Speculative fictions offer a glimpse of futures far beyond what we think we can imagine now, and can provide tools for resistance. On Sunday the conference examines forms of resistance to totalitarian control that we might imagine when we think of the progress of technology and surveillance. What are the strategies of counter-mapping?
Zach BlasOfficial literature on biometrics from the UK Home Office defines bio-exempt as those not required to submit biometric data to the government, and specifies that children, amputees with one or no fingers, and diplomats are bio-exempt. The UK Home Office also described bio-exempt as ‘exempt from control.’ In his performative lecture Zach Blas will attempt to understand ‘bio-exempt’ as a paradigmatic descriptor for today's global security regime. Bio-exemption is a mode of biopolitical control: who has the legal right to be exempt from their embodied self and who has the right to remain unmarked, not indexed.#SpeculativeBiologies
Daniel Rourke, Laurie Penny, Ytasha L. WomackSpeculating about the edges of thought or thinking ‘beyond thinking’ might be the most radical possibility of fiction. This kind of storytelling can be an important space for experimentation, where characters and their connected tropes take the form of radical agents for social change.Session 8: Strategies of counter mapping
16:00 - 17:30
Eyal Weizman, Ingrid Burrington, Jamon Van Den HoekMaps exist for us to make it easier to navigate the world. They offer us insight and overview. The creation of a map is not only a political but also a powerful act — to chose to look and frame a subject and to apply a specific scope and scale. It means to carve out a point of view and back it up by the settings chosen. However, too often we forget the politics lying at the bedrock of our maps. What perspectives stay hidden underneath the folds of our maps and what maps are missing entirely? Strategies of Counter-Mapping presents three strategies of counter-mapping.
ARTISTS/SPEAKERS
Wed 1 Feb - Sun 26 Feb
Arti et Amicitiae
Pinar Yoldas is an infradisciplinary designer, artist and researcher currently based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Her work develops within biological sciences and digital technologies.
Pinar Yoldas
Wed 1 Feb - Sun 26 Feb
Arti et Amicitiae
Zach Blas is an artist and writer whose practice engages technics and minoritarian politics. Currently, he is a Lecturer in the Department of Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London.
Zach Blas
Sun 26 Feb - Thu 23 Feb
De Brakke Grond
Daniel Rourke is a writer and artist based in London. In his work Daniel exploits speculative and science fiction in search of a radical ‘outside’ to the human(ities).
Daniel Rourke
Sun 26 Feb - Thu 23 Feb
De Brakke Grond
Laurie Penny is an award-winning journalist, essayist, public speaker, writer, activist, internet nanocelebrity. Laurie writes about politics, social justice, pop culture, feminism, technology and men...
Laurie Penny
Sun 26 Feb - Thu 23 Feb
De Brakke Grond
Ytasha L. Womack is an author, filmmaker, independent scholar and dancer. She is author of the award winning book Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci Fi & Fantasy Culture.
Ytasha L. Womack
Sun 26 Feb
De Brakke Grond
Eyal Weizman is an architect, Professor of Spatial and Visual Cultures, and Director of the Centre for Research Architecture at Goldsmiths, University of London.
Eyal Weizman
Sun 26 Feb
De Brakke Grond
Ingrid Burrington writes, makes maps, and tells jokes about places, politics, and the weird feelings people have about both.
Ingrid Burrington
Sun 26 Feb
De Brakke Grond
Jamon Van Den Hoek is a geographer and remote sensing scientist. He pursues satellite imagery and machine learning approaches to document social-environmental consequences of armed violent conflict.