Journalists, activists, advocates, lawyers, researchers and critical thinkers unveil the persecution, control, and cultural violence around borders & migration.
BORDERS OF FEAR aims to shed light on wrongdoing in the context of migration by investigating the reasons and practice of rising borders and walls, leading to cultural and physical violence, persecution and human rights violations. The conference focuses on the discourse of borders both at a concrete level, and as a strategy of cultural violence on the part of right-wing propaganda. On the one hand, we analyse the closure of frontiers, creation of refugee camps, escalation of security; on the other hand, we investigate how border policing and the datafication of society are affecting the narrative around migrants and refugees in Europe and the west.
“Technical definitions, concepts and categories of migrants and migration are necessarily informed by geographic, legal, political, methodological, temporal and other factors.”
World Migration Report 2020
The terms “refugee”, “asylum-seeker” and “migrant” are used to describe people who are on the move, who have left their countries and have crossed borders, as defined by Amnesty International. Each category is treated differently by the law; however, many people who do not fit the legal definition of a refugee could be in danger if sent back home. For BORDERS OF FEAR we have decided to focus on the general terms of migration in relation to human right abuses and cultural violence, although we are conscious that legally there are specific differences.
The language used in the media to describe migrants, refugees and asylum seekers often blurs the line between those leaving their countries for economic betterment and those forced to leave to protect themselves and their families from war, conflicts and destruction of their countries of origin. Our perception of the situation in these diverse countries — be it North Africa, the Middle East or world wide — and the depiction of these people is heavily influenced by geopolitical strategies, financial plans, and the white Western perception of the diverse, unfamiliar and “the other”.
Brexit and other political developments have shown how the arrival of a relatively large number of migrants in areas that historically experienced low levels of immigration also makes it easier for populists to steer the debate and to claim immigration as the cause of social failure and declining standards of living, while more complex explanations of the often very different causes of the problems are drowned out by xenophobia.
Alongside, anti-immigration propaganda legitimises the construction of walls, the escalation of security, and forms of surveillance and controls at borders and frontiers. Cultural and physical borders become the context of discrimination, human rights abuses, violence and justification of pushbacks or detention centers, where people are locked away for years or are exploited by traffickers.
BORDERS OF FEAR brings together journalists, activists, media experts, lawyers, researchers and critical thinkers to unveil persecution, control, and cultural violence in relation to refugees and to people with a migration background. Furthermore, we want to hear directly the voice of the migrants and refugees themselves, to reflect collectively on forms of social justice in search for a deeper political awareness.
In order to lay the foundations for a discussion around the argument that the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies benefits the powerful few, focussing on their own existential concerns, the paper will narrow down the analysis of the argument to social justice and jurisprudence (i.e. the philosophy of law), considering also the historical context. The paper explores the notion of humanised artificial intelligence in order to discuss potential challenges society might face in the future. The paper does not discuss current forms and applications of artificial intelligence, as, so far, there is no AI technology, which is self-conscious and self-aware, being able to deal with emotional and social intelligence. It is a discussion around AI as a speculative hypothetical entity. One could the ask, if such a speculative self-conscious hardware/software system were created at what point could one talk of personhood? And what criteria could there be in order to say an AI system was capable of committing AI crimes?The paper will discuss the construction of the legal system through the lens of political involvement of what one may want to consider to be powerful elites. Before discussing these aspects the paper will clarify the notion of “powerful elites”. In doing so the paper will be demonstrating that it is difficult to prove that the adoption of AI technologies is undertaken in a way which mainly serves a powerful class in society. Nevertheless, analysing the culture around AI technologies with regard to the nature of law with a philosophical and sociological focus enables one to demonstrate a utilitarian and authoritarian trend in the adoption of AI technologiesThe paper will then look, in a more detailed manner, into theories analysing the historical and social systematisation, or one may say disposition, of laws, and the impingement of neo-liberal tendencies upon the adoption of AI technologies. The regulatory, self-governing potential of AI algorithms and the justification by authority of the current adoption of AI technologies within civil society will be analysed next. The paper will propose an alternative, some might say practically unattainable, approach to the current legal system by looking into restorative justice for AI crimes, and how the ethics of care, through social contracts, could be applied to AI technologies. In conclusion the paper will discuss affect and humanised artificial intelligence with regards to the emotion of shame, when dealing with AI crimes.
