Language is more than just phonetics, it is information. The literary scholar Lydia H. Lui describes how, after World War II, different scientific disciplines – from cybernetics, linguistics, and psychoanalysis to molecular biology – participated in the inscription of alphabetic written language into digital information processes, thus creating a new species, the “Freudian Robot”. To article...
It seems that one of the defining features of the technosphere is activity around a threshold between the “real” and digital realms. In a conversation with musician and writer Annie Gårlid about his latest full-length album Hesaitix Producer James Whipple (aka M.E.S.H.) elaborates on sonic world-building, commons, and ambiguous territories. To article...
For the launch of the program series State 1-4 (2016-2018) from Rimini Protokoll in December 2016, the philosopher Boris Buden asked whether democracy is dead. Just over one year later, on the occasion of the presentation of the entire tetralogy in Berlin, he again poses the question of the diminishing of state influence in the political sphere and the historical “truth” of modern democracy. A homage to Rimini Protokoll’s “Experts of the Everyday”. To article...
In the third part of its tetralogy Staat 1-4, Rimini Protokoll explores the secrets of Big Data. In the journal the Internet theorist Evgeny Morozov writes about the significance of the digital space for democratic processes, how the Internet plays into the hands of major companies with its alternative participation options, and why business and politics are virtually inseparable in the digital age. To article...
How can we transform schools? One hundred years ago the future of education mobilized the imagination of artists and scientists, yet today there is often a lack of ideas when it comes to alternative visions for the future. How should schools deal with the changing times, digitalization, and other challenges? How can students and teachers develop a new capacity for action? A report on the conference Schools of Tomorrow. To article in German...
A hundred years ago educational reformers all over the world attempted to establish the foundations for new learning and teaching. In the long-term praxis project Schools of Tomorrow, which examines these past approaches from today’s perspective, artists, pedagogues, and scientists experiment with new learning formats in practice. The curator Silvia Fehrmann and Daniel Seitz from Jugend hackt discuss alternative approaches, the complexities of the daily life of the new generation, and independently minded children. To article in German...
The dystopian video series “The Common Sense” is about “the patch.” Adhered to the palate, this prosthesis transfers the emotions and physical sensations of other people. Leaping through time and space, the video series reveals the far-reaching social changes that the gadget causes – from absolute surveillance at the workplace to a pornographic economy. In this interview artist Melanie Gilligan talks with Bert Rebhandl about devices, TV series and neurosciences. To article...
The Berliner Congress Civil Society 4.0 brought together activists and experts from (among others) Refugee Emancipation, Chaos Computer Club Berlin, metroZones, Refugee Hackathon, United Action, Women in Exile, Refugee Empowerment, and The Voice to ask what happens when “civil” is not limited to citizens, but all those who act politically and publicly: on the street, in institutions, in the media. When we are the state. Not based on nationality, but based on our humanity. To article in German...
