Since June 2020 we have had a fixed opening day on Tuesdays, now we offer a new format “Tuesday’s with Villads and Klara”. We would like to open up conversations about technology and art and together explore the field through workshops and dialogue.
This autumn we have invited Klara Karlson and Villads Schou to be hosts. They have a great interest in art and technology. They wish to create places and communities where new stories about tech can be created.
(✿◔ ◡ ◔) ♥ About us: ♥
Tuesday’s with Villads and Klara: is a place where inaccessible and non-inviting technology can be examined, challenged and dismantled. We believe that there is a need for spaces, conversations and schools where we can investigate technology together and the stories surrounding it. We wish to imagine technology that isn’t bound by capitalist premises; that technology can be something that is not built to exploit, utilize and made for the sole purpose of making money. We wish to learn to take responsibility for technology’s development, consequences and stories. We wish to do this together with you, where everyone is teacher and student.
EVENTS (^_^):
Every Tuesday from 17-19 at Catch at the Culture Yard in Elsinore!
˜”*°•.˜”*°• WHY THE TOPIC •°*”˜.•°*”˜ : Surveillance
“We live in a surveillance society”
– is something you often hear people say, and the word ‘surveillance’ is often used in politics, media and across the dinner table. But what is surveillance really? And what does it actually mean to live in a surveillance society? Is surveillance always only for the better or is it suppressive in its nature? Without a language for and understanding of surveillance it can be difficult to have a nuanced and open conversation about a phenomenon that is everywhere in our life.
We are going to teach each other about the history of surveillance and its background, its current form and reasons. We will also look at different artists that work with investigating and challenging the premises for the surveillance we see today. If we dig deeper into the subject of surveillance, maybe we can make the extent, structure and consequences of surveillance today visible as well as the way we perceive, handle and talk about surveillance.
We will amongst other things look at what it means to be a (physical) body in a surveillance society, the massive surveillance there is along the borders and of refugees and try to find a language we can describe surveillance with.
Come and join us in the dive into some of the stories about surveillance and move on from a superficial understanding of surveillance which keeps us passive and helpless towards, well we’ll say it: the surveillance society.
✿.｡.:* ☆:** Events .:**:.☆*.:｡.✿
# 1 Mapping the Language of Surveillance – November 2nd, 17-19
Join us on November 2nd where we will be mapping the language of Surveillance.
We are under constant surveillance but it comes in many different forms. From your passport to tech companies gathering all your data. Is surveillance always good or is it suppressive in its nature? It can be hard to grasp the extent of the surveillance we face today. In this workshop we are going to investigate what surveillance is. Without a language for and understanding of surveillance it can be difficult to have a nuanced and open conversation about a phenomenon that is everywhere in our life. We will try to create a vocabulary and language for talking about and questioning surveillance. Can we imagine a world completely without surveillance? Can we imagine alternatives to the surveillance society we see today?
Link to Facebook event: https://fb.me/e/3PXoqFwO7
# 2 To be a (surveilled) body – November 9th, 17-19
Join us on November 9th where we are going to investigate and challenge what it means to be and to have a (physical) body in a surveillance society.
We are going to work with understanding the extensive surveillance of the body we see today. We are going to talk about biometrics, which is identification based on physical characteristics, such as passports and be inspired and question the concept of the body and the surveillance of it. We will also explore different modes and methods of using the body we are in to resist and subvert surveillance. We will play with makeup, inspired by Adam Harvey’s C.V (computer vision) Dazzle, to resist facial recognition.
And then we are going to go all the way and talk about being cyborgs, uploading yourself in the cloud or becoming an avatar online – where is the line between being a body and not being one? Who decides what a body is? Can we be without our physical body?
link to facebook event: https://fb.me/e/5C6iY0VFM
# 3 The surveillance of refugees – November 16th, 17-19
This Tuesday we will investigate surveillance by the borders and of refugees.
In this workshop we are to investigate and get a better understanding of the scope and size of the surveillance of refugees, the capitalistic market behind and the political discourse surrounding the discussion about the surveillance of refugees.
With the technological development governments have “upgraded” and are “upgrading” the surveillance of their borders and thereby the refugees trying to pass them. This is everything from cameras with face-identification-software, drones hovering the air to movement-sensors. if we take a look at the history of surveillance we will see that it has often been marginalised and vulnerable groups that has been the first victims of new surveillance methods and technologies; The colonial powers developed and tested surveillance methods on indigenous people in their colonies for later applying the same methods unto the public “back home”. The surveillance refugees are facing is often done away from the public’s eyes and information about it can be difficult to get to. The surveillance is not only political, there has also been built a capitalistic market around it; Companies are creating highly advanced technologies for the surveillance of borders (and refugee camps?) selling it to governments.
link to Facebook event: https://fb.me/e/1Xp6Pmeje
WĦＹ 𝕥𝐇ᗴ 𝓣๏𝓟ιc “Exploring ‘Obsolete’ Technology” ?:
Have you ever seen an advertisement for some technological product that looks like this? :
“UNLIKE ANYTHING YOU’VE EVER SEEN”
“THE NEW IS …”
“CAN DO EVERYTHING AND SOLVES ALL YOUR PROBLEMS”
The tech-industry seems to make a promise that new is always better. The idea that old = bad and that new = good.
