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Es freut mich sehr, an der Konferenz "Das digitale Bild – Die soziale Dimension, politische Perspektiven und ökonomische Zwänge" (28-30.04) eine Keynotezu halten. Die Konferenz wird im Rahmen des DFG-Schwerpunktprogramm: „Das digitale Bild“ ausgerichtet.

Composite Images. On the transformation of visual truth claims.

Forensic Architecture and the Invisible Institute, still from Six Durations of a Split Second: The Killing of Harith Augustus (2019).

Abstract:

It has been a peculiarity of Western modernity – the cultural constellation that extended, roughly, from the mid 15th to the mid 20th century – to assume that images represent the world as it is, in an objective, optical sense and that which can be seen is what counts. Contemporary digital technologies of image-making are, on the surface, extending this claim by creating ever more ‘realistically’ detailed images (HD, UltraHD, 4K, 8K, Gigapixel etc), yet, more importantly, they are fundamentally undermining it, by moving from the representation of an external reality to the generative production of images. At the same time, what constitutes reality is becoming ever more complex and distributed, eroding the value of representational images to make sense of it. With that, we need a new way of understanding images, as composites rather than indexes, and the role they play in the production of truth claims.

I'm very happy to give a keynote lecture at the ​​Art, Museums and Digital Cultures Conference, organized by MAAT – Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, Lisbon. The conference date is 22-23 April 2021, my talk is on the second day, 10:00 AM

The digital condition and reconstitution of the public(s)

The digital condition has eroded many of the categories that have structured modernity. In this talk, I want to focus on two of them which are directly relevant to museums and other memory organizations, defining institutions of modern culture. One is the distinction between "public" and "private", the other is between "professional" and "amateur". These categories are no longer useful to structure the relations between these institutions and the wider environment in which they are embedded. Contemporary cultural production is defined by ubiquitous patterns of referentiality, communality, and algorithmicity. They transform the public into publics and give rise to "mass creativity" that threatens to bypass existing memory institutions.

Immersive Arts and Practice: Lecture Series

March 2nd | Christian Iseli | 17:15- 18:30h
EXPANDED ILLUSIONS: CINEMATIC CONCEPTS OF IMMERSION

March 16th | Marcus Maeder 17:15- 18:30h
AMBIENT: FROM IMMERSION TO IMMANENCE

March 30th | Hannah Walter | 17:15- 18:30h
BECOMING WITH TECHNOLOGY. BECOMING CYBORG

April 13th | Felix Stalder | 17:15- 18:30h
IMMERSION AS ESCAPISM, CONTROL, OR CO-EXISTENCE

April 27th | Maike Thies | 17:15- 18:30h
ENTANGLED IN ARTIFICIAL WORLDS

IMMERSION AS ESCAPISM, CONTROL, OR CO-EXISTENCE
Felix Stalder, Department of Fine Arts, Digital Culture

Abstract

We are very happy to announce the launch of our book "Aesthetics of the Commons", online via Depot in Vienna.

Tuesday, 9 March 2021, 7 pm (CET)

Link to zoom meeting (will be active at 6.45 pm):
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82459911204?pwd=Y0FscUMwS1c5QmNtSmxTZ2JmMW9Xdz09

Book launch and discussion

What do a feminist server, an art space located in a public park in North London, a ‘pirate’ library of high cultural value yet dubious legal status, and an art school that emphasizes collectivity have in common? They all demonstrate that art can play an important role in imagining and producing a real quite different from what is currently hegemonic; that art in the post-digital has the possibility to not only conceive or proclaim ideas in theory, but also to realize them materially. The underlying social imaginaries ascribe a new role to art in society and they envision an idea of culture beyond the individual and its possessions.

2021 will mark the 25th anniversary of the publication of the first volume of Manuel Castells’ Trilogy. It is time to revisit the trilogy and explore the relevance of Castells’ pioneering work in the light of the current state of the network society and of the ways to research about it.

The aim of this workshop is to gather together scholars from a wide range of disciplines to engage with the Trilogy and debate on its contributions, legacies but as well shortcomings and new developments not envisioned at the time of its launch to try to develop a critical perspective on future trajectories of the network society and the information age.

