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Women under Surveillance Symposium

Please scroll down for English version

Symposium
2. & 3. Dezember 2015
Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln
Filzengraben 2, 50676 Köln

http://wus.khm.de

 

Das zweitägige Symposium Women under Surveillance tritt vermeintlich neutralen Definitionen von Überwachung entgegen. Es führt einen künstlerischen und interdisziplinären Dialog über Überwachung im Digitalzeitalter. Dieses Bezugsfeld wird dabei mit einem besonderen Fokus auf dessen Bedeutung für Frauen diskutiert.

Das Symposium bringt Vorträge, Performances, Installationen und Filmscreenings zusammen, die sich mit Themen wie Datensammlung oder Kontrollobsessionen im Namen der Sicherheit auseinandersetzen.

Ziel ist die reine Diskussion, ob exzessive Überwachung notwendig und zielführend ist angesichts einer zunehmend unsichereren Welt, hinter sich zu lassen und stattdessen anhand geschlechtsspezifischer historischer Überwachungskomplexe, wie beispielsweise der Regulierung der Autonomie der Fortpflanzung und der Sexualität, die Frage zu stellen, wer von wem beobachtet wird, wie, warum und zu welchen Kosten?

 

Konzeption und Organisation: Prof. Julia Scher, Christian Sievers, Dieuwke Boersma und die Surveillant Architectures Group an der Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln. Filmprogramm kuratiert von Christa Pfafferott. Design von Stephanie Glauber.

Im Rahmen des Symposiums präsentiert GLASMOOG – Raum für Kunst & Diskurs an der Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln „Tektite Revisited“, ein Ausstellungs- und Filmprojekt der Filmemacherin Meghan O’Hara und des Kunsthistorikers James Merle Thomas.

 

Referenten / Performer:
bankleer (KünstlerInnengruppe, Berlin)
chicks on speed (KünstlerInnengruppe, Köln/Hamburg)
Sophie Maintigneux (Bildgestalterin, Professorin für Bildgestaltung, KHM)
Karin Michalski (Vertretungsprofessorin für Kunst- und Medienwissenschaften/Gender, KHM)
Lívia Nolasco-Rozsas (Kuratorin, ZKM Karlsruhe)
Meghan O’Hara (Filmemacherin, California State University, Monterey Bay, Seaside, CA) & James Merle Thomas (Kunsthistoriker und Kurator, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA)
Christa Pfafferott (Autorin und Regisseurin, Hamburg)
Angela Richter (Regisseurin, Schauspiel Köln)
Katrin Schlösser (Filmproduzentin, Professorin für kreative Film- und Fernsehproduktion, KHM)
Dirk Schulz (GeStiK – Gender Studies, Universität zu Köln)
Mark von Schlegell (Autor und Kulturtheoretiker, Köln)
Mi You (Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin, Kunst- und Medienwissenschaften, KHM)
und Studierende der KHM

 

 

 

The two-day symposium Women under Surveillance counters neutral definitions of surveillance to establish a platform for artistic and interdisciplinary dialogue along the lines of women and surveillance in our digital age.

Lectures, performances, installations and film screenings go deeper into the critical means of collecting data and monitoring processes in the name of security and the general interest of the “public”.

The symposium aims to move beyond the discussion whether excessive surveillance is a necessary and productive practice in an increasingly insecure world.

Rather, in taking the gendered history of surveillance strategies as its starting point—such as the regulation of women’s productive autonomy and sexuality—the symposium engages artistically and critically with questions as: “Who is being watched by whom, how, why and at what expense?”

 

Konzeption und Organisation: Prof. Julia Scher, Christian Sievers, Dieuwke Boersma and the Surveillant Architectures Group at Academy of Media Arts Cologne. Filmprogram curated by Christa Pfafferott. Design by Stephanie Glauber.

As part of the symposium, GLASMOOG – Raum für Kunst & Diskurs at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne presents “Tektite Revisited”– an exhibition and film project by filmmaker Meghan O’Hara and art historian James Merle Thomas.

 

Speakers & Performers:
bankleer (artist group, Berlin)
chicks on speed (artist group, Cologne/Hamburg)
Karin Michalski (professor for art and media studies/gender, KHM)
Lívia Nolasco-Rozsas (curator, ZKM Karlsruhe)
Meghan O’Hara (filmmaker, California State University, Monterey Bay, Seaside, CA)
& James Merle Thomas (art historian and curator, University of Southern California,
Los Angeles, CA)
Sophie Maintigneux (cinematographer, professor for artistic cinematography, KHM)
Christa Pfafferott (author and film director, Hamburg)
Angela Richter (director, Schauspiel Köln)
Katrin Schlösser (film producer, professor for creative film and TV production, KHM)
Dirk Schulz (GeStiK – Gender Studies in Cologne, University of Cologne)
Mark von Schlegell (author and theorist, Cologne)
Mi You (assistant researcher, art and media studies, KHM)
and students of the KHM

Women_under_Surveillance_invite

Conference ›EVERY STEP YOU TAKE‹, 12.-15. November 2015, Dortmund

Opening this Thursday! (12th November 2015, 18:00, Dortmunder U, Cinema, free admission) Welcome addresses, opening lecture (de) by Hans Ulrich Reck (Academy of Media Arts Cologne), film programme, part I: “Living Data” with works by Walter Koch, Ridley Scott, Norman Cowie, Emma Charles, Steffen Köhn, Jen Liu, introduction: Florian Wüst.

