event

14. März 2019,
13.00–17.30 Uhr

Zürcher Hochschule der Künste ZHdK
Hörsaal 1, Toni-Areal, Pfingstweidstrasse 96, Zürich

Künstliche Intelligenz (KI) ist in aller Maschine – so könnte man meinen, wenn man sich die aktuellen Debatten anhört. Auf jeden Fall weitet sich das (autonome) maschinelle Handeln in beinahe alle Gesellschaftsbereiche aus. Es hat längst auch die Kunst erfasst. Es geht dabei nicht mehr nur um mittels digitaler Technologie hergestellte oder transformierte Kunstwerke, sondern grundlegend um «Maschinen als Autoren». Dies lenkt die Diskussion über die Autorschaft in eine zusätzliche Dimension und fordert das Urheberrecht grundlegend heraus. Ist aber dieses von KI – oder nüchterner gesagt: von Algorithmen – Erschaffene bestenfalls eine «hingebungslose Ausdrucksform»? Oder lässt es sich doch mit einem auf menschlicher Kreativität basierenden Werk vergleichen, dem eine Authentizität und Aura zugeschrieben wird? Und wie geht der Kunstmarkt mit dieser «Robot Art» um?

Solche Phänomene beschäftigen gleichermassen Theorie und Praxis in Kunst und Recht. Denn es geht – erst recht im Zeitalter der KI – um Autorschaft, Authentizität sowie das Verhältnis von Original und Kopie – und schliesslich um die Frage, was ein «Original» unter diesen Vorzeichen sein kann.

Die Tagung befasst sich mit diesen Themen aus Sicht der Kunsttheorie und Kunstpraxis, beschreibt die Relevanz im Kunstmarkt und diskutiert die neuen Herausforderungen aus Sicht des Urheberrechts.

Diese Veranstaltung entsteht in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Schweizer Forum für Kommunikationsrecht SF-FS und dem Collegium Helveticum

#13 Creating Commons: Affects, Collectives, Aesthetics

Panel discussion with,
Jeremy Gilbert
Gary Hall
Laurence Rassel

Moderated by Cornelia Sollfrank, Felix Stalder
Fri, 01.02.2019
13:00 to 14:30
Auditorium, HKW

https://2019.transmediale.de/content/creating-commons-affects-collective...

Curated by Bernd Scherer and Olga von Schubert

From the linguistic development of so-called Artificial Intelligence to the decentralized structure of the blockchain, new technologies operate on the basis of training sets, into which are inscribed prejudices, world views, material infrastructures, and ownership logic. To what extent do the metaphors of intelligence and learning apply to the new technologies?

Who writes the protocols of algorithmic infrastructures and on the basis of which semiotic and semantic processes do they operate? Where do the opportunities for emancipation, self-determination, diversity, and decentralization lie within the realm of technological development? To what extent does it make sense to renounce the quest for meaning in the technological development of language, and what kind of algorithmic poetry does this engender? Taking as reference the work of Luc Steels, one of the world’s leading AI developers, artistic and activist positions are deployed to explore the development of technological language.

Giulia Bruno, Kate Crawford, Simon Denny, Armin Linke, Trevor Paglen, Felix Stalder, Luc Steels, Hito Steyerl, moderated by Bernd Scherer

Timetable of the event (PDF)

Detailed program infomation and essays (PDF)

my contribution:

HKW, AUDITORIUM 5:30 P.M. – 6:00 P.M.

IF EVERYTHING IS TRUE—KNOWLEDGE AND MANIPULATION

Conference

Abstract for the keynote lecture: Technopolitics and ecology

Throughout its history, Western capitalism has renewed itself through continuous crises that drove technological innovation and political change. The crisis turned structural when the two transformations conflicted with, rather than complemented, each other. Capitalism has been able to overcome this type of crisis by developing a new techno-economic paradigm. In this light, the moment we are witnessing today is the crisis of neo-liberal informationalism that centers around computer technologies and deregulated global financial markets. This paradigm began to emerge in the 1970s as a response to the crisis of Keynesian industrialism, which itself was a response to the crises of laissez-faire capitalism that followed the crash of 1929.

But this is not all. On a deeper level, materialism and consumerism as a social promise and model for economic growth is reaching hard limits today, generating a planetary ecological emergency. In other words, the current crisis is both one within capitalism, heralding yet another structural transformation, and one of capitalism. The latter because it is no longer possible to treat natural resources as externalities not the be counted (as raw material waiting to be commodified at the beginning of the capitalist process or as waste-ground to dispose of unwanted materials at the end of the process).

writing the history of the present. collaborative editing of the technopolitics timeline

Technopolitics Working Group

What are the relationships between artistic/intellectual practices and large-scale historical processes? How did the two evolve in the Information Society? Does the contemporary period represent a continuation of this evolution or does it constitute a transformative crisis leading to a new paradigm? These are some of the core questions that Technopolitics as an ongoing, international artistic research project is interested in.
The most prominent visual aspect of the project is the TECHNOPOLITICS TIMELINE. The timeline, as a print-out measuring 20 x 1.5 meters, traces the Information Society from the year 1900 to today and contains about 500 entries of events that have contributed to the emergence and transformation of our era. These entries are organized in six horizontal categories and 12 vertical tags.

