On the internet, people are finally themselves. But the web’s new openness and transparency only shows the surface while the important mechanisms of our lives are becoming less visible and manoeuvrable for many. Individuality and tenacity are falling by the wayside. Are our egos becoming an application of techno-modernisation? Or a commodity? If invisible changes […]
lecture
Slacktivism: The ambivalent relation between digital and social reality
Soheil Asefi is an independent Iranian journalist and analyst. He launched a weblog in 2002, at a point in time when weblog publishing in Iran was very young, and has worked extensively on tsocial network websites like Facebook during these years. He will talk about Slacktivism and the different aspects of this phenomenon and the […]
Pseudonym 3.0: A guide to a striking screen name
Those who want to go places on the internet with a pseudonym have to overcome many obstacles. The creator of Granaton made up her first virtual avatar in 1999 and saw the emotional potential of a name. A gallery owner, she analysed the necessary aspects for pseudonyms in the art world and the importance of […]
Selfie publishing. Filter identities, self-emoticons, non-sense
“Every man for himselfie .” Culture critics regard selfies as the death rattle of a declining Western world. Others consider them as the most accessible and effective current means of performative self-conviction. Depending on your perspective, selfies are the next big thing in art – or they make the term art obsolete. Christiane Frohmann talks […]
What’s mine is yours: New copyright laws in digital culture production
Thanks to digitalisation, culture production is in a period of radical change. The paths which creative professionals, companies and cultural institutions can follow today are becoming more manifold and at the same time – both consciously and unconsciously – more dependent on copyright. We will be looking at concrete examples of various developments. Presenter: Rabea […]
Internet & identity in the context of the history & future of life on earth
Tao Lin is one of the most popular authors associated to alt lit (alternative literature), a social media based creative community, which empathizes popular and internet culture and experiments with the possibilities the web offers for the creation and publication of literature. Tao Lin is the author of the novels “Taipei” (2013), “Richard Yates” (2010), […]
The man who am: Basic English performance
“Basic English” is a performative lecture in which Momus tells a story of frustration, jealousy and revenge using the basic (and completely inadequate) language endorsed by Australian educator Fred Schonell. As well as being very funny, the performance raises questions about how social power is expressed in linguistic framings, and how we might escape that. […]
Do you click me? E-campaigns in the area of culture
Paula Hannemann is Campaigns Director at Change.org Germany. Change.org is one of the largest e-campaigning platforms worldwide and in December 2013, it sent out an appeal from “Writers against Surveillance” with the participation of over 500 writers from 82 countries, among them Nobel Laureates. It advises public bodies and organisations on strategies for success and […]
The nightmare of participation – skype lecture and talk
If everyone has a say, how can there be consensus? Participation is not a cure of all evils; it is a crux of our times. In his “Trilogy of Participation”, architect and author Markus Miessen demands us to be more willing to have conflicts in its place. Especially in the area of the culture industry. […]