatory practices and possibilities for rebellion that shape the narrative of transnationalism
The state of suspension is often likened to being paralysed or stunned, but it is actually a constant, relentless, never-ending struggle to adapt
The book portrays the routine cruelties of the twenty-first century through a series of detailed non-fictional graphic illustrations. None of these cruelties represent extraordinary violence – they reflect day-to-day implementation of laws and regulations around the globe
Janez Janša, Janez Janša and Janez Janša explore the “collateral effects” and damages of name change
In 2007, three artists officially changed their names and adopted the one of Janez Janša, a very powerful, right-wing and generally unpleasant political figure embroiled in accusations of corruption and authoritarianism.
The administrative procedure not only turned their lives into a perpetual performance but it also altered their private, civil and artistic lives in ways they had not always foreseen
“A new perspective on a traumatic chapter in German history.”
Arwed Messmer begins with the various photographs made by police photographers at the time—pictures of demonstrators, crime scene images, and mug shots. He poses the question of how this past search for criminological evidence can be employed artistically
Trebor Scholz exposes the uncaring reality of contingent digital work, which is thriving at the expense of employment and worker rights. The book is meant to inspire readers to join the growing number of worker-owned“platform cooperatives,” rethink unions, and build a better future of work
What policies are we voting for as citizens of European countries, and what is our relationship to this issue? How does the asylum system illegalise people? How are technologies used as processes of making and discrediting evidence?
Because it’s almost 40 degrees this week in Turin and i’m in a murderous mood, i’m going to split my review of the show into two parts. Today, you get the depressing bits and as soon as temperatures have cooled off a little, i’ll be back with the works that speak of solidarity, hope and compassion. It’s not all bad though because 1. i loved that show so much i visited it twice and 2. i’m going to open the quick gallery tour with one of my favourite artists
Throughout history, declaring a group to be nonhuman or subhuman has been an effective tool for justifying slavery, oppression and genocide. Conversely, differentiating humans from other species has paved the way for the abuse of natural resources and other animals
The booklet’s manifesto calls for design (or art) that gets out of the sleek graduation shows and galleries, confronts sociopolitical issues head-on and bites back. As he sums up, “Design can be how to punch Nazis in the face, minus the punching”