And this is just day one. Programme booklet (Programmheft): www.medienwerk-nrw.de/news/everystepyoutake

I’m on a panel with someone from the fantastic Peng!Collective on Sunday Nov 15, from 17.30-18.30, talking about my Hop 3 project currently on show here in Cologne, and how art & activism can go together.

On Saturday Nov 14, Holly Herndron will perform together with Mat Dryhurst in the context of the medienwerk.nrw conference “Every Step You Take” – Art and Society in the Data Age” , at Dortmunder U – Centre for Art and Creativity. Admission is free! Please RSVP here: tickets [at] medienwerk-nrw [dot] de

Video: Holly Herndon/Metahaven (already a classic)

Jake Applebaum at Schauspiel Köln & Update

Unmissable events at Schauspiel Köln: A play about Wikileaks and the NSA, a panel discussion with, among other figures central to current affairs, Jake Applebaum, and on Sunday, the beginning of a discussion series called Surviving under Surveillance.

Saturday 23 Nov 2013: Assassinate Assange – Reloaded
von Angela Richter
Regie: Angela Richter
ANSCHLIESSEND PANEL (IN ENGL. SPRACHE) MIT JACOB APPELBAUM (JOURNALIST), RENATA AVILA (MENSCHENRECHTSANWÄLTIN), JOSEPH FARRELL (WIKILEAKS), ANGELA RICHTER, JENNIFER ROBINSON (RECHTSBERATUNG WIKILEAKS). DAS GESPRÄCH FÜHRT JOHN GOETZ (JOURNALIST).

Sunday 24 Nov: Assassinate Assange – Reloaded
von Angela Richter
Regie: Angela Richter
Anschliessend Diskussionsreihe
Überleben unter Überwachung
Jacob Appelbaum lädt ein
MODERATION ANGELA RICHTER

http://www.schauspielkoeln.de/spielplan/

We’ll make the Sunday events an excursion, keep your ticket and receipt, and we’ll reimburse you.

Some selected material on Applebaum: His keynote talk at last year’s Chaos Communication Congress:

And an interview in N+1 mag. Note, both of these are from before the NSA revelations, and in retrospect look quite lucent. Quote:

But the thing is, taking precautions with your communications is like safe sex in that you have a responsibility to other people to be safe—your transgressions can fuck other people over. The reality is that when you find out it will be too late. It’s not about doing a perfect job, it’s about recognizing you have a responsibility to do that job at all, and doing the best job you can manage, without it breaking down your ability to communicate, without it ruining your day, and understanding that sometimes it’s not safe to undertake an action, even if other times you would.

201113_assassinate

Postscript:

I have some comments and notes that I would like to share with you, but please post yours here below first (anonymously if you like).

Also:
A good and a bad review: http://www.ksta.de/kultur/mrs-heart,15189520,25127138.html

The bad one is more interesting: http://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/buehne-und-konzert/mister-heart-12679064.html

If I may translate the last paragraph, about the power of art:

“All the theater would need to do, in order to do justice to the issues at heart, is ‘just’ to develop the self-confidence and go back to its roots and trust its artistic powers and possibilities. Then it would be, by pulling the audience into a process of understanding that is, by being subjective, ambiguous, playful and exceeding the simple transmission of information, the last public space that the NSA can not spy on. A medium that would be as suspicious as it would be indispensable.”

Im Original:

“Dabei müsste das Theater, um dem Thema gerecht zu werden, „nur“ das Selbstbewusstsein entwickeln, sich auf die eigenen Wurzeln zu besinnen und seinen künstlerischen Möglichkeiten zu vertrauen. Dann wäre es, wie es den Zuschauer in einen subjektiven, vieldeutigen, spielerischen, über die bloße Mitteilungsebene weit hinausgehenden Verstehensprozess zieht, der letzte öffentliche Ort, in den die NSA nicht hineinspionieren kann. Und als Medium so verdächtig wie unverzichtbar.”