The conferences “Taboo – Transgression – Transcendence in Art & Science” include theoretical presentations and artists’ talks focusing (a) on questions about the nature of the forbidden and about the aesthetics of liminality, as expressed in art that uses or is inspired by technology and science, and (b) on the opening of spaces for creative transformation in the merging of science and art.A brainchild of Dalila Honorato, Assistant Professor at the Ionian University, the first two conferences, TTT2016 and TTT2017 were held in Corfu, Greece, organized by the Department of Audio & Visual Arts and supported by public and private institutions, mostly local. In the first two years the conferences were attended by Stelarc, Roy Ascott, Adam Zaretsky, Manos Danezis, Polona Tratnik, Gunalan Nadarajan, Irina Aristarkhova, Marta de Menezes, María Antonia González Valerio, Andrew Carnie, and Kathy High as guest speakers. The third TTT conference, TTT2018, took place in Mexico City, hosted by the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) and the Centro de Cultura Digital as part of the N Festival. At the invitation of Marta De Menezes, Ana Ventura Miranda, and María Antonia González Valerio, the conference was co-organized by the Research and Creation Group Arte+Ciencia, UNAM (MX), Arte Institute (USA), Cultivamos Cultura (PT) as well as the Department of Audio & Visual Arts, Ionian University (GR).Since its beginning TTT seeks to provide a comfortable setting for the interaction of its participants and the students of the academic institution hosting it. This is accomplished through coordinating the conference’s agenda with the development of other activities such as art exhibitions, screenings, live performances, book presentations, poster exhibitions, and workshops developed within the hosting institution in collaboration with other organizations.In 2016 and 2017, among other events, TTT teamed up with the Audiovisual Arts Festival and the Municipal Gallery of Corfu to host the exhibitions “Stelarc: Alternate Anatomies”, “iGMO: Adam Zaretsky”, and “Body Esc” which included works by artists Andrew Carnie, Alkistis Georgiou, Marne Lucas, Joseph Nechvatal, Kira O’Reilly & Manuel Vason, Nikos Panayotopoulos, Ayse Gul Suter, Hege Tapio, and Adam Zaretsky. TTT2018, coordinated in partnership with the program of the FACTT 2018 – Festival Art & Science Trans-disciplinary and Trans-national within the N Festival, included in its agenda the opening of the exhibition “Espacios de Especies” with artworks, among others, by Brandon Ballengée, Andy Gracie, Bios ex Machina, Jaime Lobato, Kathy High, Lena Ortega, Marta de Menezes, Plataforma Bioscénica, Robertina Šebjanič, and Victoria Vesna. The conference in Mexico was preceded by the TTT Satellite Physiological Bioart – Body Performance Live Art Event “BioCuerpos Perfor|m|ados”, organized by the Grace Exhibition Space in collaboration with Casa Viva Gallery, Paranoid Visions UTA, and Anemonal, with performances, among others, by Boryana Rossa, Alexander Romania, Praba Pilar, Adam Zaretsky, Alejandro Chellet, Marita Solberg, Jacco Borggreve, Margherita Pevere, Cecilia Vilca and Lorena Lo Peña.The conference proceedings of 2016 and 2017, available as free e-books published by the Department of Audio & Visual Arts – Ionian University, can be accessed via the official TTT website. Both are edited by Dalila Honorato and Andreas Giannakoulopoulos, Associated Professor at the Ionian University and webmaster of the conferences’ webspace. Selected texts from the TTT2017 and TTT2018 were published in the Special Issue vols. 15:2 and 16:3 of the journal Technoetic Arts: A Journal of Speculative Research, at the invitation of Roy Ascott (editor-in-chief) to Dalila Honorato (guest-editor). The free digital edition of the proceedings of TTT2018, edited by Dalila Honorato, María Antonia González Valerio, Marta de Menezes and Andreas Giannakoulopoulos was released in November 2019 by the Ionian University Publications.The fourth international conference “Taboo – Transgression – Transcendence in Art & Science”, taking place November 26–28, 2020, would be in Vienna, hosted by the University of Applied Arts Vienna, at the invitation of Ingeborg Reichle, Professor and Chair of the Department of Media Theory. Due to the COVID-19 crisis the conference will be exclusively online: TTT2020 Vienna/Online.The TTT conference series is supported by its Steering Committee whose members include Roy Ascott, Plymouth University (UK), Andreas Floros, Ionian University (GR), Dalila Honorato, Ionian University (GR), Gunalan Nadarajan, University of Michigan (USA), Melentie Pandilovski, Riddoch Art Gallery (AU), Stelarc, Curtin University (AU), Polona Tratnik, Alma Mater Europaea (Slovenia), and Adam Zaretsky, Marist College (US).