I participated in panel 3: "The Geopolitics of the Network Society" with a paper entitled "Breakdown 2.0? Systemic blockages in late-stage statism and late-stage liberal capitalism".

Momentum Kongress 2020: Republik, 16 & 17.10. (online)

Track #8: Öffentliche Güter und Räume jenseits von Staat und Markt

Trackmoderation: Felix Stalder

Gastvortrag und Diskussion. ecm - educating/curating/managing. Masterlehrgang für Ausstellungstheorie & -praxis

18.00–19.30 Digitalität Post-Covid

Aufbauend auf dem Text "Erfassen und Modellieren. Covid-19 und die Politik von «Big Data»" und dem Projekt "Sleep Battle" (Stadtwertkstatt Linz, 2018) diskutieren wir, wie der Digitalisierungschub durch Covid-19 unsere Wahrnehmung verändert, die Potentiale für offnen Umgang mit big data und die Rolle von Museen und anderen "memory institutions".

Prof. Dr. Felix Stalder: Zur Kultur der Digitalität

https://kunst-transfer-praxis.adbk-nuernberg.de/programm/ss-2020/zur-kul...

Online-Vortrag

10. Juni 2020, 18 Uhr

In der Ringvorlesung werden verschiedene Implikationen von Digitalität in Alltagskulturen wie auch in der zeitgenössischen Kunst thematisiert und ihre kulturgeschichtlichen, gesellschaftlichen und ökonomischen Auswirkungen diskutiert. Die immer weiter zunehmende Bedeutung digitaler Technologien für die zeitgenössische Kunst wird von Künstler*innen, Kultur- und Medienwissenschaftler*innen, Designer*innen und Kurator*innen im Hinblick auf aktuelle Entwicklungen zur Sprache gebracht.

Felix Stalder ist Professor für Digitale Kultur und Theorien der Vernetzung an der Zürcher Hochschule der Künste und freier Autor in Wien. Er beschäftigt sich mit dem Wechselverhältnis von Gesellschaft, Kultur und Technologien und forscht u.a. zu Netzkultur, Urheberrecht, Commons, Privatsphäre, Kontrollgesellschaft und Subjektivität. Stalder ist zudem Vorstandsmitglied des World Information Institute in Wien, Mitglied des freien Forschungsprojekts "Technopolitics" und langjähriger Moderator der internationalen Mailingliste .

Ausgehend von seiner gleichnamigen Publikation wird Felix Stalder die zentralen Aspekte seines Verständnisses der "Kultur der Digitalität" (erschienen 2016 im Suhrkamp Verlag) vorstellen.

Tuesday, April 21. 20:00

(CEST, Central European Summer Time), Via ZOOM

Join Zoom Meeting: https://zoom.us/j/94058587129
Meeting ID: 940 5858 7129

Crises, Cracks and Openings. Technopolitics of COVID-19

The virus, officially named SARS-CoV-2, is often portrayed as something coming from the outside, be it nature or a foreign country. However, its spread is neither a natural disaster nor a strategic ploy, but a deeply techno-political event. As the disease turns into a pandemic it reveals many of the hidden structures and contradictions of the highly integrated, yet locally differentiated contemporary word.

The societal reactions to the spread and the measures which are currently put into place are transformative and might turn revolutionary.

To address an event as distributed and complex as COVID-19, no single point-of-view can suffice. Thus, we have invited artists and theoreticians from four places – Sao Paulo, Chicago, Tel Aviv, and Vienna – to speak about their particular experiences, the techno-political dynamics created by the virus, agency for cultural producers and speculate about what will remain.

SPEAKERS
David Sperling Architect, Institute of Architecture and Urbanism (IAU), University of São Paulo
Lucas Bambozzi Artist, Filmmaker and Activist, São Paulo
Brian Holmes Researcher, Writer, Activist, Chicago
Udi Edelman Isreal Digital Art Center, Tel Aviv
Tsilla Hassine Artist and Art-up Founder, Tel Aviv
Technopolitics Working Group Vienna