Stop ‘Killer Robots’ Before It's Too Late

Mindshare L.A.

mindshare_oct_2010_041.jpgMindshare LA is a unique monthly eventwhich draws a brilliant crowd seekingconnections, experiences and exposureto new ideas. Over the past three yearsa zealous following has developedaround what can only be describedas ‘Enlightened Debauchery’… Home Page ButtonMay 18th register

Transmediale 2011 / Berlin: GATHERINGS 1: EVENT, AGENCY, AND PROGRAM

Performative Lecture by Jordan Crandall (2010)
Start: 03.02.2011 20:00
End: 03.02.2011 22:30
Location: Auditorium

In a modern, calculative world, the techniques of tracking are steadily increasing everywhere. Augmented by algorithmic procedures and analytics, they have been incorporated into distributed network systems, augmented by new sensing and locationing technologies, and embedded into all manner of mobile devices, urban structures and environments. As the urban realm is understood through the spatialization of algorithmic operations, with all phenomena converted, standardized, and rendered interoperable within calculative architectures and procedures, it is endowed with cognitive and agential abilities – able to track, sense and respond to phenomena with a degree of autonomy – in ways that complicate conventional ontological distinctions and political orientations. This essay offers new formats of analysis for these calculative practices and the agential and ontological status of new hybrid urban entities that they register and engender. The key analytical tool and structuring principle introduced is that of “program” –  an organizing and standardizing practice that moves beyond algorithmic-based understandings. The challenge is to grasp what “program” registers and demands within the calculative paradigm of tracking, while at the same time understanding how this can be opened up, made flexible, the struggle for its terms resituated. From this basis, a politics of program can be oriented around the constitution of the event.

Transmediale 2011 / Berlin : Delimination of Life – Affective Bodies and Biomedia

Delimination of Life – Affective Bodies and Biomedia (Keynote Conversation, Track 3)
2011-02-06 17:30 h – 18:30 h
Auditorium

Delimination of Life – Affective Bodies and Biomedia
Keynote-Conversation (Track 3)
Participants: Marie-Luise Angerer (at/de), Mark Hansen (us)
Moderation: Jens Hauser (fr/de)

Today we are experiencing a shifting moment in the concept of the human. Affect as a crucial modality of the human organism, of human existence, has moved to the centre of media theory, philosophy and aesthetics. The new quality of live media and networks, that is, the hybridisation and increasing biologisation of communication technologies, create a biomedial environment in which the body no longer seems to be the basis of perception. Rather, we are experiencing the deterritorialisation of our entire sphere of affective and emotional relationships. What concept and understanding of the body is required in todays immediated digital culture?

In this keynote conversation Marie-Luise Angerer and Mark Hansen will focus on these virtual qualities of the body discussing the affective dimension our bodies experience and adapt to digital environments.

Call For Papers

Sixth International Summer School
organised jointly by the EU FP7 project PrimeLife
and the IFIP Working Groups 9.2, 9.6/11.7 11.4, 11.6
Privacy and Identity Management for Life (PrimeLife/IFIP Summer School 2010)
to be held in Helsingborg, Sweden, 2nd – 6th August 2010
in cooperation with the EU FP7 project ETICA
http://www.cs.kau.se/IFIP-summerschool/

After the success of the 2009 PrimeLife/IFIP Summer School, the European project PrimeLife and IFIP (International Federation for Information Processing, Working Groups 9.2, 9.6/11.7 11.4, 11.6) will continue their joint cooperation. This year they will hold an International Summer School on the topic of Privacy and Identity Management for Emerging Internet Applications throughout a Person’s Lifetime.

Emerging Internet Applications, such as Web 2.0 applications and cloud computing, increasingly pose privacy dilemmas. When they communicate over the Internet, individuals leave trails of personal data which may be stored for many years to come. In recent years, social network sites, where users tend to disclose very intimate personal details about their personal, social, and professional lives, have caused serious privacy concerns. The collaborative character of the Internet enables anyone to compose services and distribute information. Due to the low costs and technical advances of storage technologies, masses of personal data can easily be stored. Once disclosed, this data may be retained forever and be removed with difficulty. It has become hard for individuals to manage and control the release and use of information that concerns them. They may particularly find it difficult to eliminate outdated or unwanted personal information.

These developments raise substantial new challenges for personal privacy at the technical, social, ethical, regulatory, and legal levels:

  • How can privacy be protected in emerging Internet applications such as collaborative scenarios and virtual communities?
  • What frameworks and tools could be used to gain, regain and maintain informational self-determination and lifelong privacy?

Both IFIP, PrimeLife and ETICA take a holistic approach to technology and support interdisciplinary exchange. In particular, participants’ contributions that combine technical, legal, regulatory, socio-economic, ethical, philosophical, or psychological perspectives are welcome.
We are especially inviting contributions from students who are at the stage of preparing either masters’ or doctoral theses qualifications. The school is interactive in character, and is composed of keynote lectures and seminars, tutorials and workshops with PhD student presentations. The principle is to encourage young academic and industry entrants to the privacy and identity management world to share their own ideas and to build up a collegial relationship with others. Students that actively participate, in particular those who present a paper, can receive a course certificate which awards 3 ECTS at the PhD level. The certificate can certify the topic of the contributed paper to demonstrate its relation or non-relation to the student’s masters’/PhD thesis.

Related European, national, or regional/community research projects are also very welcome to present papers or to organise workshops as part of the Summer School.

A special one-day stream within the Summer School, to which abstracts/papers can be submitted directly, will be organised by the EU FP7 project ETICA on privacy and related ethical issues that arise from emerging information and communication technologies.