Adnan Hadzi presented the Immersive Lab University of Malta (ILUM) project at the ELIA Biennial. In the Immersive Laboratory University of Malta (ILUM), as well as in the Visual Narratives Laboratory (VNLAB) of Lodz Film School, researchers, artists, and filmmakers investigate and create different kinds of immersion. Researchers from Malta will focus on the insights with state-of-the-art immersive experience (IX). After the presentation, participants will be invited to join the walk-through of Lost in a garden of clouds, virtual show of works that are engaging with aspects of the climate emergency and its negationism, with the places where natural or urban ecosystems connect with the digital ones and with the exploitation of natural resources and chemical pollution.
Expanding the Arts
An online extravaganza that will energise, inspire and kindle connections throughout the entire arts education community. In partnership with Zurich University of the Arts, thought leaders from the arts and academia, producers and practitioners, will explore the brightest, boldest transdisciplinary ideas, question the art of the possible and where boundaries lie. Be part of a rich tapestry of provocation, interrogation and co-creation crossing over 40 presentations, walk-shops, workshops and a myriad of opportunities to connect with collaborators. Together let’s re-imagine Arts Education as a catalyst for change in the post-COVID world.
Single channel video installation with sound, Full HD, 16:9, 08:28; Amazon Echo and Google home devices, screen, loud speakers and cables; printed 12” EP sleeve, print on acrylic glass, download code.
Intelligent Personal Assistants like Amazon’s Alexa, Google Home and Siri are the brains of the smart home ecosystem. They operate, monitor and control smart home appliances while keeping the algorithms and rule-sets that determine their workings secret. Intelligent Personal Devices are voice controlled, thus dissolving the machinic presence of the computer while placing its functionalities at the users disposal. It’s like living inside the machine, while at the same time having no agency over the composition and structure of one’s environment. What are the relationships that we are forming with these IPA devices? What happens when IoT devices are hacked to form rogue bot-networks? Is my capacity to act expanded or diminished when relying on these semi-autonomous devices?
Together with French musician Low Jack, !Mediengruppe Bitnik have been looking at ways to engage with Alexa and similar ‘Intelligent’ Personal Assistants through music. A set of three songs attempt to capture the feelings we develop toward Intelligent Personal Assistants: The carefree love that embraces Alexa before the data privacy and surveillance issues outweigh the benefits. The alienation and decoupling/uncoupling from the allure of remote control and instant gratification. The anxiety and discomfort around Alexa and other Intelligent Personal Assistants that is Alexiety. The EP is best streamed on the radio for the enjoyment of smart homes everywhere. Play it loud, so your neighbours devices can hear.
What will happen if one day you wake up and there is no Internet? The exhibition Imagine you wake up and there is no Internet explores the effects of ubiquitous connectivity and technology in everyday life. Starting from our obsession with digital technologies, the exhibition seeks to enhance the debate about the coexistence of human and machine in the 21st century. 13 artists and 5 art collectives showcase scenarios from the present time and the near future, strategies of disconnection and disorientation, evacuation and escape plans from the city, studies on the information society, snapshots from digital life and the infrastructures that allows us to be connected to the network, and new readings for the political period we are going through. Any sense of certainty for the present and the future seems to have been destabilised. 31 years after the creation of the world wide web, concepts such as space, time, value and labor have acquired new meaning. And these concepts will continue to take on new meaning as the technology that we use the most, changes at great speed leaving us -often- in the position of the observer with little space for manoeuvring. The levels of control and surveillance in the networks we navigate, whether resulting from political decisions or market trends, are often obscure. At the same time, everyday life and personal data have acquired a particular economic value within networks and our obsession with constant connectivity, can only accelerate a technological future where human behaviour becomes predictable or can be predicted to meet political or/and economic trends. The works in the exhibition highlight moments and fragments of our digital life surfacing issues related to the human-machine relationship and its impact on the public sphere. The exhibition aims at contributing to the discussion on the constantly accelerating dynamics of the Network, our position within it, and finally, the boundaries between a human-driven versus a machine-driven technological world. The exhibition presents new commissions and works from: Marina Gioti, Vaggelis Deligiorgis, Antonis Kalagkatsis, George Moraitis, Manos Saklas, Alexandros Tzannis, Jono Boyle and the new version of the work “Tracing Information Society – A Timeline” by Technopolitics group. Participating Artists: !Mediengruppe Bitnik & Low Jack (DE/FR), Aram Bartholl (DE), Jono Boyle (UK), Heath Bunting & Kayle Brandon (UK), Vaggelis Deligiorgis (GR), Exonemo (JP), Marina Gioti (GR), Antonis Kalagkatsis (GR), George Moraitis (GR), No Más / No More (GR), Manos Saklas (GR), Molly Soda (U.S.), Superflux (UK), Technopolitics (AT), Alexandros Tzannis (GR), Filipe Vilas-Boas (PT) Curated by Katerina Gkoutziouli & Voltnoi Brege
