Kompaktkurs | Democracy of Things | Michelle Christensen / Florian Conradi

Conspiring
Do objects have an opinion? Do they have responsibilities – towards us, and towards each other? In times where our news feeds tell us when to care about what, and algorithms culturally reproduce us based on what we ‘like’ and don’t like, where rating systems automate consumption, and sensors and chips find their homes in our sneakers and coffee machines advising us on our personal behaviour – one might start to reconsider the idea of ‘autonomy’. Suddenly, things are knowing, learning, evaluating, predicting – and even collaborating amongst each other.

Do these objects just help us to organise ourselves, or do they ‘help’ us judge and feel? When are we still at the centre of the social algorithm, and when do we become the batteries of the gadgets? Do we have to raise a discussion about the political systems of things – about „technosocialism”, “algorithmic aristocracy“ or „object-mediated democracy”?

In this one-week seminar, we will carry out a series of social-material experiments. We will hinder and compromise our own personal things and hence, ourselves, to begin to have a different dialogue with objects. We will discover real-world examples on the topic, shadow the material regimes of power that we ourselves live within, and prototype possible provocations, in order to discuss potentially new terms for a more interesting democracy with space for people and things.

26.09. – 30.09.2016  I  10 -16 Uhr
Ort: Straße des 17. Juni 118 | Raum 207

Sprache: Deutsch / English
Teilnehmer: max. 15
Anmeldung unter:
Dozent/innen: Michelle Christensen / Florian Conradi