#DNL33 · September 21–22 · 2024
HACKING ALIENATION
Migrant Power, Art & Tech
THE 33rd CONFERENCE OF THE DISRUPTION NETWORK LAB
studio 1, KUNSTQUARTIER BETHANIEN, marianneplatz 2, 10997 Berlin & STREAMING
Curated by Tatiana Bazzichelli (Director, Disruption Network Lab, IT/DE)
in collaboration with Untold Stories and r0g agency
Speakers:
Anna Titovets Intektra (Artist, Researcher and Curator, RU/PT), Nyima Jadama (Activist & Moderator, GM/DE), Milagros Miceli (Sociologist and Computer Scientist, DAIR Institute, AR/DE), Marwa Fatafta (Researcher, Policy Analyst and Digital Rights Expert, PS/DE), allapopp (Digital Media and Performance Artist), Walid El-Houri (Researcher and Editor, LBN/DE), Dinara Rasuleva (Writer, Poet_ess), Tatiana Bazzichelli (Artistic Director, Disruption Network Lab, IT/DE), a.o. tba.
Introduction
The conference HACKING ALIENATION: Migrant Power, Art & Tech develops a range of technological and artistic interventions to participate in shaping cities and digital environments in a self-determined manner. In migration contexts, digital technologies and big data collection are too often programmed to be used for tracking, surveillance, and profiling. The conference will foster cross-sectoral discussions and tools for direct participation, both online and offline, reimagining the parameters of migration beyond national affiliation. The outcomes will highlight how art and technology can enhance the political agency of those who are without citizenship rights, and that are affected by systemic alienation due to war, political conflict or other sources of systemic oppression.
Migrant groups and individuals are at the forefront of facing racism, oppression, and discrimination. We can only overcome these injustices by adopting innovative strategies of systematic change that, rather than policing and maintaining borders of exclusion, subvert them and create pathways of solidarity and accountability. Together with activists, artists, advocates, researchers and developers with a migration background, we will discuss how we can use technology and media to imagine future strategies that urge community building rather than enforcing a state of integration. The artistic approach will play a central role, contributing to the introduction and generation of new tools of awareness and experimentation, as well as providing literacy in the context of big data, machine learning and smart technologies.
The conference will feature a keynote speech, two transdisciplinary panel discussions (21 September) and a workshop (22 September). The sessions will cover: Technological and artistic interventions to participate in the making of our cities and digital environments; How art, media and technology can enhance the political agency of those disenfranchised by forced migration; The politics of surveillance, digital 'inclusion' and its subversion; Agency and self-determination between media, art and protest.
This conference builds on the interdisciplinary discussions and new insights generated by previous Disruption Network Lab conferences, such as Data Cities, which focused on the role of AI, human rights and big data in smart cities; Borders of Fear, which examined the role of technology and surveillance in policing national borders; and Citizens of Evidence, which explored the investigative impact of grassroots communities and citizens to expose injustice, corruption and power asymmetries.