The Malta Book Festival is the foremost book celebration in the country’s cultural calendar. Annually, the MBF boasts an attendance rate of 40,000 visitors, the participation of more than 40 exhibitors, and offers extensive networking opportunities for industry professionals
The first edition of the MBF was held in 1979, then called the Malta Book Fair (1979-2012), and has since grown into a festival that celebrates the book culture in all its forms. The international dimension of the Festival is increasingly reflected in the lineup of guest authors and publishers which in previous years have included Gilbert Sinoué, Ros Barber, Shad Alshammari, Basma Abdel Aziz, Patrick McGuinness, Alek Popov, Marie Darrieussecq, Maram al-Masri, Dan Sociu, Ros Barber, Vera Duarte, Tim Parks, Philip ò Ceallaigh, Naomi Klein and Judge Rosemarie Aquilina.
In 2020, the year when first NONUMENT! Book is to be published, many recently still lively public spaces and city centers have been transformed into nonuments. In the past, Nonument was devoted to decaying, destroyed and abandoned monuments, buildings and public spaces of the twentieth century. At the third NONUMENT! Symposium, we will combine these thoughts with new thinking about the possible strategies of thought and intervention in a continually transforming contemporary city. Through the cases of transforming buildings, squares and cities, guests from Ljubljana and abroad will think about the open use of space as the condition of survival.
Yes, our yearly event celebrating electronic music making is back with live streamed events featuring live music by Maltese artists, talks and workshops on different topics, plus you will get to know about music software techniques and how to build a small music gadget.
The Circuits 2020 programme, which will start on the 17th of October 2020, is shaped around this year’s theme of ‘Away from the Comfort Zone’. Workshops will cover topics such as building the ‘Storbju’ DIY synthesiser device, health awareness on exposure to excessive sound levels, the history of music production in Malta from the seventies to today, and representation of the Maltese entertainment and arts industry, copyright and music law.
This year’s participants
Grammy Award Nominee Tom Ammermann will be delivering an online workshop on spatial sound, with the participation of a live and online audience. Discussions throughout the festival will meanwhile be hosted by organisations such as the MEIA, M3P Foundation, PRS and the Malta Association of Audiologists. Apart from several DJ and live performances by electronic music artists including Giacinte, Tina, Hearts Beating in Time and KNTRL.
Circuits 2020 will also feature a special project in line with the main theme, filmed at various locations around Valletta. The ‘Away from the Comfort Zone’ project will feature artists such as Acidulant, Carlo Muscat, Dawn Williams, Duo Blank, Jeremy Grech, Keith Farrugia, Luc Houtkamp, Mari Terramaxka, Owen Jay, Ruben Zahra, and Toni Gialanze. Finally, Mike Desira and Frank Cachia will present ‘Storbju (Noise Monger)’ which will consist of a DIY electronic noise generating device and which will be soon available from EMM’s website with simple instructions how this can be built.
Event Programme
This year’s edition will take place (as in the previous years) at Spazju Kreattiv and will feature a programme of events which will be free of charge and which will be streamed live with the possibility of a live audience in attendance (this will be in accordance with the health protocols at the time).
The live events will kick off on Saturday, 17th October 2020 and will then proceed till Saturday, 24th October 2020. The performances of ‘Away from the Comfort Zone’ will be premiered one by one starting on the 18th of October up till November.
Electronic Music Malta is Supported by the Arts Council Malta. This event is part of the Spazju Kreattiv programme and is also further supported by the German Maltese Circle and the Goethe Institute.
In this webinar i-Docs Co-director, Judith Aston, and Stefano Odorico, Director of the International Research Centre for Interactive Storytelling (IRIS), will present their ongoing work on i-docs and multi-perspectival thinking. Central to this work is their research into polyphony, as a means through which to promote intercultural dialogue and exchange in a context of increasing polarization.
The aims of the webinar are: to introduce the main issues and debates that this research is bringing up, to provide some examples which point towards ‘polyphonic documentary’, and to open up a channel within the i-docs community for ongoing discussion on the application and relevance of polyphony to documentary practice.
