new world dis/order

In the course of the previous year, there has been a lot of talk about new world orders—and even about the disorder that the world has devolved into. Historical elections, the omnipresent pandemic and the climate crisis looming over us all have swelled the upheaval of our globalized and digitalized living environment to dimensions never seen before. Seemingly ever more brutal culture and information wars and the use of tracking technologies straight out of surveillance capitalism have been part of our everyday digitalized reality for quite some time. Infrastructures that encompass the entire planet and an economic system based on endless growth are phenomena of our present age and of a society changing at breakneck speed. In what kind of a future world do we want to live? How do we rise to meet its social, ecological and technological challenges?

The conference and discourse programme new world dis/order will explore these questions as part of the 2021 Werkleitz Festival. On three weekends (June 18 to July 4) renowned theorists, researchers and artists will discuss and reflect on current developments related to the sociosphere, ecosphere and bodydatasphere. Casting a critical view on the past and present, focus will also be placed on the urgent need to find new forms of collective reason and common action. The question is ultimately: In what world dis/order do we want to live (or merely survive) in the future?

The programme features over 20 lectures, conversations, keynotes and performances. It will be streamed from the former headquarters of the East German Ministry of State Security in Halle (Saale) and be supplemented by features and podcasts. From June 18, selected film productions by several award-winning European Media Art Platform (EMAP) artists—including Chloé Galibert-Laîné (France), Kevin B. Lee (United States/Germany) and Total Refusal (Austria)—will be presented on the festival website.

The conference and discourse programme new world dis/order is directed by Sandra Naumann and co-curated by Daniela Silvestrin. It will be realized in cooperation with the German Federal Cultural Foundation and supported by the ZEIT Foundation. It will be held in German and English and will be available online after the festival.

Participants
Kat Austen, Benjamin Bratton, James Bridle, Timo Daum, DISNOVATION.ORG, Tomasz Domański, Kate Donovan, Robert Feustel, Doug Fishbone, Forms of Ownership, Moritz Simon Geist, Sarah Grant, Karin Harrasser, Katrin Hochschuh & Adam Donovan, Sophie Hoyle, Frederike Kaltheuner, Julia Kloiber, Konrad Korabiewski, Chloé Galibert-Laîné & Kevin B. Lee, Karen Lancel & Hermen Maat, Stefan Laxness, LIGNA, Aay Liparoto, Felix Maschewski & Anna-Verena Nosthoff, Joana Moll, Phoebe V Moore, Robertas Narkus, Katharina Nocun, Kathrin Passig, Marta Peirano, Margherita Pevere, Maike Pricelius, Chris Salter, Birgit Schneider, Ela Spalding, Rahel Süß, Total Refusal, Ralf Wendt, Carolin Wiedemann.

Programme highlights
You find the complete programme here.

“By Land, Sea and Air: Infrastructures in the Age of Platform Capitalism”
Conversation with Marta Peirano (Spain), tech writer and journalist & Sarah Grant (United States), Visiting Professor of New Media at the Kunsthochschule Kassel.

“The Revenge of the Real: Politics for a Post-Pandemic World”
Keynote, Benjamin Bratton (United States), sociologist and design theorist. Followed by a conversation with Rahel Süß (Germany), political theorist, HU Berlin.

“Perspectives on AI bias, pseudoscience and promising alternatives”
Conversation with Julia Kloiber (Austria), co-founder and managing director of Superrr Lab, & Frederike Kaltheuner (Germany), tech policy analyst and researcher.

“Red Redemption – A Brute Marxist Class Analysis”
Live-game performance by Total Refusal (Austria), media art collective.

“Hello Worlds”
Keynote, James Bridle (United Kingdom/Greece), author of New Dark Age and artist. Followed by a conversation with Regine Rapp (Germany), art historian and curator.

“Interconnectedness and ways of being human today”
Lecture, Ela Spalding (Panama), artist~facilitator and cultural producer with a focus on ecology.

“Ulysses 2.0”
Audio walk by LIGNA (Germany), media art collective.

“‘We’ve mapped the world, now let’s map human health’ – Platform economy and the mapping of bodies”
Conversation with Anna-Verena Nosthoff (Germany), philosopher and founding director of Data Politics Lab & Felix Maschewski (Germany), literary and cultural theorist and economist.

“Designing Sense: From Fechner to Facebook Reality Labs”
Keynote, Chris Salter (Canada), artist and professor of computer-based art & respondent Karin Harasser (Austria), researcher in the fields of media and cultural studies.

“Kissing Data Symphony”
EEG-Performance by Karen Lancel (Netherlands) & Hermen Maat (Netherlands).

“Empathy Swarm – Telehabitats”
Online performance, controllable robots by Katrin Hochschuh (Germany) & Adam Donovan (Australia).

Admission to all festival events is free of charge. Livestreams do not require any form of registration. Guests wishing to visit the festival location in Halle need to book a free online ticket prior to the visit. 

More to come in September: Online Exhibition EMAP Garden @ Ars Electronica from September 8 – 12