We are currently living in an accelerated condition, being called to track, measure and compare all our moves and interactions. Through our networked and sensored devices, we engage in continuous acts of performance with the aim to 'capture all', to get better and to compare our optimized selves with others. Allowing the systems to know us and to make predictions about us, we unavoidably give in to new modes of algorithmic normalisation and control. Do we really have any possibilities to escape this logic and to perform against today's algorithmic apparatuses, to confuse them and repurpose them? The talk will present how a new scene of artists responds to this question by testing the limits of the new system of constant datafication. Different practices will be presented and discussed in an attempt to examine how art aims not only to provoke the current condition but also to evoke change. The talk will be based on the theme of Transmediale 2015 - Capture all, depicting examples from its exhibition and workshop program.
Daphne Dragona
curator & writer
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