Data Traces: Big Data in the Context of Culture and Society

IXDM will host a conference on data traces.

Big Data describes a passage into a new era in which the power of data induces a radical transformation of a society whose actions and productdata_traces01ion of knowledge rely increasingly on the accumulation and evaluation of data. The conference ‘Data Traces. Big Data in the Context of Culture & Society’ draws upon this prospect and delves into critical questions of Big Data in dialogue with international experts, academics and artists. It addresses the paradigm of a data-driven society and reflects life in an increasingly datified world. The conference is organized by the Institute of Experimental Design and Media Cultures at the Academy of Art and Design FHNW and HeK (House of Electronic Arts Basel). The conference is part of the exhibition ‘Poetics and Politics of Data’ at HeK. Further infos can be found on the IXDM website & the HEK website.

Landestelle & HEK @ Art Basel

Our friends Wisard Bros performed the MidiFizz DJ-set at Landestelle.

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Read more about the Landestelle project (in German).

At Liste Art Fair HeK presents four artistic positions, Aram Bartholl, Constant Dullaart, Raquel Meyers and Evan Roth under the title PEBKAC IMHO.

“Search the web for ‘iPhone reverse product placement’, and you will find a clip from the first ‘Sex and the City’ movie (2008), in which the character Carrie gets handed an iPhone and shrieks; “I don’t know how to work this’. Shot the year the first Apple smartphone was released, the clip overtly illustrates our current relationship to technology. Carrie was not in the know, did not understand popular technology. Left at the altar, not in control of her life, not able to master new technology. We as the viewer do want to understand how technology works, want control, not be left at the altar, and get an iPhone. read more.

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The action of the art group “diezelle” started by 5PM (19 June) in front of Art Basel, as a protest against the police action during the ArtBasel 2013. Another group gathered on the Claramatte for a parallel demonstration using homemade tanks made out of cardboard, shouting: “What is art”

 

Reclaim our University

Reclaiming Our University Conference at Goldsmiths

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The marketisation of Higher Education has radically undermined the idea of the university as a public institution – gearing institutional priorities towards what is financially profitable rather than socially and culturally worthwhile.

In this context of intense competition between universities for students and research funding, there has been a dramatic growth of capital projects, advertising budgets and Vice Chancellors pay. Meanwhile students face a huge debt burden, and staff, a working environment characterised by unmanageably high workloads, stress, inequality and insecurity.

Read the report.