The large tech companies such as Google and Apple develop and design new tech-products while leaving behind the “obsolete” at a raging pace. A promise of an everlasting form of innovation. This could be everything from your “old” iPhone not wanting to cooperate with you anymore or the promise that the climate crisis will be solved by a future magic technology.
Behind them they are making consumers leave an ever-growing pile of so-called “obsolete technology” but perhaps there is, in this realm of “obsolete”, a space for us to imagine anti-capitalistic tech and tech that doesn’t get renewed every couple of years?
In this series we take a look (back) at technologies that have been deemed obsolete but perhaps aren’t. We do this to challenge current tech and together create a space where we can imagine tech differently.
WANNA STEP OUT OF THE TECH-INNOVATION HAMSTER WHEEL WITH US?
The thoughts, motivation and goal with this series of events are highly inspired by the artist Amy Suo Wu and her 𝔐𝔞𝔫𝔦𝔣𝔢𝔰𝔱 𝔬𝔣 𝔒𝔟𝔰𝔬𝔩𝔢𝔱𝔢 𝔇𝔢𝔰𝔦𝔤𝔫. A must read 4 sure!! link here: https://www.amysuowu.net/content/obsolete-design-manifesto
✿.｡.:* ☆:** Events .:**:.☆*.:｡.✿
#1 Low-Tech Low-Energy Workshop – Oct 12th, 17-19
This Low-tech Low-energy workshop invites you to join us in looking back at “obsolete” and forgotten technologies, while investigating the capitalist tech-development that seems to decide the looks, lives and function(ality) of technology today. A development we believe is built on the premise of profit-maximization which creates an accelerating development of tech-products (without any reason?) as well as a large concentration of power in the tech-industry.
Therefore, we will take a look at forgotten or discarded technology for example invisible writing that the CIA has deemed obsolete. As the power and the hardcore tech-capitalism, such as firms that makes surveillance tech, is often reaching for hi-tech solutions, perhaps an act of resistance against these can be found in using low-tech low-energy.
We wish to create a way of discussing questions like: What is technology even? What is good tech? What tasks/functions should tech have? How does tech change our behavior, thoughts and actions?
Tuesday the 12th of October we are going to work with “obsolete” low-tech that has no or low energy consumption.
Program:
17:00 – 17:15 A short motivation and talk about this Tuesday’s topic.
17:15 – 17:30 An introduction to the history of invisible writing
17:30 – 18:30 Together we will use invisible writing to communicate with each other.
18:30 – 19 We finish with a discussion of the relevance of low-tech low-energy technologies.
Link to Facebook event : https://www.facebook.com/events/4470656012987821/?ref=newsfeed
#2 Obsolete data-storage technologies Workshop – Oct 19th, 17-19
Tuesday the 19th of October we are going to teach each other about “obsolete” data storage mediums. We will focus on how the fragility of the physical medium has always been an obstacle, often resulting in lost knowledge and memories.
164 GB DATA ON YOUR PHONE? NO PROBLEM!
Products for data storage play a big role, when we are reflecting on the world of obsolete technology. We have been accustomed to endless data usage only growing larger in size and the promise of it never disappearing.
But looking back at older data storage technologies from papyrus to the floppy disk we can see that they always have problems with storing data and that the promise of the perfect solution has always failed. They break and decay and with that our data is lost. Loss of both important knowledge and precious and meaningful memories.
At this event we will be questioning the fragility of digital data storage and use this as an example to consider tech’s everlasting promise of a better and perfect solution.
(There will be materials but if you want to feel free to bring either a thing you want to get stored or a medium for data storage.)
Program:
17:00 – 17:20 An introduction and talk about the history of data storage mediums and “the promise of a better solution”.
17:20 – 18:20 Storing precious memory in clay and other “obsolete” data storage mediums.
18:20 – 19 Conversation about the importance and meaning behind exploring “obsolete” data storage mediums.
#3 CUT UP TECH’S WORDS Workshop – Oct 26th, 17-19
Mark Zuckerberg at the F8, Facebook’s annual developer conference. – Wikimedia
On Tuesday the 26th of October we would like to invite you to investigate, cut-up and take the rhetoric and aesthetics of major tech companies into our own hands.
“DON’T BE EVIL”
(Googles old slogan)
From Facebook’s promise that “The future is private” to Elon Musk smoking weed to Apple’s slick logo, big tech companies have built a strong image and narrative of themselves. Together this forms the aesthetic of big tech: a term for the largest tech companies in the world such as Alphabet (Google), Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Facebook etc. We want to investigate the language, images and ideas that Silicon Valley uses to explain and justify itself. Take these methods into our own hands to understand them better. We will physically cut-up and scramble their words, try to copy, use and change their logos and overall aesthetic.
The ability and privilege to decide the narrative of history has often fallen to the powerful, and they often hide “unwanted” history or alternative narratives. Maybe through this playful investigation we can collectively imagine alternative technologies.
This Tuesday’s workshop we will be looking at and “through” the aesthetic behind big tech today. Just remember “Don’t be evil”!
Program:
17:00 – 17:30 Sharing examples of slogans, products, commercials from big tech and getting inspiration and knowledge to scramble these up later.
17:30 – 18:30 Taking the rhetoric and aesthetics of big tech into our own hands by cutting up their words or by making big tech hi tech commercials.
18:30 – 19 Show our work and share our discoveries and thoughts with each other