This event will address a series of questions as follows:
What is polyphony and how has it been playing out to date within documentary practice?
How does this relate to ongoing debates about documentary authorship and co-creation?
What do Bakhtin’s ideas on polyphony bring to the party and what is their relevance?
How is the relationship between thinking and feeling being negotiated in this research?
What is the role of i-docs in a polyphonic context and how can this inform our practice?
The premise of this research is that multi-perspectival thinking is a necessary and urgent skill to be promoting, in order to create a solid base from which to address the many challenges that we are facing in these complex and uncertain times.
Observers and active participants are equally welcome!
More on the convenors:
Dr Judith Aston is Co-founder of i-Docs and an Associate Professor in Immersive Media at the University of the West of England in Bristol. She has an interdisciplinary background in anthropology, geography, interaction design and media practice. As an active member of the University’s Digital Cultures Research Centre, she is also an experienced tutor and PhD supervisor. At the heart of her work is the desire to put evolving media technologies into the service of promoting multi-perspectival thinking and understanding. She has published widely on this and her current collaboration with Dr Stefano Odorico on ‘The Poetics and Politics of Polyphony’ is the latest manifestation of this ongoing endeavour.
Dr Stefano Odorico is a Reader in Contemporary Screen Media at Leeds Trinity University where he is the director of IRIS (International Research Centre for Interactive Storytelling). He has published numerous works on film and media theory and practice, documentary studies, and interactive documentaries. He is the vice-chair of the MeCCSA (Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association) practice network and he is a co-founder and member of the editorial team of Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media. He is currently collaborating with Dr Judith Aston on a project focusing on polyphonic documentary theory and practice.
At ISEA 2020 Adnan Hadzi discusses the argument that the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies benefits the powerful few, focussing on their own existential concerns. ISEA 2020 was held completely online. The paper will narrow down the analysis of the argument to jurisprudence (i.e. the philosophy of law), considering also the historical context. We will discuss the construction of the legal system through the lens of political involvement of what one may want to consider to be powerful elites. Before discussing these aspects we will clarify our notion of “powerful elites”. In doing so we will be demonstrating that it is difficult to prove that the adoption of AI technologies is undertaken in a way which mainly serves a powerful class in society. Nevertheless, analysing the culture around AI technologies with regard to the nature of law with a philosophical and sociological focus enables us to demonstrate a utilitarian and authoritarian trend in the adoption of AI technologies. The paper will conclude by proposing an alternative, some might say practically unattainable, approach to the current legal system by looking into restorative justice for AI crimes, and how the ethics of care could be applied to AI technologies.
Adnan Hadzi presented Machine Learning and Environmental Justice at the the RIXC Art and Science festival: ECODATA.
The RIXC Art-Science Festival: ECODATA aim is to explore the ‘ecosystematic perspective’. More than just rising awareness that living organisms are highly interdependent on each other and their environments, this year’s festival edition aims to reveal a web of connections that interweaves biological, social and techno-scientific systems, living and digital data, artistic and scientific approaches.
ECODATA exhibition is the central axis of the festival, which forms the rest of the program, made in collaboration with Ecodata–Ecomedia–Ecoaesthetics” research group led by researcher and theorist Yvonne VOLKART, (Basel, Switzerland). The purpose of this exhibition is to bridge the gap between technological and ecological as well as to incorporate technological issues into ecological art. This year’s exhibition will feature twenty artworks by internationally acknowledged artists working in the field of media art, science and ecology.
ECODATA Exhibition
Guided Tour Through the Exhibition
ECODATA Opening Keynote Session: Art and Science Discussion
ECODATA Artist Talks
CODATA and A/I (artistic intelligence): Opening Performance by the Digital Dramaturgy Labsquared
ECODATA Exhibition Opening
Session 1: Technologies of Ecological
Session 3: BioSensing and Ecosystematic Perspective (1)
Session 4: EcoAesthetics
Thematic Session 5: Atmospheric Experience
ECODATA Thematic Keynote Talk
Session 6: BioPolitcs and BioDigital Poetics
Session 8: EcoAesthetics and Data
Session 9: Living Data and AI
Closing Session 10: GREEN REVISITED – Encountering Emerging Naturecultures
Closing Keynote Talk
Closing Program (Part 2): PLA(N)Tform Online Exhibition
Closing Program (Part 1): FOREST GARDEN GREENHOUSE Concert
