This series of events is born out of a sensibility that we are at the end of the world as we know it: current ecological, political and technological narratives and histories are volatile and unstable. Environmental disasters, future of net neutrality, vanished species and looming nuclear disasters are no longer a part of science fiction writing or a post apocalyptic movie but a part of our reality. The three events investigate the possible ends of an era, its entangled histories, open-ended narratives and flux identities. They aim to carefully glimpse into the possible futures of humankind and otherkind: the vital necessity for co-dependence and urgency to remember, preserve and act now.
The second of the three events, titled Middle Age / We Should Know Better, attempts to redefine the meaning and functioning of technology from something that only considers Western rational logic and knowledge as valuable and scientific into something that includes other modes of knowing and being.
Together with the idea of Internet as a colonized space, the event will explore what happens beyond the surface net, what are the communities, services and networks operating beyond the Internet we know? What are the ramifications of the spaces and places when thinking about freedom, privacy and the more and more divided society? How these questions affect movement building and resistance that is born online yet have very tactile implications in the offline world? How to challenge what is taken for granted in West/in a city and how to prepare for possibility that the online space might become even less accessible: to work towards an alternative together and in advance.
Participants:
Feminist Internet
Somerset House Studios associate Feminist Internet is a group of artists and designers working to advance internet equalities for women and other marginalised groups through critical practice.
Melody Patry
Advocacy Director at Access Now. She leads on global advocacy, communications, and campaigns, working closely with the Policy and Tech teams to develop the strategies and partnerships needed to protect the internet and those who use it. Previously, Melody was head of advocacy at free speech organization Index on Censorship in London, where she worked with human rights defenders, government officials, and in coalitions such as the Global Network Initiative, the Civic Solidarity Platform, and Don’t Spy on Us. Before that, she worked with Cairo-based grassroots organizations and artists on campaigns addressing women’s rights issues, assisted the Representative to the European Union for Doctors Without Borders, and acted as a political advisor for the Delegation of the European Union to the United Nations. She holds an MA in International Security from Sciences Po Paris and a BA in Law and Political Science from Lille II University.
Shira Jeczmien
Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Screen Shot media company, Shira comes from an arts and writing background with a BA in Communication, Culture and Curation from Central Saint Martins and a Masters in Critical Writing in Art and Design from the Royal College of Art. She is a new media visiting lecturer on the Communication, Culture and Curation BA programme at CSM. Shira is also a contributing editor and writer for the human rights media channel FAIRPLANET.
Tamar Clarke-Brown
She is a London based artist, writer and curator. Her interdisciplinary practice is focused on experimental futurisms, intimate choreographies, technology and the black diaspora. Tamar has worked with institutions including Serpentine Galleries and Autograph ABP and presented at the ICA, Tate Galleries, Kadist (Paris), Bard Berlin and more. Tamar contributes to platforms including i-D, Gal-Dem, Protein Journal, AQNB and Screen Shot Magazine.
The events are organised as a part of a residency titled 6 Months Without by Nastja Säde Rönkkö, where the artist lives and works in London without the Internet for 6 months. The intention of Rönkkö’s slow offline existence and the accompanying events is to actively research, create and test out new ways of connecting, communicating and being in a city, community and the society at the time of major changes in the ways we live, feel and function in the world.
The first event in this series, Humble Beginnings/Alternative Presents, took place in November 2018.
The events and the residency are supported by Somerset House Studios, Wysing Arts Centre, The Finnish Institute in London and Alfred Kordelin Foundation.