The timeline will be accompanied by audio-visual and printed material that contextualizes the entries. An additional contextual layer is provided by three hyperlink network visualizations of the Timeline entries identified in multilingual Wikipedia that yield a crowd-sourced view on their semantic relationships.

2018-10-27, 12:45–13:30, Saal 2
Speaker: Katja Mayer und Felix Stalder

Brown Bag Lunch Forschung presents:

Creating Commons – feministische Perspektiven auf digitale ästhetische Praktiken
Lecture und Diskussion mit Felix Stalder und Shusha Niederberger, IFCAR, DKM

25. Oktober 2018, 12.30–13.30 Uhr
ZHdK, Raum 6.C03

Das Forschungsprojekt «Creating Commons» (2017–2019) beschäftigt sich mit aktuellen, von der digitalen Kultur inspirierten künstlerischen Praktiken. Im Feld zwischen Kunst und Commons entwickeln sie radikale ästhetische und praktische Modelle der künstlerischen und kulturellen Produktion im digitalen Zeitalter.

In den Research Meetings mit Künstler_innen, Theoretiker_innen und Aktivist_innen zeigte sich, dass neben der digitalen Kultur der Feminismus eine zweite zentrale Referenz darstellt. Beide berühren ein verändertes Verhältnis von Produktion und Reproduktion. Davon ausgehend werden digitale ästhetische Praktiken und die damit verbundenen Institutionen neu gedacht und experimentell gelebt. Was bedeutet es, wenn man die Forderung von Silvia Federici ernst nimmt und die Commons feministisch denkt, also all die auch mit der Schaffung und Verwaltung von Gemeingütern verbundene reproduktive Arbeit ernst nimmt? Welchen Stellenwert bekommen darin Institutionen, Infrastrukturen und Tools? Und wie drückt sich das spezifisch auf dem Gebiet der digitalen Commons aus?
Ausgehend von im Rahmen der Research Meetings entstandenen Interviews stellen wir einige Positionen vor und diskutieren, wie solcherart gelagerte künstlerische Praxen sich konkret artikulieren und wie sie sich im ästhetischen Feld verorten.

http://creatingcommons.zhdk.ch/

Culture, Creativity and Artificial Intelligence will be discussed at an expert seminar in Rijeka, Croatia on 12-13 October 2018. The seminar “E-relevance of Culture in the Age of AI”, organised in the framework of the Croatian Chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, will offer sector-specific input to the Council of Europe’s work on artificial intelligence.

In the presence of the Minister of Culture of Croatia, Ms Nina Obuljen Koržinek, experts and policy makers from the Steering Committee for Culture, Heritage and Landscape (CDCPP) will discuss orientations for working towards a culture of responsible innovation, empowering citizens and laying the foundations for the emergence of a modern Leonardo da Vinci. Questions for debate include:

• How can culture maintain its important human imprint and guidance role in a time where AI already heavily impacts people’s creativity?
• Can it contribute to a more human- and citizen-centred technological future by proposing and developing alternative concepts?
• How does AI impact on the perception of human uniqueness/genius, the role of artists, intellectual property? Can culture still represent a mirror of society in a time when AI intelligence blends with human creativity?

Experts, including Régine Debatty, Luba Elliott, Philippe Kern, Davor Misković, Matteo Pasquinelli, Felix Stalder, Vuk Ćosić and Gerfried Stocker, will shed light on AI-related challenges and opportunities that actually present not just a technical revolution, but also a cultural and social one.

01/10/2018
Technopolitics Salon

lectures and discussion

participants:
Felix Stalder, Gerald Nestler, Axel Stockburger
moderator:
Kristian Lukić

date: October 1, 2018 at 6pm
venue: tranzit.sk, Beskydská 12, Bratislava

The event will be conducted in English.

Second edition of Technopolitics Salon in Bratislava will present three talks on the topics of communality and algorithmicity, finance and activism, digital culture and contemporary art. Technopolitics is an independent, transdisciplinary platform of artists, journalists, researchers, designers and developers who jointly develop innovative formats at the intersection of art, research, science, and pedagogy. In 2011, it was set up in Vienna as a circle that regularly meets for lectures and discussions. Technopolitics also produces interdisciplinary conferences and artistic research projects internationally. An important common objective is the investigation of large-scale historical processes structured by technoeconomic paradigms from a critical, explorative standpoint.

Felix Stalder
The Digital Condition
Referentiality, communality, and algorithmicity have become the characteristic cultural forms of the digital condition because more and more people – in more and more segments of life and by means of increasingly complex technologies – are actively (voluntarily and/or compulsorily) participating in the negotiation of social meaning. They are thus reacting to the demands of a chaotic, overwhelming sphere of information and thereby contributing to its greater expansion.

Gerald Nestler
What has art got to do with it?