This one-day workshop will be presented as an expanded lecture and theoretical seminar. ‘The outside is always an opening on to a future’, wrote philosopher Gilles Deleuze, ‘[it] is a thought of resistance’. Oriented around such theories of ‘the outside’ in minoritarian thought (queer, feminist, and post-colonial), Zach Blas will introduce ways to think, imagine, and act outside of two technological hegemonies of the present, namely, biometric governance and Internet surveillance. The first part of the seminar will address biometrics, capture, and opacity by discussing texts from Édouard Glissant, Philip Agre, and Shoshana Magnet, alongside Blas’s own writings and artworks Facial Weaponization Suite, Face Cages, and bio-exempt. The second part of the seminar will tackle both real and imagined alternatives to the Internet in relation to Blas’s on-going Contra-Internet project, through works by J.K. Gibson-Graham, Paul B. Preciado, and Ulises Ali Mejias. Participants will be introduced to a variety of ideas and concepts, including biometric failure, probe-heads, utopian plagiarism, dildotectonics, and paranodes. All readings will be circulated in advance. Enrolment A maximum of 20 persons can participate in this masterclass. We welcome participants with an interest in theory (particularly queer, feminist, post-colonial, and media theory) and its relations to practice, the arts, and politics. To apply please send a short biography and motivation why you would like to attend, and your expectations to workshop[@]sonicacts[.]com. The deadline for application is 15 February 2017. Participants must attend the full programme. Late or incomplete applications will not be considered. If we receive more applications than we can accept, a careful selection will be made based on a case-by-case consideration. A detailed schedule and more information about the mandatory reading list for the masterclass will be sent to the selected participants. Fee Participants pay a €20,- contribution. Lunch will be provided. Zach Blas is an artist and writer whose practice confronts technologies of surveillance, security, and control with minoritarian politics. Currently, he is a Lecturer in the Department of Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London. Blas has exhibited and lectured internationally, recently at Whitechapel Gallery, London; ZKM Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe; Institute of Contemporary Arts, London; e-flux, New York; Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane; New Museum, New York; Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City; and transmediale, Berlin. Masterclass by Zach Blas Two Outsides: Informatic Opacity & Contra-Internet Date: 27 February 2017 Time: 10:00–18:00 Location: Rijksakademie, Amsterdam